Dear IRR News subscriber,
In the latest issue of Race & Class, the IRR’s quarterly journal, one of the articles by Kevin Searle, examines the struggles in 1949 that West Indian workers put up against Irish and European co-residents in migrant workers hostels in Birmingham.
Nicky Road, a regular contributor to IRR News, reviews two new animations for young women and we also highlight a new exhibition which features the IRR’s A. Sivanandan.
In news from across the UK, the UK Border Agency has rejected recommendations from the prisons inspector to ban the use of force against pregnant women and children in detention. Theresa May has once again appealed against a decision which allowed a Nigerian woman, Roseline Akhalu, to stay in the UK (Akhalu would face certain death, as she would be unable to access healthcare following a kidney transplant). And the impending accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU has prompted UKIP and Eric Pickles to start scaremongering.
Harmit Athwal
Editor, IRR News