Alun Parry Singer Songwriter: August 2007

The Alun Parry Band

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Friday, August 10, 2007

Escape From Campsfield

The escape of detainees from Campsfield Detention Centre has produced howls of panic from politicians and the media.

Not because asylum seekers and immigrants are locked away in these prisons by another name.

Not because the overwhelming majority locked up here have committed no crime and are not criminals.

Not because people are held there indefinitely with no idea when they may ever be released - our own mini Guantanamo Bay.

Not because the situation of those locked up inside is so desperate that they resort to hunger strikes and other desperate measures.

Not because indefinite imprisonment is known to result in mental breakdown.

No.

The howls from the media and the politicians are about poor security. Or at their most liberal, a cry that criminals should not have been put with those immigrants who have never committed a crime.

Well let me state the bleeding obvious here. How about demanding that nobody is imprisoned who has never committed a crime. Is that too radical in this day and age?

The Labour Party should be ashamed of it's zealous role in this scandal. There was a time a few years ago when this same government were locking up asylum seekers in criminal prisons. I know. I visited them there. I spoke with the immigration detainees and campaigned on their behalf. Many of them had already fled horrendous experiences only to end up in a foreign jail simply for being here.

Now they have set up their network of "Detention Centres" (nice euphemism!) so they have a purpose built way of imprisoning people instead.

There has been a long campaign to close down Campsfield, a campaign I fully support.

Immigration is a benefit to us - it is not an act of charity but an absolute necessity. All the serious studies show this to be the case. But the tabloids and the scaremongers want us to think different.

Typically, those with vested interests will always seek to create scapegoats to distract us from the real reasons why people suffer bad housing or poor prospects or low paid jobs. They don't want us realising who and what is really to blame.

So they point at the immigrant and asylum seeker instead.

It's an old and distasteful trick. Hitler pointed his finger at the Jews. The National Front in the 80's pointed at black people as "nicking our jobs" in order to try to explain mass unemployment.

And now the current lot of government, business, and media join up to point the finger of blame at the immigrant.

It's nothing new. The main difference on this issue between the NF in the 80's and the Labour Party of today is that the NF never managed to get any forced deportations (let alone brag about the number!).

The NF never managed to order in riot police to deal with asylum seekers.

The NF never managed to have prisons built for the purpose of locking up asylum seekers as if they were criminals.

The NF never managed to order the authorities to treat asylum seekers in such a way that hunger strikes are their only recourse.

The Labour Party, however, did and is still doing.

At least in the 80's it wasn't considered mainstream.

9:11 AM | Permalink |

Thursday, August 2, 2007

What Did I Tell You About The Culture Company

So the city council and the "culture" company have axed Liverpool's Mathew Street Festival with only three weeks notice. Sarcastic applause!

I wasn't personally booked to play at the festival as I had other commitments with the release of the album being on the 25th.

So I can say this without there being any sense of personal sour grapes.

What a bunch of bloody morons!

All the doubts I had about The Culture Company that you can read about in a recent blog are now confirmed.

How many tourists had booked hotels and flight tickets to visit our city for this great event? What happens to them now?

And all this on the bank holiday weekend that directly leads into the precise date of Liverpool's 800th Birthday. All this on the 50th anniversary of John meeting Paul!

How apt that this is as a result of building work! I've seen plenty of that in the run up to 2008. But what of the culture?

Let's put it this way, I organise almost 400 music nights in Liverpool every year. I've not heard a jot from anyone at The Culture Company. And any advances I've made to them have been rebuffed or lost in a maze of being passed to the wrong people who then pass me onto the wrong people until one can only give up and scream.

I've even heard reports from one senior local trade unionist that plans for a Liverpool Trade Union trail were ignored. What idiocy. The history of the labour movement is a key part of the social history of the people of Liverpool.

A history trail based on our struggles will be a fantastic addition to the capital of culture celebrations, but they didn't want to know. Thankfully the union movement is planning to go it alone on this one. A lesson for us all in my view.

The Mathew Street Festival is a flagship event, this year more than any. And it's cancelled because of building works.

Can someone drag Ricky Tommo out to yell Capital Of Culture My Arse!

I think those of us involved in grassroots organisation of the city's cultural events, and those performers and artists who actually do it, should take this as a signal that no longer should we leave this kind of stuff to this incompetent elite.

It's time for us to ignore these buffoons and do it for ourselves.

Who is up for it? WE are the people. WE are the reason this city is what it is. Let this be the start of a movement for a People's Capital of Culture that goes from the grassroots, is organised by US, and bypasses these balloons and their fancy titles who clearly cannot be trusted to do it properly.

5:19 PM | Permalink |

Escape From Campsfield

What Did I Tell You About The Culture Company

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