On Wednesday 15 th September, ‘These Walls Must Fall’ and ‘Solidarity Knows No Borders, Merseyside’ (SKNB) came together with activists, councillors and members of the Merseyside community to enjoy a delicious meal.
Kaya Purchase, an ally of These Walls Must Fall in Liverpool, provides this wite up of the event.
There was a great turnout with people gathering at Toxteth’s Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre to share stories and formulate plans on how to take action against the inhumane Hostile Environment.
The result was a warm, welcoming and productive event that helped to foster connections and better enabled those in attendance to act against such processes and practises as immigration detention and reporting.
Solidarity is about doing things with people, rather than for people. Hopefully, this event encouraged allies to act from a place of solidarity and justice, rather than pity or charity and inspired them to believe in the enduring power of collective community action.
Those who attended were afforded the opportunity to hear the perspectives of people who have lived experience of such issues. After the meal, some speakers were gracious and courageous enough to talk about their experiences, with one member of ‘These Walls Must Fall’ performing physical theatre to express how the hostile environment makes her feel. To amplify the voices of those directly affected by the hostile environment is indispensable to making change as action must be planned around the wishes and needs of those who are actually feeling the negative effects of violent policy. To hear first- hand the reality of how the hostile environment impacts the lives of real people was an enlightening and useful experience.
This was followed by a quiz, ‘Who Wants to be a Policy Expert on Detention?’ which shed light on some perhaps unknown or misconstrued facts about the asylum system. Those who took part were able to learn about the issues that so many people are forced to face on a daily basis. They were encouraged to remember that the facts that they learnt were more than just statistics for those who they applied to and to reflect on how it must affect those who are or who have been actually detained.
The enthusiasm that was evident at this event makes me optimistic that steps will be carried out beyond the event and put into practise in everyday life, across varying professions and platforms, because change happens on multiple levels and the steps to change must take many varied forms.
To conclude the event, all attendees were asked to make a resolution for how they were each going to take action going forward against the issues explored at the event. These were then written on pieces of paper to seal the vow with added intention.
Lib Dem councillor for Woolton and Gateacre, Kris Brown pledged to ‘raise awareness of this group amongst all LCC councillors and MPs.’ He wrote, ‘I will raise the issues of the hostile environment within the council and use my unique position to influence change.’
Other attendees promised to spread awareness amongst colleagues, educate friends and family and be more active within their local community, whether through volunteering or joining a solidarity campaign group. These are all great steps towards creating waves of change within the community.
Solidarity is about doing things with people, rather than for people. Hopefully, this event encouraged allies to act from a place of solidarity and justice, rather than pity or charity and inspired them to believe in the enduring power of collective community action. The enthusiasm that was evident at this event makes me optimistic that steps will be carried out beyond the event and put into practise in everyday life, across varying professions and platforms, because change happens on multiple levels and the steps to change must take many varied forms. In the meantime, the fight goes on to change the way asylum seekers and refugees are treated by a system that dehumanises and penalises them simply for seeking a better way of life for themselves.