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Round-Up April-May 2007
As the Palestinian people have come under renewed attack in recent months FRFI activists in Newcastle have kept up their activity on the streets, with two pickets of M&S in April and one in May.
On 15 April FRFI activists took part in the TUC-organised counter-protest against the National Front's fourth consecutive annual march through Newcastle. Throughout the demonstration FRFI comrades used leaflets, chants, one to one discussions and the megaphone to draw attention to the role of the police in protecting the fascists, and the hypocrisy of Labour politicians who used the platform to denounce the racism of the fascists whilst remaining silent on their own party’s attacks on asylum seekers, Muslims and other black people. Following the ‘official’ counter-protest comrades moved to protest first outside the Weatherspoons where the fascists had gathered, and then when they were forced away by the police to take the protest to the police themselves.
Comrades have continued working to strengthen Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR), having to fight at the same time for their right to organise and speak openly within TCAR. TCAR members have produced a leaflet to urge people to stand in solidarity with asylum seekers against immigration snatch squads and asylum seekers have been joining FRFI comrades in going door to door in local communities with leaflets and petitions in order to build support for the pledge of resistance.
On 5 May TCAR had a ‘right to work’ contingent of over 30 people on the Tyne and Wear May Day March. It was one of the liveliest and most political contingents on the march, and drew support from many other marchers. A TCAR member from the DRCongo spoke on the platform at the rally about the destitution forced on asylum seekers by the Labour government, and finished her speech by leading the crowd in a round of chanting against deportations and for the right to work.
In response to the threatened deportation of leading TCAR member Guler Akdogan and her family to Turkey on 11 May, TCAR members and supporters from the local community mobilised around the clock in defense of the family. Led by a group of courageous young women from the family’s neighbourhood TCAR organised a mass petition collection in the centre of Newcastle on 7 May. As comrades packed away stalls after 5 hours collecting petitions they were harassed by police and threatened with arrest under the pretext of taking donations without a permit. The state is clearly concerned by the links being forged between asylum seekers and other working class people in Britain. On 9 May a 30 strong TCAR contingent held a lively demonstration outside Government Offices North East against the family’s deportation, before entering the building and refusing to leave until a Home Office representative arrived to receive petitions carrying over 600 signatures. On 10 May the family was informed that their deportation had been halted, and they have since begun new legal proceedings for asylum. Another leading TCAR member, Joy Bowman, whose attempted deportation to Jamaica in March was halted with the help of a national media campaign, has now been granted the right to stay in Britain. The struggle against other families’ deportation continues.
On 19 May a national day of action called by TCAR took place with events in Newcastle, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester, Coventry and London. In Newcastle over 80 people marched through the city, and over 200 joined the rally (see separate report here for details).
On 7 April FRFI activists in Newcastle took part in the international day of action to free the Cuban 5 with colourful street theatre involving a demonic and gun-toting ‘uncle sam’ patroling chained activists in US prison uniforms who handed out leaflets, collected petitions and spoke to members of the public about the case of the five and the example of socialist Cuba. On 15 April FRFI hosted a well-attended forum with Diana Raby, author of Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today, to discuss the reality of democracy in Cuba. On 16 May Newcastle activists newly returned from the Rock Around the Blockade brigade to Cuba spoke about their experiences and the contribution being made by Cuba to the development of socialism.