migration

The Russian government tries to repress news of a strike by Tajik construction workers in the city of Yekaterinburg. The head of the Federal Migration Service has called news of the strike "nonsense" and other representatives of the state are trying to repress the news, which may be inspiring to the thousands of other immigrant workers in Russia who are facing the same situation.

Since Tuesday 11/11/08, 15 immigrants from North African countries have started a hunger strike in the city of Chania in the greek island of Crete. Their main demand is to obtain papers of legal stay in the country. Pitching tents outside the City Hall the hunger strikers have been the recepients of widespread solidarity.

This pamphlet looks at the problems the JJ workers faced: of working within the current union structures, of police and State harassment, the bureaucracy of industrial tribunals and the participation of the organised left. It also attempts to draw some positive lessons as to how workers can improve things for the better through direct action and working class organisation.

In the early morning of Saturday 8 of November 2008, riot police forces (MAT) once again attacked immigrants queuing outside the central immigration office in Athens, Greece, in order to register their asylum papers. In the last attack of the kind two weeks ago one Pakistani man was killed on the spot, whereas two more succumbed to their wounds days later in the hospital.

In the evening of the 27th of October thousands marched in the center of Athens in protest at the killing of a Pakistani asylum seeker in the hands of the police.

In the early morning of Sunday the 26th, riot police charged immigrants queuing outside the central immigration office of Athens waiting to register for asylum status.

The protest at the Subway restaurant on Great Victoria Street in central Belfast was, despite the poor weather, attended by around 60-70 people, during what should have been the fast-food outlet's busy lunch-hour, all showing their solidarity with Natalia.

On the 8th of September three Afghan immigrant workers fell victim to port police attack in the harbour area of Patras, Greece. The Red Cross confirms that at least three were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Great White Hopeless

From the time of our arrival the gate of the big hall at bottom floor was quickly closed, so the occupation was limited to the courtyard, the stairs up until the forth floor and the hallways of the floors.

Something new is coming into force in this historically important location in the workers struggle in France. The occupation is made in an autonomous way against every "advice" and recommendation of the big political organizations and against the unions, and it is holding out well.

The protests began on 10 July in Kanmen in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Workers - reportedly angered by a beating meted out to a colleague - attacked a police station for three successive nights.

The sms’s came fast and furious. As furious as the fiery images we were subjected to by our television and our daily newspapers. The front pages are a festival of beastly pictures of the victims of the negrophobic blood letting which has gripped South Africa in the past weeks.

The industrial and mining towns on the Eastern outskirts of Johannesburg are unlovely places. They’re set on flat windswept plains amidst the dumps of sterile sand left over from old mines. In winter the wind bites, the sky is a very pale blue and it seems to be all coal braziers, starved dogs, faded strip malls, gun shops and rusting factories and mine headgear.

Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Unyawo Alunampumulo

Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in Johannesburg

There is only one human race.

Our struggle and every real struggle is to put the human being at the centre of society, starting with the worst off.

It has been revealed that the global shortfall in healthcare professionals has reached four million people – with one million needed in Africa alone. The figures were voiced at the Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, which opened in the Ugandan capital of Kampala on March 3rd.

Just outside of Paris at the Areva TD factory in Montrouge, 89 striking workers have been occupying and blockading the factory for four days.The movement began after management announced plans to close the factory, which produces electrical transformers. Workers are demanding large compensation payments, management is currently refusing to negotiate.

The mainly Polish workers employed by cleaning company Glenn Management to clean offices on the Moulton Park industrial estate, Northampton, had not been paid properly for around four months. However after only one day's strike action they were paid the money that they were owed.

With the openly anti-immigration policies of the government immigrants have found themselves targetted by police. This is part of a worrying racist trend in contemporary French politics.

A familiar sight to many Parisians are the rows of people living in tents along the banks of the canal St Martin. They are homeless, mostly immigrants, mostly illegal. The tents are supplied by les enfants de Don Quichotte, an organisation that battles for the rights of homeless people.

The deadly stand-off between workers and the National Guard was the culmination of events that began on Saturday May 1, 1886.

A historical marker, pictured above, is located at Russel and Superior on Jones Island in Bay View. It commemorates the Bay View Massacre.