Dual Anti-Racism Demonstrations In Glasgow
Ethel MacDee | 15.11.2008 20:05 | Anti-racism
The nearest tube station is Cessnock tube. Turn right out of the tube station, past the shops and right onto Elizabeth Street which will take you past the Unity Centre and on to Brand Street.
Also join us on the Anti Racism and Anti Fascism march on Saturday the 29th. We will be meeting at ten a.m. at St Andrews in the Square just off the Saltmarket. Look out for the black and red flags!
Also join us on the Anti Racism and Anti Fascism march on Saturday the 29th. We will be meeting at ten a.m. at St Andrews in the Square just off the Saltmarket. Look out for the black and red flags!
Glasgow Anarchists call on all to attend twin demonstrations in Glasgow.
* Tuesday 25th November - Defy the introduction of ID Cards, outside Brand Street Immigration Centre at 12:00 noon.
* Saturday 29th November - Anti-Rascism and Fascism Demo, St Andrew off the Square 10:00a.m.
Join us on the 25th of November in demonstration against the implementation of ID cards. We will gather outside the Home Office @ Festival Court, Brand Street, Ibrox from midday on the 25th.
On the 25th of November the state continues with it’s creeping implementation of the ever unpopular ID cards scheme. Having already snuck it in the back door for asylum seekers, pensioners and the disabled they now plan to roll it out to include non-EU students and workers.
The state knows full well how unpopular this scheme is and this is why it is pandering to racist attitudes, fostered by the media, in introducing these cards first for foreign nationals and those who do not have a voice to speak out.
They tried to claim that ID cards would stop terrorism, despite the fact that all terrorist attacks carried out in the UK have been perpetrated by people who would have carried an ID card anyway.
Now they claim it will help stop benefit “fraud”, despite costing far more than benefit “fraud” will ever cost.
Added to this they pander to the racism of papers like the Daily Mail by extolling how it will stop ‘illegal’ immigration. Here it is we come to the racist core of the scheme. The scheme seeks to further fragment society by widening the divide between the sans papier underclass of this country and the rest of the working class. By restricting and regulating access to basic provisions such as health care they create a class of people even more at the mercy of their employers.
‘Illegal’ workers in this country work for a pittance and are always at the mercy of their employer. Should they complain about their conditions then a quick phone call to the Immigration department and the worker is dealt with. Even the threat of this is enough to stop any dissent. Whilst legislation has been passed to allow for sanctioning of employers using illegal labour this rarely happens and it is the worker who is punished.
Resisting the introduction of these cards is an act of self defence as well as one of class solidarity. These cards will be being introduced for British nationals from next year. As of 2009 workers in ’sensitive’ areas such as airports and hospitals will be forced to carry one, something the pilots union is up in arms about. From 2010 any student who wants to receive a student loan will be forced to have one and soon after that anyone wanting to access health care, state benefits or other provisions will be forced to get one. Yet we are told it will be voluntary. Hah!
It is not just the Labour government that are desperate to see this scheme implemented but it is the state as an apparatus. Successive governments have tried, and previously failed, to implement an national ID card for at least 50 years, ever since the end of the ID and ration book scheme after WWII. Why is this? Why are they so determined to push through when we know that it will not affect any of the ‘problems’ they claim it is to address?
To put it simply it is to further reinforce the psychological sensation of being watched over. As with CCTV cameras it is a move towards a panopticon society where our every move is monitored so that we daren’t step out of line.
The concept of a panopticon society comes from the prison designs of Jeremy Bantham. Bantham designed a prison in which the prisoners could be observed at all times but could not see those who observed them, much like in the prison drama Oz. The idea behind this was that as the prisoners could be being watched at any time they will behave as if under supervision at all times.
In todays society there are cameras everywhere, we are filmed hundreds of times every day. We never know whether or not someone is watching the camera yet we become used to being observed, being watched.
Similarly with ID cards. We will not know whether we will need to provide the card that day so we will carry it at all times just in case. We will also become used to providing it when asked. Have you got your papers madame?
We must resist this scheme as firstly it is at the moment an outright racist scheme that only serves to weaken the working class. We must also resist it because when fully implemented it will be another step towards the British state having a level of control over its subjects that a totalitarian state could only dream of.
No Pasaran! No ID!
* Tuesday 25th November - Defy the introduction of ID Cards, outside Brand Street Immigration Centre at 12:00 noon.
* Saturday 29th November - Anti-Rascism and Fascism Demo, St Andrew off the Square 10:00a.m.
Join us on the 25th of November in demonstration against the implementation of ID cards. We will gather outside the Home Office @ Festival Court, Brand Street, Ibrox from midday on the 25th.
On the 25th of November the state continues with it’s creeping implementation of the ever unpopular ID cards scheme. Having already snuck it in the back door for asylum seekers, pensioners and the disabled they now plan to roll it out to include non-EU students and workers.
The state knows full well how unpopular this scheme is and this is why it is pandering to racist attitudes, fostered by the media, in introducing these cards first for foreign nationals and those who do not have a voice to speak out.
They tried to claim that ID cards would stop terrorism, despite the fact that all terrorist attacks carried out in the UK have been perpetrated by people who would have carried an ID card anyway.
Now they claim it will help stop benefit “fraud”, despite costing far more than benefit “fraud” will ever cost.
Added to this they pander to the racism of papers like the Daily Mail by extolling how it will stop ‘illegal’ immigration. Here it is we come to the racist core of the scheme. The scheme seeks to further fragment society by widening the divide between the sans papier underclass of this country and the rest of the working class. By restricting and regulating access to basic provisions such as health care they create a class of people even more at the mercy of their employers.
‘Illegal’ workers in this country work for a pittance and are always at the mercy of their employer. Should they complain about their conditions then a quick phone call to the Immigration department and the worker is dealt with. Even the threat of this is enough to stop any dissent. Whilst legislation has been passed to allow for sanctioning of employers using illegal labour this rarely happens and it is the worker who is punished.
Resisting the introduction of these cards is an act of self defence as well as one of class solidarity. These cards will be being introduced for British nationals from next year. As of 2009 workers in ’sensitive’ areas such as airports and hospitals will be forced to carry one, something the pilots union is up in arms about. From 2010 any student who wants to receive a student loan will be forced to have one and soon after that anyone wanting to access health care, state benefits or other provisions will be forced to get one. Yet we are told it will be voluntary. Hah!
It is not just the Labour government that are desperate to see this scheme implemented but it is the state as an apparatus. Successive governments have tried, and previously failed, to implement an national ID card for at least 50 years, ever since the end of the ID and ration book scheme after WWII. Why is this? Why are they so determined to push through when we know that it will not affect any of the ‘problems’ they claim it is to address?
To put it simply it is to further reinforce the psychological sensation of being watched over. As with CCTV cameras it is a move towards a panopticon society where our every move is monitored so that we daren’t step out of line.
The concept of a panopticon society comes from the prison designs of Jeremy Bantham. Bantham designed a prison in which the prisoners could be observed at all times but could not see those who observed them, much like in the prison drama Oz. The idea behind this was that as the prisoners could be being watched at any time they will behave as if under supervision at all times.
In todays society there are cameras everywhere, we are filmed hundreds of times every day. We never know whether or not someone is watching the camera yet we become used to being observed, being watched.
Similarly with ID cards. We will not know whether we will need to provide the card that day so we will carry it at all times just in case. We will also become used to providing it when asked. Have you got your papers madame?
We must resist this scheme as firstly it is at the moment an outright racist scheme that only serves to weaken the working class. We must also resist it because when fully implemented it will be another step towards the British state having a level of control over its subjects that a totalitarian state could only dream of.
No Pasaran! No ID!
Ethel MacDee
Homepage:
http://www.glasgowanarchists.org.uk
