Ferguson Spring
Shanice McBean discusses how the protests in Ferguson have been driven by the racism and injustice that permeates everyday life for black people in the USA. This article originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of the rs21 magazine. “Because of the way this society is organized, because of the violence that exists on the […]
On decolonizing education and the perils of speaking good english
Racism is both material and ideological, reaching even into the heart of language, thought and memory. Annie Teriba asks how education and minds can be decolonized. This piece was originally published on blackgirlspeak.wordpress.com When asked about the legacy of colonialism, I point out that we must still speak a colonial language in order to be […]
The secret of its weakness: racism and the working class movement in Britain
Colin Barker reviews Satnam Virdee’s book Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider, which is an important contribution to the debates around race and class.
Trevor Phillips and the ideological battle over racism
Anindya Bhattacharyya discusses anti-racist responses to Trevor Phillips. “Trevor Phillips needs to shut up right about now,” read the Facebook update of a friend of mine on Thursday night. The former head of the Commission for Racial Equality was presenting a heavily trailed programme on Channel 4 that purported to state certain “truths” about race […]
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 […]
rs21 magazine Spring 2015 launches tomorrow
The Spring 2015 issue of the rs21 magazine will be launching at our event for International Women’s day 50 Shades of Struggle: Women and the New Social Movements taking place at LSE tomorrow (Wednesday 11 March, 7pm, East Building, Room E304) – get your copy at the meeting, from your local rs21 group, by subscribing or […]
EDL outnumbered by anti-fascists in Manchester
About 200 to 300 supporters of the racist English Defence League (EDL) were bussed in to Manchester’s Albert Square today (Saturday). They held a rally inside a police kettle. Meanwhile around 500 anti-fascists gathered in Piccadilly Gardens for a rally organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and other groups. This was followed by a brief march around the city centre. […]
Malcolm X in the Midlands
On the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Zakir Gul examines a visit he made to a small town near Birmingham, and his enduring legacy.
Real free speech is subversive, not about defending the status quo
Colin Wilson discusses recent controversies about freedom of speech. The last few months have seen a number of discussions about “free speech”. After the Charlie Hebdo killings, the magazine’s supporters frequently justified its publication of Islamophobic and racist cartoons by reference to free speech. When protesters in January opposed Marine Le Pen speaking at the […]
Protest against expanding Campsfield Detention Centre
John Walker reports from a protest against Campsfield Detention Centre yesterday. Around 35 people attended a picket of Cherwell District Planning Committee called by Oxfordshire Trades Council yesterday. They were demanding that the planning committee turn down a government request for permission to dramatically expand the size of Campsfield Detention Centre. Campsfield Detention Centre is […]
No platform for Marine Le Pen at the Oxford Union – join the protest tomorrow
A demonstration against French Front National leader Marine Le Pen will take place outside the Oxford Union, Frewin Court at 5pm tomorrow. Come and say “va te faire foutre” to fascists with us, argues Kate Bradley Tomorrow (Thursday 5th February), Marine Le Pen is coming to the Oxford Union, and a demonstration to protest her […]
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 […]
“I’m going to kill a cow.”
by Anindya Bhattacharyya “I’m going to kill a cow,” he declared, scrutinising my face. I stared back blankly. There was a short awkward silence. “So are you offended by that? I bet you’re really offended by that.” He would then proceed to explain why I ought to be offended by him killing a cow – but […]
Statement of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic
The Movement of the Indigenous of the Republic in France, PIR, began in 2005 in the context of the ludicrous calls for introducing a positive focus of colonial history in the French educational system and general rethinking of France’s colonial legacy. It was also a product of the mini-Intifadas that erupted in the banlieues in 2005 in response to police violence and systematic racism against […]
I have been very quiet online since the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices and here’s why
Sadia Jabeen discusses the experiences of being Muslim in the face of rising Islamophobia following terrorist attacks. It was originally published on Make Tea & Cake, Not War. As events unfolded on Wednesday I felt a real sense of dread. I haven’t felt like this since just over 13 years ago, on September 11th 2001, and […]
‘Shoot As Well As Cook’: the Black Panther Party, sexism and the struggle today
We need to remember the contributions of black women to past struggles if we’re to take forward the fight for justice today, writes Shanice McBean.
The roots of American racism 4: state racism and the new black resistance
In the last of four articles, Bill Crane looks at “colourblind” racism and mass incarceration since the Civil Rights movement – and how they have contributed to the police racism and violence that has sparked the current protest movement. So far this series has described how racism has existed as part of the United States from its […]
The roots of American racism 3: Civil war to civil rights
In the third of four articles, Bill Crane examines the origins of racism in the United States. Here he looks at how the racist segregation of Jim Crow was implemented in the 1890s and then abolished by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. In the second article in this series on the origins of American racism, we […]
The roots of American racism 2: The Civil War and after sees racism undermined, then reimposed
In the second part of a four-part series, Bill Crane examines the origins of racism in the United States. Here he looks at how in the Civil War of the 1860s and the Reconstruction which followed it racism was fundamentally weakened and then restored. In the US, racism operates in a way that is fundamentally […]
“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.
The roots of American racism
Why is America so racist? In the first of four articles, American socialist Bill Crane explains how today’s struggles around Ferguson and police racism have their roots in a history of slavery and dispossession. It’s often difficult for me, as an American socialist, to explain many things about my homeland to comrades and friends in […]
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 […]
Westfield protest – part of a growing movement
Last night’s protest at London’s Westfield shopping centre was part of a movement against police racism and violence that’s growing internationally, reports Peter Norman. In solidarity with the growing anti-racist movement developing in the USA, a die-in was held for Eric Garner last night in West London, organized by London Black Revs, the NUS […]
ACAB from Warwick to NYC
Whether it’s killing black people in America or London, or attacking peaceful student protesters at Warwick University with CS spray, cops worldwide are racist and violent. Rob Owen looks at why that is. You have the emergence in human society Of this thing that’s called the State What is the State? The State is this organized […]
Media roundup – protests across America against police racism
Protests are taking place in cities and colleges across the US – and striking fast food workers are linking the fight against police racism with their struggle for a living wage. We’ve brought together pictures from dozens of marches and die-ins, and more protests are planned for the next few days. Protests have continued across the […]
The New Jim Crow – how America’s rulers boost racism
How can we understand racism in America? Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow, published in 2010, examines how mass incarceration and the “war on drugs” has institutionalised racism in US society. American racism does not operate as it did in the 1960s and before, when “Jim Crow” laws designated separate black and white restaurants, train […]
London protesters show solidarity with Ferguson, bringing traffic to a halt
Amy Gilligan reports from last night’s #LondonToFerguson rally Around 2,000 protesters – young, black and white, people of all genders, lead by women – raced through the streets of central London last night to demand justice for Michael Brown and show solidarity with demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri. The London protest came in the wake of Monday’s decision against indicting Darren Wilson, the police officer who […]
Ferguson solidarity protests across the US: Photos and videos
After the decision not to indite Darren Wilson, people across the US people have taken to the streets to demand justice for Michael Brown. Join the protest tonight in London, 7pm, outside the US Embassy, organised by London Black Revolutionaries, NUS Black Students campaign, BARAC and Defend the Right to Protest. Washington DC: The protest […]
The results are in
An open letter from protesters on the Grand Jury decision. 24th November 2014. In Ferguson, a wound bleeds. For 108 days, we have been in a state of prolonged and protracted grief. In that time, we have found community with one another, bonding together as family around the simple notion that our love for our community compels us to fight […]
Ferguson – Darren Wilson has got away with murder
People who suffer under police brutality and racism have a right to fight for justice, write Nicole Colson and Alan Maass in this report from the US – and that fight will go on. Darren Wilson has gotten away with murder – and the American injustice system sent the message once again that black lives don’t matter. It was […]