Thread by @IRR_News

On this day in 1972, one of the most significant steps in British race relations – the transformation of the Institute of Race Relations led by its staff and supporters – took place. #IRR50🧵

At an Extraordinary General Meeting held at St. James Church Hall, the staff defeated the IRR Council of Management in a crucial vote. The majority of the Council resigned en masse. #IRR50

In this free access🔓 @Race_Class editorial, Jenny Bourne recounts this momentous transformation of the IRR, from a policy-oriented establishment institution to an anti-racist ‘thinktank’, under the leadership of A. Sivanandan. #IRR50
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

‘In a sense the battle at the IRR – over how it was funded and what knowledge it produced – could be seen as part and parcel of the battles that had raged through the universities during the sixties’ writes Bourne. #IRR50

This struggle changed the parameters of debate, policy, research and representation around race throughout the century. The dry, academic journal Race became Race & Class – ‘a journal for Black and Third World Liberation’. #IRR50

For Sivanandan, the struggle showed we do not need to be ‘paralysed by our histories’. Reflecting on the event, he wrote, ‘To apprehend the social consequences of what we ourselves are doing and to set out to change them – is in itself a revolutionary act’
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…

This year we will be commemorating this revolutionary act, and tracing how this liberatory tradition continues in our work through #IRR50 events celebrating our history, present and future.
irr.org.uk/article/irr50/

To mark today's special anniversary, we are delighted to release this rare 1982 film on the IRR story, made by the BBC's Pebble Mill studio for Here and Now. #IRR50