[IPSM] Supporting migrants at the US-Mexico border; "Smuggling, trafficking and open borders", an interview with Nandita Sharma (No One Is Illegal Radio, January 2008)

[No One Is Illegal Montreal]

No One Is Illegal Radio reports about the frontline struggles for justice,
dignity and self-determination by migrants, refugees and indigenous peoples.
On this month's edition of No One Is Illegal Radio:

* -- Supporting migrants at the US-Mexico border: interviews with activists
and reporters: Brenda Norrell (Tuscon, Arizona), Mike Wilson (member of the
Tohono O'odham nation) and Jay Johnson-Castro (Del Rio, Texas)
AND
-- "Smuggling, trafficking and open borders"; an interview with activist and
scholar Nandita Sharma, author of "Home Economics: Nationalism and the
Making of "Migrant Workers" in Canada"
*
--> LISTEN to the January 2008 edition of No One Is Illegal Radio at:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=26108

--> MORE INFO about the January 2008 show below or:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/01/no-one-is-illegal-radio-january-2008.html
--> JOIN our low-volume (2-3 e-mails/week), announcements-only e-mail list
at:  https://lists.resist.ca/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l


* ::: Voices against the US-Mexico Border Wall :::*

On last month's No One Is Illegal Radio, we heard from Ofelia Rivas, an
activist, elder and grandmother from an O'odham village near the US-Mexican
border in Arizona. According to Ofelia: *"Migration is a natural-occurring
thing. People have migrated all over this land since the creation of this
world. No fence is going to stop that."* (Interview linked at:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/12/no-one-is-illegal-radio-december-2007.html)


This month, we hear from three more voices of resistance to the US-Mexico
Border Wall, and in support of migrants.

BRENDA NORRELL, based in Tuscon, Arizona, publishes the Censored Blog which
reports on under-reported news about Indigenous Peoples, border injustice
and international human rights. Brenda has been a reporter in "Indian
country" for 25 years, living for 18 years on the Navajo Nation and working
as a staffer for the Navajo Times. In this interview, she addresses the
various movements against the border in 2007, describes the impacts of the
border fence being built in southern Arizona, and recalls the Indigenous
Border Summit.

MIKE WILSON, currently based in Tuscon, is an indigenous O'odham. He is a
humanitarian worker who, in defiance of the Tohono O'odham tribal
government, leaves water and maintains water stations for migrants moving
north across the border. Every year, an average of 75 migrants die on
O'odham lands in southern Arizona, usually from dehydration and exposure in
the treacherous desert. In this interview, Mike describes his humanitarian
work, the deaths of migrants on O'odham land, and the complicity of the
tribal government with the Department of Homeland Security.

JAY JOHNSON-CASTRO, based in Del Rio, Texas, is a member of Border
Ambassadors. In 2006, he marched more than 200 miles between Laredo and
Brownsville, in opposition to the Border Wall. As part of Freedom
Ambassadors, Jay has also been active in opposing the Hutto Detention Center
in Taylor, Texas, where children are detained in a private prison facility.
In this interview, Jay speaks about the community at the Texas-Mexico border
that is being divided by the Border Wall, as well as the conditions in
migrant detention facilities, including the detention center in
Raymondville, which has been described as "the largest concentration camp in
the world".

Background:
-> Censored Blog: www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
-> Humane Borders: www.humaneborders.org
-> Map of deaths on Arizona-Mexico border (2000-2004):
www.humaneborders.org/news/images/migrantdeaths_0004.jpg
-> Border Ambassadors: www.borderambassadors.com
-> Freedom Ambassadors: www.freedomambassadors.com
-> Photos of Raymondville and Hutto detention centers:
www.subtopia.blogspot.com/2007/02/circus-of-detention.html


* ::: "Smuggling, trafficking and open borders"*

On this month's show, we also hear from NANDITA SHARMA, an activist and
scholar currently based in Hawaii. Nandita helped to organize the "Open the
Borders" conference in 2002, and is the author of "Home Economics:
Nationalism and the Making of "Migrant Workers" in Canada".

In Part 1 of the interview, Nandita takes a critical look at smuggling and
trafficking. In her words:* "The Canadian government's legislation against
smuggling and trafficking is the height of hyprocrisy. The main consequence
of anti-smuggling and anti-trafficking legislation is to make the lives of
migrants more vulnerable and their journeys more precarious. Traffickers are
not the main problem that migrants face; the main problem that the vast
majority of the world's migrants face is restrictive immigration policies.
Anti-trafficking campaigns are the moral regulatory arm of contemporary
anti-immigrant politics."*

In Part 2, Nandita addresses the themes of her book, "Home Economics",
including rejecting global apartheid, and her critique of appeals to
citizenship and nation-states in migrant justice work. In her words: *"[I
add] my voice to the growing social movement for a world without borders, a
world where people have the ability both to "stay" and to "move" according
to their own self-determined needs and desires, a world where no one is made
homeless."*

Background:
-> Anti-Trafficking Rhetoric and the Making of Global Apartheid:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/nwsa_journal/v017/17.3sharma.html
-> Organizing for Migrant Justice and Self-Determination:
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/842


LISTEN to the January 2008 edition of No One Is Illegal Radio at:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=26108



No One Is Illegal Radio broadcasts live on the first Thursday of every
month, from 5-6pm (EST), as part of "Off the Hour", produced in
collaboration with the community news collective at CKUT.  We're at 90.3 FM
in Montreal, and www.ckut.ca on the web. Starting in January 2008, No One Is
Illegal Radio will also be part of the Rabble Podcast Network:
http://www.rabble.ca/rpn

--> If you are interested in re-broadcasting our programs or interviews,
please get in touch at nooneisillegal at gmail.com ... Community and
alternative stations across North America re-broadcast excerpts of No One Is
Illegal Radio monthly.


--> No One Is Illegal Radio's 2007 shows are archived at:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/12/no-one-is-illegal-radio-2007-archive.html


In 2007, No One Is Illegal Radio heard from indigenous activists and
organizers from the Mohawk communities of Akwesasne, Tyendinaga & Kahnawake,
from the Grand River Territory of Six Nations, the Ardoch Algonquin nation,
the Anishnabe Ojibway nation, the Ts'mkiyen nation, the Kwakwaka'wakw
nation, the Tohono O'odham nation, as well as from Aotearoa. We spoke with
activists in Oslo, Seoul and Whanganui, as well as from allies in Houston,
San Diego, New Bedford, Jersey City, New York, Vancouver, Toronto and
Ottawa. We also covered local anti-border, migrant justice organizing in
Montreal.


No One Is Illegal-Montreal is part of a worldwide movement of resistance,
fighting for justice and dignity, and the right to self-determination for
migrants, refugees and indigenous people. Our campaign is in public
confrontation with the Canadian state, denouncing and taking action to
combat racial profiling, police brutality, detentions and deportations, as
well as opposing the displacement and genocide of indigenous peoples on
Turtle Island.

Tune-in live to No One Is Illegal Radio on the 1st Thursday of every month,
from 5-6pm, as part of CKUT's "Off The Hour".
--> You can listen live in the MONTREAL-area at 90.3FM.
--> You can listen ANYWHERE online at www.ckut.ca
--> Part of the Rabble Podcast Network: http://www.rabble.ca/rpn
--> If you are interested in re-broadcasting our programs or interviews,
please get in touch.

INFO: 514-848-7583 -- nooneisillegal at gmail.com
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
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