The flyers were well received in the market and it became apparent that people were unaware of their rights, felt intimidated and felt powerless to challenge the immigration enforcement officers who, it seems were often mistaken for police officers. As well as informing people of their individual rights in a raid, it was useful to inform shopkeepers that they are not obliged to give immigration officers consent to enter, and that they can only enter the premises without this when they are in possession of a warrant or an Assistant Director letter authorising entry.
During the distribution, it was great to see that stall holders and shopkeepers were already starting to talk to each other about the information, and we got the feeling that solidarity was starting to grow immediately around the topic.
This was really encouraging for us and made an enjoyable day feel massively worthwhile. On reflection, we also felt that it would be easy for a couple of people to do something similar in their local market or shopping street. We feel inspired to start doing that more in an autonomous way. The bustcards are downloadable and printable from https://network23.org/antiraids. Just choose the languages that you want, or contact us at antiraids at riseup.net (replace the “at” with “@”) if you need a supply and you want to publicise your own event. We look forward to hearing your stories of distributions in your local areas and please send them to us.
There are also several events coming in the future that you can join, check
https://network23.org/antiraids/2014/05/12/new-events-listing-for-anti-raids-network-this-mayjune/.