The movement has lost a unique and inspiring campaigner for justice. We have, over the years, had to note the passing of many fighters and of many writers; but it is rare to find a writer who fights or a fighter who writes, rarer still to find someone taking on popular culture and politicising it,
Issue: Briefing Papers & Reports - UK
Campaign first, grieve later
A campaigner for Justice for Jimmy Mubenga recalls how his widow, Adrienne Makenda Kambana, was thrust into a campaign for justice. This week, when a jury at the Old Bailey found three G4S guards not guilty of the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga on board a plane at Heathrow on 12 October 2010, few thought of the
Calendar of racism and resistance (12 – 23 December 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Extreme-right politics 12 December: Four English Defence League (EDL) supporters are jailed for a total of over six years after violence during an EDL demonstration in Birmingham city centre in July 2013, described by the judge as ‘plainly
Neglect and indifference kill American man in immigration detention
A Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) report on Brian Dalrymple’s six weeks in immigration detention paints a grim picture of how the vulnerable are treated. Although Dalrymple was a white man, we report on his case to show that, in immigration detention, immigration status ensures a grim equality of treatment. The report, Investigation into the death of a
Sixteen years of marching
For the sixteenth year, families and friends of those that have died in custody marched on Downing Street at the weekend. Behind the banner of the United Families and Friends Campaign, new families were walking in the procession including the family members of Rubel Ahmed, who died in Morton Hall immigration removal centre earlier this
Trial of three G4S officers to begin
Next week, on Monday 3 November, the trial of three G4S officers accused of the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga will begin. Jimmy Mubenga died on 12 October 2010 on board a plane at Heathrow airport during his deportation to Angola. He was initially held at Brook House, which is also operated by G4S, and then
Calendar of racism and resistance (4-16 October 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees 6 October: Corporate Watch reveals that NHS England has awarded G4S a series of contracts worth some £23 million to run medical facilities at four immigration removal centres in the UK. (Corporate Watch, 6
‘We revolt simply because … we can no longer breathe’
An impressive new film on the death of Mark Duggan, and the riots that followed, provides a welcome radical alternative narrative. Ken Fero’s new film, Burn, (dedicated to those who burn for justice) describes itself as a movie about memory. He asks ‘why Britain burns?’ and there are a variety of responses, but the consensus
Institutional indifference – in life and death
The treatment of a homeless French man who died in immigration detention makes grim reading and shows up a callous system. On 26 September, nearly two years after the inquest, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) published a fatal incident report into the death on 6 December 2011 of an unnamed 40-year-old French man in
Calendar of racism and resistance (19 September-3 October)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting the key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees September: The ECtHR rules that conditions for migrants detained in a number of Greek police stations and immigration detention centres are so bad that they amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, in two