We unpick Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘fighting crime is a Labour cause’ speech of 23 March and link his failure to use the term ‘institutional racism’ with the Met Commissioner’s disavowal of the term to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee the day before. Given the long history in the UK of racialised cannabis
Geography: North-West England
Attacks on asylum housing: fighting the weaponisation of gender-based violence
Sophia Siddiqui investigates what is underpinning the violent targeting of accommodation housing asylum seekers in Ireland and across the UK and how feminists, anti-racists, migrant solidarity and trade union groups are fighting back to resist the weaponising of gender-based violence. The eruption of violence in Knowsley, Merseyside – where supporters of the far Right
Calendar of Racism and Resistance (27 April – 11 May 2022)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 26 April: African students who fled Ukraine for France and are living in the city of Orléans, say they have only been granted one-month residence permits and told
Calendar of Racism and Resistance (13 – 27 April 2022)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM | MIGRATION | BORDERS | CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 13 April: A private Home Office visa service apologises for a data breach after copying over 170 email addresses of visa applicants into a message detailing a
Weaponising violence against women: from Ireland to Poland
Sophia Siddiqui investigates how the murder of Ashling Murphy in Ireland was used by the far Right to push a racist and misogynistic agenda, and how this follows an all-too familiar pattern across Europe, now replicated at the Polish border, that grassroots groups are pushing back against. On 12 January, 23-year-old primary school teacher
Social mobility, ‘geographic inequality’ and a new culture war
As a new head of the Social Mobility Commission is appointed and the government pursues its ‘levelling up’ agenda, IRR researcher Jessica Perera debunks simplistic and racialised messages around ‘geographic inequality’. Discussion about social mobility is all the rage in government circles, but only if it is linked to its programme of ‘levelling up’, with educational attainment emerging
A threat to public safety: policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic
A new report from the IRR and Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) suggests that policing during the Covid-19 pandemic undermines public health measures whilst disproportionately targeting Black and Minority Ethnic communities. A threat to public safety: policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic raises concerns about the policing of the pandemic
Safety or stigma? FGM safeguarding measures in the UK
IRR News contributor Kaiisha Kukendra writes on the stigmatising impact of FGM safeguarding measures on Muslim families in the UK, who campaigners argue are being racially profiled, criminalised and over-policed. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a global human rights violation and severe form of gender-based violence against women and girls, itself a reflection of
Calendar of Racism and Resistance (29 January – 11 February 2021)
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 27 January: NHS leaders warn the post-Brexit immigration system will result in a huge shortfall of care staff, with the NHS Confederation appealing for ministers to show ‘flexibility and pragmatism’
Calendar of Racism and Resistance (3 – 16 December 2020)
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 3 December: The Home Office is failing potential victims of modern slavery, rules the High Court, as an ‘unlawful lacuna’ in existing immigration policy means they are stripped of immigration status. (Independent, 4 December 2020) 10 December: The