Workers' Liberty

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.

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.

TRIUMPH

Tomorrow he'd be off again to Blighty;
The lonesomeness is on him now: the blush

“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’?