Dear IRR News subscriber,
This week we’re excited to announce the publication of a new edition of A. Sivanandan’s Communities of Resistance: Writings on Black Struggles for Socialism (Verso, 2019) with a preface by Gary Younge, an introduction by Arun Kundnani and a bibliography – ‘the best book on anti-racism you probably haven’t read’. Order a copy from the IRR here. For a chance to win a free copy of the book, please fill in our IRR News survey here, we would greatly appreciate your feedback!
Jenny Bourne reviews Communities of Resistance alongside the new Race Today anthology, Here to Stay, Here to fight (Pluto press, 2019), two books which recall important struggles on the streets, the factory floors and in communities, linking them to both class and global internationalism. Through reading these books, ‘we are reminded just how connected the struggle against racism was in the 1970s and ‘80s to class, to exploitation, state power and to liberation movements’. Sadly, the movement has lost Ian Macdonald, a radical lawyer and contributor to both Race Today and Race & Class – read a tribute by Frances Webber.
This week, the 39 Vietnamese people, including 10 teenagers, who were found dead in a refrigerated lorry in Essex, were identified. Kay Stephens, as part of daikon*, a group of anti-racist creatives who organised a vigil for the 39 people, writes on the global structures of capitalism and imperialism and the deadly border regimes that contributed to their deaths. Read her important piece, ‘Grieve the Essex 39, but recognise the root causes’, here.
One of the key issues Kay unpacks is the impact of globalisation which is designed to marginalise working-class migrants, whom it renders disposable. The IRR is holding a free event on this issue on 22 November, where we will hear Annelise Orleck discuss her book We are all fast food workers now, which traces the global resistance against poverty wages, as well as from members of IWGB union and United Migrant Workers Education project. For more information and to register for a free ticket, click here.
For more context on key issues on asylum and migration, racial violence and the far right in the UK and Europe, read our fortnightly calendar of racism and resistance.
IRR News Team