The weather has turned in the last few days – by day the winds are chilling and by night the first frosts creep in. In Calais, since the camps nicknamed the ‘Jungle’ have been destroyed, large numbers of those waiting to seek asylum in the UK are being forced to sleep on the streets, without shelter or blankets. Finding this far beyond the realms of reason, groups from Bristol are gathering blankets, warm clothes and other essentials to respond to this urgent humanitarian crisis.

Jungle - Destroyed

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS, CLOSE TO HOME?

Children as young as ten are sleeping under bridges. If found taking shelter or sleeping out, peoples’ few possessions are removed, their blankets sprayed with chemicals and their temporary refuges destroyed or evicted. These are people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea and other zones of conflict, whose situation the UK and other western governments have been instrumental in worsening. French immigration policy, voiced by minister Eric Besson, has chosen however to ignore its complicity in these broader issues, calling (like the UK Border Agency) for stricter border controls and the use of state power to break up any signs of their existence.

BLANKET APPEAL, YOU CAN HELP!

We don’t think that this is acceptable. Thousands of people attempting to move across Europe to seek asylum or a new life are stranded as a result. The associations and charities of Calais cannot cope with such a humanitarian catastrophe, and as an act of solidarity we would like to collectively respond by transporting aid there from Bristol. If you would like to join us in expressing your indignation or support, please help us collect for the two ‘convoys’ which will leave Bristol on November the 6th and November the 26th.

We welcome:
blankets
sleeping bags
warm clothes (especially winter jackets and waterproofs)
rocket stoves , camping gas stoves
mens shoes
tents
tarpaulin
rope
tools

Collection points until 26th November will be:

* the Welcome Centre drop-in, Newton Street, Easton: Wednesdays 10.00 – 12.00 and Thursdays 10.00 – 16.00
* Kebele Social Centre, Robertson Rd, Easton: Saturday 11:00 – 14:00 and Sunday 18:00 – 21:00

Thank you.

* If you would prefer to give a donation then please make cheques payable to Bristol No Borders, c/o Kebele, 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6HB or make a bank transfer to Sort code 089299, Account number 65330812, quoting reference 51771 to ensure it comes to the right account. THANKS

An excellent new Zine about the fucking awful situation in Calais and the resistance to the repression can be found here: calais-94 or here

Extract :

Rasheed. This is the second time Rasheed has tried to move to England, his account makes sobering reading, yet despite this, he continues to smile, happy to talk about his experiences, in the hope that it will improve life for others. Eight hours after I did this interview I watched as the CRS arrested Rasheed for a second day in a row under the bridges. He was released after a couple of hours, a lucky escape as today the first charter flight containing 40 Afghans in the joint operation between UK and France has left from Paris, despite protests from many groups…

“In 2003 I went to England from my home of Afghanistan. I lived in Portsmouth for three and a half years, and then I was deported to Azerbaijan and then Kabul. I left after 4 months to begin my journey back to England. I went to Pakistan, then Iran, through Turkey then Greece. I spent one and a half years in Patras; it is very difficult to cross there with the navy. Then I made it to Albania, but then I was taken back to Greece. I left again, to Macedonia, then Serbia. I spent two and a half months in prison in Serbia. Then I went to Hungary and Austria but on the Swiss border I was caught and spent 1 month in detention there. I went back to Austria and spent another month and a half in a detention centre in Salzburg. I went to Hungary, then back to Austria, then Italy, and finally France. I have been in Calais for 10 days. I want to go back to England because everywhere else there is trouble. ‘Asylum’ in Italy and France means nothing; you have no shelter, no work. In Calais I am arrested all the time, and then released after 1-2 hours. This morning I was arrested.I am afraid to return to Afghanistan.

The Taliban and America are at battle. If you work with the Taliban, America says you are Al Qaida. If you work with America, the
Taliban say why, you are Muslim? America has some control in Kabul, but in the provinces the Taliban rule. It is very dangerous, at night time the Taliban come. They rule the border with Pakistan, where drug smugglers rule. This is 1,400 kilometres long. If I go back I am in danger. The Taliban sent me a letter before I left accusing me of working with America because I wouldn’t help them. In my province there are many CID (Criminal Intelligence Department) agents, everyone hears your words. They come at night. There is no work for me. I am an artist, a designer, but I cannot work in Kabul. I have spent 2 years travelling now, my mind isn’t working anymore. I have lost all my family; I spent all my money trying to get to England, so if I am deported I am in trouble. I like no borders because it means no detention, no deportation, no finger prints.”

(© Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk)

It’s just leaked out that Basildon Council’s Cabinet will meet on Saturday, December 12,to decide which out of two bailiffs companies to award the two million pound contract for the eviction operation at Dale Farm.One is Constant & Co.

The banner reads: Mohammad Kamran Atif, dead from torture at the Nikaia Police Station – MURDERER

STATEMENT FROM THE OCCUPIED TOWN HALL OF NIKAIA

Four-hundred demonstrators marched together today, October 17, on the streets of Nikaia in a demonstration of rage for the recent assassination of 25-year old Pakistani migrant Mohammad Atif Kamran, who passed away following his torturing in the police station of Nikaia. The demonstration had been called by anarchist collectives and a local assembly of the neighboring areas.

We walked through the area’s main streets, passed by the house of the assassinated Atif and headed toward the police station. The large numbers of Riot Police (MAT) and motorcycle forces (Delta and Zita) that were “accompanying” the demonstration parading in its front, back and side streets, were highlighting the official stance of the now Socialist Ministry of Public Order (now called Ministry of Citizen Protection!): To cover up and support the torturers, assassins, the police occupation of the area in face of the appearance of the world of struggle and solidarity. After all, what happened will continue to happen: beatings, torturing and ridiculing of detainees in all police stations across the country.

During our gathering and for the largest part of the demonstration the rain was falling heavy. And yet at the point of passing in front of the police station of Nikaia it wasn’t just the rain drops. The unit protecting the police station also took a rain of stones. The orderly continuation of the demonstration and our retreat from that point was met with the combined attack by Riot Police units in both the back and side part of the demo. The people at the sides of the demo, chained up, held up against the police attacks and locals watching from the pavements and balconies were jeering and swearing at the police occupation force. Yet in-between the mist of the tear gas and the attack of the Riot Police some of us were isolated from the main demonstration and so, were detained by police.

The demonstration ended up at a specific area of Nikaia (”perivolaki”), as previously agreed. Given the police detentions, a large part of those of us gathered there occupied the Town Hall of Nikaia, to demand the immediate release of our captioned comrades. Some of us who left in their vehicles were also stopped at a nearby junction and detained, too. The exact number of the detained is unknown (even if we do know some names for sure) but is definitely a two-digit one, while some have already been charged. The new state doctrine of “democracy and an iron fist” is here in its full glory – as announced by the new minister of Polic Order himself – against all those who revolt and resist. Same as in the gathering of workers and unemployed of the shipyards of Perama on October 15 outside the Ministry of Employment. Same as in Exarcheia, occupied for days now. Same as in the charges against high school students occupying their schools. Same as in the forthcoming mobilisation of the shipyard workers of Piraeus against the selling-off of the port to the COSCO corporation, or the 1400 workers threatened with firing at the shipyards of Skaramangas, in Attica.

Police barbarity is no more than the repressive version of the state-capitalist barbarity: repression, exploitation, submission, death.

What the new political administration came to largely handle was the social dimension of the crisis of our times: the expanded disobedience and confrontation with the demands of the political and financial elites. No illusions then. There shall be no change coming from the new government. As always, after all. State terrorism continues and along with it, continues the struggle for social and individual emancipation, for a free world, without authority.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF THE DETAINED DEMONSTRATORS

DROP ALL CHARGES

IMMEDIATE RETREAT OF THE POLICE FORCE FROM THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF NIKAIA

AND AROUND THE OCCUPIED TOWN HALL

activists from lesvos noborder camp

You may remember the demos we held in Bristol and Oxford last year. Well, perhaps inevitably, they lost there legal battle, but as the article below says, having rejected the easy way out and a pay off of £3000 the workers remain defiant in the face of defeat. The Julio and Pedro are an inspiration, against a background of Trade Unionist defeatism and timidity.

The Amey case: Burn your bridges, save your dignity

A judge made clear on August 10th that the verdict was final and cannot be appealed: the plaintiffs had defamed the company by handing out leaflets where the names of Amey and its manager Laura Jordan were in bold capital letters, something deemed aggressive and ‘inexcusable’ in the English language.

Julio Mayor and Pedro Rengifo thus lost the case, their jobs and the money they had been offered (an attempt to buy their silence: they refused with – and for the sake of – their dignity).

However, they did not feel defeated… Failures can involve conquest too. It starkly displayed the persecution of immigrants organising for their rights and showed that solidarity exists. They learned from it, and kept fighting by themselves. They conquered fear and busted myths.

Julio Mayor explains this well, “During negotiations we did what we felt necessary: setting a precedent against the bosses’ abuses. We were facing Amey, a multinational, but their arguments were very weak. We were very keen to show that the manager and Amey had broken the law. We feel satisfied by what we did.”

THE FIGHT

It was an exhausting, instructive, long, drawn-out fight with hills and bends. “The Amey case” highlighted a common but deliberately ignored situation: the exploitation of “illegal” immigrants and persecution of those who organise (in unions or otherwise) against it; but above all, the undeniable alliance between employers, immigration police and state bodies to enforce immigration policy. Moreover, it means exploitative companies need not answer for their staff, exploiting them before casting them aside when they become an irritant. To avoid paying wages and improving work conditions, with the words “no papers”, they can have workers locked up. The result: thousands of immigrants mercilessly exploited, arrested then deported in a process denying them no rights and ignoring their protests. Hundreds of companies act with impunity, complicit in the employment of “illegals”: employing them in full awareness of their status, or even giving them the means and information to work… “legally”… An unfair “justice” where foreigners always lose.

There have been other cases like Amey – before, then and since. Bosses hire immigrants, knowing them to be illegal; exploit them; the immigrants protest; Immigration “appear”; wages go unpaid; deportations keep stacking up; the exploiters do it all over again and nothing is done about it… They are not condemned, not penalized.

That is perhaps why some people, determined to stop this cycle, immediately rallied round Julio and his sacked colleagues. CAIC (Campaign Against Immigration Controls) heard of the case and supported it with numerous demonstrations around England, which were also backed by No Borders, the Latin American Workers Association, universities, media, human rights organisations, groups and individuals across the country.

Time was not on the five cleaners’ side, so they had strategy meetings mainly in working hours and Julio and his colleagues worked nights, Monday to Friday.

THE OBSTACLES

Moreover, after ACAS called for conciliation, they refused Amey’s offer of £3000 each. Then, Julio recalls “the Prospect union, clearly supporting Amey, argued that the company had spent a lot of money on the disciplinary proceedings and investigations, so we should be more reasonable. But we told them that the fault lay with Amey, not us. Given our stance, Prospect decided to withdraw their legal support.”

For their part, Unite [which had also supported them] began to cave after the Employment Tribunal talks. “At that time three of us were Unite members. The lawyers they assigned to us said that we had no chance of success, we had slandered the company and so were rightly sacked.”

In the course of the dispute many organisations expressed their interest in helping out when the unions would not represent them. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Julio’s perception was that “no-one was interested in our case any longer, since there were only two of us left, not five like there were to begin with.”

Jorge Loaiza and Rubén Jiménez had abandoned the struggle because they had no time for meetings and tribunals. But Rengifo and Julio decided that they would keep going. Their memories stopped them from taking a backwards step, no matter whether they were with or without the unions, with others or alone. They remembered the events of May 2007 when three cleaners were deported and another four sacked.

THE BACKGROUND

Days beforehand, the 36 Latin Americans employed by Amey to clean the National Physical Laboratories had determined their fate. Tired of accepting Amey’s abuses – and because they were organised – they began to protest when, without reason, the company decided to cut wages and staff numbers; doubled the workload; permanently re-assigned them, unjustifiably; and disregarded health and safety standards.

At first they believed Amey would re-consider its behaviour, only to be betrayed: Amey called them to a meeting… at which more than 60 immigration police arrived. A raid, in which several were jailed.

Those who survived this ambush re-doubled their protests, verbally and in writing, as individuals and publicly. This time they protested the injustices of working for Amey, and indeed because their workload was doubled when no-one replaced the deported workers. But they also protested the way in which Amey silenced their colleagues. They gave out leaflets explaining the situation, and shouted people’s names and their crimes.

The consequences of their tenacity and courage were however unfavourable and gave little room for hope: they were sacked, because, in the employers’ eyes, “their actions damaged the company’s image”.

Refusing to be intimidated, they demanded Amey appear before an Employment Tribunal, on grounds of unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and shortcomings in health and safety.

They sought reinstatement in their posts and financial compensation for the hardship endured when they were forced to go without any wages.

Then, on 10th February 2009, Amey met with them and their Unite and Prospect representatives. ACAS were also present. Amey wanted to make a deal and offered a third of the pay-off demanded, but no reinstatement. They told them that they needed an answer by the 17th: this was a “no”. The offer was “inappropriate and unfair, given the losses and hardship caused”.

Prospect had advised them to accept Amey’s offer and withdraw the Tribunal case. They warned that if they did not, the “union would withdraw its legal backing”.

And so it was. The Unite withdrew its support, as Julio Mayor explained, “It is a policy of the unions that when one takes away its support, the others do the same out of ‘solidarity’. This makes no sense: when workers join a union, it is because they expect 100% of the benefits of being in the union. Membership also allows you to get backing from certain organisations and campaigns not dependent on the unions, and this helps significantly in developing a higher level of struggle.”

The cutting-loose did not surprise them. Even at that time, in declarations to the press, Julio showed that their withdrawal of support did not seem strange to him: “In the past I have seen the same attitude from unions: to represent or give legal support to a worker before a Tribunal, they must have more than a 60% hope of success. If that is not the case, they will not fight, since the unions will lose face and it will cost them a lot. The unions in this country will only give something up in order to gain something.”

Julio and his comrades knew they had to keep going by themselves, seeking representation independent of the unions, warning: “With them or without them we will continue onwards. We will continue fighting, whatever happens, even if we forfeit Amey’s offer”.

“What other option do we have if they will not meet our request for help? The only options we were left with were to withdraw the Tribunal case or represent ourselves. We chose the latter.”

Yes, they lost, but the experience was positive in teaching them that workers can appear before a Tribunal “without begging for unions’ representation. The unions acted as if they were offering a service to the workers, as if they were doing us a favour, rather than a service which we had previously paid for”.

For this reason, there was success amid the defeat, because although they know that larger numbers have greater chance of victory, now they are not afraid to fight any battle – with support or not – and are determined “to continue helping workers win their rights” and offer their solidarity whenever it may be necessary.

Mónica del Pilar Uribe Marin is an international freelance journalist specialising in Human Rights, Politics and Environment: uribemonic@hotmail.com

Info sharing night on the situation of migrants
and resistance to the border regime in Calais.
20th August at 19.30 at the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol.

In Calais, France just 20 miles from this island, around 1500 people live in makeshift refugee camps known as “the jungle”, they are there because of the UK border regime.

“The jungles” and squats around Calais are self organised communities that have existed since the closure of Sangatte, the official refugee camp, in 2002.

The residents of these camps face brutal daily gas and baton attacks by the police. At the request of the UK Border Agency, the French government has pledged to destroy “the jungle” by Christmas.

People from Bristol “with papers” went to the No Border solidarity camp in June and have been involved in ongoing monitoring and drawing attention to the humanitarian crisis that has been created in Calais. Solidarity demonstrations and direct actions have taken place in both Bristol, Calais and elsewhere.

Bristol NoBorders is working closely with both humanitarian and political groups and invites you to help create an effective transnational resistance.

You are invited to a film and experience sharing night
20th August at 19.30 at the Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol.

http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
http://bristolnoborders.wordpress.com

According to sources close to Paul Dacre, he and his entire editorial team belong to  a covern entirely made up of right- wing reactionary journalists -  as well as dancing naked, taking part in orgies, many combine their religion withanother favourite pass-time: dressing up in Nazi Uniforms and goosestepping around the fire.

Paul Dacre, Editor of Daily Mail

Satan

Actually, while plausible, the above paragraph is (would you belive !) totally untrue. But why should that bother us, when the Daily Mail continue to fabricate stories about the Migrants currently living in Calais?

It seem that the Daily Mail’s claim (21st July) that “Migrants in Calais take the British ambush with a knife in a terrifying flight on the highway” has no basis in fact according to the French police, or indeed the French right-wing paper Nord Littoral(http://www.nordlittoral.fr/actualite/la_une/article_1084857.shtml).  Again, according Le Flic no advice was issued to tourists  “…urging motorists to keep their windows and their doors closed until  they are safe at ferry terminal”.

Complaints can be made to: http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/process.html

“When she arrived in this room, the manager Donna Sidley and another woman called Ivon were laughing their heads off.”

Seven cleaners were detained after a raid by immigration police on 14th July, which took place with the complicity of Mitie and Willis. Among our detained sisters and brothers are Alejandro, Hermes Ayala, José Sorriso, Karina Cruz, Cintia, Sonia and Sebastián Desolsa. We are demanding that their salaries are paid and that they win 20 days holiday.

Her name is Lidia, and she said that at 4am there was going to be a meeting about chemicals in the Willis building, and that at 5 in the morning in the basement they would be given times for day-time and early morning shifts. She says that she had a bad feeling about the times of this meeting. When she arrived in this room, the manager Donna Sidley and another woman called Ivon were laughing their heads off. Everyone started coming in, with the illegal workers on one side and the legal immigrants on the other – the undocumented workers already separated out – and Donna took a chemical bottle and said for what purpose this or that bottle served.

Everyone was looking around at each other, some asking each other what was happening and why she was asking all this, and the legal workers on the other side of the room were only looking amongst themselves, knowing that immigration were coming to seize their own workmates, and said nothing. But they did tell the undocumented workers that there was a table full of drinks, things to eat and coffee, and they thought it was for them.

Not even 15 minutes had passed when police started to enter from doors on either side of the room, saying from immigration. No-one moved. One of the police had a file, which only had the names of the illegal workers and photocopies of their documents, but not the names of the legal workers. They called the workers’ names one by one and interrogated them, saying where they had got the documents and where they lived. Many people were crying as they were told off and insulted, and all the while Donna was smiling and jokily making comments to the other police, who smiled too. They insulted the workers and wouldn’t let them leave their seats, and they threatened those who were crying. They then forced them to sign papers which they had not even read: many did not want to, but they insulted them and frightened them, making them scared. They did not know what they were signing. The legal workers were allowed to leave but the others were left behind without being allowed to go to the toilet. Lidia was crying and said that she felt that a policeman was shouting at her aggressively, telling her to shut up. Then the police went over to eat and have the coffee and other drinks, making comments and laughing enthusiastically, making fun of the workers, and Donna and the other woman were also making fun of them, and all the time smiling. The workers watched them, eating and enjoying making fun of them, and they would not let them talk, only to stay silent. No-one gave them even a glass of water even though it was almost 11am by now: the police were enjoying themselves with the manager and gave the workers nothing to eat. Then they were taken away and put in two vans. The black workers were separated from them and the others do not know what happened to them next. They were taken to London Bridge, and then Lidia travelled throughout the whole day, to Liverpool. There, at 2am, they took her to the detention centre. She knew two women there. One woman was released because her husband had papers; the other was deported.

 A public meeting has been called by the Labour Representation Commitee on Tuesday 4th August to discuss solidarity with cleaners in struggle. This once agan raises the question of why senior figures in the Unite United Left have not so far been prepared to offer their solidarity to union members in struggle.

Download pdf leaflet here: http://thecommune.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/lrc-cleaners-forum-leaflet.pdf Tuesday 4th August, 6:30pm Somerstown Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London, NW1 1EE, (5 minutes from Euston Station) In recent years brave union organising efforts have been mounted by migrant workers to demand basic rights and a living wage. A number of cleaning companies have responded by sacking union members and activists; they have colluded with the Border Agency in immigration raids to break organised workers. This is an urgent issue for the whole labour movement – come and discuss what should be done. MR Homepage: http://thecommune.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/testimony-of-a-mitie-worker-in-an-immigration-detention-centre/#more-3133