Oppose Attacks on the Muslim Community, Defend the Rights of All!

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Oppose Attacks on the Muslim Community, Defend the Rights of All!

Support The Harmondsworth 4! Demonstrate Monday, January 14, 2008, 9:30am onwards

Migrants Rights News – January 2008

At this time, the attacks on the British working class and people on the economic, political and other fronts are very apparent. But there is growing unity and resistance to the anti-social offensive in all its forms. In particular, the call to defend the rights of all resonates loud and clear. The state-sponsored attacks on Muslim people and on immigrants, claiming that they are a new “enemy within”, and demonising the Muslim minority as the problem in society, have by no means gone unanswered and unopposed. After the Cold War, and particularly since 9/11, Muslim countries have been made out to be a new external enemy also. The government and the monopoly media have used the “threat of terrorism” to lock up Muslim people without trial, and the armed forces of the state shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes with the aim of creating a psychosis of fear.

            In recent times, Tony Blair and now Gordon Brown and his government have stepped up their ideological and political offensive. This offensive goes hand in hand with these attacks on civil liberties. It attempts to combat the people’s unity and coherence so as to undermine their opposition to the attacks on rights and the violence of the state and the growing swathe of “anti-terrorism”, “asylum” and “criminal justice” legislation. A major weapon of this offensive in the government’s arsenal is the incessant propaganda about “Britishness” and the necessity for all citizens, particularly immigrants and those people who espouse an Islamic world outlook, to put aside their “separateness” and adopt “British” and “civilised” values. In this way, the powers-that-be aim to block the people from working out solutions to the problems of society and to create hostilities between different communities, fostering suspicion and deflecting away the anger that people manifest to those in power. The government and media have taken the condemnable path of attacking the right to conscience, and laying down that those sections of the people that do not uphold the “official” values of the British state – values which in reality arise out of and seek to justify Britain’s colonial and empire-building role in the world and the superiority of the so-called “British way of life” – must be considered alien, as not fit to participate in political affairs and take their place in society as second to none. This is the fraudulent “one-nation” politics of New Labour that is being put on a pedestal by Gordon Brown and his government, values and politics not arising from the people but imposed on them by the state with the aim of “making Britain great again”.

            It is in this context that the Bishop of Rochester a few days ago launched a racist attack of disinformation and slander against British Muslims. The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali made sensational claims with no factual content. He suggested to the media that Muslims had created “no-go” areas.  As well as these claims, he also stated that Muslims should desist from using amplifiers to broadcast calls to prayer.

            The disinformation and contempt aimed towards the Muslim community have angered British Muslims and democratic people, and have prompted Muslim leaders to resist. Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary general of the Muslim council of Britain, accused the Bishop of Rochester of scaremongering. “Bishop Nazir-Ali’s remarks are quite frankly more like the kind of commentary we would have expected from the far-right BNP, not a responsible figure in the Church of England,” he said. “Where are these so-called ‘no-go’ areas that he speaks of? He doesn’t say.”

            It can be asked why this Bishop is making these remarks and why now. Can it be coincidence that his intransigent remarks are promoted as coming from the Anglican Church’s only Asian-born bishop, who was raised in Pakistan? Has he made these accusations to counter the messages of other prominent church leaders in the New Year that were critical of the government’s racist and anti-human policies? The remarks by Bishop Nazir Ali are yet another divisive tool which seek to split the people and negate their struggle as a unified force. The Muslim population are at the receiving end of these attacks, but this is a problem for the whole working class and people, as the establishment seeks to oppress them further and marginalise sections of the population.

            These attacks, like the anti-terror laws and the racist comments of the establishment, serve the ruling class, with the state and its authorities aiming to act with impunity in this climate of fear. The bourgeoisie refuses to settle scores with the old conscience, and does not want an end to the colonial “white man’s burden”. This call of the ruling class to gather behind “ British values” is a means to distort the struggle of the working class who must and will settle scores with the bourgeoisie’s old conscience, by being victorious in their fight to have the rights of all recognised.

            This fight entails not allowing the polity to be divided on the basis of country of origin, religion, ethnicity or any other basis, and it also entails upholding the right to conscience and the right of the cultures of all communities to flourish and be supported. WDIE demands that the government and prominent individuals like the Bishop of Rochester stop their disinformation, fear-mongering and inciting passions against sections of the population. WDIE calls on the working class and people not to permit any incitement between communities on the basis of race, nationality, language or religion.

            The working class and people have a long history of defending minority rights and opposing state-organised racist attacks. They had deep involvement with Africans in ending slavery. And in recent years they have formed a powerful anti-war movement opposing New Labour’s criminal aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Today the British working class and people are inscribing on their banner the defence of the rights of all. The principle that an injury to one is an injury to all must not go and is not going unheeded. Defending the rights all is part of the struggle to create a different society in which every member is free from attack and can live without fear of demonisation or imprisonment for their cultural background. All democratic and justice-minded people must resist the attempts of the establishment to divide and rule. WDIE in particular calls on the working class and people to oppose and take a stand against the establishment’s demand that Muslims take up so-called “British civilised values”, and the criminal calls to blame the Muslim communities for the problems of society.

            WDIE condemns the disinformation and policy of fear against the Muslim community, a programme which is headed by the government, and calls on the working class and people to uphold and defend the rights of all.

Southwark Crown Court, 1 English Grounds, (off Battlebridge Lane), Southwark, London SE1 2HU, (nearest tube London Bridge)

The trial of four men who were in Harmondsworth IRC (Immigration Removal Centre) at the time of the protest there on November 28, 2006, will open on Monday, January 14, 2008, and a demonstration will take place at Southwark Crown Court. The trial was due to begin on January 7, but was postponed as there had been insufficient time for the defence to view all the video evidence.
The Support the Harmondsworth 4 campaign is supported by London No Borders, Barbed-Wire Britain, Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism, Crossroads Women's Centre All African Women's Group, Women of Colour in the Global Women's Strike and the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.

Harmondsworth is run by private company Kalyx, a subsidiary of Sodexho. The protest came the day after the publication of a damning inspection report by Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers into conditions and treatment of detainees at Harmondsworth, and was directly triggered by the attempts of members of staff to prevent a group of detainees from watching a news broadcast about the report. Prison riot squads were drafted in to batter the protesters into submission. About 50 detainees were left in a courtyard all night and others were locked in their rooms even though parts of the detention centre were on fire.

Enquiries/further information: harmondsworth4@riseup.net, Dan Collins, 079 4974 6017.

Robert Whalley: “Report of the Investigation into the disturbances at Harmondsworth and Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centres”, http://www.irr.org.uk/pdf/Whalley_report.pdf (pdf file, 496kb)

Liberty report: Excerpts from Witness Statements, http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news-and-events/pdfs/excerpts-witness-statements.pdf (pdf file, 128 kb)

Report on an unannounced inspection of Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre, http://inspectorates.homeoffice.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspect_reports/irc-inspections.html/Harmondsworth1.pdf?view=Binary (pdf file, 464kb)

(Source: Support The Harmondsworth 4 Campaign, via NCADC)

info@migrantsrights.org.uk

The progressive immigration policy debate – public meeting in Parliament

Our work in encouraging discussion on the content of progressive immigration policies will build on the publication of Towards a Progressive Immigration Policy.

            Together with Compass and the Barrow Cadbury Trust we are sponsoring a debate entitled "Towards a progressive immigration policy", which will take place on 6pm Tuesday 29 January 2008, Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, SW1. 

            Platform speakers will be:  Liam Byrne MP, Immigration Minister; Jon Cruddas MP; Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian; Sukhvinder Stubbs, Barrow Cadbury Trust; Neil Jameson, London Citizens; Don Flynn, Migrants Rights Network; Polly Toynbee, The Guardian (Chair)

            Attendance is free and open to all. However, you must notify your wish to attend by sending an email to office@compassonline.org.uk.

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The health service needs of vulnerable migrants

The Department of Health and Home Office are expected to make public their plans for introducing identity and immigration status checks on people registering for GP care.  We are expecting a statement to be made in Parliament in January.

            The MRN is supporting a campaign led by the health service charity, Medact, to oppose these measures and to protect the rights of all migrants to receive primary health care services across the UK.

            The campaign held a meeting in Parliament in December which brought along over 100 people actively concerned with the provision of health services to migrant communities.  This meeting resolved to take the case for greater protection of migrant rights to receive health services to primary care trusts and health service workers across the country, to stiffen determination to challenge these measures. Contact Medact at info@medact.org to obtain a report of this meeting.

            Further activity is planned for January, as soon as the DoH and the Home Office make their announcements – check the MRN website for details – www.migrantsrights.org.uk.

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Undocumented migrants have rights!

The MRN is planning a research project on the position of undocumented migrants in the UK today.  The work will involve discussion with undocumented migrants to get a better picture of the ways in which people come to be outside the provisions of immigration regulation, the reasons why return is considered difficult or impossible, the strategies for survival adopted, and the risks encountered in terms of violations of human and civil rights. The project will feed directly into campaigns currently underway in support of the rights of undocumented migrants and for a comprehensive programme of regularisation to extend the protection of the law to vulnerable groups.