Chinmoy Banerjee Memorial Lecture

From Southall to SFU, Pragna Patel speaks on solidarity

By: Gurnoor Jhajj, Collective Representative At SFU’s Harbour Centre, British human rights activist and lawyer Pragna Patel delivered the annual Chinmoy Banerjee Memorial Lecture on identity and far-right politics, reflecting on four decades of activism. “We are, in effect, witnessing the rise of right-wing identity politics,” she said, explaining that authoritarian politics are no longer behind political fringes, but have spread into institutions. She linked this rise in far-right politics to the weakening of feminist and anti-racist solidarity, adding that this division threatens democracy. Patel co-founded the Southall Black Sisters and Project Resist, both of which advocate for women’s rights…

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