The Ferguson unrest was sparked by the death of Michael Brown at the hands of the police (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
This week marks the 12 year anniversary of the Ferguson uprising.
These were a series of protests that were triggered after the shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
There was real anger among black Americans at yet another death of a young black person at the hands of the police. These protests were met with violent suppression.
But this unrest helped turn Black Lives Matter (BLM) into a nationwide movement. It grew continuously until 2020 when we saw international outrage at the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.
For a fleeting moment in the early 2020s we saw conversations around race and policing take a real shift towards the left.
Globally, banners and placards adopted the slogans of “Defund The Police” and “I Can’t Breathe”.
Ideas started to change in struggle. As the movement grew in Britain, cultural attitudes around racism started to change.
From the toppling of racist statues in Bristol to the reignition of anger around the Grenfell tower disaster, BLM was able to connect with the British working class of all races.
This attitude towards anti-racism and anti-police politics has been kept alive since.
This is clear to us when we witness how anti-racists have resisted anti-migrant pogroms and the likes of Tommy Robinson or how the Palestine movement has continuously fought back against police repression.
This is in spite of the fact that the initial BLM movement has died down.
It is in spite of the fact that we are witnessing the rise of racist scapegoating and harsher policing.
The working class has shown that we will continue to organise and continue to fight back against the capitalist system.
Rimaz Ahmed, Portsmouth
The growth of the far right in the west of Scotland cannot be understood simply as an import from England.
Organised racists can draw on existing traditions of British nationalism, territorial politics and street mobilisation.
The Unite the Clans protest in Glasgow showed this. Figures such as Glen Kane are linked to loyalist violence and the British National Party (BNP).
Former Ulster Volunteer Force member Mark Sinclair appeared alongside newer anti‑immigration activists.
Jim Dowson, who moved through the BNP and Britain First, has attempted to turn these links into a broader racist movement.
The far right tells working class people that migrants, Muslims and refugees are responsible for housing shortages, crime and collapsing services.
It takes anger produced by poverty and abandonment and directs it against people with less power.
Anti-racists must expose the fascists without writing off whole communities. The answer is to unite workers against racism—and against the landlords, bosses and politicians who created the crisis in the first place.
Dave Gilchrist, north London
I thought Issy Beauvoisin’s review of Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey was very good. I share many of her criticisms of a film that could easily have been much better.
However, I also think that Issy has left out the one big positive of the film—The Odyssey is a “fuck you” to Donald Trump and the racism of Maga.
This is most obvious in casting decisions. Elon Musk’s white supremacist apoplexy over the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as “the most beautiful woman in the world” tells its own story. But Nolan has also cast one of Hollywood’s most prominent trans actors—Elliot Page—as the “warrior” Sinon.
And, clumsy though it is, the movie’s central emphasis on welcoming foreigners is another clear repudiation of the nativist racism of Trump and Ice.
Whatever it’s many limitations, The Odyssey is a movie that Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller will absolutely hate. And that is surely something to be celebrated.
Bob Light, Oxford
Socialists should acknowledge the autism oppression which defined the trajectory of Jason Arday’s life.
Autistic academics thrive on autonomy and hyperfocus, while struggling against echolalia for a voice, cut-throat intellectual competition, and inaccessibility.
We should acknowledge how Arday’s life was impacted by his autism. Socialists must recognise the ways that different oppressions interact in capitalist society.
Nicola Field, west London
Nicola Field, south London
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