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a convergence of compassion and action
make the journey : their freedom is ours
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ROAR :: Rock On Against Racism outside the Baxter detention centre over Easter... [Details & Flyer ] |
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no one is illegal Call to Action Easter 2003
"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
Lilla Watson
National borders shifted to restrict immigration. Offshore processing and detention. Forced deportations. No new recorded arrivals in over a year. The gradual phasing out of current onshore detention centres, and the relocation of those who have spent months and years in imprisonment.
Australia is not alone in fortifying its borders. All over the world governments erect walls of concrete and razor wire, install high tech security equipment and employ computerised surveillance systems to protect their power and privilege from those seeking a better life. In an increasingly globalised world Capital moves freely, but not people.
A new state-of-the-art militarised centre at Baxter. In order to reverse the negative community perception of mandatory detention, gone is the razor wire. But the barriers still remain.
An electric fence secures the border.
Solid fences within the camp are erected not for containment but to increase isolation. From the inside all that can be seen is the sky. Separate compounds divide friends and family.
The invisibility of those inside is made possible by locating the "detention facility" in the desert. Information barriers are strictly policed by the state and the private corporation that profits from incarceration. Letting the imprisonment of those inside go unchallenged will only strengthen the forces that control the lives of people on both sides of the fence.
Having risked their lives in coming here seeking freedom, many people inside the camps risk further imprisonment, deportation and even death in challenging their detention. They join thousands of people world-wide who riot, self harm, light fires and destroy compounds in protest against and in defiance of their incarceration.
As the people inside escalate their struggle, so shall our struggle escalate in solidarity. For we are part of a global movement fighting for the right of all people to move and to stay.
This Easter we will converge at Baxter. We will take action in solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside the camps. Through civil disobedience we will make contact and challenge the barriers that divide us. Join us.
Ours will be part of many actions that are planned for the Baxter protest from April 18 - 20. Direct actions, media, radio, vigils, workshops, music
No One Is Illegal
February 2003
www.antimedia.net/nooneisillegal
>>>>>
no one is illegal is a Melbourne-based collective acting to question borders in all their forms.
We are part of a loose network of groups around the world using the kein ist mensch illegal/no one is illegal idea which began in 1997 at Documenta X.
We want to find answers to questions like: why are there borders? Do we need nations? Is a global community possible? How can we remove the barriers between us?
Capital derives its profit and power from the theft and plundering of the land and the exploitation of labour. Once this was organised by the colonial powers of Europe, now they are joined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Washington with their structural adjustment programs and free trade treaties. This means massive impoverishment of the global South, displacing millions of people from their homes and making the survival of billions harder and harder. Some countries are economically devastated, in others there is war and genocide. As the world is homogenised, the laws we live by are increasingly the values of the market place. And while there are few borders for trade and the movement of capital, restrictions on the movement of people are being tightened.
Our present focus is on the treatment of people who arrive in Australia without papers. (See Xborder for lots of information on this.)
We are inspired by actions throughout the world, both inside and outside the camps, and see ourselves as part of a global struggle against capitalist neo-liberalism and all its borders. We oppose a world where money and corporations are free to travel, but people are not. We believe people fleeing poverty and ecological degradation have as much right to move as those escaping dictatorship and persecution. We wish to join forces with others to end mandatory detention and to start creating the future now.
Often we use the slogans: open the borders : full rights for all migrants : close the camps as a shorthand for some of the changes in the world we hope to see.
We experiment with different methods and ways of bringing about change in society: civil disobedience, direct action, writing, speaking, and artistic interventions.
We come to consensus on our actions at weekly meetings on Mondays: 6pm @ Irene
5 Pitt St., Brunswick
(off Lygon St, tram 1/22, get off at Glenlyon Rd,
next turning on left)
-- no one is illegal, Melbourne
this is one of many aspects of Baxter2003. Read about more here |
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