Wednesday 2nd June, 7pm
LARC (London Action Resource Centre), 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, E1 1ES.

The scale and brutality of forcible deportation has been steadily increasing over the past few years. London NoBorders is organising an open discussion to bring together refugees, migrants and anti-deportation campaigners and activists to share ideas and thoughts on how these deportations are being challenged and how they can be challenged more effectively.

In the first half of the evening, we want to critically discuss the ways in which anti-deportation campaigns in general have been run in recent years (petitions to the Home Office, e-mails and faxes to the airlines involved etc.). Has this become too prescriptive? Do we know how successful this has been? Has this increase in virtual (online) activism meant less presence on the streets? And, if so, is this a positive or negative thing?

Secondly, we want to discuss and collectively develop strategies and tactics to challenge deportations, both individual and mass deportations. Can we learn lessons from the more community-based anti-deportation campaigns of the 1970s and 1980s? What do the new developments, e.g. the increasing use of charter flights, mean for anti-deportation campaigns and actions? How do we link individual campaigns to a broader struggle against the deportation machine and the border regime?

The evening is intended to be an active discussion so please come with your ideas, examples and concerns. All welcome.

This event coincides with the European Week of Action Against the Deportation Machine. (1st-6th June). For more info on this see here.