Labour is letting down sex workers
The narrow space left in UK law for sex workers to operate in is under threat of being further restricted.
Refugees – remember them?
Mitch Mitchell writes on Refugee Lifeboat, a new organisation that aims to marry humanitarian aid for refugees with an uncompromising political stand against state racism
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and why does it matter?
Charlie Powell and Taisie Tsikas write on the significance of Transgender Day of Remembrance in the ongoing struggle against the oppression of transgender people.
“My son was killed in the hands of police”
The death of Rashan Charles in police custody has led to the largest anti-police protest in Hackney for some years, and the first large black protest since the riots of 2011, writes Charlie Hore. Several hundred people rallied outside Stoke Newington police station on Monday 24 July in an angry protest after the death of Rashan […]
“Riots are the language of the unheard”: reflections on the protests after the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa
Rosa Soros reflects on the protest after the death of Edir Frederico Da Costa. What a farce! There was a state-sanctioned murder of another young black man in police custody (and, inevitably, another cover-up), yet it is the protest against this killing that is accused of turning “violent”. The very moment Edir Frederico Da Costa […]
#GE2017: More police and prison officers won’t make us safer
Socialism requires a belief that building a world without punishment and incarceration is possible.
Paris, 19 March 2017: A March for Justice and Dignity
We publish this statement in solidarity with those demonstrating on 19 March, on the eve of the French presidential election, against police brutality, murder and state racism in France. Translated by David Broder. https://blogs.mediapart.fr/marche19mars/blog/191216/le-19-mars-une-marche-pour-la-justice-et-la-dignite One a month. That is the average number of fathers, brothers and sons we lose because of the brutality of the forces […]
Orgreave June 1984: police conspiracy and repression swept under the rug
After 32 years the miners at Orgreave are being denied an inquiry by Home Secretary Amber Rudd. Brian Parkin finds that his hatred of the Tories and their police and ‘justice’ system just improves with age. Home secretary Amber Rudd, following an initial consultation in September with members of the Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign, has decided that […]
Policing the Planet – charting changes to policing under neoliberalism
Sølvi Qorda reviews Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter, edited by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton Police killings have reached a shameful apex this week, the highest number in one week in an already-murderous year. How can we begin to comprehend a world where Americans will apparently express […]
BLM Cincinnati Statement on Police Brutality and Recent Events in Dallas
This statement was originally shared by Black Lives Matter Cincinnati through social media. On July 7, five police officers were reportedly killed by a sniper in Dallas, Texas. Law enforcement, media outlets, and elected officials are sniffing for a link between these deaths and the women and men organizing actions across the country to condemn police […]
Hillsborough verdict: the only ‘us against them’ that really matters
On a momentous day in the battle for justice for those killed at Hillsborough in 1989 Liverpool FC supporter Dan Swain, who was brought up in Liverpool, offers a personal view. This is what happened at Hillsborough on April 15 1989: 96 fans of Liverpool football club were unlawfully killed, as a result of a […]
TV Review: Happy Valley
Violence against women is central to this popular quality crime series says Seb Cooke. Happy Valley burst onto the scene a couple of years ago. At the time, British crime drama was caught napping, largely unaware of what was going on in other parts of the world. Without the series, the genre would probably be […]
Rumble in the “Jungle”
Mitch Mitchell reports on the French state’s destruction in the Calais refugee camp on February 29.
Review: Making a Murderer – the stain of blood marks the white exterior.
Seb Cooke reviews the popular Netflix series, which raises questions that are uncomfortable for those in power and a call to arms for those who are not.
Seventeen years of struggle – deaths in custody campaigners keep fighting for justice
The United Friends and Families Campaign fights for justice for those killed in police custody, prison, immigration centres or in psychiatric detention. Graham Campbell reports from their 17th annual remembrance demo. The United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) Injustice Demo on Saturday in London was an amazing and inspiring show of strength and unity among victims’ families seeking justice. Sheku Bayoh’s […]
Police intimidate, harass and attack refugees with rubber bullets at Calais camp
Mitch Mitchell was an eyewitness to police intimidation at ‘The Jungle’ in Calais last week where rubber bullets were used to attack refugees.
Miners Shot Down – remembering the Marikana Massacre
Miners Shot Down, an award-winning documentary, brilliantly reveals how government, police and big business work hand-in-glove to suppress class struggle, writes Colin Revolting.
IS in the 60s: linking up with Manchester workers and fighting racism
Colin Barker recalls how IS grew in 1960s Manchester – making links with engineers and building workers, and campaigning against racist police violence.
Now More Than Ever: The Story of Greater Manchester CND
As the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches, Philip Gilligan reports on the inaugural screening of a film celebrating decades of anti-nuclear campaigning. Now More Than Ever: The Story of Greater Manchester CND by Hannah Ellul and Leanne Green (approx. 33 mins) had its inaugural screening at the Three Minute Theatre in Manchester’s Affleck’s […]
One man’s terrorist…
Differing reactions to the violence perpetrated by white supremacists and Islamist jihadists reveal how racism is mobilised to advance projects of state domination, writes Duncan Thomas. “You look like a terrorist”, a woman once said to me. Of course, it was just a joke – she didn’t think I actually was a terrorist, but […]
The battle of Grosvenor Square
Continuing our series of refections from different types of activism over the years, Mitch Mitchell discusses the battle of Grosvenor Square in 1968, which took place during protests against the Vietnam war.
The shape of Baltimore’s segregation
In an article from the Chicago-based red wedge website, Alexander Billet sees racism and capitalism combine in Baltimore’s history When it was announced some months ago that the city of Baltimore would start cutting off the water of poor residents, the comparison became inevitable: Baltimore is the next Detroit. It was, and is, still a prescient […]
Walthamstow EDL protest: outnumbered by cops, undefeated by Nazis
rs21 members report from yesterday’s protest, which aimed to stop the EDL marching in Walthamstow, north east London On 9 May the nazi English Defence League (EDL) returned to Walthamstow, the scene of one of their biggest humiliations in 2012. Three years ago, over 4,000 people, overwhelmingly local, rallied and marched against the nazis, […]
Angry central London protest attacked by police
The first full day of the Tory government has seen inspiring resistance – but also police attacks on the right to protest. The protest was defiant from the beginning, as Neil Rogall reports. “In the wake of the election demoralisation and depression the last thing I expected when I got off the bus by Westminster Cathedral […]
“Police killed Henry Hicks” – Islington community marches for justice
More than a thousand people protested in London today, against the killing of a young Arsenal fan, Henry Hicks.
Review: Safe Space
Colin Wilson is full of praise for a recent book on LGBT history, but highlights a broader political problem. Safe Space: Gay Neighbourhood History and the Politics of Violence Christina B. Hanhardt Duke University Press, £17.99 Safe Space charts the history since the 1960s of community organising in three neighbourhoods identified with LGBT people: the […]
Gang abuse in Oxford
Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale argue we need to prevent racists from exploiting the suffering of victims of abuse but we also need to go on the offensive against the cover-ups. The article includes distressing descriptions of sexual abuse. It was originally posted on their Sexism Class Violence website. Last year seven men from Oxford were […]
Police ‘Shield’ scheme is not a solution
Kate Bradley writes that the government’s new proposals to combat gang crime will cause more miscarriages of justice. Two weeks ago, the London Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) announced that it would provide £200,000 to pilot the new ‘Shield’ scheme in the London boroughs of Haringey, Westminster and Lambeth. Shield is being […]
“All you people are watching them kill me”
Jimmy Mubenga was killed as he was forcibly deported from the UK in 2010. The guards who were found guilty of unlawful killing at the inquest have now been cleared of manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
On the march against police racism and violence: report from California
Protests against police violence and racism have continued all week in America, with the biggest marches on Saturday. rs21 member Amy Gilligan reports from California. Tens of thousands of people in cities across the US took to the streets on Saturday afternoon as part of continuing protests against police killings and racism. Organisers estimated around 60,000 participated in […]