Race and Racism in our Modern World

S2 E3: The Coconuts Trial with Marieha Hussain

In this episode, Dr Fatima Rajina is joined by Marieha Hussain to talk about her experience of the Coconuts trial. A case that saw the political activist being charged with, and eventually proven innocent of, a racially aggravated public order offence for showcasing a satirical placard labelling Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as "coconuts" prompting the fundamental question "Who has the right to police your language"?… In November 2023, Marieha was arrested for displaying a placard labelling prominent exponents of the then-Tory government as "coconuts" during a pro-Palestine protest. According to the charges put on her, the term coconut was equivalent to a racist slur. Yet, Black and Brown activists have historically used it to call out members of their communities who aligned with colonial powers and white supremacists. Read the background and outcome of the Coconuts case here: 'Coconuts' trial: Woman acquitted over Palestine protest placard | Middle East Eye [https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/coconuts-trial-woman-acquitted-palestine-protest-placard] *By including the above external links the SLRC are not endorsing any content accessible through these links and are meant for further information only. Hosted by Dr Fatima Rajina Guest: Marieha Hussain Dr Fatima Rajina is an SLRC Legacy In Action Senior Research Fellow whose work focuses on race, dress and language. Recent publications have appeared in Sociology, The Sociological Review and Identities. Dr Rajina's book British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End [https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526194947/] is available from Manchester University Press. Marieha Hussain is psychology teacher, mother, and Palestine activist. Produced by Weyland McKenzie-Witter at Nello and the People's Production LtdTwitter/X: @weylandmck [https://twitter.com/Weylandmck] Web: weylandmck.com [https://weylandmck.com/]Web: nelloandthem.co.uk [https://www.nelloandthem.co.uk/about-1] LinkedIn: Weyland McKenzie-Witter [https://www.linkedin.com/in/weyland-mckenzie-witter-049706203/] Music: AyChibs @Aychibs [https://twitter.com/AyChibs]Image: And Still She Rises by Marcus DoveDesign: Angy Ebrahim Stay connected with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre:www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc [http://www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc] Twitter/X: @SLRC_DMU [https://twitter.com/SLRC_DMU] LinkedIn: Stephen Lawrence Research Centre [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-stephen-lawrence-research-centre/]Join the SLRC mailing list here [http://eepurl.com/iilYCT]: Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH. United Kingdom © 2025 - Stephen Lawrence Research Centre

S2 E2: Migration, Marginalisation and Mobilisation: Leicester's South Asian Diaspora and Labour Rights Activism

Leicester is home to a large South Asian community and often praised for being one of the most diverse cities in the UK - presented as a model of multicultural integration. However, labour exploitation strongly impacts the poorer demographics in the city, especially people with a recent history of migration that are employed in garment manufacturing. In May 2024, we dedicated an episode of our podcast to the Imperial Typewriters Strike of 1974 to mark the 50th anniversary of this seminal event in the political history of the South Asian diaspora in the UK and of Leicester's trade union movement. The following September, Francesco Sani moderated a roundtable of activists and trade unionists to understand what has changed in the city and what has stayed the same. Drawing from their experience of community and political activism, our guests Kaenat Yussufo (Labour Behind the Label), Shaista Jakhura (Panahghar) and Tom Barker (A Unison trade unionist from Ashfield Academy, Leicester) unpack the major dynamics that have led to the current state of affairs. For more information on Labour Behind the Label: https://labourbehindthelabel.org [https://labourbehindthelabel.org]. You can read Labour Behind the Label's 2020 report on Boohoo here: https://labourbehindthelabel.org/report-boohoo-covid-19-the-people-behind-the-profit [https://labourbehindthelabel.org/report-boohoo-covid-19-the-people-behind-the-profit]. For info about the campaigns Labour Behind the Label is currently engaged in: https://labourbehindthelabel.org/good-jobs-for-garment-workers [https://labourbehindthelabel.org/good-jobs-for-garment-workers] (Petition in support of Leicester garment workers); https://labourbehindthelabel.org/supermarkets-back-leicester [https://labourbehindthelabel.org/supermarkets-back-leicester] (ASDA, Tesco, M&S: support UK garment workers!). For more info on Panahghar: https://www.safehouse.org.uk [https://www.safehouse.org.uk] For more information on the history of the Ashfield Academy trade dispute: https://socialistalternative.info/2024/03/20/new-socialist-alternative-publication-how-workers-can-win-lessons-from-the-strike-victory-at-ash-field-academy [https://socialistalternative.info/2024/03/20/new-socialist-alternative-publication-how-workers-can-win-lessons-from-the-strike-victory-at-ash-field-academy] The text quoted in the podcast comes from Giulio Palermo, "Counter-power: a Marxist View— An Ontological Enquiry" Cambridge Journal of Economics 48-5 (September 2024), 843–868. For some additional perspectives on political activism, labour rights and decolonisation in the UK context: Preeti Dhillon, The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown People Fought for Change in the United Kingdom (London: Dialogue Books, 2023); Adam Elliott-Cooper, "Abolishing institutional racism" Race & Class 65-1 (April 2023), 100-118. We also recommend the blog series Decolonising Economics: https://developingeconomics.org/blog-series-decolonising-economics [https://developingeconomics.org/blog-series-decolonising-economics]. Guests: Tom Barker, Shaista Jakhura, Kaenat Yussufo Host: Francesco Sani Produced by Weyland McKenzie-Witter at Nello and the People's Production LtdTwitter/X: @weylandmck [https://twitter.com/Weylandmck] Web: weylandmck.com [https://weylandmck.com/]Web: nelloandthem.co.uk [https://www.nelloandthem.co.uk/about-1] Music: AyChibs @Aychibs [https://twitter.com/AyChibs]Image: And Still She Rises by Marcus DoveDesign: Angy Ebrahim Stay connected with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre:www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc [http://www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc] Twitter/X: @SLRC_DMU [https://twitter.com/SLRC_DMU]Join the mailing list by emailing slrc@dmu.ac.uk [slrc@dmu.ac.uk] Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH. United Kingdom © 2025 Stephen Lawrence Research Centre

S2 E1: The Imperial Typewriters Strike of 1974: The South Asian Diaspora in the UK, Trade Unionism, and the Struggle for Social Justice

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Shardaben Chandarana, the leader of the 1974 Imperial Typewriters Strike. The Imperial Typewriters Strike was a major and iconic event in the history of South Asian Trade Unionism in the United Kingdom. It comes within a broader history of struggle for recognition and social justice, racial discrimination, and attempts towards integration and dialogue. In this episode Dr Fatima Rajina is joined by Amrit Wilson and Professor Sundari Anitha as they discuss the Imperial Typewriters Strike of 1974. More information on the strike, as well as visual documentation, is available from the National Archives: The Imperial Typewriters dispute – The National Archives [https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/stories/the-imperial-typewriters-dispute/#h2.going-on-strike] To place the strike within the history of South Asia political activism and for some first-hand accounts of the events, you can check out the extensive work of Amrit Wilson and Professor Sundari Anitha on the topic: Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain (Wakefield (Quebec, Canada): Daraja Press, 2019 (first edition 1978)); Amrit Wilson, Dreams, Questions, Struggles: South Asian Women in Britain (London: Pluto Press, 2006); Sundari Anitha and her collaborators is a key reference: Linda McDowell, Sundari Anitha and Ruth Pearson, (2014) 'Striking Narratives: class, gender and ethnicity in the 'Great Grunwick Strike', London, UK, 1976–1978,' Women's History Review, 23-4 (2014), 595–619; Sundari Anitha and Ruth Pearson, Striking Women: Struggles & Strategies of South Asian Women Workers from Grunwick to Gate Gourmet (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2018). This shorter piece by Amrit Wilson can be a good place to start: "We are the lions, Mr. Manager": Revisiting the Great Grunwick Strike | Ceasefire Magazine [https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/we-lions-mr-manager-revisiting-great-grunwick-strike/]. For additional resources on South Asian women's activism in trade unions, the resources made available on https://www.striking-women.org [https://www.striking-women.org] can provide guidance and insight. This comic book represents an excellent introduction to their resources: striking_women_for_download_opt.pdf (striking-women.org) [https://www.striking-women.org/sites/default/files/striking_women_for_download_opt.pdf]. For a history of Western trade unionism within a global and transnational perspective: Ad Knotter, Transformations of Trade Unionism: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Workers Organizing in Europe and the United States, Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018). For a broader picture of the history and current state of South Asian trade union activism in the UK, we signal the activities of the Indian Workers Association of Great Britain: Indian Workers Association (G.B.) - (iwagb.org) [https://iwagb.org/]. Produced by Weyland McKenzie-Witter at Nello and the People's Production Ltd Twitter/X: @weylandmck [https://twitter.com/Weylandmck] Web: weylandmck.com [https://weylandmck.com/] Web: nelloandthem.co.uk [https://www.nelloandthem.co.uk/about-1] Music: AyChibs @Aychibs [https://twitter.com/AyChibs] Image: And Still She Rises by Marcus Dove Stay connected with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre:www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc [http://www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc] Twitter/X: @SLRC_DMU [https://twitter.com/SLRC_DMU]Join the mailing list by emailing slrc@dmu.ac.uk [slrc@dmu.ac.uk] Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH. United Kingdom © 2024, Stephen Lawrence Research Centre

S1 E7: Solidarity with Suresh Grover, Shabna Begum and Karis Campion

Content warning: May contain examples of extreme racist violence and language. Our bonus episode is a collaboration with our friends from the Sociological Review and our former colleague Dr Karis Campion. This episode was first released on the Sociological Review podcast Uncommon Sense [https://thesociologicalreview.org/podcasts/uncommon-sense/solidarity-with-suresh-grover-shabna-begum-karis-campion/] in May 2023 In 1993, Black British teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack that sparked a long fight for justice and led the UK to ask questions of itself and its institutions. Three decades on – with The Runnymede Trust's Shabna Begum, and Suresh Grover of The Monitoring Group – Karis Campion of the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre hosts this special episode to ask: who are we now? What happened to anti-racist solidarity and how can it progress? Karis and guests reflect on the fragmentation of "political blackness", "monitoring" as a radical act inspired by The Black Panther Party, and the importance of showing systemic racism while doing justice to individual lives. Plus: what does social media offer to anti-racism when the internet provides fertile ground for prejudice? And what are the costs of fighting for change in an unjust world? With reference to the activist writer Ambalavaner Sivanandan, the feminist scholar Audre Lorde, the social geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and more. A collaboration between the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre and The Sociological Review. Guests: Suresh Grover, Shabna Begum Host: Karis Campion Executive Producer: Alice Bloch Sound Engineer: David Crackles Music: Joe Gardner Artwork: Erin Aniker Find more about Uncommon Sense at The Sociological Review [https://thesociologicalreview.org/podcasts/uncommon-sense/]. Episode Resources From Karis, Shabna and Suresh * Karis' work at The Stephen Lawrence Research Centre [https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/academic-staff/research/karis-campion/karis-campion.aspx] * Shabna's book "From Sylhet to Spitalfields" [https://lwbooks.co.uk/product/from-sylhet-to-spitalfields] * Suresh in conversation with Paul Gilroy [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/racism-racialisation/transcript-conversation-suresh-grover] Further reading * "Abolition Geography" – Ruth Wilson Gilmore * "Another Day in the Death of America" – Gary Younge * "Here to Stay, Here to Fight" – Paul Field, et al. (eds) * "I Write What I Like" – Steve Biko * "Policing the Crisis" – Stuart Hall, et al. * "Race and Resistance" – Ambalavaner Sivanandan * "The Uses of Anger" – Audre Lorde Online resources * Over-policed and under-protected: the road to Safer Schools [https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/over-policed-and-under-protected-the-road-to-safer-schools] – The Runnymede Trust * The Baroness Casey Review [https://www.met.police.uk/police-forces/metropolitan-police/areas/about-us/about-the-met/bcr/baroness-casey-review/] (this episode was recorded prior to this publication) * The Black Panther Party [https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/black-panthers] – US National Archives * The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry] – Sir William Macpherson Find out more about Quddus Ali [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/how-quddus-ali-s-ambitions-were-silently-beaten-out-of-him-279013.html] and the cases of Michael Menson, Ricky Reel, Rolan Adams and Rohit Duggal [https://irr.org.uk/article/deaths-with-a-known-or-suspected-racial-element-1991-1999/], as well as the activist Claudia Jones [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Jones]. And check out The Monitoring Group [https://tmg-uk.org/]and The Runnymede Trust [https://www.runnymedetrust.org/], as well as The Stephen Lawrence Centre Archive [https://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/stephen-lawrence-research-centre/about.aspx].

S1 E6: Place and Space in the Making of Race and Racism "Part Two"

Content warning: May contain examples of extreme racist violence and language. In part two of this episode, Yusef is in conversation with Brixton residents Valcie, Hurley and Patrick. The discussion draws on experiences of life in Brixton. Juxtaposing this with Rayann's episode on life in Eltham in the UK, we hear about a neighbourhood where Black cultures are shared and celebrated, but also how racisms and inequalities have restricted access to housing, security and opportunity. When listened to in conjunction with the rest of the series this episode helps us to understand the significance of space in the lives of minoritised people and the trade offs that are made between living in the multicultural inner city, where interpersonal racism and the threat of racist organisations can be reduced, but other urban problems like underfunded public services, over policing and limited housing stock make life challenging in different ways. These experiences contrast in some ways with those living in Eltham and help us understand better the textures and choices black and brown families may have to make when considering where they live in the UK. With thanks to guests: Valcie, Hurley and Patrick Host: Dr Yusef Bakkali Dr Yusef Bakkali is a Legacy In Action Research Fellow at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre and grew up in the South London district of Brixton. Through education and later academia, Yusef found sociology equipped him with a language to diagnose and challenge social problems affecting himself and the community. Developing a research and teaching praxis focused around social justice and change, Yusef encourages students to develop critical skills, developing fresh perspectives to aid them in tackling the challenges, both of today and the future. Produced by Weyland McKenzie-Witter for Nello and the People's Production LtdTwitter/X: @weylandmck [https://twitter.com/Weylandmck] Web: weylandmck.com [https://weylandmck.com/]Web: nelloandthem.co.uk [https://www.nelloandthem.co.uk/about-1] Music: AyChibs @Aychibs [https://twitter.com/AyChibs]Image: And Still She Rises by Marcus DoveDesign: Angy Ebrahim Stay connected with the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre:www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc [http://www.dmu.ac.uk/slrc] Twitter/X: @SLRC_DMU [https://twitter.com/SLRC_DMU]Join the mailing list by emailing slrc@dmu.ac.uk [slrc@dmu.ac.uk] Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH. United Kingdom © 2023, Stephen Lawrence Research Centre