In Calais, this week, anarchists from the No Borders Network have set up a protest camp as part of a campaign to "highlight the realities of the situation in Calais and Northern France; to build links with the migrant communities; to help build links between migrants support groups; and lastly, but not least, to challenge the authorities on the ground, to protest against increased repression of migrants and local activists alike." The Camp's aims are clearly stated;
This camp calls for the freedom of movement for all, an end to borders and to all migration controls. We call for a radical movement against the systems of control, dividing us into citizens and non-citizens, into the documented and the undocumented.It should come as no surprise, then, that comprehension of this in a media system in the thrall of a "free-market" propaganda model was minimal.



Utter bollocks! What do they expect us to do? Storm the port and commandeer ferries? Hijack a Eurostar train and ask the driver to "Take me to England?" I repeat, utter bollocks.Whilst the "threats to burn ‘symbols of capitalism’ including local government offices, and even hotels run by prominent global chains" and "tense atmosphere" which "has gripped the port all week,"are contrasted by the fact that "there are currently only 500 people at the Camp against the estimated 2,000 police in the area." The police, of course, are "just waiting for an excuse to wade into the protesters and crack a few heads as they have admitted to local activists on a number of occasions recently." And, contrary to the threats of "swarming" the Channel Tunnel, the activists at the Camp "have specifically told the migrants in leaflets handed out prior to the Camp that we cannot do this." As they explain;
Why would we seek to raise the hopes of people who live for months in conditions that you and I would find it hard to survive by offering to do something we know we cannot hope to follow up on. We don't want to leave the migrants in worse situation after the camp has left than the one they were in before we cam. That is why we are offering no false hopes.And;
What the article doesn't say is that the locals around the Camp site have been reacting positively to our presence despite the hysteria from the press and local authorities. Some have even been helping in the Camp set-up. Nouchi Pierre, the president of the Union des Métiers de l'Hotel du Calais, has called on its members, the owners of cafes, bars, restaurants and hotels, "not to panic" and to stay open during the week of the Camp. This despite the local paper Nord Littoral stirring things up by suggesting that hotels belonging to the Accor group might be a target after the Strasbourg anti-NATO camp events.But, of course, such realities are inconvenient. More importantly, they cannot even remotely hope to pass through the doctrinal system of a media that reflects only elite opinion. Over two centuries, some things don't change, and that anarchists remain a bogeyman whom the media refuse to even try and understand is one of them.

This brutal treatment of the poorest and most wretched people needs to be challenged by direct action, and the issues need to be highlighted. If this means harrassment by the police and smears and lies from the corporate media, then so be it.