In November 1997, Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorism unit staged simultaneous raids on the Kurdistan Workers Association in Haringey and the Halkevi Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre in Stoke Newington. Police spent seven hours at the KWA photographing and searching each room seizing the centre’s financial records, bank statements, chequebooks, grant application information, training records, National Lottery
The Internet: New Media Or Old Values?
”One European is worth 28 Chinese, or perhaps 2 Welsh miners worth 1000 Pakistanis.” That was the unwritten rule used by BBC news in the 1970s to rate a story’s importance, according to the inside account by Philip Schlesinger in his book Putting ‘Reality’ Together . In the intervening years we may have seen some
Using the HomeBeats multimedia software with young black children
A pilot at the Khandaani Dhek Bhal project, Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, August 1998 Aims and Objectives All children need to be valued for who they are. Strong identity and feelings of self-worth are crucial in child development. Academic research on black* children’s self-esteem and self-image has shown that, from a young age, black children are
Racism Goes Global
Globalisation, we are told by the likes of Tony Blair, is, in the final analysis, a good thing. But good for whom? For the West or for the Third World? For rich or for poor? For black or for white? Here, in the UK, counter-globalisation networks are publicising the facts that European politicians like Blair
The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry
The public inquiry into the official handling of the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence opened in March. Police were accused of incompetence, insensitivity and racism in their response to the stabbing and to Stephen’s parents and the survivor of the attack, Duwayne Brooks. Below is a summary of the main points to emerge by the
Racism Goes Global
In May, the World Development Movement (WDM) launched ‘People Before Profits’, a campaign designed to expose multinationals’ abuse of human rights, workers’ rights and the environment. The activities of five multinational companies Nestlé’s, Rio Tinto, Shell, P&O and Premier Oil were highlighted through a week of direct action at the companies’ respective AGMs. ‘The idea
Behind Glasgow’s Gangs
The details of Imran’s fatal stabbing are now sub judice as several youths have been arrested. But his family are now considering action against the hospital after a post-mortem revealed that he died of septicaemia, not of his stab wounds. The police too, are the subject of complaints that they did not carry out forensic
Are anti-racist football campaigns reaching the grassroots?
Anti-racism has now, partly because of high-profile efforts from the CRE and its chairman Sir Herman Ouseley, made its way into football. This year’s Kick It Out campaign, backed by Blair and Hoddle, was launched in January with the Home Secretary visiting Birmingham City Football Club, and Tony Banks was guest speaker at a conference
Robbery isn’t colour-blind
Muhammed Rafique Khan was knifed through the heart on 6 January outside his menswear shop in Plumstead High Street, south-east London. It was 10 minutes till closing when a 30-year-old white man ran into the shop. What happened inside is not exactly known. But witnesses at a nearby bus stop heard an altercation and saw
Interactive anti-racism
The first anti-racist interactive CD-ROM has just been created by the Institute of Race Relations. HomeBeats: struggles for racial justice is aimed at young people for use at home, school or youth centres. Focusing on the black presence in Britain and British struggles against racism, the CD connects slavery and colonialism to contemporary racism and,