An Introduction to Political Anti-racism with Hussein Mitha

This introductory session will provide a critical framework for thinking through relations between class, race, colonialism, imperialism, capitalism and fascism. It will use the notion of 'racial capitalism' (as discussed by Robin D. G. Kelley and others) to think through 'race' as a contingent historical phenomenon, related to class, labour, ‘surplus’ and capital.

In contradistinction to liberal and apolitical anti-racist discourses which paradoxically often essentialise race, the study session will also seek to emphasise that racialisation is an historical process enacted on people and that the ultimate object of anti-racist struggle is the abolition of 'race' as a definitive category of being, just as the object of class struggle is the abolition of ‘class’, a classless society.

We will look to examples of anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles which have sought to overcome race and have created space for hope and and the affirmation of life.

Some of the thinkers evoked in this introduction will include Robin D. G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, A Sivanandan, Joshua Virasami, Emma Dabiri, Arun Kundnani, Stuart Hall, Ghassan Kanafani and others

Participants will be encouraged to contribute to a shared resource for anti-racist organising.

No prior knowledge or familiarity with any of the aforementioned is necessary.

All welcome.

Project Space 2 is located on the second floor and is fully wheelchair accessible.

Please note this event is aimed at GSA students.

Hussein Mitha has a diverse practice that incorporates writing, organising workshops and collective learning platforms, mural making, and collaboration with other artists and community groups. In 2024 they produced In Our Lifetime: an anti-imperialist resource available to download as a pdf on Arika's website arika.org.uk

Image: Asian Youth Movement poster in solidarity with the 1984-85 miners' strike

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