We publish below the talk by Jeremy Seabrook launching his new book on the struggles of newly arrived refugees commissioned by the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA). ‘It has been a privilege to meet a new generation of academic refugees assisted by CARA. It needed great courage for many of them to speak publicly
Pulling the Woolas over our eyes?
What exactly do the immigration minister’s recent statements quoted in the press reveal? According to Phil Woolas, he is trying to atone for Labour’s sin – stifling public debate on immigration. We have to stop the immigration issue being swept under the carpet and talk about it say Phil Woolas, Frank Field and Margaret Hodge.
Australia: Free Lex Wotton
On 6 November, thirty people gathered outside the Australian High Commission in Holborn, London to support Aboriginal, Lex Wotton on trial following a protest after a death in custody in Australia. Lex Wotton led a protest in November 2004 outside a police station on Palm Island, Queensland, over the death in custody of Mulrunji Doomadgee,
Grinding down the human rights defenders
The IRR’s European Race Bulletin examines the criminalisation of solidarity and protest. The extended feature article in the latest issue of the European Race Bulletin (No 65, Autumn 2008) documents both the increasing resistance against the inhuman treatment of asylum seekers across Europe and European governments’ further criminalisation of solidarity and protest. Building on an
‘Papers Please’
A new report finds that exploitation of vulnerable undocumented workers continues despite new laws. Jack Dromey (deputy general secretary of Unite) estimates in the foreword to ‘Papers Please’, a new report by the Migrants’ Rights Network (MRN), that there are half a million undocumented migrants in the UK, pointing out that they are among the
A new take on Michael X
A new play on Michael X provides a thought-provoking night out. I had concerns that the new play by Vanessa Walters entitled Michael X might dwell on Michael X’s rather insalubrious past as the flyer for it suggests: ‘Who was Michael X? Black Power activist and political icon? Liar, pimp, murderer?’ Michael X, the play,
Two families unite for justice
Last week two grieving families gathered outside Brixton police station to extend solidarity to one another. A weekly vigil outside Brixton police station for Sean Rigg, who died in police custody on 21 August 2008 after being arrested by local police (read an IRR News story: Two suspicious Black deaths in south London), was also
End the ‘don’t give a damn’ culture
Lord Ouseley* addresses IRR’s fiftieth birthday celebration conference on the connection between the lacks in political leadership and public morality and the crisis of youth out of control. ‘The event today is a reflection of past struggle and continued struggle. And I think it’s very important to acknowledge that just to be here today after
Remembering Grunwick
A superb DVD on Grunwick’s recalls not just the details of that long dispute but also the flavour of workers’ solidarity. There was another powerful political lady with a handbag other than Thatcher in the 1970s. A tiny woman, usually swathed in a bulky cardigan, almost always seen with a megaphone. An Asian lady in
New Black history DVD
Four seminal Black films on Tiger Bay, Leicester, Ladbroke Grove and Southall have been reissued in a new DVD by the Institute of Race Relations. The four films, Struggles for Black Community, made for Channel 4 at the beginning of the 1980s, chart the milestones in Black people’s fight for justice – ‘race riots’