Campaign Against the Immigration Laws

According to a blog by People's History Museum Programme Officer Zofia Kufeldt:

The Campaign Against the Immigration Laws (CAIL) was formed in 1978 by a group who felt the anti-racist movement focused too much on anti-fascism and not enough on tackling state racism. The campaign actively opposed the immigration laws of the time, in particular the Immigration Act 1971, which they believed was the worst example of state racism.

As well as their actions protesting deportations and detentions, CAIL produced newsletters that featured articles on changes in the law, individual immigration cases and anti-deportation campaigns. We have a number of their newsletters at the museum through which we have learnt about the formation of the campaign, its purpose and actions. The group carefully chose the title Campaign Against the Immigration Laws rather than Campaign Against All Immigration Laws as they wanted to create a unity between those who believed all immigration laws would be racist and those who saw some possibility for reform, but believed some immigration laws were needed. Evidence of this debate in name change was found during conservation work undertaken to allow the banner to go on display for the first time in 2020.

PHM’s Conservator Kloe Rumsey found that two different materials were used to create the lettering on the banner. ‘THE’ is spelled out using paper and glue rather than PVC plastic, which is evidence of the changing name of the campaign. If you look closely, you can see a shadow of the letters ‘ALL’ previously included on the banner.

Around 1981 Campaign Against Racist Laws was formed by the Indian Workers Association. As soon as CAIL realised their aims were the same the group wound up and offered to produce the newsletter for Campaign Against Racist Laws, which they accepted.