Solidarity, not Kindness, is what we call for on International Women’s Day 2026.
This annual date is too often reduced now to vague notions that we should congratulate women for being ‘nice’ and ‘kind’. But its roots are in calling for Solidarity with women facing oppression.
There’s a world of difference. Women brought into indefinite detention need something so much stronger, they need solidarity.
Watch our video, read these slides, then join us in whatever way you can to show solidarity with the women of Derwentside in the months ahead.
Our IWD message, March 8th 2026
Credit: West End Refugee Service Newcastle upon Tyne
Official reports mention that inside Derwentside Women’s Immigration Centre staff there is ‘kindness’ , a passive emotion that is apparently on show even when forcibly moving a detained woman into a van to take her many miles to yet another prison.
Demonstrator at Derwentside on March 7th: ‘We saw 3 vans yesterday in the hour we were there. One entered and two departed.’
SOLIDARITY is a hugely positive emotional ACTION. Right now, here and in all the other detention centres around the country, solidarity is at the gates but nowhere inside.
In fact our Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is leading the way in banishing Solidarity as an element in any democratic governments treatment people seeking asylum.
On this day the No to Hassockfield Campaign is not calling for us to show kindness but to show solidarity; we walk beside women who have been unjustly detained and use what we learn from their experiences to fight against an increasingly cruel system.
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