On 31 October 2009, families of those that have died in police, prison and psychiatric custody held their annual remembrance procession. The families met at Trafalgar Square and then marched down Whitehall to hold a vigil outside Downing Street. Although numbers were small, as there was no official organising of this, the eleventh year of
Exploring belonging through film
In the UK, a number of innovative projects have been using film as a way of encouraging young people to look at their communities and engage with issues of identity and the meaning of heritage. The projects are of differing sizes, address different age groups and have had access to different amounts of funding. But
The myth of anti-racist kids
The Manifesto Club should not get away with its scurrilous attack on schools’ anti-racist policies. They are at it again – attacking anti-racism. The kind of arguments we got used to from Thatcher’s hangers-on and advisors in the 1980s are re-emerging, but this time under the guise of advice from younger, trendier, media-savvy ‘interventionists’. Anti-racism
Building migrant civil engagement in east Germany
An interview with Dr Esra Erdem, coordinator of the Empowerment and Participation of Immigrants* in east Germany project (EmPa) based at the Brandenburg Regional Centres for Education, Integration and Democracy. Liz Fekete: This has been a very busy Summer for EmPa, which was set up to promote immigrant participation in the social and political life
The new McCarthyism
Liz Fekete, delivering the eighth Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture, describes the new McCarthyism against Muslims sweeping across Europe and calls for a campaign against racism and Islamophobia in the media. ‘The legacy that Claudia left was all the more remarkable in that she was hounded, censored and persecuted for her political opinions for much of
Inquest into police death to open after six years
Next week the inquest will begin into the death of Mikey Powell in police custody in Birmingham in September 2003. After a six-year wait, the family and friends of 38-year-old Mikey Powell will finally find out how he died after being arrested by West Midlands police officers outside his mother’s home in the Lozells area
Racist murderer and accomplices convicted
Last week three young men were convicted for their involvement in a racist attack in August 2008 in Hastings which led to the death of Mohammed al-Majed, a 16-year-old Qatari student. George Austin (22), Alexander Quinn (19) and Paul Rockett (21) faced a two-month trial at Lewes crown court where they denied various charges in
Hands Off My Workmate
At a conference in London last week, a campaign was launched to organise for the rights of migrant workers. The Hands Off My Workmate conference was organised following a high profile raid at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in June 2009 when nine cleaners were detained by immigration officers in full riot
Returned Iraqi asylum seekers on hunger strike
More than forty people, many of them Iraqis who were on last week’s returned charter flight, have gone on hunger strike to demand their immediate release from detention. The hunger strikers are being held in Brook House immigration removal centre, near Gatwick airport. As well as Iraqis, people from Afghanistan, Algeria, Nigeria and Jamaica have
Young Dutch Muslims find a venue
An interview with Umar Mirza, the 22-year-old chief editor of the Dutch website ‘We’re Here to Stay’.[1] Chandra Frank: The results of a TV opinion poll, released shortly after the Islamophobic Freedom Party (PvV)[2] won record results in European parliamentary elections, indicated that a large proportion of Turkish and Moroccan migrants no longer felt welcome