Polish workers strike against British governmental xenophobia

This video from Northern Ireland says about itself:

East Belfast Loyalists attack Polish homes with bricks

16 January 2014

A Polish woman living in east Belfast has told UTV how she believes her family were targeted in two attacks because of their nationality.

Anna Bloch and her family have lived in Inverary Drive for several years, but after midnight on Thursday a brick was thrown through their window.

The young woman, her mother and step-father were in the house at the time, but were not hurt.

Her brother’s home was also attacked with a brick. He lives with his wife and 11-year-old son in the nearby Sandbrook Park area.

Police have also appealed for information on a third property which was attacked in Victoria Court.

The attacks, which police are treating as hate crimes, are the latest in a series of similar incidents in recent months.

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Thousands of Polish workers to take part in the first ever migrant workers strike in Britain

Plans to protest come after a Government crackdown against illegal immigrants

Jonathan Owen

Saturday 08 August 2015

Thousands of Polish people working in Britain are expected to take part in the first ever migrant workers strike in this country later this month. The protest, planned for Thursday 20th August, is the result of discussions on Polish internet forums by people angry at immigrants being blamed for Britain’s economic problems.

And the unofficial strike, which does not involve any trade unions, is being backed by the Polish Express newspaper which has created a Facebook group to promote the event. A red t-shirt produced for the protest states: “Enough! Stop blaming us.”

The suggestion of a strike came from one of their readers, claimed Tomasz Kowalski, editor, Polish Express. “It’s just a way to show people in the UK that immigrants are an important part of Britain. We want to make the point that we are here and that we want to feel appreciated,” he said.

At more than 680,000 people, the Polish community is one of the biggest in Britain. Around half a million Polish workers are relied upon in areas such as construction, healthcare and catering.

Threats to strike come amid a Government crackdown against illegal immigrants, prompted by repeated attempts by migrants seeking to cross the English Channel from Calais in recent weeks. …

Yesterday saw the launch of a protest of a more positive kind. Using the Twitter hashtag #Polishblood, organisers want Polish migrants to donate blood on the 20th August, rather than not turning up for work. Hundreds of people have already pledged to donate blood since the campaign was launched on Facebook and Twitter yesterday.

Lawyer George Byczynski, coordinator of the British Poles Initiative, a campaigning group behind the move, told The Independent: “Everybody will find something for themselves in this protest, if somebody feels they are discriminated against they will be able to show the most positive thing that somebody can do, a very noble thing of just giving blood. It’s a purely positive thing to foster the British/Polish relations.”

Far from being a drain on the nation, migrants actually make Britain a more prosperous place, according to a major report by researchers at University College London last year. It found that immigrants from the European Union who came to Britain between 2000 and 2011 paid out £20 billion more in taxes than they received in benefits.

See also here.

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