[sheffield-noborders] map

[fabian]

Hi Ben and others
text proposal for the map...

for the title we should go more official/spoof...and make sure it can 
be used after the tour....my suggestion:

"The magical mystery MAP
the ultimative guide to Sheffield secret points of interest
See Sheffield as you've never seen it"

and then for the layout of the front, put a picture of the town hall 
like it is done on the offical city council's leaflets.

Second and third page:
The magical mystery map
Many people are coming to Sheffield from far away. For some it is a 
beautiful and relaxed holiday, exercising their right to freely move, 
chose their tours and places to stay. For other however the journey is 
more like a magical mystery tour. They are forced to ask permission to 
enter the country, they have to ask permission to work, to settle and 
to bring their kids to school. They need to defend their right to stay 
in courts. If denied this right, they are neither allowed to work, nor 
entiteled to benefits. They have to squat houses, live by working 
illegaly (e.g. without any protection against exploitation) or by 
charity and are threatened to have their kids taken away from them. 
They are ultimately detained and deported to where they came from, 
countries of war, poor human rights, poverty and ecological 
destruction.
This map is providing you, the happy tourist, with some information on 
how the global system of exclusion bans people from travelling as they 
wish on the grounds that they are born in the wrong country, have the 
wrong passports, have not enough money to buy themselves visas.
This global system is implemented locally in Sheffield as in every 
other city in the first world. It is a system that is created by the 
nation-state but beneficial to companies who are making money with the 
exclusion, detention and deportation of people.
In Britain this system came into existence only a hundert years ago 
when the first immigration law, the alien act was introduced.

1905-2005 100 Years of immigration controls
In 1905 parliarment passed the alien act, restricting people for the 
first time from moving to Britain. It was introduced to appease racist 
and anti-semitic groups who were campaigning against Jews that flew 
into Britain escaping pogroms and persecution in Eastern Europe. 
Altough national borders and border-controls seem to be almost natural 
in today, they are a mere result of racism and xenophobia in a world 
that during the 20th century became more closely connected than it ever 
was before. In todays world of globalisation, tourist, managers, the 
global upper class can travel freely around the globe as can capital 
free from every limitation since the the 1970ies. Excluded from this 
freedom of movement however are the working classes of the world, 
people who cannot afford to travel or are banned because of the place 
they were born into.
This unjust system is under constant attack from migrants and refugees 
all over the world who despite the obstacles continue to exercise their 
right to freely move and enter the richer countries of the world in 
their desperate attempt to share some of the fortunes and rights that 
have been established for so few.
The nation-states in the north and among them Britain are fighting back 
with increasingly harsh policies. As it is increasingly hard to control 
the territorial borders the European Union has been establishing a 
system of internal exclusion the most prominent feature of it being the 
Detention Centres.

Detention Centres - Going to prison without comitting a crime
All over Europe the prisons for people who have not commited a crime 
other then asking for the right to stay are mushrooming. There are now 
13 of these prisons in the UK and some of them are run by private 
companies who are making vast profits on the basis of this system. The 
companies, such as Global Solutions Unlimted and the Sodexho 
Corporation are multi-national coporations who engage in a varity of 
servises outsourced and privatised by the nation-states over the last 
two decades of neoliberal policies. Both companies have records of 
human right abuses in Britain and other countries for treating 
prisioners. And while the governement is paying them richly to do the 
dirty business there are more and more reported suicides of detainees 
in british detention centres.

 From Global to Local - Our solidarity is as transnational as their 
policies
The global border regime is abstract and seems far away from our daily 
lives, but the extensions of it reach into every local community and 
city. Borders and Zone of Exclusion are established in Sheffield, but 
those invisible borders are kept secret. The aim of this map is to 
provide you with some insights into these invisible borders.
It was put together by the Sheffield No Borders Group as part of the 
Make Borders History Campaign. We are engaged in solidarity and support 
of migrants and refugees threathened by detention and deportation and 
we are lobbying for an end to all immigration controls and a world 
without borders. We are part of the world-wide no-border network that 
has been working for years against rascism, for open borders and 
trans-national solidarity.

You can conntact Sheffield no borders
sheffield-noborders at lists.aktivix.org

make borders history campaign
http://www.makebordershistory.org
no border network
http://www.noborder.org"

Ben, and others, please
try to fit it in, let me know if it is too long...and doubble check on 
spelling and grammar please....
suggestions are welcome to change the text...
I'll post the Point of interest discriptions for the map in a seperate 
mail...

there is a feature online on Indymedia of the borders action....
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2005/10/324905.html

see you later

fabian