The attack carried out on 70 Roma people in a suburb in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday, backed by the fascists of the Casa Pound party and the far right Forza Nuovo, is the latest example of violence against the Roma people. This follows violent attacks on Roma people in the suburbs of Paris.
Virgil Bitu from Gypsy Council said, “The governments of Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine and France have failed to take serious action against violent attacks on the Roma Community.
“It seems that when racists and the far right target the Roma the perpetrators know they will not be held accountable. We are the forgotten nation. We urge governments and intergovernmental institutions to take effective measures against such hate crimes, to prioritise action over anti-Gypsyism and include it on their political agendas”.
Michael Bradley, Stand Up To Racism said, “The attacks on Roma people are part of a heightened atmosphere of racism across Europe. Racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism are at the centre of the racist and fascist right’s agenda. Just like in the 1930s, the Roma people are also becoming a target for far right violence”.
On Monday 8 April 2019, the International Roma Day protesters will gather in Parliament Square. They will not gather to celebrate but to commemorate the Roma victims of the Holocaust and to protest against anti-Gypsyism, now tolerated by some European governments.
On 8 April the issue of anti-Roma violence and the fact that the suffering of the Roma and Gypsy people’s suffering in the holocaust are both being raised.
They will protest at 10 Downing Street, highlighting the fact that Gypsy, Roma and Travellers communities do not have any representative on government’s Holocaust Commission. They will then go on to protests at the Italian, Bulgarian, French and Hungarian embassies over t government failure to stop racist and far right violence against the community.
Finally they will meet at the Bishopsgate Institute East London for the launch of the personal Roma Archive of community elder Grattan Puxton and to discuss organising the Gypsy Roma Traveller Movement to increase its participation in the democratic decision making process in Britain.
Notes to editor: The event is hosted by GR8 and assembles at 11am, Parliament Square, Monday 8 April. Stand Up To Racism is working with GR8. Stand Up To Racism is a broad based anti-racist organisation with support across the labour and trade union movement and from many major faith and community organisations.