welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and me Gayathri
a week today a big demonstration in
London will take place stand up against
racism and fascism no to scapegoating
immigrants no to Islamophobia no to
anti-semitism co organisers of the event
are unite against fascism
a broadly based campaign which in dark
days and fine have kept the flame of
such ideals alive the March will take
place through a backdrop of mass
unemployment amongst ethnic minority
youth in Britain a deluge of scare
mongering in the gutter media in a Dutch
auction of most political parties as to
who can be meanest and most menacing
towards minority communities as election
fever mounts so do the fears of
Britain's beleaguered minorities joining
us now is a stalwart of anti-fascism in
britain sabe de lo sabe thanks for
coming on the sputnik will talk about
the demonstration in a few minutes but
the airwaves are becoming clogged up
with race stories more usually than not
anti-muslim stories but in this week
Nigel Farage's extraordinary foray into
demanding the repeal of race
discrimination laws in the British
workplace this is part of the backdrop
to your demonstration isn't it of course
I mean Suraj is some recent outburst is
not borne out by the facts at all I mean
one of the problems we've had is them
since the coalition government came to
power in 2010 is the abolition of
monitoring the impact of legislation on
minority communities and women so
equality impact assessments have been
abolished so it's impossible to actually
ascertain proper figures of how
austerity and other government measures
have impacted on women minority
communities people with disabilities and
so on and so their drug figures might be
thin on the ground but
any fool North claimed that Farraj has
made that racism in the workplace is a
thing of the past that Britain has moved
on you're a minority ethnic and a woman
that's right what do you say to that
well my experience is the exact opposite
I've actually found in over the last
five years certainly in the context of
austerity a rise in racism I see people
making funny comments racist comments on
buses on public transport and things
like that things I thought were a thing
of the past and I've actually not
experienced since I was a child growing
up in the late 1980s so certainly there
racism has been on the increase but also
there were figures released I think by
the Labour Party yesterday saying that
unemployment amongst vme communities
actually increased by 50 percent so the
idea that racism in the workplace is a
thing
think for that reason PME communities in
the police force oh so I think that is
just not okay there on equality impact
assessment but every other statistic in
fact shows that racism is alive and
kicking on the rise he's not of course a
fascist Nigel Farage neither are you Kip
but there are fascists in Britain
menacing minority communities let's run
across the horizont my assessment is
that street racism in the form of for
example the EDL has begun to dissipate
the recent failure of the German import
pegida at their demonstration in
Newcastle was just that a real damp
squib outnumber 10 15 to 1 by
overwhelmingly non Muslim non minority
ethnic white people from Newcastle is
that your assessment are these people
more a dangerous lone wolves than any
kind of mass movement I think yes it is
correct that the English Defence League
and other similar movements like pegida
as you mentioned the attempt to set up a
British version of pegida is certainly
dissipating in Britain and I think but I
think that is because organisations like
ourselves unite against fascism have
actually spoke out against the English
Defence League and argued consistently
despite opposition saying that we must
mobilize against them when they mobilize
on the streets is important for
anti-fascists Ferranti races to mobilize
against them and I think we were right
and I think that did actually defeat
them that demoralized them we out
mobilised them and we won that argument
because some people thought that it was
causing trouble and it was best to say
at home when they come to town but I
think had we done that I think the idea
would have Snowboard into a much bigger
Street movement
because it's there is a clear
relationship between out mobilizing them
particularly in Tower Hamlets in 2011
and there's a really big demonstration
opposing the UDL that out mobilizing
them and getting broad support for our
demonstrations it really did have a
knock-on effect on their morale and
their ability to mobilize well I have no
doubt that of the correctness of your
line and the heroism of your work but
it's also the case isn't it there has
never been even in the 30s a mass
appetite for fascism it speaks to the
good sense of the great majority of the
British public don't you think I I agree
yes I don't think it really stands in
the British tradition but I think it's
important for people to speak out
against them and mobilize against them
because I think the danger is that one
becomes complacent and thinks that you
know it this isn't in the British
tradition so we don't really need to
worry about it I think had we not spoken
out and stood up against them I think
that they could have become a bigger
force because we've seen across Europe
there's a different story we've seen
pegida albeit you know they've been out
mobilised by the anti-racist and
anti-fascist in Germany but to get that
sized demonstrations you know 10,000
20,000 that sort of level on the streets
is a worrying development absolutely we
nonetheless have an ongoing problem
partly below the radar we've got police
guarding synagogues quite rightly
because the danger of anti-semitic
attacks they are clear and present we
don't have police outside mosques
admittedly the Muslim population is more
than 10 times larger than the Jewish
population but nonetheless there are
ongoing attacks against Muslim property
and against individual Muslims usually
by one or two lone wolves how big a
danger is all that I think it's a very
big danger particularly after the
Islamophobic response we've seen post
the Paris attacks on the Copenhagen
attacks we have seen hashtag kill or
Muslims trend on Twitter we've seen
Rupert
making interventions such as Muslims are
all responsible for this and should be
held responsible for these attacks and
we saw a complete media silence the
complete opposite response to the Chapel
Hill shootings in North Carolina where
three Muslim students were shot dead
it wasn't even covered in mass media
despite the fact that it trended on
social media and we don't see
by people to hold all white people
across the globe responsible for the
actions of the the the gunmen or the
terrorists that killed the three Muslim
students the thought of it is ludicrous
holding all white people responsible for
for that shooting but this is what
happens to the Muslim community over a
billion people across the globe are made
to feel responsible for the actions of a
handful of terrorists this is despite
condemnation widespread across the globe
by Muslim people against these attacks
and we have seen as you quite rightly
point out attacks on mosques and attacks
on individual Muslims and perhaps more
worryingly so attacks on Muslim women
wearing the hijab we see a lot of I
think around 50% of or more than 50% of
attacks on Muslims are actually on
Muslim women and I think that's quite
horrific for Muslim women to be facing
violent attacks violent racist acts but
also sexist because the perpetrators are
mostly men so this is very worrying and
you're right that the the state response
isn't the same as attacks on Jewish
communities and anti-semitism quite
rightly there are police guarding why
why aren't mosques and Muslim community
organizations treating the same fashion
this is what we need and I think you're
right I think that the English Defence
League and attempts by groups like
pegida here in Britain to try and form
themselves here will use not just the
attacks in Paris in Copenhagen but the
Islamophobic response by the state and
the media and politicians to try and
grow so it is very important that we
don't become complacent and wherever
they rear their ugly head that we
mobilize against them tell us about the
demonstration a week today well
precisely because of the rise in
Islamophobia the rising anti-muslim hate
crime opposing Islamophobia and standing
up against this hatred is a central part
of the demonstration and we've received
a very positive response by Muslim
communities across the country who are
saying they're mobile
and coming along to the demonstration so
it's very good it's formally supported
by the Muslim Council of Britain along
with a range of other Muslim
organisations so that will all be a key
part of the demonstration as well
opposing anti-semitism I think it's very
important shows the unity unity the
other side of the coin is you say garter
it's it's a real and present danger well
absolutely I mean the the experience of
Muslim communities at the moment is
almost identical to the experience of
Jewish communities in the early 20th
century and in the 1930s the cartoons
that we see depicting the Prophet
Muhammad or are almost identical to the
cartoons that one saw attacking the
Jewish communities over 100 years ago so
I think it's very important that we show
unity against this form of hatred and
unite the Muslim and Jewish communities
who have both historically been attacked
by fascists that's right where is it
from
and two times that's it we're assembling
at 12:00 noon on Saturday 21st of march
outside BBC Portland Place and we'll be
marching to Trafalgar Square and I'm one
of the speakers you absolutely yeah well
I wish you the very best for the
demonstration
next Saturday but also take my
metaphorical hat off to all the work
that unites against fascism has been
doing
you really are heroes sabe darling thank
you very much for that coming up after
the break the father of all batsmen
Mehta corner of father's for justice
don't miss it
welcome back to Sputnik Matt and Nadine
O'Connor are the public faces of one of
the biggest civil rights campaigns in
Britain fathers for justice not that
you'd know it if you followed only the
so-called mainstream media still less if
you were stuck inside the Westminster
bubble politicians run scared of the
idea that a child is entitled to both
parents in their lives prisoners of the
mother is always right mentality but
mothers are not always right sometimes
they're wrong and even wilfully so
playing out their anger justify it or
otherwise towards the father
irrespective of the impact on the
children's well-being
feckless fathers abound in Britain men
who walk out on their children again and
again but millions of fathers are
desperate to be closely involved in
their children's lives and are precluded
by the family court system from doing so
it is a Gordian not trying to unravel it
is Matt O'Connor and he joins us now
Matt thanks for coming on both the
Sputnik before we move on more
specifically to your field it's not
tangential I would argue the
extraordinary decision of the Supreme
Court this week to allow a woman more
than 20 years after their divorce to
file a claim for a financial settlement
against the man they finally divorced
more than two decades ago or do you
think it is tangential well it is it's
absolute up and a whole approach that
the legal system takes two men and two
fathers which is effectively George's to
is to reduce the state of cash points
it's like going on a Saturday night and
putting your car into machine and the
cash just keeps coming I mean it's a
dream scenario but it reflects badly
I think this judgement on the British
justice system it's it's an outrageous
judgment even by their own pitifully low
standards
basically says that this guy is a
cashpoint not just when he was married
but a cash point for life and this is a
woman who is a grown woman clearly can
look after herself clearly can't be
responsible for herself
clearly can provide for herself she has
no dependencies so this is a very
serious and worrying judgement I think a
lot of men we're running scared now and
very very concerned that this basically
opens up some serious doors and to
potential future claims it's just like
infantilization of women isn't it the
idea that in the 21st century four
decades after the marriage has ended
that somehow they're dependent upon a
man and
you swim into the status of victims and
two states have been dependents and I
think the the idea behind feminism that
women would be empowered to stand and
Durante fate to be responsible for their
actions and I think this idea somehow
that that isn't the case is
fundamentally wrong and I think we need
to we step back from the issues and and
and look at the whole you shouldn't say
why is it that fathers are still seen in
law as being cash points well let's turn
to that subject I have become grimly
familiar with this system and I
represent many people one just last
Saturday for example came in to see me
showed me all the paperwork that the
child maintenance service has been
taking a very substantial amount of
money from him every month against which
there's no meaningful appeal the figures
are laid down there's no flexibility and
so on but the key point is that he has
not seen the child in question for seven
years
despite courts regularly saying he ought
to have access to the child the mother
has simply refused and there seems to be
no meaningful mechanism by which his
rights are come back to that point his
rights are the child's right to see him
can be respected yes and this is not an
unusual case this is this is common
stuff yeah I've got a friend of mine
whose daughter was taken out of the
jurisdiction to Scotland he's a train
driver he's paid I think so in a region
forty five fifty thousand pounds over
the last ten years
the girls now fourteen and it's an
outrage I've got another friend of mine
who who spent over fifty thousand pounds
trying to see his daughter to get caught
all his I enforce the CSA comes along
cleaned out his bank account taking this
money friends take his passport took his
driving license they have craze I
additional powers the CSA all the child
maintenance service as they now call it
these are really serious issues that if
the coin was flipped and reversed and
this was happening to mothers there
would be a national outcry about it and
that's our point about this is the the
gender apartheid that applies to people
like me because basically why we're male
that somehow we're at a top of the tree
whereas in reality as the author Warren
fowl said there was a glass cellar where
where men are kept because if you look
at it we have we sir size is the biggest
killer of men and the age of 45 we're
more likely to be homeless more likely
to be unemployed more likely be subjects
of violence more like to be incarcerated
and more likely to be murdered on many
many many levels men and the issues
related to men and men's health
I just really aren't paid any Jews
serious attention by our political
classes and it is indeed ironic let me
go back to a dichotomy I glanced at in
my last question it is the fundamental
principle of the Children's Act that
it's the children that has rights not
the parents the problem with that is
that arrow Gates or Dara gates to
someone else namely a judge in a secret
court because yes it's not opposite
ility public one may not discuss in
public any of these cases it gara gates
to a judge the right to decide what the
children's interest is now I actually
questioned that in principle I'm a
father by the grace of God many times
over I have rights in my view to see my
children whether a judge thinks children
have an interest or a case for seeing me
what it what's your take on that what
taking it is very very simple there's a
small thing called the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights that
enshrines everybody's rights
it's a family life that's our starting
point that's what everybody signed up to
yes course child has rights but to say
that fathers have no eyes it's an
outrage and as you rightly say we have
an unelected unaccountable unsecured
issue operating in complete secrecy that
determines what the best interest of a
child is now the thing is about this
best interest of a child argument is a
wicked wicked to see the lies at the
heart of a rotten and corrupt family
justice system I tell you why because
nobody has kept any records on the
outcomes the children who have been for
the family justice system this is not
based on evidence this is based on what
the judge thinks the Charles best
interest is and as we've seen with four
million fatherless children in this
country now with all the social
conscious consequences that flow from
that the family courts are fundamentally
abusive and out of control and we
legalize Cagefighting
and we need to have a proper review and
inquiry into their operation met since
we last interview you they cut down the
legal aid in Family Court it must have
had a tremendous effect on fathers and
the children
yes it's had perhaps a less of an effect
on farmers can many fathers didn't
qualify for legal aid but what it has
done is reduced the family courts to
legalize cash fighting where most of the
people go into the system are not
legally represented and so you're
literally pitching parent against parent
to prove you're the best parent is you
have to prove you're the worst is I
always say courts are for criminals not
families this is not a place for any
family to be adjudged let alone by a 70
or 80 year old judge who's got a public
school boy from Eton clicking his false
teeth as I've seen them do regularly in
courts operating in secrecy and I think
we need a complete review at a family
justice system so we have a proper
accountable fair and balanced system of
family justice
supported by a presumption what I
believe why campaign for a presumption
of 50/50 shared parenting so we have a
quality proper quality for the system
some who says to me well why would you
start with 50/50 equalities like
pregnancy you can't be a little bit
pregnant you either have it or you don't
yeah you should start from that
presumption there are many cases in
which that 50/50 would be altered of
course but the presumption should be
50/50 by the way the cuts in legal aid
issue is worse of a missus or than you
stated because the one criterion that
you still can get legal aid is if you
allege that there has been domestic
violence and mothers who claim there was
domestic violence get legal it so you
have a situation where my constituents
sometimes inarticulate sometimes
undereducated certainly under-qualified
are up against qualified and polished
barristers who are being paid for by the
state but the father is there left to
his own devices how unfair is that yeah
it was always the case to some extent
there was always a case where you a
mother would qualify for legal aid if
you tick the box that says there's been
abuse now figures with domestic violence
Lobby abuse these days can constitute
the financial abuse which is dispute
over credit cards emotional abuse
arguing in the car bat we're going on
the map yeah arguing discussions like
that so it's not just related advice but
also every father is now risk assessed
so calf casts the court welfare service
collect soft evidence which is
arguments in the household between
mother and father and hard evidence
which is there's been police reports to
complain to the police but every
father's risk assessed because they say
where it is safe to do so
contact can take place where it's safe
to do so so the presumption George is
that you and me are inherently dangerous
to our children and that assumption
doesn't apply to mother it doesn't apply
to mother's new boyfriend
it's a grotesquely unfair and
prejudicial based solely on our gem
don't get me started on cough gasps
Marge O'Connor father's for justice
I salute you and now it's your turn to
tell us what you think through the
portals of social media what's rattling
Gayatri well in response to Nigel
Farage's outrageous comments on racial
discrimination in the working place
marcia brown responses just another hair
ball policy belts out to satisfy the
knuckle draggers when i put out the
article about the woman getting them the
right to sue on the divorce
yes matter Supreme Court lots of
responses most of them agree that it's
not really fair both men and women by
the way Craig Hill says after 20 years
since she remarried going to be an open
season for any woman to take ex-husbands
to courts wanting payouts that's all
have you got time for this week which
alas means that's the end of the show
and almost the end of the sputnik join
us next week for the very last orbit why
stay in touch with us on Twitter RT
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makeup on Russia today it's goodbye from
me gaiety and for me George Galloway
it's been marvelous