On Our Relationship to the State:

 We believe all people should be free from violence, attacks and harassment by the state, its armies, police and immigration officers and recognise the historic and continued impact this has on our own communities locally and globally. We therefore oppose state repression and are not affiliated with the state. Solidarity with and protection of our community is what is most important to us. 

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On Abolition of Prisons and Policing:

 We recognise the immense harms that prisons and policing have inflicted and continue to inflict  on the ESEA community, both in the UK and worldwide. As a result, we are for the abolition of policing and prisons, and for the replacement of those institutions with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutionalisation. We seek out abolitionist approaches to: approaching justice and healing for Asian hate crime; as well as organising methods for any of our group’s events and meetings. We do not collaborate with police and we do not condone their practices.

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On Borders and Immigration:

 We believe that no one is illegal and we believe in freedom of movement. People should be free to travel and live where they wish, whatever country they were born in, regardless of financial background, or what passport or paperwork they hold. The wealthy are free to move where they want, whilst immigration controls are used to divide us. We are labelled “citizens” or “migrants”, “legal” or “illegal”. We are against all immigration controls.

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On racism, white supremacy, and intersectionality:

 As a community which experiences racism ourselves, we oppose all forms of racism and anti-Black racism; from individuals, the state, the media and other institutions. We reject the upholding of white supremacy in all its forms. We recognise that anti-Asian racism and racism at large does not happen in a vacuum. These oppressive structures intersect with conditions of capitalism and classism, anti-Blackness, cissexism, heterosexism, white supremacy, misogyny, ableism, mass incarceration, gender oppression, xenophobia, sanism, and so forth. Therefore, our group and its work commits to resisting these structures through intersectional praxis.

On Community Accountability:

As we believe all people should be free from violence and are committed to building communities of care, we are committed to a Transformative Justice framework of managing any of our own community’s potential conflicts, harms, or abuses of power. This is a critical part of our group’s community infrastructure, as it actively creates conditions for greater safety, transparency, resilience, care and connection led by and for people at the grassroots level. How we organise must reflect the future we hope to organise for.

On being Survivor Centred:

We are committed to being survivor-centred in our organising. Survivor in this context means: someone who has experienced any type of discrimination or abuse - whether it is motivated by racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, etc. This means prioritising the dignity, needs and informed consent of persons experiencing any of these harms. Survivors are allowed to choose their course of action in dealing with any harm they experience. Survivors have the right to privacy and confidentiality about these harms, actions or conversations taken for healing or for the transformation of the conditions that included that harm. 

On Democratic Decision Making:

We are an independent and non hierarchical group committed to transparent consensus decision-making: we have no leaders. We are individuals and members of different groups who share these outlined aims and principles and for that reason are working together. We have respect for each other and work together as equals within our varying team roles. 
 

OUR DEMANDS

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Scrap the Police Crimes and Sentencing Bill.
The right to protest is essential to our democracy.

Scrap the Nationality and Borders Bill. Refugees  ≠ criminals.

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Teach children the truth about the colonialism. Teach critical race theory in all UK schools in the same way sex education is compulsory. Kids should be taught the truth about the experiences of their ancestors. Kids should understand the significance of their own heritage, and be equipped with the vocabulary to navigate the difficult conversations. They should know how to have healthy and safe conversations about race and about racism. They should learn how to go about this whilst having respect for each other.

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Workplaces must have EFFECTIVE racial sensitivity training. This goes for both state and private institutions, organisations, and businesses, so that everyone learns the context of racialised actions. Some workplaces already have this training, but it is almost always inadequate. To be clear, this should NOT result in more public funds and taxpayer money going towards the police. It should materialise in the form of funding PUBLIC projects, survivor-led, specialist, grassroots, etc. that help to heal and equip the community in real terms.

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The BBC and The Guardian must publicly apologise for harming our community by using the ESEA faces on Covid-related media. It has directly led to the increased hate that we face, through solidifying a false narrative in the public consciousness. Your clickbait strategies have cost us our safety, our sanity, and our lives.  

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The government must issue a public statement to apologise for not doing enough to tackle racism towards ESEA people. We are your citizens, the people in your country, and YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for our SAFETY.

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The government must SUPPORT the work of, and MAKE SPACE for specialist survivor-led grassroots organisations to create a cohesive protection plan for ESEA communities in the United Kingdom. This must eliminate the threats to ESEA community safety moving forward.  The government should be creating the suitable conditions so that those organisations find it easier to thrive and support the community. Whether it is with legislation around protest/criminalising sex work or immigration/austerity/etc.

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*Please note that this is a working document and is not a final draft. More details will be added shortly*

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