Institute of Race Relations
Encyclopedia
The Institute of Race Relations is a think tank
based in the United Kingdom
. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an 'anti-racist think tank'.
Proposed by Sunday Times editor Harry Hodson
, the institute began as the Race Relations Unit of the Royal Institute of International Affairs
in 1952. Former Governor of the United Provinces Lord Hailey
served as first chairman, while Philip Mason, formerly of the Indian Civil Service, served as its first director. The unit later became the Institute of Race Relations under the chairmanship of Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders
. Mason remained as director.
The IRR’s objects as an educational charity are to promote, encourage and support the study and understanding of, and exchange information about, relations between different races and peoples and the conditions in which they live and work; to consider and advise on proposals and endeavours to improve race relations and these conditions; and to promote knowledge on questions related to race relations.
speech by Sunday Times editor H. V. Hodson, ‘Race Relations in the Commonwealth’, in which he described Communism and race relations as the two transcendent problems.
During its early life, the IRR was influenced in its work and funding by national strategic concerns about the future of Britain’s ex-colonies. Conferences were jointly organised with the Institute for Strategic Studies and the Ford Foundation
funded comparative policy-oriented research on the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia. Members of the Africa Private Enterprise Group (which included Rio Tinto
, Barclays, Unilever
et al) helped to fund IRR research into tropical Africa.
In 1958, in response to ‘race riots’ in Nottingham and Notting Hill, IRR produced the first study of domestic race relations, ‘Colour in Britain’ by James Wickendon. In 1963, the Nuffield Foundation
funded a five-year survey of British race relations, which commissioned forty-one pieces of research, and published its findings as ‘Colour and Citizenship’ by E.J.B Rose. Philip Mason
, who had served as IRR director from 1952, retired in 1970 and was replaced by Professor Hugh Tinker. The IRR, centrally located in Jermyn Street in London’s West End, had over thirty staff, a full book publishing programme, a library and information service and domestic and international research units.
had made a series of emotive racist speeches), the staff and a section of the membership of the IRR began to question the type of research being undertaken at IRR, whether the organisation was in fact as impartial as it claimed to be and if working so closely with politicians and the government could benefit the victims of racism. This brought the staff and ultimately the membership into confrontation with the IRR’s Council. A researcher criticised the methodology behind ‘Colour and Citizenship’, which he described as spying on black people. The Council, which was composed of chief executives from many leading multinational corporations, politicians from the Commons and Lords, newspaper editors and leading academics, tried to have him sacked and to close down the monthly magazine Race Today
which was accused of bias. But at an extraordinary general meeting of members in April 1972 the Council was outvoted and resigned en masse.
After the change of direction of IRR, neither the corporate sector nor the large foundations were willing to support IRR’s work and the organisation faced a funding crisis. It moved from the West End to a disused warehouse on Pentonville Road, London, N1 where a tiny staff augmented by volunteers continued to run all its services. New sources of funding were found in the World Council of Churches’ Programme to Combat Racism, the Methodist Church, the Transnational Institute
and local authorities, including the Greater London Council
. As a result of a fund-raising drive, the IRR was able in 1984 to purchase an office building in Leeke Street, London Borough of Camden, which has been its home ever since.
– a journal on racism, empire and globalisation - continues to be published quarterly by the IRR through Sage Publications, Those who have served on its Editorial Board include Eqbal Ahmad, John Berger
, Victoria Brittain, Malcolm Caldwell
, Jan Carew
, Basil Davidson
, Thomas Hodgkin
, Orlando Letelier
, Manning Marable
, Colin Prescod, Cedric Robinson, and Edward Said
.
As at 2011: Director: A. Sivanandan; Executive director: Liz Fekete; Chair: Colin Prescod; Vice-chair: Frances Webber. Other members of IRR’s Council of management: Naima Bouteldja, Lee Bridges, Victoria Brittain, Tony Bunyan, David Edgar, Paul Grant, Gholam Khiabany, Herman Ouseley, Naina Patel, Fizza Qureshi, Danny Reilly, Cilius Victor.
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was formed in 1958 in order to publish research on race relations worldwide, and in 1972 was transformed into an 'anti-racist think tank'.
Proposed by Sunday Times editor Harry Hodson
Harry Hodson
Henry Vincent "Harry" Hodson was a British economist and editor.-Career:Hodson was born in Edmonton, London. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and Balliol College, Oxford, becoming a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in 1928. He was later a member of the Economic Advisory Council and...
, the institute began as the Race Relations Unit of the Royal Institute of International Affairs
Chatham House
Chatham House, formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading...
in 1952. Former Governor of the United Provinces Lord Hailey
William Hailey, 1st Baron Hailey
William Malcolm Hailey, 1st Baron Hailey OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC , known as Sir Malcolm Hailey between 1921 and 1936, was a British peer and administrator in British India.-Education:...
served as first chairman, while Philip Mason, formerly of the Indian Civil Service, served as its first director. The unit later became the Institute of Race Relations under the chairmanship of Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders
Alexander Carr-Saunders
Sir Alexander Morris Carr-Saunders, KBE, FBA was an English biologist and sociologist.Carr-Saunders was born in Reigate, Surrey and educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford where he gained a 1st in zoology in 1908...
. Mason remained as director.
The IRR’s objects as an educational charity are to promote, encourage and support the study and understanding of, and exchange information about, relations between different races and peoples and the conditions in which they live and work; to consider and advise on proposals and endeavours to improve race relations and these conditions; and to promote knowledge on questions related to race relations.
Early history
The founding of the IRR can be traced back to a 1950 Chatham HouseChatham House
Chatham House, formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in London whose mission is to analyse and promote the understanding of major international issues and current affairs. It is regarded as one of the world's leading...
speech by Sunday Times editor H. V. Hodson, ‘Race Relations in the Commonwealth’, in which he described Communism and race relations as the two transcendent problems.
During its early life, the IRR was influenced in its work and funding by national strategic concerns about the future of Britain’s ex-colonies. Conferences were jointly organised with the Institute for Strategic Studies and the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
funded comparative policy-oriented research on the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia. Members of the Africa Private Enterprise Group (which included Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto
- Businesses :* Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne* Rio Tinto Alcan, a Canadian aluminum mining and production company headquartered in Montreal-Portugal:...
, Barclays, Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
et al) helped to fund IRR research into tropical Africa.
In 1958, in response to ‘race riots’ in Nottingham and Notting Hill, IRR produced the first study of domestic race relations, ‘Colour in Britain’ by James Wickendon. In 1963, the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
funded a five-year survey of British race relations, which commissioned forty-one pieces of research, and published its findings as ‘Colour and Citizenship’ by E.J.B Rose. Philip Mason
Philip Mason
Philip Mason OBE CIE was an English civil servant and author who is most known for his two-volume book on the British Raj, The Men Who Ruled India ....
, who had served as IRR director from 1952, retired in 1970 and was replaced by Professor Hugh Tinker. The IRR, centrally located in Jermyn Street in London’s West End, had over thirty staff, a full book publishing programme, a library and information service and domestic and international research units.
Transformation
By the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s (a period where governments had begun to introduce restrictive immigration laws, East African Asian British passport holders were refused entry to the UK and front bench politician Enoch PowellEnoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...
had made a series of emotive racist speeches), the staff and a section of the membership of the IRR began to question the type of research being undertaken at IRR, whether the organisation was in fact as impartial as it claimed to be and if working so closely with politicians and the government could benefit the victims of racism. This brought the staff and ultimately the membership into confrontation with the IRR’s Council. A researcher criticised the methodology behind ‘Colour and Citizenship’, which he described as spying on black people. The Council, which was composed of chief executives from many leading multinational corporations, politicians from the Commons and Lords, newspaper editors and leading academics, tried to have him sacked and to close down the monthly magazine Race Today
Race Today
Race Today was a monthly British political magazine. Launched in 1969 by the Institute of Race Relations, it was from 1973 published by the Race Today Collective, which included figures such as Darcus Howe, Farrukh Dhondy and Linton Kwesi Johnson...
which was accused of bias. But at an extraordinary general meeting of members in April 1972 the Council was outvoted and resigned en masse.
After the change of direction of IRR, neither the corporate sector nor the large foundations were willing to support IRR’s work and the organisation faced a funding crisis. It moved from the West End to a disused warehouse on Pentonville Road, London, N1 where a tiny staff augmented by volunteers continued to run all its services. New sources of funding were found in the World Council of Churches’ Programme to Combat Racism, the Methodist Church, the Transnational Institute
Transnational Institute
Transnational Institute is an international think tank for progressive politics. It was established in 1973 in Amsterdam and serves as a network for scholars and activists...
and local authorities, including the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
. As a result of a fund-raising drive, the IRR was able in 1984 to purchase an office building in Leeke Street, London Borough of Camden, which has been its home ever since.
Race & Class
Race & ClassRace & Class
Race & Class is a peer-reviewed academic journal on contemporary racism and imperialism. It is published quarterly by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Institute of Race Relations.- History :...
– a journal on racism, empire and globalisation - continues to be published quarterly by the IRR through Sage Publications, Those who have served on its Editorial Board include Eqbal Ahmad, John Berger
John Berger
John Peter Berger is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.-Education:Born in Hackney, London, England, Berger was...
, Victoria Brittain, Malcolm Caldwell
Malcolm Caldwell
James Alexander Malcolm Caldwell was a British academic and a prolific Marxist writer. He was a consistent critic of American imperialism, a campaigner for Asian communist liberation and socialist movements, and a strong supporter of Pol Pot...
, Jan Carew
Jan Carew
Jan Rynveld Carew is a novelist, playwright, poet and educator. His works, diverse in their forms and multifaceted, makes of Jan Carew an important intellectual of the Caribbean world...
, Basil Davidson
Basil Davidson
Basil Risbridger Davidson MC was a British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution....
, Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin
Thomas Hodgkin was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma and blood disease, in 1832...
, Orlando Letelier
Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...
, Manning Marable
Manning Marable
William Manning Marable was an American professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University. Marable founded and directed the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. Marable authored several texts and was active in progressive political causes...
, Colin Prescod, Cedric Robinson, and Edward Said
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
.
Pamphlets and reports
The IRR since its transformation carries out small-scale ad hoc pieces of research on pressing aspects of racism, the results of which have been published as pamphlets and reports. In 1979 the IRR produced Police Against Black People, evidence to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure which detailed the police’s inability to see black people as part of the community whose consent was needed for policing. This was updated as Policing Against Black People in 1987. Themes of institutional racism were dealt with in the pamphlets Race, class and the state (1976) and From immigration control to induced repatriation (1978). Other reports have looked at racism and the press, black deaths in custody, school exclusions, the deaths of migrants and asylum seekers. More recently, Spooked! How not to prevent violent extremism (2009) examined the government’s counter-terrorism programme; and Integration, Islamophobia and civil rights in Europe was published in 2008.Black history
The IRR has since the 1980s been particularly concerned to promote the study of black and anti-racist history – especially to inform the education of young people. To this end it has produced a series of pamphlets on the experiences of black communities in the UK: From resistance to rebellion (1982), Southall: the birth of a black community (1981), Newham: the forging of a black community (1991). Illustrated pamphlets Roots of racism, Patterns of racism and How racism came to Britain are still widely used in education as is the multimedia CD-Rom Homebeats: struggles for racial justice (1997) and the DVD Struggles for Black Community (four film documentaries on the history of Ladbroke Grove, Southall, Cardiff and Leicester originally made by Race & Class Ltd [a sister company of IRR] for Channel 4 TV in 1982). A Black History Collection of pamphlets, journals and ephemera relating to black settlement and struggles from the 1950s to the 1980s is available for consultation by appointment at IRR.European Race Audit
Since the 1990s a major part of the IRR’s work has been the analysis of racism in Europe. In 1992, the IRR set up the European Race Audit, to trace emerging patterns of racism in Europe, including the growth of far-right parties and anti-immigration movements, government policies on immigration and race, policing and racial violence. The European Race Bulletin was produced as a print magazine until the end of 2009, when it was replaced by online briefing papers and downloadable reports. These have highlighted human rights abuses at the borders of Europe, the emergence of xeno-racism, the increase in deportations, the rise of Islamophobia and the challenge to multiculturalism. From 2008-10, the IRR carried out a project on Alternative Voices on Integration in a number of European countries.IRR News
At the core of IRR’s work is IRR News, a daily-updated free news service giving information about the impact of racism and experience of refugees in the UK. The news service which is a key source of national information carries news stories, features, reviews and events listings by IRR staff, volunteers and contributors, and has links to external sources (media and official reports).As at 2011: Director: A. Sivanandan; Executive director: Liz Fekete; Chair: Colin Prescod; Vice-chair: Frances Webber. Other members of IRR’s Council of management: Naima Bouteldja, Lee Bridges, Victoria Brittain, Tony Bunyan, David Edgar, Paul Grant, Gholam Khiabany, Herman Ouseley, Naina Patel, Fizza Qureshi, Danny Reilly, Cilius Victor.