The persecution of the gypsies:

New Labour, old racism

By Tania Kent

The treatment meted out to gypsy families fleeing persecution and grinding poverty in the Czech and Slovak republics has been accompanied by unprecedented outpourings of racist and xenophobic hysteria whipped up by the media and the Labour government.

The arrival of around 300 Romanies in Dover at the end of October demonstrates that Labour is not only maintaining the Tories' racist immigration policies, but strengthening them. Its aim is to make the borders of Britain even more impenetrable to those seeking asylum from racist attacks. The Home Office announced it intends to speed-up the way that "abusive" cases are dealt with by cutting the time for appeal against rejection of a claim for asylum from 28 days to just 5. This measure in effect abolishes the right of appeal, as it is impossible to mount an effective case in such a short time.

The press initiated a pogrom atmosphere, with barely veiled threats of murder being directed at the defenceless families. Screaming headlines claimed that Dover would be "swamped" by "tides" of up to 3,000 gypsies. The Sun called this the "Giro Czech Invasion" and the Daily Mail a "Dover Deluge". All the broadsheets, including the pro-Labour Independent and The Guardian followed the same line.

Radio and television phone-ins and debates gave a platform for fascists to demand the immediate deportation of the immigrants and threaten violent acts against them. Refugee groups defending the Romanies have received abusive phone calls, hate-mail and personal threats.

Up to half of those arriving are children. Families have been split apart; the women and children are being housed in run-down residential homes and bed-and-breakfast accommodation. The men, who have committed no crime whatsoever, are in detention. Many are being held in prison. Arthur Good of the Kent Campaign for Asylum Seekers told International Worker: "If they have gone to Rochester prison then they are in for a miserable time indeed. They will join up to 220 other refugees who are already being held there. They are banged up in their cells all day, apart for one hour".

Conditions in the Czech and Slovak Republics

There are up to two million Romanies now living in the Czech and Slovak republics. The accounts of the refugees expose a litany of brutal assaults made against them. A recent report in the Prague Post detailed one of many such incidents.

"When the three cars packed with skinheads drove around the block a second time shouting 'Sieg Heil!' and 'Gypsies to the gas chambers,' Erika Gaborova, a 36-year-old Romany, fled in terror from the street and hid behind the door of her boyfriend's family home. The cars stopped. An eyewitness said one skinhead stepped out and threatened that his gang would kill all the Romanies inside. His were the last words she heard in her life

"A lead shot, flung from one of the skinhead's sling shots (they were also armed with a CO2 cartridge pistol), crashed through the glass pane above the door. Gaborova, an epileptic, fell to the floor, her body jerking in time to the seizure's spasms. When her boyfriend found her moments later, she'd stopped breathing."

The police exonerated the skinheads for the attack and even threatened to prosecute Erika's family for "not providing sufficient help to the dying woman".

Following the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993 and the move to the market economy, Czech Romanies were declared stateless and deported across the border. Many have been forced to flee their homes into settlements with virtually nothing to sustain them.

There is widespread state-sanctioned persecution of Romanies. Slovak National Party chairman, Jan Slota, said on national radio, "I love roasted meat gypsy-style very much but I'd prefer more meat and fewer gypsies". Prime Minister Merciar declared in April, "If we don't deal with them now then they'll deal with us in time."

The Romanies are historically one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. First defined as "non-Aryan", then "asocial", tens and thousands were exterminated under Hitler's fascist regime. Like the Jews they were treated as "social vermin" which needed to be eliminated from society. After the war millions were displaced and suffered persecution by the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe. Today they are the targets of fascist gangs across Europe.

Labour's despicable response

The response of the Labour government to this was despicable. The British Home Office made special broadcasts on Slovak radio and television reaffirming that they are "not welcome" and that the full force of the state would be brought to bear against those "trying to abuse the asylum procedures." Of the 300 Romanies that have entered Britain in the last few weeks, the Labour government has deported over 100 straight back to Calais.

The government is discussing plans to implement a visa requirement which will in effect ban all Czech and Slovak Romanies from entering Britain. The proposal was first aired by Tory MP Brian Mawhinney. Labour Immigration Minister Mike O'Brian lambasted Mawhinney's comments on the grounds that a public statement would "produce a rush to enter before they (visa controls) are imposed". O'Brian said that normally such measures are brought in "overnight without warning to prevent a surge".

Tony Blair claimed that the centrepiece of his programme was the development of an all inclusive "national identity" based on diversity, tolerance and a multi-ethnic society. The truth is that Labour is promoting exclusion, not inclusion. Its state-sanctioned discrimination will only strengthen right wing and fascist forces.

Defend all democratic rights

The orchestrated provocation against the Romanies is symptomatic of a broad social and political decay. Under conditions of deepening social inequality, immigrants are being targeted as scapegoats for the destruction of jobs and social services. It is the profit system, which is based on the accumulation of obscene wealth by a tiny handful at the expense of the interests of the vast majority, which is to blame for the deterioration in the social conditions.

The promotion of nationalism by the Labour government goes hand in glove with their collaboration with the destruction of jobs and the vital welfare services on which workers rely. The assault on the rights of immigrants will only lead to a further round of reactionary social measures directed against the entire working class.

Workers must come to the defence of the Romanies and all immigrants, and champion their rights. The Socialist Equality Party upholds the united interests of workers of all nationalities against the employers. We call for the abolition of immigration controls and defence of the rights of all to live and work wherever they chose, with full citizenship rights and benefits.

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