Institute of Race Relations - Transformation

Transformation

By the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s (a period where governments had begun to introduce restrictive immigration laws, East African Asian British passport holders were refused entry to the UK and front bench politician Enoch Powell had made a series of emotive racist speeches), the staff and a section of the membership of the IRR began to question the type of research being undertaken at IRR, whether the organisation was in fact as impartial as it claimed to be and if working so closely with politicians and the government could benefit the victims of racism. This brought the staff and ultimately the membership into confrontation with the IRR’s Council. Robin Jenkins, an IRR researcher criticised the methodology behind ‘Colour and Citizenship’, which he described as spying on black people. The Council, which was composed of chief executives from many leading multinational corporations, politicians from the Commons and Lords, newspaper editors and leading academics, tried to have him sacked and to close down the monthly magazine Race Today which was accused of bias. But at an extraordinary general meeting of members in April 1972 the Council was outvoted and resigned en masse. After the change of direction of IRR, neither the corporate sector nor the large foundations were willing to support IRR’s work and the organisation faced a funding crisis. It moved from the West End to a disused warehouse on Pentonville Road, London, N1 where a tiny staff augmented by volunteers continued to run all its services. New sources of funding were found in the World Council of Churches’ Programme to Combat Racism, the Methodist Church, the Transnational Institute and local authorities, including the Greater London Council. As a result of a fund-raising drive, the IRR was able in 1984 to purchase an office building in Leeke Street, London Borough of Camden, which has been its home ever since.