[Music]
[Applause]
well I yeah thank you very much I I wish
people did that every time I walked into
a room okay I logged into it so look I
think it’s um it’s widely assumed if not
widely articulated that states have some
sort of natural right to determine who
comes into their into their territories
what I want to do today is try and
persuade you that that is not only false
but leads to some deep immorality and
and then because this is TEDx Brighton
leave you with some happy thoughts as to
how we can how we can resist that okay
so before we launch into into the border
and why we need to think a little bit
about law and here by law I don’t just
mean formal legal systems I do mean any
kind of set of norms that govern
communities but because we’re focusing
on nation-states today I’m going to we
can just restrict it to conduct to the
formal legal systems now I think any any
legal system that’s going to be
legitimate needs to be underpinned by a
principle and here’s the principle so
resisting with laws to be legitimate
those who are subject to the force of
the law must also be offered its
protection that’s what I think now what
does that mean
let’s on pick it a bit if your subjects
the force of the law then the law is
claiming power over you exclaiming power
to regulate your life regulate your
relationships determine you know what’s
acceptable behavior and so on and that’s
all backed up with the threat of
punishment incarceration or fines in our
case what is it to be offered the Lord’s
protection well I think the law has to
be taking your interests your values and
your needs into account in some sense
the law has to be for you now it’s easy
to motivate that principle I think if
you’re a Democrat democracy is a system
of government I think in which what
happens happens with the consent of the
governed no that that’s not necessarily
involves voting but you can see why we
stumbled upon voting I think as the as a
solution to the central problem of
democracy namely how do we deal with
irreconcilable disagreement in any large
enough community we’re never
I’m going to agree on what should happen
and if I if I disagree with something
how can I consent to it and I think the
answer is well what we need is a fair
process of making decisions and a
process in which I can take part and
that’s why I think we have a system of a
rating that’s meant to be a fair process
how well our first past the post system
does I couldn’t possibly comment
I digress
I don’t think though it’s just Democrat
Democratic systems that need to be
underpinned by this principle I think
indeed any any system of government does
because if not what what happens is the
lawyers can claiming complete power over
you the only thing that’s constraining
the law is is the will of the rulers and
that I think is totalitarianism and the
heart of totalitarianism is this idea
that the state has absolute power over
you and has and the only thing that’s
going to constrain that is is what the
rule is fine to be expedient so there’s
an awful lot at stake here okay so I’m
going to try and use that principle to
show you why closed borders are
illegitimate so let’s think about
borders for a moment okay no borders are
like that’s not on border so a closed
borders I can leave my bedroom freely
and walk into my front room or not walk
in my case but anyway and if I do then I
love I love crossed a border and the
norms of behavior that that govern those
things will will have changed right so
for example in the in the bedroom with
the right background prerequisite it’s
really very acceptable to be naked with
other people much less so in the front
room
if you are you’ll probably be being a
bit dirty that’s okay right but
unfortunately all borders are open
borders right I even if I had the money
I don’t have the papers to go to the US
I can’t jump on a plane tomorrow and
spend the weekend in New York although
being a nice white British person I
could probably manage to manage to get
papers within about 72 hours but if you
came from Somalia or the global south
and you want to go into the countries
where the money’s flow you’re going to
find those borders shut against you and
an incredible level of state violence
employed to keep you out and that’s why
we’ve seen people drown of dying in the
Sahara and drowning in the Med trapped
in in in in effectively in concentration
camps in in the Aegean and and
persecuted and harassed border
bottlenecks like Calais or across Europe
okay so we know that happens how does
the principle apply here well let’s just
think about it for a moment if you’re in
Calais and you’re trying to come to the
UK without papers you’ll find the border
closed against you but the law there has
to be acting on both sides of the border
right the law the British law is
claiming the power over you to stop you
coming in and forcing you but of course
you’re outside of the UK’s jurisdiction
so it’s not offering you its protection
any sense it’s not taking your interest
into account and that’s why those border
spaces are so incredibly violent the
people on the other side of the border
has subject to the force of a law to
which they’re not being offered its
protection
and I think that’s fundamentally
illegitimate and so we can see that this
assumption the state has a natural right
to keep you out is in fact false now you
might say like fine you’ve got an
argument to show that that the
principles false and it’s unjust but you
can’t seriously expect us to open the
border simply because you’ve kind of got
a neat argument so that you need to keep
the border closed that’s just a kind of
philosophers problem and I would say
well fine like I want to live in a just
world I think it’s not just I think we
can do something about it but maybe you
can make yourself happy with that much
injustice but I want to draw your
attention to a feature of the UK border
regime of
that’s replicated across Europe and in
the US but is one that I fight against
here so that’s what I’m going to talk
about and it’s namely that once you
cross the border into the UK if you
don’t have papers you don’t have the
government’s permission it says if
you’re not here legally you still remain
on the other side of the border now why
do I say that well for a start you’re
not it’s illegal for you to work it’s
illegal for someone to rent you a house
you can’t have a driving license you
can’t have a bank account you can’t get
you can get only a very very small range
of Social Security and then only in
exceptional circumstances there’s an
ever-diminishing range of health care
services that you’re entitled to and to
make it worse if you then go to any of
these kind of service providers they’re
expected to check your immigration
status and report that back to the home
office so effectively the border is
everywhere and everyone is a border
guard even more dramatically and more
horrific Li you can be detained
indefinitely for administrative purposes
in so-called immigration detention
centers like Moreton Hall immigration
removal centers like Moreton Hall if
you’re a UK citizen and so subject to
the force of the law but also for its
protection and the government wants to
lock you up what the government has to
do is go before a judge persuade the
judge and the court that you you should
be detained the exception of course is
in some terrorist related stuff we
should be very worried about the
undermining of of that principle in with
terrorism but if you’re if you’re a
person here without papers you can be
subject you can be locked up
indefinitely simply because it serves
the purposes of the administration it’s
very clear that you are being subject to
the force of the law but not being
offered its protection before I move on
to talk about what we can do about it I
want to draw attention to the really key
feature of of this system and that is
that it’s racist I think a lot of people
in my generation was taught by programs
like Blue Peter that that racism was
about prejudice and power and although
of course prejudice and power are
mechanisms by which racism works they’re
not the heart of racism racism is simply
the systematic exclusion of people
from society and its goods and services
because of their kind of perceived
foreignness and I don’t need to have any
psychological attitudes to work to
exclude you from society because the
things I take for granted all I have to
do is make myself comfortable with that
level of injustice and more pertinently
institutions don’t have psychological
attitudes affect they can have
psychological attitudes but they can
work to systematically exclude people
because of because of their origins and
that’s exactly what Sol or is doing if
you’re here without papers that the
whole mechanism of the state is geared
up to keep you out from society and so
we’ve got a brutal and racist injustice
do we need to do something about I mean
it’s a huge problem the best available
estimate suggests that are around about
600,000 people here without papers we
know that about 250,000 that’s a quarter
of a million people immigrants are
destitute and around about a hundred
thousand of those people will have slept
rough so it’s really something that we
have to do something about and what can
we do about it
well I think the answer is quite a lot
fortunately I’m an optimist and I think
the first thing to remember is although
laws govern society they’re not the only
they’re not the only norms that govern
things fortunately it’s not yet illegal
to to lie about what you’ve been doing
to your friends but you can generally
expect your friends to be truthful when
you ask them what they did at the
weekend the law I think in some ways
discourages us from helping our
neighbors you can get yourself into all
sorts of legal trouble if things go
wrong when you’re trying to help people
but that doesn’t stop us setting up
schemes that promote based on mutual aid
that promote good neighborliness and so
I think that’s exactly the sort of thing
we’ve got to try and do here look and
also of course you can just ignore laws
you can break them I think I’m not a fan
of cannabis but actually one of the
reasons why the criminalization of
marijuana is creaking is simply that no
one’s bothered by the fact that it’s
illegal it doesn’t prevent anyone from
smoking it so and I think we need to try
and bring those principles in to to the
struggle against the border so for
example the school census is going to
require you to give information and ask
you to give information about
your immigration sages and Nationality
to the schools but if you’re a parent
you don’t have to fill that part of the
census in and if you don’t feel that
part of the census in then it’s then it
makes the whole exercise pointless and
it’s a way we have of pushing the border
back to the border similarly when you go
to the hospital in Brighton and it’s
going to be rolled out nationally you’re
going to be expected to produce identity
and proof of nationality so they can
work out who’s entitled to treatment but
you don’t have to produce those
documents and if we don’t it will also
strengthen the administrators and the
frontline staff who want to resist being
turned in to border guards and again we
can start to push back the border now
it’s harder in employment or housing
work because it becomes a criminal
offence to employ somebody or to or to
rent them a house and by all means break
the law I I highly encourage you to but
obviously it’s a it’s a big risk right
and that’s one of the reasons why we set
up thousand four one thousand we said
look we can find homes for people we can
bring them in by community funding we
can have recurring micro donations from
enough people the headlines would have a
thousand people with a pound a month and
we’d be able to rent homes and so far we
found homes for seven people in Brighton
and we’re expanding all the time which
is great there are also spare room
schemes if you’re lucky enough to have
the spare room in Brighton or anywhere
then you can sign up to room for
refugees from positive action in housing
and and how somebody in your house will
they sort out their immigration status
but it’s not just those kind of
practical things I also think we can
think about how how we run our
communities to make them more inclusive
if you’re going to hear from Tim later
in the day from the right in Table
Tennis Club but they’ve been amazing
about making space for refugees and
asylum seekers and they’re now using
ping-pong to teach people English and
it’s a really lovely project that
increases the diversity in our
communities the Harvey Road project who
are amazing set up the global social
club on a very similar similar kind of
way and there are plenty of other
projects in Brighton that do similar
things so that’s the more that we
amplify these projects with our support
with our voices with our money and with
our time the more we increase the
diversity and inclusivity of our society
and the more we push back against the
border and that for me is very exciting
because I am rubbish on the barricades I
am no good and that’s like type of type
of the fight
but instead we can try and find
practical ways to make our society
inclusive and value diversity for the
good that it is before I go I want to
leave you with one one final thought if
you’re not yet convinced that we need to
open the border and we should have a
diverse society then then I want to try
to sway do that we should is my last
pitch ok so um I think I don’t think
that many people who want to keep the
border closed want to keep the border
closed because they want Britain to be
white I think there are kind of tiny
handful of people that have those
diehard racist views I think I guess for
most people there’s a kind of fear I’d
make that guess because I I have it
myself from time to time and I think we
all of us are aware that we have it good
here in global terms we have a stable
functioning society we have universal
health care universal education Social
Security and we’re rich enough to make
those best and if we’ve made those
political choices and of course change
change is a risk you never know what’s
going to happen if you make a big change
so we kind of get scared I think and we
and we don’t want to do it we want to
keep our privilege but I think we should
we should we should ignore that fear
because when you’re afraid you’re
isolated and you’re lonely and you miss
out on diversity which is the
fundamental social good so I really
think you need to open a heart and open
our minds and welcoming other people
because frankly is just more joyous
right so if you haven’t yet joined us in
the struggle against the border then
please do because I guarantee you that
we have the most fun
[Applause]
[Applause]
well I yeah thank you very much I I wish
people did that every time I walked into
a room okay I logged into it so look I
think it’s um it’s widely assumed if not
widely articulated that states have some
sort of natural right to determine who
comes into their into their territories
what I want to do today is try and
persuade you that that is not only false
but leads to some deep immorality and
and then because this is TEDx Brighton
leave you with some happy thoughts as to
how we can how we can resist that okay
so before we launch into into the border
and why we need to think a little bit
about law and here by law I don’t just
mean formal legal systems I do mean any
kind of set of norms that govern
communities but because we’re focusing
on nation-states today I’m going to we
can just restrict it to conduct to the
formal legal systems now I think any any
legal system that’s going to be
legitimate needs to be underpinned by a
principle and here’s the principle so
resisting with laws to be legitimate
those who are subject to the force of
the law must also be offered its
protection that’s what I think now what
does that mean
let’s on pick it a bit if your subjects
the force of the law then the law is
claiming power over you exclaiming power
to regulate your life regulate your
relationships determine you know what’s
acceptable behavior and so on and that’s
all backed up with the threat of
punishment incarceration or fines in our
case what is it to be offered the Lord’s
protection well I think the law has to
be taking your interests your values and
your needs into account in some sense
the law has to be for you now it’s easy
to motivate that principle I think if
you’re a Democrat democracy is a system
of government I think in which what
happens happens with the consent of the
governed no that that’s not necessarily
involves voting but you can see why we
stumbled upon voting I think as the as a
solution to the central problem of
democracy namely how do we deal with
irreconcilable disagreement in any large
enough community we’re never
I’m going to agree on what should happen
and if I if I disagree with something
how can I consent to it and I think the
answer is well what we need is a fair
process of making decisions and a
process in which I can take part and
that’s why I think we have a system of a
rating that’s meant to be a fair process
how well our first past the post system
does I couldn’t possibly comment
I digress
I don’t think though it’s just Democrat
Democratic systems that need to be
underpinned by this principle I think
indeed any any system of government does
because if not what what happens is the
lawyers can claiming complete power over
you the only thing that’s constraining
the law is is the will of the rulers and
that I think is totalitarianism and the
heart of totalitarianism is this idea
that the state has absolute power over
you and has and the only thing that’s
going to constrain that is is what the
rule is fine to be expedient so there’s
an awful lot at stake here okay so I’m
going to try and use that principle to
show you why closed borders are
illegitimate so let’s think about
borders for a moment okay no borders are
like that’s not on border so a closed
borders I can leave my bedroom freely
and walk into my front room or not walk
in my case but anyway and if I do then I
love I love crossed a border and the
norms of behavior that that govern those
things will will have changed right so
for example in the in the bedroom with
the right background prerequisite it’s
really very acceptable to be naked with
other people much less so in the front
room
if you are you’ll probably be being a
bit dirty that’s okay right but
unfortunately all borders are open
borders right I even if I had the money
I don’t have the papers to go to the US
I can’t jump on a plane tomorrow and
spend the weekend in New York although
being a nice white British person I
could probably manage to manage to get
papers within about 72 hours but if you
came from Somalia or the global south
and you want to go into the countries
where the money’s flow you’re going to
find those borders shut against you and
an incredible level of state violence
employed to keep you out and that’s why
we’ve seen people drown of dying in the
Sahara and drowning in the Med trapped
in in in in effectively in concentration
camps in in the Aegean and and
persecuted and harassed border
bottlenecks like Calais or across Europe
okay so we know that happens how does
the principle apply here well let’s just
think about it for a moment if you’re in
Calais and you’re trying to come to the
UK without papers you’ll find the border
closed against you but the law there has
to be acting on both sides of the border
right the law the British law is
claiming the power over you to stop you
coming in and forcing you but of course
you’re outside of the UK’s jurisdiction
so it’s not offering you its protection
any sense it’s not taking your interest
into account and that’s why those border
spaces are so incredibly violent the
people on the other side of the border
has subject to the force of a law to
which they’re not being offered its
protection
and I think that’s fundamentally
illegitimate and so we can see that this
assumption the state has a natural right
to keep you out is in fact false now you
might say like fine you’ve got an
argument to show that that the
principles false and it’s unjust but you
can’t seriously expect us to open the
border simply because you’ve kind of got
a neat argument so that you need to keep
the border closed that’s just a kind of
philosophers problem and I would say
well fine like I want to live in a just
world I think it’s not just I think we
can do something about it but maybe you
can make yourself happy with that much
injustice but I want to draw your
attention to a feature of the UK border
regime of
that’s replicated across Europe and in
the US but is one that I fight against
here so that’s what I’m going to talk
about and it’s namely that once you
cross the border into the UK if you
don’t have papers you don’t have the
government’s permission it says if
you’re not here legally you still remain
on the other side of the border now why
do I say that well for a start you’re
not it’s illegal for you to work it’s
illegal for someone to rent you a house
you can’t have a driving license you
can’t have a bank account you can’t get
you can get only a very very small range
of Social Security and then only in
exceptional circumstances there’s an
ever-diminishing range of health care
services that you’re entitled to and to
make it worse if you then go to any of
these kind of service providers they’re
expected to check your immigration
status and report that back to the home
office so effectively the border is
everywhere and everyone is a border
guard even more dramatically and more
horrific Li you can be detained
indefinitely for administrative purposes
in so-called immigration detention
centers like Moreton Hall immigration
removal centers like Moreton Hall if
you’re a UK citizen and so subject to
the force of the law but also for its
protection and the government wants to
lock you up what the government has to
do is go before a judge persuade the
judge and the court that you you should
be detained the exception of course is
in some terrorist related stuff we
should be very worried about the
undermining of of that principle in with
terrorism but if you’re if you’re a
person here without papers you can be
subject you can be locked up
indefinitely simply because it serves
the purposes of the administration it’s
very clear that you are being subject to
the force of the law but not being
offered its protection before I move on
to talk about what we can do about it I
want to draw attention to the really key
feature of of this system and that is
that it’s racist I think a lot of people
in my generation was taught by programs
like Blue Peter that that racism was
about prejudice and power and although
of course prejudice and power are
mechanisms by which racism works they’re
not the heart of racism racism is simply
the systematic exclusion of people
from society and its goods and services
because of their kind of perceived
foreignness and I don’t need to have any
psychological attitudes to work to
exclude you from society because the
things I take for granted all I have to
do is make myself comfortable with that
level of injustice and more pertinently
institutions don’t have psychological
attitudes affect they can have
psychological attitudes but they can
work to systematically exclude people
because of because of their origins and
that’s exactly what Sol or is doing if
you’re here without papers that the
whole mechanism of the state is geared
up to keep you out from society and so
we’ve got a brutal and racist injustice
do we need to do something about I mean
it’s a huge problem the best available
estimate suggests that are around about
600,000 people here without papers we
know that about 250,000 that’s a quarter
of a million people immigrants are
destitute and around about a hundred
thousand of those people will have slept
rough so it’s really something that we
have to do something about and what can
we do about it
well I think the answer is quite a lot
fortunately I’m an optimist and I think
the first thing to remember is although
laws govern society they’re not the only
they’re not the only norms that govern
things fortunately it’s not yet illegal
to to lie about what you’ve been doing
to your friends but you can generally
expect your friends to be truthful when
you ask them what they did at the
weekend the law I think in some ways
discourages us from helping our
neighbors you can get yourself into all
sorts of legal trouble if things go
wrong when you’re trying to help people
but that doesn’t stop us setting up
schemes that promote based on mutual aid
that promote good neighborliness and so
I think that’s exactly the sort of thing
we’ve got to try and do here look and
also of course you can just ignore laws
you can break them I think I’m not a fan
of cannabis but actually one of the
reasons why the criminalization of
marijuana is creaking is simply that no
one’s bothered by the fact that it’s
illegal it doesn’t prevent anyone from
smoking it so and I think we need to try
and bring those principles in to to the
struggle against the border so for
example the school census is going to
require you to give information and ask
you to give information about
your immigration sages and Nationality
to the schools but if you’re a parent
you don’t have to fill that part of the
census in and if you don’t feel that
part of the census in then it’s then it
makes the whole exercise pointless and
it’s a way we have of pushing the border
back to the border similarly when you go
to the hospital in Brighton and it’s
going to be rolled out nationally you’re
going to be expected to produce identity
and proof of nationality so they can
work out who’s entitled to treatment but
you don’t have to produce those
documents and if we don’t it will also
strengthen the administrators and the
frontline staff who want to resist being
turned in to border guards and again we
can start to push back the border now
it’s harder in employment or housing
work because it becomes a criminal
offence to employ somebody or to or to
rent them a house and by all means break
the law I I highly encourage you to but
obviously it’s a it’s a big risk right
and that’s one of the reasons why we set
up thousand four one thousand we said
look we can find homes for people we can
bring them in by community funding we
can have recurring micro donations from
enough people the headlines would have a
thousand people with a pound a month and
we’d be able to rent homes and so far we
found homes for seven people in Brighton
and we’re expanding all the time which
is great there are also spare room
schemes if you’re lucky enough to have
the spare room in Brighton or anywhere
then you can sign up to room for
refugees from positive action in housing
and and how somebody in your house will
they sort out their immigration status
but it’s not just those kind of
practical things I also think we can
think about how how we run our
communities to make them more inclusive
if you’re going to hear from Tim later
in the day from the right in Table
Tennis Club but they’ve been amazing
about making space for refugees and
asylum seekers and they’re now using
ping-pong to teach people English and
it’s a really lovely project that
increases the diversity in our
communities the Harvey Road project who
are amazing set up the global social
club on a very similar similar kind of
way and there are plenty of other
projects in Brighton that do similar
things so that’s the more that we
amplify these projects with our support
with our voices with our money and with
our time the more we increase the
diversity and inclusivity of our society
and the more we push back against the
border and that for me is very exciting
because I am rubbish on the barricades I
am no good and that’s like type of type
of the fight
but instead we can try and find
practical ways to make our society
inclusive and value diversity for the
good that it is before I go I want to
leave you with one one final thought if
you’re not yet convinced that we need to
open the border and we should have a
diverse society then then I want to try
to sway do that we should is my last
pitch ok so um I think I don’t think
that many people who want to keep the
border closed want to keep the border
closed because they want Britain to be
white I think there are kind of tiny
handful of people that have those
diehard racist views I think I guess for
most people there’s a kind of fear I’d
make that guess because I I have it
myself from time to time and I think we
all of us are aware that we have it good
here in global terms we have a stable
functioning society we have universal
health care universal education Social
Security and we’re rich enough to make
those best and if we’ve made those
political choices and of course change
change is a risk you never know what’s
going to happen if you make a big change
so we kind of get scared I think and we
and we don’t want to do it we want to
keep our privilege but I think we should
we should we should ignore that fear
because when you’re afraid you’re
isolated and you’re lonely and you miss
out on diversity which is the
fundamental social good so I really
think you need to open a heart and open
our minds and welcoming other people
because frankly is just more joyous
right so if you haven’t yet joined us in
the struggle against the border then
please do because I guarantee you that
we have the most fun
[Applause]
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