How can we marry the English Defence League’s professed liberalism with the reality on the ground? There is something of a disjuncture between how the EDL portrays itself as an organisation and how it actually operates. Though it states on its website that ‘[t]he English Defence League (EDL) is a human rights organisation’ that opposes
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An extraordinary journey by a young Afghan boy
Michael Morpurgo’s story, Shadow, tells how Aman, a young boy, flees from the horror of war in Afghanistan and travels to England, in search of a new home. Living with his family in Bamiyan his father is, one day, taken by the Taliban. A strange, western dog shows up outside the caves where Aman lives
Protests over Ali Aarrass conviction
Campaigners in London are protesting a conviction based on torture evidence. On Friday 16 December, the Friends of Ali Aarrass London Support Committee will hold a gathering at the Moroccan Embassy where they will hand in a letter of protest at the conviction of the dual Belgian-Moroccan national Ali Aarrass after what his lawyers have
Remembering the victims of Germany’s neo-Nazis
Silent protests to mourn the victims of the National Socialist Underground will be taking place across Germany. On 26 November, anti-fascists in at least eleven German cities (Berlin, Bielefeld, Cologne, Essen, Frankfurt, Görlitz, Hamburg, Hannover, Kiel, Munich and Nuremberg) will come together to mourn the ten (currently known) victims of the far-Right terror group, National
Racism: on the pitch but off the agenda
What should we make of recent allegations of racism in football? Until recently, the narrative on racism in English football resembled something of a self-congratulatory redemption story. The forms of racist abuse that were explicit in the 1980s – fans throwing bananas at black players, spitting at them when they took a throw-in, making monkey-noises
Polling with pride
A researcher takes issue with the idea that one can assess the strength of rightwing extremism by polling attitudes of its members. In the Dark Ages of the 1970s and 1980s we knew who our fascist enemies were – we judged groups like the National Front and the National Party in terms of their deeds
New geographies of racism: Stoke-on-Trent
Research published by the Institute of Race Relations shows that the geography of racial violence is changing rapidly in the UK and yet the authorities show little interest in tackling the problem. Focusing on Stoke-on-Trent, which has been devastated by deindustrialisation, and where the proportion of the city’s Black and Minority Ethnic population has doubled
Taking Facebook at face value?
There are troubling aspects in Demos’ recent report on English Defence League (EDL) members’ attitudes. According to the press release for the report Inside the EDL by Jamie Bartlett and Mark Littler: ‘Supporters are characterised by intense pessimism about the UK’s future, worries about immigration and joblessness. This is often mixed with a proactive pride
Collective punishment of families
Local authority and police decisions to seize the homes of family members of those charged in connection with the riots or convicted of terrorist offences punish whole families for one member’s wrongdoing. Evicting rioters’ families In the aftermath of the August riots, Wandsworth Council served an eviction notice on the mother and 8-year-old sister of
Enrolment falls as EMA withdrawn
New figures on the numbers of students enrolling for further education reveal some worrying aspects in the access to education for poorer and BME communities. Following the controversy over the withdrawal of Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the The Association of Colleges commissioned a survey of colleges to ascertain whether enrolment was affected in any way.