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Harehills United with Roma – Community-led Anniversary Event

🕊️ Harehills United with Roma — Community-led anniversary event (18 July 2025)

We worked in partnership with Black Lives Matter UK and Roma-led organisations in Bradford and Leeds to build lasting relationships between Black and Roma communities and to strengthen their collective power. These communities face many of the same structural harms, over-policing, racialised poverty, exclusion from decision-making and hostile treatment by statutory services, but have historically been kept apart. Through this project we intentionally created spaces for shared learning, trust-building and political education so that both communities could see their struggles as connected and their futures as interdependent.

Held at the Leeds Caribbean and African Centre, the event was titled “Harehills United with Roma” and aimed to foster solidarity between Roma residents and other local ethnic communities. It featured live music, shared meals, panel discussions, and community storytelling. We collaborated with Black Lives Matter UK and Connecting Roma CIC co‑organise the event. The goal was to create a safe space for dialogue and reflection, addressing institutional racism, over-policing, and the social inequalities highlighted by the 2024 unrest.

Councillor Mothin Ali (Green Party, Gipton & Harehills), who had attempted to calm tensions in July 2024, spoke at the event. He emphasised that acknowledging and learning from the past is essential for healing, rather than suppressing discussion.

Leading organisers, including Taiwo (from Black Lives Matter UK) and Daniel Balaz (of Connecting Roma), criticised the West Yorkshire Police for heightened scrutiny, suggesting the force’s pre‑event engagement felt like intimidation. They contrasted it with how other Roma-centred events have not drawn similar levels of police attention. Police representatives confirmed ongoing communication with organisers and framed it as part of broader recovery efforts, a kind of dialogue-focused follow‑up to last year’s Clear Hold Build initiative in Harehills.

As part of this work, Race Equality Network trained and supported 10 Roma young people as community organisers. They were equipped to run community conversations, lead local meetings, and reflect critically on what safety, justice and dignity should look like in their neighbourhoods, particularly in relation to policing, housing and council services.
 
These young organisers went on to host workshops, participate in online learning spaces, engage with elected representatives and build relationships with people in positions of power. They also spoke publicly at the Black Lives Matter conference in London, ensuring Roma voices were heard on a national stage. The outcome has been a lasting working relationship between Black and Roma communities in Leeds, with strengthened leadership, networks and confidence to continue organising together for fairer, more accountable public services.

We are stronger together.