(Kidlington, near Oxford) 12 noon Bring banners, drums and balloons Haslar (Portsmouth) 12 noon outside prison Contact Chris Richards, 01705-832260 Harmondsworth 12 noon -2pm Detention Centre, Colnbrook Bypass, near Heathrow airport given and with little chance of adequate legal advice.
President Oxford In judicial terms, they are Trades Union treated worse than those charged with crime.
Council, Campaign Half of the 600-700 people to Close detained at any one time are held in prisons such as Glasgow Greenock, where six AlTHE NATIONAL Day of gerian exiles are on hunger strike; Winson Green in BirActions is going to be a mingham, where NUJ memgreat success. ber and newspaper editor In town centres and outside Ragbir Singh is held as a detention centres and prisons threat to national security; around the country pickets and Belmarsh in Kent, where vigils will be held to denounce nounced in special reports in the past six months by human rights bodies such as Amnesty International and Liberty, as well as by organisations of migrant and refugees and by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
Damning
The report on Campsfield by the chief inspector of prisons Judge Tumin was damning. Of course to call for closure was outside Tumin's remit.
Home Secretary Michael Howard's proposed immigration legislation would mean more internal policing - by employers, nurses, doctors, teachers and DSS officials.
But the Labour Party leadership is hell bent on playing the same race-hate cards in the general election game as the Campsfield immigration prison: subject of a damning report government is now showing in its hand.
To judge from Jack Straw's remarks upon Charles Wardle's resignation from the government on a get tough platform, it will be compliance. And have we have heard any Labour leader call for a halt, let alone a reversal of the never ending programme of new detention centres and 'detention wings'?
• More than ever it is vital for trades union, local Labour Party and other organisations to refuse to accept the Blair/Straw line and demand that it be reversed.
Last month the annual conference of Trades Councils in Bristol carried a resolution from the Oxfordshire County Association calling for all detention centres to be closed part of a group of 22 who CLOSE MIL and an end to detentions. Now it should be a priority for activists to move resolutions in advance of the Labour Party and trade unions' national conferences and executives.
During June and July there is to be special activities in support for migrants and refugees in Europe.
The National Day of Actions in Britain on the 24th comes at an appropriate time. Readers are urged to initiate or join in organising events on that day at a detention centre, prison (over 20 regularly hold immigration detainees, or town centre near you • Please phone 0171-837 1450 or 01865 724452 to give or receive more information. Labour government to such
these prisons!
DETENTION CENTRES