Sheffield Naseh Demo - 21st Aug
Chris | 21.08.2004 19:30 | Anti-racism | Migration | Sheffield
Assembling at Ellesmere Green
Marching down Spital Hill
Passing under the Wicker archs
Marching down the Wicker
Marching down the Wicker
Crossing Lady's Bridge
Marching up Waingate
Rally at the Town Hall steps
Rally at the Town Hall steps
Rally at the Town Hall steps
There was probably somewhere between 100-200 people on the demonstration, and although there was support from passers by (tooting of horns on The Wicker for example) there was also a shout of "send them home" from a passing First bus driver on The Wicker and chants of "piss off" as we passed Castle Market.
I wonder if the reception would have been any different if more radical demands were raised in addition to the "asylum seekers welcome here" variety, a clearer and less ambigious demand for No Borders and the right for everyone on the planet to live where they choose is in some ways easier to argue for and gets away from the idea that this is just an issue for Sheffield or the UK. Already EU citizens have the right to live anywhere in the EU -- this hasn't led to Greek Islands sinking due to the influx or poeple from less nice parts of the EU -- people generally like to stay living where they are and this is mostly the case the world over.
The No One is Illegal web site,
http://www.noii.org.uk/ has a manifesto (NO ONE IS ILLEGAL! For a world without borders! No immigration controls!) that is well worth reading and the No Border Network web site http://www.noborder.org/ has news from campaigns across the EU. More info about Naseh Ghafor:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2004/08/296115.html
Chris
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Open borders is not exactly a popular policy!
22.08.2004 11:09
You wonder whether the response would have been different if you had been calling more openly for open borders. The answer is YES - there would have been MORE hostility to your march. Though most people think that the asylum system is being abused, many people have some sympathy for asylum seekers - or at least for those they think are genuine cases of people fleeing persecution. Very few people in this country or in the EU would support completely open entry into the EU. Even if you think it would be a good policy (which I don't), politically it's a non-starter.
Vox Pop
No Borders and open borders are not the same thing...
23.08.2004 13:50
Earth at Night
Also I don't think the term asylum seekers is all that helpful, it has the implication that economic migration is not acceptable and people have to be perscuted in one country before they are allowed to enter another country... Far better to simply say No One Is Illegal...
One argument against No Borders is the odd idea that it would result in some parts of the world getting overcrowded... well, I have news for you, we have this situation already with the current setup!
I'm sure that with no controls on who is allowed to live where we would actually have a better distribution of world population not a worse one!
The attached photo illustrates how unbalanced population distribution is already... Photo credits and more info on the NASA site:
Chris
Spliting hairs
23.08.2004 19:35
"It's been a long time since a demonstration in Sheffield followed the old route from Caborn's Corner, Spital Hill into town, and it made a change from the mini circular routes in the centre of town."
It's a bit of a side issue, but the most recent march along this traditional route was last year, when marches from all over Sheffield converged on the town centre in protest at the same war (or a facet of it) that Naseh is fleeing,
M
messenger boy
no class..
25.08.2004 21:05
mozaz
mozaz
Video of the start of the march
26.08.2004 23:02
Chris
Video of the start of the march
26.08.2004 23:16
Chris