Anti-colonialism, Abolition and the Nationalist Backlash

This lecture examines how the Labour Party's attempt to appease both anti-racist and nationalist critiques has failed, fueling a surge in grassroots anti-racism and radical nationalism, and shaping the future of British politics.

While 2020 saw the largest anti-racist protests in British history, 2024 has seen fascism attempt to reclaim the streets. For the antiracism of the BLM and Palestine Solidarity demonstrators, racialised people are criminalised as criminals, terrorists or illegals. For the far-right, whites are the victims of a state which is too soft on borders, law and order. This lecture considers how these two contrasting critiques of racial crisis ended up pointing the finger at each other. I intend on doing this by considering how the liberal centrism of the Labour Party and its supporters have attempted to satisfy the left by adopting terms like institutional racism, while also trying to satisfy the right, by continuing to expand police, prison and border power. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this balancing act has satisfied neither party, resulting in a surge in both radical anti-racism at the grassroots, and radical nationalism on the streets. The resolution of these tensions won’t just shape the fate of Britain’s racial landscape, but the terrain upon which the future of politics, economics and the environment, is fought.  

Speaker

Adam Elliott-Cooper is Lecturer in Social and Public Policy in the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London. His first monograph, Black Resistance to British Policing, was published by Manchester University Press in May 2021. He is also co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (Pluto Press, 2021). 

Photo credit: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona via unsplash