Workers' Liberty

On Friday 5 February a hunger strike broke out at the Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre in Bedfordshire. As many as 50 women took action to protest against the period of time they have been locked up and the treatment of themselves and their children. The women were from a wide range of countries where human rights abuses and violence are common, including China, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Eritrea.

In a depressing piece of political jockeying, David Cameron has played a race card, with a sweeping pledge to cut immigration to “tens of thousands” (down from around 200,000 a year).

Since 12 October, a new wave of strikes by around 4,000 undocumented migrant workers (sans-papiers, “without papers”) has swept France. At the time of writing, over 40 workplaces have been occupied by the workers, who are demanding “regularisation” (legal status), employment rights, and changes in immigration law to make life easier for France's hyper-exploited immigrant workforce.

The example of the 19th District in Paris.

Badiaga, Camara, Doukouré, Dramé, Gakou, Kouyaté, Siby, Sylla are delegates from the Seni strikers, industrial cleaners at Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne). They are members of the CGT.

Bob Sutton reports on the Hands Off My Workmate conference.

On 17 October around 140 activists and trade unionists met in London for the first “Hands Off my Workmate” conference — a launch pad for a wider trade-union based campaign to defend migrant workers against checks and raids in the workplace.

The event, held at the School of African and Oriental Studies, had been set up by members of the Socialist Workers’ Party through SOAS Unison and UCU branches. In June this year, nine cleaners working at the university were grabbed in a brutal dawn raid by immigration services armed in full riot gear. All but one were later deported.

This article first appeared on the French New Anticapitalist Party's website on 22 October. Translated for Workers' Liberty by Ed Maltby.

Migrants in Calais are on hunger strike in an attempt to win asylum in France.

Dozens of French riot police have invaded and destroyed the “jungle” migrant camps in Calais, using bulldozers and flame throwers, evicting thousands and arresting hundreds of people.

Another migrant worker-militant has been forced out of their job at a cleaning company.

The admin offices of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London were occupied from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 June, in response to an immigration raid on SOAS cleaners.

The raid was organised by ISS, the contractor for SOAS, and several cleaners were deported.

More than one hundred Romanians have been forced from their Belfast homes and are in hiding under armed police protection after a series of coordinated racist attacks.

The occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London that has been going since 15 June, in response to the raid on 12 June by immigration services, ended on 17 June. Prisoners at Yarls Wood detention centre have declared a hunger strike.

Roundup of Union news in brief: Linamar, Tube, UCL, PCS

Fighting migration controls is grinding, a daily and often terrible battle, mostly fought by individuals and small groups of people. Often it is inspiring. But there is a lot going on.

On Thursday 7 May Ayodeji Omotade was acquitted by Brent Magistrates Court of threatening and abusive behaviour.

Fighting migration controls is grinding, a daily and often terrible battle, mostly fought by individuals and small groups of people. Often it is inspiring.

Despite reports saying it had been cancelled, it turns out the RMT are going ahead with the planned recruitment drive of tube cleaners.

The expanded platform published on the website of the No2EU campaign for the 4 June Euro-elections denounces “the so-called ‘free movement’ of labour” in the EU and “the social dumping of exploited foreign workers in Britain”.

The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has called a protest on 16-17 April in Geneva about the plight of Iraqi refugees.

17 March 2009: Anti-deportation campaigners are risking arrest to stop the collective expulsion of approximately 50 Iraqi refugees from the UK. Campaigners have locked themselves to the gate of Tinsley House detention centre at Gatwick airport, where some of the deportees are being held, in an attempt to prevent the forcible deportation.

A debate over an amnesty or regularisation for so-called “illegal immigrants” has restarted with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, pushing hard for the idea (in the BBC’s Panorama programme on 9 March for instance).

Yahya Al-Faifi was persecuted for organising a trade union at BAE Systems in Saudi Arabia, a state where all serious oppositionists are rounded up, tortured, imprisoned and denied a fair trial.

Workers’ Liberty activists report from the Isle of Grain power station construction project, in Kent.

On 2 December, 20 protestors entered the offices of Amey plc in High Holborn to protest at the sacking of five Colombian cleaners and the rejection of their appeal. The protestors attempted to present a petition to an Amey representative, but were prevented.

It is obviously welcome as Robin Sivapalan reports (Solidarity 3/139) that the campaign against immigration controls is being taken into the trade union movement, given the way these laws are used against the struggles of migrant workers on the Tube and elsewhere.

The second meeting of the “Checks and Raids” strategy group of the Campaign Against Immigration Controls was on Sunday 7 September. Activists, many new, discussed the situation facing migrant workers in London, with 150 workplace raids happening a week, where hundreds of workers are harassed by immigration officers and the police. Many have been detained and deported. Thousands more are now fearful of these raids.

Dear Friends,

Please see below letter signed by Jeremy Corbyn Labour MP, Neil Gerrard Labour MP and others which has been sent to The Guardian, The Times, The Observor and the Independent.

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