THE motions on the agenda at this year’s TUC Black Workers Conference reflect the multiple layers of deepening race discrimination faced by black workers, their families and communities.

There are several motions on rights at work and under-representation and racism faced in the workplace and labour market — including black youth unemployment.

But motions also include how racist policies affect workers carrying out their roles, for example, regarding the Immigration Bill and Prevent.

How austerity and casualisation disproportionately affect black workers is also key.

There are three motions on the agenda about the refugee crisis and the Immigration Bill, and a motion from my union, PCS, highlights the Immigration Bill’s impact on migrant workers’ rights at work. It calls on the trade union movement to make links between climate change, anti-austerity, anti-racism and anti-fascism campaigns and refugees.

The motion also calls on affiliates to support the humanitarian aid effort and organisations like Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (Barac UK) which co-ordinates regular aid distributions and convoys.

Other motions include maximising the black vote, human rights for Haitian people living in the Dominican Republic and the Black Teachers Matter campaign.

PCS has submitted an emergency motion on solidarity and support for the Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice. Sarah Reed was a young black woman who died in Holloway Prison.

I will be chairing a fringe meeting tomorrow lunchtime which will be addressed by Sarah’s mother, Marilyn Reed, and family spokesperson and Barac co-chair Lee Jasper.

There will also be a panel debate and workshops at the conference. The workshops will be on ethnic monitoring, temporary, short-term agency and zero-hours working, and recruitment and selection and promotion. The panel debate will be on black workers and Europe.

Celebrating our contribution to arts and culture will also be a feature, with a film, art exhibition and book launch taking place.

I am proud to curate the Roots Culture Identity art exhibition for the fourth year running at the conference, which is hosted by the TUC Race Relations Committee.

The exhibition is held each year in memory of Stephen Lawrence to honour a recommendation of the TUC Stephen Lawrence Task Group which agreed that the Marble Hall at Congress House should be used as a space to showcase the creative talents of young black people. The exhibition features the art of black and migrant artists, with a focus on young artists.

To coincide with the exhibition opening reception on Friday evening, I will be launching my new collection of poetry, Striving for Equality, Freedom and Justice, with readings from the book and speeches by artists.

On the same evening the TUC Race Relations Committee in association with Sertuc will present a screening of The Great Grunwick Strike 1976 to 1978 followed by a panel debate.

A fundraising dance on the Saturday night will raise money for humanitarian aid convoys for our sisters and brothers stuck in limbo in France.

The quest for justice and equality against a tidal wave of racist policies, practices and laws requires strength, determination, mobilisation, organisation and unity.

The onslaught of attacks faced by workers disproportionately affect black people, who face not only the legacy of historical racism and colonialism but current racism which damages the futures of the next generation of young black people. They face barriers just getting through the door, let alone breaking the glass ceiling.

It is essential that all trade unionists stand up to racism in all its guises and are conscious of the subtle forms that racism can take, not just the most direct, in-your-face abusive forms. It is this everyday subtle racism that can eat away at us, and the trade union movement must be at the forefront of the battle against racist attacks, be it in the workplace or outside.

Commitment from the entire trade union movement is key in recognising a collective responsibility in tackling racism.

Some people ask why we march on our streets holding up signs stating #BlackLivesMatter and try to suggest that by asserting this we don’t care about anybody else.

A starting point for all those who want to be part of a movement that stands up to racism is to recognise their own privilege and that, if all lives truly mattered, then there would be no racism, no deaths at the hands of the state, no disproportionate stop and search, no criminalisation of black communities, no disproportionate impact of austerity, no discrimination at work or in service provision and no demonisation of refugees fleeing war, poverty and climate change.

By asserting that black lives matter it is not saying that we want to have more or better rights than others, it is saying that we want to be recognised as human beings whose lives are valued and who have an equal chance and who don’t have to live in fear of being murdered just because we are black.

No-one should have to carry a placard in our streets stating “black lives matter” and people should be more offended by the fact that we need to than the fact that we are.

There is a motion on this year’s agenda calling for our conference to change its name. Black is a unifying and empowering political term used in our trade union movement and since the inception of the conference to bring us together in unity.

Until our right to live with dignity and freedom is realised, holding a TUC Black Workers Conference matters.

• Zita Holbourne is a trade union and community activist, artist, curator, poet and writer. She is elected to the PCS NEC and TUC Race Relations Committee and is the co-founder and national co-chair of Barac UK.
• For more information on the Sarah Reed Campaign for Justice join the Facebook page or follow on Twitter @justice4SLReed. Hashtags #sarahreed #sayhername #blacklivesmatter.