In defense of freedom of movement

 Dear readers,

My name is Melissa Chemam, I'm a freelance journalist, broadcaster and writer, working in London, Bristol, Paris and beyond.

I've been a journalist for 15 years, reporting from the USA, France, central Europe, the UK, East and Central Africa, North Africa, the Middle East.

Iraqi children in a displaced people's camp near Erbi, in Iraqi Kurdistan, 2016

My first book, about the band Massive Attack and Bristol's recent art and music scene, including the Pop Group and Banksy, was published this month:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Massive-Attack-Out-Comfort-Zone/dp/1910089729

It retells the story of outstandingly aware artists and musicians, who always linked their work with the reality of our world, addressing issues like racism, war-going government, commercial control in the arts, inequalities, refugee rights, multiculturalism... 

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I'm writing here today as I witness the appalling situation of European citizens living in the UK, after three years of horrible Brexit discussions and only a few weeks now ahead of important European elections.

So I want to share here a few ideas... That the press didn't want to publish. Not now. Because for both the British and French press, there are more institutional priories. I understand.

FIAC, Paris, a few years ago... 

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Today, the EU Parliament voted to grant UK citizens visa-free access after Brexit, especially in case of no deal.

Without even waiting for the UK to assure that EU citizens could visit the UK without any visa requirement.

"MEPs voted 502 votes to 81 in favour of the concession – provided EU nationals enjoy the same conditions when travelling to the UK."

That's quite generous considering the fact that the EU included 27 countries...

"The new law warns that were the UK to introduce a visa requirement for nationals of any one member state, visa requirements for UK nationals could be reintroduced."

This doesn't include work permits of course, only tourism travels.

"From the moment of leaving the European Union, British travellers will become 'third country nationals'. But in common with more than 60 other nationalities, including Australian, Japanese and US visitors, they will be allowed to stay for up to 90 days in any 180-day period."

London, March calling for a People's Vote, October 20, 2019

I personally believe such measures should now be granted to some other countries outside Europe. What about African citizens?? We used to have very strong ties...

I could develop on this issues much more lengthily. My colleagues from Nigeria and Kenya have been living here on very expensive visas for years if not decades. For some, this cost up to hundreds of pounds a year. Their countries used to be part of the British Empire for decades however, way before the creation of the first European Community, after World War II. 

It's just double standards.  

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Here my own situation, to dig a bit more into these issues: 

-I moved to the UK 10 years ago to join the BBC World Service, but was soon posted abroad in East Africa. I spent these past ten years splitting my time between England and other countries, as a foreign news correspondent, covering mainly European/African relations, elections, and post-colonial issues.

-Now, because of my professional situation, I'm not eligible to the settled status, I haven't been here continuously for the past 5 years. 

-But I've written a book on a part of British culture and am still working mainly from here, though I need freedom of movement to keep on reporting and writing.

-As a reporter posted in East and Central Africa, in Haiti, in the Middle East, I know that democracy demands information and action, and I believe too many Europeans take this for granted.

-Because of Brexit, ‪I have to travel to France to vote in the European elections in May. I’m not even sure if the UK would be in the EU or not when I get back! It’s in less than two months... 

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I have also talked to and interviewed a lot of other European citizens living here and I feel our stories are underrepresented.

Most of them are nurses, musicians, researchers, translators, waiters, broadcasters, etc. Jobs they have because of their skills, and often languages skills that British people don't have.

How much longer can we ignore people's rights? Will the British Parliament and government ever address people's rights and notable freedom of movement? It's a necessary discussion that must not be delayed.

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If you agree, feel free to share this paper.

Thanks for your attention.

Melissa Chemam 

Compensation for "Windrush" victims

Wow, this is a huge move!!

UK to pay up to £200m in compensation to Windrush victims

Fund established for people whose lives were damaged by hostile environment policy

Guardian - Wed 3 Apr 2019 18.50 BST

Photo by myself, graffiti in Bristol, St Paul's

The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced that the government will pay up to £200m in compensation to people whose lives were damaged by the Home Office’s mistaken classification of thousands of long-term British residents as illegal immigrants.

The announcement comes almost a year after the government admitted that its treatment of the Windrush generation had been “appalling” and promised reform of its immigration system and compensation to those affected by hostile environment policies.

“Nothing we say or do will ever wipe away the hurt, the trauma, the loss that should never have been suffered by the men and women of the Windrush generation, but together we can begin to right the wrongs of Windrush,” Javid said.

The home secretary said there would be no cap on the fund, making it impossible to estimate how much money will eventually be paid to victims. Payments will not be restricted to people from the Caribbean but made to anyone who has been in the UK since 1988 who has been wrongly classified as being here illegally and as a result lost the right to work, access to healthcare and the ability to rent property.

The total number of those affected by the scandal remains unknown, but more than 5,000 people have been granted documentation by the Windrush taskforce in the past year, confirming that they have a legal right to live in the UK; 3,674 of them have been granted British citizenship.

Sylvester Marshall, 63 , who was told in November 2017 that he would face a £54,000 radiotherapy bill unless he could prove he was eligible for free treatment, said that the compensation would make a big difference to him. “I’ve still got debts I need to clear because of this,” he said. “The money should set me free so I can start over again.”

He was worried though that the amount of evidence required by the scheme would be as hard to provide as the evidence originally requested by the Home Office as proof of immigration status. “I don’t know how straightforward it will be.”

Javid said recipients would not be required to sign non-disclosure agreements and reassured those calling the new hotline for advice that the information disclosed would not be passed on to the immigration enforcement department. He paid tribute to the barrister Martin Forde QC, who has been working on developing the compensation programme since last May, and said Forde had made it a priority to ensure the scheme would be simple and easy to understand. The first payments could be made within a month, although complex applications were expected to take longer to process.

He said relatives of those people who had died before the Home Office’s mistakes were exposed would also be eligible to apply for compensation. The Home Office has admitted that of the 164 people who were wrongly detained or removed from the country at least 19 died before officials were able to contact them to apologise; another 27 had not been traced.

The Home Office said the scheme would provide payments to people who suffered difficulties because they did not have the right documentation to prove they were in the UK legally – experiencing, for instance, problems ranging from loss of employment, access to housing, education or NHS healthcare, to emotional distress or deterioration in mental and physical health.

Anthony Bryan
Anthony Bryan, who was misclassified as an illegal immigrant: ‘We can see some light at the end of the tunnel now.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
There has been frustration from those affected in recent months that the compensation scheme has taken so long to be announced. In the meantime, only nine people have received payments from the government’s hardship fund, which was launched in December to provide emergency interim support to people who were in critical financial difficulties ahead of the compensation scheme.

Last June, Javid accepted that something had gone “massively wrong” within the Home Office and promised there would be reform to introduce a “fairer, more compassionate” immigration system, allowing staff greater freedom to use their common sense. However, many staff working at immigration charities say they have yet to discern a new culture within the Home Office, and have not observed evidence to suggest that employees are operating within a new, more sensitive regime.

Another of those affected by the case, Anthony Bryan, 61, was misclassified as an illegal immigrant, detained for five weeks and booked on a flight back to Jamaica, a country he left at the age of eight, and had not returned to in the intervening 52 years. Responding to the compensation announcement, he said he was relieved at the prospect of extracting himself from financial difficulties caused by the Home Office’s mistake and its effect on his ability to work.

“Things are still difficult,” he said. “I’m still feeling stressed by it all. Life is complicated when you haven’t got money to sort out your problems and I’m still paying back money I borrowed from friends. But we can see some light at the end now.”

Charities supporting those affected welcomed the scheme but voiced concern about how it will work in practice.

Daniel Ashwell, lead caseworker at the Refugee and Migrant Centre in Wolverhampton, which has supported dozens of Windrush victims, said those affected had been very worried by the long delay to the scheme’s launch and would need considerable support finding the evidence required to submit a claim. “It will be challenging for people to fill in the form; there is potential for them to be exploited by lawyers,” he said.

Sally Daghlian, CEO of the migrant support charity Praxis, was also concerned about the onerous amount of documentary evidence required to demonstrate adverse effects. “Those affected by the Windrush scandal are required to present yet more evidence, paperwork and documentation in order to receive compensation for the losses, suffering and hardship they have endured,” she said.

Satbir Singh, CEO of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, questioned whether the estimated £200m fund would be enough, and stressed that the government needed to act fast to reform the hostile environment policy which caused many of the Windrush problems. “These things did not just happen – they were knowingly done to people through Theresa May’s hostile environment policy, which has caught undocumented migrants, legal migrants and Britons of colour alike in its trap.”

The Labour MP David Lammy said: “We are now a step closer to justice for the Windrush generation. It is vital that this scheme is publicised, so all those eligible for compensation know how to access it.”

African/European music

Writing about Africa Express, about their the events over the years, and about European/African music.

Here are some songs for you:


 'Ah Congo' - Feat. Jupiter Bokondji and Bokatola System 
(album: 'DRC Music: Kinshasa One Two')

And:

Toya Delazy, from Zululand to 'London Town' 
(Official Music Video)

+ bonus 

Slaves, with Paul Simonon & Pauline Black - 'Guns of Brixton' (The Clash cover)

Love.
m

About writing

"It is indeed becoming more and more difficult, even senseless, for me to write an official English. And more and more my own language appears to me like a veil that must be torn apart in order to get at the things, or the Nothingness, behind it. Grammar and Style–to me they seem to have become as irrelevant as a Victorian bathing suit or the imperturbability of a true gentleman. A mask. Let us hope the time will come when language is most efficiently used where it is being most efficiently misused. As we cannot eliminate language all at once, we should at least leave nothing undone that might contribute to its falling into disrepute. To bore one hole after another in it, until what lurks behind it (be it something or nothing) begins to seep through: I cannot imagine a higher goal for a writer today."

— Samuel Beckett, in David Shields, Reality Hunger

Still Nb#1 on Amazon UK among the Best Sellers in 'Musical Philosophy & Social Aspects'

So honoured that my book is topping this list!! 

It has been Nb#1 on Amazon UK among the Best Sellers in 'Musical Philosophy & Social Aspects' for a month now.
And look at this list: 

#1
Massive Attack: Out Of The Comfort Zone
by Melissa Chemam
4.5 out of 5 stars 

#2
The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band who Burned a Million Pounds
by John Higgs

#3
Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
by Dan Hancox
4.6 out of 5 stars 

#4
Why Dylan Matters
by Richard F. Thomas
3.9 out of 5 stars 26

#5
Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime
by Dan Hancox
(Paperback)
4.6 out of 5 stars 

Link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/145966…/ref=zg_b_bs_14596645031_1

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Latest comment:

John Murphy

5.0 out of 5 starsA great read!

31 March 2019

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Was desperate to read this book ever since I heard about it. Love Massive Attack and the Bristol street art scene. A great read with a lot more detail than expected. Would definitely recommend.

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Thank you!!

A Massive Weekend !!! (March 5, 2019)

Bristol-based Photographer Neil Phillips Photo & Film has written this lovely blog post about my book launch at Rough Trade Bristol, mentioning the wonderful Annie McGann from Savebristolnightlife :)
Thank you! 

He wrote to me:

Hi Melissa, twas great to meet you at the Bristol Book launch. Here is link to my short blog about the day. I'm loving the book and it's fab having the Massive Attack soundtrack on while reading it:-)

http://neilphillipsphotoandfilm.com/blog-1/2019/3/4/massive-weekend-?fbclid=IwAR1Bj29p6-Xmgd9BbOw_E2fT24aiLS9xAJuhWnUgP26Hh8-aD63NsKzOJ5Y

A Massive Weekend !!!

March 5, 2019

Last weekend was such a fun weekend. After a PR shoot in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, involving two house builders, a local football team and a stray football, I travelled back to Bristol to attend the launch of a new book about Massive Attack, at Rough Trade in Bridewell, Bristol. 

 The book is called ‘Out of the Comfort Zone’ and has just been released in English, after first being published in French around two years ago. Luckily I was there a little early so I was able to introduce myself to the author, Melissa Chemam, and take her photograph. What immediately struck me about her was how relaxed and smiley she was. I kinda presumed that someone who spent 2-3 years interviewing Massive Attack and related artists included Tricky, Portishead and 1970s Bristol punk bands might be a little on the serious side. After all, for the thousands that attended any of the two Steel Yard gigs in Filton over the Weekend, Massive Attack aren’t anything but serious artists, intense, political and humanely focused. I don’t think the audience even got an ‘hello’. But don’t let that put you off seeing them live. Just go with the experience, soak it up and enjoy. But it was very difficult to get photos of Melissa not smiling. I did ask her at one point to give me her ‘Serious Journalist’ face, but to be honest that photo doesn’t really represent the afternoon. 

 Being interviewed by local writer Annie McGann they both shared warm stories about knowing and working with the band and had the audience laughing along with them as Melissa recounted tales of how the band struggled to remember dates and events with any consistency. Annie spoke of hanging out with 3D when they were teenagers and refusing to lend him her video camera, because “he looked a bit dodgy!”

 For me as a Bristolian this book is fascinating. Bristolians aren’t known for boasting about their city; we sit in a difficult place, overshadowed by our posh neighbours Bath, and long weighed down by our part in the slave trade. We do have the same history as Liverpool in that respect, but unlike Liverpool, we have no world famous football team, no ferry across the Mersey (we have little yellow boats with Gromit pointing the way) and we have no Beatles. But we do have Massive Attack and with that comes Banksy, The Mild, Mild West, Portishead, Tricky, the graffiti quarter. 

Massive attack are imprinted onto the fabric of the city. In the 90s you couldn’t help but bump into them if you were at all active around town and in the clubs. As a Press photographer in Bristol I photographed and met the boys a few times, photographing them at Glastonbury in 1997 (See pic below) . I’m pretty sure this was on the Jazz/World stage and I remember having to photograph their performance without a flashgun. It had been clean knocked off and destroyed in the snappers pit, while trying to photograph The Prodigy on the Pyramid Stage (RIP Keith Flint)

I loosely worked with 3D on the Ultra magazine, I was the official photographer photographing the action and tasked with trying to make Bristol City look cool on the pitch and on the terraces, I also played 5 a side with 3D on Golden Hill and remember while most of us wore our colourful footy shirts, 3D’s kit was unsurprisingly all black. 

 And in Melissa we also have an author who is perfectly placed to give a fair view of Bristol and its scene. Most Bristolians would struggle to do that - we’d die of embarrassment if we had to talk seriously about the Gloucester Rd, of Park Row or South/East Bristol. We’d much rather grumble about the traffic around Temple Meads, or bemoan the lack of a Clarks Pie shop on Church Road. 

 So I’m really looking forward to reading this book, to get a serious view of the city I grew up in, its arts and music scene. Here is a link to Melissa’s Website where you can find out more about her background and why an acclaimed French journalist fell in love with our city and Massive Attack: http://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com

Bristol Transformed

Here is something to look forward to!!


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Bristol Transformed is a festival of politics and culture in which we will discuss and engage with the exciting socialist ideas and innovations emerging from the Left. 

"It is inspired by the World Transformed festival, which takes place alongside the Labour Party conference, and is planned and run by a group of volunteers. We were impressed by the quality and diversity of the program, the parties and the audience, and we want to bring that spirit to Bristol!

Our theme is People Powered Politics, and we will be putting on a number of panels, workshops and social events exploring matters like: public ownership; co-ops; climate change; race; trade unionism; gentrification and alternative media. Bristol faces growing inequality, rising living costs, increasingly visible homelessness and the threat of closure of a number of much-loved venues which have contributed to the spirit of the city.

For too long we have lived under the shadow of Capitalist Realism, which tells us that "there is no alternative", regardless of what allows us to live in a happy or healthy society. This notion is starting to break down. We want to join people together from across a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives to open their minds to the radical possibilities that aren't present in our education system or media.

We want to inspire people with a positive socialist vision for the future and help illustrate how it can be achieved by working together, showing what people power is capable of."


Ticket prices:

Standard - £10
Low-waged - £5
Unwaged - £2
Solidarity - £20

More information: http://www.bristoltransformed.org/


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More here:

PANELS

SATURDAY 6TH APRIL 2019

PROGRAMME TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

CITY ROAD - BAPTIST CHURCH 10.00-11.30

CULTURE, ART AND OWNERSHIP

Chair: Annie McGann. Panel: Dave Randall, Rachel Dobbs, Ekanem Hines, more tbc!

11.45-13.15

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY

Chair: Marcus Barnett. Panel: Susannah O'Sullivan, Sasha Josette, Ollie Hopkins, Alia Malak.

14.00-15.30

RACE AND EMPIRE

Panel: Edson Burton, Ras Judah, Madge Dresser, Sasha Josette, Dalia Gebrial

15.45-17.15

MUNICIPAL SOCIALISM

Chair: Hettie O'Brien, Panel: Dr Julian Manley, Cat Hobbs, Frankie Langeland, more TBC!

17.30-19.00

ECONOMICS: FUTURE OF WORK

Chair: Harriett Bradley. Panel: Aaron Bastani, Grace Blakeley, Susan Newman, Maud Perrier, Will Stronge

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MALCOLM X CENTRE

10.00-11.30

TRANSFORMING HOUSING

Panellists: Sasha Sadjady, Ben Beach, Owen Hatherley, Paul Smith, Oona Goldsworthy

11.45-13.15

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA AND ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVES

Chair: Jasmine Ketibuah-Foley. Panel: Dawn Foster, Ronan Burtenshaw, Steve Howell, Matt Turner, Alon Aviram

14.00-15.30

THE ENVIRONMENT: SUSTAINABLE FUTURES AND A GREEN NEW DEAL

Chair: Rob Wotherspoon, Panel: Chris Saltmarsh, James Meadway, Kerry McCarthy MP, Skeena Rathor, Sakina Sheikh

15.45-17.15

EDUCATION

Panel: Dani Wijesinghe, Leo Nikolaidis, Vanessa Wilson and Nina Franklin.

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But there'll also be parties and events!!

SOCIALISE WITH SOCIALISTS

here: http://bristoltransformed.org/parties 

WORKSHOPS

SATURDAY 6TH APRIL 2019

PROGRAMME TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

link: http://bristoltransformed.org/workshops


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anaïs - 'lost my faith' (official video)

Timely song for our era:



anaïs - 'lost my faith' (official video)

This is what the singer wrote about it on her Facebook page:

Wrote it with the lovely @jnrwilliams when I first moved to London. I was and still am incredibly frustrated by the perpetual violence and lack of justice that affects people of colour, of different backgrounds, religions, sexual orientation and gender identity. From growing up in Oakland and witnessing the Oscar Grant murder to the recent massacre in the New Zealand mosque, I see now that it is not a faith lost but a faith we’ve never had in a world in which we are constantly under attack. It’s disappointing that the systems that are supposed to protect continually fail us, however, I feel lucky to know so many people, artists, and collectives that are creating safe spaces for us and that are taking matters into our own hands.

That being said, I hope you guys enjoy the video + song!

Massive thank you to @dumashaddad for this beautiful piece and the entire team that made this possible!!

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Stream/download ‘lost my faith’ here: https://anais.lnk.to/lostmyfaithID Follow anaïs https://www.facebook.com/anaiszero https://twitter.com/anaiszero https://www.instagram.com/anaiszero/