Monitoring the state and learning from history: policing and racism in the Statewatch Library & Archive

What’s it about?

The connections between policing and racism have been in the headlines frequently since the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, USA, last year. Protesters have called for an end to many long-standing police practices and, with the call to defund the police, for an end to the traditional model of policing altogether. 

Many of the protesters’ demands are not new. In the UK, there is a long history of community and political activism on the issues of policing and racism. We invite you to join us in exploring the connections, similarities and differences between past and present events and struggles through an examination of materials from the Statewatch Library & Archive, a collection of over 800 books, 2,500 items of ‘grey literature’ and a host of other documents and ephemera concerning civil liberties and the state. 

Guests 

Tony Bunyan, Director Emeritus, Statewatch; former head of the Greater London Council police monitoring unit 

Nadine Finch, Trustee, Statewatch and former human rights lawyer. 

Who’s leading the event?

Ann Singleton, Reader in Migration Policy, School for Policy Studies (Chair of the Trustees of Statewatch) Nadine Finch, Honorary Senior Policy Fellow, School for Policy Studies ( Statewatch Trustee) Vicky Canning, Senior Lecturer, School for Policy Studies (Statewatch Trustee and Co-Convenor of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control) Yasha Maccanico, (PhD, 2019, School for Policy Studies (Statewatch Researcher)

Open to

Everyone is welcome

Of particular interest to

Students and academics (history, politics, sociology, criminology), activists, journalists, and anyone with an interest in protest, policing, public order and the state