‘Shut down Yarlswood’: momentum grows at large demo
On Saturday 12 March, Movement for Justice by Any Means Necessary organised a demonstration calling for the closure of Yarlswood detention centre. Duncan Thomas reports.
‘Angry White People’, a review
David Renton reviews Hsiao-Hung Pai’s Angry White People: coming face-to-face with the British far right. He finds an ‘exemplary account’ of the rise of the English Defence League and bemoans the left’s failure to contest the same terrain.
rs21 podcast, episode 1: refugees and the rise of the far right
Episode 1 of the rs21 podcast is finally here! Duncan Thomas introduces the show. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/250534323″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
How will EU debate impact migrant solidarity?
A talk given by Anindya Bhattacharyya at the recent London2Calais summit about how the migrant solidarity movement can respond to the debates around migrants in the context of the referendum on Britain’s EU membership. I want to talk in general terms about the political situation in Britain, and the way that debates around migrants are […]
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
With accusations of racism at the Oscars, the play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom about black experience in the entertainment industry is having a timely revival. Tazmin Aldis reviews. Reportedly one of August Wilson’s finest works, the play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set in 1927’s Chicago. Fundamentally the plot centres itself around a black singer, […]
Tarantino, Clinton and the “N” word
Lets talk, says Caliban’s Revenge I don’t like the way Tarantino puts the “N” word in the mouths of his white characters. I don’t like it because it seems to me to spring from both a patronising attribution of racism to working class “street” whites as a signifier of ‘realness’ (the hipster cousin of realism), and […]
Oxford University’s liberal mask slips in Rhodes Must Fall campaign
The liberal face that Oxford University likes to present has been challenged in the campaign to remove the statue of racist Cecil Rhodes.
Hundreds resist fascist march in Dover despite violent attacks from Nazi thugs
report by rs21, pictures by Steve Eason There were ugly scenes in Dover last Saturday as around 150-200 Nazis tried to march through the town and were confronted by 400 or so antifascists. The antifascists managed to obstruct the planned route of the Nazi march, but police responded by kettling counter demonstrators and ferrying the […]
Sexism is not an imported product
Dozens of women were sexually harassed on New Year’s Eve in Germany. But rather than connecting the events to everyday sexist violence in Germany, the political and media establishments have focused on the nationalities of the alleged perpetrators argue Silke Stöckle and Marion Wegscheider. Originally published in German by marx21, translated into English by Kate Davison. […]
“You can’t organise a riot”: racism, riots and arrests in 1981
In memory of John “Brad” Bradbury of the Specials who topped the charts with Ghost Town whilst Britain burst into flames of riots and racism in 1981 – Colin Revolting remembers how anti – racists danced to the Specials and fought against racism and unemployment. January A fire at a house party in New […]
Black Dissidents interview: “Real power comes from collective fights for liberation”
Black Dissidents were formed earlier this year and since then have been involved in fights against oppression from migration struggles to resisting evictions. Tomorrow they’ll be taking part in the UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession, 1pm, Trafalgar Square, London. Jaz Blackwell-Pal caught up with Shanice McBean from Black Dissidents to discuss the politics of the group, […]
Syd Shelton Rock Against Racism exhibition highlights contrasts and conflicts of the 1970s
A collection of anti-racist activist and photographer Syd Shelton’s work from Rock Against Racism is currently on display at the Autograph ABP gallery in London. Is this exhibition, and book, a nostalgic trip to the bad old days of 1970s racial conflict or does it have something to offer a new generation fighting the changing […]
Protesters gather in Dover to demand open borders and migrant rights
Roderick C and Mitch Mitchell report on Saturday’s Open Dover demo on the Kent coast (Open Dover demonstration in support of migrants – photo by Steve Eason) Around 500 protesters turned up on a rainy afternoon in Dover yesterday to stand in solidarity with refugees trapped in the camps in Calais. The protest was organised […]
Making live and letting die: ‘refugees’, ‘migrants’ and Fortress Europe
Chloe Haralambous reports on the refugee crisis from the Greek island of Lesvos and examines the function of the division between ‘refugees’ and ‘economic migrants’.
Teeside workers fight racism with solidarity
Brian Parkin reports For over a year construction workers on Teesside have been protesting about the rising numbers of migrant workers being employed at the former ICI Wilton site, where a new energy from waste plant is being built. But don’t despair. Unlike such previous disputes, this one is different. This time the protesters are […]
Discrimination in selection?
Professional statistician Nancy Carpenter and Unite activist Ian Allinson explain how to check for discrimination in situations like redundancy selection. It’s common for employers to select employees for various purposes, including recruitment, redundancy, appraisals, pay rises, bonuses and promotions. It’s common for people to say such actions should be subject to “equality impact assessments” to […]
Convoy to Calais part 2
Mitch Mitchell continues his report from the convoy to Calais, bringing food, clothes and solidarity to the migrants camped there.
“You can’t organise a riot”: racism, riots and arrests in 1981
In memory of John “Brad” Bradbury of the Specials who topped the charts with Ghost Town whilst Britain burst into flames of riots and racism in 1981 – Colin Revolting remembers how anti – racists danced to the Specials and fought against racism and unemployment. January A fire at a house party in New Cross […]
Why was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon siegheiling?
…And were ‘we’ really so unaware of what it meant in 1933? Michael Rosen writes. The real problem posed by the photos of the future queen siegheiling is not whether she was too young to know what she was doing but why her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, was doing it too. I’ve noticed on twitter, and indeed […]
Black leadership: New and old generations
Graham Campbell discusses the crisis of Black leadership, and the new generation that is emerging. After this year’s general election, a record number of Black Labour and Tory MPs will walk down Westminster’s corridors. Black faces have never been more visible in the establishment and in Parliament. Meanwhile Black working class people, who make up […]
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 Labour right: smearing Corbyn, not fighting racism
The Labour right is trying to smear Jeremy Corbyn as an associate of anti-Semites – when they should be looking at their own lousy record on racism and war.
10 years on: Timeline of anti-terror legislation since the July bombings
There has been an almost constant ramping-up of anti-terror legislation in the UK since the 9/11 bombings in 2001. Legislation passed that year set the context for subsequent laws. In the wake of the 7/7 bombings, 10 years ago today, the New Labour government introduced a new wave of legislation. This timeline tells the story […]
Fighting the Prevent agenda
The Prevent agenda is an Islamophobic policy framework that pushes forces racist policing into teachers’ classrooms.
After Dylann Roof: What is fascism?
After Dylann Roof’s racist massacre in Charleston, we republish an article by Anindya Bhattacharyya written in response to Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre on 22 July 2011. The following article was originally a contribution to the ebook On Utøya edited by Elizabeth Humphrys, Guy Rundle and Tad Tietze. The reporting of Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre on […]
New Faces, New Voices – left politics after the election
Eleven young people address the question, “after the election, what do you hope will be the response and what to you intend to do going forward?”
5 things Londoners can do to help Rabina Khan get elected in Tower Hamlets
In Tower Hamlets, following the removal of the last elected mayor from office in very worrying circumstances, Independent candidate Rabina Khan is running for Mayor. It will be either her or the Labour opposition that wins. Sybil Cock and Andrew Ward explain what you can do to help a left-of-Labour candidate win the first election […]
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 […]
Twelve reasons why the Lutfur Rahman judgment should worry you
The mayor of Tower Hamlets in east London was removed from office last Thursday by an election court on multiple charges of election fraud.
A tree without roots
Zakir Gul argues that the axing of ‘community languages’ at A level reveals the government’s contempt for Britain’s ethnic minorities and their heritages. White just got whiter. Examination boards AQA and OCR have decided to axe several essential languages at A level. The list includes Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Polish, Turkish and Persian. The British government’s […]