IRR News 27 May – 9 June 2022
Later this month, a ground-breaking documentary film sharing the stories of nurses, midwives and healthcare workers and their experiences of racism before, during and after the pandemic, will premiere in London and Sheffield. Part of a research project from Nursing Narratives, Sheffield Hallam University and Migrant Media, EXPOSED lays bare the ‘systemic lack of support’ for many BME NHS workers, where racism put black and brown staff at increased risk of exposure to Covid-19, sometimes with lethal consequences. In our latest IRR News article, Anandi Ramamurthy shares the key findings from the research and puts forward a manifesto demanding an actively anti-racist health service.
Needless to say, other aspects of state policy, both in the UK and across Europe, create the conditions for poor health, neglect and premature death. In our regular calendar of racism and resistance, we note for instance: an investigation into the drowning of Oladeji Adeymi Omishore in south London shortly after being tasered three times by police; hunger strikes and suicide attempts prompted by the government’s Rwanda plan; and ongoing work by Polish NGOs, at risk of prosecution, to hold their government to account for its life-threatening policy of pushbacks at the border with Belarus.
Finally, after the Met police and IOPC confirmed there is now a third case of an intimate search of a child under investigation, campaigners will come together in Stoke Newington this Saturday for the Conference for the Black Child, which looks to build action to fight institutional racism in schools.