Operation Black Vote launches

Operation Black Vote launches

Date: 27 February 2015

When Samia Nkrumah, Chairwoman of the Convention People’s Party and daughter of Kwame Nkrumah Ghanaian president and proponent of Pan-Africanism, spoke to a meeting of Pan-Africanists and Global Justice Now supporters this week she urged us to be Political and political, while others spoke of the need to become engaged in politics.

This can take many forms. For example, by supporting grassroot struggles in your mother country, standing up to an abuse of power (for example by supporting the TTIP campaign), helping in supplementary schools in areas where traditional education is failing children, reclaiming unused ground for allotments, as well as the more traditionally recognised forms of politics like voting in a general election. And whilst we recognise some of the failings of our current parliamentary system, we also realise we can’t leave politics to the politicians.

Yesterday, Operation Black Vote launched their voter registration campaign in Windrush Square, Brixton recognising the importance of the Black and minority ethnic vote which could sway the electoral outcome in up to 168 marginal seats in the forthcoming general election. Operation Black Vote, or OBV, say:

‘Our demand from all the political parties is that they have a clear plan how they will tackle race inequality, particularly in employment, education, and the criminal justice system.  Our strength to make those demands is by reclaiming democracy through participating’. 

Brixton is just the start of a national tour. OBV, in collaboration with Operation Disabled Vote, The British Chinese Project and Bite the Ballot, aim to target more than 1 million new voters with their campaign bus, the OVB eXpress. On board the bus is a bank of computers to enable individuals to register to vote.

Please spread the word or check the OBV website for details.