Our Events
50th Anniversary Events: Remembering Gurdip Singh Chaggar
Celebrating community resistance against racism
From Sunday May 31o Monday June 6, 2026, we will celebrate a seismic turning point in the anti-racism history of Britain. We will remember the tragedy surrounding the Chaggar family that sparked the protests in Southall during the hot summer and spread across the UK over the next few years.
On June 4, 1976, Southall was rocked by the murder of a local 18-year-old student, Gurdip Singh Chaggar. The death galvanised widespread local outrage and prompted a national debate on racism and discrimination. Grassroots- led community resistance, and the mobilisation of Southall's youth laid the foundations of the anti-racism movements that erupted over the next few years, most notably the mass public disturbances in 1979 against the far- right, National Front and in 1981 against State racism & violence.
Some of the key events in Southall included:
Creation of a remembrance shrine at the site of the murder followed by day long protests outside the Victory Pun on The Green.
Spontaneous occupation of Dominion Cinema leading grassroots protest from the Green to the Southall police station on Sunday June 6 involving over 2000 people.
Formation of the Southall Youth Movement with the aid of local organisations and people established to protect the community from far-right harassment and violence
Bussing: Throughout 1976, local educational authorities continued the controversial practice of "bussing" Asian children to schools outside of Southall. This sparked community opposition, as parents and activists campaigned to end a policy that they felt disrupted their children's schooling and segregated communities.
Emergence of a new generation of radical political and cultural activists that sought unity amongst working class, Asian and African-Caribbean communities through new thinking including political Black.
The programme of events
Sunday 31st May:
Gurdwara programme organised by the Chaggar family.
Venue: Ramgharia Sabha Gurdwara, Oswald Road, Southall
9am: Bhog Sri Shaj Path
9.30am to 10.30am: Kirtan and Adass/Hukam speech
Langar all day
Monday June 1:
Venue Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall
1pm: Launch of Exhibition and events. It is not necessary to book for the event, please check our website for updates.
2pm to 5pm: Southall History Walk Tour
Click this link to book your place for the Southall History Walk Tour: https://buytickets.at/themonitoringgroup/2222431
Tuesday June 2
Film screening: The Story of the Southall Youth Movement
Please click on Platform Southall website for updates: https://platformsouthall.org.uk/
Wednesday 3 June
Sharing memories & photos
Please click on Platform Southall website for updates: https://platformsouthall.org.uk/
Thursday June 4
11am: Schools Programme
6pm: Vigil outside Manor House, The Green, Southall
Please click on our website for updates
Friday June 5
7pm: Cultural Event
Monsoon, The Green, Southall
For tickets please click on Platform Southall Website
Saturday June 6
10am: Conference: Defiance Then & Now
Linking the Southall protests and the historic Grunwck strike in the same year. Organised by Indian Workers Association (GB) and The Monitoring Group
Venue: Villiers High School, Boyd Avenue, Southall
Please click on this link to book your place: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/themonitoringgroup/2219106
Major report of the independent commission into the 2022 violence in Leicester, East Midlands, UK
The Inquiry, chaired by international human rights expert Professor Juan Méndez, concludes that the violence was unprecedented in the UK and preventable with stronger leadership, earlier intervention and sustained investment in community relations.
The report, Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester, provides detailed findings on the causes and impact of the unrest, including local grievances, misinformation, institutional failings, and international ideological influences. It makes many recommendations aimed at rebuilding trust and preventing future violence.
For press enquiries or interviews, please contact Suresh Grover, founder and National Coordinator at The Monitoring Group by email at sgrover@tmg-uk.org and on mobile telephone number 07816 301706 and SOAS press office by email at press@soas.ac.uk.
View the Independent Inquiry website: https://www.leicesterinquiry.org
Notes for your diary: More information soon on the following events:
Community Public Meeting in Leicester on Monday March 23, 2026 from 6pm to 8.30pm at the African Caribbean Centre, Maidstone Road, Leicester LE2 QUA.
Meeting of European parliamentarians, representatives of the Brize Norton hunger strikers for Palestine and other organisations, Tuesday February 24, 2026 from 9am, 2 Langley Lane, London SW8 IGB.
Please note that attendance at these events is by registration: Contact Suresh Grover by email sgrover@tmg-uk.org and on mobile telephone number 07816 301706.
On behalf of the Leicester Project Research Team, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) would like to warmly invite you to the launch of its major report, Better Together: Understanding the 2022 Violence in Leicester.
This report represents the most comprehensive investigation into the Hindu-Muslim violence that occurred in Leicester in 2022. It holds crucial lessons for policymakers, academics, and community leaders interested in understanding diaspora radicalisation and rebuilding community relations in an era of global turmoil. Hear the findings first-hand, meet the research team, and discuss the implications with academic scholars, government representatives, and civil society.
The event starts at 2pm at SOAS, in the Alumni Lecture Theatre (Paul Webley Wing), 10 Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG.
Learn more about the schedule for the day and register to attend here.
The Executive Summary of the Report can be downloaded after February 23 from: www.leicesterinquiry.org
Book tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mx60-national-convention-legacies-and-lessons-of-anti-racism-and-community-tickets-1092609146369?aff=oddtdtcreator
A national convention for activists, thinkers, community builders, and artists.
In February 1965, after visiting Selma, Alabama, Malcolm X went to Smethwick, Birmingham, to experience the colour bars and racial prejudice in the Midlands. Smethwick was a town torn apart, its community divided by a recent election where candidate Peter Griffin had exploited anti-immigrant sentiment. Nearly sixty years on, in 2024, racist violence erupted across Britain. Whilst false narratives about immigration continued to divide the nation, and a powerful counter-movement emerged. People of different races, classes, and faiths came together in solidarity to tackle racial violence with widespread help and support.
The national convention marks the 60th anniversary of Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick, Birmingham, and it will reflect on vital lessons for today. We will help create tools and cross-city collaborations with local groups working in communities after recent racist riots. We are bringing together confirmed speakers from Yorkshire, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, and Nottingham.
Others will join them, including: · Chetan Bhatt (London School of Economics) · Professor Gus John · Liz Fekete (Institute of Race Relations) · Shabna Begum (Runnymede Trust) · Suresh Grover (The Monitoring Group) · Paul Gilroy (University College London) · Taj Ali (Journalist)
This event is part of the MX60 commemoration events. It has been organised with: Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre, Birmingham Race Impact Group, The Monitoring Group, Himmah, and is hosted by Nottingham Contemporary.
This event coincides with Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, a major retrospective of the artist’s work at Nottingham Contemporary. The exhibition readdresses themes of racial identity, chronic illness, Black masculinity and Britain’s colonial past. For further information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Jagdish Patel at Himmah on 0115 837 6116 or jagdish@himmah.org.
Access
Find information about getting here and our building access and facilities: https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/visit/
This event will be held in the Galleries. Meet at Reception.
Speakers will use microphones.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
If you have any questions around access or have specific access requirements we can accommodate, please get in touch with us by emailing info@nottinghamcontemporary.org or phoning 0115 948 9750.
Christopher Kapessa inquest
The long awaited inquest into the killing of young Black Welsh boy Christopher Kapessa aged 13, who was found in the River Cyon on July 1, 2019 commenced on Monday January 8th, 2024 and concluded on Friday January 19, 2024. Coroner David Regan ruled on Monday January 22, 2024 that Christopher was deliberately pushed into the river in what he referred to as a “dangeraous prank”. Regan stated that evidence from Jayden Pugh, who said he slipped and fell into Christopher, was "untrue".
Christopher's mother Alina Joseph said the injustice she believed her family had endured "haunted" her.
The family's solicitor, Daniel Cooper, said Christopher's death had caused "unimaginable trauma" for his family, distress and anxiety for the community in and around Wales, and had raised "issues of significant public interest".
"The coroner's findings were clear and unambiguous, Christopher was deliberately and intentionally pushed in the back from behind," he said..
Mainstream media coverage at the start of the inquest has been extensive. Please view some of the stories on the following links:
Christopher Kapessa: Drowned boy's family 'racially abused' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67911288
https://www.theguardian.cohttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/17/social-media-built-narrative-that-christopher-kapessas-death-was-racist-killing-say-policem/uk-news/2024/jan/17/social-media-built-narrative-that-christopher-kapessas-death-was-racist-killing-say-police
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-67983569
Here is the full submitted witness statement of Christopher’s mother Alina Joseph to the inquest:
https://publuu.com/flip-book/359885/821914jlt.ghr@gmail.com
Following the judgement of the Coroner on Monday January 22, 2024, press coverage can be viewed here:
Book Launch : What is Antiracism? And Why it Means Anticapitalism by Arun Kundnani
Book Launch : What is Antiracism? And Why it Means Anticapitalism by Arun Kundnani
Himmah and the Monitoring Group are proud to launch this important new book by Arun Kundanani. This scintillating intellectual and political history provides a new understanding of racism, and a better way to fight it.
Liberals have been arguing for nearly a century that racism is fundamentally an individual problem of extremist beliefs. Responding to Nazism, thinkers like gay rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld and anthropologist Ruth Benedict called for teaching people, especially poor people, to be less prejudiced. Here lies the origin of today's liberal antiracism, from diversity training to Hollywood activism. Meanwhile, a more radical antiracism flowered in the Third World. Anticolonial revolutionaries traced racism to the broad economic and political structures of modernity. Thinkers like C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones, and Frantz Fanon showed how racism was connected to colonialism and capitalism, a perspective adopted even by Martin Luther King. Today, liberal antiracism has proven powerless against structural oppression. As Arun Kundnani demonstrates, white liberals can heroically confront their own whiteness all they want, yet these structures remain.This deeply researched and swift-moving narrative history tells the story of the two antiracisms and their fates. As neoliberalism reordered the world in the last decades of the twentieth century, the case became clear: fighting racism means striking at its capitalist roots.
About Arun Kundnani
Arun has been active in antiracist movements in Britain and the United States for three decades. He is a former editor of the journal Race & Class and was a scholar-in-residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library. The Guardian has described him as “one of Britain’s best political writers.” He lives in central New York state.
Reclamation: Socially engaged art and antiracism in the Midlands by Jagdish Patel
Opening Night: 23rd June 6-8pm
Then Saturday 24th June til Saturday 15th July 6-8pm
Reclamation, an exhibition by artist and researcher Jagdish Patel which celebrates the interconnections between socially engaged art and anti-racism through photography, archival artefacts, paintings and video.
Reclamation explores the history of collaborative art practices, radical decolonial ideas and community engagement, particularly in the Midlands, through a timeline. By examining the connections between the community art movement and anti-racist campaigners the
exhibition highlights the significant role that art has played and continues to play in society, particularly in addressing citizenship, racism, equality and social justice.
This exhibition seeks to inspire reflection, dialogue and action. By bringing together diverse artistic mediums these stories highlight values of rights, recognition, rupture and resistance which are essential in socially engaged art.
Southall History walk
Southall is one of the key landmarks of anti racist struggles that shaped modern Britain. It is the birthplace of pioneering anti racist workers struggles; youth movements; women and civil rights groups as well as a unique rich mix of cultural heritage, including Bhangra and reggae musicians and South Asian cuisine.
The History Walk charts a unique journey through the main artery of the town stopping at key landscapes recreating some of the iconic moments. Why did early immigrants settle in Southall and how did they build their communities? How does its history affect the present political and social landscape?
Dates and Times: Saturday 29 April 2023 and Saturday 19 May 2023.
Please meet at 10.30am at The Dominion Centre112 The Green, Southall UB2 4BQ. The tour will set off at 10.45am and last about 2 hours, ending with a 30 minute documentary and Q&A at the Town Hall, High St, Southall UB1 3HA
You must book to join the tour: Please enter your details by clicking on the link below. Once we receive your booking, we will contact you to confirm your booking. Please dress casually mindful of weather conditions on the day. This is a free event.
You are welcome to have lunch in Southall that houses numerous good quality vegetarian and non-vegetarian café and restaurants including Afghani, Indian (north and south), Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Somali.
Thank you for your interest in this unique tour. We look forward to welcoming you. For further information contact:
The Monitoring Group: office@tmg-uk.org M: 07816 301706
Southall Community Alliance: 07958 499222
Remembering Stephen Lawrence - The legacy and way forward
Thirty years ago this month, Black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered by racist thugs in South East London. It became an international cause célèbre after Nelson Mandela was introduced to Stephen's parents by Anti-Racist Alliance founder Marc Wadsworth. The government set up the Macpherson public inquiry into the killing that found police to be riddled with institutional racism and it proposed unprecedented reform of the Met. Have lessons been learned, and what's the way forward?
Hear from and debate with two community campaigners, Marc Wadsworth and Suresh Grover, who helped Stephen's parents set up and run their justice campaign, and leading family and police justice champions, Janet Alder, of the United Families and Friends Campaign, Emmanuelle Andrews, Liberty's policy and campaigns manager and the prominent scholar and community activist Professor Gus John.
Moderator: Deborah Hobson, a leading Unite the Union activist.
*Please note that the Zoom link for this event will be sent by email on registration.
Ricky Reel: Time for Justice
Speakers include
Sukhdev Reel
Bell Rebeiro Addy MP
Dawn Butler MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti
Preet Gill MP
Suresh Grover
Lord John Hendy
David Lammy MP
John McDonnell MP
Virendra Sharma MP and others
The death of young Asian student, Lakhvinder ‘Ricky’ Reel in 1997 Kingston, Surrey was a cruel and traumatic tragedy for his family. He was racially abused and attacked and as the evidence suggested ran for his life before ending up in the River Thames. There was also dismay and anger at how the police responded to the incident. Ricky’s family expected the case to be investigated thoroughly and without bias but they experienced a litany of police failures and stereotyping based on the colour of their skin. With the help of their supporters, they carried out their own searches, organised witness appeals and gathered CCTV footage. Despite police efforts to gain a verdict of ‘accidental death’ at the Coroner’s court, the jury delivered an ‘open’ verdict. The police even spied on the family using undercover officers to track their movements.
Sadly, no person has been held to account for Ricky’s death or police failures. Now over 100,000 people have signed a change.org petition demanding a reinvestigation into his death. The family campaign will also be launching ‘Ricky Reel Day’ at this event as a means of keeping Ricky, and others still fighting for justice, in our thoughts. Join us to support the family’s quest for justice.
To avoid disappointment, please register your attendance as soon as possible as spaces are limited.
Organised by the Justice for Ricky Reel and supported by The Monitoring Group
@justice4reel
Instagram: justice4reel
Twitter @MonitoringGroup
Facebook @raceandjustice
The Rise of Anti-Chinese Racism: Building resistance over fear
We are witnessing an alarming rise of anti-Chinese racism globally fuelled by the racist narrative around the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, in May 2020, The United Nations General Secretary, Antonio Guterres warned that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and ” and urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.”
Confronting Racism in the UK: A Return to Collective Principles
This meeting brings together long-time anti-racist campaigners, from legal experts to organisers, including those who fought to establish institutional racism in law with the MacPherson case, to those challenging the silencing imposed by Prevent and the IHRA. Restoring fundamental anti-racist principles, this public meeting will discuss a common and universal approach to defeating division, and to strengthening and rallying the movement against rising racism.
STATE RACISM, COLLUSION & RESISTANCE
The aims of the 2-day conference are twofold: firstly to identify and discuss the motivating factors of the pervasive nature of racism, injustice and austerity and their impact on working class communities. Secondly, we aim to bring different campaigns and communities together so that we can begin to collectively address the challenges ahead.
Our Lives Our Future : The Government’s War on Gangs & Why It Affects our Young people
Violence and death should have no place in a society that delivers opportunities, respect and justice to its youth and communities. What has led to the spike in violent crimes? The Government is now responding with more heavy-handed policing but without acknowledging its own failures. The media has raised alarms over the number of deaths in London exceeding those in New York as if some number is acceptable
PARLIAMENT ROUNDTABLE ON RACISM & HATE CRIME
22nd April, this year, marks the 25th anniversary of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. The parliamentary forum will chart a remarkable journey over this period – from the senseless and brutal murder to the BREXT state – to tackle racism in the UK.
Re-Imagining Brexit Britain: Reflections on the past, present and future
Thursday 14th December 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Location: The Unity Centre, St Leonard’s Road, Rotherham, S65 1PD
The vote to leave the European Union in June 2016 touched upon some of big themes about the future of the Britain as a nation state. Issues such as the backlash to globalization, inequality, the growing divide between cities and rural areas, identity, and blaming of migrants in the UK led to a rise in reported racism and hate crimes nationally. The impact locally in South Yorkshire has been an on going increase in racist crime, an area already haunted by the history of far right marches. In the three months after the Referendum vote we faced a huge increase in race and religious hate crime – something which hasn’t abated.
The Monitoring Group (TMG) wants to build networks across the country, grassroots network of people and groups who are able to support victims, challenge authorities, and counteract the negative racist narrative which blames Black, Asian, migrant, refugees and other people for a set of deep seated economic and social problems in Britain. This grassroots perspective aims to build ‘Communities of Solidarity’ who can through discussions, active campaigns and programs to build leadership begin to challenge the language and debates around Brexit ahead of 2019.
Come, listen, learn and help build ‘Communities of Solidarity’.
Speakers include : Suresh Grover (TMG), Azzizum Akhtar (REMA-hate crime reporting centre- Rotherham landscape), Stuart Crosthwaite (SYMAAG Dignity not detention), Penny Wangari Jones (Racial Justice Network/Migrants Organise), Gulnaz Hussain (Firvale community Hub/ROMA network), Abrar Javid (Rotherham 12-(building solidarity/ resistance), Safina Khatoon ((Hate crime coordinator)
The event is free, but you will need to book from this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/re-imagining-brexit-britain-reflections-on-the-past-present-and-future-tickets-40757142711
Art, Activism, Race and Social Justice
This talk is part of the events surrounding the current exhibition at the Nottingham Contemporary called ‘The Place is Here’. Alongside the exhibition we have made 2 banners which charts this journey for race equality from 1900-1979.