Waves of protest: From Tunisia, to Toxteth to Tottenham.

The ‘Jasmine’ revolution started in Tunisia and spread across the region as the Arab Spring while the Toxteth race riots, Liverpool 1981, followed earlier demonstrations in Brixton.

At the core of all of these was the need for equal opportunities. The British Library will host an event on Saturday 22 October to consider what characterises a protest wave and what happens afterwards. The race riots in the inner-city area of Toxteth, Liverpool in 1981 followed earlier demonstrations in Brixton. A small peaceful dissent or 'demand for answers' outside Tottenham police station in London started the recent UK riots. At the core of all of these were the need for the voicing of repressed individuals and the universal cry for equal opportunities.

The day will consider the historical pattern of treatment by the police towards Black Britons, the racialised nature of the movement of demonstrations from Brixton to Toxteth in 1981 and the interpretations in the media. Panel members from a wide professional and social background will discuss the catalyst of the wave across North African and the UK, acts of self-immolation, the velocity of cyber messages and other factors such as the effect of Barack Obama’s election on the newly shaped progressive intentions of Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora.

Some of the speakers on the day Bellavaria Riberio Addy, NUS student representative, Amina Annabi, Tunisian singer songwriter, Osama Diab, Egyptian journalist, blogger and producer, Matthew Ryder, human rights barrister and judge, Isis Thompson, documentary director, Zoe Whitley, Curator of contemporary programmes at the V&A and Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote.

Picture: Tunisian protesters in Jan 2011