Dear IRR News subscriber,

The carnage in Paris was unbearable. But now, amidst the horror and the gloom, we must also contend with the anti-immigration responses of some of Europe’s elected leaders (see our regular calendar of racism and resistance). The leaders of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Bavaria and the Czech Republic, have come out all guns blazing. Twisting the facts, they seek to turn outrage over the terrorist attacks in Paris into a street war against Muslims in Europe. They are also trying to sabotage EU plans to resettle, across Europe, 160,000 refugees – many escaping ISIS or the state terror unleashed by President Assad. For the Right, Muslim and/or refugee equals terrorist. And the immediate effect of this reckless vocabulary is to reinforce the position of all those wanting to further militarise borders. They have given an enormous fillip to the fascists in their countries who now feel they have the moral backing of their leaders.

This week on IRR News we focus on the brutality of EU border policies, interviewing Catriona Jarvis on her part in a campaign for a European-wide system for registering deaths at the borders, identifying bodies, notifying relatives and facilitating entry for burial.

Jenny Bourne, editor of the IRR’s journal, Race & Class, and long-time anti-racist campaigner, assesses the fifty years that have passed since the introduction of the 1965 Race Relations Act.

As Black History Month comes to a close we interview Tottenham-based community activist Martha Osamor – an unsung hero of Britain’s black struggles.

Finally, next week, a double-book launch celebrating the life and works of the late Guyanese political writer Jan Carew is taking place in London on 27 November. We have reproduced the introduction by Chris Searle to one of the books being launched here.

IRR News team