"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if
you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us
work together."
Lilla Watson
National borders shifted to restrict immigration. Offshore processing
and detention. Forced deportations. No new recorded arrivals in over a
year. The gradual phasing out of current onshore detention centres, and
the relocation of those who have spent months and years in imprisonment.
Australia is not alone in fortifying its borders. All over the world
governments erect walls of concrete and razor wire, install high tech
security equipment and employ computerised surveillance systems to
protect their power and privilege from those seeking a better life. In
an increasingly globalised world Capital moves freely, but not people.
A new state-of-the-art militarised centre at Baxter. In order to reverse
the negative community perception of mandatory detention, gone is the
razor wire. But the barriers still remain.
An electric fence secures the border.
Solid fences within the camp are erected not for containment but to
increase isolation. From the inside all that can be seen is the sky.
Separate compounds divide friends and family.
The invisibility of those inside is made possible by locating the
"detention facility" in the desert. Information barriers are strictly
policed by the state and the private corporation that profits from
incarceration. Letting the imprisonment of those inside go unchallenged
will only strengthen the forces that control the lives of people on both
sides of the fence.
Having risked their lives in coming here seeking freedom, many people
inside the camps risk further imprisonment, deportation and even death
in challenging their detention. They join thousands of people
world-wide who riot, self harm, light fires and destroy compounds in
protest against and in defiance of their incarceration.
As the people inside escalate their struggle, so shall our struggle
escalate in solidarity. For we are part of a global movement fighting
for the right of all people to move and to stay.
This Easter we will converge at Baxter. We will take action in
solidarity with our brothers and sisters inside the camps. Through civil
disobedience we will make contact and challenge the barriers that divide
us. Join us.
Ours will be part of many actions that are planned for the Baxter
protest from April 18 - 20. Direct actions, media, radio, vigils,
workshops, music. For more information www.baxter2003.baxterwatch.net
No One Is Illegal
February 2003
www.antimedia.net/nooneisillegal
..
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