By Magda.
Saturday, 23 May 2009
SiC explains itself to the Left
After the Morning Star published its news report and editorial in favour of Strangers into Citizens, the newspaper received a number of questions and objections. The campaign's policy director, Austen Ivereigh (pictured here speaking on 4 May), has written a detailed article -- 'Bring them in from the cold '-- explaining the SiC proposal, answering the questions and objections, and inviting the Left to support what he calls a 'democratic movement of ordinary citizens engaged in an urgent political struggle on behalf of the vulnerable and voiceless'.
Philosophically, the No Borders position is unobjectionable. In the world as it should be, there would be no frontiers. Some Muslims dream of a restored caliphate, some Catholics are nostalgic for papal Europe before the nation states and some socialists pine for a revolutionary order without frontiers.
But in the world as it is, where democracies coexist with states which regulate rights and responsibilities, there are and will continue to be borders. It is in this world and not a future one that we must negotiate a humane and sensible policy towards the undocumented.
Friday, 22 May 2009
'We were there': the Steward
Sho Konno was a steward on 4 May -- one of those who made sure things ran smoothly on the day. He has written about it on an e-magazine called Ctrl+Alt+Shift - "a community for passionate and outspoken individuals, joined in the fight against poverty and injustice" -- and posted some shots.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Oxford City Council passes motion backing SiC
on 20 April, in fact; but we've only just received the wording of the motion -- which shows ordinary punters (pictured) back the idea. That this Council recognises the Government's commitment to tighten UK borders and introduce new monitoring and assessment systems into the immigration process. We note the Home Office assessment that at least 500,000 irregular migrants currently live and work in Britain.
We acknowledge the contribution of irregular migrants to Oxford's economy and to our diverse local community. We regret that irregular migrants are not accounted for in the allocation of funding to Local Authorities and believe that Oxford is disadvantaged by this situation.
We endorse the London Citizen's 'Strangers into Citizens' campaign for the one-off regularisation of long term irregular migrants and believe that such a measure would be in keeping with Oxford's tradition of being a welcoming and tolerant city to whom immigrant communities have contributed so much both now and in the past.
This Council supports the regularisation of irregular migrants; encourages other local authorities to do likewise and urges the Government to adopt a proposal for regularisation after consultation with migrants organisations.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
4 May fab pics No. 12: Chrysalis
Seven powerful images from 4 May through the lens of Chrysalis. She combines colour and b&w in these shots for reasons she explains:
When I was processing the images afterwards, I choose to use a specific style, to desaturate some of the colour from the background of the images, as to let the subjects become more prominent. I also think on symbolic level this was a good choice, as the protest, was about foreign individuals being granted citizenship in the UK. With the style I chose, it focuses on the individual, and wo they are, and takes away focus from their surroundings and location. I finally chose what I consider the best 7 shots.
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