In discussions about racism and the rise of the racist Right, the state is usually left out of the picture with far-right inspired violence reduced to a matter of extremist groups on the fringes of society. In this lecture, Liz Fekete, director of the Institute of Race Relations, will draw on IRR’s work with anti-fascist campaigns across Europe, to show how the law-and-order arms of the state – police, the military and security services – have colluded, either directly or indirectly with the growth of fascism. She will also consider wider issues of policing, arguing that racism in the police is institutionalised, and part of the instrumental logic of policing. Specialist police operations in the field of counter-terrorism and immigration have created a hostile environment for vulnerable minorities, marking them out as targets for far-right paramilitaries and racist violence.

Liz Fekete is the director of the London-based Institute of Race Relations (IRR) and head of its European Research Programme. She has worked at the IRR since 1982. She writes and speaks extensively on aspects of contemporary racism and fascism, refugee rights, EU counter-radicalization and anti-terrorism policies, and Islamophobia across Europe. She is the author of A Suitable enemy: Racism, migration and Islamophobia in Europe (Pluto, 2009) and Europe's fault lines: Racism and the rise of the right (Verso, 2018). She was part of the CARF Collective, and an expert witness at the Basso Permanent People's Tribunal on asylum and the World Tribunal on Iraq. She is currently an associate of the International State Crime Initiative at Queen Mary University of London, and the Border Crossing Observatory at Monash University, Australia.

In collaboration with Beursschouwburg, Cosmopolis, Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, RHEA Expertisecentrum Gender, Diversiteit en Intersectionaliteit & Brussels Academy