In Poland, the public prosecutor has closed the investigation into the police shooting of a Nigerian street vendor. Two years ago, on 23 May 2010, a young Nigerian man, Maxwell Itoya, was shot dead by a policeman in an open-air market in Warsaw where he sold shoes. The unexplained tragedy attracted a lot of public
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Boats 4 People
An imaginative project highlights migrant deaths at sea and seeks to restore traditions of humanity and rescue endangered by migration control. The callous and deliberate failure by the Italian and Spanish governments and NATO to rescue seventy-two migrants in their drifting dinghy in a Mediterranean ‘search and rescue area’, leading to the deaths of sixty-three
Police racism – enshrined in practice
Police indifference to BME community concerns perpetuates racial violence, according to ongoing research by the Institute of Race Relations. The police have been forced to acknowledge the racism embedded within their own ranks recently, primarily as a result of the quick-witted teenager Mauro Demetrio, who surreptitiously recorded a PC telling him that ‘the problem with
IRR News 18-24 May 2012
Dear IRR News subscriber, Monday’s meeting, Resistance: the best Olympics spirit, at which John Carlos spoke was inspiring, video of speakers at the meeting can be viewed here. And those inspired by John Carlos, should also read a lovely tribute to a life-long campaigner for equality, Gerry German, written by Hugh Muir in the Guardian.
Border Force Britain
The government’s rebranding of the UK Border Agency (UKBA)’s operational arm from immigration service to Border Force encapsulates the approach which treats migrants as criminals. Suddenly, there were all these references to ‘border force’ officials on the news. Border Force. The name brands the organisation as somehow more powerful, hard-hitting, but also and contradictorily tells
When will we be landlords?
Margins to Mainstream: the story of Black Theatre in Britain is a new film produced by young people covering the history of Black theatre in Britain. Throughout this 60-minute documentary, the importance of recording the lineage of black theatre is attested to, and it is a lineage that follows a parallel path to that of
John Carlos visits the IRR
Earlier this week, the legendary John Carlos, visited the IRR. In a meeting arranged by the RMT union, John Carlos, Dave Zirin (co-author of The John Carlos Story) and Mark Kurupt Stoddart (marketing) met with the IRR’s staff, management and volunteers. Later that same day John Carlos spoke at a packed public meeting at Friends
UKBA contempt for torture survivors
The government routinely breaches its own policies by detaining torture survivors, according to a report published this week by Medical Justice. Eleven years ago, a set of rules governing the detention of people for immigration purposes was published. Among them was the innocuous-sounding Rule 35, stating (among other things) that torture survivors should never be
Vindication for German anti-racists in campaign against ‘spying charter’
The Administrative Court in Dresden has ruled that a clause in the German government’s counter-extremism strategy is in part unlawful Last year, IRR News reported that the German federal government had introduced a clause into its grant conditions for federally-funded victim support groups fighting far-right extremism which obliges them to swear allegiance to the German
IRR News 11-17 May 2012
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week we report on an important meeting due to be held in central London on Monday 21 May, where John Carlos, will be speaking alongside Doreen Lawrence and Janet Alder. Frances Webber comments on a recent legal decision which ‘gives a green light to racism‘ and Jenny Bourne reviews a