Dear IRR News subscriber,

Since at least 2011, the IRR has been warning about the dangers posed by deprivation of citizenship laws. (Read lawyer Amanda Weston’s explanation of the deprivation provisions here). But now with the revocation of Shamima Begum’s British citizenship, the 19-year-old has been left effectively stateless and stranded in a refugee camp with her newborn child. This has rightly attracted widespread condemnation as a wanton breach of international law, and must be legally challenged.

On IRR News this week we focus on struggles past and present. We take a fresh look at current debates about issues of racism, housing and policing in London, while joining with Southall Resists 40 (SR40) to celebrate forty years of fighting racism and fascism in Southall and to remember Blair Peach.

This week, the IRR publishes ‘The London Clearances: Race, Housing and Policing in London’. UK researcher Jessica Perera argues that it’s time to reconceptualise issues of housing and policing in the capital. She shows how the financialisation of local authority housing is converging with location-specific intensive and intrusive policing, and traces the overlap between attempts to gentrify so-called sink estates, the demonisation of urban black subcultures and the criminalisation of young black men. (Read the press release here)

Also on IRR News, Jasbinder S. Nijjar outlines a whole range of events that are taking place in Southall this year, from film screenings to classroom work to ‘decolonise the curriculum in action’; from public events and discussion to a plaque ceremony and vigil in honour of Blair Peach and Gurdip Singh Chaggar. Such events will provide ‘a political tool for learning about past anti-racist struggles’ in order to ‘mobilise in the present’, he argues. In our regular calendar of racism and resistance, we also draw attention to current migrant and anti-deportation initiatives that the SR40 seek to inspire.

For a limited period of time, we free up a very timely Race & Class article on Western media coverage on Venezuela by Alan MacLeod, available to download for free for the next two weeks.

We are also looking for a volunteer to help us one day a week to compile our regular calendar of racism and resistance, and potentially assist on further research related to housing and policing. Please email info@irr.org.uk with your CV and cover letter if you are interested.

IRR News Team