Member-only story
I attended the AGM of the Labout Campaign for Free Movement (LCFM) over the weekend, here are my notes.
To be honest I got their late and missed the first two plenary speakers, but got there in time to hear, Marena Zukowska, of POMOC, who spoke about the problems of motivating [Polish] migrants to get active in politics; they had found that local elections were important means of engaging Polish people allowing them to express their views. Before this could happen they engaged in community actions of solidarity which often became political, acting as an on-ramp for political activity. (It is clear to me that the hostile environment has made many immigrants fear that registration for the vote will lead to unwanted activity by the Home Office and ICE.)
A statement from Osime Brown’s mother was read out, from which I learn that it’s clear that legal interventions work. This is something that was reinforced throughout the day and leads me to ask, “Has the Home Office become a scofflaw organisation?” Certainly, Patel’s engineering of the dismissal of her Permanent Secretary will not have helped the department ‘speak [legal] truth to power’.
Border Force have been instructed to tow boats back to France, this is called push back and Home Office workers object to this as its inhumane and contrary to international law. Their Union, PCS, objected and the HO…
