An anti-racist student organiser discusses, in the light of the upcoming English Defence League (EDL) event in Bradford, what anti-fascists can learn about recent state interventions and particularly the policing of anti-fascist demonstrations. The upcoming English Defence League (EDL) demonstration in Bradford on 28 August had been described as ‘the big one’ by EDL spokesman
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Stop and … spy?
Are the security services in the UK so desperate to recruit spies and informers that they stop random travellers coming to the UK in order to recruit them? IRR News has heard that a Sri Lankan man, visiting London was stopped as he passed through the Eurostar terminal in St Pancras and asked to spy
Court rules against unauthorised police surveillance
Last week, at Inner London Crown Court, three activists were cleared of charges of obstructing the police as they attempted to film and photograph those attending two London NoBorders meetings in south London in June 2008. The three campaigners were arrested after protesting at the surveillance being carried out by police officers from the Forward
Fighting against injustice
London Against Injustice (LAI), which provides indispensible support to families of victims of miscarriages of justice, is helping launch a political campaign against joint enterprise cases. LAI is part of the umbrella group United Against Injustice, which has branches across the country, and unites families and friends of people who have been wrongfully convicted of
Family remembers two years on
A family and their supporters will gather outside High Wycombe police station this weekend to remember a loved one who died after an altercation with the police. Saturday will mark two years since the death of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah in High Wycombe after being arrested and restrained by up to six police officers. Habib’s family
Prison system treats Muslims as potential extremists
The security-led approach by prison authorities towards Muslim prisoners has led to victimisation and a disproportionate use of segregation and restraint, according to a new report. The Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers, says blanket treatment of the Muslim prison population has focused largely on efforts to limit the spread of radicalisation and violent
Darfuri asylum seeker failed by the system
Kirsten Heaven, barrister at Garden Court Chambers, writes about the deaths of foreign nationals in custody and the critical verdict in the recent inquest into the self-inflicted death of a young Darfuri in HMP Chelmsford. The existence of foreign national prisoners (FNPs) languishing in British jails and being released without consideration of deportation was brought
Poland: Reflections on the death of a street vendor
A Nigerian street vendor was shot dead following a police identity check in an open-air market in Warsaw. But is anyone asking the right questions? On 23 May 2010, Maxwell Itoya died in Warsaw after being shot by police in, as yet, unexplained circumstances. Itoya, a 36-year-old Nigerian, had lived in Poland for eight years.
Harmondsworth expansion adds to risk
According to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP) Dame Anne Owers’ latest critical report, small improvements at Harmondsworth immigration removal centre (IRC) will be jeopardised by the opening of new prison-like accommodation there. Harmondsworth was the first immigration detention centre, where inmates were held in Victorian prison-like accommodation. It became a byword for brutality and
Families speak out
Families and campaigners gathered in Leicester on 15 May to pay tribute to those that had died in custody. At a meeting organised by the 4WardEver Campaign in association with the Friends of Mikey Powell Campaign for Justice, Habib Ullah Campaign and the Leicester Civil Rights Movement, there was no mistaking the serious issues being