From the Archives: anti-racism, borders and fighting the far right

At Lighthouse we livestream and record nearly all our events, one of the reasons being that we want the wisdom shared and questions asked to move beyond one moment and one room, to bring enjoyment and learning to folks where they are and where they are able to access it.

Welcome to the Lighthouse archive, a semi-regular blog series exploring past events, lists, articles and resources, using something that’s currently on our minds as a starting point - bringing beloved books and authors back into the spotlight.

With the wave of racist violence we saw around the UK at the beginning of last month, we’ve gathered up links to events, recordings and book lists we’ve been lucky enough to host on the website over the last few years. A belief running through these articles, events and resources is both the commitment to challenging racism head-on, and calling it for what it is (not ‘thuggery’ as our government would have it, but racist violence) and the conviction that such violence can only be met with well-organised resistance and community care.

As has been said many times, the connection between attacks on mosques and hotels housing refugees, and years of anti-migrant government rhetoric, are more than evident. This means that conversations about border abolition and challenging the far right are also linked.

Below, you’ll find recorded discussions around the racist systems holding up our borders, conversations around today’s far-right and the work being done to challenge these forces.

Recorded events:

Gracie Mae Bradley and Andreas Hackl talked about the Limits of Citizenship at the Radical Book Fair 2022

The year before that, the fair hosted Leah Cowan and Siobhán Mcguirk discussing the hostile environment.

That same year, we also welcomed the hosts of the 12 Rules for What Podcast, talking about today’s far right. Two years later, much of what they had to say has become even more urgent.

In April 2022 we hosted Sally Hayden, speaking about her book My Fourth Time We Drowned, on the world’s deadliest migration routes.

At this year’s Book Fringe, we were lucky enough to talk to Dina Nayeri about what stories appear believable to who, and how our own stories influence what we believe.

Shorter videos, blogs and book lists:

Here’s an episode of our Read Think Act video series with Joe Mulhall, talking about the changing landscape of the global far right and the need for work in communities.

If you’re after books that tackle the dynamics and history of the far right head on, do check out our book list of clear-eyed tales of the far right and this list books on far right riadicalism online.

For anti-racist reading for young people, there’s a list for tweens here.

For a broader discussion on racism and the workings of prejudice, do have a look at this blog interview with Pragya Agarwal about her book Sway.

And lastly, for some encouragement to connect the dots, here's a booklist featuring writing about the need for climate justice work and environmentalism to be explicitly anti-racist