Indymedia.org reports last Friday's massive pro-immigrant demonstration in 
downtown Chicago which doubtless some of you witnessed:

100,000 Protest for Immigrant Rights in Chicago
14 Mar 2006 16:55 GMT 
  
On Friday, March 10, 2006 Chicago’s downtown was paralyzed by an immigrant 
march estimated at more than 100,000 people. They carried hand-lettered 
signs saying: “We are America,” “My Mexican immigrant son died in 
Iraq,” “I’m a dishwasher—not a criminal,” and “Don’t deport my parents.” 
The peaceful crowd stretched two and half miles, from Union Park on the 
West Side to their destination in Federal Plaza. No immigrant justice 
march like this has happened in Illinois history since some 80,000 
immigrants marched down State Street demanding an 8-hour workday in 1886.

And courtesy Indymedia UK the following:

Andy Storey

*******************


No Borders @ Harmondsworth Detention Centre, Sat 8 April 
noborders london | 05.03.2006 16:15 | Anti-racism | Migration | London 

London noborders is calling for a demo in Harmondwworth on April 8, in 
solidarity with a worldwide call for action from Australian noborder 
activists. Here is some background: 


Even as the barriers to the free movement of capital come down, the border 
regimes are expanding and intensifying. In response to this growing 
repression, grassroots networks of asylum seekers, migrants, and their 
supporters are developing across the UK and Europe. There are anti-
deportation struggles and campaigns to shut down detention and reporting 
centres. Undocumented workers are organising. Detainees have staged mass 
hunger strikes and physically resisted their deportations. In the UK we 
are attempting to develop a radical network of people opposed to borders 
(internal and external).

One of the most brutal and dehumanising aspects of immigration systems and 
border regimes is the imprisonment of thousands of people in detention 
centres throughout the EU and around the world. In the UK the capacity and 
use of arbitrary detention has expanded massively over the past few years, 
with whole families imprisoned in places like Yarl’s Wood.

The experience of being detained (without trial and with no automatic bail 
review), often after experiences of torture and trauma in the countries 
they are fleeing from, pushes many over the edge, and is viewed as a 
further experience of torture at the hands of a country they thought would 
be a refuge. The policy of detention has led to 12 suicides among 
detainees in the UK, including this January, the death of Bereket 
Yohannes, a 26-year-old Eritrean man facing deportation who was found 
hanged in Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow.

Many detainees at Harmondsworth, neighbouring Colnbrook, and other 
detention cenres claim to have been abused – assaults during removal 
attempts, lack of medical care, denial of medication, access to 
independent doctors, and obstruction in trying to handle their legal 
matters – e.g. interference with post and blocked access to phone. 
Allegations of a Uganda woman being reduced to a state of mental collapse 
during seven months in Yarl’s Wood detention centre has triggered an 
enquiry by the HM Prisons Inspectors team into healthcare provision of 
detainees there following the catalogue of suicides and alleged 
mistreatment in detention centres.

Conditions in detention are not changing, and the government has made it 
clear that they intend, in coming years, to detain increasing numbers of 
people. In several countries, campaigns, actions and demonstrations have 
succeeded in shutting down individual detention centres and provoking 
public and political discussion on the use of detention. It is therefore 
vital to have a sustained campaign against detention centres, the private 
profit making companies that run them and the Home Office from whom their 
contracts are issued; to support those inside, to draw attention to their 
existence, and to call for every detention centre to be shut down.

DAY OF ACTION AND COMMUNICATION AGAINST DETENTION CENTRES: SATURDAY 8TH 
APRIL

In Australia this Easter, there will be a week of actions against 
detention centres in New South Wales. A call has been issued for 
solidarity actions to take place around the world. In response, on 
Saturday 8th April, London No Borders will organise a demonstration at 
Harmondsworth detention centre:

We call for a loud and noisy demonstration outside Harmondsworth and 
Colnbrook detention centres, in the hope that those inside will here our 
voices and know that they are not alone. We also call for as many people 
as possible to visit detainees inside Harmondsworth and Colnbrook after 
the demonstration ends to communicate with them directly, hear their 
stories, and see the conditions inside these detention centres for 
ourselves.

On 8th April we will also be broadcasting a one-off No Borders radio show 
over the internet in solidarity with detainees and the demonstrations. We 
would like as many contributions as possible to the radio programme. We 
will also be producing T-shirts with messages of solidarity to send inside 
to the detainees.

We call for those around the UK, in every city and town, to make their own 
actions on Saturday 8th April, and throughout the Easter period, against 
the detention regime. We invite as many groups a possible to support this 
call.

London No Borders.
London Against Detention: Campaign to Close Heathrow Detention Centres

Email: noborderslondon at riseup.net
Starting from 23 Feb, a series of London No Borders events is taking place 
at The Square Social Centre, 21-22 Russell Square.

noborders london