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Black people will resist the Borders Bill
Given our history of colonisation, emigration, life as second-class citizens and our experience of open racial prejudice, Britons of African and Asian descent are not surprised by the Tories' latest attack on us — and we are ready to resist it, writes ROGER McKENZIE
Asian anti-fascists face police repression during clashes with the racist National Front in Southall, London, April 1979

THE Nationality and Borders Bill allows the government to strip, without notice, the nationality of nearly six million British citizens, including two in every five black people, even if this makes those people “stateless.”

The Bill, now heading for the House of Lords after the Tories voted it through the Commons last week, also criminalises anyone helping an asylum-seeker to arrive in Britain — with a penalty of up to life imprisonment.

When one sees these measures alongside this government’s deeply draconian measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to curb non-violent protest, everyone should be incandescent with rage — but realise these are not new proposals.

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