IRR News Comment
Recent articles
Claudia Jones and the 'West Indian Gazette'
By Donald Hines
Below is an edited version of an article that appears in the current issue of Race & Class.
3 July 2008 (2232 words)
Living under a control order
By IRR News Team
Below, we reproduce the speech made by Cerie Bullivant* on living under control orders at the launch of 'Captivated: Art of the Interned'.
26 June 2008 (1506 words)
Discrimination in the name of integration
By Liz Fekete
The UK government should heed the lessons from a recent report criticising the Netherlands for discriminatory pre-immigration tests for migrants.
5 June 2008 (611 words)
Europe: mobilising against 'foreign criminals'
By Liz Fekete
Populist politicians - mostly, although not entirely, from centre and extreme-Right parties - are seeking to win elections by mobilising voters against foreign criminals, 'immigrant' youth and the Roma. But this resort to xenophobia via crime comes at a high social cost.
27 May 2008 (675 words)
Nativism vs integration
By A. Sivanandan
IRR director contextualises the new report, Islamophobia, integration and civil rights in Europe at its launch on 14 May.
15 May 2008 (810 words)
From the frying pan into the fire?
By Jenny Bourne
Why the new London mayor's culture adviser can hardly be regarded as a step up from the old mayor's equality adviser.
15 May 2008 (375 words)
Tribalism and Powellism infuse TV series
By Rebecca Wood
Three recent Dispatches programmes on immigration, fronted by Rageh Omaar, were ill-informed, misleading and alarmist.
8 May 2008 (1031 words)
Why we should fear Italy's Northern League
By Liz Fekete
When a xenophobic party succeeds electorally in one European country, it has a knock-on effect for all Europeans because immigration, asylum and integration policies are shaped at the EU level.
24 April 2008 (926 words)
Race history made thirty-six years ago
By Jenny Bourne
A member of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) recalls the events of 1972 which changed the terms of the race relations debate.
17 April 2008 (1519 words)
Document on student extremism seriously flawed
By David Renton
New policies being recommended to prevent extremism on campuses are aimed at the wrong target and could promote division and fear within the student body.
10 April 2008 (1447 words)
Racial violence in Ireland
By Katrina Goldstone
Despite a rise of serious racial attacks, authorities in Ireland are still in denial about racism.
27 March 2008 (1664 words)
Conference on sub-Saharan migrants marooned in Morocco
By Rebecca Wood
A conference is to be held in London on 1 April to launch a campaign about sub-Saharan African migrants in a precarious state of limbo in Morocco, which acts as a border policeman for the EU.
20 March 2008 (1101 words)
Reportage defence could be vital
By Frances Webber
In February 2008, the House of Lords upheld an Appeal Court ruling made last summer in favour of the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine, which has important implications for anti-racist campaigners.
13 March 2008 (1287 words)
Shame on the BBC
By Joe Street
Below we reproduce a letter of complaint from a historian to the BBC about its programme Rivers of Blood - part of the BBC 2 'White season'.
11 March 2008 (1086 words)
Rehabilitating Enoch Powell
By IRR News Team
This week, BBC 2 begins a controversial 'White season' which asks 'is white working class Britain becoming invisible?' and includes a programme by Denys Blakeway on Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood intervention forty years ago.
6 March 2008 (605 words)
A human rights framework and the fight for race equality
By John Tummon
After a Human Rights Awareness event which included discussion with the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) the director of Oldham Race Equality Partnership was provoked into making observations about the implications of a human rights framework in the fight for race equality.
5 March 2008 (1546 words)
Unreasonable suspicion
By Arun Kundnani
With the publication last week of The review of policing by Ronnie Flanagan, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, the government is proposing another extension of stop and search powers beyond the requirement of 'reasonable suspicion'.
13 February 2008 (660 words)
Was the Ludwigshafen fire an arson attack?
By Mutlu Ergün
Evidence is emerging to suggest that the fire in which nine Turkish Germans died might have been started deliberately.
7 February 2008 (381 words)
Cultural cleansing?
By Liz Fekete
Politicians and Christian leaders are supporting public campaigns and petitions against the construction of mosques which are being denounced for destroying Europe's Judaeo-Christian heritage.
16 January 2008 (1169 words)
Condemning the unborn
By Jon Burnett
British asylum policies are condemning increasing numbers of children to illness, poverty and deprivation before they are even born.
13 December 2007 (1019 words)