Racist Borders Company & College Protest Ban: On Thursday October twenty fourth 2013 I photographed a protest towards the racist actions of the UK Borders Company exterior the Dwelling Workplace Reporting Centre in Hounslow, West London earlier than travelling into central London the place supporters of the marketing campaign calling for correct sickpay, holidays and pensions for all staff on the College of London defied a ban on protests by the College authorities.
Southall Black Sisters Protest Racist UKBA – Eaton Home, Hounslow
The racial profiling of the UK Borders Company of their spot checks at rail and underground stations in areas corresponding to Southall, Slough, Brent and East London trigger nice anxiousness in our minority communities, lots of whom are British residents born on this nation.
Dwelling Secretary Theresa Might had in 2012 introduced that her purpose “was to create right here in Britain a very hostile setting for unlawful migration”, and set out to take action by a sequence of measures, some unlawful and all morally reprehensible.
After a profitable authorized problem to the Dwelling Workplace use of slogans on promoting vans, the UKBA had, in accordance with Southall Black Sisters had “shifted the ’Go Dwelling’ message to reporting centres in Glasgow, Croydon and Hounslow.” And they also had determined to carry this protest on the Hounslow centre inviting others to affix with them “in demonstrating towards the Authorities’s anti-immigration campaigns.“
They stated “We is not going to tolerate underhand ways used to instil worry and divide us. Allow us to return to the streets and make our voices heard. We have to combat for our rights.”
A lot of the 30 or so individuals who made their method to the centre, housed within the former places of work of a pharmaceutical firm on the sting of London, reverse Hounslow Heath, poorly served by public transport (maybe intentionally distant to make life harder for migrants and asylum seekers who need to report there) have been from Southall Black Sisters, however there have been a couple of from different teams with a banner with the message ‘F**Ok ALL RACISM – NO ONE IS ILLEGAL’.
A couple of police had turned as much as watch, and one officer complained concerning the language utilized by one of many girls current. She complained strongly that she had been responding to a racist comment by a passer-by, and requested why the officer had not responded to that. He replied that he had not heard the comment, however had heard her reply, and was surrounded by a bunch of girls blowing whistles and horns and banging drums for a few minutes earlier than being rescued by Pragna Patel, Director of Southall Black Sisters, who instructed the group they need to get on with their demonstration.
The protest was nonetheless persevering with once I left after about an hour to get one of many rare buses to the centre of Hounslow to catch the tube.
You’ll be able to learn a extra detailed account of the occasion and extra photos at Southall Black Sisters Protest Racist UKBA
3 Cosas Defy London College Protest Ban – Senate Home, College of London
Supporters of the ‘3 Cosas’ marketing campaign for sick pay, holidays and pensions for all staff on the College of London and others at the moment defied College administration ban of protests by holding a loud protest in and round Senate Home.
The ban was seen by college students and employees on the College, together with cleaners as an try to stop free speech and freedom of meeting on the college and the risk to usher in the police to stop additional protests as one which remembers the actions of authoritarian regimes abroad, rightly condemned throughout academia and the remainder of society. The college was threatening to deliver expenses of trespass towards any protesters.
The protest was known as by the three Cosas marketing campaign (Spanish for ‘3 issues), College of London Union (ULU) and the IWGB (Impartial Staff of Nice Britain) which represents lots of the cleaners within the college, and was supported by others together with members of Unison and the UCU.
They started with a loud protest exterior the gates on the east of the positioning, earlier than going round to proceed their protest on the south entrance to Senate Home, reverse the queues ready to enter the north entrance of the British Museum earlier than occurring the the locked West Gates.
From exterior we might see a couple of protesters already being ejected from the foyer below Senate Home. Some folks climbed over the gates to affix them, however most of us discovered a neater method by an open gate and throughout a garden, and shortly the protest was happening exterior the now locked gates to the foyer on the backside of Senate Home.
After some time the protesters moved out to the world in entrance of SOAS and I assumed the protest was over. However a bunch with the IWGB banner had different concepts, dashing down the slim path into the Senate Home East automotive park, and the remainder of us adopted.
At Senate Home they have been met by two police and administration representatives who instructed them they weren’t allowed to protest. The one results of this was so as to add the slogan ‘Cops Off Campus!‘ to that of ‘Sick Pay, Holidays, Pensions, Now!’ and the protest continued, getting quite louder as extra police arrived.
ULU Vice President Daniel Cooper used a megaphone to query why the protest was being filmed from a primary ground window after which talked concerning the disgrace that the College was bringing on itself by its refusal to insist on respectable situations of employment for all staff within the college, for trying a ban on freedom of speech and meeting within the college and for bringing police onto the campus towards employees and college students of the college.
Extra police arrived and made an ineffectual try to kettle the protesters, who merely walked by gaps within the police line. The police regrouped and tried to cease them leaving in a narrower space, however by now some officers have been attempting to cease them whereas others have been shouting to their colleagues to allow them to go away. Ultimately realising that their presence was solely inflaming the scenario and prolonging the protest and marched away. The protesters held a brief rally in entrance of the SOAS constructing earlier than dispersing.
Extra at 3 Cosas Defy London Uni Protest Ban.
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Tags: 3 Cosas, Alberto Durango, borders company, cleaners, Daniel Cooper, free speech, freedom of meeting, holidays, Hounlow, Hounslow, immigration raids, IWGB, London, London College, pensions, peter Marshall, police, protest, racial profiling, racism, racist Dwelling Secretary, racist insurance policies, reporting centre, Senate Home, sick pay, Southall Black Sisters, employees, college students, Theresa Might, UKBA, ULU, College of London
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