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They shall not pass - demo @ kalyx/Colnbrook 10th February 2007

John O | 11.02.2007 15:59 | Migration | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Birmingham | London

200 + demonstrators from all over the UK supported the demo outside Kalyx/Colnbrook called by the 'No Borders Network'

Police bottle it
For over an hour no traffic passed in or out of the complex as the police gave up trying to clear a path through the assembled protestors.














People are moving. They are crossing mountains, rivers and oceans. Risking their lives by leaving their homes, crossing borders and in entering the UK. Asking for a place to exist and to live with dignity. Yet people who flee poverty, war and injustice throughout the world are deemed 'illegal' forced to work for low wages in precarious conditions and locked in removal centres, deprived of their freedom to move.

But no one is illegal. In making them illegal governments deny their existence and make them invisible. This invisibility is enforced by a capitalist system that seeks to criminalise and marginalise many of those seeking to survive within it, while at the same time depending on their labour and suffering to ensure its survival and keep us all in a state of fear and obedience.

With hunger-strikes, acts of self-harm and protest people are fighting their invisibility. The recent resistance inside the detention centres joins with the thousands of other people worldwide who demonstrate, riot, light fires and destroy compounds in protest against and in defiance of their incarceration. It shows that people, regardless of their desperation, will always struggle for their human dignity.

The problem with detention centres is not how badly they are run but that they exist in the first place. Private companies make huge profits from the incarceration and removal of hundreds of people every week. Migrant workers and those inside the centers are often exploited by the same companies. Kalyx, the business that operates Harmondsworth, is part of a catering company called Sodhexo, whose massive profits are based on the low wages of their mainly migrant workforce. Similarly the company which operates Colnbrook, Serco, is a large private security company who use cheap migrant labour to maximize their profits.

It's time to say Enough! We support migrant's struggles to work, live and stay in the UK.

On 10th February, we intend to join their struggle and take action in solidarity with our sisters and brothers inside the detention centres. Join us!

We demand:

Close all Immigration Removal Centres

Stop Deportations

No Immigration Controls

For more information, contact, London No Borders:
Rebecca Fisher
 http://noborderslondon.blogspot.com

John O
- e-mail: JohnO@ncadc.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.ncadc.org.uk

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

stopping all traffic for an hour..........

13.02.2007 00:42

good demonstration.......... stopped traffic for an hour in an out......including legal reps , solictors and friends and familes of those inside....well done what a success and on top of this is unlikey the detainees in side knew anything or reasons for the demonstrations, have read on other sites that 4 iraqis missed seeing their solictors and where deported next day with out access to them........well done to all of you........so demonstrations work really well...... home office must be so gratefull for all your help ,twats

youth uckups

It's not about stopping traffic and fighting the cops

13.02.2007 16:40

Grow Up!! The vast majority of use were there as part of our fight against the racist, appalling, inhumane asylum and immigration system, not to block roads or have some boring fight with the police, save that for other protests it played no part in this one. I was there for teh whole time, one car etried to get in and was let in and then left, the same for a cycle courier - that was all teh traffic there was in and out. It was not a blockade it was a dignified protest which has been reported in a somewhat skewed way on these pages.

No Borders

get your facts right people

14.02.2007 22:03

The blockade such as it was did not prevent anyone inside from being able to see their lawyers or families. We left an hour before visiting time began.

The detainees were very aware why we were there. They had been told about the demo beforehand, they could see the banners and the messages of solidarity and one actually addressed the crowd over the phone from inside the centre.

I was there