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Round-Up June-July 2007
Throughout June and July FRFI activists have maintained their regular pickets of Newcastle Marks and Spencer come rain or shine, using street theatre and speeches to put forward the clear demand for an end to imperialist attacks on Palestinian democracy.
On 3 June when Gordon Brown visited Newcastle for the Labour leadership hustings, FRFI activists joined the demonstration called by Tyneside Stop the War. The collection of around 30 members of the left from around the North East who had gathered to oppose the new Prime Minister demonstrated the non-existence of any real anti-war movement in Newcastle. The Socialist Worker Party organiser openly attempted to prevent any chants critical of the Labour Party, and initially claimed that he had signed away the protest's right to even use a megaphone outside the hustings venue. However, on checking with the police FRFI activists discovered this was in fact a restriction only imposed by the organiser, which went beyond anything demanded by the police. As FRFI activists were about to speak on the megaphone the SWP organisers declared the demonstration over and lead people away, leaving even their own Stop the War stalls and banners behind to be packed up by FRFI comrades and a couple of more reasonable STWC activists.
Over the last period FRFI activists have continued to play an active role in TCAR (Tyneside Community Action for Refugees), working hard to strengthen democracy and accountability against repeated attempts to censor FRFI and other publications, to expel all groups from TCAR, and other anti-democratic measures. Comrades' efforts paid off in July with the election of a new and substantially larger committee. On 23 June TCAR members and supporters battled through the rain to hold a protest in the centre of Newcastle demanding the right to work, and on 28 June they supported a sleep-out against asylum destitution called by Tyneside People's Working Committee on Zimbabwe as part of the 'Just Fair' campaign. TCAR is now building for a demonstration outside North Shields Reporting Centre on 1 August, and will be sending a coach to the 11 August demonstration called by North West Asylum Seeker Defence Group in Manchester.
Throughout June and July FRFI has been organising regular stalls and street meetings in the Arthurs Hill area of Newcastle. On 5 July a broad cross section of the local community attended an FRFI public forum in the area on the topic of 'Seeking Asylum - Fleeing Imperialism'. There were speakers and discussion on imperialism's role in DRCongo and its relationship to the treatment of asylum seekers in Britain, and on the context of attacks on asylum seekers in Labour's broader war on the working class.
Regular stalls have taken place in Newcastle city centre in solidarity with the Cuban revolution, and demanding the release of the Cuban 5. On 16 June RATB and FRFI activists used colourful street theatre to highlight US hypocrisy in detaining hundreds of men without charge at occupied Guantanamo Bay under the guise of fighting terrorism, at the same time as locking up five men whose only 'crime' was to be working against terrorists based in the US and connected to the US government. On 21 June comrades participated in a Tyneside Socialist Forum meeting on the question of 'What is Socialism?', in which the example of Cuba featured prominently, and news of the most recent developments in Cuba was also taken to Durham Miners Gala with an RATB stall.