The IRR is proud to present ‘New Circuits of Anti-racism’ – an IRR50 conference on racism, imperialism and new lines of resistance.
Watch the live stream
Programme for the day
Doors open at 9.30am
10 – 10.30am – IRR50 and the revolutionary act
A conversation on the transformation of the IRR and what the work has entailed since.
Jenny Bourne, joint editor of Race & Class, Colin Prescod, chair of the council of the IRR, Chaired by John Narayan, King’s College London
10.30 – 11.30am – The influence of A. Sivanandan’s ideas
A panel on the influence and the continued relevance of A. Sivanandan’s key works, including ‘From resistance to rebellion’, ‘RAT and the degradation of black struggle’, ‘New Circuits of Imperialism’ and ‘When Memory Dies’
Suresh Grover, director of The Monitoring Group, Miriyam Aouragh, University of Westminster School of Media Arts & Design, John Narayan, King’s College London, Priya Guns, fiction writer and actor who is doing her PhD on A. Sivanandan. Chaired by Jenny Bourne
Break 11.30 – 11.45
11.45 – 1pm – Radical internationalism and shifts in the global order
This panel charts some of the shifts that are happening to the global world order – the decline of western hegemony, war and imperialism, crises in capitalism – and asks what is the impact of such changes, and what does it mean to be a radical internationalist today?
Rafeef Ziadah, King’s College London, Akram Salhab, PhD student at Queen Mary University of London, Liz Fekete, director of the IRR. Chaired by Avery Gordon, Birkbeck School of Law
Lunch 1pm – 2pm
2.15 – 3.30pm – New Lines of Black Resistance in the US: undoing racial capitalism and the carceral state with Barbara Ransby and Derecka Purnell
Barbara Ransby, historian, writer and long-time activist based in Chicago and Derecka Purnell, human rights lawyer and social justice organiser based in the US. Chaired by Surviving Society’s Chantelle Lewis and IRR’s Sophia Siddiqui
3.30 – 5.20pm – Anti-racist organising today
A roundtable discussion with key anti-racist organisers who have recently co-written an important new book on anti-racism, abolition, feminism and the role of the academy.
Azfar Shafi and Ilyas Nagdee, co-authors of Race to the Bottom: reclaiming antiracism (Pluto Press, 2022)
Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Laura Connelly, co-authors of Anti-racist Scholar Activism (Manchester University Press, 2021)
Shanice McBean, co-author of Abolition Revolution with Aviah Sarah Day (Pluto Press, forthcoming)
Chaired by Jasbinder S. Nijjar
NB: Capacity in the venue is limited, but we are exploring options to live stream this event for those that cannot attend in person.