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> www.wsws.org
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
>
> Britain's Home Secretary denounced for inciting racial hatred
> against Gypsies
>
> By Julie Hyland
> 23 August 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> British Home Secretary Jack Straw has been reported to the West
> Midlands police for inciting racial hatred. The complaint was
> lodged by the Friends, Families and Travellers Advice and
> Information Unit (FFTAIU) following Straw's remarks during a BBC
> radio programme last month that there was widespread criminality
> amongst "many" travellers.
>
> The FFTAIU had originally lodged a complaint with the Commission
> for Racial Equality (CRE). On Thursday the CRE released a
> statement that, whilst it opposed any stereotyping of travellers
> or gypsies, the complaint was a police matter, as the CRE has no
> jurisdiction over broadcast radio. The FFTAIU then referred their
> complaint to the police in Sussex, where the group is based, and
> West Midlands where the remarks were made, for investigation as
> to whether the Home Secretary had breached the Public Order Act
> by inciting prejudice and hatred against an ethnic minority.
>
> On July 22, Straw told BBC Radio West Midlands, "There are
> relatively few real Romany gypsies left, who seem to mind their
> own business and don't cause trouble to other people. And then
> there are a lot more people who masquerade as travellers or
> gypsies, who trade on the sentiment of people, but who seem to
> think because they label themselves as travellers that therefore
> they've got a licence to commit crimes and act in an unlawful way
> ...
>
> "Many of these so-called travellers seem to think that it is
> perfectly OK for them to cause mayhem in an area, to go burgling,
> thieving, breaking into vehicles, causing all kinds of trouble...
> In the past, I'm afraid, there has been rather too much
> toleration of travellers and we want to see the police and local
> authorities cracking down on them."
>
> Straw's remarks took place in the midst of such a crackdown. For
> some time, Labour MPs in the West Midlands have been complaining
> at the presence of travellers in the region and demanding tougher
> action. Straw's diatribe was a strong statement by the government
> that it would now move on their demands. That same day, a major
> police operation—involving 100 armed officers—was despatched to a
> travellers' wedding in Coventry, supposedly because of fears of
> violence.
>
> The Department of the Environment also issued a report, warning
> that travellers were increasing the burden on taxpayers. The DoE
> claimed that unauthorised travellers were parking on green lands,
> industrial estates, parks and restaurant areas. Whilst the report
> could provide no figures, and admitted that the "costs to local
> authorities and the police of dealing with unauthorised camping
> are unknown", it claimed that they were "considerable". It
> continued "One estimate puts annual costs at some £7 million
> nationally, including officer time, legal costs, costs of
> eviction and site cleansing."
>
> By any standards—and especially when one considers that the DoE
> would have used the most inflated figures—this estimate is
> paltry. Of far more concern to local authorities is that the
> travellers' presence deters would-be investors and prospective
> home buyers.
>
> Straw's outburst was backed by the Home Office, the Conservative
> Party and the police. A Home Office spokesman said of Straw that
> "there is absolutely no way his remarks could be construed as an
> incitement to racial hatred. He was talking about people who were
> hiding behind the term Gypsy in some way to circumvent the law".
> Tory Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecomb—who just days earlier
> had been touring Dover demanding a clamp down against "bogus"
> refugees—said she would "not quarrel with his remarks". The West
> Midlands police are reported to be "scornful" of the FFTAIU
> complaint. A spokesman said that whilst they were obligated to
> investigate any complaint reported, "looking at his remarks, I
> have no doubt that there is nothing criminal about them".
>
> Travellers' organisations, however, are gravely concerned that
> such comments could seriously inflame racial prejudices. Susan
> Alexander for the FFTAIU said, "We are not suggesting for one
> moment that there isn't criminal activity within the traveller
> community. However that does not justify the whole community
> being branded as criminals. No other section of the community
> would be treated in that way." Charles Smith, chairman of the
> Gypsy Council of Britain, said that Straw was "accusing all
> travellers of going thieving and burgling. Just imagine what the
> reaction would be if he had said it about black people. We've had
> all this stuff about institutional racism and here we have a Home
> Secretary doing exactly the same thing."
>
> Historically, Gypsies have been one of the main targets of racial
> discrimination and persecution. All Gypsies were banished from
> England in 1530. In 1555 to be a Gypsy was a capital offence,
> which was punished by flogging, removal of the left ear and
> finally death. The law remained in force until 1789.
>
> During the Nazi holocaust, Gypsies were defined first as
> "non-Aryan" and then as "asocial". An estimated half a million
> Gypsies were rounded up and killed in Hitler's concentration
> camps.
>
> As social and economic conditions in many European countries
> decline, Gypsies have once again become easy scapegoats. In
> Eastern Europe particularly, they bear the brunt of unemployment
> and poverty, whilst facing increasingly violent persecution. More
> than 300 have been killed in pogroms in Romania since 1989. In
> the Czech Republic and in Slovakia they are regarded as
> non-citizens and are driven from one area to another. Kosovo has
> witnessed the most extreme examples of anti-Gypsy sentiments.
> Since the end of the NATO bombardment, some 23,000 to 33,000
> Gypsies have been driven out of the province by the Kosovo
> Liberation Army in its efforts to ethnically cleanse the region.
>
> Straw's remarks are particularly sinister in this context. The
> Home Secretary's favoured campaign is "law and order". Social
> stereotyping has become a primary means through which the
> government has justified its significant incursions against
> democratic rights. Straw's modus operandi is to identify areas of
> the law which need to be changed or strengthened, and then choose
> a "target" which can be used to justify these measures. Thus,
> curfew orders and increased policing were introduced on the
> grounds of "criminal" youth, apparently "out of control" on
> council estates.
>
> In this instance, Straw's concern is to justify the passage of
> Labour's draconian Immigration and Asylum Bill. Its objective is
> to make the conditions faced by would-be refugees in Britain so
> appalling that they will be deterred from entering the country.
> This includes not only the economic situation faced by
> asylum-seekers—replacing cash benefits with vouchers—but also the
> political climate. In recent months Labour and the Tories have
> joined forces to portray Britain as an island being "swamped" by
> "bogus" asylum-seekers. The political establishment bears direct
> responsibility for the racial bigotry and violence that has since
> erupted in Dover over the last weeks.
>
> Since Labour launched its new Immigration and Asylum Bill last
> October much of this prejudice has been directed against Gypsies.
> Every effort is being made to prevent those fleeing persecution
> in Eastern Europe, and now the Balkans, from taking refuge in
> Britain. The Home Office has been involved in discussions with
> the Czech government over the number of Gypsies leaving the
> country to claim asylum in Britain. Home Office Minister Lord
> Bassam reported that applications from the Czech Republic had
> risen from 55 in January to 150 in June, and that most of the
> applicants were Romanies. All were rejected. Bassam said, whilst
> Czech Gypsies may genuinely face discrimination, they did not
> fulfil the "necessary criteria" for asylum status.
>
> The British government has threatened that unless the Czech
> government takes measures to prevent Gypsies from leaving the
> country, they will impose visa requirements on all entrants to
> Britain from the Czech Republic. According to reports, some Czech
> towns are considering creating walled ghettos for their Romany
> populations.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> Copyright 1998-99
> World Socialist Web Site
> All rights reserved
<<Sounds like a new job for NEATO and various anti-defamation
groups.>>
A<>E<>R
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