Against a rising tide: racismEurope and 1992
01 May 1991
Book Review:
Against a rising tide: racism, Europe and 1992, Mel Read and Alan Simpson Spokesman for Nottingham Racial Equality Council and European Labour Forum 1991. £6.95.
The authors give a brief tour of European institutions and the law-making process and then turn to an examination of the Single European Act and the Social Charter in their implications for black communities. They contrast the European Commission's zeal in producing a set of rules for the creation of a completely free market with its abdication of responsibility for tackling racism in the member states, and the divisions engendered by the Social Charter between EC citizen and non-citizen workers. They examine the new nature of work, what they call the "contract culture" and the use of super-exploited migrant labour as a consequence of free market economics and a further cause of racism. They take the reader through the new groups and agendas set up outside EC competence - TREVI, Schengen, the Ad-Hoc Group on Immigration, the Coordinators' Group - to show how "Fortress Europe" is being created. And they describe the effects of institutionalised racism on the ground, with the growth of fascist groups all over Europe, and the volume and growth of racist attacks. A section is devoted to agendas for action against poverty, unemployment, and racism, and for civic rights, at the local and national level. Appendices contain the recommendations of the Ford Committee of Inquiry into Racism and Xenophobia, and the Karlsruhe Declaration against Racism.
The book gives credit to the work done over many years by groups such as CARF (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism), but is not so good in the field of black and immigrant migrant and refugee groups. The authors fail to acknowledge the pioneering campaigning and organisational role played in the fight against "Fortress Europe" by groups like the Refugee Forum and the Migrants Rights Action Network. Because of this lack it does not always address the issues faced by these communities in its recommendations. But overall it is an excellent reference book which should certainly give readers a clear picture of the scale and scope of institutionalised racism within Europe.