After a series of disastrous results in local elections, and following the passage of the ‘Safety of Rwanda Act’ through Parliament, the Home Office has begun its operation to detain individuals in dedicated centres for potential deportation to Rwanda.
This seems like a desperate move by a regime that has run out of road. Sunak’s attempts to salvage his crisis-ridden government by playing with the statute book and beginning deportations to Rwanda make this very clear.
The Tories are resorting to any means available to safeguard their political futures before the general election. From engaging in culture wars to stirring up hysteria about freedom of speech, they are clutching at reactionary straws in a futile attempt to save themselves.
Nowhere is this more evident than in their approach to immigration. However, such is the crisis facing Sunak’s flailing government, and the whole capitalist establishment, that they can’t even effectively implement their own flagship policy.
First there were delays due to legal challenges and constitutional clashes between the government and the courts, which have in turn become a flashpoint in the ongoing Tory civil war.
And adding another hurdle, the head of the Home Office division responsible for detaining and processing asylum-seekers for deportation to Rwanda has halted recruitment and is planning further cuts. The logic of austerity has rendered the Tories unable to enforce their racist policies due to budget constraints.
Ultimately, their ‘hostile environment’ plans are being thwarted by the working class itself.
Last week, the Home Office confirmed that 55 detainees staged a 10-hour protest in the exercise yard at Brook House immigration removal center.
Additionally, despite police attempts to intervene, hundreds of protesters recently prevented a Home Office attempt to collect asylum-seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. After seven hours, the bus departed the area empty.
The solidarity seen in south London – and elsewhere in recent years – has been inspiring.
Yesterday in Peckham was an incredible resistance.
We stopped the Home Office coach taking anyone to the prison barge – and also from taking anyone else at other locations in London.
Then we blocked the police for hours and let them know they will not take any one of us easily. https://t.co/AocCh4ShCD pic.twitter.com/sR4eP2KyOE
— Southwark & Lambeth Anti-Raids (@SLAntiRaids) May 3, 2024
We must use this as a starting point to extend the struggle against the Tories and the system they represent – the system that breeds this violence, injustice, and discrimination: capitalism.
South east London resists deportation raids
Alex Gassem, Bermondsey Communists
Over the past few weeks, the Home Office has ramped up detentions of immigrants that the British state intends to send to Rwanda. But this has not gone as smoothly as they would have liked!
Spontaneous action by local activists, including RCP members, has been able to prevent two such deportation attempts in south east London.
The first was in Peckham, where dozens of activists formed a human barrier around a coach that was scheduled to detain people from the Best Western Hotel. Dozens more activists blocked the road to limit traffic.
The police were determined to set an example by crushing this resistance from the start. 45 people ended up being arrested in total. But protestors stayed strong, and ultimately the Home Office was forced to leave empty-handed.
The second incident was at Driscoll House in Elephant and Castle.
Before the police arrived, I had the chance to speak with several of the young activists there.
There was a clear understanding amongst everyone I spoke to that this was a cynical ploy by Rishi Sunak; an attempt to appease the rabid Tory ranks by showing that he could be relied upon to “stop the boats”. The government’s manoeuvering is completely transparent to most young people nowadays.
It should be mentioned that Starmer was equally hated by these activists. They understood that the Labour leader “only cares about what will get him elected”, which for him means trying to outflank the Tories to the right – by saying that he can “stop the boats” for cheaper!
Shortly after this, police officers were flocking to the location, with four vans in total coming to a stop by the hotel. One approached us, asking if anyone wanted to talk to them. But they were met with a stony silence and consequently walked off.
The police are already hated. But having face-to-face experience of how brutally they treat the oppressed has – justifiably – sharpened attitudes towards them even further.
In the end, the grassroots mobilisation in Elephant and Castle was a success, forcing the authorities to leave without any arrests.
Bold community action like this should be a platform for a broader campaign against the Home Office, the Tories, and the entire racist establishment.
It is not enough to stop one deportation raid at a time. We must overthrow this criminal government, and the rotten system they represent.
Workers – migrant and native-born alike – have a shared interest in fighting the Tories’ racist policies, and demanding a better life for all.
The bosses rely on migrant workers as a source of ultra-cheap labour: to make super-profits and drive down conditions for all workers.
The wealth and resources exist to ensure decent jobs and housing for all, regardless of nationality. But this is either being hoarded by the capitalists, or used by the imperialists to reduce Gaza to rubble and produce the nightmarish conditions that force millions worldwide to flee their homes in the first place.
The fight against the Tories ‘hostile environment’ must therefore be a fight against the warmongers, against imperialism, and for revolution.
