ZAD DU CARNET: A BASTION OF RADICALISM ON THE LOIRE ESTUARY

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged biodiversity, capitalism, climate crisis, development, Extinction Rebellion, extractivism, featured, France, green capitalism, greenwash, Loire, occupy, radical ecology, renewable energy, ZAD, ZAD du Carnet.

by Yali Banton-Heath

Graffitied in swirly red French handwriting, on the wide concrete track that leads through the camp, is the motto: ‘Nous sommes toutes des enfantes du Carnet!’: we are all children of the Carnet. The Carnet is a stretch of land on the Loire Estuary, next to the Saint-Nazaire seaport and downstream of France’s sixth largest city, Nantes. The 110 hectare area which incorporates 51 hectares of wetland and is home to hundreds of species of wildlife, many of which are endangered and on the brink of local extinction, is under threat of development. With a nationwide shift towards supporting green energy projects, and the Saint-Nazaire seaport earmarked as a prime location for offshore wind farms, the Carnet has been chosen as the site for a new ‘green energy industrial park.

THE RISE OF POPULISM IN 21ST CENTURY POLITICS

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, alt-right, artivism, empathy, far right, Farage, fascism, featured, France, freedom party, generation identity, indentity, le pen, Lega, migration observatory, MSM, national front, Nazi, populism, racism, reactionary, Salvini, social media, Trump, uk, UNHCR, xenophobia.

by Matt Musindi

Politics has become more divisive and polarised than ever, and it is the populists who have been the main beneficiaries of these political divisions. A populist is someone who consistently promises to channel the unified will of the people. Going off this definition, most political parties in liberal democracies are populist and yet this is not the case – why?Continue Reading

THE DEATH OF EUROPE AS IT ONCE WAS

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Borderlines, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged compassion, Egypt, ethnocentrism, Europe, featured, France, iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, marie rose, nationalism, refugees, Syria, turkey, vigilantes, war crimes, xenophobia.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2012, over three million civilians have fled the country. The vast majority are currently living in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Libya. Afghanistan has been subjected to war for four decades resulting in Afghans comprising the second highest refugee population in the world, yet the vast majority of Afghan refugees live in Iran and Pakistan. This resettlement of Syrian and Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries is no anomaly: the majority of refugees around the world reside in countries neighbouring their own. These countries often have poor economies and fragility of peace and governance, yet they often accommodate millions of refugees.

THE ENEMY OF YOUR ENEMY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND: PSEUDO-LEFTISTS, ASSAD & RUSSIA

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged airstrikes, anti america, assad, Assad regime, bombing, chemical warfare, chemical weapons, daesh, david cameron, Eastern Ghouta, featured, food, France, global media, Hama, Hillary Benn, house of commons, human rights, humanitarian grounds, international intervention, international media, leftism, propaganfa, putin, right to protect, RT, Russia, SHRC, society, surgical strikes, Syria, Syrian Kurds, turkey, United Kingdom, USA, YPG.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

CW: mentions of torture, violence, assault

For a few years now so-called leftists have been acting as cheerleaders for Syria’s President Assad. The apparent logic seems to go something like this: “American imperialism is abhorrent, so naturally we will embrace America’s enemy – Russia – and by extension, Assad as our friends.” Let me be clear: in this case, the enemy of your enemy is not your friend. It is perfectly feasible to recognise that Russia is an imperialist power and serial abuser of human rights without legitimizing America’s terrible track record of imperialism, occupation and human rights abuses.Continue Reading

COUNTERACTING ANTI-IMMIGRATION YOUTH GROUPS IN THE UK

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, alt right, artivism, empathy, far right, fascism, featured, France, freedom party, generation identity, indentity, Lega, migration observatory, MSM, national front, Nazi, New Routes Integration, racism, reactionary, social media, stand up to racism, UEA, uk, UNHCR, xenophobia.

by Mary O’Driscoll

Despite the visceral reaction that some may experience at the sight of the terms ‘far-right’ and ‘youth movement’ sat next to each other, the rise of anti-immigration far-right youth movements in European countries cannot be contested. Not only are far-right political parties moving closer to the mainstream, but young people are getting involved in movements opposing immigration. The values of far-right nationalist political parties such as National Rally (previously known as National Front) in France, Austria’s Freedom Party, and the League in Italy have been embodied in youth movements such as Generation Identity- a group that made the jump across the channel to the UK in 2017. With the painfully hypocritical border-focussed rhetoric of Trump’s United States, and the equally ironic anti-immigration discourse of a Brexit Britain, many people are under the impression that ‘Western’ countries are too generous to newcomers.Continue Reading

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR RIGHT-WING NATIONALIST ACQUAINTANCES? LETTERS TO A GERMAN FRIEND

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged albert camus, Brexit, fascism, featured, France, french resistance, letters to a german friend, nationalism, nazi occupation, populism, second world war, Trump, world war II.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

“I love my country too much to be nationalist.” – Albert Camus, First Letter: July 1943.

The collective Letters to a German Friend were clandestinely written and published by Camus during the Nazi occupation of France. The context must be taken into account here: these letters do not discuss Germany as it stands today, but rather what it represented under the Third Reich – fascism and the intolerance of diversity and dissent. Camus himself states that the letters should be viewed as “contrasting two attitudes, not two nations, even if, at a certain moment in history, these two nations personified two enemy attitudes.”

AMERICA’S FADING ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Boris Johnson, capitalism, china, Clinton, deal, diplomacy, drugs, economy, featured, foreign policy, France, germany, Hezbollah, international, Iran, israel, JCPOA, john bolton, Lebanon, middle east, money, Netanyahu, North Korea, nuclear, politics, Saudi Arabia, terrorism, Trump, USA, Venezuela, war, weapons.

by Gunnar Eigener

America’s influence in the Middle East is beginning to fray at the edges. This is bad news for both the region and the global community. America has, over the past decade, became something of a pariah in the area. Its foreign policy, already distrusted by enemies and allies alike, has looked increasingly unclear and erratic under the current administration.

While previous Presidents acted with caution and measure, the Trump White House presses on, having found in its new National Security Advisor John Bolton the man who would seemingly give weight to any decision that Donald Trump would be likely to favour, yet is already being rumoured to be behind Trump’s decision to withdraw from the North Korea Summit. Continue Reading

IRAN AND THE ART OF THE DEAL

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Boris Johnson, capitalism, Clinton, deal, diplomacy, drugs, economy, featured, foreign policy, France, germany, Hezbollah, international, Iran, israel, JCPOA, Lebanon, middle east, money, Netanyahu, North Korea, nuclear, politics, Saudi Arabia, terrorism, Trump, USA, Venezuela.

by Gunnar Eigener

The US President, Donald Trump, has announced that the US will pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran much to the dismay of all those involved and many other countries around the world. The deal was viewed by Trump as ‘the worst deal ever’, possibly an overstatement since Iran surrendered 97% of its enriched uranium stockpile and limited to installing at a maximum 5,060 centrifuges, making the production of a nuclear weapon impossible. Still, time limits were placed on these and other elements of the deal, meaning that in 15 years, Iran could have begun its nuclear programme again. While the JCPOA can, and should, be viewed as a successful deal, it is another example of not dealing with the root cause of the problem, which is the part Iran plays in propping up terrorist organisations and brutal regimes worldwide.Continue Reading

HAPPY APRIL 8TH. LET’S HAVE A PROTEST

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged activist, American Civil Rights Movement, antigypsyism, black protesters, Bob Hoskins, Bohémien, Brahms, Charlie Chaplin, Civil Rights, Courtland Cox, culture, discrimination, Ernst, EU Fundamental Rights Agency, Europe, featured, flamenco, France, freedom, french Romani, Gadje, gypsy, Gypsy Jazz, inequality, integration, International Roma Day, legitimizers, Liszt, Manele, Mark Twain, material poverty, Michael Caine, misrepresentation, music, myth, non Roma, Pablo Picasso, persecution, protest, protest song, Ravel, Rita Hayworth, Roma, roma rights, Romani, Romani anthem, Romani Holocaust, Romania, Romany, Sarasate, SNCC, strategic allies, unity, Weber, Yugoslav Partisan, Yul Brynner.

by Jonathan Lee

Content warning: article mentions antigypsyism, racism, discrimination and persecution

Opre Roma, si bakht akana
Aven mansa sa lumnyake Roma.
Roma arise! The time is now.
Come with me, Roma from all the world.

These words were written in 1949 by Žarko Jovanović, a Romani Holocaust survivor, Yugoslav Partisan fighter, and activist. They were put to a traditional melody, and adopted as the Romani Anthem in 1971.

It bears none of the hallmarks of an anthem as conceived in the traditional sense by European nation-states. It is not a hymn or an opera. It’s melody is plaintive, unstructured, reckless even. It does not conceive of a homeland, real or imagined, nor does it call for the unification of a people in a national sense. Instead the lyrics speak of the freedom of the road, freedom from persecution, and the need for unity of Romani people across the world. Amongst many other things, it is fundamentally a protest song.Continue Reading

LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, EXPULSIONS FORCÉES

Posted on February 8, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged antigypsyism, Bulgaria, census, discrimination, ERRC, EU, eviction, expulsion, featured, France, free movement, health, hollande, housing, human rights, macron, Montmartre, paris, Petite Ceinture, Porte de Clignancourt, racism, Roma, Romani, Romania, Sacré-Cœur, Sarkozy, slum, work.

by Jonathan Lee

If you get off the metro at Porte de Clignancourt in Paris, a little over a kilometre north of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre, and follow the line of the disused 19th century Petite Ceinture railway for a couple of minutes from the busy intersection, you will soon come across rows of makeshift shacks lining the railway.

Similar shanty towns can be found tucked away under bridges, behind fences, and on ex-industrial plots across the city and throughout France. Along with a scattering of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, these slums are inhabited almost entirely by Roma.Continue Reading

France

ZAD DU CARNET: A BASTION OF RADICALISM ON THE LOIRE ESTUARY

THE DEATH OF EUROPE AS IT ONCE WAS

THE ENEMY OF YOUR ENEMY IS NOT YOUR FRIEND: PSEUDO-LEFTISTS, ASSAD & RUSSIA

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR RIGHT-WING NATIONALIST ACQUAINTANCES? LETTERS TO A GERMAN FRIEND

AMERICA’S FADING ROLE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

IRAN AND THE ART OF THE DEAL

HAPPY APRIL 8TH. LET’S HAVE A PROTEST

LIBERTÉ, EGALITÉ, EXPULSIONS FORCÉES

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