We reproduce below a statement from a grassroots group carrying out practical solidarity work in Calais. As survival packs are distributed in Calais, migrants and solidarity groups call for human rights for all and an end to police repression. Today [10 November], packs including blankets, ponchos, tarpaulins and hygiene packs were distributed to more than
Theme: Health
Company’s use of anti-terror laws criticised
The use of anti-terror legislation by an energy company to stop protests by a ‘blacklisted’ worker at one of its plants has been branded ‘fanciful’ by a High Court judge. Under the Terrorism Act, Scottish & Southern Energy brought an injunction against union member Steve Acheson to stop him protesting at the Fiddler’s Ferry power
Cheryl Laws fights deportation
A young woman is facing deportation to the Philippines, miles away from her partner and young daughter. Cheryl Laws, who is 29, spends her days at Yarl’s Wood removal centre waiting to find out if she will be next. If her appeal to stay in the UK fails, her family say, she’ll be forced to
The criminalisation of protest
Evidence is mounting that the authorities are criminalising more areas of peaceful protest. These protests are UK-wide and include anti-racists, anti-deportation activists and pro-Palestine campaigners. Protest against mass deportation to Nigeria An anti-deportation demonstrator involved in a blockade of Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre has been released from prison after serving eight days of a
Foreign nationals and the criminal justice system
Below we reproduce an extract of the lead article from the IRR’s European Race Bulletin on the fate of foreign nationals swept up in Europe’s deportation drive. Sensationalist headlines about foreign criminals – from dark and swarthy Middle-Eastern terrorists, Albanian rapists and sexual predators from Africa, to Roma swindlers and tricksters from eastern and central
Custody death families march again
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