In the Former British Empire!

With UNICEF ambassador Vanessa Redgrave on board, the RED WHEELS AGAINST RACISM campaign is going into top gear this week as a world appeal to stop Basildon council bulldozing Britain's biggest Gypsy settlement is launched in Italy. At the same time, Dale Farm residents are to take part in the European-wide Action Week Against Racism, raising banners and bunting on an arch at the gateway to their village. An update on Basildon's plan to spent nearly five million Euro destroying 86 homes at Dale Farm, is being sent by the International Alliance of Inhabitants to the UN through the Habitat Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, as a priority case.

Meanwhile, some 50,000 people in 40 countries around the globe are to be contacted by email with a request to sign the the petition. To date about 1,000 names have been collected. "This petition simply asks Basildon council to leave our homes alone," says Dale Farm spokesman Richard Sheridan. "We want to end ethnic-cleansing once and for all."

ROMA NATION DAY

The largest yet Roma Nation Day celebrations marking forty years of human rights campaiging by organisations representing Britain's 350,000 Gypsies and Travellers will take place next month. Among events already scheduled are the following, sponsored by the UK Forum, which links Britain's Gypsies, Travellers and Roma with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Delegations are expected from the Punjab, Ireland, Poland, Afghanistan, Sudan and many other places besides. The festival unites in solidarity with workers, refugees and peasants against racism and state terror.

April 6
Forum delegation meeting at the
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
on current and future Government policy.

April 7
Opening of RED WHEELS FESTIVAL

by Brentwood Gypsy Support Group.
thomasacton ((AT)) hotmail.com
Brentwood Gypsy Support Group

7.30pm at Brentwood Theatre
Brentwood Theatre, 15 Shenfield Road, Brentwood, Essex CM15 8AG
Box Office : 01277 200 305 / Web: www­.brentwood-theatre­.org

April 8
Roma Nation Day

2.30 pm
Michael Collin's play Traveller In Progress
and screening of the film ATCH by Jake Bowers.

Laindon Community Association Centre, Laindon, Essex
(near Laindon train station - see map)

contact: dale.farm ((AT)) ntlworld.com ///phone: 01206523528

April 9
International Meeting on Self Determination
and Festival Dinner in West Essex/ East London

Dale Farm Residents Committee
Tenants Association of Panjab
VOICE Refugee Forum
with Kingfisher Beer (to be confirmed).
evol ((AT)) j12.org

SEE ALSO
USTIBEN REPORTS
Freedom March from Dale Farm to Basildon Town Hall, 2005
VOICE /Decolonization Wiki
East Anglia Social Forum Wiki