'SOAS 9' deported cleaners remembered
SOAS, London. Tue 12 Jun 2018
Consuela, one of the cleaner's leaders, was speaking as I arrived
late, my bus having been held up in traffic
People in the crowd held posters, including nine with the names of
the deported cleaners
Posters, headed 'Deportation Is A Crime' related how all the SOAS
cleaners were called to an emergency
early morning meeting about their work - but it was only a pretext
by SOAS management to get them all together
when no one else was around for a raid by UK Borders Agency, who rushed
in and handcuffed them all
before questioning them. Nine cleaners were found not to be able to
prove they had the papers that enabled
them to be in the UK and were deported. Lucia was pregnant at the
time and her son, Lucas, was born soon
after she was deported. SOAS students renamed the lecture theatre
where the fake meeting was held after him
as the Lucas Lecture Theatre, though SOAS management have refused
to accept the change of name.
As a part of the commemoration, the documentary film 'Limpiadores'
about the cleaners and the raid
was to be shown later in the day in the Lucas Lecture Theatre.
'We Remember the SOAS Nine! Never Forgive Never FOrget!'
Lenin, another of the cleaners supporting the SOAS Justice for Workers
campaign speaks. The raid took place
after the cleaners had won a campaign to get the London Living Wage
and was seen as a retaliation for the
trade union activities of SOAS Unison. The struggle has continued
to get the cleaners directly employed by SOAS
with Unison members supported by students and the UCU in over ten
years of activity. SOAS have now conceded
in principle but still have to bring the cleaners in house and treat
them with dignity and respect.
At the end of the rally people posed on the steps in front of SOAS
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