Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights

In the UK elections, what can American anti-racists learn?

The Labor Party lost votes and seats in the parliament. The Tories may yet cobble together a majority coalition and once again install a Thatcherite prime minister. Yet, in the London borough of Barking, the vote for the Labour incumbent increased, and Nick Griffin, the chairman of the white-ist British National Party (BNP), suffered an ignominious defeat. The BNP's loss was all the worst for them because they had held seats on the local council and bragged that they would become the majority ruling party in the borough--a proposition that would have catapulted white nationalism into the center of English politics. Instead, the BNP lost every seat they had held on both the Barking borough council as well as every seat in nearby Dagenham. And they lost several council seats they had in other boroughs as well.

Latest Culture War in America is Nationalism in Dangerous Form

At first glance it seems inexplicable: Confederate battle flags waving in Washington state and Washington, D.C., when the issue is health care.

Placards that read, “America is a Christian Nation,” appearing in marches when the stated concern is the federal deficit.

Barack Obama labeled a “Lying African,” when presidents from Democrat Woodrow Wilson to Republican George H.W. Bush have raised taxes without being dubbed aliens.Where does the anger come from to call congressmen hateful names?

The Death of the Tea Parties? Not So Fast...

Many pundits were quick to pronounce the Tea Party movement dead after failing to stop the passage of health care legislation. Conventional wisdom also held that the bigoted and violent behavior displayed by Tea Partiers over the weekend would negatively impact their growth. Let’s examine the data before we begin drafting a Tea Party obituary.

Instead of membership going flat or declining, online membership in each of the different national Tea Party factions has continued to rise. In fact, several factions experienced sharp increases in the last week.

What's Next for the Tea Partiers?

After a year of fast-paced growth and increasing influence, the Tea Partiers suffered their first ever political defeat on Sunday when the House of Representatives passed health care reform. Remember, it was the Tea Partiers' protests at town hall meetings last August that slowed the legislative drive toward reform and effectively took the single-payer option out of the Democratic Party's playbook. Tea Partiers started to push "independents" away from the Democrats, and they pushed the Republican establishment into becoming the party of no-compromise opposition. Now a simple up or down vote has thrown the first roadblock in front of the Tea Partiers, and the question emerges: how will they respond over the next five months?

Ron Paul and the Tea Parties: States' Rights and the 17th Amendment

It was just over one year ago. March 15, 2009. Liberals and progressives were still crowing about the election of Barack Obama and a Democratic House and Senate. The conservative movement, many told us, was dead. Friends of mine who should have known better were speculating that the demographic shift in voting patterns would soon force Republicans to move in a more centrist direction. Republicans would need more than white votes in the South if they hoped to win any future national elections, some said. The Tea Party movement had not yet been fully born. And the Conservative Political Action Committee, CPAC, was holding one of its annual confabs at the Omni Shoreham hotel in the Washington, D.C. area.

Revival and Revolt: Inside the Tea Party Nation Convention

Nashville - The rancor and division among Tea Partiers that erupted in the weeks leading up to the first Tea Party National Convention were nowhere to be found inside the expansive biosphere-like confines of the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. Squabbles set aside, at least for the moment, the real business of the February 4-7 convention was three-fold: culture warring, movement building, and campaign winning.