[NextGenderation]
On the 19-24th September, over 200 people gathered
for the UK's
first
No Border camp which was held near a small village
called Balcombe in
Sussex. The camp was organised to protest against the
building of a new
detention centre near Gatwick which will take the UK's
capacity to
detain people to 3,000. The camp provided an
opportunity for groups and
individuals working on issues surrounding migration to
meet, do
actions, network and give workshops on a wide range of
topics which are
documented on the camp's website
(
www.noborders.org.uk).
At the camp there was a large feminist and queer
presence that both
reflected the involvement of feminists and queers in
no border politics
and the fact that it is often women and queers who
suffer most at the
hands of an extremely unfair, racist and homophobic
system. Notable
events
included the 'Moving Gender' workshop which took place
on the friday of
the camp. The workshop explored a number of issues
around gender and
migration, including how the control of people's
mobility is linked to
the
control of sexuality and an important contribution to
the debates and
activism that surround the trafficking of women. This
section of the
workshop, which was led by the founders of X talk who
provide free
english
classes for sex workers so that they can communicate
better with
clients
(
http://www.xtalkproject.net/), presented the opinion
that there needs
to
be a more rigorous 'labour rights' perspective applied
to the
contemporary
feminist perspective on sex work.
Sex work should be understood not only as prostitution
but as a
multiplicity of work choices that sell sex and there
should be an
awareness of the contradictory position that sex
workers hold in
relation
to capital - that is they illustrate what it means to
be marginalised
and
invisible because of their working practices but how
they are also
fundamental to the operations of capital. the workshop
conceptualised
sex
work as affective labour - a theory that can also be
applied to other
areas of work that are often done by women and queer
migrants such as
domestic and care work. Affective labor is labour
which has a value not
only in terms of capital but in terms of of its
relational value; the
feeling it produces for the user of a particular
service. This theory
can
provide a useful tool in measuring the economic value
of relation that
sex
and care work encompasses, when this is valued more
highly this will
hopefully lead to better pay and working conditions
for people working
in
this sector.
The workshop concluded with a presentation about
radical queer politics
in
beograd (
www.queerbeograd.org) and the everyday
confrontation with
borders
and bordered thinking that queer people rub up against
when they
visibly
deviate from binary sex and normative sexuality.
Overall the workshop
provided some useful contributions to a variety of
debates surrounding
sexuality, the home, women's place, sex work, gender
and migration that
will continue to be acted upon at events such as
Feminist fightback
(
http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/) and the
Feminist Activist Forum.
The workshop underlined how radical queer politics
continue to both
inform
and transform feminist political praxis in our
activist and social
communities.
Other notable events that occurred at the no borders
camp were hearing
testimonies from women who had been detained in
Immigration Removal
Prisons such as Yarlswood and Harmondsworth, these
were sobering and
powerful to hear, reminding us of the brutal, inhumane
and racist
treatment women receive in detention prisons. It was
also inspiring to
hear the spirited, defiant resistance to the system by
one of the
women.
Common stories that recurred were of racist assaults,
denial of
adequate
medical treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention,
rape. MAltreatment
often occurs in these immigration prisons because they
are privately
run
for profit and are not subject to the same regulative
procedures as the
UK's prison service, which creates scope for greater
abuse and limited
accountability. Women from Crossroads women's centre,
who have been
tirelessly working and supporting women to empower
themselves in asylum
cases for many years, presented a workshop that shared
strategies,
frustrations and successes when fighting the uk's
detention regime.
Crossroad's work, which includes direct support and
research, concludes
that the system consistently refuses to believe women
when they say
they
are feeling brutal regimes such as Mugabe's in
Zimbabwe, while also
reporting on the gross malpractise of lawyers working
on asylum cases.
Women from the All African Women's Group who meet at
the centre, also
shared the work they do.
Overall the camp provided a relaxed and focussed
political space in
which
to explore strategies in which to further the campaign
to end Britain's
detention and border regime. Many friendships, ideas
and plans for
further
action were mobilised while the camp also included a
number of actions,
culminating on the Saturday in a large march from
Crawley to Tinseley
House, one of the first immigration prisons opened in
1993, to the
planned
site of the new centre Brooke HOuse, which will have
the capacity to
hold
436 people. At the march the queer and feminist bloc
formed a colourful
contingent, including a number of feminist,
anti-capitalist queer
superheroes devised for the camp. We marched for a
world without
borders,
without racism, homophobia, sexism and class
exploitation, a world of
unity, diversity and where freedom of movement is a
reality for
everyone
on the planet. We will to continue to act in this way
until it is
achieved.
www.xtalkproject.net,
http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/,
www.queerbeograd.org,
www.noborders.org.uk,
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/crossroadswomenscentre/,
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/
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