New research has found that support for the British National Party is higher in London than any other part of the UK, with 23 per cent of Londoners saying they would consider voting for the far-Right party. Speaking at the launch of The Far Right in London: a challenge for local democracy?, Professor Helen Margetts
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Race libraries on the move
The main library collection of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has moved from London to the University of Warwick, freeing the IRR to develop a unique Black history collection. According to A. Sivanandan, the IRR’s director and its chief librarian since 1964, the library ‘had reached the end of its natural life with us’.
Launch of European Civil Liberties Network
An online network of groups concerned with civil liberties, democracy and equality has been launched to counter unprecedented attacks on freedoms in Europe. The European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) brings together groups and individuals who seek to create a European society based on freedom and equality, personal and political freedom, freedom of information and equality
Haslar staff routinely carry weapons, alleges inspector
A report on the inspection of Haslar Immigration Removal Centre, conducted in May by Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers, has elucidated a number of serious concerns regarding the safety, accommodation and legal representation of detainees. Some custody staff at Haslar, which is run by the Prison Service on behalf of the Immigration and Nationality
‘This policy is ripping apart our family’
Here we reproduce a speech given by 19-year-old Flores Sukula to a meeting in parliament on 17 October. She is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose family (mother, brothers and sisters) was one of the first to be made destitute under new asylum laws. ‘Our lives are very difficult now.
It’s anti-racism that was failed, not multiculturalism that failed
No country in Europe could be more proud of its multicultural experiment than Britain. But, in the wake of 7 July, or rather because Blair refuses to accept that the war in Iraq could have played a part in breeding home-grown suicide bombers, multiculturalism has become the whipping boy. And the more he divaricates from
Letting the words come out
The Write to Life project of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture has published A story from There to Here in which thirteen refugees record their experiences as short stories. Established in 1997 as a therapeutic writing group, Write to Life now has twenty clients and seven volunteer professional writers. Its
Racial violence after 7 July – week 13
Incidents of racial violence and harassment over the last two weeks 4 October 2005: Police arrest three people on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in connection with the murder of Black teenager Anthony Walker in Huyton, Merseyside. (BBC News 4.10.05) 30 September 2005: The Inquiry into the racist murder of Zahid Mubarek at
‘Scandalous’ UK immigration practices claim another family
The deportation, this morning, of the Vucaj family to Kosovo has been condemned by supporters who have led a vociferous campaign to keep them in Scotland. The Kosovan family were fighting deportation following a dawn raid on their family home in Scotstoun, Glasgow on 13 September. The Vucajs, who have been living in Scotland since
Celebrating the Black radical tradition
To mark Black History Month, the Institute of Race Relations publishes Cedric Robinson and the philosophy of Black resistance – a special issue of Race & Class dedicated to one of the world’s outstanding thinkers on the history of Black struggle. Professor Robinson, one of the most challenging Black academics in the US, has also