Today saw a coordinated national day of action instigated by NUS International Students Campaign.
Today saw a coordinated national day of action instigated by NUS International Students Campaign. College and university students, staff and lecturers all across the country walked out today united against racism, borders, and xenophobia. Read Goldsmiths Students' Union press release below:
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"Recent events in Paris, Beirut and Baghdad have shaken us and forced world leaders to respond to these atrocities. And yes, these are indeed atrocities and we are grieving, but we are all responsible for the fall-out these attacks will have on minorities if we give in to the racist, Islamaphobic, and xenaphobic narratives being pushed out by mainstream media.
The attacks in Paris in particular are being exploited by the far-right to push their anti-migrant, fascist, racist and anti-semitic political agendas. The refugees and migrants who are fleeing war, poverty, and terrorist attacks in the Middle-East are the same people who are being blamed for these attacks by the prevailing media, far-right political parties and fascist street organisations.
How are the struggles of migrants and refugees entangled in the struggles of international students?
The recent wave of Visa reforms by the Home Office massively compromises international students’ rights to an accessible education. Under new reforms these students will no longer be allowed to be employed in the UK while they study, and face deportation as soon as their study is complete. We see the implementation of the Prevent agenda, which will pressure lecturers and staff to spy on their students and report them to the authorities if they are suspected of “radicalisation” or “extremism” for expressing “anti-British values”. We believe Prevent is a racist bill which only serves to divide us further and make scapegoats of Muslim, Black and Asian communities.
Moreover, threats by the government to axe maintenance grants for home students will push working class students further into poverty. These attacks on our education by the state must be challenged, because they are used to further push the wider racist and xenophobic narratives in order to justify the atrocities which Britain is guilty of. The government wants to scapegoat minority communities, and blame us for the faults of an economic and social system which is failing.
We must respond by standing in solidarity with migrants, refugees, and international students who are being targeted by terrorism, the far-right, and the state. We must fight against borders because borders kill. We must fight for free accessible education for all. Only when we recognise that 'my struggles are tied up with your struggles, my liberation is tied up in your liberation' can we challenge the state and be united against racism, fascism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, xenophobia and all other forms of oppression.
No Barriers,
No Borders,
No Business."
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