Clear Trade Unionist Mike Taylor

Defend the Human Right to Life and the Right to Protest

Picket Isleworth Crown Court - 24 August 2001

Assemble 9am - Isleworth Crown Court

36 Ridgeway Road, Isleworth, Middlesex

Nearest tube, Osterley, (Piccadilly line).

On the 17th of April, Mike Taylor, Bristol Treasurer of the National Union of Journalists(NUJ), was convicted by a London Court of organising a demonstration at Heathrow Airport to stop the deportation flight to Iraq of Amanj Gafor, a mentally-ill Kurdish refugee . The NUJ is now calling for support for Mike’s appeal and re-trial.

Mike’s reply to the court was "I refuse to be criminalized for saving somebody’s life. We will engage in civil disobedience until you are forced to recognize the human right to asylum and our human right to defend it".

Mainstream political parties and the right wing press have us believe that British people want to stop the ‘flood’ of asylum-seekers. They seem to think that scape-goating asylum-seekers will win them the next general election.

Yet when this racist system tried to deport Amanj to face persecution in Iraqi, ordinary people united in solidarity in their disgust at this appalling abuse of human rights. Protests at Heathrow and Gatwick airports to stop the forced deportation raised people’s awareness of the plight of refugees in this country and as a result, the campaign grew quickly.

After being rejected by 6 European countries and fleeing for 5 years because Iraq is considered a "safe haven", Amanj has developed Paranoid Schizophrenia and is now sectioned in a Nuremburg Psychaitric Clinic awaiting removal to Baghdad this summer.

Within 48 hours of hearing about the threat to Amanj’s life, the AEEU shop stewards committee at the gigantic Rolls Royce aircracft engine factory in Bristol adopted him and started to lobby the UK Home Office. Almost immediately, 5 trade unions and 4 MPs joined the lobby forcing the government to review the case in the High Court.

Within a week of his appeal being turned down at the High Court, BA pilots and air traffic control workers in the IPMS union were refusing to cooperate with the deportation, activists were boarding planes, passengers were refusing to sit down and multinational airlines like Lufthansa were pulling out.

One year on, the struggle continues to grow. Tony Benn has sent a letter out to the unions calling for support. The airport protests have drawn support from people from all walks of life; workers, commuters and backpackers took a stand together, engaging in civil disobedience on board the flights - literally standing up for human rights. This has scared the authorities. They want to make an example, which is why they tried to paint Mike a terrorist. But this trial isn’t just about an individual. This trial is about everyone’s right to unite and protest in defence of asylum seekers and human rights.

The anti-deportation struggle showed that when people are aware of the facts they can join together and fight back.

Mike and his civil rights lawyer are fighting for the right to protest and the right to life of refugees deported to repressive regimes. The trial is a focus around which we can all mobilize to challenge Europe’s racist immigration laws and the hypocrisy of western governments that bomb, sanction and impoverise nations forcing people to wander the world for a safe home and their share of its wealth.

Join us in protesting at Mike’s trial in defence of all our fundamental human rights and those of people like Amanj Gafor seeking asylum.

For further info contact:

Bristol Defend Asylum Seekers Campaign

Tel: 0117 944 1481 or Mobile: 0771 4757 984

Email: bdasc@hotmail.com