As Babi is deported, COTL plots the way forward

Despite a valiant campaign in his defence, Babi Badalov was deported to Azerbaijan at 15.15 on Saturday – coincidentally the time that the Convention of the Left was opening in Manchester to plot a way forward for a shrunken, fragmented and in many cases disorientated left. Immediately after the opening plenary, Cardiff activists highlighted the plight of Babi at an anti-deportation discussion group. We focussed on the fact that, despite the dedication of campaigners, we remain in a situation where we depend on the mercy of the Home Office and a legal system heavily weighted against immigrants. This will remain the case until we can build an anti-deportation movement large and united enough to paralyse the immigration system through strike action and other forms of non-compliance, and to win sufficient mass support that it is simply not feasible to continue the present brutal policy of forced deportation.

Nor is there any point in pleading for a fairer system of border controls. As long as immigration is controlled, there must be a means of expelling the rejects. Detention centres, dawn raids, seizures at border agency offices etc are inevitable once we accept the fact that people are deemed to be illegal.

There was no disagreement on this point at the COTL workshop. There was also general acceptance that the present fragmentation of the anti-deportation struggle had to be overcome and that both the trade unions and unorganised workers had to be drawn into it.

This is not a pipe dream. The NUJ and lecturers’ union UCU have approved motions calling for the abolition of immigration controls. A branch of the RMT hosted the 2008 conference of the Campaign Against Immigration Controls. Unite successfully unionised immigrant cleaners at Canary Wharf and won them a pay rise. The TUC supports the right of asylum seekers to work and produces publicity arguing for this.

No specific initiative has arisen from the COTL discussion: time was short, and this convention is very much a starting-point for the development of left unity; a follow-up convention in November should have clearer practical consequences. However, at Sunday’s “Where Next for the Left?” meeting, a wide range of COTL organisers presented a united statement calling, among other things, for the setting up of local forums. The meeting heard about the success we’ve had in initiating such a forum in Cardiff; now, with just about every left group approving the statement, similar forums should be set up across the UK which, among other things, can act as a focus for the anti-deportation struggle.

Such forums should not be vague and inconsequential talking-shops. They need to involve people who are not just nominally ’socialist’, but who want to see a society owned and democratically managed by its workers. We will need to have out some hard arguments in order to make unity in action a practicality. But with the right attitude it can be done. The COTL demonstrated how willing the socialist left is to look at new, less bureaucratic ways of organising; libertarians and anarchists, for their part, have also got to be willing to examine some of their basic assumptions and practices.

Underlying the COTL discussion was a growing sense of urgency. It took place in a Manchester turned into some kind of sci-fi big brother state by the defences now thought necessary for the Labour Party conference. It took place with the fascists bold enough to openly rally on the Saturday in Stoke. It took place with one deportee being shipped out of the UK every eight minutes, now including Cardiff’s own Babi Badalov.

However, it also took place on the verge of a recession and growing signs of a rebirth of union militancy. Besides being a time of danger, it is a time of opportunity. We urge all those on the left in the Cardiff area to get together now and help us build a radical forum which can help turn the tide of the class struggle and to ensure that we do not spend forever fighting losing battles.

Activists are continuing to target BMI, the airline responsible for Babi’s deportation.

Babi in Campsfield: keep the pressure on!

Babi Badalov is now imprisoned in Campsfield detention centre. Despite a growing clamour to prevent his deportation, he remains scheduled to be flown to Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday.

From the information we have received, it seems certain that the airline involved is Azerbaijan Airlines and the flight number J20008 from Heathrow, leaving 20.00 hours.

It is essential now that the airline is bombarded with protests. Their website is at http://azal.az/en/index.php and their UK address is:
Rooms 842-843, Norfolk House, South
Terminal, London Gatwick Airport,
West Sussex RH6 ONN
Tel.: (44-8707) 605 757
Tel.: (44-1293) 568 000
Fax.:(44-1293) 568 222
Email them here.

Please spread this information as widely as possible. Further details will be posted as soon as they’re available.

Latest news (Fri 19): Azerbaijan Airlines, thanks to the massive pressure campaign initiated here and by South Wales No Borders, are now saying they’ll refuse to deport Babi – but are they fobbing us off? See No Borders.

Border Agency picketed as campaign to save Babi grows

The campaign to prevent the deportation of artist Babi Badalov to Azerbaijan is rapidly picking up steam, with a militant picket of the Cardiff Border Agency today and AMs pledging their support.

Babi, who was seized yesterday when reporting to the agency office on Newport Rd (see report below), remains in Rhymney police station where he is reportedly being treated well – in contrast to his arrest by immigration henchmen yesterday, one of whom is reported to have commented “You make us sick – you’re going back to where you belong”.

Today’s picket, however, showed the strength of feeling amongst Babi’s friends and supporters that Babi belongs in the city he has made his home – the city where he has at last been able to live as an openly gay man without fear of physical or verbal attack.

Amongst the many protesters was Leanne Wood AM who is among those seeking to delay any deportation while vital new evidence is presented concerning Babi’s psychological wellbeing and the threats that have been made to him. The campaign to save Babi remain confident that Saturday’s threatened expulsion will not take place, but if necessary protesters will focus on the airline responsible for the proposed deportation, a tactic which has met with some success in recent cases.

We will keep all who are concerned informed with news of what you can do. Reports of the picket should be appearing on ITV Wales and local papers: hopefully this will reflect the barbarity of the actions of the immigration services and the unwillingness of reasonable people to accept this.

Ultimately, however, we should not need to beg favours of the Home Office to allow any person to live in the UK. As the recent radical socialist forum agreed, immigration controls are a sham which need firstly to be exposed, and secondly to be done away with altogether.

Latest: Bethan Jenkins AM has written to the Home Office opposing Babi’s deportation, since “there is an obligation on the Westminster government to defend those people who face persecution in their respective countries”.

ITV news coverage can be seen here. Click on “latest news bulletins” – the demo is about halfway through Wales Tonight, 17.9.

Babi Badalov seized – action needed urgently

Azerbaijani artist Babi Badalov, whose asylum claim was rejected by the Home Office, was seized when reporting to the Border Agency office in Cardiff today. He was taken to Rhymney police station but his current whereabouts are unknown.

An openly gay man, critical of his homophobic government, Babi has already suffered physical and mental attacks as well as death threats which have left him psychologically fragile. The prospect of a return to the UK’s brutal detention centres, followed by a forced return to Azerbaijan, may well be an effective act of murder by the UK authorities. It is therefore essential that all those concerned about his case become active now.

There will be a demo outside the Border Agency (31-33 Newport Rd) tomorrow at noon. We need maximum publicity for this. Spread the word about Babi’s arrest as widely as possible, to friends, workmates, fellow campaigners, and any media or legal contacts; contact your AM, MP, and send letters of protest to the Home Office and to the local news media. Since Babi is an internationally renowned artist, art and media networks should also be canvassed for support. For further details about Babi’s case visit No Borders Wales.

Further details of Babi’s whereabouts will be posted asap, along with details of further actions and recommendations as to how you can help. Don’t let the British state destroy another innocent life.

17 Sept update: Babi has been scheduled for deportation on Saturday. Supporters have been in contact with him – further details here.

Socialist forum lays basis for unity against deportations

The fourth meeting of the Cardiff Radical Socialist Forum last Wednesday attracted over twenty activists to discuss issues around immigration. Teresa Hayter of No-one Is Illegal, introducing, lamented the reluctance of much of the left to stand openly against the hypocrisy of immigration controls, while her co-campaigner Bob Hughes pointed out that it is the capitalist class, not asylum seekers, who threaten our jobs and fail to integrate.

The forum was both positive and productive. South Wales No Borders activists discussed the anti-deportation work they had been involved in, and artist Babi Badalov spoke movingly of the cruelty of the asylum system in the UK and the constant pressure under which he lives. PR activists spoke about our experience working within the Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers and taking part in the successful campaign against Section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration Act which, if implemented, would have torn children away from asylum-seeking families and left those families destitute.

The Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers is, however, moribund, and it is surely no coincidence that its decline came at the same time that the largest left groups initiated their projects attempting to fill the space vacated to the left of Labour with an electable alternative. Opposition to immigration controls had been the policy of the Socialist Alliance; Respect, however, ditched this commitment, and at the recent GLA elections, the SWP’s Left List avoided the subject of immigration altogether.

There was a consensus at the forum that it is a grave mistake for the left to give ground on the issue of border controls. Such controls were originally introduced to criminalise ethnic minorities and subsequent immigration acts have pandered to the far right and fascist groups, as opposed to minimising their influence as some claim. The absurdity of the present government’s policies is summed up by the fact that fruit is now rotting on the trees in the UK owing to their politically-motivated clampdown on foreign seasonal workers.

However, as PR members argued at the forum, it is clearly wrong to make opposition to border controls a precondition for supporting an anti-deportation campaign. The wrongness of deporting asylum-seekers back to misery or death, the brutality of dawn raids and detention centres may be evident to many people who do not yet understand why we also need to oppose all immigration controls. That does not mean we should stint in any way from having that argument; but we need united fronts against deportation that base themselves, as did the Campaign to Defend Asylum Seekers, on a brief list of basic demands such as the right of asylum seekers to work and the closure of detention centres.

The activists of South Wales No Borders have already reached a similar conclusion and have sought to initiate a wider front, Croeso, which does not require supporters to be anarchists or those within their close orbit. However, Cardiff PR members took the view that it is better for all interested parties to together thrash out what kind of campaign we need, and to take this discussion to the Convention of the Left later this month with the aim of linking with other initiatives and extending this across the UK.

Uniting socialist and anarchist forces will not be easy. Hard arguments will need to be had over decision-making processes and how nationwide integration and unity in action can be achieved. However, the relative level of agreement at the forum was promising. The life-or-death nature of anti-deportation campaigns is incentive enough to overcome sectarian divides, and there will certainly be no disagreement from PR on the need for the militant defence of those under attack.

No Borders are holding a meeting on 18 Sept where this discussion may be taken forward; two days later the Convention of the Left kicks off, with transport being arranged from Cardiff. The next forum is on Iran on Weds October 1 – more details to follow. Help build on what we’ve started, raise the level of political debate in Cardiff and lay the basis of greater unity in action against an increasingly despicable enemy.