Appalled by the horrific conditions of negotiation between the EU and the UK, feeling like a child torn between her divorcing parents, I want to start a modest contribution: by gathering the voices of the art world who strongly reject the idea of a "Brexit".
You are welcome to join!
Read, share, contact me.
I'll work to get a column publish in the British, French and German press - to start with.
Any other idea is welcome.
All the best to you all,
melissa
Picture by myself: Massive Attack in Hyde Park, London, on July 1st, 2016, after interpreting their song 'Eurochild' and deploring the "Brexit" vote.
You can notice that the colours of the lights on stage match the European flag...
#NoToBrexit
A European
call to action from the art and music world
-
Introduction / Invitation
In the
rainy month of November 1993, my English teacher organised a trip for all our
classroom to go and visit England. We all took the bus to Calais and the ferry
to Dover to cross the Channel and drive up to Canterbury, Oxford and of course
London. And despite the wet weather and a visit to the National Maritime Museum
with a series of an impossible-to-answer Q & A about British history… it
was love at first sight. It was only my third trip outside of France, after a
week of student exchange in Germany and a family visit on the other side of the
Mediterranean Sea, and for the first time of the three, I could actually
understand local people… I realised I could speak fluently a foreign language. I
was already, at 13 years old, a massive fan of popular music, and the songs of
the Beatles and a few other more recent bands had taught me English much more
than my schoolbooks.
This
experience was made possible because we were part of the European community. A
few years later, the community became the European Union and the Eurostar
opened, enabling thousands of French teenagers like myself to visit London
again in only three hours. I want again. And again and again. And in 2009, I
settle there, as a young journalist, passionate by travels, who had lived six
months in Czech Republic, travelled across all Italy and central Europe and
lived a year in the United States in 2008. Moving to the United Kingdom is one
of the most powerful experience life has sent me. It also came after a family
loss and without this move, I don’t know if I would have recovered the same
way. I was hired by the BBC World Service to use my skills in French to
broadcast news to French-speaking listeners in Central and West Africa. It was
an eye- and mind-opening chance to understand our world more globally and to
get to travel and live in Africa a few years later. When I came back from
Nairobi, I didn’t hesitate, I moved back to London, not Paris. I found in
England a second home and an educational challenge, and a change of perspective
on our changing world.
Once again,
this was made possible because of the existence of a very special political
body, the European Union, which enables the citizens of its member states to
live, study and work in any country of the Union. One of my dearest British
friends thus studied a year in Portugal. A French friend studied in Germany and
met in Prague her future German husband, to later settle together in
Luxembourg. In London and later in Bristol, I met half a dozen of Spanish
people who could feed their family back in Spain thanks to the jobs they found
in English. Teachers, waiters, drivers, nurses, even doctors from all over
Europe now work in the United Kingdom, because potential local employees for
these skills are lacking in the country…
From early
2015, after having settled back home in Paris with a new job in radio, I came
back to England to write about its thriving music and art scene. I came to
Bristol to meet with my favourite musicians and write a book about them,
retelling the incredible story of their diversity in this wonderful city.
Bristol was then the European Green
Capital, sharing its skills in developing an environment-friendly economy
with others cities in Europe. It was a thrilling time to be a reporter in
England again. But suddenly, later that year, the Prime Minister, David Cameron
decided to finally organise a referendum on the future of the UK inside the EU.
An appalling campaign took place in 2015-16, in which his own party, the
Conservatives, finally mainly advocated to convince people to leave the
European Union, a campaign led by the former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, a
city thriving with European presence and passion…
I witnessed
and reported on the campaign, while also covering the appalling refugee crisis
that was reaching Europe and got many countries, including the United States, France
and the UK to only react in disdaining refugees… Claiming they had no means to
be able to help the people running away from poverty, dictatorships and wars
from Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Eritrea and Afghanistan that the Western World was
partly to greatly responsible of. While Greece, Italy and Germany kept
receiving these stricken fleeing people. It was a terrible time, but I was
betting that most British people would recognise that a withdrawal from the
European Union would only make our problem-solving efforts more difficult. But
unfortunately, they didn’t. 52% of them didn’t and voted to “Leave” on June 23rd,
2016.
Now a year
later, my book on British art and music has been released in France and I’m
working on the English version. Meanwhile, I reported on the consequence of
Brexit for a German radio, in Northern Ireland, in London and more recently in
Scotland, appalled by the lack of political vision and the disunion provoked
inside the Kingdom.
Talking
almost daily with British friends, mostly teachers, workers of the NHS,
artists, thinkers, journalists and musicians, we are all appallingly saddened
by this decision and by the ill-treatment of the negotiations with Brussels led
by Boris Johnson then Theresa May.
As a French
citizen, world-traveller and European, passionately in love with the United
Kingdom, a country that has never stopped enriching my life since 1993, I’m now
willing to publically call on to every European citizens who want to make their
voice heard on the issue. A so-called “Brexit”, withdrawal of a key member of
our European Union, would do no good to the EU and definitely no good to the
citizens of the UK and the millions of Europeans living there.
For science,
research and education, it predicts a disaster. For artists and musicians,
travelling all over Europe to share their performances and views on our world,
it is a tragedy.
Here is
therefore an invitation to join a list of artists who agree and will call on,
in their own words, to think again, as European people, as British citizens, as
MPs, as workers of the EU bodies in Brussels and Strasburg, as musicians or
journalists, about the future of the UK inside of the European Union. For the
good of us all. As we are in this situation together…
In these times of general turmoil and political instability, we need European
solidarity and political vision more than ever. And even more that we need the
single market. Let’s bring back upfront the values that united Europeans
together after World War II: a thirst for peace, a will to rebuild our
continent, a desire for more knowledge and a better education for all, a better
and more stable future together. It is never too late to reverse a bad decision…
Melissa
Chemam
Freelance
journalist and writer, French citizen, European thinker and UK lover
--
On board
for now:
Melissa
Chemam, French journalist reporting in the UK
Keziah Jones, Nigerian and British
musician
Angelo
Bruschini, British / Italian musician with Massive Attack, The Blue Airplanes
and Saint
Mars, based in Bristol
Chris Bird,
British director at United Visual Artists based in London
David Mowat, British and Swiss jazzman based in Bristol
Toby Wilsher, British theatre
director, musician and communication Coach for business, whose clients are mostly European
Michael Eyre, British
citizen living in Sweden
Roger
Surridge, British graphic designer resident
in France
Dan
Leyland, British company director
Geoff
Alsopp, British musician and writer, based in Somerset
Edson
Burton, British poet, writer and researcher based in Bristol
Adam Evans,
British music producer
Andy Smith,
British artist from Manchester / Bolton
Sarah
Barden, British journalist leaving in Austria
Seth Ferris and Henry Kamens, British
journalists based in Sweden
Liliane
Horton, former Journalist, French citizen living in the UK and married to a
British man
Madeleina Kay / Alba White Rose, remain
artist and member of the No.10 Vigil group
Catherine Moss, co-organiser of the
#StopBrexit Manchester March on September 30
Amy Racs, radio producer from London
Sara Hayward,
British artist from Worcestershire
-
Join us!
melissa.notobrexit@gmail.com
