A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Policing and criminal justice 23 December: 34-year-old Adrian McDonald dies in Staffordshire after being tasered by police in the early hours of 22 December. (Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 23 December 2014) 30 December: A Freedom of Information request reveals that
Farewell Magna Carta: the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill
The Bill currently going through Parliament, with virtually no opposition, impinges on basic freedoms and seems calculated to entrench the treatment of British Muslims as non-citizens. The Bill is being rushed through parliament with no pre-legislative scrutiny or public consultation on most of its provisions – a speed justified by the increased terror threat posed
Crime and Punishment
The January 2015 issue of Race & Class explores poverty, ‘race’ and criminal justice. Eddie Bruce-Jones, in ‘German policing at the intersection: race, gender, migrant status and mental health’, shows how a cultural defence, of ‘legitimate’ fear of the violence and unpredictability of the ‘other’, is used to justify the recent controversial shooting dead of black
Anti-racist witchcraft
The question of loyalty to British traditions was already under attack thirty years ago in relation to the work of the Institute of Race Relations. As Britain reels from the fallout from the the Paris killings, the question of British values – who belongs to the nation and how that should be expressed – have been placed centre-stage.[1] Those
Mike Marqusee 1953-2015
The movement has lost a unique and inspiring campaigner for justice. We have, over the years, had to note the passing of many fighters and of many writers; but it is rare to find a writer who fights or a fighter who writes, rarer still to find someone taking on popular culture and politicising it,
Where monoculturalism leads
As France grieves for those whose lives have been so brutally taken, and more emergency and counter-radicalisation measures are discussed, the future for a peaceful Europe rests on how our leaders diagnose the problems that we collectively face. It may seem counter-intuitive, but far from suffering from an excess of multiculturalism, European thought and culture
IRR News 12 – 23 December 2014
Dear IRR News subscriber, This is the last bulletin from IRR till the New Year. And educationalist, Robin Richardson, takes us through the festive season and into 2015, with a wry take on the ‘Trojan Horse affair’. And as 2014 draws to a close, we also take the opportunity to take a look at the
Campaign first, grieve later
A campaigner for Justice for Jimmy Mubenga recalls how his widow, Adrienne Makenda Kambana, was thrust into a campaign for justice. This week, when a jury at the Old Bailey found three G4S guards not guilty of the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga on board a plane at Heathrow on 12 October 2010, few thought of the
JENGbA welcomes call for reform of joint enterprise
We reproduce here a press statement from 17 December 2014 by Joint Enterprise: Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) on the publication of the Justice Select Committee’s recent report on joint enterprise. JENGbA whole-heartedly welcomes the report released today by the Justice Select Committee which calls for an urgent reform of the law of joint enterprise. We commend
Hidden despair: The deaths of foreign national prisoners
A new IRR briefing paper examines the deaths of foreign national prisoners in the UK. Hidden despair: The deaths of foreign national prisoners, by IRR vice-chair Frances Webber, examines recent suicides of foreign national prisoners in the UK, showing how the prison regime exacerbates the risk of self-harm and suicide through despair. A full report