Demonstration against Brexit
From the Movement for Justice:
Join MFJ & build the Movement to #StopBrexitBrexit = Racism, Immigrant Bashing & Poverty
Neither Fortress Europe Nor Fortress Britain - OPEN THE BORDERS!
Stop Scapegoating of Immigrants. Stop Deportations. Stop rise of fascism & far right
Saturday 18 March: Join our #BrexitIsRacist #StopBrexit #OpenTheBorders block on national march against racismmeet 11.30am, corner of Regent St & Great Castle st (Behind NikeTown, Oxford Circus)FB EventTransport from around country (not organised by MFJ)(contact us if you are an asylum seeker & need help with travel)
Saturday 25 March: Join our 'Neither Fortress Europe Nor Fortress BritainSTOP BREXIT - Open the Borders!' block on the national Unite for Europe marchmeet 10.30am beside historic Arch of Marble Arch, opposite Pret & Marble Arch tubeWear Green if possible! FB EventTransport from around the country (not organised by MFJ)(contact us if you're an asylum seeker & need help with travel)
Sunday 26th March: MFJ one day conference on building movement to #StopBrexitdiscussing developments, where our movement is at and how we can build itInternational Speaker: Shanta Driver from MFJ's US sister org BAMN10.30am-5pm: Lift Youth Club, 45 White Lion St, N1 9PW (Angel Tube) REGISTER HERE
FB Event Contact us if you are an asylum seeker & need help with transport, or if you want to come but cannot afford it for any other reason.
MFJ is building a movement to STOP BREXIT because that is the biggest threat to all our futures, wherever we were born and however long our families have lived in Britain. Brexit is the biggest attack on immigrants, refugees and international students, on black, Asian, Muslim and other minority communities, and on youth of all races since World War Two, 70+ years ago. It is Britain's equivalent to Donald Trump being elected as President of the USA, and there is no more chance of a non-racist Brexit than there is of Trump being non-racist, non-sexist or honest.
The MFJ conference on Sunday 26th March is for everyone who wants to build that movement and fight for a better, hopeful, integrated future in a society that is based on equality and meets the needs of ALL. It is for everyone who wants to build a real, fighting alternative to the cynical lies, lame excuses and racist scapegoating we get from the politicians who have brought the country to its greatest crisis for over 100 years. We are many, we are strong when we come together in action, we have the most to win and the most to lose because we have our whole future ahead of us, and we will fight by any means necessary. Join us at the Conference to discuss and prepare how we build this movement and Stop Brexit.
We CAN Stop Brexit because it is an unstable, high-risk policy that has divided the rich and powerful, and the powers-that-be are in a state of perplexity where no-one, in any party, has any clear plan. That is why Theresa May demanded a blank cheque to go ahead with Brexit negotiations without any public discussion, and why Labour MPs rolled over and gave her what she wanted - but that has not settled anything. Everything to do with Brexit (which is really the ONLY political issue at present) is still up in the air.
That means that our movement - a movement of and for the poor and oppressed, based in our communities, schools, colleges, on our campuses and in our workplaces - can change the balance of forces in our society and de-rail the Brexit project. In fact, the ONLY way we can build a mass anti-racist and anti-poverty movement is through fighting to Stop Brexit.
We are not fighting to Stop Brexit because we idealise the European Union. The EU has imposed hardship and poverty on tens of millions of people in Europe, it has brought Greece to its knees, let thousands drown in the Mediterranean, built fences and walls and sent refugees back to death and destitution, and exploited poorer countries around the world - and British governments, including Theresa May, have been among the biggest drivers of these policies within the EU.
We fight to stop Brexit because it, along with racist and fascist movements across Europe, and Trump and his allies in the US, represents the biggest threat of mass racist persecution, dictatorship and war since the 1930s. The EU is in a fundamental crisis, with or without Brexit, and there is no going back to the 'business as usual' of the old EU. Our movement must become an international, a movement that is fighting for a different future for Europe just as we are fighting for a different future for Britain.
We can take inspiration from the youthful, integrated mass movement of resistance that has sprung up in the US from the moment Trump was elected and has continued to grow - not waiting for a word from Obama or Clinton or the Democrats, but marching in their millions, walking out of schools and colleges, shutting down great cities and the rallies of Trump's fascist supporters, occupying airports, establishing sanctuary cities and campuses, and organising against immigration raids.
Our conference will hear a report on the lessons of that ongoing movement from Shanta Driver of MFJ's American sister organisation, BAMN (By Any Means Necessary).
Racism and poverty
The present political system and big business have no hopeful, prosperous future in store for us. Their only policy is to protect the profits of the rich and powerful in a time of economic crisis and uncertainty, by imposing greater poverty, burdens and insecurity on poor, working class and struggling middle class people of all races. The attacks on public education are part of a policy to drive down our hopes and ambitions: that is behind May's plan to bring back Grammar Schools for the few, with selection at 11+. Racism, immigrant-bashing and anti-Muslim prejudice are the weapons they use to divide us and impose that dismal future.
Farage, Trump, Le Pen etc. have used this situation to build mass support on the basis of racism among middle class and working class white people who feel (and in fact are) betrayed, disadvantaged and alienated, and mobilise them to suppress and attack immigrant, black, Asian, Latina/o, Muslim etc. communities, and especially the youth of those communities - to take away their rights and freedoms. That is not 'democratic' - it is the road to fascism and tyranny.
That is why MFJ says that fighting racism and fighting poverty are not separate struggles, and we can't possibly win either of those fights separately or at the expense of the other. We have to fight racism in order to build a united, powerful movement against poverty and austerity. We can build that movement because our struggle can inspire millions who - unlike the ruling class - do not have any real, material interest in racism and need to fight against the current economic system.
That is our struggle and the fight to Stop Brexit is now the key issue. Join us at our Conference, 26th March. We will...
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.
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