PRISONS BECOMING A DEATH-SENTENCE FOR ROMA

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged AGFD, Andrias Redjepov, Asociación Gitanas Feministas por la Diversidad, Asturias-Villabona Penitentiary Center, authority, Bekim Demir, discrimination, ERRC, ethnic minority, ethnic profiling, ethnic slurs, Europe, European Roma Rights Centre, featured, Gonzalo Montoya, healthcare, Idrizovo Prison, inequality, International Roma Day, isolation, Jusinov Erdal, Manuel Fernandez, mental health, Murcia Regional Government, overdose, prison, Protocol for Suicide Prevention in Prison, racism, Roma, Romani, Romani Feminism NGO, Shtip prison, Skopje, spain, suicide prevention, targeting, torture.

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by Jonathan Lee

Content warning: article contains strong language, ethnic slurs, and graphic descriptions of death, suicide, prison environments and torture.

On April 9th 2018, the day after International Roma Day, a crowd gathered outside the doors of the Murcia Regional Government building in Alicante, Spain. They were not there to celebrate, but to mourn and demonstrate about the unexplained death of twenty-eight-year-old Romani man, Manuel Fernández, on 22nd October 2017. His case is one of many unexplained deaths of Roma in prison.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

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