Sheffield Naseh Demo - 21st Aug

Chris | 21.08.2004 19:30 | Anti-racism | Migration | Sheffield

There was a march today from Ellesmere Green, Burngreave, into the centre of Sheffield to a rally on the Town Hall steps, to demand that Naseh Ghafor be allowed to stay in the UK. At the start of the demonstration it was announced that he has removed the stitches from his mouth and stopped his hunger strike and is now recieving medical attention.

Assembling at Ellesmere Green

Marching down Spital Hill

Passing under the Wicker archs

Marching down the Wicker

Crossing Lady's Bridge

Marching up Waingate

Rally at the Town Hall steps

It's been a long time since a demonstration in Sheffield followed the old route from Caborn's Corner, Spital Hill into town, and it made a change from the mini circular routes in the centre of town.

There was probably somewhere between 100-200 people on the demonstration, and although there was support from passers by (tooting of horns on The Wicker for example) there was also a shout of "send them home" from a passing First bus driver on The Wicker and chants of "piss off" as we passed Castle Market.

I wonder if the reception would have been any different if more radical demands were raised in addition to the "asylum seekers welcome here" variety, a clearer and less ambigious demand for No Borders and the right for everyone on the planet to live where they choose is in some ways easier to argue for and gets away from the idea that this is just an issue for Sheffield or the UK. Already EU citizens have the right to live anywhere in the EU -- this hasn't led to Greek Islands sinking due to the influx or poeple from less nice parts of the EU -- people generally like to stay living where they are and this is mostly the case the world over.

The No One is Illegal web site,

http://www.noii.org.uk/ has a manifesto (NO ONE IS ILLEGAL! For a world without borders! No immigration controls!) that is well worth reading and the No Border Network web site

http://www.noborder.org/ has news from campaigns across the EU.

More info about Naseh Ghafor:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/08/296115.html

Chris

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

Open borders is not exactly a popular policy!

22.08.2004 11:09

Chris,

You wonder whether the response would have been different if you had been calling more openly for open borders. The answer is YES - there would have been MORE hostility to your march. Though most people think that the asylum system is being abused, many people have some sympathy for asylum seekers - or at least for those they think are genuine cases of people fleeing persecution. Very few people in this country or in the EU would support completely open entry into the EU. Even if you think it would be a good policy (which I don't), politically it's a non-starter.

Vox Pop

No Borders and open borders are not the same thing...

23.08.2004 13:50

Earth at Night

Most EU states do have open borders between them, but it cannot be said that there are no borders -- these are different things...

Also I don't think the term asylum seekers is all that helpful, it has the implication that economic migration is not acceptable and people have to be perscuted in one country before they are allowed to enter another country... Far better to simply say No One Is Illegal...

http://www.noii.org.uk/

One argument against No Borders is the odd idea that it would result in some parts of the world getting overcrowded... well, I have news for you, we have this situation already with the current setup!

I'm sure that with no controls on who is allowed to live where we would actually have a better distribution of world population not a worse one!

The attached photo illustrates how unbalanced population distribution is already... Photo credits and more info on the NASA site:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040822.html

Chris

Spliting hairs

23.08.2004 19:35

"It's been a long time since a demonstration in Sheffield followed the old route from Caborn's Corner, Spital Hill into town, and it made a change from the mini circular routes in the centre of town."

It's a bit of a side issue, but the most recent march along this traditional route was last year, when marches from all over Sheffield converged on the town centre in protest at the same war (or a facet of it) that Naseh is fleeing,

M

messenger boy

no class..

25.08.2004 21:05

erm i had a megaphone.. should have used it i guess.. the slogan should have been no boarders no states no class divede in words no one is iligal.. like chris i have hassels with the chosen slogens it just places us in ghtos of there choice.. how about seeing people as human not asylem seekrs.. now that word ayslum ie nut house.. how we miss use the spoken written word.. hay us politicos so often say we are against how about for instead.. how about taking the long view..

mozaz

mozaz

Video of the start of the march

26.08.2004 23:02

This video plays fine using Video Lan Client (vlc)

http://www.videolan.org/ on Linux and vlc can also be installed on Windows and OSX if the media play you have doesn't work.

Chris

Video of the start of the march

26.08.2004 23:16

This video plays fine using Video Lan Client (vlc)

http://www.videolan.org/ on Linux and vlc can also be installed on Windows and OSX if the media play you have doesn't work.

Chris