FRFI 197 June / July 2007
‘Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways… The point however is to change it..’
Karl Marx
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! has been organising events around the country in support of those struggling against imperialism, whether resisting occupation and oppression in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan or suffering racist attacks here in Britain.
Asylum seekers fight back
FRFI comrades in the Northeast continue to work to strengthen Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR). TCAR is an organisation made up of different groups and individuals. Over the past two months FRFI has fought to ensure democracy within TCAR. At a general meeting to review the principles of TCAR, FRFI successfully proposed that TCAR’s remit should include raising awareness of British involvement in countries that asylum seekers were escaping from. FRFI has also countered a proposal to ban the sale of political literature at events and is fighting against a trend towards censorship.
TCAR members have produced a leaflet to urge people to take a pledge of resistance, to stand in solidarity with asylum seekers against immigration snatch squads, and asylum seekers have been joining FRFI comrades in going door to door in local communities with leaflets and petitions.
On 5 May TCAR had a ‘right to work’ contingent of over 30 people on the Tyne and Wear May Day March. A TCAR member from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) spoke on the platform at the rally about the destitution forced on asylum seekers by the Labour government and finished her speech by leading the crowd in a round of chanting against deportations and for the right to work.
In response to the threatened deportation of leading TCAR member Guler Akdogan and her family to Turkey on 11 May, TCAR members and supporters from the local community mobilised around the clock in defence of the family. Led by a group of courageous young women from the family’s neighbourhood TCAR organised a mass petition collection in the centre of Newcastle on 7 May.
On 9 May a 30-strong TCAR contingent held a lively demonstration and occupation at Government Offices North East. On 10 May the family was informed that their deportation had been halted, and they have since begun new legal proceedings for asylum. Another leading TCAR member, Joy Bowman, whose attempted deportation to Jamaica in March was halted with the help of a national media campaign, has now been granted the right to stay in Britain. The struggle against other families’ deportation continues.
On 28 March and 12 April, FRFI comrades around the country joined the national days of action called by the Congo Support Project (CSP). On 12 April FRFI and North West Asylum Seekers Defence Group (NWASDG) joined a march in Manchester to demand an end to deportations to DRC and to denounce the biased British media. About 200 people, mostly Congolese, attended this, the fourth in a series of Congolese demonstrations in Manchester. Demonstrators vented their anger at the racist British state and staged sit-down protests at the major junctions, stopping cars and trams. A NWASDG speaker pointed to British involvement in the Congo and the need to unite asylum seeking communities in Britain with each other, and with the local population.
NWASDG has kept up the campaign in support of Halima and Bailey Junior, a 20-year-old pregnant mother, and her one-year-old baby under threat of deportation to Cameroon. Their case was highlighted in the Manchester Evening News twice in a month. At Halima’s final hearing at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal on 15 May, she was informed that she will receive the decision on her deportation through the post. Her baby is due in early June.
FRFI members and supporters in London attended the CSP demonstrations outside the Home Office in protest against the forced removal of people to the DRC where they risk torture and death. FRFI comrades in London are also continuing to hold monthly demonstrations at Communications House Immigration Reporting Centre.
Stop the war!
FRFI continues to campaign against the brutal occupation of Iraq by British and US forces. Weekly stalls have taken place around the country calling for the immediate withdrawal of imperialist troops. On the May Day rally in London we joined Kurdish and Turkish revolutionary groups to celebrate International Workers’ Day.
Victory to the Intifada!
FRFI activists in London have kept up their weekly activity on the streets in support of Palestine. Pickets of Marks and Spencer, Britain’s biggest corporate sponsor of Israel, continue every Thursday evening. The Boycott Marks & Spencer campaign is now in its seventh year and we have seen off four years of organised Zionist counter-protest. We will be joining the 9 June Enough! national demonstration for Palestine, and to mark the 40th anniversary of the annexation of East Jerusalem, the Victory to the Intifada campaign will be organising actions nationwide on or around the 28 June.
Come and join us in action!
EVENTS
LONDON
Tuesdays 5 June and 3 July, 1-2pm
Demonstration Defend asylum seekers! Stop deportations!
Communications House
210 Old Street roundabout, EC1
(Nearest tube Old Street)
Wednesday 20 June, 7-9.30pm
LSE FRFI society public meeting
Palestine 1967-2007 –
40 years of resistance
London School of Economics (LSE),
Room S421, St Clement’s Building,
Houghton Street, WC2 (Nearest tube Holborn)
Wednesday 18 July, 7-9.30pm
LSE FRFI society public meeting:
Ten years of Labour
LSE, Room S50, St Clement’s Building
Every Thursday 6-8pm
Picket of Marks & Spencer
Oxford Street
(Nearest tube Marble Arch)
For further details phone 020 7837 1688
Or email [email protected] or [email protected]
MANCHESTER
Saturday 16 June, 12 noon
North West Asylum Seekers Defence Group street stall Market Street
Monday 18 June, 12 noon
Demonstration Defend asylum seekers!
Close down Dallas Court Reporting Centre!
Dallas Court, South Langworthy Road, near Broadway tram stop, Salford
Saturday 30 June, 12-3pm
Boycott M&S picket
Market Street
For further details phone 07816 547 066
Or email [email protected]
Website: www.manchesterfrfi.co.uk
To contact NWASDG, phone 07779 189 794
Or email [email protected]
Website:www.asylum-seekers-defence.org.uk
LEEDS
RCG/FRFI in Leeds is currently planning new activities in the area
To get involved contact 07899 983 131, [email protected]
NEWCASTLE
Thursday 28 June 6-8pm
Victory to the Intifada protest
commemorating 40th anniversary of annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel
Northumberland St
Every Saturday, 12-2pm
Street action
Every Saturday, 3pm
Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) weekly meeting
Downstairs at Amnesty Bookshop, bottom of Westgate Road
For further details call 07857 323 523
Or email [email protected]
Website: www.frfinortheast.co.uk
For TCAR contact [email protected]
SCOTLAND
For information email [email protected]
