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
News Service
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
Black Power for a new generation?
On Monday 21 May, John Carlos, the 1960s icon of Black Power, will be speaking at a meeting in London (alongside Janet Alder and Doreen Lawrence). It is fitting that John Carlos is speaking in London just months before the Olympics circus hits town. For this is the John Carlos who, alongside Tommie Smith, raised
We won’t stop racist exploitation of undocumented, says court
The rejection of race discrimination claims brought by a young Nigerian woman who was brought in illegally by her employers, brutalised and denied wages, gives a green light to racism. MH was probably only 14 when her employer brought her from Nigeria to work in the UK as an au pair, promising to send her
Slumming it in India
A critical look at the recent box office hit – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. You can almost hear the film executives: ‘hey you know Slumdog Millionaire was such a success and so was Ladies in Lavender, why don’t we just combine the two – a set of wistful old English people set against an
IRR News 4-10 May 2012
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week we have a report on the death of in Holland earlier this year of Alain Hatungimana, a 36-year-old Burundian facing deportation with his two children, who apparently took his own life in a desperate attempt to prevent their removal. We also have a very long digest of new reports and