Rather than hoping for the emergence of some new ‘party of the left,’ EMMA DENT COAD sees a broad alliance of local parties and community groups as a way of reviving democratic progressive politics
Forty years on from the Swann Report
Shocking institutional racism in the schools system was exposed in a 1985 report highlighting the over-representation of black children branded ‘educationally subnormal.’ Four decades on the fight for justice continues, writes JAYDEE SEAFORTH
In the second of two articles, DANIEL POWELL looks behind the headlines celebrating Ukrainian resistance to a complex reality of neonazi battalions, forced conscription and sabotaged peace deals
ANSELM ELDERGILL draws attention to a legal case on Tuesday in which a human rights group is challenging the government’s decision to allow the sale of weapons used against Palestinians
The obfuscation of Nazism’s capitalist roots has seen imperialism redeploy fascism again and again — from the killing fields of Guatemala to the war in Ukraine, writes PAWEL WARGAN
From Workers’ Memorial Day to May Day rallies, TOM MORRISON examines the real challenges facing the labour movement as Reform UK’s glossy literature exploits legitimate grievances in traditional left strongholds
Calls have been made for the return to Venezuela of a two-year-old girl currently being held in the US, after being separated from her family by immigration officials, reports SUSAN GREY
THIS month marks 40 years since the Swann Report confirmed the suspicions of black children, teachers and parents in Britain — the British education system is systemically racist. Biologist Lord Michael Swann’s powerful report wasn’t the first or last to address racial discrimination in schools, but it was groundbreaking in its thoughtfulness and acknowledgement of the scandal of “educationally subnormal” (ESN) schools.
This often forgotten miscarriage of justice took place in the 1960s and ’70s, and saw hundreds of black children wrongly sent to schools meant for pupils with severe physical and mental disabilities.
Before World War II, these schools primarily served disabled children from wealthy backgrounds — but by the late ’60s almost 30 per cent of ESN pupils in London were black immigrant children, mainly from the Caribbean, compared to 15 per cent in mainstream schools.
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A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
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