Despite the presence of human rights activists, the police arrested 276 people – half of them minors.
Eric Besson, the French immigration minister, ordered the clearout of what was dubbed “the jungle” in order to “stop traffickers”.
It is ironic of Besson to try to put a humanistic veneer on his action. Refugees set up the camp after French authorities decided in November 2002 to close the Red Cross camp in Sangatte that used to look after them. And the French government wasn’t worried when most of the refugees found themselves on the streets at the beginning of winter.
The countries the refugees come from read like a list of the battlegrounds of the “war on terror”: Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Palestine.
Britain is also responsible for the treatment of the refugees as New Labour and the right wing press are to happy to keep them at bay. The government should take responsibility and welcome the refugees. After all, they are only fleeing the death zones created by imperialism.
In November of last year, there was a brief moment of light amid the darkness that was 2020. Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Just as the weekend and the eight-hour-day are now regarded by many as a given, future generations may be in disbelief that...
On 4 November last year, when many of us were watching the aftermath of the American presidential election, the US formally left the Paris Climate Agreement. Written in 2015 at the United Nations’ COP21 climate conference in Paris, the agreement is often considered to be the most significant document of international climate cooperation. Back then,...
To say 2020 was dramatic would be an understatement. The world situation has been completely transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inadequacy of governmental and state responses. As we head into 2021 it feels like we are entering uncharted territory. To make specific predictions would be unwise. But the Covid-19 crisis raises fundamental questions...
The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.
