The Home Office was defeated in its first attempt to deport 100 asylum seekers to Rwanda on 14 June after a wave of protests and legal action. The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) supporters organised and joined protests around the country demanding the cancellation of the Rwanda deportation flight as well as an end to deportations and immigration detention altogether.
Manchester RCG/FRFI worked with the Iranian Socialist Group to organise a protest in the city centre on 12 June. 150 people came out to support the protest that marched down Portland Street and to Piccadilly Gardens. FRFI, as always, offered a platform for anybody who wanted to speak, in opposition to the attempts of Stand up to Racism (SUTR)/ Socialist Workers Party (SWP) to impose a controlled, pre-selected speaker’s list. While the SWP tried to channel the crowd’s anger into a passive WhatsApp chat, the RCG speaker addressed the crowd to call for sustained street action to oppose deportations and Britain’s racist immigration policies.
Photo credit: James Hill
On the same day London and Brighton FRFI attended a protest organised by SOAS Detainee Support (SDS) at Brook House Detention Centre by Gatwick airport, where a number of the asylum seekers due to be deported to Rwanda were being held. RCG/FRFI led an open mic at the event, which was used to deliver speeches calling out the role of British imperialism, sustained by the Labour Party, and to join in with the chants started by the detainees that included ‘no Rwanda!’.
On 13 June London FRFI joined around 1,000 others at the SDS protest outside the Home Office. As speeches began from the main platform, an SWP activist using a megaphone attempted to drive a wedge through the protest by calling for people to abandon the main platform and instead gather and listen to MPs from the Labour Party. A large majority of the crowd ignored the Labour MPs; around 50 people stood and listened to their sideshow. Many were clearly baffled at the SWP’s intervention. By the time the fourth MP, John McDonnell, took his turn, the RCG began heckling: ‘under Corbyn and McDonnell’s leadership, Labour promised 500 more border guards! Labour built the detention centres! The Labour Party is racist!’ Once McDonnell stopped talking, the SWP’s announcer immediately called an end to the sorry affair, and they departed before all the MPs had spoken. Rarely has the Labour Party’s utter irrelevance to the anti-racist struggle been so humiliatingly exposed.
In Newcastle, FRFI organised a protest at Grey’s Monument. Protesters who used the opportunity to speak on the megaphone to give speeches included refugees who further exposed the reality of Britain’s racist borders. At one point, the protest was addressed via phone by a detainee at Colnbrook immigration prison at Heathrow who spoke about the turmoil and precarity facing asylum seekers threatened with deportation to Rwanda. FRFI joined another protest at Monument the next day.
In Nottingham, the RCG, People for Palestine, Nottingham United Against Racism and Nottingham Trent University’s Amnesty International Society called an emergency protest in Market Square. The protest attracted support from people passing by who joined in, lead chants and delivered speeches against British state racism.
On 14 June, the day the flight was scheduled for, Liverpool FRFI organised a picket of the Home Office. Speeches highlighted Rwanda’s history as a colonial outpost and Britain’s racist contempt for migrants expressed in the Windrush scandal. The event was covered by BBC Sounds and ITV Granada. Protesters then held an open-mic speak-out in the city centre with the display of placards and banners drawing the attention of many walking past.
The scheduled charter flight to Rwanda on 14 June did not take off. However, the government still intends to move forward with its Rwanda policy and will continue to violently detain and deport people. Legal challenges to the Rwanda policy via the High Court have been delayed until September. Street action is continuing. FRFI London and Brighton joined protests at Brook House and Colnbrook detention centres as part of a weekend of action called by SDS on 16 and 17 July.
At Colnbrook, Labour MP John McDonnell spoke to the crowd. Though it was right that he attended the protest in his constituency, McDonnell used the opportunity to cover up the racism of the Labour Party. McDonnell left as soon as he had spoken, but RCG comrades called out the Labour Party’s track record in acting as agents of British imperialism including attacking migrants, introducing racist legislation and opening detention centres. The SDS mic compere led chants of ‘no justice, no peace, no racist MPs!’.
Building resistance to deportations and detention centres is part of the fight against British state racism. It must be organised outside the confines of the racist Labour Party and its vassals who employ anti-democratic tactics in attempt to contain any anger against the state within the narrow parameters of respectable protest. The RCG and FRFI supporters continue to organise and support street actions against British state racism. Join us.
