PETER MASON applauds the revival, 39 years later with the same team and cast, of Manfred Karge’s version of Brecht’s 100-year-old play, Mann Ist Mann
Ciao Ousmane: The Hidden Exploitation of Italy’s Migrant Workers
Damning indictment of ruthless treatment of vulnerable labourers
Migrant workers employed in Italy's agriculture sector
[etuc.org]
MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds a fearless attempt to bring to the stage the 1984 toxic gas disaster in Bhopal, India
ALEX HALL applauds the account of a dogged, traumatic and punishing campaign for justice that has lasted from 1998 to the present day
NICK WRIGHT laments the political bias of an epic attempt to tell the history of the liberation of France from the Nazis, that excludes both the decisive contribution of the Soviet Red Army, and of the French communist party itself
JOE GILL traces the ideology and method of contemporary imperialism back to the greed, hubris and violence of the late 15th century Portuguese
NOT much is known about Ousmane Diallo. He had made the tortuous journey from Senegal across Africa, endured a dangerous stay in Libya — where the possibility of forced labour, torture or death was ever present — and survived the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Sicily, where death awaited him a few months later.
Before dawn on an October morning in 2013, Ousmane awoke in the abandoned derelict farmhouse where he slept with several other African migrants. Not realising that their gas canister was leaking, he struck a match to light a candle. The cylinder exploded, covering 60 per cent of his body in severe burns. He was not the first migrant to die in such a way and he would not be the last.
Ciao Ousmane’s author, Hsiao-Hung Pai, states that her aim in writing this book is to document and expose the iniquitous subjugation of migrant workers like Ousmane, who are ruthlessly exploited for their labour while being vilified as a burden and a problem.
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