Picket Woolas

Posted on February 11, 2009

No to: Destitution, Detention and Deportation of migrants in Manchester

We are contacting you to inform you of an upcoming series of events that we have planned and that you and your associates may be interested in. We are Manchester No Borders — part of a national network of groups campaigning against oppressive, exploitative and divisive immigration policy. We believe in and try to practice a politics of equality which is blind to the arbitrary distinctions of nationalism.

We are organizing a weekend of demonstrations against the destitution, detention and deportation of migrants in Manchester. We would like to invite you to a public meeting at 7:00pm on Wednesday 4th March at the Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester to discuss these plans. We currently have plans for two events, on 20th and 21st March targeting Phil Woolas, Minister of State for Borders and Immigration and MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

These are

  1. the picketing of his constituency office in Oldham
  2. a demonstration in Manchester City Centre and Manchester Airport against the newly re-opened detention centre Pennine House’ at the airport.

The final details and dates of these events are to be decided at the public meeting, which we would very much like you to be involved in. We hope to bring together representatives from a number of organizations, Trade Unions, Political Organizations, Migrant Support Groups, Asylum Seeker Support Groups and Anti-Deportation Campaigns, to discuss how we might demonstrate our strength and solidarity in these precarious times.

Please feel free to pass on this invitation to any groups or individuals you think might also be interested. More important than the demonstrations themselves will undoubtedly be this process of coming together to discuss how we might act collectively to further the cause of equality.

We hope to raise public awareness of the existence of the immigration removal centre at the airport, and begin to associate Phil Woolas and his office with the most brutal and oppressive aspects of immigration policy. This is why we have branded him the Minister for Destitution, Detention and Deportation. Woolas is also an incredibly divisive figure, using nationalist rhetoric to pry on people’s fears about job security, falsely pitting workers against one another. We believe that immigration policy is one of the ways in which the state protects the interests of capital and big business by dividing the interests of workers.

Please feel free to visit our website below to view a copy of the flyer that we are provisionally using to publicize these events and meeting. As we mentioned above, nothing is finalized as yet. Your presence and contribution would be invaluable in formulating a message of strength and solidarity that can measure up to the feelings of insecurity that many are feeling today. We look forward to hearing back from you, and hope you can join us on the 4th March.

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