UK Indymedia | Photos of No Borders "bubble"

Photos of No Borders "bubble"

A group of about 40 were held in a police "bubble" for about an hour after going to the side of Yarlswood to make themselves visible to the people imprisoned inside.

We're watching you - CCTV attached to crane watching demonstration

The main demo as seen from pavement walking towards the footpath

Flower borders not State Borders - clearly the Officer isn't a fan of the idea

Police harrassing a digital photographer

People being pushed and escorted out of the footpath

Those doing the pushing

The original "bubble"

The aftermath of being pushed into a mesh-wire fence

Section 14 being announced

The arrested being magically de-arrested after giving his name and address

The police gauntlet - note the single normal person on the mid-left

Being made to wait for the coaches

The detention centres and their protectors

...

Being escorted home

A group of about 40 people individually went around the back of Harmondsworth and Yarlswood detention centres to allow themselves to be visible to those who are being imprisoned inside. After about half an hour the police pushed people out of the public footpath and onto the pavement where people were placed in a "bubble" (cordone's clearly too fierce a word for the cops) and held till the coach's were leaving.

People were given a really impassioned response from people inside the detention centre, with detainees waving and banging on the bars in their windows.

The police - fairly violently (see the injury) - pushed people out of the public footpath that runs to the side of the detention centre. They then 'held' people under Section 14 of the Public Order act for about an hour in a police "bubble".

Slowly they start moving people - individually - from one "bubble" to another. To get from one to another you had to walk through twenty cops one of whom was demanding a name and address under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act. Having now received legal advice its clear that this didn't really give them the right to take our name and addresses, though the one person who refused was arrested to ensure they did get his details. The reason given for taking our details was because there was a 'possibility' that we were involved in an 'anti-social' act that could have caused 'alarm and distress for the detainees and those in the nearby industrial estate'.

People being taken out one by one was a really succesful tactic at keeping us as a group confused and atomised, and I think something we should really ensure the cops can't pull on us again!

http://www.lasthours.org.uk

@bolish the borders

Homepage: http://www.rnzine.co.uk

Additions

correction?

08.04.2006 19:38

I think it was Colnbrook, not Yarls Wood. Great pictures!

jab

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

some questions?

09.04.2006 08:30

I have some questions, please reply in good faith and do not just shout me down.. I ask you, in good faith to reply to these queries. No borders seems to me to be madness in present situation. it seems to me it is only possible to have no borders with countries with more or less the same wealth, such as the EU. If we have no borders with third world countries, it seems obvious to me that there will massive migration into EU and first world countries from africa and asia. This would proabably cause a massive popular right wing backlash and lead to someone like the BNP getting power. all the cliches about 'working class solidarity' only exist in leftist textbooks. look at france, look at our own cities. There is no solidarity, and different communities live apart and in mutual distrust. Let us be honest. culture is a problem, islam is a problem. Millions of people arriving here who do not speak english and have a completely different culture would cause chaos. The white working class would probably vote for some far right party, not a left wing one, Also, i do not see how mass immigration into the EU would help poor countries. I mean, surely it is better for poor africans and asians to help their own people in their own countries, and not to become a social problem in europe. the west is rich enough to fund its own doctors and nurses, it does not need to steal doctors from african and asian countres. I do not see how no borders network answers these problems. it just ignores them....It seems no borders network is full of slogans, like all the left, but there is not much behind them. Please reply.

x man

no borders = no states

09.04.2006 16:12

I'm answering these in good faith though I have serious concerns about what level of debate is possible when you declare 'Islam is a problem' in such a blanket manner (what exactly is the problem? And I say this as an ardent atheist). Likewise where does your belief that the people migrating to this country with a different language and culture come from? (And what exactly is 'British' culture anyway?)

I think you're confusing the issue between the freedom to travel between different states and abolishing states completely - the later is what I mean when I say we should abolish borders (hence the phrase: No Borders, No Nations). Much of the strife and conflict in the world is caused by the creation of artificial state boundaries in the late nineteenth century. I don't think anyone is advocating for mass immigration - at least I'm not - but I'm declaring that human beings should all be treated equally regardless of race, religion or the amount of money that they have, and if they feel the desire to come to this country then we should help and support them.

It seems obscene that humans are persecuted in places like Harmondsworth and by the immigration process whilst corporations are able to carve up the global south creating yet more conflict and violence under the auspices of institutions like the WTO and the World Bank. I think it equally obscene that there are grades of "human"; those coming from the global north, or the white dominions don't end up in detention centres; its people of colour, and people with no economic power that get locked up.

Your post also alludes to a belief that millions of people are beating a path into the UK. This is a complete fantasy perpetrated by newspapers such as the Sun and Mail. The number of people that migrate to Britain are minute on a global scale, most ending up in other majority world countries. Likewise if I were to put on a liberal cap for a few seconds study after study, and corrobarated by a number of parliamentary groups have shown that immigration has greatly benefited the UK, adding billions of pounds to the State's economic growth.

@bolish the borders

a reply

10.04.2006 08:23

Firstly, thanks for replying. Secondly, when i say 'islam is a problem' i do not mean that i think islam is a problem in a fascistic way, forgive my clumsiness of expression.. I do not care much about a persons religion and i have no ill will towards islam. i also am an atheist. I mean simply that it seems that different cultures, ie. groups who define themselves and are defined as a group, will have a problems with a different group, and define themselves in opposition to another group.this seems to me to be a natural feature of humanity. There is nothing special about islam in this regard. All groups, religious and ethnic are the same. Catholics, Orthodox, and moslems have been living side by side for years in the balkans, yet this did not stop the slaughter and the violence beneath the surface. The same goes for india, where hindus and moslems have been living together for centuries, but this does not stop the vicious communal violence and deep hatred on all sides. I do not see how we can out of this predicament or simply ignore it by talking about 'solidarity' or whatever. It is not really convincing. Secondly, altho you are surely right that the numbers that the sun and daily mail talk about is ridiculous, 'swamping' etc, yet, there are numbers, and this is a problem. Not for me, not for you, but for the mass of people. This is my intuition. perhaps it is wrong, and i hope so, but i cannot really believe the inhabitants of any nation want no borders and the 'possibility' of mass migration. answer this: what would happen if millions of africans made their way to Britain. What do you think would happen? I think it would lead to a right wing backlash and general violence. racism is idiotic, but it exists as a real force, and i do not know if it is possible to ignore it and simply dismiss it as a right wing aberration. I have seen for myself the mutual distrust among different communities in london, and it is depressing. This is the reason for my scepticism about no borders, not racism as you seem to impute. thank you.

x man

No borders and no alternatives

10.04.2006 15:07

If you have no borders, then you have no states. If you have no states, you have no state benefits and no state persecution or such regional causes of todays mass-migration, social care being provided by the local community. People would move more for climate than economics, one country would no longer strip mine another countries resources, instead communities would regulate themselves as happened for most of human history. Capitalism actually thrives on mass immigration, as witnessed in the USA, so there would be no real reason for us all to get poorer - hell, without the expense of governments and armies we could be much better off in real terms. Racism is simple ignorance but borders are the legal implementation of this ignorance. No borders may seem idealistic, but if millions of people start to move anywhere then no amount of fencing is going to stop them. it's eithre no borders, and an equitable future or a world war none of us will survive.

Use your super-powers for good, xmen !

Danny

Working Class Solidarity Means No Borders

02.05.2006 21:33

I take issue with one comment in the original posting: "that working class solidarity only exists in leftist textbooks." to assume Working Class Solidarity is what these text books portray it to be is simplistic as it seeks to isolate and make static all the vibrant elements that make up Working Class Culture. Working Class Cuture survives and reemerges from obscurity periodically. When it becomes challenging to the status quo or those in charge or those who would like to be in charge, there is a reaction. At the moment when Working Class Culture expresses Solidarity, those desiring Power seek to crush it. The nature of History is that the reactions of those in Power is against those who over whom Power is exercised. When the Solidarity of Workers stretches outside artificial Borders defined by the Powerful, then that Solidarity is portrayed as the "Failure of Multiculturalism", "problem with Islam" - or some such other slogan that, repeated often enough, seems true.

Working Class Solidarity exists because the Working Class knows that the interests of every Person are common interests. Those who would portray the interests of Fellow People as being "different" have already consented to erected borders. Historically, Borders have hardly existed for Corporations which permits them to make common cause in Multinationals.

It is a shame and a failure to portray Working Class Solidarity as an illusion. The next time You or I cry at the death of a loved one; laugh at the joke of a stranger; cheer at sporting skills; feel amazement, terror, sadness or joy in the company of others - that is working class solidarity. It is the capacity to do these things that is the centre of Working Class Solidarity. Knowing that Others are not strangers to be kept out is why Working Class Solidarity is vibrant, alive and always pushes against borders until they disappear.

The fetish of Power - all the nonsense of "Blood and Honour" and "Why Nationality is Best" - is no more than Sheep Voting for Mutton or Cattle for Beef. The Fascist Parties can always offer the erotic spectacle of war, conquest and magnificent uniforms. The truth will always be that the Borders they define will be ever tinier. First a Border about a country when they fall prey to Imperial Fantasies. Then a border about a town when they fall to Mediaeval Fantasies of "Britishness" or "Celticness" or "Teutonicness". Then a border about their Home when they fall for the myth of the "Great Man". At each step they making the world smaller, meaner and more terrifying. When the terror fails to be real, then those fetishising Power make it Real. Borders make that terror more possible. Abolishing Borders makes the futility of Fascists masquerading as Nationalists so obvious - and that is the real fear: that Working Class Solidarity informs us who the real enemy is and how they will be defeated. Abolishing borders will not make strutting Fascists vanish - but it will make the laughable nature of their claims obvious to children.

Working Class Solidarity might be mentioned in textbooks but the truth is that it unfolds daily. When Working Class Solidarity finds a border it breaks it - no matter where they exist.Which terrifies those in power more than bombs. It terrifies those fetishising power more as they see the possibility of the abolition of power. From the small victories of votes for women to the emancipation of Russian Serfs or American Slaves, all Borders will eventually be removed. Not if but when. Not Plans But History. Borders are an evil and an affront to Working Class Solidarity. And the persistent calls for their abolition is a tiny part of Working Class Solidarity.

Apologies to Anybody thinking that voting is a hollow victory. Rightly or wrongly, Votes were desired and aquired: it is a matter of hindsight to suggest it was a wasted victory. No victory arising from the historical nature of the Working Class is ever wasted.

Yet Another Clown

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