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The
regular bulletins from The Blanket, through
the internet, cuts through government/Provisional
censorship.
My
current paid work includes working with asylum seekers
in Manchester. And I remembered yesterday, when I
met Tom Hartley 10 years ago in the aftermath of the
fall of the Soviet Union. He made great significance
of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and felt that
this was a great sign that partition may be disappearing
in Ireland.
However,
my work with asylum seekers makes me think that this
was much more of an omen than a present out of a lucky
bag. The Romas whom I have got to know have explained
in detail, massive discrimination and brutality in
the eastern European countries. They are refused mortgages,
segregated in education, had homes expropriated by
the police, have suffered open collusion between the
state and racist death gangs, and have to pay bribes
to get health care etc.
Sure,
it is easy to look back in hindsight, and Mr. Hartley
could be forgiven for not looking into the future.
Nevertheless, unless he looks at and condemns the
present situation, he should not only be ashamed of
himself, but also have the integrity to recognise
that the working class, including ethnic minorities,
have done dismally out of the fall of the Berlin wall.
There has been nothing to celebrate either for the
people of Eastern Europe or Ireland.
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