Faith in Unions: Racism and Religious Exclusion in the Faith Workers Branch of Unite the Union 2017-2020

by David Isiorho, Muhammad Al-Hussaini (Foreword by)

Overview

Faith in Unions is a personal account, representing a critique of Whiteness and Black marginality in the Faith Workers Trade Union. In short, it is a Black theology critique of the way Muslim and Hindu faith workers have been treated in the British Labour movement. This book clearly has things to say about discriminatory practices, which puts the discussion about Englishness and Britishness into a wider context. I am suggesting a political agenda associated with English ethnicity as the mode of involvement to explain policies that are likely to result in racialised religious exclusion. Faith in Unions gives focus to Muslim and Hindu workplace groupings within the Faith Workers Branch and the opposition to their formation from Anglican and Methodist Christian members. I am concerned with the struggle for faith recognition within a discriminatory and institutionally racist union structure. This book offers an explicit exploration of what I mean by "the racialised other" in the context of the British Labour movement. In this we need to understand the ways historical Christianity has defined Black identities. My conclusion hopefully will start a wider discussion of Englishness and English exclusivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532699184
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	09/07/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	140
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Isiorho, a Church of England rector and former secretary of the National Faith Workers Branch of Unite the Union, was born in Windsor, studied at Liverpool for his first degree, and worked as a social worker in London before ordination. He completed a master’s degree at Warwick followed by a doctorate at Bradford. Isiorho previously published Mission, Anguish, and Defiance: A Personal Experience of Black Clergy Deployment in the Church of England with Wipf & Stock.


David Isiorho, a sixty-year-old vicar of the Church of England, was born in Windsor, studied at Liverpool for his first degree, and worked as a social worker in London before ordination. He has published “The Big Society” in British Liberation Theology: For Church and Nation, and more recently Theology and the Critique of Idolatry in the Work of James Baldwin: A Demand for Integrity and Its Application to a Context.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“As someone who has been active in trades’ union affairs for over half a century, and who knows for herself how precarious jobs are in the Church of England, I was delighted that trades’ unions were opening faith branches. Why is it so hard to evolve a committed and passionate institution that prioritizes equality and natural justice? The explorations in this book go some way to answering that question. Read. Be challenged. Be affirmed.”

—Linda Isiorho, Anglican priest



“Faith in Unions is a forensic and prophetic exposé of the Church of England’s betrayal of Christ, and its endemic culture of racism, abuse, and victimization of the whistleblowers of these offences. David Isiorho draws parallels between white Anglican-Methodist discrimination and bullying in the Unite Faith Workers’ Union, and the identical collusion by the Church of England with secular bureaucrats and lawyers to harass and silence abuse victims and ethnic minority complainants.”

—Mohamed Elsharkawy, Al-Azhar College



“Faith in Unions reveals the deep and insidious reach of institutional racism in the UK. David Isiorho’s compelling recounting of his experience of racism is a searing, incisive, and necessary reading. While calling both his ecclesial tradition and the Faith Workers’ Branch of Unite to account, Isiorho’s commitment as a priest and justice-seeking theologian stand out as a witness to ‘the Jesus way’ of full and flourishing life for all.”

—Michael Jagessar, independent researcher and writer



“This is a cri de coeur from a priest who has only ever wanted to be a prophetic voice for faith and inclusion. His indictment of the Unite Union as a ‘cabal’ fostering white privilege and imperialist ideology should give all faith workers pause and should also shame the leadership of the Church of England for the cultivation of secrecy and unaccountability in the face of complaint.”

—Angela Tilby, canon emeritus, Christ Church Cathedral

Editorial Reviews

As someone who has been active in trades’ union affairs for over half a century, and who knows for herself how precarious jobs are in the Church of England, I was delighted that trades’ unions were opening faith branches. Why is it so hard to evolve a committed and passionate institution that prioritizes equality and natural justice? The explorations in this book go some way to answering that question. Read. Be challenged. Be affirmed.”

—Linda Isiorho, Anglican priest



“Faith in Unions is a forensic and prophetic exposé of the Church of England’s betrayal of Christ, and its endemic culture of racism, abuse, and victimization of the whistleblowers of these offences. David Isiorho draws parallels between white Anglican-Methodist discrimination and bullying in the Unite Faith Workers’ Union, and the identical collusion by the Church of England with secular bureaucrats and lawyers to harass and silence abuse victims and ethnic minority complainants.”

—Mohamed Elsharkawy, Al-Azhar College



“Faith in Unions reveals the deep and insidious reach of institutional racism in the UK. David Isiorho’s compelling recounting of his experience of racism is a searing, incisive, and necessary reading. While calling both his ecclesial tradition and the Faith Workers’ Branch of Unite to account, Isiorho’s commitment as a priest and justice-seeking theologian stand out as a witness to ‘the Jesus way’ of full and flourishing life for all.”

—Michael Jagessar, independent researcher and writer



“This is a cri de coeur from a priest who has only ever wanted to be a prophetic voice for faith and inclusion. His indictment of the Unite Union as a ‘cabal’ fostering white privilege and imperialist ideology should give all faith workers pause and should also shame the leadership of the Church of England for the cultivation of secrecy and unaccountability in the face of complaint.”

—Angela Tilby, canon emeritus, Christ Church Cathedral

From the Publisher