Who is Britain really saving in the fight against modern slavery?
As Black Lives Matter has exposed the legacies of transatlantic slavery and empire, Britain has launched a new moral crusade at home: the fight against “modern slavery.” This panel discussion marks the launch of Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law by Insa Lee Koch and asks what this crusade is really doing.
Focusing on the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the policing and prosecution strategies enabled in its wake, the panel examines how young Black and racialised working-class men involved in Britain's street level economy of heroin and crack cocaine — once criminalised under the war on gangs — are now recast as "modern slaves" and their "masters". Central to the discussion is Glodi Wabelua, the first young man convicted under modern slavery laws for a county lines drugs offence. Bringing together ethnographic insights, leading anti-racism campaigners and lived experience, the event interrogates how modern slavery law deepens racial inequality while allowing Britain to deny its imperial past.
Meet our speakers and chair
Liz Fekete is Director of the Institute of Race Relations and an Advisory Editor of Race & Class. Liz was part of the CARF Collective, and an expert witness at the Basso Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) on asylum and the World Tribunal on Iraq. Her second book Europe’s Fault Lines: racism and the rise of the Right won the Bread and Roses award for Radical Publishing 2019.
Insa Lee Koch is a writer, advocate-researcher and professor at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and a visiting professor in the LSE Law School. Trained in both anthropology and law, she has published award-winning work on topics of inequalities, class, racism and community resistance. She is author of Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law: when Enemies Become Victims which is available open access.
Kojo Kyerewaa is a founding member of Black Lives Matter UK (BLM UK), where he remains as the National Organiser. BLM UK was founded by anti-racist activists in 2016, it was inspired but is independent from the US-based organisation. It is a member-led, campaigning organisation working towards collective liberation. Kojo is also a founding member of Against Borders for Children, a grassroots campaign which successfully in 2021 deleted the UK Home Office child migrant database.
Glodi Wabelua is a community advocate whose lived experience features centrally in Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law. His conviction under human trafficking law in a drugs-related case was the first of its kind and made precedent in English law. Today, Glodi is passionate about community outreach and education. He is the creator and host of the GloTalks podcast, the founder of GloFitnessUK promoting wellbeing, and delivers talks and mentoring in schools and prisons.
Coretta Phillips is a Professor of Criminology and Social Policy at LSE. She joined the Department of Social Policy in 2001, and her research interests lie in the field of race, ethnicity, crime, criminal justice and social policy. Since 2022, her major research efforts have focused on a multi-disciplinary ESRC project providing the first systematic, comprehensive and historically grounded account of the crime and criminal justice experiences of Gypsies and Travellers in England since the 1960s.
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