In May, the World Development Movement (WDM) launched ‘People Before Profits’, a campaign designed to expose multinationals’ abuse of human rights, workers’ rights and the environment. The activities of five multinational companies Nestlé’s, Rio Tinto, Shell, P&O and Premier Oil were highlighted through a week of direct action at the companies’ respective AGMs. ‘The idea
Geography: Other
Austerity hits migrants first
One of the principal concerns European campaigners are airing at alternative rallies during the Intergovernmental Conference in Amsterdam is the need to preserve the welfare state from draconian austerity packages in the run-up to the signing of the new Maastricht Treaty. But across Europe, migrant workers, many of them long resident, with children born here,
Racism goes underground
It’s becoming very difficult to compile our annual review of deaths across Europe as racism has gone into the under-world of the undocumented. The brutal racism that characterises the lives of the ‘sans papiers’ is a theme that emerges again and again, crossing all categories, in this harrowing tale of murder and institutional indifference and
From refugee to terrorist
In April, a huge police operation, with marksmen and helicopters, was launched to raid a Kurdish community centre in Haringey, north London. Inside, embarrassed police found a Kurdish group rehearsing a Harold Pinter play about repression of Kurds. Someone had seen hooded armed men going into the community centre and the police, forgetting the advance
The truth about the human trade
Those who seek to aid refugees fleeing persecution are being tarred with the same brush as the profiteering human smugglers. Across Europe, the press is running salacious stories about illegal immigrants tricking their way into a country, aided by ethnic mafia. Anti-racists need to face facts about the trade in human beings and realise that
Leftspeak/Rightspeak/Newspeak
Across Europe, as centre-Left parties are moving to the right, the centre-right parties are adopting issues associated with the Left. And in this game of musical chairs, immigration and asylum are key. There is nothing new in the mainstream political consensus on immigration and asylum issues. European Social Democratic parties have been quick to bring
Black America today
CARF spoke to Barbara Ransby, leading Black feminist and co-founder of African American women in Defense of Ourselves, about recent events in the US. What is your attitude to the Million Man March? I am worried by the way it has shifted the terrain of struggle – on the issue of sexism and women’s role