<nettime> One black MP for all Europe (fwd)

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

----- Forwarded message from Eddie Fernandes -----
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 1999 14:29:17 +0100
From: Eddie Fernandes <e.fernandes@ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: One black MP for all Europe
Sender: owner-goanews@goacom.com



The Independent (UK) Tuesday 1 June 1999.  Front Page:
Headline: One black MP for all Europe

By Colin Brown, Chief Political Correspondent 

CLAUDE MORAES could be a lone voice in the European Parliament if he wins
a seat in the European elections on 10 June. He is Asian and the European
Parliament will be almost wholly white. 

Across the whole of the European Union, Britain is the only country where
there are any black or Asian candidates standing for election. Mr Moraes
is the second in Labour's list of candidates in the London region and is
almost certain to gain a place in the parliament. 

Mr Moraes, a commissioner for the Commission for Racial Equality until
standing for Labour, said: "I will be outnumbered by neo-fascists who
think I am subhuman. "The neo-Nazis will get seats because of proportional
representation, but there are no black candidates in the rest of Europe.
It is almost incredible." 

Mr Moraes was amazed and angry when he visited the European Parliament
with other Labour candidates and realised that he was one of the few black
faces in the building. He said: "In France, they have an old colonial
approach to black communities and while they are part of the
establishment, they won't let them have a political role, because of
racism. "In Germany, the Turks are third country nationals and they have
ensured that they don't get on the candidates' lists. Portugul, Spain and
Italy all have large immigrant populations from Africa but no black
candidates." 

An analysis by Tara Mukherjee, chairman of the London-based European
Multicultural Foundation, has found that there are no black or Asian
candidates outside Britain for the European elections. 

"It is an outrage," said Mr Mukherjee, with a call for positive
descrimination to get more members of the ethnic minorities on to
selection lists. 

Britain's record is better than the rest of Europe, but it too has been
dragging its heels in selecting black or Asian candidates, Mr Mukherjee said

*****************************************************
Who is Claude Moraes?  Excerpt from May 1999 issue of Goa Now at:
http://www.goacom.com/goanow/99/may/backwoods.html

…Advocate Claude Moraes from Utorda was the chairman of the Labour Party
Immigration Cell in the UK and the party candidate during the last elections…
*****************************************************
At the last UK General Election he was given a pretty hopeless constituency
to fight and lost.   Now he is 99.9% sure of getting in.

Forwarded by Eddie Fernandes.  e.fernandes@ucl.ac.uk

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