Grassroots resistance to immigration raids in Peckham

A lovely site: Immigration Enforcement backed into a butcher’s shop

Passers-by in Peckham surrounded and challenged immigration officers earlier this month as they attempted to carry out checks on people at local shops. It is not clear exactly how the events unfolded and there are contradictory reports about whether anyone was actually detained during the operation, but what is evident is that when people step up and show each other solidarity, we can make immigration checks and raids a lot more difficult.

The following video of the incident offers a rare glimpse of the beautiful moment when often-silenced voices on the ‘debate’ on immigration come together in a message loud and clear for those in power: enough of your populist racist bullshit, enough of your demagoguery, enough of your divide-and-rule tactics — we live and work side by side one another, and we will fight for each other.

As the government promises to come down yet harder on working class migrants, we hope to see more and more popular and direct resistance to these raids, just as in Southall in 2013 and London’s West End last year.