Borders are more than geographical lines – they impact all our lives, whether it’s the fallout from Brexit or the inhumanity of a detention centre. This panel will reveal how borders are violent, oppressive and must be resisted, and explore how we move beyond a focus on suffering and compassion, to rights and resistance.
To dismantle the UK’s hostile environment, we must make it visible and understand the vested cultural and economic interests behind it. What sort of movement across borders should we aspire to, or be enabling in light of global shifts & climate change?
The writers taking part in Beyond Borders are Leah Cowan, author of Border Nation, and Siobhán McGuirk, editor of Asylum for Sale.
“As long as there are borders and money to be made off the backs of migrants seeking freedom via the state, we must continue to expose the profit-makers and share our stories of resistance. Asylum for Sale does exactly this. It reminds us that our people will never be truly free under capitalism–and that we must not only challenge the capitalist state but destroy it and open borders for all. It is an urgent, inspiring, and necessary volume.” –Jamila Hammami, founder of the Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
‘[Border Nation] is a powerful indictment of borders and border regimes that lays bare the story of how they emerged, how they exercise a tenacious hold on our imagination, and how they enact lethal violence on so many’ – Priyamvada Gopal
