British Workers, migrant workers, one class, one fight!

The Latin American Coalition Against Cuts (COLACOR) came together to form a Latin American bloc on the south London feeder march leaving from Kennington park. We were joined by activists from the IWW to demonstrate against the worst attack on the working class in living memory.

We marched to show the rest of the trade union movement that these cuts are affecting immigrants as well as British people.

We don’t want to be made scapegoats for a crises that we did not cause. The crisis was caused by bankers who get paid millions whilst we who clean their offices survive on poverty pay. “Unemployment and inflation are not caused by immigration, Bullshit! Come off it! The enemy is profit!”

We took to the streets to show that we will not be intimidated by attempts to use immigration controls as an anti-union tool.  In Colombia, one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a trade unionist, people are often disappeared for unionising. Now those that have fled Colombia find that in Britain too immigrant workers are disappeared for organising; they are not killed but deported, snatched and bundled out of the county where they will no longer be a nuisance. “We´re workers, not criminals, NO ONE IS ILEGAL!”

We have seen in our own countries the affects of austerity, extreme capitalism, privatisation, exploitation, enforced poverty, but we have also seen how popular uprising can bring down governments, defeat corporations and restore power to the people.

This is only the beginning! We know that this war cannot be won by a simple A to B march; we must organize, resist, unite, and fight.  We have to throw everything we have at this government of the rich, including a general strike. We need to build a wide and inclusive movement that not only opposes cuts but STOPS them. We will fight hasta la victoria siempre!

COLACOR are:

Latin American Workers Association (LAWAS), Latin American Women’s Rights Service (Lawrs), Golden Years (Años Dorados) Day Centre, Bolivia Solidarity Campaign, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, The Prisma, IWW IU 640 (Cleaners & Allied Trades), Hands off Venezuela, Quinto Suyo (Perú), Latin American Disabled Peoples Project (Ladpp), LARC Latin Americans Recognition Campaign UK and Latinos in London.

We were also joined on the day by around a dozen teenagers and children who were the loadest and proudest protesters. ¡Arriba la juventud!