Chapter 1 of the "Empire Strikes Back" examines the place of "race" and racism in the political transformation of Britain at the end of the 1970s, and argues that Britain has entered a long-term political and economic crisis which has brought new urgency to the politics of race and nation. The authors argue that the British state is very far from its popular image as a liberal democracy, and all our notions of culture, nation and class are based on deeply racist structures
