Romani Movement is Vulnerable to Hijack and Usurpation
Grattan Puxon negotiates with a policeman during the evictions at Dale Farm, UK on Oct. 20 2011
Source: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Europe
The fact that Amnesty International looks like leading the way only points up the present weakness of the Romani movement. We are vulnerable to hijack and usurpation.
Even Roma Nation Day, supposed to be an affirmation of Roma Nation recognition, has been hijacked, tamed and co-opted into "International Roma Day" by the European Union, and others. Sparks no longer fly!
Though we have to be thankful for European Parliament adoption of 2 August as the day when the genocide will be officially commemorated the growth of anti-Roma racism, mass deportations, bloody pogroms becomes only more more provocative.
We need to match Amnesty International, recognizing their part as the movement truly moves forward. To achieve this, many younger activists now believe there must be a democratic transition within the movement. An elected representative body with a Roma Nation mandate behind it, could place our representation on political parity with state governments and international institutions.
We could at the same time, at the very least, regain a consultative place within the UN framework, and possibly move up from there. Pretending we still have that link, as some do, is no help whatever.
Recognition as part of the Indian Diaspora appears now to be in reach, if the right moves are made at the forthcoming events in New Delhi scheduled for September.
Meanwhile, the debate on the proposed Romani Institute and its merits continues (though clearly the project is a forgone conclusion) while the European Roma Forum, once the lead consultative body, appears to be slipping into oblivion.
And we are no nearer uniting our still separate efforts on either side of the Atlantic. Will there be an open, all-welcome World Romani Congress that can bring us together in a form that will allow the Roma Nation to mobilize and use its potential power in a way that will make a difference to a globally scattered but internet-linked Romani population that must now exceed twenty million? Can one, or a combination, of our present cross-border organizations (ERTF, IRU, ERU, WRO, ERN etc) rise to this task?
Zor kotar o jekhipe!