Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) is a grassroots community-based anti-racist organisation in the borough of Newham, East London, England working against racial discrimination / violence, police misconduct and around civil rights issues. It provides advice, support, advocacy and a 24-hour emergency helpline to members of the black community facing racism. It also provides community outreach / educational projects and campaign work around issues arising from its cases and/or pertinent to the black community. Since its foundation it has always pursued one simple aim - the right to a life free from harassment, safe from attack.

Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) has been assisting individuals and families suffering from racial harassment for 25 years.

According to the Newham Household Panel Survey, 21% of people in Newham experience racial harassment at some point. BME communities were the most likely to experience various forms of racial harassment, violence and unfair treatment based on their race or ethnicity. ¹

The effectiveness of Racial Harassment policies
Our work is testament to the ongoing failure of statutory agencies, particularly the police and local authorities, to deal adequately with racism and their failures to act and implement their own policies effectively.

Our communities receive no justice from detailed racial harassment policies that are circumvented, overridden or just plain ignored by their creators. The central aim of our work is therefore to monitor and pressurise the police and public bodies to act against racial harassment when it is brought to their attention and thus preventing families from having to endure prolonged racial violence.

The racial harassment statistics in our annual reports do not reflect the full extent of racism in East London. Statistics cannot measure the impact of racial harassment on the lives of families and individuals, or the effect on their confidence and self esteem. This is especially true with what is considered 'low level' harassment. Verbal abuse and criminal damage to property on a daily basis can be as
devastating as physical attacks.

Under-reporting
Under-reporting of racial violence is still a problem and therefore statistics can only hint at the extent of the culture of racism that exists in East London. However, research into victims of racial harassment, conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation², found nearly a quarter "did not report to any official agency until after 18 months of experiencing a variety of incidents and, in some cases, the incidents went on for over four years before official complaints were made." Furthermore it reported that victims were more likely to disclose of their experiences to either someone close to them or a group within their own community. It is therefore essential that support and information be given to these groups, many of whom have often received little or no formal training to deal with such issues.

This problem is made worse by a lack of confidence in, and even fear of, bodies such as the police - set up to protect us from racial violence. Many people have reported to us that, when ringing the police or local authority to report incidents of racial violence, they are immediately asked about their immigration status.

The experiences highlighted in our annual reports hardly inspire confidence in those suffering racial violence to report it.

A campaigning approach to casework
NMP's casework approach is to take into account the wider issues, concerns and ramifications for the local community where possible and appropriate. The issues and problems are tackled together to strengthen the community from within. In some instances campaigns are necessary to highlight the injustices and bring them to the public eye. These campaigns are also a direct way of developing community involvement and collective organisation to tackle racial violence.

Where a campaign involves a specific individual or family's case, we believe those persons should lead and direct the campaign with NMP in a supporting role. Our cases make the decision about whether they want to form a campaign around what has happened to them and we support them in their decision either way. NMP understands that for many people, putting their experiences into the public arena can be a difficult and challenging process after all they have gone through and we respect this.

NMP's objectives in racial harassment cases
Below is a brief summary of our objectives in relation to racial harassment casework. Although it is important to have a clear set of objectives, we are also continually adapting and re-evaluating our strategies to meet the changes in the wider political arena and the local community.

Objectives:

1. Adequately support and advise victims, whilst listening carefully to what they want.
2. Make sure individuals report all incidents to the police and pressurise the police to respond and take action, arrest the perpetrator(s) and bring the correct charges.
3. Pressurise housing associations and the local authority to follow their own racial harassment policies effectively, listen to the victims, and make statutory organisations responsible and accountable to the community.
4. Get councillors and MPs actively involved in working for their constituencies and to monitor the police and local authority policies and practices.
5. Involve other voluntary and community organisations to increase the pressure in exposing police and local community inaction.

Foot notes
¹ Newham Household Panel Survey, Wave 2, (2004), carried out by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex for the London Borough of Newham

² Racist victimisation in the UK (1999) Joseph Rowntree Foundation