1 – 14 April 2026 

Anyone who doubts the intensity of political policing today should just read our calendar of racism and resistance, where the highly ideological attempt to counter and contain the Palestine solidarity movement is laid bare in reports of arrests,  prosecutions, protest restrictions and the ‘cumulative disruption’ amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. 

Indeed, over 100 celebrities, trades unionists and others have recognised the dangers of political policing, accusing  the Met of showing bias towards the far Right by refusing to allow the annual pro-Palestine demonstration marking the Nakba to take place along its usual route, while allowing the racist, nationalist Unite the Kingdom Movement to effectively take over the streets of London. Small wonder Tommy Robinson is in celebratory mood, tweeting ‘London is ours on May 16th’. 

Political policing involves, amongst other things, the countering and containing of social movements deemed to go against the tenets of a foreign policy which is at heart colonial, suppressing the anti-colonial opposition. When it comes to the policing of black kids in inner cities, the same colonial and political mindset is on display in the disproportionate use of force against black children, particularly during stop and search (itself disproportionately deployed against them), often justified on grounds such as ‘we smelt cannabis’. Now, a new policing philosophy is gaining ground to justify racism in drugs enforcement.  Ironically, it is justified in the name of a ‘liberal anti-racism’: the need to save black youth from the impact of modern slavery through their recruitment as drug runners into regional distributional networks of drugs, known as county lines. 

To further the discussion of these developments, the IRR is proud to support the launch at LSE on 6 May of Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery, by Race & Class Editorial Working Committee member,Professor Insa Lee Koch. This is the most important book in a generation on racism, the policing of drugs and the politics of modern slavery law.     

Sign up to the event here. Panel speakers include Insa Lee Koch, Liz Fekete (IRR), Kojo Kyerewaa (BLM), Professor Coretta Phillips, and Insa’s collaborator on the book, community advocate, Glodi Wabelua – the first young man convicted under modern slavery laws for a county lines drugs offence.