Nottingham Saturday March 17th at the Maze
Saturday the 17th of March, 2pm – 2am @ The Maze (back of the Forest Tavern), Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG1 3FT. £8.00 on the door, proceeds to Antifa. Download poster.
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Congo Solidarity Action: Saturday July 13th TBC
The Home Office have requested yet another adjournment of the Country Guidance on the DRC. It’s unsatisfactory response to the recent petition concerning the situation as it stands may be found at http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page12237.asp No Borders Nottingham is supporting the call for for a national mobilisation – suggested date Friday 13 July TBC – to protest as strongly as possible about the continuing delay in delivering justice to Congolese asylum seekers…
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Camps for No Borders – Ukraine/EU, Britain (Gatwick), Mexico/USA
2007 is witnessing a resurgence of No Border Camps, which were instrumental to the No Border movement from the late 1990’s onwards. Three No Border camps for 2007 have recently been announced. The first will be in the Ukraine at the intersection of five countries and at the border of Fortress Europe. In September, it is the turn of our very own Gatwick airport, where the government is planning to build yet another prison for migrants. Finally, in November, there will be another No Border camp at the Mexico/US border, where every year hundreds of migrants die trying to cross the desert or at the hands of the vigilante ‘border police’, the Minutemen. No Borders are holiding (noe held) a public meeting on Saturday, 30th June 2007, in London to discuss the Gatwick Camp. You can contact the camp’s working group at g-anbc2007@riseup.net Read more about the No Border Camps on the Indymedia website. Read about the Gatwick camp Sept 19th-24th on the No Borders website. Get involved!
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The Case for No Borders – what was discussed at Nottingham meeting?
Meeting report: ‘The Case for Open Borders’ – A Refugee Week event speaker – Teresa Hayter
Teresa Hayter (member of the Close Campsfield Campaign and an author of the No One is Illegal Manifesto) gave a thought provoking talk to a well-attended meeting at the Refugee Forum’s Square Centre on the evening of 19th June. Teresa made the case that migration controls are rooted in racism and right-wing ideology and that any distinctions made about whether someone is a genuine asylum-seeker, an economic migrant, an illegal worker, or whatever just prop up the system of control. We shouldn’t be demanding ‘papers for all’, instead we should be getting rid of the need for papers. Anti-immigration arguments are little different that those used against Jewish or Irish immigrants in the past. In addition tightening of the screw against refugees goes in parallel with the waging of war by our governments – many recent immigrants are Iraqis. All immigration rules, harassment of asylum seekers, the difficulty of getting refugee status, and the horror of detention centres are all part of a racist agenda to prevent and deter freedom of movement. We must struggle for complete freedom of movement for all. It was noted that immigration controls are actually quite new to Britain (1905) and especially for people in the ex-colonies who were able to come freely to Britain until the 1960s.
In the discussion after, various points were made and questions asked:
How does ‘the system’ really benefit from borders? Is it mostly to further a racist ideology? Do our rulers just want to create fear of others in order to ‘divide and rule’? Or does a capitalist system need to invoke the threat of illegal immigration to make the working class ‘at home’ feel vunerable economically?
Do some trade union fears about immigration threatening jobs make any sense, or does this attitude actually prevent workers linking up to fight for equal pay and benefits? The idea of the welfare state is that you have to ‘put in’ to ‘get out’, but doesn’t this attitude help create division? What’s this we/they thing anyway – shouldn’t we all just be ‘citizens of the world’?
Is there a difference in the way immigration controls are sold to the people in the USA with its historical embracing of immigrants, compared to Britain with its sense of superiority from the days of empire? Or is the apparant positive attitude to immigrants in USA reserved only for its anglo-saxon settlers?
Is it right to only blame governments for creating such a terrible situation for asylum seekers in Britain, or should people be blamed for doing nothing about the racism, and abuse in detention centres?
Will it take a revolution to get rid of borders, or could it just collapse on its own if immigration control became unworkable, knowing that the capitalist economy already depends so much on immigrant labour whether legal or illegal?
Should we be concentrating on fighting the result of an anti-immigrant culture, like the successes of the far-right in some areas of Notts (in recent elections)?
** Read about other activities for Nottingham Refugee Week 2007 – 16th?24th June
Continue reading The Case for No Borders – what was discussed at Nottingham meeting?
Congolese People Fighting Deportation
On Saturday 30th June there will be another demonstratration against the deportation of people to DRC. It begins at 12.00 and there will be a march to Queen’s Walk Community Centre, Meadows, where a Public Meeting with speakers will be held. Please come and give your support. Please circulate the attached leaflet.[attachment=5]
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Glasgow Girls – anti-deportation TV documentary online
The ‘Glasgow Girls’ describe themselves as “a group of seven young campaigners who fight against the insensitive treatment of ‘failed’ asylum seekers”. They got started when their friend “Agnesa and her family were taken away from their home in a dawn raid [..] kept in a stark prison-like place for 3 weeks before the Home Office realised they had actually made a mistake and released them. Agnesa and her brothers will never forget the trauma they went through; seeing their dad being handcuffed by men in bullet proof vests, watching their mother cry and being followed to the toilet for safety reasons.”
A serial of short TV documentaries can be watched online on their website http://glasgowgirls.bebo.com. It’s well worth a few minutes watching the videos. In part 8 of the serial, the latest video, we see how the authorities renaged on a ‘protocol’ developed after the group took their case to the Scottish Parliament. So dawn raids on behalf of the Immigration Service have continued (that’s goverments for you, devolved or otherwise) but it is very inspiring to see how the community managed to stop one of these by turning up and forcing the police to abandon the raid (which had also involved them grabbing children, without adults). The fight must continue!!
For more info about Scottish anti-deportation campaiging, including UNITY, you can also visit the No Borders Network Glasgow website: http://www.openborders.org.uk/
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Teresa Hayter: No One Is Illegal meeting at NNRF
The case for Open Borders – A Refugee Week event speaker – Teresa Hayter
Tuesday June 19th at 7.00 pm – The Square Centre, Alfred Street North (which is just off top of Huntingdon Street), Nottingham. http://www.nottsrefugeeforum.org.uk
Teresa Hayter is an activist and writer.
She is a member of the Close Campsfield Campaign and an author of the No One is Illegal Manifesto…
** Read about other activities for Nottingham Refugee Week 2007 – 16th?24th June
Continue reading Teresa Hayter: No One Is Illegal meeting at NNRF
Anti-G8 action report: Freedom Of Movement And Equal Rights For All
On Monday, June 4th, anti-G8 actions and protest focussed on the demands for freedom of movement and equal rights for all. Several decentralised actions took place: a demonstration with several thousand participants at the Immigration Centre in Rostock and another at the Sonnenblumen House in Lichtenhagen, where the Nazis attacked refugees in 1992. These were followed by a big march and rally in Rostock, which police restrictions and delays, but finally made it to the final rally at the city.
Find a full report, including news of solidarity actions and links, on Indymedia Deutschand/Germany newswire.
See also, lots of Indymedia UK reports about G8 No Borders actions.
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An Invitation To The Gatwick No Border Camp 2007
Advance notice from London: No Borders ? No Nations ? No Prisons
From 19th to 24th September 07 we will gather at Gatwick Airport for the first No Border Camp in the UK. This camp will be a chance to work together to try and stop the building of a new detention centre, and to gather ideas for how to build up the fight against the system of migration controls.
Meetings: A public meeting for those who want to get involved in the preparation, around the end of June, will be announced soon.
More details: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/371574.html
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Return Mustapha to his friends and to safety, not to Sudan.
Over the last week hundreds of Sudanese Asylum Seekers, including 8 from Nottingham, have been rounded up and moved to holding centres in the UK ready for deporatation. This MUST be resisted by anti-deportation activists. One of our friends, Mustapha, may have already been deported, although we are seeking firm information on this. He is a valued volunteer at the Nottingham & Notts Refugee Forum Food Group and his friends are desperately worried about him. Because of his unmasking of inhumane practices in Sudan, he faces certain torture and maybe worse if deported. Certainly others are in danger too. We’ll update you when we hear more and could anyone with news please tell us so that we can publish it).
Good news! Mustapha did not get on the plane, although it’s not over yet. We’ll keep you posted. Thanks for the messages of support seen on Indymedia UK!
Campaigners against deportation may find this House of Commons information on Sudan useful…
Continue reading Return Mustapha to his friends and to safety, not to Sudan.