Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP gives 2025 Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture

This year’s annual lecture organised by the NUJ Black Members’ Council (BMC) focused on learning from trailblazing journalist Claudia Jones in the fight against the far-right.

Held at the Guardian on 22 October, guest speaker Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP called on Black and trade union activists to “reclaim Claudia Jones’ fire.” 

The MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill paid homage to Jones’ work as a feminist and Black nationalist who co-founded the Notting Hill Carnival and the UK’s first Black newspaper, The West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News.

Ribeiro-Addy said:

“She told the truth when it wasn’t safe and she organised when it wasn’t popular. She built movements from nothing: a newspaper, a carnival, a community. And out of sheer courage and conviction, she taught us that joy can be revolutionary, that solidarity can be stronger than fear, that resistance can be beautiful.”

Claudia Jones understood that racism is rooted in imperialism. Ribeiro-Addy, who also chairs All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations, called for recognition that this is a global fight and reparations as a form of redistributive justice for the peoples whose land and labour was stolen: “Until the most marginalised are free, none of us are free,” she said.

Ribeiro-Addy said that capitalism continues to fuel racism and that we must challenge racist comments as the far-right depend on inaction in seeking to normalise fear and hatred. “Claudia understood that racism doesn’t begin with hate. It actually begins with profit. And it ends with power”, she said. “The far-right is a modern manifestation of the same structures that built empire: it weaponises fear to justify inequality. It’s the ultimate distraction and it thrives when we allow austerity to decimate our communities.”

Jones also argued that the liberation of Black women was key to the liberation of all. Ribeiro-Addy highlighted the marginalisation of Black women at work and in public life - including progressive spaces - and called for real inclusion and representation with Black women leaders at the “centre of power.”

Earlier Michelle Codrington-Rogers, TUC anti-racism lead, emphasised the trade union’s role in countering the pernicious rise of racism and fascism in workplaces and wider society. As a former teacher, Codrington-Rogers also noted the importance of education in demonstrating “not just how the world is but also how the world should be.”

The lecture was chaired by Roger McKenzie, BMC co-chair. McKenzie urged the audience to read Jones’ writing, which aimed to build unity between Black and white people, and to support the work of the BMC and NUJ.

Return to listing