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UK Noborder Demos Join Europeans for Free Movement and Right to Stay

ionnek, r7 | 03.04.2005 21:51 | Migration | Birmingham

UK, 2 April 2005. For the first time, a wide coalition of groups participated in a UK-wide, decentralised, but synchronised action day for a radical and uncompromising "no" to immigration controls, following a call for a European day of action for free movement and the right to stay.

People in Birmingham [pic], London, Manchester [call|pics|report], Glasgow, Nottingham [call|occupation|pics 1|2], Oxford and Canterbury were out in the streets simultaneously and made clear that they don't think what the Tories think.

For the first time, people with very different political cultures had mobilised together for free movement: the National Coalition of Anti-deportation Campaigns and the campaigns against detention centers along with committees to defend asylum seekers, migrant and refugee support and community groups, black and asian groups, direct action groups, trade unions, noborder activists and people from social centres.

In Europe, demos and actions were announced in 41 cities and 11 countries. They included the occupation of a detention centre in Barcelona and the occupation of the IOM-offices in Paris [more links]. In Ireland, a demo welcomed back Olunkunle Eluhanle from Nigeria.

The day of action, first agreed at the European Social Forum in London last year, is seen as a contribution to the European landscape of rebellion against migration management. Activists regard it as closely connected to the Euromayday initiatives, thereby linking issues of migration and work.

Check the audio reports for background interviews, the no one is illegal manifesto for a radical position against immigration controls from the UK; and noborder.org for updates from Europe.



For links to actions all over Europe, check Indymedia Germany.

Manchester:

street theatre: detention center Three marches against deportations and racism joined in Manchester City Center on 2 april as part of the European Day of Action for Free Movement and the Right to Stay. More than a dozen organisations [call] came together with individual anti-deportation campaigns to organise this event. Traditional trade union banners and street theatre, the songs of the Congolese contingent and the sambaband, chants in English, Urdu and Lingala made for an unusually diverse demo [report]

South Manchester: NUJ Banner The South Manchester march was led by Mansoor Hassan, an investigative journalist who fled Pakistan after death threats were made against him and his family. His campaign is backed by the National Union of Journalists, who also backed the whole day's events. The march was joined by many individual anti-deportation campaigns from the South of Manchester. A street theatre staged a mobile detention centre complete with detainees.

North Manchester: Congolese Community North Manchester marched with Farhat Khan from Pakistan, who escaped with her children from a violent husband and has been working in various asylum seeker support organisations. Her own claim for asylum has been refused.

Gay Village: Brides Without Borders A samba band and the "Brides Without Borders" set out with Debbie Mgijima and Moses Kayiza from Manchesters Gay Village. Moses Kayiza is a gay asylum seeker who was detained and abused in Uganda because of his sexuality. His asylum claim was refused.

ionnek, r7

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

meanwhile in the US...

04.04.2005 01:15

As violent vigilantes get organized, congress uses the cover to slip through a new anti-immigrant bill while anti-border and anti-vigilante movements rise up all along the US/Mexico border...

 http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/108151.shtml

lotus
mail e-mail: lotus at indymedia d0t org
- Homepage: http://sandiego.indymedia.org

no borders

04.04.2005 12:36

a concept which runs against the grain for a world population poisoned with false faith in nationalism. born into it, drip fed it from birth, what else are people supposed to consider possible. no borders? requires a little imagination, requires prepicturing the way the world works. got the picture?

- -

tory poster

04.04.2005 19:38

with apologies to ionnek and r7
with apologies to ionnek and r7

and what they really mean

.

nick watson
- Homepage: http://www.zmag.org/cartoons

this is why the conservatives will win!

13.04.2005 19:01

Great policies.. keep them out.. not the asylum seekers, not the economic migrants but the drug dealers, child trafficers, terrorists and people who seek to abuse the generous support system we have

A

Alex

Just for the record

17.04.2005 09:22

Good summary , but just to correct it was the SECOND European day of action, the first was called for at the Paris ESF and happened in around the same number of cities on January 31st 2004 for more information on the see the No Border website

Tom
mail e-mail: goldfish1967@hotmail

For the first time....

17.04.2005 22:54

Yes, we reported about the first european day of migrants struggles last year as well:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/02/284755.html

and passed on the report to the global indymedia site

 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/110379.shtml

and noborder.org:

 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/02/110379.shtml

The "first" for the UK movements this year was that so many existing and well-established groups organised the events together, with a common call. Last year, this didn't happen. An achievement...

by the way, check  http://makebordershistory.org for one of the initiatives during the G8...



ionnek
- Homepage: http://makebordershistory.org

nuts

25.06.2005 22:29

Bloody anarchists!

zero