On Friday, US President Donal Trump’s visit to the UK looks set to galvanise a massive protest demonstration in central London.
Together with JCWI and others, MRN will convene the “migrant bloc,” making plain what brings us to the (hopefully sunny) streets: the struggle for migrants’ rights. That is, a plain and simple demand that migrants not be forcibly separated from their children, not be indefinitely imprisoned, not be criminalised and vilified simply for having been born on the “wrong” side of a national border.
On Friday, we will march not just because we are outraged by what is happening at the US-Mexico border. We have seen the unforgiveable images of migrant children in cages, and heard the cries of separated families. But we will also march because we are outraged by what is happening here, on UK soil.
As our colleagues at NELMA nicely put it in the latest Big Issue, and as we have sought to challenge time and time again, the UK has a long and shameful record of dividing families, and of treating migrants like second-class human beings.
So join us in the migrant bloc on Friday, from 1:45pm in front of All Souls Church (near the BBC, where the main march is set to begin), to connect the dots and reject anti-migrant policies both at home and abroad.
PS: Banners and placards will be available, but we can look to our US allies for creative inspiration…