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<\/p>\nWe are posting two further articles on the events at Kenmure Street on 13th May. The first is by Smina Akhtar of Glasgow University , which outlines the blog post by Smina\u00a0Akhtar, University of Glasgow, describing the history organisation in Glasgow which led to this successful challenge. The second is by Alistair Davidson, first posted \u00a0by bella caledonia, which \u00a0outlines the lessons for the Scottish independence movement.<\/p>\n
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Around 9.30am on Thursday 13 May I checked my phone for messages, as I was about to start making\u00a0preparations for Eid dinner later that evening. One of the\u00a0No Evictions Network<\/a>\u00a0activists had posted a photo of\u00a0an immigration enforcement van in Kenmure Street in Pollokshields and said that he was going to investigate\u00a0what was happening, and asked others in the network to come down to support him. As more and more\u00a0members of the network arrived, it transpired that immigration officers had raided the home of two men, Sumit\u00a0Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh, and put them in the van. The immigration van couldn\u2019t leave because it was\u00a0surrounded by activists, and one of them had got under the van (and would stay there for eight hours to\u00a0ensure it wouldn\u2019t go anywhere). Activists reported that Police Scotland were helping immigration officials\u00a0by trying to persuade the activists to disperse. In solidarity, thousands of Pollokshields locals as well as\u00a0people from across the city gathered to prevent this immigration raid. The two men, both\u00a0migrants from India, were eventually released.<\/p>\n Throughout the day I was reading news reports and comments on social media about how friendly and\u00a0welcoming the people of Glasgow are to newcomers, as if that was enough\u00a0 explanation for the\u00a0overwhelming solidarity against this particular immigration raid. Whilst Glasgow has a reputation for being\u00a0friendly, it also has a history of racism going back to the days of empire and the attacks on\u00a0 black seamen in 1919<\/a>. I also read reports crediting the release of the two men to the actions of individual\u00a0activists.<\/p>\n This is mistaken.<\/p>\n Individuals and friendly Glaswegians no doubt had a part to play, but the real reason for the huge solidarity shown on the streets of Pollokshields and the release of the two men must go to the grassroots infrastructure\u00a0that the city has built up through its history of migrant solidarity since it became a dispersal city\u00a0for refugees in the asylum system in 2000.<\/p>\n The UK Government\u2019s pursuit of austerity saw the creation of asylum dispersal areas, with Glasgow being\u00a0the only one in Scotland. Once dispersal to Glasgow began, the racist British National Party began to make\u00a0violent threats to the newly arrived refugees seeking asylum.\u00a0The murder of Firsat Dag<\/a>, a 25-year-old Kurdish\u00a0refugee in the Sighthill area of Glasgow, led activists to form the Campaign to Welcome Refugees. The\u00a0Home Office began dawn raids in 2005; these were immigration raids carried out in the middle of the night\u00a0without prior warning, during which families were woken up and taken in immigration vans to detention\u00a0centres just wearing the clothes on their back.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Glasgow Girls<\/a>\u00a0was formed in 2005 when one member of a group of school friends was dawn raided.\u00a0The Unity Centre<\/a>, which is part of the No Evictions Network, was established around 2005 by activists\u00a0opposing dawn raids. It is important to note that dawn raids were made possible because the Scottish police assisted immigration officers. Consistent and determined activists influenced a decision by the police\u00a0to stop this cooperation, thus ending dawn raids in 2006, though immigration raids on\u00a0workplaces continued.<\/p>\n The No Evictions Network came into being in 2018 after Serco, the then provider of asylum accommodation in\u00a0Glasgow, announced that it intended to change the locks of 330 people in the asylum system, thus making\u00a0them destitute. The Network is made up of the Unity Centre and\u00a0Migrants Organising for Rights and Empowerment<\/a>\u00a0(MORE). They were established to oppose the proposed\u00a0evictions, and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and over 400 refugees in the asylum system were moved\u00a0into hotels, their focus changed to support those in hotel detention. The network supported them by\u00a0campaigning for the re-instatement of the asylum allowance which had been withdrawn for healthier and\u00a0appropriate food, and provided phone top ups so people could keep in touch with their loved ones. This led an\u00a0increasing number of people in the asylum system to join the network\u00a0and become activists themselves.<\/p>\n Thus, the racist and violent actions of the Home Office\u2019s immigration system have galvanised a generation of\u00a0activists and created a culture of anti-racist migrant solidarity in Glasgow.\u00a0When the No Evictions Network discovered that the Home Office had once again carried out a dawn raid in\u00a0Glasgow at the end of April 2021, it was able to act quickly alongside partner organisations.\u00a0 A demonstration\u00a0was held in George Square on 1 May 2021 with over 400 people attending. We held a meeting with UK wide\u00a0anti-raids groups in order to develop strategies, and\u00a0Haringey Anti-Raids<\/a>\u00a0group provided training on what to do\u00a0when a raid happens just the night before this attempted immigration raid. So when that activist saw an\u00a0immigration enforcement van on Kenmure Street on the morning of Eid, he knew what to do. Soon there were\u00a0over a thousand anti-racists on Kenmure Street: shop keepers provided free food and water throughout the day, a Muslim bakery brought an Eid cake, young girls dressed up in their new shiny Eid clothes joined the demo with homemade placards, whilst neighbours put\u00a0signs up in their windows and a local gym said protesters could use their toilets.<\/p>\n What happened in Kenmure Street was a genuine example of anti-racist solidarity. When people came out to\u00a0stop the possible deportation of Sumit Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh, no one knew their names or where they were from, and no one questioned their right to be in Glasgow.<\/p>\n Real solidarity doesn\u2019t create barriers between \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019; it places no conditions on those we support and\u00a0stand with. Instead, everyone on Kenmure Street recognised the injustice of an oppressive, violent and racist\u00a0immigration system and rejected it. Moreover, we questioned the role of a devolved Police Scotland upholding\u00a0such a racist system.<\/p>\n The victory of Kenmure Street was many years in the making. It is heartening to see that a long history of\u00a0migrant solidarity continues to produce younger activists who share our deep feelings of wanting to act when\u00a0we see injustice. It also sends out a clear message to the Home Office to not come back to Glasgow,\u00a0because you will only find resistance.<\/p>\n 18th May 2021<\/p>\n The defeat inflicted on Britain\u2019s Home Office on Kenmure Street may prove a crucial turning point for Scotland.<\/p>\n In the years since the independence referendum, many of us have felt a frustrated impotence. The mass movement we built in those years, the largest Scotland had seen since the Poll Tax, largely fizzled. The Yes movement channeled its energy into political parties, and those parties are limited by their need to be electable. They ask us to vote, to campaign for votes, but as players of the parliamentary game they cannot change its rules.<\/p>\n The victory on Kenmure Street shows once again that the power of the people, united and organised, can change the rules. Legally, Britain held all the cards here. Immigration law is reserved to Westminster. Home office enforcement officers are employed by Westminster. Immigrants are seized and taken to detention centres all the time, and it rarely makes the news.<\/p>\n But on this occasion, the power of the people, of the self-conscious and self-organised working class, turned the legal situation on its head. Two decades of organising by the Unity Centre meant that many members of the community knew immediately what had to be done. Deep links, on- and offline, meant that the call for support spread like wildfire, with hundreds assembling in the first few hours. The crowd was disciplined: any move forward by the police was met with mass sit-downs and bike barricades.<\/p>\n After an 8 hour standoff, the Home Office was forced to stand down. In the space opened by direct action, the words of progressive politicians and lawyers could start to have meaning.<\/p>\n All of this took place at the intersection of class politics and constitutional politics. The British state was trying to implement an unpopular policy. The Scottish state, subject, opposed it impotently. But the people, organised and united, bodies on the line, made the opposition real, and were victorious.<\/p>\n The coming years will see an increasingly authoritarian Tory government trying to impose its right wing politics on Scotland\u2019s institutions, and a decaying capitalism trying to squeeze the last pennies from an exhausted and impoverished population. The SNP and the Greens aren\u2019t going to save us. But each time we organise, and fight, and win, a little more authority slips from Britain\u2019s grasp, and a progressive independent Scotland comes a little closer.<\/p>\n 21st May 2021<\/p>\n These articles were first posted at:-<\/p>\n 1. The battle of Kenmure Street<\/a><\/p>\n and<\/p>\n 2. Lessons from the Kenmure Street Siege<\/a><\/p>\n also see:-<\/p>\n
\n2. \u00a0LESSONS OF KENMURE STREET – Alistair Davidson<\/h2>\n
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