Marking the Horrific Anniversary of the Bombing of Geurnica

 

                         Guernica- Pablo Ruiz Picasso 

During the Spanish Civil War on the afternoon and early evening of Monday, April 26th, 1937,  the German and Italian fascist air forces destroyed the  sacred city of Basque People, Guernica in a raid lasting three hours. The war crime was ordered by the Spanish nationalist military leadership and carried out by the Congor Legion of the German luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazone Legionairre. Designed to kill  or main as many civilians as possible, Operation Rugen was deliberately chosen for a Monday afternoon when the weekly town market would be at its most crowded. Guernica, in the Basque  country where revolutionary sentiment among workers was deep, was defenceless from the bombers, which could fly as low as 600 feet. 

The prototype of all future bombing raids, the Junker and Heinkel bombers of the Legion Condor visited a hell on earth in the form of bombs weighing up to 1000lbs across the town of 10, 000 people.  Heinkel fighters, according to press reports, machine gunned the fleeing crowds as they sought escape into the surrounding fields.

The airplanes made repeated raids, refuelling and returning to drop more bombs. Waves of explosive, fragmentary, and incendiary devices were dumped in the town. In total, 31 tons of munitions were dropped between 4.30 in the afternoon and 7.30 in the evening. In the aftermath of the raid, survivors spoke of the air filled with the screams of those in their death throes and the hundreds injured. Civilians fleeing the carnage in the fields surrounding the town were strafed by fighter planes. Human and animal  body parts littered the market place and town center, a horror soon immortalised by Pablo Picasso's Guernica.
Guernica was effectively wiped of the map. From a population of 5,000 some 1,700 residents were killed and a further 800 injured. Three quarters of the buildings were raised to the ground. Farms four miles away were flattened.

The savage and barbarous attack was a deliberate attempt to terrorise and intimidate the workers of Republican Spain. Spanish nationalist general Emilio Mola had spoken of destroying the industry of Barcelona and Bilbao in order to cleanse the country. In other words, the Nationalists would endeavour to destroy the industrial proletariat. As the historian Paul Preston wrote  in Spanish Holocaust, the Nationalist forces had launched a scorched earth policy during their rapid advance through Spain, most notably in Badajoz, where many hundreds of revolutionary workers were machine gunned to death in the city's bullring.
The fascist government of Berlin and Rome were only to glad to assist Franco in his 'cleansing' of the Spanish population, as both a geo-political necessity and as a test for their military command, new military technology and fighting forces. At his trial for war crimes at Nuremberg, the leading Nazi Hermann Goering would tell the tribunal that he had urged Hitler to send German forces to stem socialism in the Iberian theatre and to test out the Luftwaffe.We should never forget. 

 Franco, who ruled Spain as a fascist dictator for nearly forty years, from 1936 until his death in 1975, even claimed the attack on Guernica never took place. They tried to blame the Basques, claiming it was just Republican propaganda  but the truth is Germany deliberately bombed the town to destroy it and observe in a clinical way the effects of such a devastating attack, practicing a new form of warfare, where only civilians were the targets.In October 1937, a Nationalist officer told a Sunday Times correspondent: 'We bombed it, and bombed it, and bombed it and Beuno why not. ' 

Pablo Ruiz Picasso  one of the most important Spanish and universal artists of all time, in what is considered to be his most famous painting is his monumental anti-war painting Guernica. The picture still resonates with clarity, capturing the full terror and horror of this terrible moment in history.The work was an order of the government of the Second Spanish Republic during the period of the Civil War in 1937. The work commissioned to Picasso would be exhibited in the Pavilion dedicated to Spain at the International Exhibition in Paris of this same year. The aim of the artwork was to use the art to spread the horror that Spanish society was living during those years of war.

It seems that Picasso was going through a inspiration crisis, he had not advanced in the project for months, but he suddenly found a theme for his work when receiving the news of the bombings on the 26th of April of 1937 by the German Condor Legion on the Basque village of Guernica. Picasso ended his artwork in just 7 weeks.

The commander of this legion was Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of the famous I World War aviator Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, who would also recognize the cruelty of the bombing.

It is said that in the middle of the creative process in his studio in Paris, a group of Gestapo officials knocked on Picasso’s door and got stunned with the Guernica. Staring at the magnificent work and the horror that it spread, they asked him: Have you done THAT? To that question, Picasso answered, full of hate: “You did THAT, Nazis”.

Picasso never wanted to give his own explanation about the artwork and so, many theories have arisen trying to explain the symbolism of the painting and the intentions of the artist.

What can be assured is that the painting symbolizes the barbarism and terror produced by the war. It became the emblem of the harrowing conflicts of European society of the early twentieth century as well as the premonition of the suffering caused by the Second World War.

Guernica , massive in size, it is twenty-five and a half feet long and more than eleven and a half feet in height, composed in mixture of black and gray and white, is a picture of an air raid, and all it's horror..

Concerning the symbolism of this cubist work, we find several elements worthy of analysis. The work is divided into two groups: the one of the animals and the one of the human beings. At the center of the composition horse stands trampling on a warrior. This is a symbol of the European totalitarian regimes and the repression exerted by their dictators – Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. The horse is a clear allusion to death, as its nose and teeth forms a skull.

The warrior holds in his right hand a broken sword, a symbol of defeat. In it, a hidden flower can also be found. It represents the renewal of life, which would be a neccesary but tough and not so clear period for the victims.

The mythological figure of the Minotour, half bull half human, perfectly reflects the struggle between the human and the bestial side of the war. Regarding the people depicted in the painting, the protagonism of one women stands out.  In spite Picasso was married to one woman and expecting a child from another one,  When Picasso painted Guernica, he was maintaining a relationship with the French artist Dora Maar, whose face appears holding a candle in the painting, reflecting  with this the little light that illuminated the life of Picasso in that tragic moment. As an allusion to his sentimental situation, they also appear in the picture. Dora photographed the entire creation process leaving by doing it a very important document for the history of Art.

The photographs published by the press of the bombing over Guernica and its brutallity were the inspiration of Picasso and the reason for the lack of color in his work. It is a symbol of the darkness of that terrible period of the Spanish history. 

Guernica was exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition and in 1939 was sent to New York on a tour for the benefit of the Spanish Refugee Committee. When World War11 broke out later that year, Picasso requested that Guernica and a number of his other works be held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) on extended loan. After the war, most of these works were returned to Europe, but Picasso asked that Guernica and its preliminary studies be kept by MoMA giving the museum clear instructions - the canvas belonged to the Spanish people and would only be given back "when they have recovered the freedoms that were taken away from them."

Its eventual return to Spain in 1981–eight years after Picasso’s death–was celebrated as a moral endorsement of Spain’s young democracy.

Francisco Franco  ruled over Spain as dictator for the rest of Picasso’s life, and the artist never returned to his native country. In 1967, Franco restored some liberties, and in 1968 his government made an effort to recover Guernica. Picasso refused, clarifying that the painting would not be returned until democracy was reestablished. In 1973, Picasso died in France at the age of 91. Two years later, Franco died and was succeeded as Spanish leader by King Juan Carlos I, who immediately began a transfer to democracy. Spain then called for the return of Guernica, but opposition by Picasso heirs who questioned Spain’s democratic credentials delayed its transfer until 1981. Finally, Picasso’s former lawyer gave his assent to the transfer.

On September 10, 1981, Guernica arrived in Madrid under heavy guard. The painting was to be housed in a new annex of the Prado Museum, only two blocks from the Spanish parliament, which had been the scene of an abortive military coup in February 1981. King Juan Carlos defused the revolt by convincing military commanders to remain loyal to Spain’s democratic constitution.

On October 25 1981—the 100th anniversary of Picasso’s birth—Guernica went on exhibit to the public behind a thick layer of bullet-proof glass. to protect it from possible harm in a country still struggling to deal with its very recent, dark past. Picasso’s preparatory sketches for the painting, likewise protected behind thick glass, were housed in adjacent rooms. The threat of terrorism against the highly politicized work required high security, and visitors passed through a metal detector to view the paintings. Because the painting had been damaged in its years of travel, curators at the Prado said it was unlikely that Guernica would ever go on tour again.

A number of groups in Spain, particularly Basque nationalists, objected strongly to Guernica‘s permanent exhibition in Madrid. Complaints escalated after the painting was relocated to the new Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1992 and it has become the star attraction. Since the 1997 opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museo, Basque nationalists have been calling for its transfer there.

The prophetic description of anonymous warfare, the blankets of darkness and death dropped over civilian populations still resonate. To the degree we realise the truth expressed in this work, Guernica stands as possibly the greatest painting of the 20th Century.

Like all great art, its power transcends time, and can symbolize something current and topical for individuals of any era. During the Vietnam War, the painting became the backdrop for anti-war vigils in the museum. These were quiet, poignant protests against the horrors of war. But in 1974 an Iranian political activist, who claimed to be protesting Richard Nixon’s pardon of William Calley after his role in Vietnam’s My Lai massacre, vandalized the painting, using red spray paint to write “KILL LIES ALL” across it. The paint was easily removed and the work undamaged. The vandal, who ironically later became an art adviser, waxe

The atrocity that was Guernica  horrified the world and helped shift public opinion towards the Spanish Republican Cause, but shamefully the British Government stuck steadfastardly to its non intervevention line. The fascists hated liberalism and humanity, their ideology was one of evil destruction, 'Long Live Death' they cried.  Guernica represented their creed, with one of the Fascist Generals declaring " Like a resolute surgeon, free from false sentimentality, it will cut the diseased flesh from the healthy body and fling it to the dogs. And since the healthy flesh is the soil, the diseased flesh, the people who dwell on it, fascism and the army will eradicate the people and restore the soil to the sacred national realm... Every socialist, Republican, every one of them, without exception, and needless to say, every Communist, will be eradicated, without exception.' An ideology of unfettered hate, and evil., an  ideology that is still trying to tear the world apart.

The attempts by the Francoist rebels for many years to make the world believe that this war crime, this crime against humanity, was the work of the democratic Basque authorities was fortunately rendered useless by foreign correspondents, such as George L Steer and Noel Monks, who told the world the truth about what happened.  Following this first attempt, more have followed, even to today, to downplay its historical importance and reduce the number of victims.

The destruction of Guernica was part of Franco's wider, brutal campaign against the existence of the Spanish Republic. This campaign led not just to widespread destruction of property, but thousands of civilian casualties too, as well as widespread displacement. Many sought refuge abroad, as many as 3,800 Basque children were evacuated to England and Wales for the duration of the war. The British Government at the time callously refused to be responsible for the children, but  throughout the summer children were dispersed to camps throughout Britain. Eight of these colonies were here in Wales. They were received with a mixture of hostility and kindness, but they had all managed to escape the grips of Franco's fascist Spain.
After Guernica , George Steers eyewitness account in The Times described what he saw as 'without mercy, with system', words that remain tragically pertinent to the bloody legacy of carpet bombing in conflicts ever since. Conflicts that continue across the world, that allow humanity to descend into darkness.Guernica represnted the first instance of a new kind of war. The Blitz followed it, then Dresden and the fireboming of Tokyo. Then Hiroshima, followed by the saturation bombing of Vietnam, on to the tragedies of Afghanistan, Iraq, Temen, Somalia, Syria, Palestine, Ukraine etc.

So we must remember Guernica ,and  its legacy, we must make sure the fascists are stopped in their tracks, we must not let them pass., we must carry on singing no pasaron to whatever disguise they dress themselves up in, because today , throughout Spain and Europe, there is an ideological current that feeds into the same hatred and misery and ' principles' that guided the births of fascist, nazi, Francoist totalitarians.

To this day, the scenes of catastrophic suffering recorded in Guernica  are a black mark on Spanish history.Bit since the bombing, Guernica has become a symbol for peace. The town has a peace museum and a peace park. and survivors  of the air raid have over the year joined forces with others from Dresden and Hiroshima to campaign against war.

Sirens symbolically blare across Guernica today at the precise moment when fascist  warplanes  carpet-bombed it during the Spanish Civil War. We should never forget this grim reminder of humanity's continuing capacity for evil..It is important to remember for future generations, so that horrors like this never happen again.We much continue to be enraged by crimes against humanity, and together we should try to work together for  peace

Extract from poem written by Paul Eluard, a surrealist poet and friend of Picasso, in August, 1937.

Lovely world of cottages
Of the night and fields
Faces good in firelight good in frost
Reusing the night the wound and blows

Faces good for everything
Now the void fixes you
Your death will serve as a warning

Death the heart turned over

They made you pay your bread
Sky earth water sleep
And the misery of your life.

 
Guernica - A.S Knowland

Irun- Badajoz - Malaga - and then Guernica

So that the swastika and the eagle
might spring from the blood-red soil,
bombs were sown into the earth at Guernica,
whose only harvest was a calculated slaughter.
Lest freedom should wave between the grasses
and the corn its proud emblem, or love
be allowed to tread its native fields,
Fascism was sent to destroy the innocent,
and, goose-stepping to the exaggerated waving
of the two-faced flag, to save Spain.

But though the soil be saturated with blood
as a very efficient fertiliser, the furrow
of the ghastly Fasces shall remain barren.
The  planted swastika, the eagle grafted
on natural stock shall wither and remain sere;
for no uniformed force shall marshall the sap
thrilling to thrust buds into blossoms, or quicken
the dead ends of the blighted branches;
but the soil shall be set against an alien crop
and the seed be blasted in the planting.

But strength lies in the strength of the roots.
They shall not pass to ruin Spain!

Reprinted from

The Penguin Book of
Spanish Civil War Verse (1980)

Further Reading:-

The Spanish Civil War - Hugh Thomas
Penguin (1965)

They Shall Not Pass:
The Spanish People at War
-Richard Kissh (1974)

Guernica: The history and art of:-

 

 

Guernica - Paul Eluard - P Picasso  - Victory at Guernica
Music: Richard  Wagner and Herbert Von Karajan

Rana Plaza - ten years on

On 24 April 2013, over 1,100 people were killed and thousands more were injured in the collapse of a building on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh which housed several garment factories making clothes for Benetto, Primark, Matalan, Mango , Costa and other major brands.

The fate of the Rana Plaza building turned into a tragedy because workers were forced by their bosses to come to work in a place inspectors had previously ordered closed for safety reasons.It would be the worst factory tragedy in the history of the Garment industry. 

The predominately female workforce was pressured by management in to work that fateful day despite large structural cracks having been discovered in the building just the day before. The catastrophe that was entirely preventable was followed by a heightened struggle for justice for the Rana Plaza workers and safe factories for all. Campaigners and trade unions in Bangladesh heroically forced action – despite facing powerful, even violent, opposition.

The tragedy exposed the dire conditions in much of the world's fashion industry – and the corporate elite which profit from them.and  meant no longer could consumers, workers or governments simply turn a blind eye  to the dangers facing workers every day. And saw a growing cohort of consumers  behaving as citizens,  people who are no longer satisfied with opaque supply chains, the unethical treatment of people. and reignited a conversation about the social responsibility of clothing companies. There were rumblings of this movement in the 90s when Nike and GAP were exposed for using child labour in sweatshops. But the conversation had stalled somewhere in the mid-2000s as fast fashion brands increased in size and offering.  More than ever before people wanted to know the dirty little secrets behind the brands, and who they could  buy from with a clear conscience.

There is also now thankfully greater awareness about how our clothes are produced .given that well-known high street brands are understood to be among the companies who were sourcing clothes from the Rana Plaza building

Ten years since the deadliest garment factory disaster in history, industry leaders say working conditions have improved in the country, mainly thanks to an accord on fire and building safety that was signed by dozens of brands in the immediate aftermath of the collapse.

But the power imbalance between big brands and Bangladeshi suppliers persists, and victims are still campaigning for justice and compensation.

Marking the 10th anniversary, UK MPs and campaign groups have issued calls for solidarity with garment workers. 19 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons on the anniversary.

The EDM, sponsored by Labour MP Apsana Begum says that the House “is concerned at the ongoing poor labour conditions, low wages and unsafe work environments, with a high incidence of work-related accidents and deaths, faced by workers in the garment sector worldwide;

 “is alarmed at the ongoing suppression of trade union and collective bargaining rights in the garment industry and that since the covid-19 pandemic there is evidence of worsening health and safety standards, increased gender discrimination and reports of concerning levels of workplace gender-based violence and harassment;

“recognises that without the ability to organise, workers are inhibited from fully securing improved working conditions and/or challenging abuse; and believes that all workers deserve a workplace that provides them with a living wage, decent working conditions and trade union rights including the right to refuse unsafe work, to take strike action and collectively bargain.”

Former Labour frontbenchers Rebecca Long-Bailey, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon are among the signatories, along with Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, SNP MP Carol Monaghan and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

On Sunday, campaigners from the Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective organised a ‘Cost of Fashion’ walking tour visiting high street stores on Oxford Street in London. The group, which includes NGOs and campaign groups including War on Want, No Sweat and Labour Behind the Label, commemorated those who died in the building collapse and called for brands to “put people before profits”.

The Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective is calling on all clothing companies to sign up to the International Accord, to ensure a disaster like Rana Plaza never happens again.The Accord – set up by the global union federations IndustriALL and Uni Global – was first signed in May 2013 in the aftermath of the international outrage at what happened. It is about creating an inspection and remediation program to mitigate fire, building, electrical and boiler safety risks for factory workers, along with providing complaints mechanisms for workers to file grievances about health and safety concerns and violations of their right to organise. However, many clothing brands  including Levi’s  have not joined the Accord. Despite over 50,000 people have signed a petition calling for them to do so.

The unfortunate truth is that, a decade on, poor labour conditions, low wages and unsafe work environments – with a high incidence of work-related accidents and deaths – still persist in the garment sector worldwide. By signing the Accord, brands would have to allow independent safety inspectors into those supplier factories as well as guaranteeing basic health and safety provisions for workers.

Tyrone Scott, from anti-poverty campaigning charity War on Want said: “The deadly Rana Plaza disaster was not an unavoidable accident – it was an entirely preventable disaster. Rana Plaza workers who made clothes for several UK high street fashion brands had previously raised safety concerns but were ignored. A decade on and garment workers are still facing unsafe working conditions and poverty wages. Clothing brands must urgently sign the International Accord on Fire and Building Safety and commit to guaranteeing safe workplaces, for genuine justice for the victims of Rana Plaza – and for all garment workers.”

In Pakistan, unions have taken the example of the Bangladesh Accord and are working to adapt it to their own national circumstances. Starting in 2018, labour organisations in Pakistan have been campaigning for a Pakistan Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

The Pakistan Accord is a legally binding agreement between global unions, IndustriALL and UNI Global Union, and garment brands and retailers for an initial term of three years starting in 2023. The factory listing of these brands would cover approximately 300-400 facilities in Pakistan. The program in Pakistan will include key features from the 2021 International Accord. 

35 global brands and retailers have now signed the Pakistan Accord. We should carry on calling on major brands and retailers to sign the Pakistan Accord and demand the industry protects progress so that a disaster like Rana Plaza never happens again.

As we remember the victims of Rana Plaza their families, husbands, wives, children, mothers and brothers, all left mourning a loved one.Let's not forget  that no individual has been yet held accountable for corporate manslaughter for the Rana Plaza disaster. While the factory owner, Sohel Rana, has been charged with murder, his trial has been delayed and he was recently presented bail.

Some survivors and families of victims claim they are yet to receive any compensation. Most of the survivors of the collapse are still living in poverty. According to a recent study conducted by ActionAid Bangladesh, some 55 per cent of survivors remain unemployed, mainly due to their physical injuries.

"Some survivors now beg for a living. Our primary demand is for all survivors to receive compensation for their lifetime of lost income, amounting to 48 lacs taka [approximately US$45,660] each,” says Mahmudul Hasan Hridoy, president of the Rana Plaza Survivors Association of Bangladesh. But so far, the provision of fair compensation has been elusive.

We must continue to demand compensation , medical treatment for life for all those effected and judgement for the culprits involved, while we carry on expressing  our anger at companies who disregard their workers safety in their supply chains in their thirst for profit.

Whether it’s in the UK or Bangladesh or beyond, all workers deserve a workplace that provides them with a living wage, decent working conditions and trade union rights including the right to refuse unsafe work.We should continue to tell  the fashion industry to make human rights and basic safety non-negotiable for all .

Earth Day 2023 : Invest in our planet

Every year on April 22, marks Earth Day. Earth Day didn’t come out of nowhere. The seeds for action were incubated in the fertile ground of anti-war, civil rights, and women’s rights protests of the 1960s. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s bestseller Silent Spring pulled the curtain back on the dangerous effects of pesticides and helped spur public awareness about the links between environmental degradation and public health.

Seven years later in 1969, an oil slick on Cleveland’s polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire, National media coverage by Time magazine and National Geographic helped shine a light on the injustices of chemical waste disposal.By 1970, the American public was just waking up to the disastrous implications of environmental degradation. The first Earth Day was envisioned by one of its founders, the former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, as a way to “shake up the political establishment,” and broaden national attention to environmental issues through teach-ins, demonstrations, and other advocacy.

Rallies were organised and on  22 April 1970, 20 million people took to the streets across the United States to protest environmental destruction.and by the end of the year, the US federal government established the Environmental Protection Agency and over time, this movement gained momentum and now has over one billion people observing this day with great enthusiasm every year, with participation from approximately 192 countries.

The  basic call for action back in 1970 was the same as it is for us today: that we must limit pollution, along with greed, and listen to scientists if we want an Earth that continues to be habitable.

From tiny microorganisms to humans and giant whales, all forms of life reside on the beautiful planet Earth. This planet provides them with all the essentials required for a healthy and happy life, such as shelter, food, air, and other necessities.

Earth is often referred to as "Mother Earth" because of its nurturing qualities. However, unfortunately, due to our selfish desires, we have started to harm the planet. It is crucial to provide proper attention and care to Earth's failing health.

Every year, Earth Day is commemorated with a different theme that highlights the various challenges facing our planet. According to https://www.earthday.org/  the official global organiser of the event, the theme for Earth Day 2023 is "Invest in Our Planet". a call to action for governments, organisations, and individuals to collaborate and invest in protecting our planet to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for all. This day is an opportunity for governments, organisations, and individuals to reflect and renew their commitment to investing in the health and wellbeing of our planet by protecting and healing our environment.

Investing in our planet is crucial for the survival and prosperity of future generations, and it requires a collective effort to preserve our natural resources. We need to make conscious decisions, take action towards sustainable living, minimise environmental degradation, invest in clean energy solutions, and promote efficient use of resources.

The Covid-19 pandemic made the interconnectedness of our world and the impact that our actions have on it more apparent than ever before. However, it also showed us that we can make significant positive changes by working together towards a common goal.

One of the biggest challenges the Earth is facing is climate change. The effects of climate change are increasingly becoming apparent, with rising temperatures, droughts, floods, and the loss of biodiversity. Climate change is a devastating force, leading to a hungrier and more vulnerable world. It destabilises economies, fuels conflict, cripples productivity and weakens social structures. It’s the most vulnerable people in the world who are disproportionately exposed to extreme weather events, more reliant on natural resources, and least able to cope with and adapt to environmental impacts.  Between 1998 and 2017 of all natural disasters, 90% were climate related. When farmers suffer from drought, communities face devastating floods year after year, or when businesses don’t have sustainable electricity, more complex crises can arise.  Climate change deeply impacts every emerging economy, sector, supply chain, and industry. There are 3.3 billion people whose lives are at risk and highly vulnerable due to climate change and over 130 million people will be pushed into poverty by climate change by 2030.

Urgent action is needed to transition to a more sustainable way of living and reduce our carbon footprint.

There are many ways to invest in our planet, and we can all make a difference. For instance, we all can do many things to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Our collective action will preserve and restore natural resources, biodiversity, and ecosystem services and consequently heal our Earth. Simple changes in our daily habits like reducing our use of single-use plastics, using public transport or cycling instead of driving, and eating more plant-based diets can all have a significant impact. We can invest in sustainable agriculture practices and support initiatives that restore degraded land and ecosystems. We can also support organisations and initiatives working towards environmental sustainability and conservation by advocating for policies that promote the use of renewable energy, participating in events, signing petitions, and joining organisations that work towards protecting the Earth.

Businesses also have a role to play. Many companies have already taken steps towards becoming more environmentally sustainable by investing in renewable energy, reducing waste, and adopting sustainable practices throughout their operations, but there is still much more that can be done. Businesses should continue investing in technologies that reduce their carbon footprint, work towards a circular economy, and help drive the transition to a more sustainable future.

Governments also have a responsibility to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. Through infrastructure, policies, and legislation, governments can incentivise sustainable practices, attract investments in renewable energy, and protect natural habitats and wildlife. Also, governments can invest in supporting education and awareness campaigns that help to raise public consciousness about environmental issues. 

One other thing you can do to honor the Earth this Earth Day is to educate yourself about the connection between climate change and capitalism.

Our capitalist economic system is fundamentally incompatible with a healthy planetary ecosystem, says Naomi Kline in This Changes Everything.  We live on a planet with finite resources, but our economic system is premised on infinite growth.  Capitalism demands unfettered growth of consumption, but our survival and that of many other species requires a contraction of humanity’s growth and consumption. Our choice, says Kline, is to fundamentally change our economic system, or to allow nature to change it for us. The first will be hard, but the second even harder. So we must change our economic system.

This means challenging some of our most cherished myths: the myth that capitalism and democracy are equivalent, the myth that capitalist societies are the most happy, the myth that capitalism was proven to be the “one true economic system” with the fall of the Soviet Union, the myth that consumers have all the power in a capitalist system, and that most pernicious myth of all, the myth that there are no alternatives.

We can unlearn capitalist ways of thinking.  Capitalism infects all of our relationships: with other people, with other-than-human beings, and with the Earth.  Consider the way we “value” other people and how we sometimes calculate whether what we get from them is more than what we give in return. Think about your relationship to the place you live.  Is it a place you “use”, or is it a world you inhabit, cherish, and care for?  We learned these ways of thinking, and we can unlearn them.

In no uncertain terms, it is impossible to sustainably interact with nature while adhering to a strict capitalist structure. Capitalism must maintain the maximal abuse of natural resources to increasingly produce in order to raise profit.

Almost half of the food produced globally is wasted. This is impossible to rationalize given that currently, aside from the recent pandemic, 20,000 people die of hunger daily.

However, from a capitalist economic outlook, this makes perfect sense because the goal is profit maximisation. The equilibrium for profit maximisation is such that production at this scale of wastage provides the highest net profit. Based on capitalism’s greedy increase in profit, all other assumptions must be made in line with, and only with, an outcome of profit maximisation.

We are witness to the global deterioration and irreversible destruction caused by capitalism. Global warming, pandemics, epidemics, habitat loss, pollution, disease, economic inequality, extremism, crime, deforestation, and social instability are just some of the global problems that are directly linked to capitalist greed.

We spend billions in healthcare to reverse damages such as obesity because corporations produce harmful food. They do not intend to poison us deliberately; but they do, in fact, because they choose to adhere to a capitalist system that commands profit maximisation at any cost.

There is no inherent social morality or ethics within capitalism other than enforceable legal parameters. Sustainable living within a strictly capitalist system is paradoxical. We have confirmed through decades that greed overcomes compassion and capitalism trumps harmony.

For the wealthiest few this is acceptable due to opportunities that extreme wealth affords. But today, the discussion is no longer one of classism but of survival.

When we eventually deplete all natural resources, as we are quickly doing, we all perish together. Whether we face storms or starve, in the long run there will remain nothing for even the wealthiest few.

Unless the prevalent capitalist system is tackled and reformed on a global scale,the world’s environmental problems – climate change, pollution and food security among them – will lead to a mass extinction event.

Earth Day reminds us all of our urgent need  to take action for our planet  and to commit to restoring her health and wellbeing. By working together, we can protect mother earth for future generations as we move towards a more sustainable future. Let us make Earth Day 2023 a turning point in our collective efforts towards safeguarding the environment. For a truly equitable future, feel-good investment is simply not enough. Moving forward, Earth Day must be restored to its radical roots, bringing millions of people together around the globe to voice a common call for systemic, anti capitalist  change.

Inner Voice

Intricate details invade my psyche

Hitting the spot with perfect precision

Pulling no punches, peeling no eggs

Intensities soul searching cry

Sharp and piercing. loud and relentless

Spearing the target, penetrating the fog

Permeating the forefront with outsider mind

Beyond comfort zones on the firing line

Expressing emotions against the turbulence

Fuelled by destitutional infringement

That violate the boundaries of acceptability

Pushing the perimeters exceeding palatability

To mercilessly insufferable heights

Enabling fatigued penurious souls

Releasing deluge from deep within

Beyond the powers that habitually disable

Untainted by Gods or masters of division 

Man made borders that cause so much pain,

Alive and kicking no holding back

Against forces of irrationality

The baiting poisonous gates of hate

Clarifying the confusion all around,

Encouraging other voices to smile

Dare to keep believing in a borderless world,

The power of music, poetry and song

Championing those with thirst for justice

Another world of peace and equality

Where love vanquishes malevolence.

Marking the Amritsar Massacre.

On April 13, 1919, around 10,000 unarmed men, women and children had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh walled public garden in Amritsar angry about the recent extension of repressive measures and the arrest of two local leaders that had sparked violent protests three days before.

The 13th of April was also a big Vaisakhi spring festival, and the crowd — estimated by some at 20,000 — included pilgrims visiting the nearby Golden Temple sacred to Sikhs. All  meetings had been banned. The ban had not  however, been well publicised.

Brigadier General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer arrived with dozens of troops, sealed off the exit and without ordering  the crowd to disperse or giving any warning ordered the soldiers to open fire.

The crowd . started screaming  and panicking as Dyer ordered his men to keep firing until all their ammunition was exhausted.

Many tried to escape by scaling the high walls surrounding the area. Others jumped into a deep, open well at the site as the troops continued to fire..

One of several eyewitness accounts compiled by two historians and published in the Indian Express newspaper this week described the horror. "Heaps of dead bodies lay there, some on their backs and some with their faces upturned. A number of them were poor innocent children. I shall never forget the sight," said Ratan Devi, whose husband was killed..

This event is now known as the Amritsar Massacre, and it was a turning point in Indian history.The massacre galvanised the Indian independence movement and helped to create a united front against British colonialism.The Amritsar Massacre was a watershed moment in Indian history. It occurred at a time when the British Empire was facing increasing unrest from its colonies around the world. In India, the massacre served as a rallying point for the independence movement. Indians of all religions and castes came together to demand an end to British rule. The incident also helped to create a united front against British colonialism.

The British had been in control of India for nearly two centuries when the Amritsar Massacre occurred. In that time, the British had managed to amass a large amount of wealth and control over the country. They were not content with simply ruling India; they also sought to remake it in their own image. They did this by imposing Western values and ideas on the Indian people. This was particularly evident in the education system, which was designed to produce good citizens of the British Empire.

The Indians chafed under this heavy-handed rule. There were many uprisings against British rule, but none were successful in overthrowing the colonial power. The most serious challenge to British rule came from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. This revolt was started by Hindu and Muslim soldiers in the British army who were upset about being forced to use cartridges that were greased with pork and beef fat. The mutiny was quickly put down, but it showed the potential for resistance to British rule.

After the completion of World War One in 1918, the British Empire was in a weak position. The war had drained the resources of the Empire, and there was widespread discontent among the colonised peoples.

In 1919, the British colonial authorities in India attempted to "reward" Indians for their participation in World War I by allowing them more representation. However, wartime restrictions on civil liberties were not immediately lifted.

The key events leading up to the massacre began in 1918, when the British implemented a series of repressive measures in India in response to rising nationalist sentiment. These measures included banning public meetings, censoring the press, and jailing political leaders without trial.

In India, this discontent manifested itself in the form of protests against the Rowlatt Acts. These were a set of laws that allowed the government to arrest and imprison people without trial. In several cases, the government curtailed freedom of speech and assembly to prevent violence or other disruptions.

The Rowlattt Acts outraged the Indian National Congress, which was the leading nationalist party at the time and included the leaders Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Motilal Nehru, and Mahatma Ghandi. The Congress called for a nationwide protest against the Acts on April 13, 1919.

The British authorities in India were concerned about the possibility of violence and sought to prevent the protest from taking place. They did this by declaring a curfew and banning public meetings. When these measures failed to stop the protests, they dispatched troops to disperse the crowds. Second, the British were facing increasing unrest from their colonies around the world. This made them nervous about potential uprisings in India. The Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O'Dwyer, felt that the British were the true rulers of India. He was also extremely concerned about the increasing cooperation between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in Punjab at the time.

In an attempt to minimise civil unrest in the Punjab region, the British authorities banned nationalist leaders from travelling there, including Gandhi himself.In March 1919, two Indian nationalists, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested for publishing articles critical of the British government. This event sparked protests across the country. The arrest of these leaders led to a peaceful protest at Jallianwala Bagh, a public square in Amritsar.

On April  13, 1919, a large crowd of unarmed civilians gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the Rowlatt Acts. The protest was peaceful and there was no violence. However, the British authorities saw it as a potential threat to their control over India.

Colonel Reginald Dyer, who was born and raised in India, led a contingent of soldiers toward the plaza. When their armored car, which was armed with a machine gun, could not fit into the little passageway leading to the plaza, they left it behind.

The decision was made to break up the crowd by force. On orders from Colonel Reginald Dyer, troops opened fire on the crowd. The protesters were unarmed and posed no threat to the British troops. However, General Reginald Dyer ordered the troops to continue firing for ten minutes.

People began to leap into a water well, and push through the limited gates that provided exits, to save themselves, and they were crushed by others who followed. The majority of them suffocated or perished when they were overcome with people running over them.

The exact number of people wounded or killed is unknown. Early estimates ranged from 291 dead (stated by British officials) to 1000 (stated by the Indian National Congress report). Reports suggest that 1650 rounds of ammunition had been fired, and others put the death toll of Panjabi citizens at over 1,000, with countless more injured. This number included men, women and children; with bodies infamously piling up in the nearby water well as victims desperately attempted to escape the carnage. A 6-week old baby was even recorded as one of the fatalities.

News of the barbarism was shamefully  suppressed by the British for wic months. and only when outrage of the atrocity mounted did Winston  Churchiill  describe  the attack as “monstrous” and Asquith as “one of the worst outrages in the whole of our history".

Following the bloodshed,  Dyer, became known as the "Butcher of  Amritsar" but to add insult to injury,  Dyer came home to a hero’s welcome. Rudyard Kipling named him the “the man who saved India” and donated £50 to his £26,000 tribute awarded on his triumphant return home and Dyer simply retired to live out his life without any consequence

However the  consequences of the massacre were far-reaching. The incident caused widespread outrage among Indians and increased support for the independence movement.

In 1920, the British government appointed a commission, called the 'Hunter Commission', to investigate the incident. The commission's report acknowledged that the shootings were unjustified and led to several reforms, including an end to martial law in India and the introduction of trial by jury bur only found Dwyer of committing a 'grave error." .

For many  these reforms were too little too late, and the damage had been done. The Amritsar Massacre remained a rallying point for Indian independence until the country finally achieved freedom in 1947.

On 13 March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, Udham Singh, an Indian independence activist from Sunam who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and had himself been wounded, shot and killed O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the time of the massacre, who had approved Dyer's action and was believed to have been the main planner.

The common people and revolutionaries glorified the action of Udham Singh. Much of the press worldwide recalled the story of Jallianwala Bagh, and alleged O'Dwyer to have been responsible for the massacre. Singh was termed a "fighter for freedom" and his action was referred to in The Times newspaper as "an expression of the pent-up fury of the down-trodden Indian People". Reporter and historian Wlliam L Shiver wrote the next day, "Most of the other Indians I know [other than Gandhi] will feel this is divine retribution. O'Dwyer bore a share of responsibility in the 1919 Amritsar massacre, in which Gen. Dyer shot 1,500 Indians in cold blood. When I was at Amritsar eleven years after [the massacre] in 1930, the bitterness still stuck in the people there."

The memory of the Amritsar Massacre is kept alive by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act of 1951. The act established a trust to build a memorial on the site of the massacre. The memorial was finally completed in 1961 and opened to the public on 13 April 1961, exactly 42 years after the massacre took place. It now stands as a reminder of one of the darkest moments in British colonial rule in India.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, it is still an emotive subject with many demanding a British apology -- which so far has been unforthcoming.This massacre illustrated the raw brutality of British imperialism in India and showed the furthest extremes that the British were willing to go to to maintain Indian resources which were so valuable to them.

More recently, the Queen, during a visit to Amritsar in 1997, described the massacre as a “shameful scar on British-Indian history”,but her gaffe-prone husband Prince Philip stole the headlines by reportedly saying that the Indian estimates for the death count were "vastly exaggerated". An apology is not enough for an entire colonial legacy, but it is a crucial start. we should not forgive and most importantly. we must never forget. this cold , callous display of colonial evil.

Remembering Tom Hurndall , Peace Activist (27 November 1981 – 13 January 2004)

Twenty years ago on April 11 2003 Tom Hurndall  a young peace activist from North London was shot in the head by an Israeli military sniper as he was rescuing several small children from Israeli gunfire,

Thomas “Tom” Hurndall was an aspiring photojournalist who put himself at the service of the world. In 2002, he traveled through Europe, eventually making his way to Jordan and Egypt where he felt intrigued by the mix of cultures. In early 2003, he joined the anti-war movement against the invasion of Iraq and physically moved there. But as the invasion became more and more likely, he moved to Jordan to help provide medical services to Iraqi refugees. There, he discovered the International Solidarity Movement (ISM),  an organisation that use non-violent protest against the Israeli military in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,

On the 6th April.2003 as a photojournalist, hoping to document Palestinians' oppressive living conditions he moved to Rafah in the Gaza Strip.and not long after he began emailing images of the IDF and the Palestinians back to his family. In his Guardian obituary it says “the tone of his journals changed dramatically” with his arrival in Palestine.

Tom even wrote of the death of Rachel Corrie, who had been crushed to death by an Israeli defence force bulldozer while acting as a human shield near the Rafah refugee camp.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2023/03/courage-to-resist-remembering-rachel.html

“I wonder how few or many people heard it on the news and just counted it as another death, just another number … ” wrote Tom.

  On   11th of April Tom and  and a group of activists were in the area of Rafah with the intention of setting up a peace tent on one of the nearby roads to block the IDF tank patrols, it was then that Israeli Sbipers started shooting.   As all ran for cover, Tom noticed that three of the many children previously playing in the road had become paralyzed with fear. Tom dashed towards one of the children and brought him to safety. He turned back to rescue another child, but as he approached, Israeli sharpshooter Taysir Hayb fired a round into his skull. Tom hit the ground bleeding, less than a week after moving to Palestine.

 At the time of the shooting Tom was in plain view of the sniper towers and was wearing a bright orange fluorescent jacket with reflective stripes and was clearly unarmed. According to other ISM activists “there was no shooting or resistance coming from the Palestinian side at all.” It is also reported that an ambulance came very quickly, about 2 minutes after the shooting..

After a  two  hour delay at the border of the Gaza strip, Tom’s ambulance was finally allowed through. Tom received emergency treatment in Be’ersheva Hospital before being transferring to London where he remained in a coma for nine months. He died on January 13, 2004  at the tender age of 22.

A year after his death, following the family's own investigation and their determined and impartial fight to see justice done after a cover-up by the Israeli Defence Force, Wahid Taysir Al Heib, the soldier who shot him was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to  eight years for Tom's manslaughter. It was an unprecedented outcome, and a case that made legal history in bringing the IDF to account for its killing of an unarmed civilian. 

Hayb was released on September 8, 2010, only having served six and a half years of his sentence after an army committe concluded that he “no longer posed any threat to society in their view.”.

O n 10 April 2006, a British inquest jury at St Pancras coroner’s court in London found that Hurndall had been “unlawfully killed”and found that the killing was intentional – in other words, murder.. Tom's  father told reporters that there had been a “general policy” to shoot civilians in the area without fear of retaliation, as stated by the soldier who fired the shot, Taysir Hayb. Hayb had earlier told a military tribunal that the Israeli army “fires freely in Rafah.”

On  January 10th, 2004, Jocelyn Hurndall, Tom’s mother, wrote a commentary in The Guardian, which stated: It seems that life is cheap in the occupied territories. Different value attached to life depends on whether the victim happens to be Israeli, international or Palestinian.”

 Tom’s shooting followed the murder of Rachel Corrie, run over by a bulldozer on the 16th March, and the near fatal shooting of Brian Avery, shot in the face in Jenin on April 5th.  Later that month, another Brit, filmmaker James Miller, was also killed by a sniper in Rafah. The Israeli military have refused to accept any responsibility for what they did to Rachel, Brian or James,

Tom's bravery and compassion should not be forgotten. Neither should the daily struggles of Gaza's Palestinians that he was working to show the world. since his death the occupation and oppression has got worse as apartheid Israel continue to lay siege on Gaza's 2 million inhabitants.

An annual lecture has been established to memorialise Tom's life, and to celebrate the ideals that he supported. Tom's mother Jocelyn Hurndall has also written a  powerful biography of him called ,My Son Tom: The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndall. It is an elegy for a son, full of loss but also of hope. Written with honesty, dignity and insight, this moving story of a remarkable young man, a mother's love, and a devoted family gives a human face to a conflict that, directly and indirectly, affects us all.

On 13 October 2008, Channel 4 broadcast a dramatised documentary The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall,[18] which was written by Simon Block and directed by Rowan Joffe. Stephen Dillane plays Anthony Hurndall and Kerry Fox plays Jocelyn Hurndall. Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall were interviewed at length in The Observer prior to the airing of the documentary:Hurndall.

Tom had been in Palestine for less than ten days before his life was ended by the murderers of the Israeli army. If it had not been for them, his work would no doubt have developed and grown. Like thousands of Palestinians, who do not have books devoted to their final works, his life was brutally cut short.

Toml kept a journal throughout his travels which are collected in. The Only House Left Standing:The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall in which he wrote discerningly about the injustices he had witnessed in Gaxa  that had a profound effect on him/ in one of his final entries he wrote  “What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven’t done.” 

 His commitment, courage, and love of life reminds us of the universality of human rights for all peoples – Tom’s decision to drop everything and go to Gaza to stand by Palestinians there, his generous gesture, encapsulates these principles. Tom remains a symbol of humanity, bravery and solidarity..His memory will live on forever.

International Roma Day

Today is International Roma Day.which celebrates and recognises, the rich history, culture, language of their communities. International Romani Day has its roots in the first significant international meeting of Roma representatives, which was held in Chelsfield, United Kingdom, near London from April 7 to 12, 1971, organised by the World Council of Churches and the Government of India. The Congress was attended by 23 representatives from nine nations, including the former Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway,France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Spain and the former Yugoslavia. There were also individuals from Belgium, Canada, India and the United States, and  they formed a political agenda with the intent to achieve emancipation and equality for the Roma.

Several sub-commissions were created to look closely at social affairs, education, war crimes, language and culture. Another key outcome of the first Congress was the turn towards using the word ‘Roma’ rather than ‘Gypsy’ or other variants. While it’s true that here in Britain ‘Gypsy’, ‘Roma’ and ‘Traveller’ are all used, in Europe and abroad the preferred term is Roma. The Roma flag was also promoted as the national emblem and a rousing anthem (Gelem, Gelem).

 

 The Roma flag was created by the General Union of Roma in Romania in 1933. It was adopted by international Roma representatives in 1971, becoming known as the international Roma flag. The symbolism of the blue color coincides with the sky, while the green with the earth and the harvest. The flag, as a symbol of fire, movement and progress, also bears a red wheel (chakra), linking it to the Indian origin of the Roma.

The 1971 Congress was a landmark event and pushed a narrative forward which influenced how Roma people were talked about and included in the social, cultural and political spheres for years to come. The message to the world was that this community was active, organised and demanding an end to human rights violations against it. A few years later, at the fourth Congress, it was decided that 8 April would become International Roma Day. Since 1990, the day has been celebrated across the globe and Roma from all walks of life who honour it in a variety of ways.

Originally, the Roma were itinerant court musicians from South Asia, specifically present-day India and Pakistan. The Romani have their own cultural language and genetic makeup, despite the fact that they are travellers who conform to the cultures of their host communities. During the Middle Ages, Roma migrated to Turkey, France, and Spain. Romani culture merged with Iberian, Jewish, Muslim, and Moorish cultures upon their arrival in Spain, giving rise to the Flamenco people.

The Romani's own language,  Romani, "Romani", is an Indo-Aryan language, part of the Indo-European language family. It would be spoken from the beginning of the Middle Ages only in the diaspora, outside India. Today it is an integral part of European linguistic diversity. There have been many scholars who have tried to formalize it by bringing in various primers and dictionaries. Already, their language continues to be well preserved and spoken worldwide in various dialects. It has many dialects, and spelling or word choice can differ between groups. Most Romani are multilingual, but their own language is a point of pride and connectivity for the Romani people.

 Modern Romani usually live in caravans or similar vehicles, but between the mid 1800s and early 1900s, they used horse-drawn wagons, or vardos.

 Roma are widely known for their traditional music and dance. Their music has even influenced classical music composers such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahams. Violin, guitar and clarinet are the favorite instruments of Roma musicians. As for their traditional dance, they have preserved elements from India, blending in with details taken from the culture of the countries in which the Roma lived. Their typical dance is the flamenco, which represents the most obvious example of the Roma contribution to the general style of dance. Roma, too, have developed their traditions in poetry and painting. 

Roma have also excelled in handicrafts, such as metalworking, embroidery and jewelry carving. Handmade straw baskets are another typical Roma product. Roma clothing Traditional clothing is still widely used in some Roma communities. Women wear long skirt tied at the left of the waist, a neckline blouse, a bolero vest, an apron and colorful earrings.

My solidarity goes out to all Roma people worldwide who are still experiencing  massive inequality and huge amounts of racism,  discrimination and exclusion state sponsored  and otherwise.

Romani people have suffered  persecution throughout their history, having left Northern India/Pakisan around one thousand years ago. In the ensuring centuries they have spread across many countries across the globe. Europe, North and South America, Russia, China and the Middle East. Some were nomadic people. Others tried to settle but were met with hostility and either abandoned their identities or became nomadic like their brothers and sisters. What remained however and strong, was that on the move or in settlements, was a tight knit community, but still faced ongoing discrimination. racial oppression and persecution due to their nomadic lifestyle and dark skin. During the Middle Ages, the Romani were executed in England, Switzerland, and Denmark, and Germany, Italy, and Portugal ordered the expulsion of all Romani.

Lest not forget either that Hitler named Romani people ‘enemies of the race based state’, and though official figures do not exactly exist, historians estimate that between 220,000 and 500,000 Romani and Sinti,from Central Europe were killed in the 1930s and 1940s. the Nazis  killing about 25 percent of Europe's entire Roma (a.k.a. Gypsy) population, accounting for half their total population at  the time. This genocide, known in the Romani language, as Porajimas which can translate as “destruction.” It's remembered as the worst event in their peoples' history. Other Romani people in the Balkans prefer to use the term 'samudaripen,' translating as “mass killing,” but there's still no general consensus in the community regarding how to call this tragedy, sometimes even borrowing the word 'holokausto.'
Roma persecution by the Nazi regime began in 1933 and during the 1936 Olympic Games, the Roma and Sinti were forcibly relocated to a camp on the outskirts and were not allowed to leave unless they had a job. Their property was confiscated and sold; they were never compensated. Between 1933 and 1945, more than 400,000 people were forcibly sterilised by the Nazis, including thousands of Roma and Sinti, In the late 1930s, the first deportations of Roma to concentration camps began. While the yellow star worn by the Jewish victims of the Holocaust is best known, the Roma had their own symbols, brown or black triangles, symbolising their ethnicity and their inherent ‘anti-social’ status.

Today, the Romani people are still subject to racial stereotyping, often caricatured as mysterious fortune tellers and cunning thieves. Many Romani report segregation and harassment in schools and in the workplace, as well as a lower standard of healthcare and education and repeated forced evictions. That’s why it’s so important for us to understand more about their unique culture and heritage, to overcome the stereotypes and recognise the struggles faced by this remarkable people

Today it is important to remember that many Roma continue to suffer from systemic discrimination and violence. The discriminatory treatment and stereotyping prevents Roma from fully participating in political, social and economic life around the world. Roma experience  exclusion, violence and repression in the countries where they live. They are forced to live in conditions that are degrading to human beings.Approximately 80% of Romani in Europe live in abject destitution. They are discriminated against in the labour market because of their ethnic identity.

Racism and discrimination against Roma and Travellers remain alarmingly rife in Europe, nowhere has this been more evident in recent times than in the appalling reports received regarding some border officials’ refusal to allow Roma refugees, who are fleeing Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, the right either to leave Ukraine or to enter neighbouring States. Such refusals are based on spurious grounds, and notably on racist assumptions that Roma are not ‘genuine’ refugees. In other cases, lack of ID – a longstanding issue for Roma in many European States – has made border crossings more difficult. In addition, some Roma who have been able to leave Ukraine have also been confronted with racism in receiving States, including segregation, unfavourable treatment compared with other refugees, and racist attitudes among law-enforcement officials, volunteers or the population more generally.

The racism against Roma often goes unnoticed or even becomes normalised. It has its origins in how the majority views and treats those considered “gypsies”, who have endured a process of historical “othering”, which builds on stereotypes, even unintentional or unconscious attitudes, that result in a still widely accepted form of racism against Roma.

Its various expressions include hate speech, discrimination, hate crime, and other harmful practices, resulting in many Roma people’s exclusion, segregation and poverty. It leads to a perception of Roma people as a homogenous group that is helpless, inferior and anti-social.

Unfortunately, little effort has been made by national governments in order to lift Roma people from this precarious situation. This day is therefore a chance to remind European and world leaders to implement effective anti-discrimination measures and legislative and policy initiatives to protect and promote the human rights of all minorities, including Roma.

But responsibility rests not only on the shoulders of public authorities, but on all of us. We cannot allow desensitisation to divide us and put barriers between us. We need to continue to cast a light on the human rights issues.prejudice and violations faced by Romani people around the world. Lets show a gratitude to a beautiful community that so enriches our lives and continue to reject the negative stereotypes. racial stereotyping and bias that impacts their way of life.International Roma Day is above all, a day of celebration and awareness of the unity, autonomy, and diversity of Roma communities.

We urgently need to move beyond  anti-gypsyist attitudes. First and very simply, because no one should ever be subject to racism or discrimination. And second, because stereotypes and prejudice prevent us from seeing the contributions that Roma and Travellers make to European societies every day.

Today, lets  express our solidarity with the Roma people, and with all persons working to guarantee them safety and shelter. Now, more than ever, it is time to topple racist stereotypes. Let us stamp out anti-gypsyism attitudes and prejudice once and for all.

Hands off Al-Aqsa, and Hands off Palestine.

On Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5th of April, the world watched idly as videos and reports emerged across the internet of Palestinians being beaten, brutalised and forcibly raided inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the middle of their prayers firing rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at Palestinian worshippers. These events left at least 12 Palestinians injured, and over 400 were arrested on the first night. Following the raid, Israeli violence spread across the west bank. Dozens have been hurt by inhaling poisonous gas fired by Israeli forces, and a settler in occupied East Jerusalem shot a Palestinian child. .

To commit such an unlawful and inhumane act is vile any day of the year, but to repeatedly do so during the holy month of Ramadan, a month that is bestowed upon Muslims to commit to good deeds and reconnect with God, is utterly shocking.In the 24 hours preceding this, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. This took the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2022 to 47.

Occupation and injustice is something Palestinians have faced everyday since 1948, but it becomes especially unbearable to watch  when Palestinians face brutality inside a place of worship. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site to Muslims around the globe,after the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
Not only are the Palestinian people forbidden from entering their holy mosque but fanatic Jews also routinely violate the sanctity of the place under protection of the Israeli police. Since annexing the holy city more than half a century ago, Israel did whatever it could to prove that Al-Aqsa Mosque stood on remains of the so-called Temple. But Israel failed to discover anything that could prove this assumption. Failing in this attempt, the Israeli government began executing an old scheme to divide the place among Jews and Muslims as it did with the other holy mosque in Hebron.
Noticeably, the Israeli government has recently escalated its provocations.
Sensing that these Israeli measures will further aggravate the current situation in the Middle East, many countries have urged Israel to restrain its settlers and allow the Palestinians free access to the Noble Sanctuary. Despite international calls, Israel is not doing anything to calm the situation.

As some Palestinians fought back, news reports from outlets such as the BBC described the events as “clashes” resulting from “tensions” between Muslims and Jews wishing to pray at the same sites during Ramadan and Passover.

In fact, it’s about much more than religion.It’s about Palestinians’ right to live and worship freely in their own city.

Al-Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding Old City are centres of Palestinian life in Jerusalem, especially during Ramadan. They are not actually in Israel but  the state of Israel has kept this area under military occupation since 1967 and wants to claim it for its own, pushing Palestinians out.

The state uses apartheid laws to evict Palestinians, demolish their homes and remove their residency rights constantly. And its police clear the way for Israeli settler activists who seek the destruction of the mosque to stage provocative acts of worship there.

Following the raid on Al-Aqsa on Wednesday night, Israeli settlers were escorted to Al-Aqsa by Israeli forces on Thursday morning. Prior to their arrival, Palestinian worshippers were forced out so that it could be secured for the settlers for the first day of the Jewish Passover holiday. This double standard is not uncommon for Israel as it is inherent to the structure of the settler-colonial state. Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem (80% of the Palestinian population) under Israeli control are not citizens and cannot become citizens of the state in which they live, nor can they vote for the government which controls their lives. The other 20% of Palestinians, who have Israeli citizenship, have a 2nd class status. 

In June 1967, Israel occupied what is usually referred to as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa Mosque is situated. In fact, these territories were under Jordan’s administrative control since 1951. Originally, they were given to the Palestinians, the indigenous inhabitants of the land, in accordance with the UN partition plan that divided historic Palestine between immigrant Jews and the Palestinian people who refused to accept this plan and continued resisting it by all means.
According to the Geneva Convention and UN Security Council’s resolutions, these territories are occupied territories that should be returned back to their lawful owners.
But Israel has never acceded to any international resolution because it enjoys protection from punishment by the US and British. Availing itself of the present chaos in the Middle East, the Israeli government has recently increased its provocations against the Palestinian people — Christians and Muslims — and their holy places

Since January 7, over 100,000 Israeli settlers have been protesting every Saturday in response to a judicial overhaul that was proposed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. The protestors say the reform plan that has now been suspended, is a threat to democracy.   The idea that Israeli “democracy” can be protected by blocking the judicial overhaul is a myth. Any plans Israel had for democracy were destroyed when they began the Nakba in 1948. In fact, the reform plan is a product of the settler colonial state, as it would allow the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes even more efficiently than before, a fundamental goal of the Zionist movement.   We must ask: What are these protestors really fighting to maintain? How can there be democracy in an apartheid state? Whose democracy is this?  

This is a fight to maintain and protect the status quo for Israelis, not Palestinians who have been denied all basic democratic rights under Israel since 1948. For Palestinians, there is no democracy.  Despite these blatant acts of unjustified violence committed by Israel, there is no outrage among Israelis. The tens of thousands of people who showed up just last week to protect democracy are suddenly silent. Moreover, Palestinian worshippers are beaten by Israel all the time, this violence is routine during Ramadan.

In 2021, Israel unleashed an 11-day bombardment on Gaza during Ramadan and there has been no outcry by Israelis to prevent that from happening. This is evidence that the movement for democracy in Israel is not about democracy at all, but about maintaining the apartheid state of Israel as it has existed for the past 75 years - at the expense of Palestinians. It is insulting for Israelis to launch this “democracy” movement when Palestinians have been ignored for decades.

Last night Israeli forces  bombed Gaza. causing further destruction to an area that is still struggling to rebuild from Israel's previous assaults. The Israeli apartheid government's escalating attacks show that decades of indifference to Palestinian human rights have emboldened Israel's oppression,Whilst Palestinians are risking their lives everyday to protect a historical landmark that is considered sacred to these two billion Muslims, the world stays silent. And if history has taught us anything, it is that silence is as harmful as complicity, it is time for the international community to take concrete actions in opposition to Israel's racist actions and policies.

Friends and supporters of Palestine in the UK are called to take part in a mass protest in front of the Israeli Embassy in Central London (2 Palace Green, London W8 4QB), today Friday, April 7, 2023, at  3.30pm. The protest will end at 5:30pm, to give those who need to go home for Iftar time to do so.

The demonstration condemns the repeated Israeli attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque during the month of Ramadan, as well as the recent inhumane strikes in Gaza.

Organized by the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Stop War coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB),the parties calling for the protest are demanding the occupational forces to respect the historical and religious value of the Holy Mosque and stop the provocations of the Zionists which, from the parties’ point of view, will only lead to an escalation of violence and tension on the ground.Hands off Al-Aqsa, and hands off Palestine.