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Round-Up Dec 2005-Jan 2006
During the busy christmas shopping period student VTI supporters mounted noisy Thursday evening pickets of M & S in Newcastle, which are set to resume this term.
FRFI supporters helped to build for the second public meeting of Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR), which took place on 11 January. The meeting was well attended, and agreed on a principled basic platform for the network, including the right of refugees to organise to defend themselves as necessary against attacks by the state. FRFI activists began regular pickets of North Tyneside Reporting Centre the day after an Iranian man set himself on fire there, and they hope to involve wider forces and other member of TCAR in these over the coming months. Regular street actions against the deportation and criminalisation of asylum seekers continue in Durham and Newcastle city centres, drawing increasingly vocal responses from reactionary sections of the public, but also forming important links with anti-imperialists from local migrant communities.
RATB supporters in the North East have embarked on an ambitious programme of meetings, film showings and street actions in the run-up to the week of action in defence of the Cuban 5, and will be mobilising to the demonstration in Edinburgh on 11 February. On 18 January a successful meeting was held at Durham University to discuss the alliances against imperialism now developing across Latin America. This involved many new students, keen to learn about the Cuban and Venezuelan example.