“Liberte!” – That was the last word spoken by the heroine of Churchill’s elite spy network before being executed by her Nazi captors.

On 13 September 1944, the glamorous British agent, [...]]]>

By Divya Talwar Producer, BBC Asian Network

“Liberte!” – That was the last word spoken by the heroine of Churchill’s elite spy network before being executed by her Nazi captors.

On 13 September 1944, the glamorous British agent, code named “Madeline,” was shot dead at Dachau concentration camp.

Despite being tortured by the Gestapo during 10 months of imprisonment, she had revealed nothing of use to her interrogators.

Noor Inayat Khan, died aged just 30, but her story has gone down in history.

She joined Winston Churchill’s sabotage force, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and became the first female radio operator sent into France in 1943, with the famous instruction to “set Europe ablaze”.

The role was so dangerous that she arrived in Paris with a life expectancy of just six weeks.

Gestapo arrests

Noor became the last essential link with London after mass arrests by the Gestapo had destroyed the SOE’s spy network in Paris.

As her spy circuit collapsed, her commanders urged her to return, but she refused to abandon what had become the principal and most dangerous post in France because she did not want to leave her French comrades without communications.

For three months, she single-handedly ran a cell of spies across Paris, frequently changing her appearance and alias until she was eventually captured.

Despite having a full description of her and deploying considerable forces in their effort to break the last remaining link with London, it was only her betrayal by a French woman that led to Noor’s capture by the Gestapo.

Noor’s decision to stay in Paris to fight Nazism was a decision that cost her her life.

Despite carrying a passport of an imperial subject she had no innate loyalty to Britain.

Born in Moscow to an Indian father and an American mother, she was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the renowned Tiger of Mysore, who refused to submit to British rule and was killed in battle in 1799.

Her father was a Sufi Muslim who moved his family first to London and then to Paris, where Noor was educated.

But when war broke out in 1939, Noor and one of her brothers, Vilayat, decided they had to travel to London, dedicating themselves against what they saw as the evil of Nazi Germany.

Her fluent French, quiet dedication and training in radio transmitting were quickly spotted by SOE officers.

Highest sacrifice

Noor’s bravery has long been recognised in France, where there are two memorials and a ceremony held each year to mark her death.

However, in Britain, although Noor was posthumously awarded the George Cross in 1949, her courage has since been allowed to fade in history.

That is about to change with the launch of a campaign to raise £100,000 to install a bronze bust of her in London, close to her former home.

It would be the first memorial in Britain to either a Muslim or an Asian woman.

Shrabani Basu, who spent eight years researching Noor’s history in official archives and family records, said: “I feel it is very important that what she did should not be allowed to fade from memory.

”Noor died for this country. She made the highest sacrifice. She didn’t need to do it. She felt it was a crime to stand back.

”She was an incredibly brave woman and I think it is important that her bravery is permanently recognised in this country.”

The project, which has the backing of 34 MPs and prominent British Asians, including human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti and film director Gurinder Chadha, is being led by Noor’s biographer, Shrabani Basu who wrote The Spy Princess in 2006.

Around £25,000 of the cost of the bust has been raised and permission granted to install the sculpture on land owned by the University of London in Gordon Square, close to the Bloomsbury house where Noor lived as a child in 1914, and where she returned while training for the SOE during World War II.

The memorial is scheduled to be completed and installed by early 2012.

Noor Inayat Khan’s story will be featured on Asian Network Reports on Tuesday 11 January at 1230 and 1800 GMT and afterwards on BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12151715

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MAN OF THE PEOPLE: Bernard ‘Claude’ Miller with his MBE

By Keith Rossiter and Graham Broach Herald reporters

17th March 2010

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Councillor-Claude-retires-age-95/article-1918049-detail/article.html

PLYMOUTH’S oldest councillor has retired at the age of 95.

Bernard ‘Claude’ Miller, who has been a Labour councillor for 29 years and was Lord Mayor in 2005, is said to [...]]]>

MAN OF THE PEOPLE: Bernard ‘Claude’ Miller with his MBE

By Keith Rossiter and Graham Broach Herald reporters

17th March 2010

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Councillor-Claude-retires-age-95/article-1918049-detail/article.html

PLYMOUTH’S oldest councillor has retired at the age of 95.

Bernard ‘Claude’ Miller, who has been a Labour councillor for 29 years and was Lord Mayor in 2005, is said to be suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Cllr Miller, who is quitting his Efford and Lipson seat on the council a year early, will trigger a by-election, which is expected to be held on the same day as the normal council elections, May 6.

Fellow councillor Andy Kerswell, who is also Cllr Miiller’s carer, said: “I have known him since I was a toddler.

“He and his wife Nora used to run the community centre in Blandford Road when it was first built.

“He is a genuine person. He is honest, that’s the thing I like most about him. There is no spin and no nonsense.

“In my opinion he is the last of the gentlemen councillors – liked by all parties no matter who was in power.

“He has had a lot of respect from the Tory Party – more from them than from his own party, to be honest.”

Cllr Miller was at the centre of a tug-of-loyalty last year, when he quit the Labour group to be an independent.

He was later persuaded by Labour group leader Tudor Evans and his deputy Chris Pattison to stay in the party.

In yesterday’s ( resignation letter, written with the help of his brother Robin, Cllr Miller said: “It is a great sadness for me to inform you that, due to my continued health problems, I feel it is now time for me to retire from the office of elected councillor for the ward of Efford and Lipson, a year earlier than I had intended.

“I had always intended this term of office would be my last, but I feel I can no longer do justice to the residents of my ward.

“It has been extremely difficult and challenging at times over the years, representing this ward, firstly at Devon County Hall, and then here in Plymouth, yet I think these have been some of the best years of my life.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank one special person, Councillor Andy Kerswell, who has helped me over many years and still cares for me daily.

“He has assisted me as a councillor and he supported me to become Lord Mayor. That year was without doubt the best time of my life.”

In turn, Mr Kerswell accused the Labour group on the council of turning their backs on Cllr Miller.

“He has done a lot for the city, and the Labour group has just cast him aside like an old rag,” Mr Kerswell said.

“Not one of them has been to see him or even written to him. The only person who has contacted him has been Vivien Pengelly, the Conservative leader of the council.”

But Mayor-designate Mary Aspinall, of the Labour group, said Cllr Miller had been in their room twice in the last three weeks and given her advice about being Lord Mayor.

“We have invited him to meetings and so on, but it is important not to upset him with him being so ill,” she said.

“He is the most respected member of our group and we all think highly of him.

“Alzheimer’s is not an easy disease to deal with, and we are aware that he is physically frail as well.”

Mrs Pengelly said: “Claude and I have always got on wonderfully well; he has always been interested in social services and vulnerable people.

“He is living proof that you are never too old to do what you want to do, and he will be missed by everyone on the council.

“It is very sad that he is not well at the moment, but he has led a wonderful life and is a true example to us all.”

A remarkable political career

CLAUDE Miller MBE has enjoyed a remarkable political career spanning more than seven decades.

He was born in Stonehouse, into a political family; his decorated father William – the grandson of a freed slave and the city’s first black councillor – was Deputy Lord Mayor in the 1930s. Miller Way in Estover is named after him.

Claude was educated at High Street School for Boys until he was 15, when he enrolled at the Devonport and Plymouth Technical School.

He became interested in politics at the age of 16 and helped to form the Labour Party League of Youth in Plymouth.

He was elected to Devon County Council in 1981 and joined the city council in 1997, representing Efford and Lipson for a total of 29 years.

Widowed in 1987, he became the UK’s oldest ever Lord Mayor in 2005 at the age of 89.

In 2007, at the age of 92, his remarkable public service was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Claude travelled to Buckingham Palace to be presented with his MBE by the Queen, who told him there was no one more worthy of the honour.

The Labour member was then whisked to Westminster where he met Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who expressed his gratitude for Cllr Miller’s service to the local community.

Claude, believed to be the country’s oldest councillor, admitted to being “slightly overwhelmed”, describing it as “one of the greatest days of my life”.

Some good anti-racist UK Classroom Resources (Key Stage 3)

From a search for “Britain’s Black History” on this site:

http://www.teachers.tv/resource/classroom

Since August, France has deported about 1,000 ethnic Roma to Romania and Bulgaria. In a resolution passed Thursday, the European Union called for France to bring it to a stop.

European Parliament member for London Jean Lambert says France’s [...]]]> The European Parliament has criticized the move by the French government to expel its Roma migrants.

Since August, France has deported about 1,000 ethnic Roma to Romania and Bulgaria. In a resolution passed Thursday, the European Union called for France to bring it to a stop.

European Parliament member for London Jean Lambert says France’s Roma policy is discriminatory.

“It is not saying you have committed a crime and therefore you as an individual should be expelled from this country,” Lampert. “It really is sort of state discrimination of a group, which is already one of the most disadvantaged in the European Union.”

The resolution was passed with 337 votes; 245 voted against.

Lampert says it is unusual for the European Parliament to make such an open criticism of a member state, but she says the current situation demanded it.

“Today a majority of the members of the European Union took the position that this was so bad that, yes, they were going to name member states responsible,” said Lampert.

The resolution was also critical of the European Commission. It said the Commission, as guardian of the EU treaty, should have made a strong, quick response when the expulsions first started.

Discrimination against national or ethnic groups is forbidden under EU law. The French government says it is not stigmatizing Roma or breaking EU law. It says the deportation is a question of public safety. Roma were recently involved in a few public order incidents, including a riot in southeastern France.

Christian Schweiger from Britain’s Durham University says discrimination is an ongoing problem in Europe.

“This has been an ongoing issue,” said Schweiger. “Racial division, religious division has been an issue and countries very often do not abide by these rules.”

The resolution passed by the European Parliament also criticized the treatment of Roma by other member states. This week, Italian authorities dismantled illegal Roma camps around Milan and Rome.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=roma+expulsion+from+france&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

Pierre Dominique Toussaint L-Overature was a gifted military leader and law giver who transformed a slave revolt in the French sugar colony of San Domingo into a revolutionary movement resulting in the creation of the Republic of Haiti in 1803. The slave revolt in France’s most lucrative colony began in 1791 when [...]]]>

Pierre Dominique Toussaint L-Overature was a gifted military leader and law giver who transformed a slave revolt in the French sugar colony of San Domingo into a revolutionary movement resulting in the creation of the Republic of Haiti in 1803. The slave revolt in France’s most lucrative colony began in 1791 when news of the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man began to reach the Caribbean Islands. The Black slaves of African ancestry at San Domingo believed that the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity applied to them as much as to any White European. Toussaint L-Overature was drawn to this liberation stuggle giving it military discipline and constitutional articulation. Eventually the Black leader was captured by the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte, the General who sought to reinstitute Black slavery in France’s sugar islands. Toussaint L’Overature died of exposure in a jail in the French Alps in 1802. Nevertheless the movement he led was sufficiently effective to create Haiti, the second republic of the Americas. The leadership of Toussaint L’Overature in guiding his people away from slavery helped inspire many engaged in the struggle to oppose imperialism and oppression of all kinds. In 1938 the Trinidadian activist C.L. R. James helped explain Toussaint L’Overature’s accomplishments in his classic text, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Overature and the San Domingo Revolution.

Descriptions of the human race based on racial characteristics go back to the late seventeenth century. In 1684, a French doctor, François Bernier, published “Nouvelle division de la terre par les différentes espèces ou races qui l’habitant” which proposed four different face and body types: Europeans, Far Easterners, [...]]]> BBC Radio 4 – Listen Again WebSite

Descriptions of the human race based on racial characteristics go back to the late seventeenth century. In 1684, a French doctor, François Bernier, published “Nouvelle division de la terre par les différentes espèces ou races qui l’habitant” which proposed four different face and body types: Europeans, Far Easterners, Lapps and Blacks.

In the eighteenth century, Carl Linnaeus made specific reference to skin colour in his system of categorization: Europeanus (white), Asiaticus (yellow), Americanus (red) and Africanus (black). Linnaeus’ pupil Johann Blumenbach, sometimes described as the founder of modern anthropology, added a fifth grouping, Malay (brown).

The idea of categorizing people according to their colour – “colour taxonomy” – greatly interests Trevor Phillips. A prominent member of the Afro-Caribbean community, Trevor wants to know how and why this system took hold. He wants to know why a system based on skin colour should have had such a profound impact on relations between races. He wants to understand what role these categories might have had in shaping modern day racial prejudice, belief and behaviour.

Trevor asks: “What is it about colour that matters so much? We know what lies beneath the skin – melanin. But this isn’t just a chemical thing. This is about something deeper and more atavistic. It caught on because it corresponds to some human need or maybe some human memory. But it’s hard to say why, especially when most people’s colour isn’t actually what the word says. White people are really pink or cream, black people are brown, red people are bronze etc. And within every group, there’s a massive range of colour.”

At the same time, Trevor recognises that a combination of political liberalism and mobility is transforming our racial concepts. Trevor wonders whether a taxonomy based on differentiation by colour is still sustainable.

He says: “For a whole series of reasons there is a fundamental sea change going on in our heads that might spell the death of the Linnaean classification. We are mixing more than ever before. Britain is a leader – mixed race is the largest, youngest and fastest growing group. Many of our brightest stars are mixed race. With more and more people living and loving all over the globe, surely this is the future. No simple system of racial categorisation could survive this kind of mixing.”

If colour ceases to be a meaningful description, what happens to racial identity? Does it wither away? At what point does racial mixing signal the transformation of both communities into something new?

Trevor doesn’t have answers to these questions. But he’s very keen to investigate them

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00smbbr/Colour_Coded_Episode_1/

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Ian Hancock is a marginal man. Like all Romani intellectuals, he has had to live torn between the pariah status of his people and the embrace of a dominant culture which can hardly conceive of such a monster as an educated Gypsy.

Some Gypsies in this position accept this, and [...]]]> Foreword by Dr. T.A. Acton

Ian Hancock is a marginal man. Like all Romani intellectuals, he has had to live torn between the pariah status of his people and the embrace of a dominant culture which can hardly conceive of such a monster as an educated Gypsy.

Some Gypsies in this position accept this, and pass as non-Gypsies, keeping at a distance all their Romani relatives, and keeping silence at who knows what cost, to them and their own children, on all of their family’s past. But a sprinkling of such people find a personal liberation by joining Romani organizations where intellectuals can make a political contribution to winning a better place in society for their people. They have to face incomprehension by non-Gypsies, and often rejection by assimilated relatives, and the constant accusation that they are not “true Gypsies.” Face to face with the divided reality of their identity, they are like the man in Yevtushenko’s poem, strung out on a high-wire “between the city of yes and the city of no.”………………….

Foreword to the Patrin Web Journal edition

This book was the first in English to deal with the enslavement of the Romani people in Romania. When it first appeared in 1987, no one expected that massive political and social changes would begin to take place in Eastern Europe just two years later.  With the death of Ceaucescu in 1989 and the shift to democracy in Romania, many more documents concerning those more than five terrible centuries have come to light, and our knowledge of the nature of Gypsy slavery, and the implications it has for our understanding of the world view and character of those descended from it — the Vlax Roma — are just now beginning to be understood.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080802212237/http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/pariah-contents.htm

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