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Created on:10 September, 2003 - 10:25 Last modified:5 July, 2004 - 06:14 |
Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE) is a campaigning international youth organisation, active in 16 countries in Europe. YRE was launched by an international demonstration of 40,000 people against racism in Brussels, in October 1992. We keep in touch regularly with each other about what is happening in different countries and how we can build international campaigns against racism.
YRE believes that racism isn't natural; it is something that can be overcome through education and campaigning. Unemployment, homelessness and poverty can all be used to encourage racism by Nazis and politicians. Black and Asian people are a visible minority, and therefore can easily be used as a scapegoat for social and economic problems. YRE therefore don¹t just say racism is wrong but use economic arguments to convince people that blacks and Asians are not to blame for these problems.
We think that the economic system we live in creates poverty, unemployment and low wages. We campaign for the right to a job, a home and an education for all and show that we can fight for these things best by overcoming racism and uniting.
YRE also campaigns to drive Nazi groups out of our communities. Wherever they organise we will mobilise local people to oppose them - in order to prevent them from spreading their Nazi ideas and recruiting new members.
We are campaigning for justice for people who are unjustly imprisoned like Oliver Campbell, Winston Silcott and Satpal Ram, who YRE believes are the victims of racist frame-ups.
We campaign against racist immigration laws, and the imprisonment of asylum-seekers. YRE takes up individual cases of people threatened with deportation and expose the wider injustice of the present immigration system.
YRE members are against all forms of discrimination. We believe everyone should have equal rights whether they are Asian, Black or white, male or female, disabled or able-bodied, Jewish or Gentile.
School student members of YRE are active in combating racism both inside and outside school. We regularly visit schools to speak with the students about racism and fascism and what can be done about them. There are YRE groups in different schools, in estates, towns, cities and universities.
YRE is run and controlled by its members. We also work with a number of other groups - from local community groups to national organisations and trade unions.
Young people of all races, Asian Black and white, must unite against racism. We are the ones who have most to lose from racism and fascism, and most to gain from their defeat. United we can win.