REFUGEES NOT WELCOME HERE: EUROPE’S SHAMEFUL RESPONSE TO UKRAINIAN ROMA

Posted on April 28, 2023 by Norwich Radical in April 2023, Inter|national and tagged czechia, discrimination, ERRC, EU, Europe, featured, fortress europe, Hungary, invasion, migration, moldova, Poland, putin, refugee, Roma, Russia, Ukraine.

by Jonathan Lee

CW: War, torture, police violence, racist violence

The full-scale escalation of the war in Ukraine began on 24th February, 2022; a war which has now displaced more than a third of the Ukrainian population and forced some 8 million people to flee as refugees to neighbouring European states. The response from (most) European countries has been nothing short of remarkable. The majority of the continent’s states have responded to the largest displacement of people in Europe since the end of World War II by opening their borders, facilitating access to their social welfare systems, providing work permits, and mobilising tens of thousands of volunteers to aid those in need. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described the obligation to protect refugees as “a moment of truth for Europe.” In her address to the European Parliament on March 1^st 2022, she said:

“This is a clash between the rule of law and the rule of the gun; between democracies and autocracies; between a rules-based order and a world of naked aggression. How we respond today to what Russia is doing will determine the future of the international system. The destiny of Ukraine is at stake, but our own fate also lies in the balance. We must show the power that lies in our democracies; we must show the power of people that choose their independent paths, freely and democratically. This is our show of force.”

If only this show of force, power of democracy, and freedom to choose one’s own path applied equally to all peoples fleeing war. Refugees from darker-skinned parts of the word can only dream of such noble rhetoric coming from a European leader. The policies of Fortress Europe to repel people from conflict regions in South West Asia and North Africa are well documented. These people have not been greeted with emergency directives to ease their access to European job markets. Rather, like beggars at the door, they have found the gates of Europe firmly shut to them. More often than not, those gates have invariably been reinforced with barbed wire, and kept shut by attack dogs, tear gas, and lethal force. While white Ukrainian refugees have broadly been welcomed with open arms, those from outside the continent remain left behind, beyond the borders of the EU.

THE GREAT COPYRIGHT SCAM

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged amazon, atuhors, blackwell's, books, comixology, corporation, cory doctorow, drm, EU, featured, hachette, harpercollins, kate clanchy, kindle, libraries, library, metallica, napster, penguin, Penguin Random House, philip pullman, publisher, racism, rights, society of authors, Sony, torrenting, waterstones.

by Alex Valente

Consider this example: Marvel Comics publishes Spider-Man, Sony makes a Spider-Man film or videogame, and your local queer fan-artist sells an art zine or print inspired by that film. There is a cost associated with each of these items: the floppy or trade collected comic; a cinema ticket or streaming subscription; the art print itself. But, there is no ethical consumption. ‘Illegally’ downloading or streaming the film, torrenting or finding a hosting site for the comic, or pirating the zine are all the same act: you are overcoming the monetary gatekeeping of art. With one exception: if you ‘steal’ from Marvel, Sony or any other megacorp you might even be doing some good (with reservations); if you do it to an artist who is trying to pay their bills, you’re an asshole.

THE FAR-RIGHT THREAT IN 2022: A CROSSROADS FOR EUROPE’S ROMA

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged antigypsyism, Berlusconi, EU, Europe, extremism, far right, featured, Fidesz, Front National, GRT, Gyöngyöspata, Hungary, Italy, macron, Marine Le Pen, meloni, Orban, Poland, politics, Rassemblement National, righ wing, Roma, Romani, Salvini, sinisi.

by Jonathan Lee

Europe stands at a crucial juncture; as the pandemic enters its third year without an obvious end in sight, the far-right draws ever closer to the centres of power across the continent, and the very existence of the European Union as we know it faces renewed threats from both East and West of the bloc. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to threaten new emergency measures, lockdowns, and school closures in countries across Europe. The impact of these measures would be keenly felt by a vulnerable Romani population, already beleaguered by police violence, illegal quarantines, and distance learning which denies their children an education. The threat from the far-right, however – already steadily growing over the last decade within European politics – will have several opportunities to move even closer to the hallways of power this year, with potentially dire consequences for the continent’s largest and most marginalised ethnic minority group. In the midst of what could prove to be a tumultuous year for European politics, Europe’s 12 million strong population of Romani people stand to lose out more than most if the political pendulum swings the wrong way.

ITALY STILL COMPLICIT IN THE ABUSE OF MIGRANTS IN LIBYA

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged abuse, border control, borders, detention centres, EU, featured, human rights, human trafficking, irregular migration, Italy, Libya, Matteo Salvini, migrant rights, migrants, migration, refugees, UN.

by Alessandra Arpaia

CW: abuse, sexual assault, drowning, death.

Last month Italian Prime Minister and former European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, took his first trip abroad since he assumed office. He chose to visit Libya, and met with Libyan president Abdel Hamid Mohamed Dbeibeh to discuss the countries’ economic ties and cooperation on tackling irregular immigration. During his visit, Draghi congratulated the Libyan government on their work over recent years in stemming the movement of migrants who leave Libya’s coast in hope of finding refuge in Europe.

The truth is, and as many investigations have shown, Libya’s ‘rescue missions’ out at sea often result in the transportation of people to Libyan detention camps notorious for their human rights violations.

UN VOTES TO COMBAT NAZISM – BUT THE WEST OPTS OUT

Posted on January 2, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged china, cold war, diplomacy, EU, fascism, featured, foreign policy, ideology, India, King Salman, Narendra Modi, nationalism, Nazism, Neo-Nazis, Neo-Nazism, politics, racism, Russia, Saudi Arabia, second world war, socialism, uk, Ukraine, UN, united nations, USA, West, white supremacism, xenophobia.

By Howard Green

On December 16th, the UN General Assembly passed a proposal entitled ‘Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance’. 130 out of 193 UN members voted in favour of it, and only two against: the United States and Ukraine. Similarly alarmingly, all EU member states and the UK abstained from the vote. Why are the nations who take so much pride in having defeated Nazism 75 years ago now refusing to vote in favour of combating it?

THE AGRICULTURE BILL WAS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD RESILIENCE IN A TIME OF CRISIS

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged agricultre, Agriculture Bill, Brexit, British farms, buy local, Covid-19, EU, farming, featured, feedback, feedthenation, food, food security, Land Army, law, self-sufficiency.

by Yali Banton-Heath

The Covid-19 crisis has rusted the already weak links holding the UK’s food supply chain together. From just-in-time logistic strategies to a desperate reliance on imported goods and labour, supermarkets have struggled to keep up with panic buying, farmers have feared that their vegetables will rot in fields, and farm to table supply chains have been hugely disrupted.

It is exposing our food system’s incapacity to respond to emergencies in the short-term, whilst also beckoning reform in terms of its sustainability in the longer-term.

THE EU WASN’T ALL THAT GOOD (BUT WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED ANYWAY) – PART II

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, commentary, conservatives, criticism, demagogue, democracy, EU, Europe, fact checking, featured, fortress europe, fraud, government, Greece, ideology, immigration, Leave, myth, myth busting, neoliberal, no deal, Parliament, Pax Europeae, peace, politics, power, referendum, Remain, TTIP, uk.

By Jonathan Lee

Part I of this article can be found here.

Since the United Kingdom signed the Withdrawal Agreement and formally left the European Union on 31st January, Remainers and Leavers are just as polarised as they ever were. Much of the rhetoric from Leavers and Remainers demonstrates a warped understanding of what the EU actually is and how it works. In this part, we address a few notable example of the things which both sides get very, very wrong.

THE EU WASN’T ALL THAT GOOD (BUT WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED ANYWAY) – PART I

Posted on February 21, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, commentary, conservatives, criticism, demagogue, democracy, EU, Europe, fact checking, featured, fraud, government, ideology, immigration, Leave, myth, myth busting, no deal, Parliament, politics, power, referendum, Remain, uk.

By Jonathan Lee

Lots of people are probably feeling quite deflated at the moment, after the United Kingdom finally signed the Withdrawal Agreement and officially left the European Union on 31st January. Liberal Remainers are certainly making their grief known to the world, crying from the digital rooftops and tearing their virtual hair out. Meanwhile the most fanatic Leavers are probably wondering why all the foreigners are still here and why milk and flour still comes in litres and kilograms. It’s all fiction of course. We’ve not left the EU yet in economic terms, so until the end of the year almost nothing will change. Continue Reading

THE MORNING AFTER #GE2019

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Community, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged 2019, austerity, basic income, Boris Johnson, Brexit, candidates, direct action, election day, elections, EU, featured, funding, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, our streets, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, racism, resist, samaritans, self care, self-help, toriesout, Tory, transphobia, Universal Credit.

The Norwich Radical Editorial Team

By now you’ve seen the headlines. There’s no easy way to say this: in the coming months and years, many in this country and elsewhere will suffer under a Tory government led by a racist liar. Social services will be dismembered. Workers’ rights will be eroded. Vulnerable people will face violence at the hands of increasingly aggressive immigration authorities and police. All of which will be sanctioned, incited, and protected by the country’s highest authorities and institutions.Continue Reading

DR ANDREW BOSWELL, GREEN PARTY BROADLAND CANDIDATE #GE2019

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #votetactically, 2019, austerity, basic income, Brexit, Broadland, candidates, elections, EU, GE, ge2019, general election, green new deal, Green Party, greens, human rights, Labour, manifesto, MP, NHS, Norwich North, norwich south, Parliament, platform, policy, politics, PR, toriesout, Tory, Universal Credit.

The Norwich Radical editorial team has asked candidates for the constituencies of Norwich South, Norwich North, and Broadland, Norfolk to contribute a short piece regarding the upcoming General Election on 12th December 2019. We have contacted all candidates belonging to parties that reflect or adhere to our values as seen in our Founding Statement, highlighting what role they see their candidacy playing in the coming years in a changing political landscape, their vision of what Norwich’s role should be, and how they will approach that in practice. These are the responses from the candidates who replied.

Dr Andrew Boswell

We are living in dangerous times, dark times. The country is deeply divided over our place in the world – the Brexit crisis – whether we align with Europe or we align with Donald Trump’s US.

And we face a Climate and Ecological Emergency, our young people desperately calling for action to literally save the planet and save their futures. They are literally showing the leadership that political leaders have failed to grasp for decades. On both issues, people feel that democracy has failed. Trust in politicians is eroded.

This is the most important election for a generation, and the result of the election could shape the future for many generations if we miss the opportunity to take radical action on climate change and influence the world to do so too. Continue Reading

EU

REFUGEES NOT WELCOME HERE: EUROPE’S SHAMEFUL RESPONSE TO UKRAINIAN ROMA

by Jonathan Lee

THE GREAT COPYRIGHT SCAM

by Alex Valente

THE FAR-RIGHT THREAT IN 2022: A CROSSROADS FOR EUROPE’S ROMA

by Jonathan Lee

ITALY STILL COMPLICIT IN THE ABUSE OF MIGRANTS IN LIBYA

UN VOTES TO COMBAT NAZISM – BUT THE WEST OPTS OUT

THE AGRICULTURE BILL WAS A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD RESILIENCE IN A TIME OF CRISIS

THE EU WASN’T ALL THAT GOOD (BUT WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED ANYWAY) – PART II

THE EU WASN’T ALL THAT GOOD (BUT WE SHOULD HAVE STAYED ANYWAY) – PART I

THE MORNING AFTER #GE2019

DR ANDREW BOSWELL, GREEN PARTY BROADLAND CANDIDATE #GE2019

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