On Saturday 20th June 2009 Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) organised a Northern March Against Immigration Prisons. The march was planned to fall during Refugee Week to expose the reality of how refugees and other migrants are treated in British detention centres. However, due to the horrific attacks on peaceful hunger strikers in Yarlswood Detention Centre during the previous week, the march had a specific focus of solidarity with those detainees.


Around fifty anti-racist protesters assembled in front of Centre for Life in Newcastle, undeterred by the showers. The weather was not the main concern as the marchers learnt that a group of twenty fascists had attacked the preparations for the Speak Out Against Racism at Grey’s Monument, ripping down TCAR’s banner from the Monument, kicking over a stall and shoving an activist before heading off towards Central Station. The last TCAR march faced a fascist counter-protest and so stewards on this march were well organised in advance to respond to any fascist presence.


A bigger threat to the march was caused by police bureaucracy. Although notice was given well in advance under section 11 of the Public Order act, the police wanted the march to proceed on the pavements, rather than on the road, claiming that stewarding marches is not within their core duties. As it was evidently ridiculous and dangerous for a demonstration to occur on a busy pavement, TCAR sought legal advice and decided to proceed on the road, with stewards marshalling traffic in order to ensure safety for both marchers and pedestrians. However, the police imposed last minute conditions under section 12 of the Public Order Act, both changing the route to a back street and forcing demonstrators to use footpaths at all times. There was not time for a legal challenge before the march so demonstrators had to decide whether to break the conditions on the grounds that we believe them to be unlawful. After an open debate amongst the marchers it was decided to march on the pavement but on the original route, up Grainger Street, which is both more prominent and has wider pavements. Stewards handed out leaflets to shoppers explaining the disruption. Despite the rain, which meant that Newcastle city centre was not at all busy, many pedestrians were still forced out onto the road in order to let the march pass. If the weather had been different then the actions of the police, in preventing demonstrators from marching on the road, would have been very dangerous.

Chants
The march set off at 12noon and marched up past Central Station with chants of ‘Justice for Immigrants! Freedom for Refugees!’
‘Unemployment and Inflation are Not Caused by Immigration! Rubbish! Come off it! the Enemy is Profit!’
‘Immigration is No Crime! End detention! Deportation is the Crime! Lock-up Labour!’

As the march turned up Grainger Street it was met by a group of about 20 fascists waving union jacks and England flags. Their banner read ‘Stop Immigration’. Police were quite aware, both of the likelihood of a fascist counter-demonstration, and of the attacks on the stall at Monument, carried out under the glare of the ever-present CCTV. Despite this, their presence was slight and the police evidence gatherers seemed more interested in filming the anti-racist protesters. The march carried on undeterred with chants of ‘Together! Together! Together we are Stronger!’ and at this point more police turned up, too late to prevent any attack by the fascists, had they done anything more than wave banners, but in time to give the impression they were dealing with racism. In reality the police tried hard to limit the impact of the march by stifling it in bureaucracy.

As the march continued slowly up Grainger Street, it was clear that rather than being intimidated by the fascists, the protesters were more unified and more determined. This was noticeable for example in the strength of the chanting and the fact that chants were led by many different participants on the march. When the march reached Grey’s Monument we began the rally, inviting all anti-racists to come and speak. The fascists, who had run ahead of the march, were standing on a corner of the monument, but as more people joined us and the speeches began they soon left.

Speakers included Noella, chair of TCAR, who spoke about a demonstration last Wednesday at the Government Offices North East to protest against racism and immigration prisons, where a police officer pushed an asylum seeker saying she was ‘ushering them’. As well as this intimidation there were builders shouting racist abuse at the demonstrators, while the police stood and did nothing. She said if asylum seekers are treated like this outside government offices, how must they be treated inside detentions centres? She said Yarlswood detainees are asking for help from the outside as they are being treated like animals.

Annie, TCAR’s communication secretary highlighted the fact that there has been no mainstream media coverage of the horrific attacks on peaceful hunger strikers in Yarlswood detention centre. Our government and media are happy to look at other countries, most recently Iran, and point the finger about a lack of democracy, but will not cover these events within the belly of the beast.

MC Drop Dead Fred rapped about asylum and immigration with ‘Build bridges! Not Borders!’

Amina, a TCAR activist, read her poems ‘This is My Country’ and ‘Poem about Racism’.

Bob, a Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! activist from Manchester, spoke about the war in Afghanistan which is spilling over to Pakistan, and how the arrest of the 11 Pakistani students under terror charges was no coincidence. There was no evidence found to say these students had anything to do with a terror plot, yet when released from prison they were put in immigration prisons. The British imperialist government will attack a section of our society in order to justify their actions in other countries. They use the war on terror and anti-terror laws to criminalise the whole Arab population to make it difficult for these people to protest about what is going on in the Middle East and to justify the actions of the imperialists. For more information on this from the ‘Justice for the Northwest Ten Campaign’ visit www.j4nw10.org

Dee an FRFI activist from Manchester spoke about the ‘Rosejane and Daughter Must Stay Campaign’. Rosejane Wanjohi and her daughter are seeking asylum from Kenya after her husband tried to make her join an outlawed militia. The racist British Labour government is trying to deport the family back to Kenya where they would be likely to be forced to go through female genital mutilation and persecution.

Sam H spoke about our government’s actions in attacking the working class and how we need to stay united to challenge this.

Luke spoke about the capitalist crisis and as it gets worse attacks on the working class will get worse in order for the capitalists to be able to pay back the money they have been throwing at the banks. The contradictions inherent in capitalism mean that it will always fall into crisis no matter how tightly regulated. Imperialist countries like Britain plunder the resources of Africa and the Middle East and force workers into very low paid work with few workers rights. They justify this through the use of racism and under the cover of war. This is no longer enough to prop up the decaying capitalist system, so living standards in Britain are increasingly coming under attack. The government, through the use of racist immigration laws, and the media, through spreading lies and selective coverage, blame problems of housing and job shortages and hospital and school closures on immigrants in order to cause division within the working class so we fight each other instead of the real cause of the problem: the capitalist state.

We continued the rally, braving the rain, until about 2pm, with more contributions from speakers who further highlighted the importance of being out on the street in solidarity with the most oppressed sections of society, challenging the racist nature of the state, because change is not going to come through the ballot box.

‘Together! Together! Together we are stronger!’