London Catholic Worker in prison
nickleberry | 08.11.2009 09:35 | Migration
Zelda Jeffers appeared at Bedford Magistrates Court on Monday November 2nd. She was sentenced to 16 days in prison for refusing to pay a fine of £450 for a 'No Borders' protest at Yarlswood Immigration Detention Centre.
Zelda
She has been sent to HMP Peterborough. Asuming Zelda gets half off for 'good behaviour', she should be released on Monday 9th November, probably in the morning.
If you want to write to her or send her a card of support, it's probably best to write to her care of the London Catholic Worker:
London Catholic Worker,
16 De Beauvoir Road,
London N1 5SU
or send an email to us at londoncatholicworker[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk which we will make sure she gets afterwards. Zelda has already phoned us, so we may be able to pass on messages if she phones again.
Zelda is a member of Trident Ploughshares' Muriel Lesters affinity group and London Catholic Worker
For More information phone us on: 020 7249 0041.
If you want to write to her or send her a card of support, it's probably best to write to her care of the London Catholic Worker:
London Catholic Worker,
16 De Beauvoir Road,
London N1 5SU
or send an email to us at londoncatholicworker[at]yahoo[dot]co[dot]uk which we will make sure she gets afterwards. Zelda has already phoned us, so we may be able to pass on messages if she phones again.
Zelda is a member of Trident Ploughshares' Muriel Lesters affinity group and London Catholic Worker
For More information phone us on: 020 7249 0041.
nickleberry
Homepage:
http://www.londoncatholicworker.org
Comments
Hide the following 16 comments
I could be wrong...
08.11.2009 12:19
Bob
Solidarity to Zelda
08.11.2009 12:19
Zelda is a fine, principled campaigner and the movement could do with more people like her.
(Next Communications House demo - Tuesday 1 December 1-2pm)
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism1
Catholic/No Borders - 2 senseless philosophies
08.11.2009 15:54
Rod
Solidarity
08.11.2009 18:54
George
@Rod - why is No Borders a senseless philosophy?
08.11.2009 20:25
anon
borders
08.11.2009 21:18
Thats why there are borders - to protect what people have.
People have had borders for 1000s of years. Its a good system because it works.
hello
@hello - borders protect inequality
08.11.2009 23:45
Presumably you mean that (rich) westerners move to the Maldives and push the prices of houses there up so the (poor) locals can't afford them?
What you are failing to see is that it is borders that partially caused the wealth inequality in the first place.
Globalisation means that corporations are able to trot round the globe looking for places with laws that suit them so they can pollute or exploit workers as they want. If they are allowed, so should ordinary people like us too.
Most people like living where they are so they won't move anyway, but if there were no borders it would tend to even out the massive geographical differences in wealth that we see. You may think it is a good system that works, but maybe that is because you have the privilege to be born into a (in a global context) rich family in a rich country. For most of the world it doesn't work.
Even if it did work, who wants to live in a fascist world where you need permission and papers to get from A to B? Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia tried that and look where it got them.
anon
Naive and idealistic
09.11.2009 00:30
Don't delude yourselves that it is only in the 'rich world' where large scale immigration across national borders causes resentment and even violence. Witness the recent widespread violence in South Africa against foreigners carried out by poor, black township dwellers who beat, stabbed and even burnt to death dozens of immigrants from other parts of Africa.
No borders is a naive, idealistic, unworkable and ultimately dangerous idea produced by people who live in a dreamworld.
Millie Tant
Shite system
09.11.2009 03:19
S.Africa is relatively more developed than other parts of Africa so there would (prob partly due to the pressures of so-called 'globalisation') undoubtedly be economic migration towards it.
Borders haven't really existed for "thousands of years" and passports are a relatively new concept.
Immigration: OK think about it; why is one of the least protected borders in the world that between Canada and the US while one of the most protected (and lethal I might add) is that between Mexico and the US....then think, why don't masses of US citizens migrate north to get free healthcare?
Anarchoneilist
Let's be sensible
09.11.2009 14:19
Solidarity Zelda!
As far as I know Zelda is one of the many anarchist athiests involved with the inclusive and decentralised Catholic Worker movement (160 communities in North America/ 6 in Europe).
www.londoncatholicworker.org
www.catholicworker.org
Catholic means universal so for the Catholics in the Catholic Worker movement a no borders position would make sense. As it would for an anarchist.
There doesn't seem to be any borders or restrictions on capital moving around the globe, why should be their on people? That seems sensible.
10% of the British born population doesn't reside there.
Whereever you go, there you are!
It's all about being a good host and a good guest and there seems to be rights and responsibilities that come with both roles.
In Australia, white folks have gennerally been bad guests....genocide of indigeneous, ecological destruction and now we seem to be pretty poor hosts...locking up refugees in outback U.S. profit driven gulags and now Christmas Island. many of those ricking up are fleeing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka..some of these wars Australia has been involved in generating....along with the global ecomonic system that we profit from and which exploits the majority. So the criminalisation of such folks is just another front in the war on the poor
Ciaron in OZ
Homepage:
http://www.londoncatholicworker.org
not everybody should be free to move surely?
09.11.2009 16:27
curious
anarchist atheists in Catholic Worker?!
09.11.2009 18:04
and reply to curious:
Where do you draw the line? How about border controls round each town to stop criminals escaping? Or around each block of a town? How about cops strip search people at random just in case they are carrying a gun or a knife or drugs?
Just because some people are antisocial doesn't mean the system should fuck things up for all of us.
Sometimes I wonder however can people get sucked up into going along with authoritarian dictatorships like Fascism and Stalinism. Then I read some comments like the pro-border ones here and can see how it happens. Scary.
anon
@anon
09.11.2009 18:49
There will always be rich people. Even with no-borders in the world, you will be innovative people and you will get lazy people. There will be rich and poor always even if just due to basic decisions like work/investment against gambling/pub. Even on a level playing field you will always get someone who knows how to make lots of money.
So these "rich" people want somewhere nice to live. That means places in the sun with azure blue water and beautiful corals. Places like Maldives. If there is no border control, then it is easily possible that lots of people with money retire there to enjoy their final days. The locals in their 20s wont be able to afford houses
Borders protect people's way of life. Without them, many poor people will become poorer because the richer people can just move in.
And.... borders have been in existance for 1000s of years. THe protection of territories can even be seen in animals where a group will protect an area and keep out any "foreigners". Its part of evolution and only occurs because IT WORKS! If it didn't work, then animals wouldn't do it
hello
back to the future anon
10.11.2009 18:45
tim
Just because animals do it is no reason why we should also do it
10.11.2009 23:20
Some animals also rape, eat their own shit, and clean their arses with their tongues, so are you suggesting we should follow suit?
Anyway, animals only protect the immediate territory they need for survival, for feeding themselves. They don't have artificial borders to stop other animals travelling around places where no one is living. Obviously we don't want to see people moving literally into our back garden but that is personal space. National borders are something totally different. They are there to keep us plebs in line while multinational companies can gallivant off all over the world.
Maybe you like standing in line with your passport and bending over for the full cavity body search, but some of us like going where we please when we please, without harassment.
anon
queueing
11.11.2009 19:51
Its not something you've actually got a choice about.
No one likes queueing, but we have to do it anyway.
If you went on a plane without passports, youd still have to queue for ticket checks and to keep the terrorists from blowing us up, or smugglers bring in narcotics etc.
hello