Labour movement history in Britain shows workers secured reforms through collective pressure and political representation, rather than being gifted from above, writes KEITH FLETT
THE rusting hulk of the Bibby Stockholm is an ageing engineless barge which during its 47-year existence has been used both as secure accommodation for asylum-seekers in the Netherlands, and more recently to provide accommodation for construction workers at the Shetland Gas Plant in Scotland.
On Tuesday May 9 it was hauled into Falmouth docks in Cornwall to undergo a refit in preparation for its next incarnation as an accommodation/detention centre for refugees and asylum-seekers whom the Home Office deemed to be “illegal.”
The current accommodation capacity of the barge is just over 200. The refit commissioned by the government will see that capacity more than doubled to 500.
DIANE ABBOTT warns that Shabana Mahmood’s draconian asylum proposals fuel racist scapegoating and risk demoralising Labour’s base – potentially paving the way for Farage to No 10
Listening to our own communities and organising within them holds the key to stopping the advance of Reform UK and other far-right initiatives, posits TONY CONWAY


