Local activists send free movement motion to Labour Party Conference 2018
Posted: 13 September 2018
Local activists send free movement motion to Labour Party Conference 2018
Great news from Stevenage Labour Party, where local activists who support the Labour Campaign for Free Movement have passed a motion to send to this month’s party conference! This gives party members a chance to democratically to decide on firm policies for the Labour government we are fighting to win: to defend and extend free movement, reverse years of hostile policies inflicted on migrants, and unite all workers no matter our birthplace. Check out the motion below, please ask your delegates to support it, and if you’ll be in Liverpool during conference, sign up here to help us campaign!
Against the Hostile Environment, Defend Migrant Rights During Brexit Negotiations
On August 30, the Migration Observatory released a report showing that replacing EU free movement with a visa scheme would increase the risk of exploitation and undercut wages. On September 3rd the Guardian reported that the Home Office is losing 75% of appeals against immigration rulings.
Stagnant wages, crumbling services and the housing crisis are being exacerbated by the government and employers making the rich richer at working people’s expense, not immigration. Theresa May’s Hostile Environment has driven wedges into our communities and sought to strip the rights of migrants and refugees in the UK and beyond.
Labour can promise public funding to ensure good jobs, homes, services and benefits, scrapping anti-union laws and strengthening workers’ rights, regardless of birthplace. We stand for all workers, united regardless of nationality; our class has no border.
Free movement benefits all workers; limiting migrant rights hits all working people’s living standards. Britain and the EU should welcome migration across from Europe and beyond, and Labour must firmly support EU Freedom of Movement irrespective of our Brexit position.
We welcome our Shadow Home Secretary’s pledges to close two detention centres, end indefinite detention, and stop the use of landlords as border guards.
Therefore in government Labour must:
- maintain and extend free movement;
- scrap the net migration target;
- strengthen refugee rights;
- close all detention centres;
- ensure the right to family reunion;
- end “no recourse to public funds” policies;
- reverse attacks on migrants’ access to the NHS.