Anti-racist no campaigners outraged by media smears

national | miscellaneous | news report

Friday October 11, 2002 11:52

by Libertarians against Nice

Over the last days a lot of attention has been focused on Justin Barrett's links with "an extreme right-wing party in Germany which the authorities there believe has "Nazi characteristics" (Irish Times). The media have attempted to use this story to imply all No campaigners are racists with the RTE Radio 1 morning news show going so far as to describe Barretts 'No to Nice' group as an umbrella group for all anti-Nice campaigns.

Press Release - Oct/11/2002
Libertarians against Nice
Anti-racist no campaigners outraged by media smears

Over the last days a lot of attention has been focused on Justin Barrett's links with "an extreme right-wing party in Germany which the authorities there believe has "Nazi characteristics" (Irish Times). The media have attempted to use this story to imply all No campaigners are racists with the RTE Radio 1 morning news show going so far as to describe Barretts 'No to Nice' group as an umbrella group for all anti-Nice campaigns.

This quite simply is a lie. In fact the majority of anti-Nice activists want nothing to do with Barretts organisation. As the media is well aware several other alliances exist including Libertarians Against Nice and the Alliance Against Nice both of which make anti-racism part of their platform of opposition to Nice. No coverage has been given to this side of the debate.

Andrew Flood for Libertarians Against Nice said
"Opposition to the racist immigration politics of Fortress Europe is one of the four planks of Libertarians Against Nice's opposition to the Nice treaty. Many of our members have been active in anti-racist campaigns over the last decade. We are outraged that the media is attempting to paint all no campaigners as racists while ignoring the racist aspects of the EU's immigration policies. We are doubly outraged because the pro-Nice parties of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats are in a government currently carrying out racist deportations.

"EU states, particularly Britain and France, the ex-colonial powers, are crucial for maintaining some of the most repressive regimes in the world. The brutal regimes of Algeria, Nigeria, Kenya and Burundi rely heavily upon EU aid for their survival. Through such support, the EU helps keep millions impoverished and thus likely to seek a better life within the E.U. The EU commission can now levy sanctions against any country that does not co-operate on migration controls - a sure way to encourage ever more repression in the third world.

The EU's repressive anti-immigrant policies claimed the lives of at least 2,000 people between '93 and 2000, people drowned in the Mediterranean, electrocuted at the Channel Tunnel or suffocated in Wexford. This is 8 times as many as were killed at the Berlin Wall during its entire 30 year history. These policies are designed to make immigrants illegal and force them to survive in a precarious, hunted position, or live on short-term visas, dependant on work permits held by their employers. In both cases they are vulnerable and open to extreme exploitation as cheap labour.

The expansion of European police powers has gone hand in hand with the criminalisation of refugees. The EU has established a massive database to track refugees and allow "discreet surveillance" of citizens. In 1998 the European police force Europol was launched and its officers are immune from prosecution by national police forces.

The Nice Treaty brings us another step towards a Europe whose borders are closed to the global poor, a Europe where powerful trans-national police have enormous power to spy on anyone they deem a threat. Is this the Europe we want?"

Deirdre Hogan of Libertarians Against Nice said
"One of the provisions the Nice treaty will change from unanimity to qualified-majority voting, and which is relevant to Fortress Europe is the provision on the "economic, financial and technical cooperation with third countries" (Article 181a). If the Nice treaty is passed, decisions to, for example, impose sanctions on third world countries if they refused to cooperate with "migrant management", would have to be accepted by all member states if the qualified-majority of the European Council agreed on it. Visitors to our web site at http://more.at/stopnice will find detailed documentation of the racist consequences of Fortress Europe."

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More information on Fortress Europe and the effects of the Nice Treaty at http://struggle.ws/ireland/nice/analysis/fortress.html

Libertarians against Nice
http://more.at/stopnice