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- Fear and Uncertainty as Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction, August 30, 2011
- Dale Farm Eviction: Report Claims Council May Be Acting Unlawfully, June 13, 2011
- Dale Farm May Be Saved By New European Plans, May 30, 2011
- MPs Want Dale Farm Eviction Called Off, April 26, 2011
- Dale Farm: NO PASARAN!
- Dale Farm Legal Challenge to £13 Million Eviction Operation, March 15, 2011
- Council of Europe Visit Raises Dale Farm Spirit, February 16, 2011
- MP Seeks Dale Farm Talks as Eviction Plan Falters, December 28, 2010
- Dale Farm: Labour Party Oppose Forced Eviction, December 8, 2010
- Dale Farm May Be Winning Battle For Commonsense, November 11, 2010
- Dale Farm: Judgment Reserved on Homeless, October 24, 2010
- Dale Farm Prepares to Meet Constant Eviction, October 5, 2010
- Travellers Under Pressure to Abandon Community Living, September 20, 2010
- UK Gypsy Homes Bulldozed as UN Deadline Approaches, June 30, 2010
- The Dale Farm Eviction May be a Criminal Conspiracy, June 27, 2010
- Cameron Tested by Dale Farm Proposal, May 14, 2010
- UN Backs Call to Halt Big UK Gypsy Eviction, April 14, 2010
- Travellers' Genocide Protest Upsets Basildon Council Head, October 30, 2009
- UK: Then They Came For the Gypsies, October 25, 2009
- Dale Farm Eviction Contract Attracts Notorious Bailiffs, July 19, 2009
- Lords Won't Hear Dale Farm Appeal, May 14, 2009
- UN Backs the Dale Farm Travellers in Their Fight Against Eviction, April 29, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Eviction After UK Appeals Court Ruling, January 22, 2009
- Dale Farm Travellers Face Racism and Prejudice as Court Mulls Appeal, December 19, 2008
- Dale Farm Community Center Faces Demolition as Eviction Threat Resurfaces, September 26, 2008
- Britain's High Court Lifts the Threat of Eviction from the Dale Farm Travellers, May 13, 2008
- Defiant Travellers Open Community Center as Britain's High Court Prepares to Rule on Their Eviction, May 5, 2008
- Dale Farm Eviction Crisis Reaches the British High Court, February 14, 2008
- Dale Farm Travellers Win Key Concession as Eviction Deadline Approaches, December 11, 2007
- Success for Traveler Advocacy in UK As Eviction Threat Lifts at Dale Farm, July 9, 2007
- AP Peace Fellow Defends Traveler Rights, Arouses British Ire, June 12, 2007
- Urban Sprawl Trumps Minority Housing Rights in UK as Dale Farm Travelers Again Face Eviction, March 2, 2007
- Traveler Evictions in the UK Are ‘Hazardous to Environment and Children’s Health’ Claim Advocates, November 1, 2006
- Travelers Face Eviction Despite Intervention, July 29, 2005
- Showdown Looms as Advocates Seek to Avert Violent Eviction of 600 Travelers in the UK, July 13, 2005
- English Gypsy Women Warn of Possible “Deaths” from Forcible Evictions, and Appeal for International Mediation, April 8, 2005
- Roma Evictions Erupt Across Europe as New ‘Decade’ Seeks to End Discrimination January 31, 2005
- Dictionary.com Removes Offensive Gypsy Definition in Response to Grassroots Campaign, September 22, 2004
- New Funding Grants $8,000 to International Roma Women’s Network, June 1, 2004
- Roma: Roma Women Activists Challange European Governments Over Health Crisis, September 11, 2003
- The International Roma Women's Network is Launched, March 8, 2003
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UK: Then They Came For the Gypsies, October 25, 2009
A UK local authority, apparantly bowing to the wishes of BNP voters, is planning to spend two million pounds to clear some 100 Gypsy families from their own land and drive them from the district.
By Grattan Puxon
Dale Farm Housing AssociationThe appearance of neo-facist leader Nick Griffin on a popular BBC panel programme last week has caused outraged protest by those who fear extreme-right wing policies are becoming acceptable in today's would-be police-state Britain.
But if the British National Party with its million votes is moving into the mainstream, its just as frightening that once middle-ground
politicians are willing to court favour with the neo-fascists by assuming a brownshirt colouring.Romanies and Travellers may have been in Britain half a millennium or more, yet are still not accepted by a middle -England majority. Those who continue to follow a nomadic life -style get it in the neck everyday due to institutional racism locked into our bureaucracy and police forces.
We're seeing it happen in Italy and Hungary, now we'll see it happening here. Twenty miles from the Mother of Parliaments, by the lorry-full and Landrover, with bulldozer and crane - stop them if you dare! - they're coming for the Gypsies.
On UN Human Rights Day 10 December, Basildon's Tory chief will formally lead his cabinet in voting to give a two million pound contract to a bunch of hard-hat bullyboys to oust hundreds of Travellers from his district. It will be the ugliest yet act of ethnic-cleansing by a British local authority against an outpost of Europe's nascent Roma nation.
Certainly the 4,000 Basildon voters who backed the British National Party at the last election will be pleased to have what in effect must be an endorsement of their bigoted anti-Gypsy attitudes. Something for the BNP’s two MEPs to boast about it in the European Parliament.
SOCIAL EXCLUSION
A dirty, neo-fascist wave, a tsunami of social exclusion is to break over the peaceful Dale Farm community, smashing up lives and drowning the hopes of another generation of Traveller children, presently attending local schools.No matter that the impotent UK Children's Commissioner says it shouldn't happen, and boo to the goose that is the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. The CEHR has let itself be used in the charade which Basildon council calls its court-mandated engagement talks with Dale Farm residents.
Sorry, that should read resident; only one attended last week's hole-in-the-corner meeting with hard-nosed get 'em shifted project leader Dawn French.
The incessant message of these talks, now labelled pointless by a Gypsy Council representative, is that hundreds of Dale Farm residents must abandon their homes and land and, voluntarily, wander forth along Britain's rage-ridden roads - where you can't even light a fire nowadays without attracting a fine.
Oh, Basildon may have been told by the UK Government to provide alternative land for the Dale Farm community. Obligatory under the Housing Act. Only Tony Ball interprets that as a mere request and stands sturdily by his eviction policy, believing the brutal back lane happenings will be quickly covered over by next May's expected Tory election landslide.
In bright new British Cameronland it won’t matter what happened to the Gypsies.
However, there is every sign that Dale Farm is fighting back. The rape of human rights is not something mothers here will take lying down. They are organizing a mass rally outside the Basildon Centre on Human Rights Day, an event they intend will be worthy of that universal anniversary.
They are also seeking to address a last appeal to the cabinet meeting at 7.30 pm that evening.
"We hope," says Mary Sheridan, recently back from Germany, from where 14,000 Roma are being forcibly repatriated to Kosovo, "that those upset by the sight of the BNP on television will be moved to join us in trying to stop fascist talk becoming brownshirt action."
Can blatant racism be halted? Basildon is the next battleground. Meanwhile, Dale Farm residents and supporters have received death-threats, several of which have been reported to Essex police, it was revealed at a Human Rights Day planning meeting last evening attended by former Mayor of London aide Atma Singh.
*************************
JOIN THE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY RALLY !!
7pm 10 December
St Martin's Square, Basildon
Transport for supporters: contact
dale.farm@btinternet.com
APPEAL FOR FUNDSVeerendra Rishi, director of the Indian Institute
of Romani Studies, has started an appeal fund for
this event with a one hundred pound donation.Please send what you can by cheque to:
Dale Farm Housing Association
1 John Harper Street
Colchester C01 1RP
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