Action on Slavery
You can take action in response to the legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and to modern forms of slavery. There are 35 listed here - one for every mile of the Wilberforce Way Walk between Hull and Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire. If you have other suggestions, get in touch with the Forum via our Contact Us page.
- Celebrate Black History Month. Visit www.blackhistorymonthuk.co.uk for events and resources.
- Buy Fairtrade and local produce to secure a better deal for producers at home and abroad. Look out for the fairtrade and little red tractor symbols.
- Sign the declaration to fight for an end to slavery. Visit www.antislavery.org.uk .
- Find out about abolitionists such as Wilberforce and Equiano and modern freedom fighters. Visit www.setallfree.net .
- Get to know your neighbours and colleagues at work and school better. Familiarity with one another develops our understanding and respect for all humanity.
- Find out about new arrivals in your community. Providing a welcome and practical support to migrant workers and other transient communities can help to fight their isolation and exploitation, and avoid misunderstandings and discrimination.
- What’s happening in your school, workplace or community? Slavery and discrimination occurs on our doorsteps, so ask questions and encourage others to take action.
- Find out about how you can contribute to changes in the leisure, legislative and economic culture which drives sex trafficking at home and abroad. Visit www.preda.org; www.chaste.org.uk or www.crop1.org.uk .
- Campaign to make your workplace, school, place of worship or town Fairtrade. Visit www.fairtrade.org.uk for guidelines.
- Visit the Wilberforce Museum in Hull. Visit www.hull.ac.uk/wise/wilberforce_house.html.
- Support the work of the International Labour Organisation and campaign locally for ethical purchasing
- Find out more about some of the organisations responding to the legacies of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and assess what practical action you can take locally. Visit http://www.setallfree.net/organisations_legacies.html
- Lobby your MP to campaign on issues of importance to you such as Drop the Debt in those countries affected by the Transatlantic Slave Trade; efforts to address the legacies of Transatlantic slavery; public policy to make connections between poverty, discrimination and slavery; or the teaching of slavery.
- Learn more about the Gangmasters' Licensing Authority and their responsibilities towards migrant workers
- Read Richard Reddie's book Abolition! Visit www.lionhudson.com.
- Find out more about Street Pastors and consider this for your own neighbourhood www.streetpastors.org/pages/contact.html
- Ask your supermarket, department store or fashion shop where they source their goods and what conditions their workers work in. Or ask why they haven’t got more fairly traded products available.
- Lobby your MEP for better international standards dealing with contemporary forms of slavery
- Read Equiano's autobiography An Interesting Narrative
- Set up a study group to learn more about the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act using the set all free study pack (available from www.setallfree.net/)
- Contact National Black Boys Can Association to maximise the academic and personal potential of Black boys in their journey into adulthood, citizenship and employment in your locality www.blackboyscan.co.uk
- Link up with 'The Men's Room' charity, helping men – particularly Black men - develop their potential in the areas of relationships with women, men's health, mentoring ex-offenders, sex education, fatherhood, men in the home, and leadership development http://www.themens-room.org.uk/
- Model best practice with a response to crime in the community by talking to The Peace Alliance http://www.peacealliance.org.uk/
- Support a WaterAid project to provide clean water for a community in an African country that still continues to be affected by poverty as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- If you have a link to a primary or secondary school, offer to lead an assembly.
- Actively participate in calling the G8 leaders to account for keeping their promise to the poor
- Invite a speaker from Anti-Slavery International to share some aspects of their work.
- Invite a local campaigner or organisation which promotes racial justice and equality to talk about their work and the challenges ahead
- Watch a play or film about Transatlantic slavery – for instance Amistad or Roots
- Visit an exhibition about Transatlantic Slave Trade (e.g. Liverpool, London, Bristol)
- Investigate how you can directly support a community project in Ghana, such as providing schools' books for children in Elmina (location of one of the slave-holding castles)
- Make an active commitment to challenge racist or oppressive behaviour and/or practices
- Hold a series of fellowship meals where conversations could include slavery-related issues
- Make a commitment to celebrating diversity in your place of worship, school, workplace etc.
- Organise a book reading club for greater discussions about slavery and freedom using works or fiction and non-fiction