Asylum and immigration First-ever demonstration at Colnbrook Saturday February 19 will see the first ever demonstration outside both Harmondsworth and the next-door Colnbrook detention centre outside Heathrow airport.
Harmondsworth, run by UK Detention Services (Sodexho) was temporarily closed last July after a mass protest following the suicide of a detainee.
Colnbrook, the UK's newest detention centre, is modelled on a category B prison and is run by Premier Detention Services (Serco).
Meet outside Harmondsworth Detention Centre at 11.30 am. Contact 07947615341 or 020 8510 0465 for details. Transport available from London and Oxford.
HOSE THIS Racist Prison aris. Last January's First Day of Actions, called by the European Social Forum in Paris, saw over 50 demonstrations across Europe, including eight in Britain.
Last October, the ESF in London agreed to back the call for a second European Day of Action for Migrant Rights adding also the theme of anti racism, to be on 2 April 2005. Piers Mostyn A new criminal offence of "incitement to religious hatred" is being proposed in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill. The AntiTerrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 originally contained a similar provision, which was thrown out.
Its origins in ACTSA - the statute heralding an unprecedented crackdown on the Muslim community - tells you more about it than who is for and who is against it this time round.
This legislation was designed as a sop to those who objected to internment without trial and the massive escalation of state harassment against Muslims.
It is promoted on the basis that - unlike Christians and Jews who are protected by the blasphemy and anti-racist laws - others who are vilified and attacked on the basis of their religious identity are not. Many who support the proposed law therefore do so for quite understandable reasons.
But it is unlikely to stem the tide of Islamophobia. It is more likely to be used against Muslims than to protect them and at best it will be a distraction from the type of fight against racism, discrimination and scapegoating that is needed.
Undoubtedly there has been a big rise in attacks on Muslims - from media smears to violence on the streets.
But why are communities Second European Day of Action against Racism and for Migrant Rights - 2 April
To date known plans in Britain include a day of actions in Manchester, and a national demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. For details of these two contact [email protected] and [email protected] respectively.
In London a first organising meeting agreed that there - KILL assemble in public, and giving the police more power. The law was passed because some of the opposition was persuaded that it would be used to crack down on fascist thuggery.
In fact the opposite happened - to this day the main targets have been the left, trade unionists and the oppressed communities.
Similarly in the North of Ireland a law was passed outlawing incitement to religious hatred. As in the present "war on terror", the government used it to make propaganda hiding the political basis of the conflict behind a false claim that it was religious strife between communities.
Meanwhile the state carried on with its policy of divide and rule through the oppression of the very nationalist community that was suffering from discrimination on the basis of "religious identity"
There are numerous problems with putting a law such as this into practice. Who is to decide what constitutes religious hatred and how? The affected community, or society at large? Religions are far from united on these issues.
One person's meat is often another's poison. For instance, many Jews (wrongly) consider anti-Zionism to be the same as anti-Semitism. And at what point does an attack on the oppressive institutions of a religious community for harbouring sexual abuse become "inciting religious hatred"?
The past year has seen the staging of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials at the National Theatre met by a call in the Catholic Herald for his books to be burnt, the violent closure of the play Behtzi in Birmingham (see SR 21) and orchestrated protests against the BBC's broadcast of Jerry Springer The Opera.
There is a cross-party drive to recast community and individual identity in terms of religion that this law will entrench. Irrespective of the opposition of Tories and the Christian right, its dynamic will strengthen the powerful religious institutions aligned to the state (as in the USA) and provide a cloak behind which racists will find it easier to hide further attacks on oppressed communities like the Muslims.
This issue goes well beyond the question of "artistic licence" to freedom of expression and public debate. Laws already exist to deal with those inciting violence or harassment.
Religions and their institutions should not occupy a privileged position in a society that is supposed to be secAn obvious first step is to abolish the law of blasphemy, which places Christianity uniquely in this position.