The Sukulas – a great anti-deportation victory

Cardiff PR salute the work of Cardiff activists in raising funds for the children of Ama Sumani, the Ghanaian woman deported to her death while receiving vital medical care in the UK. Her death was a tragedy rightly described as state murder. It has been followed, however, by excellent news for another important anti-deportation campaign. Jason Travis of PR, chair of the Sukula family campaign, gives his account of their victory:

On 27th March, almost three years after the start of the campaign the Sukulas, a Bolton family of asylum seekers who fled the civil war in the Congo, finally received the news that they’d been given indefinite leave to remain.

Over 3000 people have supported the campaign that has also had the support of Unison, the NUT, the NUJ and other unions.

The Sukulas were one of the first families to have all benefits withdrawn under the notorious Section 9 that the government had hoped would drive families out of Britain by taking away their homes, their benefits and even their children who would be placed into the care of social services with the adults made destitute and homeless.

The campaign declared that if any attempts were made to evict the Sukulas we would form a physical blockade around the house to prevent either eviction or deportation. We gained support of local unions and Bolton Unison backed social workers who refused to initiate care proceedings purely because of government imposed destitution. This stance was backed by the British Association of Social Workers and later Unison nationally.

As a result of this defiance by workers and the massive community support, taken up by the local paper the Bolton News, the council refused to evict the Sukulas. Following this another ten Greater Manchester councils and then councils in Yorkshire made a similar commitment to refuse to evict families of failed asylum seekers. The Sukulas themselves lived 17 months without benefits living only on community support and proceeds from the campaign (which is therefore several hundred pounds in debt). Hundreds demonstrated against the Act and led by the Sukula campaign Section 9 was smashed!

In addition we successfully campaigned against Flores Sukula being expelled from Bolton Soxth Form College- purely on grounds of being a failed asylum seeker- with Bolton NUT and the NUS threatening a campaign of massive publicity and protest of the college authorities didn’t back down. We also, through trade union support, demonstration and threatened pickets prevented the forced dispersal of the Sukulas to Liverpool.

We feel that as a consequence of the Sukula campaign, together with a growing number of similar campaigns around the country, the government had to back down and settle thousands of asylum cases, the so-called legacy cases. If we had not assembled a range of trade union and community activists prepared to take militant action up to and including physical blockades then the government would not have its policy on families left in tatters.

There is however still a lot to do. We have always from day one campaigned against all deportations- of men, women, children of anyone. This is why we have supported the No One is Illegal trade union conferences, the second of which met 29th March 2008 with some hundred trade unionists planning action to oppose immigration controls and organise migrant workers.

We demand the right to work and have continually pushed for a national network of trade unionists and community campaigns prepared to take physical action and strike action to defend migrants and refuse to implement immigration controls. We need a network of parents, teachers, other education workers and students to declare schools are no deportation zones. But we also need community campaigns with the ability to mount emergency defence pickets and we need trade unions to recruit all workers- documented or otherwise- to demand the right to work and organise at trade union agreed rates and to turn the success of exemplary campaigns like the Sukulas into a national movement of defiance to smash all immigration controls.

The family and campaign thanks everyone who has supported us and will continue to fight against all deportations.

For details of CardiffPR’s work supporting Congolese and other refugees in South Wales, email cardiffpr@yahoo.co.uk.

Zimbabwe demo this Saturday (29 March)

From the Zimbabwean Development Support Agency:

This Saturday the 29th of March, Zimbabwe is holding its national presidential elections once again. ZDSA Wales, in collaboration with Zimbabweans worldwide is demonstrating against continual electoral rigging, inhumane treatment of fellow Zimbabweans and utmost poverty of the masses under the Mugabe regime.
Zimbabweans in the diaspora have been stripped of their rights to vote in order to influence change in their own country.
-There is an average of 600 Zimbabweans living in Wales.
It is estimated half of them are been rendered destitute in the asylum process since 2002 and cannot be returned home due to the political situation.
-A high number of Zimbabweans have been living in limbo for more than 5 years with no light at the end of the tunnel since deportation was suspended in 2002.
-Mugabe’s repressive tyranny in the past of 27 years has brought the country to its knees.
-In Zimbabwe the average person lives in abject poverty with the highest inflation rate in the world.
Life expectancy of the average Zimbabwean male and female is now 32 years.
HOW LONG CAN THE WORLD WATCH THIS ATROCITY?
HELP US TO MAKE A STAND!!
HELP US CHANGE OUR FUTURE!!
HELP US TO BE HEARD!!
The Zimbabwean Development Support Association Wales is holding a demonstration in Cardiff at the Bevan Statue, Queen Street, Cardiff on Saturday the 29th of March and will be held from 12:30-14:00 hrs.

For PR’s comment on the situation in Zimbabwe in 2007, see our archive.

The Stop The St Athan Military Academy campaign also meets this Saturday at 3pm, Temple of Peace.

One arrested as Cardiff confronts anti-abortion bigots

There was no sign of Ann Widdecombe in Cardiff last night as the protest against her “Passion For Life”(sic) anti-abortion roadshow exceeded all expectations (video).

Over a hundred pro-choice demonstrators packed the pavement outside the City Temple to give the anti-abortionists a reception they will not forget in a hurry.

Speeches by Katy Ladbrook of Abortion Rights, Leanne Wood AM, Mariam Kamish of the Socialist Party and Jon Blake of Permanent Revolution stressed the bogus nature of the “pro-life” arguments and the need to keep up the offensive in support of progressive reform of the UK’s antiquated abortion laws.

Meanwhile the “Passion For Life”’s clientele, bussed in from as far afield as Cheltenham, was given a clear message from chanting protesters: “Pro-life, that’s a lie – you don’t care if women die”. With 80,000 women estimated to die each year in backstreet abortions around the world, the slogan perfectly encapsulated the rank hypocricy of religious bigots who aim to put women back in the dark ages when they were classed with the mentally ill as people incapable of making moral decisions.

The protest was militant but commendably disciplined in the face of police heavy-handedness, confrontational meeting organisers and one cowardly anti-abortionist who sent a jet of water over two babies in prams from a passing car.

The police had been all warmth and sunshine to the members of Bristol Feminist Network who had contacted them about the picket. On the night, however, they suddenly sprang a demand that the protest take place on the other side of the road. When protesters refused, police reinforcements were called in and a well-known Cardiff anarchist singled out for arrest on a trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer. If taking a photo now constitutes assault, civil liberties is in an even worse state than we feared.

Cardiff PR have often bemoaned the sectarianism of the Cardiff left, but the solidarity shown by protesters in heading off to the central police station after the demo was heartening indeed.

A grey-faced meeting organiser, clearly rattled by the strength and passion of the demo, demanded the right to speak. However, pro-choice activists can be assured of one thing: the Permanent Revolution megaphone will never be allowed into the hands of an anti-abortionist. He was given short shrift, along with his bogus talk of free speech – strange it hadn’t occurred to this bigot that the pro-choice argument had no chance of being raised in the meeting he supported.

In an age when awareness of sexual politics has been eroded by an overwhelming sexism in popular culture, the number of young people on the demo, both male and female, was encouraging. Now, however, we need to build on this protest to create a lasting pro-choice activist group in the Cardiff area which will go on the offensive to fight for the abortion rights that women need. Cardiff PR, in association with other local activists, have set up Pro Choice Cardiff for this purpose. Dozens signed up for this at the protest – it’s also possible to join on Facebook. Let’s ensure that Widdecombe and friends truly get the reward they deserve for daring to bring their medieval roadshow to our city.

Stop Press: Pro Choice Cardiff is organising a follow-up meeting next Weds, 12 March, at Cardiff University – details to follow.

Below: a reminder of how some of the left got suckered into an alliance with a well-known anti-abortionist – never again!