Against the state’s lies
Across Europe the recent migrant lead protests have been undermining and highlighting the contradiction of borders everywhere. In Calais there has never been such a wave of sustained protests against the border here with eight separate actions having taken place in just the past ten days. The authorities here are trying to delegitimize these protests by claiming that they are organized by ‘the No Borders’ who are instrumentalizing the groups in the jungle for their own ends.
There is a deep racism in these lies which imply that ‘those people in the jungle’ cannot organize themselves but rather need white/european leadership. This is simply not the case. Many of those in the jungle have been organizing politically all of their lives and in much more unforgiving political circumstances than those of Calais. There is a very strong movement happening here which is entirely migrant led. By claiming otherwise, the authorities are trying to ignore and dismiss the people protesting here along with their demands as somehow ‘not genuine’.
Those Europeans or people otherwise having legal status who participate in the movement here do so because they share the same ideas and demands but they did not invent them. The need to abolish the European border regime is never more evident than it is to those who come up against it everyday.
The people demanding their freedom of movement do so because their lives depend on it. We are always happy to join them.
https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
Documenting police harassment of migrants in Calais and strengthening resistance against the border regime
https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com
Documenting police harassment of migrants in Calais and strengthening resistance against the border regime