The activism and memory of Martin Luther King Jr has rightly been evoked in recent weeks as hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have taken to the streets to demand an end to racial discrimination.

I have spent this time reflecting on our responsibility as a trade union to raise our game and be leaders in this struggle. To those in our ranks who say this is not our fight, I simply suggest that it is impossible to say that all lives matter when all the evidence suggests that some lives — whether they be black lives, women’s lives, disabled lives, or working-class lives — are not judged to matter as much as others.

Every so often this inequality is highlighted. Whether it be the murder of George Floyd, or the illegal deportation of black Britons as part of the Windrush scandal, or the impoverished lives that were taken by suicide owing to the failings of our social security system. Discrimination is hardwired into our system. It is a hardwiring that favors one group only: the rich and powerful.