#Cheltenham will be recognised as a ’Town of Sanctuary’ for refugees
Refugees who were forced out of Syria by the civil war and who arrive in Cheltenham will be helped to integrate with the town.
Cheltenham Borough councillors unanimously backed a motion this week calling for further support to integrate refugees with local communities through basic language lessons and education opportunities.
Cheltenham will now be recognised as a ’Town of Sanctuary’ which offers places of safety to people who flee violence.
In 2015 the borough council pledged to take-in 100 refugee families by 2020 in the wake of the migrant crisis.
Councillor Peter Jeffries, cabinet member for housing, told the meeting Cheltenham has housed 25 refugees to date.
Liberal Democrat councillor Max Wilkinson, who tabled the motion, told full council members helping refugees to integrate is “a challenge our country often hasn’t worked hard enough to meet in recent years”.
Gloucestershire Association of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS) and Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees (CWR) currently work to help refugees integrate into the county.
A fund has been set up on crowdsourcing website JustGiving to help support a refugee student at the University of Gloucestershire once a year.
The fund, called The Michael Perham Sanctuary Scholarship, has so far raised more than £1,550.
▻https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/cheltenham-news/cheltenham-recognised-town-sanctuary-refugees-2688791
#villes-refuge #réfugiés #asile #migrations #solidarité #réfugiés_syriens #UK #Angleterre
University of Glasgow publishes report into historical slavery
The University of Glasgow has published a comprehensive report into the institution’s historical links with racial slavery.
The study acknowledges that whilst it played a leading role in the abolitionist movement, the University also received significant financial support from people whose wealth at least in part derived from slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow report, co-authored by Professor Simon Newman and Dr Stephen Mullen, both from the University of Glasgow, follows a year-long investigation into bequests, support and other ways the University might have benefited from slavery-related wealth.
It estimates the present-day value of all monies given to the University which might have been fully or partly derived from slavery to be in the order of tens of millions of pounds, depending on the indexation formula.
The University has now agreed a proactive programme of reparative justice which includes the creation of a centre for the study of slavery and a memorial or tribute at the University in the name of the enslaved.
The University is also working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) and hopes to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen academic collaboration between the two institutions.
Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, said: “The University of Glasgow has a proud record of anti-slavery activity including petitioning Parliament to abolish slavery and awarding an honorary degree to the emancipationist, William Wilberforce. Glasgow also educated James McCune Smith, a formerly enslaved New Yorker who became the first ever African American to receive a medical degree.
“This report has been an important undertaking and commitment to find out if the University benefitted from slavery in the past. Although the University never owned enslaved people or traded in the goods they produced, it is now clear we received significant financial support from people whose wealth came from slavery.
“The University deeply regrets this association with historical slavery which clashes with our proud history of support for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery itself.
“Looking to the future, the University has set out a programme of reparative justice through which we will seek to acknowledge this aspect of the University’s past, enhance awareness and understanding of historical slavery, and forge positive partnerships with new partners including the University of the West Indies.”
The University will also work to further enhance awareness and understanding of the history and its connections to both slavery and abolitionism.
Professor Simon Newman, the University of Glasgow report’s co-author, said: “The University of Glasgow has made history in the UK today by acknowledging that alongside its proud history of abolitionism is an equally significant history of financially benefitting from racial slavery. In doing this, Glasgow follows in the footsteps of leading American universities which have confronted the role of slavery in their histories.
“The University of Glasgow is an institution that grew in a city tied to the trade in tobacco, sugar and cotton, all of which were initially produced by enslaved Africans. Launching an in-depth investigation to look at how the University might have benefited from the profits of racial slavery was, in my opinion, a brave decision. But it is a decision rooted in the core values of an educational institution dedicated to the pursuit of truth and social justice.
“I am delighted that we have acknowledged our past, albeit indirect, ties to racial slavery and been inspired to develop new and exciting opportunities and collaborations for students and academics alike as part of a rolling programme of reparative justice.”
One of the three external advisors to the slavery report was Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies; along with Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, a leading civil rights and equality campaigner and Graham Campbell, a Glasgow City Council councillor and an activist for African-Caribbean issues in Scotland.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said: “I have looked closely at the report, reading it within the context of the University of Glasgow-University of the West Indies framework for mutual recognition and respect.
“The approach adopted by the University of Glasgow is commendable and is endorsed by the UWI as an excellent place to begin. Both universities are committed to excellent and ethical research, teaching and public service.
“I celebrate colleagues in Glasgow for taking these first steps and keenly anticipate working through next steps.”
The University has accepted the recommendations in the report. This commits it to:
Publish the Senior Management Group’s statement of July 2016, along with the final version of the report detailing the research and conclusions of the research into how the University benefited from the profits of historical slavery, and a statement describing the reparative justice actions to be undertaken by the University.
Strive to increase the racial diversity of students and staff and to reduce the degree attainment gap, in line with the University of Glasgow’s Equality and Diversity Policy. This will include awarding scholarships to BAME students of Afro-Caribbean descent to help address their under-representation in the University.
Pursue the negotiation and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Glasgow and the University of the West Indies, designed to fit the needs and requirements of UWI staff and students, while working in alignment with the educational and research objectives of the University of Glasgow.
Create an interdisciplinary centre for the study of historical slavery and its legacies, including modern slavery and trafficking.
Inaugurate a named professorship, a rotating post to be awarded to University of Glasgow academics undertaking significant research relevant to historical and modern slavery and reparative justice.
Name a major new University building or space to commemorate a significant figure, perhaps James McCune Smith, with appropriate signage and public-facing information.
Add a commemorative plaque to the Gilbert Scott Building, explaining that this was the site of the house of Robert Bogle, a West India merchant who owned many enslaved people, and who was one of a number of people who made money from slavery and who then later donated funds for the construction of the building.
Develop a Hunterian exhibition exploring the often unknown and unexpected ways in which some items within the collections are related to the history of racial slavery.
Develop a creative arts and sciences series (under the auspices of the new centre), with performances, events and lectures.
▻https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_607154_en.html
#esclavage #histoire #rapport
cc @reka
Ici pour télécharger le rapport :
▻https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_607547_en.pdf
Autres documents sur l’esclavage sur le portail de l’université de Glasgow :
▻https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/slavery
Michael O’Brien’s Anger | The American Conservative
▻https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/michael-obrien-anger-catholic-ireland-sex-abuse
Le média n’est pas trop ma tasse de thé mais... le sujet est plus qu’important, totalement crucial aujoud’hui où les voix s’élèvent de plus en plus fréquement, et je suis surpris d’avoir raté ce témoignage irlandais le jour où Monsieur le Pape visite l’Irlande.
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iQGczIx6Sg
“Mr Chairman, I am surprised at the Minister now. First of all Minister you made a bags of it in the beginning by changing the judges. You made a complete bags of it at that time because I went to the Laffoy Commission and ye had seven barristers there questioning me, telling me that I was telling lies when I told them that I got raped of a Saturday, got an merciful beating after it and he then came along the following morning and put Holy Communion in my mouth. You don’t know what happened there . You haven’t the foggiest. You’re talking through your hat there, and you are talking to a Fianna Fáil man, and a former councillor and a former mayor that worked tooth and nail for the party that you are talking about now. You didn’t do it right. You got it wrong. Admit it and apologise for doing that because you don’t know what I feel inside me. You don’t know the hurt I have.
You said it was non-adversarial. My God, seven barristers throwing questions at us non-stop. I attempted to commit suicide, [turning to his wife] there’s the woman who saved me from committing suicide on my way down from Dublin after spending five days at the commission . They brought a man over from Rome – 90 odd years of age – to tell me I was telling lies and that I wasn’t beaten for an hour non-stop by two of them from head to toe without a shred of cloth on my body. My God, Minister.
[Turning to Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar] Can I speak to you and ask your leader to stop making a political football out of this. You hurt us when you do that. You tear the shreds from inside our body. For God’s sake, try and give us some peace, try and give us some peace, and not continue hurting us.
[Turning to his wife]
That woman will tell you how many times I jump out of bed at night with the sweat pumping out of me because I see these fellows at the end of the bed with their fingers pulling me into the room to rape me, to bugger me and to beat the shite out of me. That’s the way it is, and sometime, you know what, I listen to the leader of Fianna Fáil. I even listened to the apology. It was mealy-mouthed but at least it was an apology. The Rosminians said in the report that they were easy on us. The first day I went there, the first day I went to the Rosminians in my home which is Ferryhouse in Clonmel, the only home I know, he said you’re in it for the money. We didn’t want money. We wanted someone to stand up and say ‘yes these fellows were buggered, these people were robbed’.
Little girls, my sister, a month old when she was put into an institution, eight of us from the one family were dragged by the ISPCC cruelty man, put into two cars and brought to the court in Clonmel. We were left standing there without food or anything and the fellow in the long black frock and white collar came along and he put us into a scut-truck and landed us below with 200 other boys. Two nights later I was raped.
How can anyone, you’re talking about the Constitution, these people would gladly say yes to a Constitution to freeze the funds of the religious orders. This State, this country of ours will say yes to that Constitution if you have to change it.
Don’t say you can’t change it. You are the Government of this State. You run this State. So, for God’s sake, stop mealy-mouthing because I am sick of it. You are turning me away from voting Fianna Fáil, which I have done from the day I could vote.
You know me Minister and you have met me on several occasions, so you know what I am like. Remember Wexford?”
UPDATE: Reader Old West points out that this is exactly the kind of anger we ought to be seeing and hearing from bishops. That’s right! And that’s the thing that I have never, ever understood about this entire damn scandal: why we have yet to see a single bishop respond with that kind of righteous anger. I’m sick and tired of hearing them say how “sad” this is, though sad it is. If they had the slightest empathy with those children, they would react much as Michael O’Brien did. Just think of Pope Francis spoke with even a fraction of O’Brien’s conviction and passion, what it would do. It might just put the fear of God into those cretinous time-servers.
#église #pédophilie #droit #état_de_droit #viol #cruauté #barbares #impunité
]]>Every week this winter two people died sleeping rough
The Bureau launches ’#Dying_Homeless' project to count deaths on UK streets
Des nouvelles de la #lutte pour des #services_publics décents dans les #bidonvilles de Cape Town « Social Justice Coalition
▻http://www.sjc.org.za/posts/social-justice-coalition-press-alert-city-commits-to-development-of-implemen
While the summit was marked by heated disagreements, the SJC welcomes the City’s renewed commitment – made at the end of the summit, and again this week by Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, Mayco member for Utility Services – to develop, with the assistance of an advisory committee, a formal and detailed Implementation plan for the janitorial service.
]]>Anglican newspaper defends ’Gaystapo’ article | World news | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/08/anglican-newspaper-defends-gaystapo-article
An Anglican newspaper has defended the publication of an article that compares gay rights campaigners to Nazis, saying the author has “pertinent views”.
The column, by former east London councillor Alan Craig, appeared in the 28 October edition of the Church of England Newspaper, one of the oldest newspapers in the world. Although it is independent of the institution bearing the same name, it carries adverts for Church of England jobs and is read by its clergy.
]]>Southwark evictors – Kate Belgrave
►http://www.katebelgrave.com/2011/09/southwark-evictors
On the weekend, I attended a community conversation event and spoke to (Labour) Southwark council leader Peter John about his council’s appalling proposal to evict people convicted of taking part in August’s riots. No Labour councillor should ever champion eviction.
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