Nov
14
2007
From November 7-11, a ‘No Borders Camp’ on the heavily militarized U.S. Mexican border at Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico, convened in solidarity with actions around the world coinciding with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 10, 1989.
Over the course of four days, more than 500 attendees, including a number of UCSB students, partook in marches, forums, workshops, music, and independent media developing long term strategies to mobilize resistance from both sides of the border against a regime which allows free capital mobility but restricts human movement.
“The No Borders Camp was an act to stress there shouldn’t be borders for people, but there should be restraints on capital,” said local activist Will Parrish. “People over profit, not visa-versa,”—a concept which has been an escalating problem for the people of Mexico since the Mexican government agreed to join the North American Free Trade Agreement on January 1, 1994. The union has come at the cost of many local Mexican businesses and increased poor mass labor conditions.
Demonstrators held two separate marches on November 9 to protest these issues: one to the la maquiladora (sweat shop) zone in Mexicali and the NAFTA port of entry, where cheap labor goods enter the U.S., and another to the Immigrant Customs Enforcement detention center in El Centro.
On November 10, a memorial service was held in Holtville, CA where some of an estimated 4,000 migrants who have died attempting to cross the border, are buried.
This was the first no borders camp to take place in North America simultaneously on both sides of the international border. The action was planned over the past year by a group of collectives including the Los Angeles chapter of Food Not Bombs, Cooperativa Liberta Anti-Corp, Organic Collective (San Diego), and Collectivo IPA (Mexicali).
The event’s aim was to challenge existing border controls by creating an autonomous space void of neo-liberal capitalist exploitation, violent border militarization and repressive migration restrictions.
“It was a community building action between people from all over the nation with Mexicans, coming together to address broad societal issues such as racial class structure and more localized issues in the militarization of the border,” said Rebecca Riley, a former UCSB student who participated in the ‘action’ camp. Riley said the event intended “to create the world we want to see inside that space, through securing the area and making it a living reality – a world without borders.”
On the morning of November 9, campers served breakfast in the main entryway on the border, blocking Border Patrol vehicle access. The obstruction led to a confrontation with riot police on both sides, but due to the shared ideals of non-violence and de-escalation amongst participants, and an hour long stand off by participants on the U.S. side, the police retreated and let the food be passed back and forth over the border.
“For the most part [the police] weren’t a threatening presence until they outnumbered demonstrators remaining at the last bi-national march on the 11th and openly attacked people for approaching too close to the wall,” said Gerek Jensen, who was present.
One hundred Border Patrol agents used pepper gas pellets, tasers and batons on the U.S. side, many were detained, and three were arrested, now facing charges for impeding a federal officer, a federal offense.
“Even though we were trying to create a border-less camp, legally the border existed and was being enforced by the Border Control” reiterated Riley, who explained how campers were constantly under surveillance. Riley said the camp was illuminated by five spotlights, and access was blocked by Border Patrol vehicles.
Demonstrators stress that the ‘No Borders Camp’ was not just about the U.S. / Mexico border, but a symbolic act against all borders that divide and control people. “Its an ideal – a world without borders – but also something we should all be aware of and strive for in our day to day lives,” said Parrish.
For more information on this event and related causes check out www.noborderscamp.org.