On Saturday 14 August 2010 at the Central Library in Islington key Congolese community leaders and senior Labour politicians Joan Ryan, the former Home Office minister and Councillor Jean-Roger Kaseki, the first Congolese elected in the UK, came together to build and strengthen ‘Congolese for Labour’ – a powerful movement for change. This group was initially created in 2004 in Islington North following a partnership between Islington North Constituency Labour party and Congolese Community organisations. Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North, helped tremendously for the creation of Congolese for Labour. Now, as the group needs to expand, David Miliband’s leadership campaign Movement for Change is stepping in to help Congolese for Labour recruit more members, enabling the group to launch a formal application to the National Executive Committee to become an affiliated organisation to the Labour party. The event was a unique opportunity to get together the Congolese members living in the UK. On community organising David Miliband’s Movement for Change campaign will run a number of sessions for the Congolese community in some of the key skills of community leadership which will be needed to build this kind of powerful and meaningful movement.

Hundreds of Congolese people attended this event because they now understand that they have to get involved if they want to get changes they believe in for them and their communities. I believe Congolese people are now aware that politics is their interest and David Miliband wishes to promote personal involvement and community organising to reconnect policies with the local level. The time for change has come and the time to empower local politics and community organisations has come as well. David Miliband will defend and strengthen community’s power in the UK society.
There is a need for sharing ideas and working together. As a previous build-up for community organising, in March 2006 a number of Congolese community organisations met in Islington to discuss issues facing the Congolese and their community organisations in the UK. Participants were united around a common concern: how to improve the lives of members of Congolese in the UK. They organised a networking conference to bring together Congolese organisations in London plus funders, MPs, statutory bodies and mainstream voluntary organisations. The conference focused on education, employment, health, social welfare, youth issues, women issues and organisational management of community groups, and had the following aims:

• To promote a positive image of the Congolese community
• To develop a closer relationship between Congolese community organisations and stakeholders
• To encourage and facilitate networking opportunities among Congolese organisations
• To explore ways of improving service provision to the Community
• To promote governance and good practice, and enhance organisational management of community groups.

While moving forward, Congolese for Labour was set up to increase political awareness and to mobilise support within the Congolese community for the Labour party and build links with the mainstream British society for integration within the UK society. The aims of this organisation are also to promote and support the Congolese community at home and abroad. I strongly believe that the time for Congolese community to organise and campaign at the highest level to make a difference has come. We need more Congolese to get involved with politics and to participate in the political process and the decision making process in the UK.

In 2005, the then Labour government put Africa at the centre of the UK’s leadership of the G8 and the EU. This was right given our history in the Labour party of campaigning for social justice and economic justice, but many felt that Africans in the UK had not been at the heart of policymaking. Across London we have seen an explosion of interest, membership and activity from the African community in the Labour party, including the Congolese community. We need to ensure that we invest in housing in London, where there is the highest Congolese diaspora population in the UK. We must make sure that our schools continue to improve and that we encourage the community to take up leadership positions in our schools. We must also tackle issues such as remittances, which have an essential role in keeping open community and business links with Africa that in turn is proving to be a powerful force for development. We need to encourage and promote Congolese businesses in the UK and also promote business opportunities between DR Congo and the UK.

This is about showcasing the best in the Congolese community; celebrating its successes, its diversity; sharing experiences and best practice as well as pushing for solutions to the problems that the Congolese community faces in the UK and in their country of origin.

Whether we are supporters of the community or Congolese ourselves, we should make sure we harness the vast resources of talent out there, encouraging people not just to become elected as councillors, MPs, assembly members or MEPs – but also to take up other community positions such as becoming school governors or special constables.

More established communities have shown the power and influence of organising at a national level. We all have a responsibility to make sure that Congolese for Labour is a great success within the Movement for Change. Please join us. Thank you

Cllr Jean-Kaseki,
Labour Councillor for Tollington Ward in the London Borough of Islington
Congolese for Labour Chair
[email protected]

Islington Council, Town Hall, Upper Street London N1 2UD
Tel: 02072635464 Mobile: 07903610138

Please see also Ashanti Development, a charity started by Britons and Ghanaians who met through Bloomsbury and King’s Cross Labour party, who do excellent work in Ashanti, central Ghana

Photo: United Nations Photo