Join our National Conference on 16 July
Posted: 20 June 2022
Join the Labour Campaign for Free Movement for a national gathering to decide our next steps to fight for a socialist immigration policy
When: 16 July 2022
Where: Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX
From the racist Nationality and Borders Act to the sickening cruelty of the Rwanda plan, the Tory government is escalating its attacks on migrants. It is time for the unions and the Labour Party to step up. Our movement must provide solidarity where it is most needed. We need to resist the anti-migrant agenda without apology – migrants’ rights are workers’ rights, and border violence is class warfare.
The Labour Campaign for Free Movement (LCFM) is gathering in London on Saturday 16th July 2022 to build the movement that will stand up for all migrants, resist the Hostile Environment at every level, and win the fight for a humane, socialist and internationalist immigration policy.
LCFM is an organisation of Labour members and supporters, including MPs, Councillors and trade unionists, committed to defending and extending free movement and migrants’ rights. We intend to use our first national meeting since 2019 as a springboard for action.
Join us for a day of workshops, discussions, and planning to shape our fightback. We’ll bring you brilliant speakers from the frontline of struggle and a range of participatory panels on key issues, enabling us all to learn and build together.
This will also be a chance to discuss our strategy and plan the way forward, in Labour and beyond. If you want to get more involved in the campaign, you’ll have the opportunity to stand for our Steering Committee as well.
Requests for childcare during the event are now closed
Agenda
| 10.30 am – Registration
11.00 am – Opening plenary ft. Marzena Zukowska, Ben Tausz & more 11.50 am – Morning workshops (choice of 3, further info below)
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| 1pm – Lunch
1.50 – Afternoon workshops (choice of 3, further info below)
3pm – Break 3.20 – The future of LCFM, Steering Committee hustings & elections 5pm – Closing plenary ft. Nadia Whittome MP, Ben Smoke, Ana Oppenheim |
Workshop info
How to Stop Deportations
Deportations have been a weapon used by the ruling class against migrants for decades. There have however been many heroic struggles to resist deportations over this period, with people putting their lives and bodies on the line to protect people from their physical removal from the UK. In this session we’ll hear first-hand accounts from these struggles, including the stand taken by Joan Martin, mother of Osime Brown, who successfully reversed Osime’s deportation order, and Steve Jackson from SOAS Detainee Support.
Workers’ Action Against Borders
Border controls don’t end at Dover – they permeate deep into workplaces across the country, from the NHS to universities and our local councils, and the fight against these controls will be led by workers organising, uniting together and pushing back through trade unions. Join this session to hear workers at the Home Office and others talk about their campaigns against the Hostile Environment.
Winning Global Free Movement
This session explores free movement struggles across the globe and asks how we can link up the fights against violent borders to win global free movement for all. Featuring: Michael Chessum helped found the Labour Campaign for Free Movement and was the National Organiser for the left-wing anti-Brexit group Another Europe is Possible for five years; Namaa al-Mahdi is a West London-based Sudanese activist.
Migrants Organising in Labour & Unions
Within the organs of the labour movement, migrants are taking collective action for their interests. Come and hear from speakers involved in migrant organising initiatives in the Labour Party and in the trade unions, including Cllr Alex Bulat from Migrants4Labour and Maria Chondrogianni from the UCU Migrant Members’ Standing Committee. Discuss what we as migrants’ rights campaigners might learn from their challenges and successes so far.
Enforcing Borders = Enforcing Exploitation
The myth that border controls protect workers is a deeply embedded one. In fact they undermine us and shift power and profit to employers. In this discussion we will explore how immigration enforcement, the Hostile Environment, and visa conditions, are used to create precarity, deter resistance, and bust trade unions. And we will ask: how can we push back? With Consuelo Moreno (SOAS Unison cleaners’ rep) and Peter Wieltschnig (Focus on Labour Exploitation).
Ending Immigration Detention
Featuring: Sophie Lucas, a lawyer at Duncan Lewis, part of the legal team instructed in the lead challenge to the Home Office’s plan to remove asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda; Owain Gardner, a human rights campaigner who has worked in Westminster and the European Parliament, and who saved a Pakistani national from removal from the UK three times in Dec 2019 gaining their release in time for New Year’s Eve; Sue Jex, chair of trustees at Care4Calais.