Sister Jacqui Fergus Wins Victory in British Colonial Courts

LONDON — On July 25, Uhuru organizer Sister Jacqui Fergus won a victory for the African community when her conviction on bogus “racial harassment” charges was thrown out by a London court.

In addition, previous charges by John Mann, the head teacher of Gloucester Primary School in Peckham, South London, were dismissed and Mann was subsequently suspended for financial irregularities.

Sister Jacqui is an elected parent governor at the school where more than 90 percent of the students are African.

The attacks on Jacqui began in 2001 when she raised the issues of a lack of hygiene in school toilets; teachers smoking on school premises; the violence of some of the teaching staff against African children; ten months denial of computer practices for African children, despite the fact the money had been provided in the school budget; and the sabotage of Black History Month.

According to the January 2003 Burning Spear, “On December 18, 2001, Sister Jacqui wrote a complaint to the head teacher about the environment of racism at the school and the brutality of some teachers towards African children.

On December 19, she was orally banned from the school premises by the head teacher. Jacqui insisted that she be given a written copy of the ban. She was given an unsigned copy of the banning order.

On January 21, 2002, Sister Jacqui was assaulted by Mr. Mann as she was on her way to attend the governing body meeting of which she is an elected vice president. Then, on February 14 Mr. Mann suddenly produced a statement to the police claiming Sister Jacqui assaulted him.

However, Mr. Mann failed to produce the written script of the emergency call from January 21, 2002, which shows that it was Jacqui who called for the police to come to the scene of the assault. Mr. Mann called the police minutes after to dissuade them not to come because there was no assault. It was actually Mr. Mann who assaulted Jacqui Fergus!”
Lies against Jacqui Fergus exposed in court

On February 18 of this year, Sister Jacqui appeared in the white colonial court accused of common assault and harassment against John Mann and the public order allegation by Robert Worth, the deputy head teacher.

To all Africans who sat in the court hearing, it was clear that these cases against Jacqui were based on lies. Here are a few examples:

• John Mann claimed he never spoke to the police on the phone, but he is the one who told the police not to come and never mentioned any assault.

• Mr. Mann said he had authorization from the borough’s solicitor, Karen Murphy, to ban Jacqui from attending the governor’s meeting on January 21, but the clerk of governors never instructed him to ban Jacqui.

• John Mann claimed that staff members had complained about Jacqui Fergus to their union, but no one came forward as a witness to this nor was there anything in writing.

• In his statement, Mr. Mann said he was a witness of the assault on Jacqui Fergus, and nine days later decided that he was a victim of Jacqui Fergus.

In the February hearing, the case was adjourned to April 14 and 15, after Jacqui instructed her solicitors (lawyers) to request the emergency 999 audio call tapes, which show that John Mann was lying about the alleged assault.

So, in April the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement again mobilized the African community to attend the court and picket the town hall nearby.

The judge’s summation was as follows: There was no evidence that Jacqui had entered the school to do anything other than collect her children on each of the occasions that the police had been called. It had been Mr. Mann, who had approached Jacqui.

There was no evidence that there had been any problems when Jacqui had attended school and had contact with other members of staff. There was evidence presented that Jacqui had not insulted Mr. Worth, deputy head teacher, nor harassed him in any way.
The ban had only applied to her role as a parent. As a governor, Sis. Jacqui was entitled to attend the school at anytime during the school day. The prosecution had provided no evidence to contradict this.

It was for all these reasons that Jacqui was acquitted of the all of the charges brought against her, and they can not be started again by the Crown court.

Racial harassment case
In a seperate attack on February 19, 2003, Jacqui was found guilty of racial harassment of Julie Walkes, a white nationalist cleaner in school. Jacqui had previously filed a complaint against Walkes for rudeness, smoking on school premises, and poor cleaning of school facilities.

According to Julie Walkes and her white friend, an alleged racial incident happened as the white women were drinking alcohol in an open bar.

When they saw Jacqui walking by, Walkes said "there is that woman." Her friend, who had never met Jacqui, said "There is that woman that started trouble in the school."

The white women said Jacqui approached them and mumbled from six feet away, “white racist, white bitch." Walkes claimed in court that she “was abused by Jacqui," although she never reported the matter to the police.

Instead, she allegedly reported it to the head teacher, who notified the police the following day. When asked by the judge why she had not contacted the police, Walkes replied that she "did not phone the police because she did not know the police number, and she thought there was a special police dealing with Jacqui Fergus."

The white judge delivered a guilty verdict against Jacqui Fergus, to the surprise of every African in the court, as there was no ground for conviction. Racism is the ideology used to justify slavery and colonialism, therefore no African could ever be a perpetrator of “racial harassment” against a white person.

Jacqui won the appeal against the lies of Julie Walkes
On July 25, Sister Jacqui went back to the court, to appeal this unjust verdict.

Walkes gave evidence again. She lost her temper when asked how far she was from Jacqui and what she had heard. She said that she had heard Jacqui mumble "white bitch."

When Walkes’ friend testified, however, she contradicted Walkes by saying she never heard Jacqui call her a white "bitch." She also said that Walkes was arguing and shouting with Jacqui and that Walkes gave back as good as she got. The judge noted that no one else who had been in the vicinity of the bar had complained about Jacqui’s behavior. With that he dismissed the case.

Significance of the struggle to defend Sister Jacqui
Sister Jacqui is a representative of the everyday working class African in Britian. She is a single parent with four children who faces the colonial conditions imposed on our people by the British rulers: failing schools that exclude and miseducate our children, a drug economy that is used as an excuse for the public policy of police containment and economic sanctions against our community, and the near absence of any economic development for our people.

As a school governor, she became a defender of African children’s right to have an education that is relevant to their needs and to study in an environment that protects and promotes their well-being. She is well known and much loved by the African community, who identifies her as an Uhuru organizer.

Each time we went to court, it was the mobilization of the people that prevented the colonial judges from railroading Sister Jacqui. Even the white colonial press, who did not want to know about the malicious attacks against her, now phone to speak to the "lady who brought out the crisis in education in the borough of Southwark."

The campaign also began to open up the class question in the African community. Africans who united with Jacqui demanded justice, putting the local government on the defensive. But the African petty bourgeoisie united with the colonial authority in a vain attempt to liquidate the colonial contradiction and replace it with a claim that Jacqui simply wasn’t polite enough.

Now that all charges brought against Sister Jacqui have been dismissed, we will be writing in the next issue of The Burning Spear about how the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) intends to lead the fight to overturn the ban imposed against Jacqui by the discredited head teacher, John Mann.