In a republished speech given at a Feminist & Women’s Studies Association event, IRR’s Sophia Siddiqui asks if publishing can be a form of resistance. It’s clear that our current moment is a moment of crisis – state racism permeates all aspects of life for many communities, the rhetoric of the far Right has become
Racist violence involving public order offences, physical attack and criminal damage has increased, but the Home Office and the media are in denial as to the real causes. On 16 October, the Home Office released the 2018/2019 statistics on hate crimes in England and Wales with all hate crime (race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion
An exhibition curated by young people involved in an integenerational project exploring communties’ experiences of racism in Newham during the 1980s and now. Free exhibition at Old Manor Park Library, 2 – 29 November, 2019 (Saturday & Sunday only, 10am – 6pm) Including a showing of award-winning filmmaker Ayo Akingbade’s documentary inspired by the history of Newham
An evening of remembrance including poet and activist Chris Searle and his former students Ramona Harris and Tony Harcup, exploring the inspiration, purpose and legacy of the Stepney School Strike in 1971. 800 pupils went on strike in Stepney, demanding that their teacher, Chris Searle, be reinstated after the school fired him for publishing a book
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRANT RIGHTS, CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migration rights 1 October: In a speech at the Conservative party conference, home secretary Priti Patel outlines a hardline immigration policy, promising to end free movement for EU nationals and introduce an
Striking evidence has been uncovered about Special Branch’s attempts to infiltrate UK Black Power groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Black Power is in the news this week, with the announcement that the conviction of former Fasimba members Winston Trew and Sterling Christie (two of the ‘Oval Four’) has been referred to the
After a fight lasting forty-seven years, the case of the ‘Oval Four’ has now been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission. On a March evening in 1972, four young black men were stopped at Oval tube station by white men and accused of ‘nicking handbags’. The youths, who maintain
A seminar in Leicester ‘Forty years on since the launch of SCARE (Student campaign against racism in education) – what has changed, current struggles and ways forward’ Saturday 26 October 2019, 11–5pm at Highfields Centre, Leicester, LE2 0DS. Speakers include Professor Gus John (Activist/Writer), Amrit Wilson (Writer/Activist), Camille London-Miyo (President, Leicester NEU), Speakers from Goldsmiths Anti-Racist Action Free
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP Asylum and migrant rights 17 September: The inquest opens into the death of Mulubrhane Medhane Kfleyosus, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Milton Keynes who took his life on 18 February 2019, the fourth from
Why are specialist services for black and minoritised women and girls escaping violence so important? And why have the voices of those organisations been erased from the discussion around Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) cases in Rotherham and other northern cities? Sophia Siddiqui travelled to Rotherham to find out. ‘For Rotherham’ was scrawled on the ammunition
