Interview with a hunger striker

Why did you go on hunger strike?

To make changes and make the public see the way we have been treated and the conditions we are kept in. And to have support from one another and the public.

What kind of support did you receive from the public?

I got lots of calls from people I didn’t know. It was very good.

You were injured and are still suffering pain from when guards assaulted you when you were taken away from the hunger strike and to prison. Do you regret it?

I don’t regret it, but I’m going to be suffering with back problems forever. I didn’t just do it for me. No one just did it for themselves. We did it for all, for everyone in detention.

How does detention affect women in particular?

We are the mothers of our children and we play an important role. Detention affects women a lot: many self harm and things like that. People get really depressed and go mental at times.

Do you think the system is racist?

Well apart from locking us up because of where we come from, you can see it in the way they treat us: calling us names like “monkies” and “yardies” and stuff like that. We face lots of discrimination in there. The food was so bad I didn’t even eat it. The medical assistance isn’t good either. You see it in prison too. They treat British citizens differently from the way they treat us. We get much worse punishments for doing less than when British people do more!

We face racism in a lot of ways: the way they talk to us, they open our mail, even solicitor’s letters, which they’re not supposed to. They tell you you’re not allowed to have things you should be. They just do what they want to do. When we have visits they bring us down half an hour late. The three people over there have been waiting for the person they’re visiting for an hour. You can bet they’re not British nationals.

What would you change?

In prison, we need to be treated equally. In detention centres, they shouldn’t be detaining mothers and children. People suffer so much emotionally. I would close detention down. In prison, everyone should be treated the same, not differently because of nationality or colour.

Protest at Yarl’s Wood in solidarity with detainee hunger strikers

21 February 2010

Anti-detention campaigners today held a protest at Yarl’s Wood immigration prison in Bedfordshire in solidarity with women detainees who have been on hunger strike since 5th February.

Activists from No Borders London, Campaign Against Immigration Controls and Feminist Fightback managed to get past the prison’s security barriers and walk around the barbed-wire fence with banners, shouting solidarity slogans via loudspeakers and making noise with pots and whistles for well over an hour.

The protesters were repeatedly cheered by detainees inside, who waved their hands through half-open windows. Some also displayed hand-written placards summarising their suffering and shouted ‘freedom’ and ’shame on Serco’, the private security company that runs Yarl’s Wood on behalf of the UK Border Agency.

During the demonstration, protesters spoke to some of the detainees on the phone. One woman, who has been on hunger strike for nine days, said detainees were being “punished” by being offered “disgusting food” that many are refusing to eat. She said they were being treated “very aggressively” by the security guards and not provided with any medical care. The woman, who is originally from Jamaica and has been in detention
for eight months, added that detainees were being subjected to racist abuse. This morning, she said, she was called “a monkey” by one of the guards.

Another woman, who had just stopped her hunger strike as she “couldn’t take it any more”, described the “physical and psychological torture” that detainees suffered. Having spent several months in detention, the woman felt “devastated” being away from her 7-year-old son and British husband.

A third woman, who has been in the UK for 11 years, of which the last 6 months have been in Yarl’s Wood, described the events of February 8th, when Serco security guards tried to break up the hunger strike by force. “We were locked out between 6pm and 2am,” she said. “Some women who tried to climb out of the windows were beaten up really bad. I eventually fainted, as did many others. They’re still treating us aggressively and offering us repugnant food, which many are refusing to eat.”

The protesters also learned that one of the hunger strikers, who had been in isolation for the past 14 days, had just been ‘removed’ from Yarl’s Wood, in what appears to be a strike-busting tactic by the prison
management. She had apparently been dragged by five security guards, handcuffed and taken to Colnbrook immigration prison near Heathrow airport.

One of the demonstrators, who preferred to keep anonymous, said: “As if it weren’t enough to lock up innocent people for such lengthy periods in such horrible conditions, thereby destroying their lives and families, those who dare to protest against their inhumane treatment are punished with even more brutality. Companies like Serco are not only allowed to profit from people’s suffering, they also often get away with this kind of medieval and clearly unlawful acts. What will happen next? The Home Office will claim they take all allegations of mistreatment very seriously and promise another investigation that will never materialise.”

-ends-

For any further information, please contact
noborderslondon@riseup.net
Photos available on request.

Notes:

1. The mass hunger strike, which involved some 84 women at the start, was started on 5th February, sparked by detainees demanding that “the frustration and humiliation of all foreign nationals [in detention] ends
now.” More than two weeks on, at least 36 women are still on hunger strike, while others have stopped but are refusing to eat the food provided by the prison management. A list of the hunger strikers’ demands
can be found at http://www.ncadc.org.uk/Newszine115/HungerStrike.html.

2. On 8th February, Serco security guards tried to break up the protest by force. Some 70 women were locked in a corridor for up to 8 hours without access to food, water, toilet or medical care. Many collapsed and about 20, who tried to climbed out of the windows, were beaten up and taken into isolation cells. Four of the women, singled out as ‘ringleaders’, were taken to Bedford police station and subsequently transferred to HMP Holloway in London, without being charged with any offence or brought before a judge.

3. A number of protests in solidarity with the hunger strikers have taken place, including pickets of Serco’s offices in Holborn, London, and one-day solidarity hunger strikes by students and campaigners. For more
details, see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/02/446439.html.

4. A similar mass hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood in June last year was met with violent assaults on detainees by Serco security guards. For more details, see http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/432625.html.

Fighting ESOL cuts in Tower Hamlets

Friday 12 June saw hundreds of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, staff and supporters march in East London in protest at major cuts to ESOL announced at Tower Hamlets College.

The march followed a week of action since the cuts were announced on 5 June, including an unofficial walkout on 8 June, a lobby of the principal on 9 June (with staff joined by 50 students who pushed past security after being denied entry for having the wrong pass), protests at the college’s awards ceremony and joint UCU and Unison meetings on 12 June proposing a vote of no confidence in newly-appointed Principal Michael Farley. After the meetings, ESOL learners marched with their teachers, other college staff and supporters from the college’s adult education site at Arbour Square to a rally outside the 14-19 site at Poplar. Students and staff are angry and worried about the future, but there was a sense of hope as this anger was channelled into action to protect jobs and courses, and a real feeling of solidarity as students, staff and representatives of other unions addressed those assembled at Poplar.

The document Michael Farley circulated to college staff on Friday 5 June laid out proposed cuts of £2 million, which will see 50% of all ESOL courses offered by Tower Hamlets College cut from September. The document, ironically titled ‘Securing the Future’ detailed the loss of over 1,500 ESOL places alongside 60 job losses. There is now a one month ‘consultation period’ on the document, with staff being told on 6^th July if they are at risk of ‘dismissal’ (the language used in the document). Those who are going to be dismissed will be told on 10^th July, just before the end of the college term. Teaching staff, support staff and learning centre staff will all be affected. Staff have been consoled with the fact that new posts are being created, but unsurprisingly these are not teaching posts and the majority are business positions.

The ESOL classes most affected by the cuts will be at entry levels, those in the college’s community outreach centres, those not expressly for work. They therefore affect the most vulnerable and historically excluded students, and will affect the wider community as well as current and potential learners. The attack is gendered as well as racist– the vast majority of those attending courses are women. Some are recently arrived in the country, others have been here many years but never had the opportunity to attend a course before. Reasons for this include the incredible lack of ESOL provision in the decades prior to this one, time constraints because of their long hours of labour (particularly unpaid labour in the home), needing to travel outside their local area, and the fear of entering a classroom after negative experience or no prior experience of formal learning. Community-based provision is essential in helping to break down some of these barriers.

The 12 June demonstration itself was a testament to the role that ESOL has played in the lives of the (overwhelmingly female) student protesters. There were women leading chants on megaphones, women carrying placards with their own powerful slogans, and women speaking eloquently and emphatically to the national press about what ESOL means to them. Key messages were the need for English to allow them to support their children’s learning, so they can be a part of their communities and (contrary to the views many hold of these learners) so they can work.

These women have developed not only language skills, but increased confidence, self-esteem and above all a critical engagement with the world around them. And it is this which underlies this fight. The fight is for jobs, for student places, but also for the principle of education itself.

For more information on the struggle, go to  http://defendjobsandeducation.posterous.com or see http://www.uculeft.devisland.net/tower-hamlets-college-dispute.html

We chained ourselves to help our sisters lose their chains

Activists from across the north of the country gathered in central Manchester on Monday 20th October to take part in direct action in solidarity with women in Northern Ireland. Feminist Fightback and Alliance for Choice (pro-choice Northern Ireland group) called for joint action across the country to support pro-choice amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill in Parliament on 22 October. In Manchester students from Manchester University Student Union, Sheffield and trade unionists from the area tied themselves to railings in a park in central Manchester — each activist carrying a sign to spell out ‘Extend Abortion Rights to Northern Ireland’.