A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM AND MIGRATION Asylum and migrant rights 1 November: The international protection and other provisions law, rushed through the Greek parliament in a matter of days, aimed at curbing the sharpest increase in arrivals since 2015, will restrict
Geography: North-East England
Grieve the Essex 39, but recognise the root causes
In the wake of the deaths of 39 migrants in a lorry container, daikon*’s Kay Stephens writes on the global structures of capitalism and imperialism and the deadly border regimes that led to their deaths. On 24 October, daikon*, a group of anti-racist creatives of east and south east Asian descent, organised a vigil outside
Ian Macdonald 1939-2019
Ian Macdonald, whose death was announced on 12 November, was a pioneer of committed anti-racist legal practice, as a criminal lawyer and later, as the founding father of immigration law. The son of a Scottish senior police officer, Ian started out in an ‘establishment’ set of chambers in the early 1960s, which he left after
Here to fight: building communities of resistance
Two new anthologies of pieces from the magazines Race Today and Race & Class recall important struggles on the streets, the factory floors and in communities, linking them to both class and global internationalism. It is salutary that at a time when racism is getting redefined in some sectors and official investigations as identity loss,
Calendar of racism and resistance (16 – 30 October 2019)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM AND MIGRANT RIGHTS Asylum and migrant rights 19 October: Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Rupert Read is criticised in the Guardian for claiming that the ‘net environmental footprint’ is increased by migration and tighter migration controls are central to
Racist violence – ‘It’s become normalised’
Racist violence involving public order offences, physical attack and criminal damage has increased, but the Home Office and the media are in denial as to the real causes. On 16 October, the Home Office released the 2018/2019 statistics on hate crimes in England and Wales with all hate crime (race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion
Calendar of racism and resistance (1 – 15 October 2019)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRANT RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migration rights 1 October: In a speech at the Conservative party conference, home secretary Priti Patel outlines a hardline immigration policy, promising to end free movement for EU nationals and introduce an
New revelations about Special Branch and the Black Power movement in the UK
Striking evidence has been uncovered about Special Branch’s attempts to infiltrate UK Black Power groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Black Power is in the news this week, with the announcement that the conviction of former Fasimba members Winston Trew and Sterling Christie (two of the ‘Oval Four’) has been referred to the
Vindication for lifelong ‘Oval Four’ fighter
After a fight lasting forty-seven years, the case of the ‘Oval Four’ has now been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. On a March evening in 1972, four young black men were stopped at Oval tube station by white men and accused of ‘nicking handbags’. The youths, who maintain
Forty years on since the launch of SCARE (Student campaign against racism in education)
A seminar in Leicester ‘Forty years on since the launch of SCARE (Student campaign against racism in education) – what has changed, current struggles and ways forward’ Saturday 26 October 2019, 11–5pm at Highfields Centre, Leicester, LE2 0DS. Speakers include Professor Gus John (Activist/Writer), Amrit Wilson (Writer/Activist), Camille London-Miyo (President, Leicester NEU), Speakers from Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action Free