Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, we reproduce a letter to the Guardian by IRR director A. Sivanandan on the recent controversy surrounding Kick it Out and the Football Association’s response to racism in football. The IRR’s Victoria Brittain reports on the Home Office’s double standards in the Gary McKinnon case, and the IRR’s Jon
Our democracy is at stake
Below we reproduce the speech by Helen Bamber at the launch of Borderline Justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights by the IRR vice-chair Frances Webber. I grew up in the ’30s, I watched, under the guidance of a politically minded father, the rise of fascism, not only in Europe but in England. I watched
Spotlight on racial violence: July-September 2012
An overview of racial violence and convictions over the last three months. The stabbing to death of delivery van driver Mohammed Saleem Khan last month, in an attack that police believe to be racially motivated, indicates the brutal reality of violent racism in the UK. Mr Khan had been delivering shower products in the quiet
‘Super-selectivity’ and its effects
The policy of commercialisation of migration leads inexorably to neglect and ill-treatment of the most vulnerable. At a recent conference organised by the Detention Advice Service (DAS), Rob Whiteman, the UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) chief executive, was unapologetic. ‘We implement the government’s policy of super-selectivity’, he said. ‘That means we want only the brightest and
Kick it Out and black self-organisation
Below we reproduce a letter by the IRR’s A. Sivanandan, published in the Guardian on the recent controversy surrounding the charity Kick it Out. At a time when the far right is on the rise in Britain and in Europe, and fascism chooses the football field for its recruiting grounds, Kick it Out has done
G4S, Jomast Stockton hostel and the mother-and-baby-market
John Grayson, researching the G4S asylum housing contracts and their impact on the North East, uncovers the latest G4S twist on asylum housing markets – a hostel for asylum seeker mothers and babies in Stockton on Tees. The hostel is contracted to G4S by Jomast Developments, a family property development company empire headed by Stuart
One law for non-Muslims
Victoria Brittain on the home secretary’s double standards in the Gary McKinnon case. Only former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson chose to stand aside publicly from the wave of support for the highly popular and welcome decision by Theresa May last week to stop the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US. It was the
IRR News 12-18 October 2012
Dear IRR News subscriber, This week, the IRR’s Frances Webber reflects on a life in the law on the eve of the launch of her book, Borderline Justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights. We report on a demonstration that took place last week which saw activists from a wide range of campaigns come together
UFFC marches again to Downing Street
Next weekend, the families and friends of those that have died in custody will once again gather to remember their loved ones. The fourteenth annual gathering of the United Families and Friends Campaign remembering those that have died in (police, prison and psychiatric) custody will take place on Saturday 27 October. On the day, a
Radicalising the law
On the eve of the launch of her book, Borderline Justice, IRR News interviews its regular contributor, Frances Webber, about a life in the law. IRR News: What took you into the law? Were you a radical who chose the law as an arena of struggle or did the law radicalise you? Frances Webber: As