Interview with A.Sivanandan by Avery Gordon for the 2013 Historical Materialism conference

Interview with A.Sivanandan by Avery Gordon

**This program is part of a collaboration between Africa World Now Project and the Institute of Race Relations and its journal of Race & Class, based in London, where we engage in transnational dialogue that intentionally disrupts dominant discourses around racial oppression. 

**These programs are designed to inform the ways we think about the persistent and evolutionary nature of global racial oppression in order to develop an analysis to radically and systematically address it.

Sophia Siddiqui in Racing the nation: towards a theory of reproductive racism, examines the “notion of reproduction, both biological and social, in relation to new forms of political and popular racism in Europe wherein the family and breeding to keep the nation white and ‘native’ are now centre stage. Whilst certain women’s reproductive capacities are being incentivised for nationalist ends, this goes alongside a rollback in reproductive rights as well as a series of exclusions aimed at those marked as demographic threats – migrants, Muslims and, increasingly, LGBTQ people. She demonstrates how migrant women, who are vilified as breeders who could threaten the purity of the nation, are essential to maintain the traditional nuclear family under capitalism, through caring for the young and old, but simultaneously denied their rights as workers and mothers.”

This intervention provides a “framework to understand how, in different countries and political contexts of Europe, ‘native’ women’s reproductive capacities are being incentivized for nationalist ends and how those same rights (to have children and family life) for minority migrant women are being restricted, whilst the hyper-exploitation of their labour is simultaneously essential to care for the young, sick and elderly of the nation under ‘advanced’ capitalism.”

I engage Sophia to explore the relationship with anti-blackness, specifically examining how the historical processes of creating the other are maintained in Europe today through a pattern that situates women now at the nexus of both defining the nation and also maintaining it, whilst excluding those who do not conform.” 

Sophia Siddiqui is Deputy Editor of Race & Class. As well as assisting the editors and managing the production of Race & Class, Sophia is the coordinator of Institute of Race Relations News. She writes and lectures on anti-racist feminism, both historically and in the present-day. Her most recent publication, the topic of our current engagement is titled, ‘Racing the nation: towards a theory of reproductive racism’.

Racing The Nation: towards a theory of reproductive racism w/ Sophia Siddiqui

Arun Kudnani joins PTO to talk about his article, The Racial Constitution of Neoliberalism which appeared in the Race & Class journal. We talked about how neoliberalism has generated novel forms of racism that cannot be understood simply as residual phenomena from the pre-neoliberal era, why it was that the key neoliberal thinkers were as fixated on defeating leftist movements in the global south during the Cold War as they were on defeating the European and American Labour movements, and finally we talked about whether it is possible to imagine a form of capitalism that is able to dispense with racialisation.

The racial constitution of neoliberalism w/ Arun Kudnani

Episode one is a conversation on the transformation of the IRR and what the work has entailed since. With Jenny Bourne, Colin Prescod and John Narayan.

Welcome to New Circuits of Anti-Racism, brought to you by Surviving Society and the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). These podcasts are from the IRR’s 50 year anniversary conference. The panels you’ll be hearing from are focused on racism, imperialism, and new lines of resistance. 

Links: 
https://irr.org.uk

S2/E1 The revolutionary act: Jenny Bourne, Colin Prescod & John Narayan

A panel on the influence and the continued relevance of A. Sivanandan’s key works with Suresh Grover, Miriyam Aouragh, John Narayan, Priya Guns and Jenny Bourne. 

Intro music: Passport on our face - John Pandit.

Links:
https://irr.org.uk/

S2/E2 The influence of A. Sivanandan’s ideas

This panel charts some of the shifts that are happening to the global world order – the decline of western hegemony, war and imperialism, crises in capitalism – and asks what is the impact of such changes, and what does it mean to be a radical internationalist today?

With Rafeef Ziadah, Akram Salhab, Liz Fekete, Avery Gordon, Birkbeck School of Law

Intro music: Passport on our face - John Pandit.

S2/E3 Radical internationalism and shifts in the global order

A key note conversation with Barbara Ransby, historian, writer and long-time activist based in Chicago and Derecka Purnell, human rights lawyer and social justice organiser based in the US. Chaired by Surviving Society’s Chantelle Lewis and IRR’s Sophia Siddiqui. 

Intro music: Passport on our face - John Pandit

S2/E4 Barbara Ransby, Derecka Purnell, Chantelle Lewis & Sophia Siddiqui

A roundtable discussion with key anti-racist organisers who have recently co-written important new books on anti-racism, abolition, feminism and the role of the academy.

With Azfar Shafi, Ilyas Nagdee, Remi Joseph-Salisbury, Laura Connelly, Shanice McBean and Jasbinder S. Nijjar

Intro music: Passport on our face - John Pandit

S2/E5 Anti-racist organising today

Liam, Sophia and Chantelle Lewis reflect on the political climate today and the role of anti-racist organising in contemporary society. 

Intro music: Passport on our face - John Pandit

Links
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/18/unconscious-bias-training-is-nonsense-says-outgoing-race-relations-chair

S2/E6 Liam Shrivastava, Sophia Siddiqui & Chantelle Lewis

A free news service on race and refugee issues in the UK and Europe.

Interview with A.Sivanandan by Avery Gordon

IRR News