WE SAW YOU
Name Rachel Occupation Student What do you think?
This is actually my boat. / don’t know who let the
Stephen
Freelance graphrc desrgner The mountains are so beautiful, / could cry
riff-raff on board.
Marcus I’m a dad The boat is rockin’.
Jacqui
Assrstant producer
/ feel like I’m on my holidays. who needs Ibiza, when you’ve got the Cafe Del Clyde?
Name Occupation What did you think?
Michael Sales person at Debenhams
Pretty good, the open spot guy was good.
lane Comedran
them.
Very good. We had unusual ac ts on tonight and I’m not sure if Glasgow was ready for
Scott
Comedy Club Manager
audience.
Fantastic although I don’t think one of them went down very well With the
Caroline Freelance typesetter
Brilliant. This is the second time I’ve been now.
Write to: React. The List, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE or
React, The List, McLeIIan Galleries, 270 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow 62 35H or
e-mail react@list.co.uk
No more race cards Rights of asylum seekers
The Campargn To Welcome Refugees has launched the followrng statement wrth the rntentron of publrshrng rt m the Scottrsh natronal press. We would be grateful If you could publrsh rt rn order that readers of The List can srgn rt and/or contrrbute to the cost of placrng rt in the newspapers.
Stop the Scapegoatrng of Asylum Seekers:
'We, the undersigned, are wrrting to protest at the torrent of abuse currently being armed at asylum seekers by sectrons of the natronal press. The most vulnerable group of people, fleerng persecutron, oppressron and war, rs being falsely blamed for all the ills of Brrtrsh socrety. The Unrted Natrons Commissioner for Refugees has rrghtly condemned the Tories for playrng the race card m the run-up to the local elections.
Asylum seekers have become the targets for a new racism. The stereotyping used rn the past agarnst Jews, and then black and Asian people cornrng to this country, rs now berng employed agarnst asylum seekers, especrally those from Eastern Europe Racrst sentiment is berng rnflamed when terms such as ‘floods' and ‘trclal
56 THE usr i7 20 Aug 2000
waves' are used to describe the relatrvely small numbers of asylum seekers arrrvmg here,
We are continually berng told that Britain is a 'soft touch' In reality, we have the harshest asylum regrme rn Western Europe Britain takes less refugees per head of population than Germany, Swrt/erland, the Netherlands, Frnland, Belgrum, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark and Canada. The New Labour government says it wants to combat racism rn the aftermath of the Lawrence rngurry Yet rts attacks on asylum seekers, such as rts policy of forced dispersal and the voucher system, are encouragrng racrsm.
The climate of fear created by this campaign agarnst asylum seekers has led to people resortrng to Inc reasrngly desperate measures rn order to avord Brrtarn's ever more draconian asylum regrme This is the basis of the horrible deaths of 58 Chrnese people discovered rn the lorry contarner at Dover rn June
Here rn Scotland there has been a 74% Increase rn reported racrst attacks rn Strathclycle over the last year It is no coincidence that thrs rise should come alongsrde the rac rst campaign rn sectrons of the Scottish popular press
We not only condemn those newspapers which have seen frt to present lres, myths and drstortrons as the truth to therr readers, but also those polrtrcians, Tory and Labour, who are urgrng them on. We belreve that asylum seekers deserve our compassron and help, They do not deserve to be vrlrfrecl and treated as crrmrnals We call on everyone who rs Srckened by the wrtch-hunt agarnst asylum seekers to make therr vc)rce heard '
To srgn thrs statement please wrrte to: Asylum Statemc—mt, Campargn to Welcome Refugees, c/o Frre Brrgades Unron, 52 St Enoch Square, Glasgow G1 or e-marl. markbrownl SO@cswebmarl com
To contrrbute to the frnancral fund to place the statement rn the Scottrsh press please make cheques payable to Glasgow Carnpargn To Welcome Refugees, and send to the above address Mark Brown,
Media Officer, Campaign to Welcome Refugees
Workshop backlash
Re: Festival Grapevine (issue 392) and Letters (issue 393)
|, lrke The List, found rt br/arre that Theatre Workshop clec rcled not to
put a programme together for thrs year’s Festrval Frrnge. Wrth the venue being such a beautrfully-equrpped theatre, rt appears guite extraorclrnary that it shouch be dark durrng the brggest arts festrval m the world.
I, as lam sure you are aware, take many risks to put together a good programme and, at thrs trme of the year, a much more adventurous programme can be acthreved as theatre companres are prepared to come from all over the world and pay therr own way.
Had I known Theatre Workshop was to be dark, I would certarnly have contacted them and asked if they were prepared for the Grlded Balloon to look at hrrrng and programmrng the venue for the Feshval
Had this happened, there w0uld have been no frnancral rrsk to Theatre Workshop, as the rrsk wc)uld have fallen on my shoulders.
Wrth thrs In mrnd, lam very rnterested rn this opportunrty for 2001.
Karen Koren Artistic Director Gilded Balloon 233 C owgt‘ite Edinburgh