Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Never again - Until Tomorrow

Grattan Puxon | 31.01.2005 04:34 | Migration | Repression | London

Bare-headed in the snow-covered camp Romani Rose, a leading spokesman for Europe's 10 million Roma at the Aushwitz commemoration yesterday, gave us a grim glimpse of the past and an impassioned warning for the future.

He said the steep rise in racism across Europe had again brought to the surface those dark elements which 70 years ago led by steps to the 'final solution'.

The beginnings of another samudaripen (genocide) are alread discernible, says Marcel Courthiade, of the International Romani Union. "Hitler is still here, well hidden under fair smiles."

At London's official commemoration, Prime Minister Tony Blair urged us to "work towards a world free of such prejudices".

Outside Parliament, a hundred people, Roma and Travellers, stood in the cold to tell him that in the UK today up to 30,000 face eviction from their own land while 10,000 live in fear of Immigration snatch squads and mass deportation.

"For Roma the hatred that brought us to Auschwitz," commented Toma Nikoleaff, vice-president of TERF, "is not a thing of the past."

Holding up a large Romani flag, one protester admitted he was himself an illegal immigrant. "I'll be legal as soon as Bulgaria becomes a member of the EU. Now I feel they're hunting us down like a rats."

He said he'd heard the Home Office has set monthly quotas which its snatch squads have to fill. They are picking on Romani families as a soft target.

Charles Smith, chair of the Gypsy Council joined the rally for a moment before taking his seat in Westminster Hall. He met briefly with the 40 women and teenagers from Dale Farm who later delivered their own petition to 10 Downing Street.

Margaret Slattery, a refugee from Twin Oaks, took a set of ten individual letters each asking Mr Blair to intervene to save their homes from destruction on l3 May, the deadline for the 'clearance' of this large settlement in Essex.

Among the parents of pupils at Crays Hill Primary School, Mary Sheridan said they would not allow Basildon council to close the school without a fight. The 70 children from Dale Farm make up more than 95% of those presently attending.

"Our children have a right to education," she said. "Forcing them to leave school is what Hitler was doing to the Gypsy kids years ago."

Men from Hamlet Hill, another private caravan park expecting eviction this summer, stood stoney faced as the Queen's limousine drove by. Threatening them is Epping Forest District Council which includes four members of the neo-facist British National Party. This council recently blocked Romani-owned land at Paynes Land and plans to evict Birchfield caravan park in the near future.

Actor Corin Redgrave told a television crew he was appalled by what is happening to Travellers around the UK. He said it seemed to him the lessons of the Nazi era had not been learnt though lip-service was being paid to the notion of expunging prejudice from British society.

"Racism is rapant," Redgrave said. "People are seeing their homes bulldozed. Police and bailiffs are treating them like criminals over an infringement of planning regulations."

No other ethnic group in Britain is ill-treated and bullied in this manner, Redgrave added.

Radio Essex and Radio Kent covered the event. as did Radio Scotland. But the print media largely ignored the voice of the Travellers. The Evening Standard carried a banner headline 'NEVER AGAIN' over a huge picture of Auschwitz.

On an inside page was a small news item headed 'New gipsy curb' announcing that 'John Prescott today promised local authorities new powers to evict gipsies from illegal encampments'. At the same time, the item said, the Deputy Prime Minister rejected calls from MPs for councils to provide permanent sites for gipsy camps.

Grattan Puxon

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech