Workers' Liberty

Four months after a decisive election victory, Italy’s right-wing government has pushed through a series of racist anti-immigrant measures.

The tube cleaners’ strike was suspended last week but the struggle being fought out is very far from being over.

Yesterday, on a day when ISS had summoned around 100 cleaners to present their immigration papers at their offices in Greenwich, activists from the Campaign Against Immigration Controls organised to hit back at ISS’s ongoing use of immigration legislation to crush the cleaners’ dispute.

OEDIPUS TRIUMPHANT

Tomorrow he'd be off again to Blighty;
The lonesomeness is on him now: the blush
Of freedom drained, ahead, the train's slow rush

“If you don’t want to do the whole session, you can just buy parts.

Tubeworker believes that anyone in this country should have the right to live and work here.

Ballad of the CPF "Communist" Heroes of Vitry

Parables for Socialists 16

Ed Maltby reports from Paris

Undocumented workers in France are taking up new strategies in the fight for regularisation.

Since the end of February when the government introduced new penalties for bosses who hire “illegal workers” the number of raids on workplaces has increased drastically — twice as many in the last few months as during the whole of the 1990s. Fines totaling £500,000 have been issued. 63,140 people, asylum seekers and undocumented workers, were removed from the UK last year. That is still not enough for the Liberal Democrats and the Tories who continue to urge on the rabid dogs who run the Immigration Department.

Since 15 April, a series of unprecedented strikes by undocumented workers have taken place in France. In the greater Parisian region alone, an estimated one thousand undocumented workers are involved in strike action. The strike and actions, led by the CGT and other unions, is mainly concentrated in construction and restaurants. All the disputes are demanding the mass regularisation of undocumented workers.

Since the 15th of April, following a sustained organising campaign amongst undocumented migrant workers undertaken by the CGT, the CNT, and Solidaires unions, a series of unprecedented strikes by undo

This week, a police report showed that immigrants are, in fact, not the bunch of criminals that some right-wing rags and ignorant bigots would have you believe. It seems that even in the few crimes where a disproportionate number of perpetrators are foreign, the same disproportion of victims are also foreign.

On Sunday 20 Apr, the Bangladeshi Caterer’s Association (BCA) mobilised thousands for a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, calling for an end to raids on restaurants by the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) and the regularisation of undocumented staff. The demonstration originated with restaurant workers and owners in China Town and spread to involving bosses and workers from other restaurants.

On 27 March, Augustine, a Biafran independence activist was deported to Nigeria, where his brother has been killed and his wife and children are missing. He is still laid up with the injuries he sustained by the five thugs who twisted his neck and kicked and punched him to the ground while handcuffed. Unable to afford medical care, we fear for his life.

Curry restaurant bosses demonstrate

On Stroppyblog, Janine discusses a report this week showing that immigrants commit no more crimes than n

A House of Lords Committee headed by former CBI president, Lord Vallance of Tummel, has attacked the government in a report "The Economic Impact of Migration".

The second trade union and communities conference against immigration controls (London, 29 March) brought 150-200 activists together to organise a coordinated national campaign.

The ISS cleaning company, which has many cleaning contracts on the Underground, has started checking cleaners' National Insurance numbers. They aim to root out people who are working without the correct papers, and cleaners could face instant dismissal if a problem is found.

Trafficking, in contrast to “voluntary” migration, is defined as non-consensual migration geared towards exploitation of migrants’ labour whether in sex or other industries. NGOs’ and states’ interventions on this issue have taken place along two lines: establishing protective schemes for victims of trafficking and the tightening of borders and visa regimes.

Private companies’ drive to make profit has attacked our pay and conditions. With more use of agency and temporary staff, our jobs are becoming more casual.

In France, bosses have limited powers to regularise migrant workers; and in recent strikes in the Essonne region, this has been used against them.

Since Sarkozy's election, the French ruling UMP party has been stepping up its war on undocumented migrant workers and their families.

Is Britain is ‘soft’ on immigration? Are any of these practices of the British state ‘soft’?

A public meeting on 10 December 2007 was part of the build-up to the No One is Illegal Trade Union conference against immigration controls.

Javez Lam from the GMB, who has supported Chinese families following the Morcambe Bay cockle pickers disaster, spoke about organising the Chinese workers in Soho.

This autumn immigration issues have once again been centre stage, starting with the publication of a report by the Office of National Statistics on 23 October 2007 and then some revisions of Governmen