A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Extreme-right politics 12 December: Four English Defence League (EDL) supporters are jailed for a total of over six years after violence during an EDL demonstration in Birmingham city centre in July 2013, described by the judge as ‘plainly
Theme: Violence and harassment
Race & Class radio: new perspectives on Kashmir
The latest Race & Class radio broadcast is now available to download. This month, Race & Class Radio is joined by Shubh Mathur, Gowhar Geelani and Noor Ahmad Baba, contributors to our recent special issue on Kashmir. The broadcast attempts to place the Kashmiri experience centre stage, rather than the competing narratives of Indian and Pakistani territorial and nationalist ambitions.
The Year of the Trojan Gift Horse
A seasonal reflection by leading educationalist Robin Richardson. 2014 was the year of the Trojan gift horse – equus donatus troianus – bestowed on (and gratefully received by) quite a wide range of people. In no particular order, the eager and happy recipients included: the sections of the media that prosper and profit from peddling
Justice blindfolded? The case of Jimmy Mubenga
Following the acquittal on 16 December of the G4S guards charged with the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga, IRR vice-chair Frances Webber focuses on the judge’s decision to rule inadmissible evidence pointing to endemic racism within G4S. After the acquittal of the guards charged with Jimmy Mubenga’s manslaughter, the judge told the jurors not to be
Patriot games and culture wars: the politics of national identity in Europe
Muslims, those of African and African-Caribbean descent and white women speaking out against racism are being targeted in a new culture war now distorting and degrading Europe’s electoral politics. Is it possible to demand a common reflex, a unified emotional response from all the citizens of a country to the symbols or cultural traditions that
Britain’s Michael Browns and Eric Garners
Britons following the news of protests against police killings of black people in the US should not feel too smug about the situation in the UK. Not for the first time, our outrage at American racism goes hand in hand with complacency about Britain’s own history of institutional racism and its manifestations in police violence.
Calendar of racism and resistance (28 November – 11 December 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Policing & criminal justice 27 November: Judge Richard Hollingworth resigns as district judge after making racist comments about Asians while hearing a harassment case. He does not resign as immigration judge until a few days later. (Guardian, 7
Selling the tolerant nation
The emphasis in British Future’s recent report on How to talk about immigration appears to take us back to outmoded and discredited arguments about measuring tolerance and attitudes. Way back in 1970, the unreformed policy-oriented Institute of Race Relations heralded the arrival of a new folk hero. ‘The psychology of race relations’, its researcher proclaimed,
Calendar of racism and resistance (14 – 27 November 2014)
A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe. Asylum seekers and refugees 14 November: It is revealed that an unnamed language analyst working for Swedish firm Sprakab, is a convicted drug smuggler whose expert reports have been used to refuse asylum to hundreds in the UK.
Neglect and indifference kill American man in immigration detention
A Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) report on Brian Dalrymple’s six weeks in immigration detention paints a grim picture of how the vulnerable are treated. Although Dalrymple was a white man, we report on his case to show that, in immigration detention, immigration status ensures a grim equality of treatment. The report, Investigation into the death of a