Campaigners will be assembling in Bolton, the hometown of the Sukula family, on 17 June to continue the campaign against section nine.

Section nine is a vicious piece of UK immigration legislation where families of failed asylum seekers who cannot be immediately deported (for example due to lack of travel documentation) can be denied all benefits and housing. As most asylum seekers are not allowed to work, the legislation allows for the taking of children into local authority care whilst the adult members of the family are left homeless and destitute. Since section nine was piloted in Greater Manchester, parts of Yorkshire and parts of London, some thirty families have gone into hiding.

A campaign initiated by the Bolton based Sukula Family Must Stay campaign and supported by Bolton Unison, NUT and the Bolton Trades Union Council has meant that Greater Manchester and Yorkshire councils have refused to evict families. Not a single child has been taken into care and the government has not rolled the scheme out nationally from February as previously planned. The rumours are that it will be quietly dropped. But we can't wait on rumours: we must organise to make it happen!

Events at the end of May in Liverpool should give pause to anyone who assumes the battle is over. Three families were targeted by legislation similar to section nine: a lively campaign by local activists and trade unionists led to the threat being withdrawn. In the meantime, however, one of the families, in utter desperation, went into hiding and have joined the ranks of many thousands of migrants living at the margins of society.

Section nine is just one of a huge number of weapons used to terrorise immigrant communities. Immigration benefits the economy by some #2.5 billion a year according to Home Office studies (and that doesn't even account for illegal immigration) but immigration controls are used to divide and weaken the working class by creating a reserve army of labour that is more vulnerable and easily exploitable. They also serve as a diversion for the tabloids to attempt to deflect anger from the real enemies of the working class: the bosses.

The Sukula Family Must Stay campaign has been against all deportations and immigration controls from the very beginning. "We support everyone campaigning together," says Flores Sukula, "we're not 'special cases'. We're against all deportations." Flores and her family campaign have gained national prominence and helped organise a conference of social workers, other trade unionists and campaigners to begin to organise workers' resistance in the unions against the implementation of Section nine and other parts of the racist immigration laws.

Labour movement support in Bolton has created an atmosphere where it is popular to be anti-racist and politicians and celebrities alike have come forward to support the Sukulas and their campaign. It has also added to an antiracist tradition that means that fascists like the BNP can't even begin to get a foothold in the area.

The Sukula Family Must Stay campaign and seven other local campaigns are hoping that the 17 June action in Bolton is a stepping-stone to a larger demonstration outside the Labour conference in September in Manchester. We must unite against racism, including all immigration controls and all attacks on welfare and the right to work. Rather than migrants being behind bars it should be the imperialist directors of companies who organise wars to seize the resources of countries like the Congo (from where the Sukulas come) and war criminals like Blair who support them.

Workers must fight to create a socialist society that is democratically planned to meet the needs of the needy majority, not the greedy minority at the top. Fighting for the rights of immigrant families like the Sukulas is part of this struggle to change the world.

Assemble: 12 noon 17 June on the steps of Bolton Town Hall