Before Blunkett launched his war on asylum seekers, campaigners had already put in place plans to mount a fightback against the crackdown we knew was coming.
Though no-one could have predicted the ferocity of what we would encounter, New Labour has made it plain since being elected in 1997 that it would carry out – and strengthen – Tory policy on asylum and immigration.
Knowing roughly the timetable of Blunkett’s planned new legislation, a conference in Manchester called by the major organisations campaigning for the rights of asylum seekers on March 23 launched a call for a week of action from June 15-22.
The only partial concession that has been wrought from the government – the abolition of the hated voucher system – came as a result of mass campaigning.
The fact that Blunkett’s plans have been accompanied by reactionary rhetoric, which can only give succor to the far right, has further strengthened the importance of the campaigning approach.
Campaigners up and down the country have built the week of action with street stalls in many localities that have challenged government and media racism. Activities during the week have built on these successes in most major towns and cities.
There has been some work in the trade unions – including a successful emergency resolution at amicus-MSF conference, carried overwhelmingly despite the opposition of the NEC, and the fringe meeting at UNISON conference on which we report here.
But trade union work needs to be developed on a more systematic basis. The support is there amongst activists, but work around asylum is unlikely to be a spontaneous priority for shop stewards fighting privatisation, redundancy and low pay, unless campaigners from the outside are there push for it.
The lesson of the partial victory over vouchers however is that substantial trade union support is vital to turn back the government’s attacks.
At a national level, the week of action started with a demonstration at Harmon-dsworth detention centre, which gave activists the opportunity to express their practical solidarity with those asylum seekers at the sharpest end of government policies – immigration prisoners.
Some of the men, women and children held in this detention centre were able to show their pleasure at seeing and hearing the demonstrators by waving from their prison.
The ingenuity of some of the protestors in getting close to the wire fences, which are protected by a moat, may mean that future actions at the centre will be permitted to follow the same route.
Those few extra yards definitely make a difference, because they obstruct the closer communication that is possible for example at Campsfield detention centre near Oxford, where some detainees have been able to respond to our chants or hold up their own messages in a way visible to supporters outside.
The Harmondsworth protest was followed on Sunday 16 by action at Dungavel, the only immigration detention centre in Scotland, where speakers called for the STUC to lead a mass campaign against immigration detention.
The same day there was also a picket of the new detention centre in Dover. Protestors there particularly focused on the fact that this new centre was opened immediately after the fire at Yarls Wood, without any enquiry into its causes.
London protest
The culmination of the week was obviously the demonstration on June 22, which saw nearly 5000 march in colourful protest through central London.
It was good to see such a range of banners parading through areas off the normal Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square march, with local campaigns mixed in with trade union banners and those of particular immigrant communities.
The march for a minutes silence in China Town to mark the anniversary of the 58 Chinese migrants who were found dead in a container lorry at Dover trying to reach the supposed safety of this country.
There were rallies at both ends of the demonstration, addressed by a range of speakers of whom a majority were themselves asylum seekers, who told first hand of the realities of Britain’s immigration system and detention centres.
Many also pointed out that British governments had been key actors in causing the wars or supporting the dictators from whom they and others had fled in the first place.
The final rally was closed by Jeremy Corbyn MP, who also brought a message from Bill Morris, General Secretary of the T&G, who apologised for his absence as he had prior union business in Oxford. Given Morris’ role in the fight against vouchers, his continued support for not unexpected, but nevertheless extremely welcome.
All the events during and in the lead up to the week of action have meant that campaigners have been out putting the argument as to why asylum seekers should be welcome here to greater numbers of people. This begins to act as an effective counterweight to the racist rubbish spewed out by government and media.
More people have developed a greater understanding of the breadth of the assault we face on immigration and asylum and of the realities of immigration detention.
Asylum seekers and detainees have had the opportunity to tell not only the heartrending stories of their flights from torture and persecution into the unwelcoming arms of the British state, but also to inspire many through the resilience and courage of their resistances to these outrages.
The week was planned and executed through growing collaboration between the four sponsoring organisations: Barbed Wire Britain, the Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers, the National Civil Rights Movement and the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
Each of these campaigns fulfills a valuable and distinctive role, but it will be vital that this co-operation continues and deepens in the months ahead in battling against the reactionary legislation this government is introducing and in combating its effects.
We need a massive political campaign of opposition to what the government is proposing; within which asylum seekers themselves are given the opportunity to take a leadership role.
This need to be combined with continuing work in support of the families and individuals whose lives have been devastated by the racist legislation and practices already in place