No to racist killings - no to racist laws
lonnek (IMC UK Collective) | 15.10.2000 19:37
On October 14th, the Caravan, carf and ncrm got together with friends and family to hold a demonstration against racism in London. This was one of the rare occasions if not the first demo where migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from many different backgrounds spoke for themselves.
On October 14th, the Caravan, carf and ncrm got together with friends and family to hold a demonstration against racism in London. This was one of the rare occasions if not the first demo where migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from many different backgrounds spoke for themselves. A very special event, expressing the hardship and sadness of the struggle as well as the force and power of solidarity and determination.
It was a small demo, and nevertheless one of the most intensive and powerful I've seen. A patchwork demo made from many small and diverse patches which in the end felt like a big quilt. The demo started slow. "It's quite old fashioned, marching all this way down Lambeth", an RTS activist commented. A woman from the NoBorders group was busy sewing up her banner : "No to a Europe surrounded by a wall. Freedom of movement now and for all!" while a massive soundsystem on a truck provided music - not so old-fashioned, then... Placards with slogans were distributed - somehow SWP-aesthetics, yet looking different, with purple frames and the faces of victims of racism on them. Although we were not that many people, everybody seemed to have brought a banner. A symphony of colours on a rainy grey day in London. I started talking to people about their banners.
One young men from Euro Roma explained to me that the red wheel sewn on their green banner stands for travel - although many Roma have long stopped travelling if they are not forced to. He himself had travelled to Britain from Northern Moravia in the Czech Republic, because the situation had become too threatening. I didn't want to ask more. The Internatioanl Federation of Iranian Refugees stuck to a more traditional red and white. Later on, I watched them taking a group photograph - a dozen men smiling into a camera from behind their banner. The Federation organises Iranian refugees who have continued leaving their country since Khomeini came to power, because it wasn't safe for them anymore.
The Columbian Refugee Association called for the right to Asylum - most of their applications have been denied in Britain, because the government doesn't think that there is a problem in Colombia. Yet as Tameris Hernandez said, "there is a mountain of social problems which stem from the imposition of neoliberal financial policies. The US military intervention in Colombia's affairs runs is named "Plan Columbia". Supposedly it is to stop coca production, but "the real agenda is to create a rapid reaction force that will strike down any opposition". Colombia is not a safe place for anyone who is or has been involved in any social movement from trade-unions to the guerilla.
On one banner, I recognised the bridge of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegowina. Before it was shelled by the Kroation army in 1992, it had for 500 years connected the two parts of this beautiful town built in the ottoman area, where Bosnian muslims, Serbs and Croats lived. The bridge of mostar has become a symbol for people who don't believe that the war between ethnicities in former Jugoslavia is a natural necessity. The guy who held the banner said: "I am not doing this (demonstrating) every day. But this is important. These people on the Caravan could be me." He was brought to Britain by the previous government as a Bosnian muslim, so his status is safe - but he is aware that many people suffer the same oppression as he did and believes firmly that "ordinary people must stick together and can make a difference".
Passing the New Labour Office in Millbank, I looked at the dancing figures of the National Civil Rights Movement South/West England: "True peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice". The Campaign to free Winston Silcott called to "fight police racism", with a drawing of his smiling face and two hands breaking their chains underneath. He was arrested after the Broadwater Farm estate uprising in Tottenham in 1985 because he supposedly killed a policeman - which he could prove he didn't. But another reason was found to keep him in prison for the last 14 years. he used to be a DJ and run a soundsystem in Tottenham.
I saw so many banners with faces of people on them, who have been arrested for crimes they didn't commit like Samar and Jawal or Satpal Ram, who have been murdered in racist attacks like Ricky Reel, and were the police refused to investigate because they decided that it was suicide like Cart McGowen or Gary Walton, that I cannot remember all of them. A massive tragic story involving friends and families from so many different backgrounds behind each banner, but also a fierce determination to keep the struggle for justice going.
Besides the campaigns for individual victims of racism, there were the banners of groups like the Campain to Close Hommondsworth, the Commitee to Defend Asylum Seekers Brent, Leicester Civil Rights Movement, the Solidarity commitee with political prisoners in Turkey and the Commitee for Refugees from Turkey, and many more.
The speeches that were held in front of the Imperial War Museum were different from the usual rally-rants. People you had met before on the demo or on the Caravan went up the stage and talked about their personal involvement with anti-racist politics. For some it was very hard to talk about brothers or sisters or sons that had gone missing, were in prison or were killed. But all of them managed to show emotions and at the same time be incredibly strong, encouraging and full of solidarity: "An injury to one is an injury to all. I don't care what colour they are and where they come from!"
Dusty Jamal drew attention to the rights of asylum seekers. He told us some stories he had heard while travelling with the Caravan: In Coventry, Iraqui people don't go out of the door on Saturday and Sunday - because of the racism. A young woman was beaten up in Margate, In Newcastle, 9 people have been beaten up only this week. And again, he made the crucial point: "people don't flee because they live in a safe country. They leave because they don't have a choice".
The banner of the Caravan shows a map of England, connecting all the cities where they stop. It has started to bring migrants and refugees self-organisations and their friends together, each of them a patch with a different colour, another texture, each of them opening up a horizon of struggles in a different part of the world - and connected in the determined demand for justice and human rights.
Ionnek
Plan Colombia Public meetings:
7.30 pm Monday 16.10. Cock Tavern, Phoenix Rd, NW1
4.00 pm Saturday 21.10. 37-39 Great Guildford Street, SE1
7.30 pm Monday 30.10., Monday 13.11., and 27.11 same place
Sunday 10.12. International Human Rights Day Demonstration
It was a small demo, and nevertheless one of the most intensive and powerful I've seen. A patchwork demo made from many small and diverse patches which in the end felt like a big quilt. The demo started slow. "It's quite old fashioned, marching all this way down Lambeth", an RTS activist commented. A woman from the NoBorders group was busy sewing up her banner : "No to a Europe surrounded by a wall. Freedom of movement now and for all!" while a massive soundsystem on a truck provided music - not so old-fashioned, then... Placards with slogans were distributed - somehow SWP-aesthetics, yet looking different, with purple frames and the faces of victims of racism on them. Although we were not that many people, everybody seemed to have brought a banner. A symphony of colours on a rainy grey day in London. I started talking to people about their banners.
One young men from Euro Roma explained to me that the red wheel sewn on their green banner stands for travel - although many Roma have long stopped travelling if they are not forced to. He himself had travelled to Britain from Northern Moravia in the Czech Republic, because the situation had become too threatening. I didn't want to ask more. The Internatioanl Federation of Iranian Refugees stuck to a more traditional red and white. Later on, I watched them taking a group photograph - a dozen men smiling into a camera from behind their banner. The Federation organises Iranian refugees who have continued leaving their country since Khomeini came to power, because it wasn't safe for them anymore.
The Columbian Refugee Association called for the right to Asylum - most of their applications have been denied in Britain, because the government doesn't think that there is a problem in Colombia. Yet as Tameris Hernandez said, "there is a mountain of social problems which stem from the imposition of neoliberal financial policies. The US military intervention in Colombia's affairs runs is named "Plan Columbia". Supposedly it is to stop coca production, but "the real agenda is to create a rapid reaction force that will strike down any opposition". Colombia is not a safe place for anyone who is or has been involved in any social movement from trade-unions to the guerilla.
On one banner, I recognised the bridge of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegowina. Before it was shelled by the Kroation army in 1992, it had for 500 years connected the two parts of this beautiful town built in the ottoman area, where Bosnian muslims, Serbs and Croats lived. The bridge of mostar has become a symbol for people who don't believe that the war between ethnicities in former Jugoslavia is a natural necessity. The guy who held the banner said: "I am not doing this (demonstrating) every day. But this is important. These people on the Caravan could be me." He was brought to Britain by the previous government as a Bosnian muslim, so his status is safe - but he is aware that many people suffer the same oppression as he did and believes firmly that "ordinary people must stick together and can make a difference".
Passing the New Labour Office in Millbank, I looked at the dancing figures of the National Civil Rights Movement South/West England: "True peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice". The Campaign to free Winston Silcott called to "fight police racism", with a drawing of his smiling face and two hands breaking their chains underneath. He was arrested after the Broadwater Farm estate uprising in Tottenham in 1985 because he supposedly killed a policeman - which he could prove he didn't. But another reason was found to keep him in prison for the last 14 years. he used to be a DJ and run a soundsystem in Tottenham.
I saw so many banners with faces of people on them, who have been arrested for crimes they didn't commit like Samar and Jawal or Satpal Ram, who have been murdered in racist attacks like Ricky Reel, and were the police refused to investigate because they decided that it was suicide like Cart McGowen or Gary Walton, that I cannot remember all of them. A massive tragic story involving friends and families from so many different backgrounds behind each banner, but also a fierce determination to keep the struggle for justice going.
Besides the campaigns for individual victims of racism, there were the banners of groups like the Campain to Close Hommondsworth, the Commitee to Defend Asylum Seekers Brent, Leicester Civil Rights Movement, the Solidarity commitee with political prisoners in Turkey and the Commitee for Refugees from Turkey, and many more.
The speeches that were held in front of the Imperial War Museum were different from the usual rally-rants. People you had met before on the demo or on the Caravan went up the stage and talked about their personal involvement with anti-racist politics. For some it was very hard to talk about brothers or sisters or sons that had gone missing, were in prison or were killed. But all of them managed to show emotions and at the same time be incredibly strong, encouraging and full of solidarity: "An injury to one is an injury to all. I don't care what colour they are and where they come from!"
Dusty Jamal drew attention to the rights of asylum seekers. He told us some stories he had heard while travelling with the Caravan: In Coventry, Iraqui people don't go out of the door on Saturday and Sunday - because of the racism. A young woman was beaten up in Margate, In Newcastle, 9 people have been beaten up only this week. And again, he made the crucial point: "people don't flee because they live in a safe country. They leave because they don't have a choice".
The banner of the Caravan shows a map of England, connecting all the cities where they stop. It has started to bring migrants and refugees self-organisations and their friends together, each of them a patch with a different colour, another texture, each of them opening up a horizon of struggles in a different part of the world - and connected in the determined demand for justice and human rights.
Ionnek
Plan Colombia Public meetings:
7.30 pm Monday 16.10. Cock Tavern, Phoenix Rd, NW1
4.00 pm Saturday 21.10. 37-39 Great Guildford Street, SE1
7.30 pm Monday 30.10., Monday 13.11., and 27.11 same place
Sunday 10.12. International Human Rights Day Demonstration
lonnek (IMC UK Collective)
e-mail:
reports@indymedia.org.uk
