Greetings, European and revolutionary activists. I have finally had the opportunity to update the latest dramas of our maverick and unique group.

  Firstly, I’d like to thank those who voted me in as the new EFAy President, despite the efforts of the airline Ryanair to stop me arriving in Barcelona. It was a rocky beginning. We have a fantastic new bureau, and have so far worked together very well.

I arrived back from Catalunya into the storm that was the G20 meltdown in London. The G20 are the group of 20 largest global economies. They an elite club of highly developed nations, which remain or were empires historically. Generally speaking, they dominate within their borders minority nations, and subjugate billions of landless poor in the developing south; trapping them in debt.

This elite inspired thousands on to the streets of London, to create a street party led by the apocalyptic horsemen of debt, war, homelessness, and environmental disaster. Their peaceful message of financial reform was unfortunately crushed by the English police state.
Many were injured by the rioting policemen including myself, and some were killed such Ian Tomlinson, an innocent newspaper salesman. Multiple peaceful protesters were beaten and attacked around me. There crime was only to peacefully protest. Circled in by a police kettle, I myself was bloodied. Finding myself at the front, a riot policeman first accused me of being a drug addict, before attempting to use my head as a drum. Their distaste for political alternatives and free thinking was apparent throughout.

Let us hope that large states such as Britain can have more tolerance of minority political perspectives in the future; from the political rights of ethnic minorities, and the rights of stateless nations.
Certainly there remains a long way to go.

Some of you may have already heard about the unelected EU Commission’s decision to denny EFAY the “Youth in Action” funding this year. This annual grant is the mainstay of EFAy funding, and keeps us breathing. EFAy arranged to meet the EC grant assessors on the 29th April to find out why. After arrival, our EFAy Secretary General, Lucy Collyer, was informed she was not allowed to take a copy of the funding rejection report.

In the evaluation an EC evaluator had written:
“In one sense the proposal can be viewed in two ways. First, that an opportunity to bring together young people who have a range of minority languages, cultures and special positions is very much what the Youth in Action program is all about. On the other hand, there is a danger that such a focus, and particularly on the base of “regionalism” and “national identity” can potentially lead to major problems, and a potential threat to an overall European Ideal.”

This information was passed on to EFA Members of the European Parliament on the same day. As a result the EFA Group decided to raise a European Parliamentary question about the findings, which it saw as an example of political discrimination against the EFAy and a direct attack on the values of European democracy.

An open letter was sent to the EC President, Mr. José Manuel Durao Barroso, to complain about the political discrimination inherent in the comments made in the evaluation. It asked him to intervene, as stating that otherwise the EFA Group would be forced to take the matter to the European Court of Justice, in order to guarantee just treatment.

As a response to this temporary setback, our bureau has been working on a funding plan to save EFAY. Without funding EFAY can not keep our member of staff and therefore will not be able fullfill our activity and plan and objectives for 2009.
Our first success has been putting together a compilation CD of songs from all the minority nations. We will be releasing this soon. We will also be selling some very interesting, well designed T Shirts.

Despite this, 2009 looks like an exciting year for EFAy. We are looking forward to an “Eco Linguistics” conference in the autumn, comparing biodiversity with endangered languages, and look forward to representing at the December Copenhagen Climate Change talks.

In other news, Breton political activist and bureau member of EFAy; Gael Briand, recently had success building Breton – Manx cultural links whilst visiting the Isle of Man. After being welcomed ashore by Phil Gawne, the Manx agriculture minister introduced Gael to the unusual nation’s constitutional and cultural quirks.
Niether a recognised state, nor technically part of Great Britain, it has a proud and Gaelic Celtic history. It boasts the longest continuing parliament in the world. The language remains under threat, though Gael had the pleasure of visiting a “Bunscoill Gaelgagh” school. Gael reported: “It was great to listen to Manx, and hear that each year more and more children and other ages are learning the language.

This is despite UNESCO classing it extinct, like Cornish, while both enjoy support in local schools.
It seems that only through education, persistence, and hard campaigning that we can gain support from such unelected organisations.

I look forward to speaking to you again soon, and hope you've had successful campaigns in the local and European Elections.

Sowena!

Jezz Anbleydh,
EFAy President.