Britain: racial violence and the politics of hate

Drawing on empirical research into racist attacks in three cities in England, this article reveals a changing geography of racial violence (in terms of new areas and targets), and sets this in the context of the socially destructive impact of neoliberalism as well as government policies to manage the UK’s changing demographic make-up. With racial violence officially defined as a form of ‘hate crime’, it is divorced from any wider political context or racialised climate and reduced to a matter of individual pathology. The changing parameters of racism and the state’s responses present a challenge which the Left and anti-racists have been slow to meet

UK: racial violence and the night-time economy

This article examines fifty-five racist attacks over a six-month period in the UK’s night-time economy, showing the risks faced by members of the public and workers at taxi firms, takeaways, convenience stores and service stations. It argues that flexible and highly casualised labour conditions exacerbate the risk of racial violence

Captive labour: asylum seekers, migrants and employment in UK immigration removal centres

The steady growth in the use of immigration detention under the UK's New Labour government has been mirrored by the concurrent development of a new form of labour market within immigration removal centres (IRCs). This market has grown out of the long history of what some label as exploitative employment practices used amongst the wider prison population. It relies upon a subtle form of coercion which ensures compliance and discipline and, in so doing, provides a cheap and easily exploitable pool of labour for private sector companies. The research for this article draws on findings from prison inspection reports and the annual reports of independent monitoring boards

‘I don’t have a life to live’: deaths and UK detention

The Institute of Race Relations has over the last twenty-three years been monitoring the 508 deaths in custody in suspicious circumstances of individuals from BME, migrant and refugee communities, which rarely make the headlines and for which no person is ever convicted (to be published as the report Dying for Justice). Here, in an extract, the author examines the culture of racism and the impact of privatisation and sub-contracting in the detention and deportation of ‘failed’ asylum seekers. In case after case it exposes how the vulnerable, mentally- and physically-ill are neglected – leading to deaths by self-harm and inadequate treatment. The death during deportation of Joy Gardner, which involved disproportionate and reckless use of force, is examined in depth. The use of equipment of control for those who are clearly fearful of being forcibly returned, remains a vexed issue. </jats:p

It has to change: an interview with Martha Osamor

Martha Osamor, now 75, is one of the many unsung heroes of Britain’s black community, and has spent almost all her adult life fighting to better the position of people in Tottenham and beyond. She came to Britain in 1963, and has worked in the community, through the unions, in the women’s movement, in the local council and the Labour Party (which, controversially, deselected her from standing for a safe seat in 1989). Undeterred, Martha is still fighting, most recently over the treatment of the family of Mark Duggan, shot dead by police on the street. We met her in a shop-front rented by the African Women’s Welfare Association above Edmonton Green covered market, where she still helps to provide information and advice, to talk over her life and political times. </jats:p

Investigated or ignored: an analysis of race-related deaths since the Macpherson Report

Since the publication of the Macpherson Report in February 1999, there have been at least ninety-three deaths with a known or suspected racial element in the UK. Of these, 97 per cent of the victims were from BME communities (including those from Gypsy or Traveller communities and European migrant workers). Particular groups of BME people are at risk – asylum seekers, new migrants, students and those working in the night-time economy. In only a quarter of the cases was the allegation of racism accepted and prosecuted as such, with racial motivation factored into sentencing. The over-strict interpretation of the legal provisions for racial motivation may be inhibiting the (racial) charging of perpetrators and in fact removing the racial context of a crime from the court room. It also appears that if authorities, including the police, had, on occasion, intervened earlier, against persistent harassment and low-level abuse, some deaths might have been prevented