"We need your solidarity and support.  We don't want to be forcibly deported.  We fled Iraq to save our lives.  We seek asylum rights under international laws.  We don't want our children to be taken from us.  We don't want the door to close on our education and other needs in our lives.  This policy of 'forced removals' is against every human rights principle.  We need you to support us and protest with us to challenge the deportation policy."

REFUGEE CAMPAIGN GROUP MEETINGS

Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group meetings will now be held as needed, not on a regular date. Meetings info will be sent out by e-mail to those on the mailing list and will appear on this website.

This year's Mayday march and rally, which were again organized by Nottingham Refugee Campaign Group, had more stalls, more banners and placards and more participating organizations. It did much to publicize asylum seekers' issues and raise the profile of groups supporting them. Fortunately May 5^th was rain-free and sunny most of the time. Lead by drumming global groove merchants, the Mapperley May Hoppers, the march set off about 12.45 pm, leaving Brewhouse Yard by the Castle Boulevard entrance and heading up Maid Marion Way.

In 2007 we celebrate England's abolition of slavery, yet we live in a capitalist economy founded on another form of exploitation - the low-waged labour of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Asylum seekers, who are painted as scroungers by the popular press, are not allowed to work. This year, Mayday supported asylum seekers' demand for the right to work.

The march made an unscheduled stop in Old Market Square for some drumming from the the Mapperley May Hoppers; they made a further drumming/photo-opportunity stop by the statue of Robin Hood in Castle Road.

This year, Mayday hosted the International Music Festival, so back at Brewhouse Yard we could listen to Ngoma from Zimbabwe, songs of protest and rebellion from the 1st of May Band and musicians from Kurdistan and Iran. The music was interspersed with speeches from Samson Ake (see Home page for details about Samson's case and how you can help him), representatives of refugees from the DRC, Defy-ID, the Refugee Campaign Group and the Public and Commercial Services Union, currently in a national dispute. Houzan Mahmoud, international representative of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq (www.equalityiniraq.com ), also spoke about conditions for women and workers in Iraq.

Comrades around the world

As well as the photos below, and those on Notts Indymedia, you can see what Mayday is like in other parts of the world on "The Agitator". On Mayday in Istanbul, Los Angeles or Madrid you get beaten up by the police and as for Camberwell... The Agitator's world Mayday links include Nottingham. Finally, Claire tells us that on the Mayday parade in St. Petersburg, Autonomous Action comrades got to the front of the 'United Russia' column (Russian nationalist party), to the annoyance of organisers and cops alike. They unfurled banners proclaiming Freedom, Equality, Anarchist-Communism. To watch what happens to the cop sent in to keep them under control, click here, then never mind all the Russian, just hit the black arrow in the middle of the picture. Those naughty Anarchist-Communists!

Sudanese detainees protest

At least 8 Sudanese from this area were detained when they signed on at Loughborough on March 22^nd - three are known to us. This sudden round up of Sudanese asylum seekers is because there is a case in the High Court against the removal of asylum seekers to the Sudan. The Home Office is therefore doing its utmost to remove as many as possible before this judgment is made. Just when you thought the HO couldn't sink any lower! It is particularly dangerous for asylum seekers from Darfur to be returned to Khartoum. So forced deportation to Sudan is illegal under the Refugee Convention which Britain signed up to in 1951. The Convention obliges signatories not to "expel or return a refugee to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened".

If you want to read about the Sudan situation in the government's own advice to travellers, then click here.

On Saturday, March 24^th, there was a demonstration outside the the Bridewell, next to the Magistrates Court, which was well attended by various groups, calling for the release of the detainees.

NO BORDERS and DEFY-ID: better together

The issues around the government's oppression of asylum seekers and its attempt to introduce ID cards to turn "UK" into "HM Prison UK" are becoming more and more closely linked. The No Borders and DEFY-ID campaigns are therefore planning to merge. For reasons in detail, click here to download leaflet.