The demo in itself was already a great success! We carried three big banners reading ‘Freedom of Movement for all – defend autonomous spaces’, ‘No Borders, No Nations – against migration management’, and ‘Occupy – Resist’. There was a banner drop along the route, hundreds of spoof ‘Mesho’ newspapers were given out, and it was great to see a hundred people sprint down Kings Street past all the posh shops.
But as someone said, this was not just a demonstration. In Castlefields, we succeeded in collectively occupying Jackson 's Wharf, an old pub that was the focus of a successful local campaign against redevelopment. Up to a hundred squatters entered the abandoned building, hanging banners from its balcony and opening bottles of cava that No Borders had provided! Even the cops seemed happy to see an old pub being brought back to life for a couple of hours.
And let’s not forget that the events in Manchester coincided with dozens of building occupations, protests and street parties across Europe, in cities as diverse as London , Amsterdam , Vienna and Prague . Worldwide, tens of thousands attended.
Our actions have clearly shown the ridiculousness of having hundreds of houses stand empty, while social and community centres are being shut down and individuals face extortionate rents, mortgage repayments or eviction threats. With sky-high rents forcing the poor to the margins, the creeping privatisation of public space, and a council willing to close down vital community services and simultaneously sell off swathes of the city centre to luxury property developers and retailers, there has seldom been a time when fighting for autonomous spaces in Manchester has been more important.
We need to recognise borders where they appear. The restrictions created by capitalist social relations and the property system abolishes common ground, segregates according to wealth and ownership, and in doing so throws up borders all around us. Control of the movement and association of people - whether at the micro-level of our inner cities or the macro level of international migration is a global issue that must be challenged.
We should fight to create spaces in Manchester not simply as bases of resistance or celebration (though we hope they can provide this), but to encourage a departure from the systems that control us. For centuries, people have migrated across borders and have occupied spaces to live in as a way to take control of their own lives. They choose to leave their own pasts, in an effort to claim autonomy over their future lives.
The demonstration on Saturday was a celebration of this....Thank you to everyone who participated!
Comments
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No borders - what capitalism wants?
18.04.2008 12:12
Ruby
'Managed Migration' is what Capitalism wants - Not No Borders
18.04.2008 14:15
The rich and those who aspire to be like the rich, only want free movement for themselves and are against the idea of open borders for the rest of humanity. They want 'managed migration' so they can have cheap labour when and where they want it regardless of human rights and part of this system of migration management is enforced deportation.
Migrant workers send money back to their countries of origin; money which goes directly to their families and local communities. This is in contrast to the military and development aid the West spends on propping up local elites in return for access to markets and cheap raw materials, undermining local communities and the environment in the process.
For example in 2002, the World Bank estimated workers’ remittances to all developing countries at more than $80bn. That was more than 2.5 times the size of all Official Development Assistance (including loans) given by the rich nations to the 'developing world' in the same year. Since these figures include only official remittances, which enter through formal banking channels, it means that the actual size of remittance flows – official and unofficial – could easily have been twice as large.
Therefore if the person who made the last comment is genuine about helping in the migrants' countries of origin, they should support migrants who come here in their struggles for better pay and conditions. Not only would that be supporting local communities all over the planet through the money the migrants send back, it would also prevent the capitalists exploiting migrants' vulnerability due to their immigration status to undermine the wages of other workers.
Finally it's a big lie that everyone outside the west is trying to get to here. The majority of migration takes place between neighbouring countries in the 'developing world'. Only those with enough resources can afford to attempt the journey to the Western states, often only to find themselves cruelly disillusioned of any belief they might have held about the west’s political freedoms or economic dream, once they get here.
If you want to see a better common future for all the world's peoples, you need to ditch any nationalist ideas of privileged access and fight for increased access to resources for us all, for freedom of movement and equality for all in opposition to capitalism and to 'managed migration'.
global citizen
Borders maintain economic injustice
18.04.2008 18:23
No one is illegal. We want freedom like birds have. Until all are free!!
No Borders
Do the organisers ever consider the words used?
20.04.2008 02:38
However... Does anyone ever consider what phrases such as 'defend autonomous spaces’ mean to the average member of the public?
I overhead several people and I can tell you they have NO IDEA what this means and they didn't have a clue what the march was about. In which case what is the point?
We near plain language that everyone can understand. Not activist jargon words. It's about communicating the message to as many people as possible.
Tino
to tino
25.04.2008 15:11
Is it patronising to suggest that the makers of the banner don't think and that the public don't understand?
The makers of the banner had different reasons but agreed that it would be nice for a change not to shy away from a word that we use a lot. There are lots of compromises that can be made eg we had materials for people to make their own message at the beginning.
You might be right that the majority didn't understand the word but that does not mean that it is not useful, or can not catch on, because it has in other parts of the world. I heard some positive feedback on it from non-activist people.
And i don't think it is all about being evangelical, sometimes it is important to do things for yourself, for fun, for your cause, for your sub-culture...etc.
j
Empty houses
11.03.2009 11:55
Cathy
Homepage:
http://www.e1buytoletmortgages.co.uk