Tag Archives: refugees

“It’s a matter of life and death: Communities united fighting for our public services” (Sussex Defend the NHS)

On a slightly drab but mild October morning, I set off early to go to the Level in Brighton and meet supporters from across Brighton and Hove at a rally to promote public services today, Saturday, 13 October. It was organised by Sussex Defend the NHS and Brighton and Hove Trades Council.

Before formal proceedings kicked off, I met Beverley Berstow who is standing as the Women’s Equality Party next year in Hanover in the local elections. Ms Berstow explained her party’s vision to me in this way: “We don’t really want to exist as a party but none of the other parties are doing anything for women’s rights. I don’t think they are taking them seriously.” She said many members of other parties including men as well as women came to the Women’s Equality Party because of disaffection with mainstream politics.

Women's Equality Party
Beverley Berstow with her colleagues.

Abi Pearce and Claire Campbell are teachers in Brighton and Hove. Ms Pearce said: “The funding crisis is having a huge impact on schools and has a big impact on teachers. Schools can’t retain or recruit teachers which impacts directly on children’s education.”

Ms Campbell wanted to talk about the detrimental effect underfunding was having on special educational needs. She said: “Schools cannot afford to employ 1:1 teachers and general classroom assistants. All the council services are being streamlined so referrals are taking longer, assessments are taking longer which is hugely frustrating for parents and teachers.”

Next, I met Glory and Michelle who are both British, Glory is a Latino Brit who has lived in Britain for many years. Michelle said: “I believe in a caring society where you are valued and not equated (judged by) your ability to pay for the NHS. Some years back, in healthcare representatives didn’t check how much money you had before giving you the healthcare. That is no longer true.”

Glory said: “I work in education and my son is a junior doctor. I think it’s disgraceful that essential services are being underfunded and sold off and our conditions of employment are getting worse.”

NHS
Michelle and Glory

Valerie Mainstone who works at the Brighton Unemployed Centre among other places across the city said we should challenge the government’s hostile environment wherever we can. She said: “I saw the valuable contribution made by the immigrants to the NHS ever since 1948, when African-Caribbean nurses first appeared in hospitals.

“My great-grandmother died for want of a sixpence before the NHS because no doctor would come unless you could pay.

“Our NHS was created to be publicly owned and free at the point of need for everyone – and that’s how it should stay.”

Maud from Migrant English Project and Brighton Migrant Solidarity took to the podium to talk about immigration and, in particular, unfair detention. She said the UK has the largest number of detainees in Europe, although the number of children in detention has dropped from 109 in 2009 to 42 this year. She criticised the government for putting structures in place that means people from outside Britain pay a healthcare tariff which is 50% higher than the tariff the government pays for British nationals.

Brighton migrant solidarity
Brighton Migrant Solidarity

Clara Astill is a member of the Unite union which was set up to help unemployed people, fight for a fully funded NHS, truly affordable housing and a decent welfare system. She said: “The latest campaign which we, with other groups, are involved with is the fight against Universal Credit. This benefit has impoverished, not only the unemployed, leading to people losing their homes and sometimes their families, but has begun to affect employed people, those paid so little they rely on state benefits to top up their income.”

Matthew Webb, a member of Brighton and Hove Trades Council which is a branch of the TUC, said: “The misfortune of sickness should not become a burden of poverty and indignity.” He said trade unions supported the victims of Grenfell and the Schools SOS as well as the NHS, migrants and young workers at Wetherspoons.

He said: “We support the NHS and the people who rely on it to get from one day to the next.” And he warned politicians locally and nationally: “Where we see injustice, we will organise.”

Brighton Council’s Unison leader said it was an ominous sign three days ago when Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a suicide prevention minister for the first time whose name is Jackie Doyle -Price. She said: “We could not make this up.” Mrs Beatty criticised the government for taking millions of pounds from public services and giving it to private companies but she told the rally to take heart because, “we are the many, you are few.”

Brighton's Green MP Caroline Lucas
Brighton’s Green MP Caroline Lucas

Green MP Caroline Lucas opened her speech by saying: “We’re here to protest against the way this government has wrecked our public services. A government that is dismantling the welfare state, flogging off public services, privatising services, attacking the rights of migrants, impoverishing our children. And we’re here to say, ‘Enough is Enough – the fightback is on!’

“We’re here because we’re angry. Angry that this government continues to break up and marketise our NHS.

“Angry that Brexit will make this even worse – putting off EU workers who no longer feel welcome here. Freedom of movement is a precious gift – the right to work and study and live and love in 27 other countries – we should be defending it, not trashing it.

“Angry that health workers have to rely on handouts and foodbanks. And that’s why our message is loud and clear – invest in public services and Stop the Cuts.

“The Prime Minister had the gall to stand up at her party conference and to expect our gratitude for declaring that austerity is over. The truth is that austerity was never needed. It had nothing to do with the financial crisis and everything to do with an ideological obsession with shrinking the state.

“And the damage that has been done to our hospitals and schools is immense.

“They’re at breaking point:

  • Ambulances backed up outside A&E departments.
  • One of my 84 constituents left alone on her bathroom floor for over four hours waiting for an ambulance.
  • And when it comes to our schools, per pupil funding slashed.

“It’s wrong that head teachers are forced to sack teaching assistants, to end support to pupils with mental health problems, that parents are having to organise jumble sales for basics like books.

“So as well as saying Defend our NHS, we are absolutely here to say, Save Our Schools as well…

Public services rally

“So what can we hope for from his replacement (Jeremy Hunt’s) at the Department for Health, Matt Hancock? Well, don’t hold your breath.

“This is the Health Minister who has received £32,000 in donations from the Institute of Economic Affairs – an organisation which describes the NHS as one of the most, “over-valued, inefficient systems in the world.

“A Health Minister who’s been actively endorsing the GP at Hand app operated by the private company Babylon, and requiring patients to deregister from their existing practice before they can sign up.

“With a tally of 10 GP practices having closed in our city in the last few years alone… (he should) start investing properly in our national health service.

“Friends, we know things could and should be different. And we know that by coming together we can make them different.

“We are the sixth richest country in the world, and we are working for a country with

  • No patients waiting hours on a trolley in A&E.
  • No patients suffering in pain, as operations are repeatedly cancelled.
  • No more running down and dismantling our NHS.
  • No more slashing funds for our schools and our welfare state.

“I’m proud to be standing up in Parliament to fight for our public services. I’m proud that the Green Party has championed the NHS Reinstatement Bill from the very beginning.

“And I’m proud that all of us together are saying – loudly and clearly – No to the government’s ‘Slash, Trash and Privatise Agenda’ – and Yes to keeping our schools and our NHS public. Always. Thank you.”

An edited version of this article was published in Brighton and Hove News.

Brighton and Hove Green Party

Brighton celebrates refugee week by creating a culture of welcome and safety

For twenty years Brighton and Hove has celebrated refugee week with events highlighting refugees’ contributions, resilience and creativity. It starts next Saturday 16 June.

However, Sanctuary on Sea’s own Crossing Borders Festival of music by refugees and asylum seekers has been running for several centuries. Sanctuary on Sea is a member of City of Sanctuary, a grassroots movement of local people and about 100 organisations across the UK who are committed to creating a culture of welcome and safety, especially for refugees seeking sanctuary from war and persecution.

People are invited to celebrate Refugee Week’s 20th anniversary by doing one of 20 Simple Acts, which are simple actions everyone can do to stand with refugees and bring people together in their communities. One of these is to define the word ‘refuge.’

After New Orleans was hit by hurricane Katrina back in in 2005, there was lots of talk about whether people who lost their homes should be called ‘refugees’.

Some thought that the word should only be used for people escaping war in ‘foreign’ countries. Others argued that by describing hurricane victims as refugees we would become more understanding of people facing hardship.

When Refugee Week launched Simple Acts in 2009, they invited people to create their own definitions of refuge. Organisers hoped that by thinking about what refuge means to each of us, they might help form a fresh perspective on the word ‘refugee.’

“Music of the Dispossessed,” is a concert that kicks off Refugee Week, at 7:30 pm in St Mary’s Church, Kemptown on Saturday 16 June. It will feature works by Arnold Schoenberg and Tchaikovsky.  Schoenberg was labelled as a degenerate by the Nazis and fled to America. Tchaikovsky spent much of his life travelling abroad, terrified of being exposed as a homosexual in his native Russia.

On 24 June hundreds of people from Brighton & Hove’s communities are expected to join a “Refugees Welcome” parade and come together for a free day of music, art and fun at the Dome and Museum called ‘Together.’ (This is not to be mistaken with the event in East Brighton and Hangleton and Knoll last month that celebrated random acts of neighbourliness.)

refugee week
Brighton’s Green MP Caroline Lucas

‘Together,’ is a free day of art, music and theatre workshops, activities, film-showings, board games, table tennis and spoken word, which will be held at the Brighton Dome and Museum between 11am and 4pm. The day will start with a glittering parade through central Brighton led by the Hummingbird Project, with the support of Same Sky. To join the parade, meet outside the Jubilee Library at 9.30am.

Brighton MP Caroline Lucas will join the parade and speak at the “Together” event. She said: “The message of Refugee Week is more important today than ever. This is the reverse of the hostile environment and shows the Britain we aspire to be. The events taking place in Brighton and Hove this week once again demonstrate that here we have a long tradition of welcoming people to our city and celebrating the contribution they make.”

Between Saturday 16 June and Sunday 24 June, Sanctuary on Sea, the Sussex Syrian Community, the Hummingbird Refugee Project, EuroMernet, Refugee Radio, the Social Engaged Arts Salon and others will be presenting exhibitions, discussions and performances across the city.

Siriol Hugh-Jones, the Festival’s curator, said: “In setting up the festival I wanted to remind audiences that many of the composers they love to listen to were themselves displaced at one time or another, but we don’t think of them as refugees, we think of them as great composers.”

Other concerts at St Mary’s Church include “Travels of Song” at 7.30pm on 17 June and “Calcutta” at 7.30pm on 21 June. The first of these will feature recent songs written by detainees at Yarl’s Wood, the infamous immigration detention centre and early music by Catholic composers exiled under Elizabeth I.  “Calcutta”, the second concert, explores the cultural melting pot in 18th century Calcutta through story, song and puppetry.

Monika-Akila Richards, co-organiser of Refugee Week, said: “We are celebrating Refugee Week with a fantastic range of events and we’d love families and communities to join us. Everyone is particularly welcome to come to ‘Together,’ our free, flagship event in the Dome and Brighton Museum on 24th June. It’s an opportunity to come and enjoy being together and make Brighton and Hove proud.”

Vote remain or become little England

Labour MP Jo Cox was tragically stabbed outside Birstall public library, West Yorkshire in broad daylight where she was about to hold a surgery for constituents on Thursday 16 June. This incident has cast a shadow over the EU referendum campaign and led to an all too temporary pause in campaigning and a period of sober reflection.

Jeremy Corbyn spoke in the House of Commons on Monday 20 June and paid tribute to Mrs Cox’s: “compassion and passion to create a better world and in her honour we recommit ourselves to that task.” When Mr Corbyn visited Mrs Cox’s grave the day after her murder he spoke of a “well of hatred.”

It is into this well of hatred that Nigel Farage, Leader of UKIP, speaks. He tells us he is the man in the pub to whom everyone can relate. Do not be deceived. An hour before Jo Cox was killed, Mr Farage unwittingly launched a referendum poster entitled Breaking Point showing a steady stream of refugees flooding into Britain coupled with a call to take control of Britain’s borders. However, he then has the audacity to accuse the Prime Minister days later of playing “despicable” political tricks in the wake of Mrs Cox’s death.

In fact, Mr Cameron was speaking in support of Jo Cox, a seasoned campaigner with many years’ experience at Oxfam. She campaigned about Syrian refugees and other destitute peoples with authority.

Mr Farage accused the PM and Remain camp of misrepresenting the motives of many British people who simply want control of their borders. Unfortunately polls indicate that while economic arguments may have the greatest significance and impact if Britain leaves the EU, it is immigration above all other issues that determines how people will vote.

Britain must decide whether to embrace the European project and the multiculturalism that has made her great or whether to become “little England” with Scotland once more seeking independence and the future of Northern Ireland uncertain, border controls reinstated. The EU is the most advanced and successful form of cross-border cooperation that the world has ever seen, empowered to manage the power of multi-nationals and mitigate climate change.

Vote Remain 002

It is both desperately sad and very alarming that the man who has been charged with Mrs Cox’s murder gave his name during his first court appearance at as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain.”

He is an individual and it is highly likely that he is unwell but his statement indicates a fractured society. While the conservatives make the case for national sovereignty and freedom to trade with countries beyond Europe and forge new agreements; UKIP always campaigns about controlling Britain’s borders and in this case closing them to Turkey. The NHS alone would be on its knees without foreign nationals and immigrants working at every level of the health service.

Gordon Brown, wrote in the Guardian on Friday 17 June about Jo Cox: “She wanted us to shout from the rooftops, as she said in her maiden speech, that there is much more that brings us together than drives us apart. She believed our society’s diversity was our greatest strength… (According to her husband) She would not want us to confront hate with hate, but to conquer hate wherever it is found.”

Mr Brown wrote: “Unless we strive for a culture of respect to replace a culture which does too little to challenge prejudice, we will be learning nothing from what happened to Jo.”

About the referendum, tellingly Mr Brown said: “The business of politics has become more about the exploitation of fears than the advancement of hope.” While the Remain campaign is accused of “Project Fear” it is UKIP that exploits fears about immigration mercilessly, fears about jobs and pressures on public services.

The EU provides jobs, about half of UK trade, national security and allows free movement of labour for the British to work in Europe as well as Europeans to work here. Britain is sovereign within Europe and is part of a 28 strong trading family. She would still have to apply EU rules to retain access to the single market if she leaves the EU.

“If Britain votes out, it is irreversible”, Mr Cameron said. Vote remain.

The same article is published on the News Hub here.

Refugees are thankful to be alive

In Britain we associate camping with a rustic retreat into nature from our manic and sophisticated lives. For refugees fleeing political persecution, camping in squalor is a way of life. Most of them do not want to leave their homeland, under six percent reach Europe. They arrive in refugee camps traumatised, alone and hungry.

Brutalised by war and disorientated because they do not speak the language, they do not understand the culture and they do not know whom to trust. Women have often been raped in front of their husbands or male relatives and children are suicidal and starving, they fight to survive.

Refugees must compete for food, water to drink and bathe and battle to become legal citizens. Without passports refugees are not allowed to return to their homeland, even if family members remain there, without permission from the Home Office. They have already left their family, friends, homes, possessions and above all their dignity. It is possible that even their jewellery, their only portable possessions, may be taken from them, if not by robbers then by the authorities to pay for their stay.

Refugees stop being citizens and become stateless aliens in a foreign land where the government sees them as a problem rather than a person. They are stripped of their humanity by the immigration authorities who interrogate them relentlessly. While necessary, it must feel like an assault on an already battered psyche, the final straw tipping them over into a temporary insanity haunted by the hell of going back to their homeland.

Countries in the West have the opposite problem. Many argue that Britain is a densely populated island, the green fields are cultivated for farming. We are told hospitals are at breaking point and schools and the welfare state are stretched to capacity. Refugees who do not speak English are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and must be protected under the UN Geneva Convention of Human Rights.

Generations of indigenous, white British people living in overcrowded, dilapidated council and housing association flats are trapped in low income jobs or unemployment. They resent the refugees who sometimes take priority on the housing list because they are homeless or temporarily housed in a detention centre. The refugees are grateful for any shelter but the poverty, language barriers and mutual mistrust can prove to be a fatal combination setting neighbours against each other and fracturing the heart of communities.