On 15th of July 2017, the following grants were agreed for our seventh round:
Black Lives Matter UK (£3,000)
BLMUK is a group of black activists who believe that Black lives matter. In Britain, there is a tendency to see racism as something that happens on the other side of the Atlantic. Through their work, they aim to challenge that view, and open up conversations about racism in Britain today. They strive to challenge the structural racism reproduced by the British state through community organising, education and peaceful direct action.
Friends of Detainees, UK-Wide (£3,000)
We are Friends of Detainees working hard to end the use of immigration detention in the UK. We believe that asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants coming to the UK for safety should not be detained for administrative convenience which in turn causes them mental torture and many more.
Living Rent Glasgow (£3,000)
Living Rent Glasgow seek to end the system where tenants are ripped off by extortionate rents and illegal letting agency fees, where many landlords and letting agencies can get away with not completing essential repairs, where homes are in a hardly liveable condition, where tenants face fear of eviction from their own homes.
Black Triangle Campaign, Scotland (£3,000)
Black Triangle works to reverse the grave and systematic abuses of the fundamental human rights of sick and/or disabled people under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. They work to challenge discrimination against disabled people, both by the State and in civil society. They seek to raise awareness among the wider population of these abuses and to educate people on the meaning of inclusion and equality using the social model of disability and the principles of the right to independent living.
African Rainbow Family, Manchester (£3,000)
African Rainbow Family is run horizontally by its 60 LGBTIQ asylum seekers and refugees members with lived experiences of one form of persecution to the other based on their sexuality, gender identities, religion, race, ethnicity, disability and have experienced most horrendous violence in their countries of origin. They campaign against social injustice and challenge any UK immigration mistreatment of LGBT asylum seekers’ application process, as well as influencing government policies, campaigning on individual member’s asylum cases, offering practical support, organising rallies and other activities.
Recovery in the Bin, UK-wide (£1,500)
Recovery in the Bin is a group of Mental Health Survivors and their supporters who are fed up with the way colonised ‘recovery’ is being used to discipline and control those who are trying to find a place in the world, to live as they wish, trying to deal with the very real mental distress they encounter on a daily basis.
Frack Free South Yorkshire, Northern England (£1,500)
Frack Free South Yorkshire work to oppose all forms of unconventional carbon based energy exploitation, supporting the aims and values of all those who work towards climate justice, and seek to undermine all carbon and nuclear based energy exploitation. They seek to prepare and educate communities, who will find themselves on the front line of the battle against fracking. And aim to act as a catalyst to empower local groups to form and agitate to ensure they form vocal and physical opposition to the fracking industry.
Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, Scotland (£1,500)
The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) is a self-managed social resource centre. They’re open for groups or individuals to use who are trying to make a better society and improve their lives. ACE exists to support and encourage people to take more control of their lives. They believe in people co-operating as equals to create a shared world free from exploitation and work together in the spirit of mutual aid.
Leeds Unity Centre (£1,500)
Leeds Unity Centre provide practical support and advocacy for asylum seekers required to report by the Home Office in Yorkshire. They stand against the process of reporting and detention for vulnerable people who are asking for asylum. They also empower clients by giving them skills to assist them in the eventuality of a detention.
London Campaign Against Police and State Violence (£1,500)
London Campaign Against Policce and State Violence was founded to make the Metropolitan Police accountable to local communities for abuses of power and bring an end to its culture of brutality and racial profiling, including the racist use of Stop & Search powers. To work towards this aim, they offer help, support and solidarity to victims of police and state abuses of power; we provide advocacy support, Stop and Search workshops, advice on police complaints and solidarity and awareness-raising of issues around state racism and police violence.
Sex Worker Open University, UK-Wide (£1,500)
SWOU are working to end state and societal violence against all sex workers, and to dismantle the structures of oppression through which many sex workers face compounded violence: such as transmisogyny, racism and xeno-racism, classism and homophobia. We resist these oppressions through community building and self-advocacy, and through working within wider movements of resistance.
Belfast Solidarity Centre, (£1,500)
Belfast Solidarity Centre aims to provide people with the resources to resist the intersecting oppressions which hold us down – and ultimately to overthrow capitalism and the State. We have been open in Belfast city centre for almost one year, with a radical bookshop (Just Books), extensive library, a workers’ and claimants’ drop-in resource centre, community education initiatives, radical film showings, and a meeting space for groups involved in the struggle against oppression.
LGBT Unity, Scotland (£1,500)
LGBT Unity work to end detention, deportation, destitution, lack of access to resources and the discriminatory and racist practises of the UK immigration system. The Home Office and their racist, sexist, homophobic immigration controls serve to alienate people and keep us fighting in a state of isolation. Their group is the only place in Scotland where the space is held solely for LGBTQ asylum seekers and allies to come together in safety and care to share experiences, support, strategies and ideas for the future.
Save Cressingham Gardens, London (£1,500)
Save Cressingham Gardens is a campaign to stop the demolition of their diverse community. They empower residents to manage and control their own neighbourghoods, and to gain independence from a council that is abusing its powers.
Movimiento Jaguar Despierto, London (£1,500)
Movimiento Jaguar Despierto is an organisation that aims to create awareness and visualize the issues that affect indigenous communities, workers, displaced communities, women and migrant communities in Latin America and here in the UK. They use direct action, educational events, and campaigns in support of the Latin American community.
Disabled People Against Cuts Glasgow (£1,000)
DPAC Glasgow is a campaign group of disabled people and supporters who oppose the unfair cuts to public services and welfare spending by both local and national governments. In addition to holding and attending rallies against the authorities, we also produce helpful information for local people on sources of further assistance in addressing personal welfare issues within Glasgow.
Positively UK (1,000)
Positivity UK are EU nationals living in Boston, a port town on the east coast of England where latent hostility toward old and new migrant arrivals has burst into the open since the Brexit vote, where 76% of local people voted to leave the EU. They came together to counter EDL and Britain First marches, and increasing racist and xenophobic attacks. They aim to resist discrimination by peaceful means, like rallies, demos and solidarity with people in Boston who stand against the latest attacks on the migrant community. Their activities include, organising marches; highlighting government non-compliance with impact assessments on immigration policy; conducting direct action against council offices; and working to bridge the divide in Boston, which they hope will be replicated in other UK cities.
Reclaim Holloway, London (1,000)
Reclaim Holloway is grassroots coalition of individuals from groups including the Radical Housing Network, North London Sisters Uncut, Black Lives Matter, Empty Cages, Reclaim Justice Network, Islington Axe the Housing Act and others. They have come together to demand that that the site of the now closed Holloway Women’s Prison is used for social housing and community services, including a Women’s Building that is owned and not rented.
Against Borders for Children, UK-Wide (£750)
Against Borders for Children is a campaign to stop border controls encroaching into England’s schools. In particular we are campaigning for an end to nationality and country-of-birth data collection through the school census, which began in September 2016, and for an end to the sharing of pupil data for immigration enforcement purposes which has been going on in secret since 2015
Manchester Migrant Solidarity, (£750)
Manchester Migrant Solidarity is a collaboration between migrants and non-migrants on the basis of solidarity rather than charity. They are run solely by and for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants from different nationalities. Their activities include anti-deportation mobilisation, detention support, language support, campaigning for individual asylum cases, and organising workshops on asylum applications and campaigning strategies. They also collaborate with other groups on wider systemic issues, like challenging legislation, instigating policy changes, and campaigning to Shut Down Detention Centres.
No Prisons Manchester (£750)
No Prisons Manchester is a campaign to prevent the opening of a supersized-prison in Wigan, Greater Manchester; They hope that by organising against a concrete prison expansion project we can build resistance to the expansion of the prison system.
Disire – Disabled International Residents , London (£750)
Disire is the disabled people’s organisation of disabled international residents. We are dedicated to champion the rights of all Deaf and disabled people – no matter where they were born or raised and how long they live in the UK.
35 Percent Campaign, London (£500)
The 35 Percent Campaign is a group of local residents, traders and others who have an interest in the regeneration of the Elephant & Castle. It was set up in response to the social cleansing of the Heygate estate and because new developments were failing to meet the Council’s minimum policy requirement of 35% affordable housing.
Northern Police Monitoring Project, Manchester (£500)
The Northern Police Monitoring Project is an independent, grassroots, collective that aims to respond to the multiple injustices committed through policing and over-policing in the Greater Manchester area.
The Unity Centre, Glasgow (£500)
The Unity Centre gives practical support and solidarity to all asylum seekers and other migrants in Scotland. They also support anyone detained in the UK’s Immigration Removal Detention Centres. Since it has opened they have helped over one hundred families and countless individuals to be released from immigration detention. If someone is detained they help contact their lawyer, friends and family, arrange for their belongings to be looked after, provide emotional support and encouragement, contact the press and media about their case and run emergency campaigns and protests to stop them being forcibly removed.