A new book on Enoch Powell reappraises without rehabilitating. In December 2012, Vince Cable compared his own government’s rhetoric on immigration to Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech. In January of this year, UKIP leader Nigel Farage said of the same speech ‘the basic principle is right’. On both and many other occasions, columnists rushed
There is much to commend in No Place to Call Home, a potted history of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers in the UK and Ireland, but its reliance on police sources is worrying. There is much to praise in Katharine Quarmby’s No Place to Call Home. She capably describes the structured state and institutional racism that Gypsies
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, the IRR publishes Investigated or ignored? An analysis of race-related deaths since the Macpherson report, highlighting serious deficiencies in the criminal justice system’s response to racist murders, or as a result of attacks with a known or suspected racial element. We also publish an interview by IRR director Liz
Today, the Institute of Race Relations publishes a report that shows serious deficiencies in the criminal justice system’s response to race-related killings. Since the publication of the Macpherson report in 1999, into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, at least ninety-three people have lost their lives as a result of racially motivated attacks (or attacks
An indictment of the treatment of poor North African migrants in Belgium and the devastating effects of incarceration has been published as a volume of poetry (in French). In Salée est l’eau de l’amer (Salt is the Water of Bitterness), Souad, a second-generation Moroccan migrant in Belgium, writes autobiographical poems presenting a chronological account of
We reproduce here a statement initiated by Unite Against Fascism, as well as information about a pan-European day of action coinciding with UN Anti-Racism Day. Already in most European countries parties of the Right, centre and even the traditional Left are allowing the terrain of these elections to be dominated by racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and
An interview with Eike Sanders, Coordinator of NSU-watch. In November 2011, Germany woke up to a story that, at first glance, seemed unbelievable. Two neo-nazis, pursued by the police following a bank robbery in Eisenach, Thuringia, had set fire to their getaway car in an apparent joint suicide pact. As the news was broadcast, a
Following last week’s verdict that Mark Duggan was lawfully killed by the police, we reproduce a statement from Relatives for Justice in solidarity with his family. Filmmaker Ken Fero examines the role of the media in documenting political struggle. Jon Burnett argues that there can be no trust in the police if they are not
Below, we reproduce a statement from Relatives for Justice, a support group for those bereaved and injured in the conflict in the North of Ireland, in solidarity with Mark Duggan’s family and their fight for justice after the recent inquest verdict. As the verdict from the inquest into the killing of Mark Duggan began to
Filmmaker Ken Fero, of Migrant Media, examines the role of the media in documenting political struggle. ‘If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.’ Malcom X The power of film to document stories, inspire action and agitate for change has run hand in hand with revolutionary cells, social struggles and mass movements.
