Enoch Powell's ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech: Fifty Years On

Abstract

Fifty years ago, Enoch Powell made what still is one of the most notorious speeches in postwar British politics. Its tone was shocking for its use of inflammatory references to ethnic minority immigrants. Immigration continues to be divisive and references to it by politicians inevitably lead to comparisons with Powell. The aim of the collection is to examine Powell's speech from a number of perspectives, exploring how it was viewed both by contemporaries and in the light of subsequent developments. The objective of this article is to examine Powell's motivations, impact and legacy.

The Absurd Workplace

“…As an example, in 1968, the British Health Secretary, Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech explicitly expressed the undesirability of non-white people in British society. He claimed that nonwhites will corrupt the purity of British race and culture (Hickson, 2018). Enoch's speech is still relied on by British white supremacist movements to justify ats of violence against minorities in the UK and the USA (Webb, 2015;Langlois, 2021, The Washington Post) and the denial of Black vote in the USA.…”

“…Segregation and slavery movements were legislated during colonial times with royal ascent. These were abolished in 1863 only after all major colonial powers had done so, thus showing the attachment of the West for the very equality that their eminent philosopher and constitutions have professed for centuries (Hickson, 2018, Drescher, 1994. The spirit of segregation has since not disappeared in the Netherland, where Rose (2022) still found that in the 21 st century black women face stiff discrimination.…”