Workers Solidarity Movement

One of our member is now at the refugee camp in Calais as part of the solidarity convoy that arrived from Ireland a couple of days back.  Before he left he filed this report for us.

Today the first of Ireland-Calais Refugee Solidarity’s convoys of basic aid is due to arrive in the French port of Calais. The aid is for distribution among the several thousand refugees living in deplorable conditions in makeshift camps outside the town, hoping to gain entry into the UK.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the ‘Ireland Calais Refugee Solidarity’ group, collecting and organising for refugee aid convoys, the first of which is being delivered to Calais today. The group was initially set up by one very impressive person from Cork, Tracey Ryan, who was planning on collecting donations and delivering them to Calais personally. Apparently though, interest in the solidarity action was so large that it grew into a cross-country action, focused in Cork and Dublin.

The inscription on the memorial to the Irish 'Famine' in Boston serves to remind us of much we should not have forgotten and how shameful some of our words today must sound to the millions who suffered then.

'Enda here ... We've a real immigration problem. Not enough multinationals are taking refuge in our tax haven'.

No we have no more room. No more room in Fortress Europe. This is the civilised world after all! And especially no more room in THIS country. That could be Ireland, or Germany, or France, or Greece, depending on who's speaking of course. But not HERE. Sorry but if those people wanted to have a decent life like the rest of us, they should have thought about that before being born on the wrong patch of planet Earth.

The Protestant Coalition has called for a "Protest against refugees/terrorists heading to the U.K" to be held in Belfast City centre on the 27th of September.

The Refugees Welcome rally saw a good crowd assembled at the Spire in Dublin.  The rally was a response where people wanted to express their solidarity with the refugees who are attempting to escape war and death.  

Thanks to the work of a few volunteers WSM had some banners to bring to the Refugees are Welcome rally and march at the Spire on Saturday the 12th of September.  The banners were important to link up certain struggles.  One linked the appalling reaction to the social housing crisis by this government with their slow reaction to the humanitarian crisis on the edges of fortress Europe, which simply stated Homes for All, Refuge for All, and another which read No Borders No Nations. 

"As a housing activist who is seeing directly family after family evicted, fighting with them to stay in their homes, facing court to open up buildings and fighting more generally so that everyone has a home and housing is a right, I don't want to see housing and homeless used to attack refugees. We can help the homeless AND refugees. Get involved in housing and homeless groups, get involved in anti-racism groups, take down this government, tear down this racism, sexist, classist state."

Housing activist Seamus Farrell used this powerful image of anti Irish racism from the 19th century to remind us that the refugees fleeing Syria have far more in common with us than the billionaire's that run this county. He circulated it with the following text during the week

There are many, many inspiring solidarity actions happening across Ireland at the moment. We've been following in particular the spontaneous formation of X to Calais groups around the county, modelled on the Cork to Calais one.

Before the government had indicated any intention to act these groups were formed in cities, towns and villages right across the country in order to collect needed supplies, form convoys and drive them to the migrant camps across Europe starting with the inspiring site of consistent self organised resistance at Calais.

On a damp Sunday afternoon hundreds of Dubliners gathered to spell out a clear Refugees Welcome mention on Sandymount strand, opposite the iconic Pigeon House chimneys.

The organisers had said "Let's tell our government that people in Ireland want to extend the Céad Míle Fáilte to the thousands escaping conflicts. European ministers are meeting on Monday 14th September to agree a new programme."

How many could we house, educate and care for with 19 billion? Our government is currently furiously fighting the European Union to prevent Apple paying us back taxes it owes us. There has been a lot of ‘concern’ about government plans to spend 48 million looking after 4000 people fleeing warfare in Syria and Iraq. The government and the media defend there ‘our own’ is first - the super rich in Ireland and elsewhere!

Thousands of people gathered in central Dublin Saturday to take part in an emergency refugees are welcome march in response to the ongoing crisis of hundreds of thousands of people being trapped on the European borders and over 2,500 drowned this summer alone