MORE than 100,000 people marched through central London from Hyde Park to Parliament Square on the REFUGEES WELCOME HERE! march on Saturday.
The march was in response to the mass movement of refugees currently fleeing into Europe from imperialist war-ravaged countries in the Middle East and Africa. It was instigated by documentary film-maker Ros Ereira, who made a Facebook message which struck a nerve about 12 days ago.
As the march was assembling News Line asked people why they had come.
Bath University student Aaron Pimm said: ‘We value human lives over money. The economic cost of bringing in refugees should not even be a consideration.’ As the march got under way several hundred marchers joined in with the Workers Revolutionary Party and Young Socialists delegation, chanting: ‘Refugees – Let them In! Tory Government – Kick them Out! Hands off Syria – No Imperialist War!’
Dan Hodgkinson, carrying the Close Down Campsfield banner, said: ‘Campsfield is a former young offenders institute, where refugees are now being kept for processing. It’s totally inhumane, they are being kept in detention conditions when they have done nothing wrong.’
Unite member Ruth Hayes was carrying the Legal and Advice Workers – Justice and Rights for All banner. She said: ‘Unite represents workers delivering advice and legal services in law centres, Citizens Advice Bureaux and independent advice agencies. We see what’s happening to migrants already in the UK. We should be welcoming refugees, we should have a fair and humane system.’
Mitzi Hendy, from Our West Hendon, said: ‘We are a group of residents who are fighting for our homes and against social cleansing. We are all the same and refugees must be treated like human beings, the same as everyone else.’
Cathy Cross, carrying the PCS union national banner, said: ‘PCS absolutely supports the demonstration to say refugees are welcome. No human is illegal.’ Belgian marcher Hedwig Verdonk said: ‘I feel that all borders should be open everywhere. I see the camp in Calais and it makes me feel privileged and it makes me feel ill and it makes me feel that I’m not doing enough.’
Susie Campbell was carrying a placard saying: ‘Poets Welcome Refugees’. She said: ‘First and foremost, compassion for the desperation that refugees are in, and anger at the way that they’re treated. Anger, that such a wealthy country as this, and also one that has been so implicated in the reasons as to why people are refugees, that we would then turn them away. If poetry and art isn’t about that, it’s about nothing.’
Oktay Cimpolat, carrying a placard for the Daymer Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre, said: ‘Here first of all to protest against the killings that took place and are taking place in Turkey and around the world as a result of imperialist wars.’
Carrying the City and Islington Sixth Form College National Union of Teachers banner, Piers Mallam said: ‘We should take more refugees, we’re all human.’ Michael Shepherd, City and Islington NUT rep, said: ‘The trade unions have a responsibility to get involved in actions such as this. It’s a global situation. Refugees are suffering terribly, we have to do much more.’
As the march reached Trafalgar Square, a large delegation of National Gallery PCS members, picketing with their banner, clapped and welcomed the march. One told News Line: ‘The National Gallery is made up of staff from all over the world and we all fully believe refugees must be welcomed.’
Singer Billy Bragg performed some political songs as he welcomed the march into Parliament Square. The Labour Party’s new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: ‘My first action as Labour leader is to come to this rally and say we welcome refugees and offer the right of asylum to all human beings from all over the world. Together in peace, justice and humanity, that must be our way forward.’
At the end of the rally, Martin Bainger, a Unison member employed by the health privateer Medirest at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, told News Line: ‘It was a really good march that showed that people really care. The refugee crisis is inhuman. My friends have been going to Calais to take support to the poor people encamped there, people who are suffering without food and drink.
‘But it’s not enough and it can’t be solved like that. We’ve got to kick the Tories out.’