TRANSNATIONAL MOVEMENT
On April 8, 1971, representatives of Romani people from several European countries met in London for the World Roma Congress. The delegates came from former Republic of Yugoslavia, France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany and Czechoslovakia, among others. The focus of their assembly was the remembrance of the genocide, the struggle for social equality, the preservation of language and culture, and the rejection of discriminatory labels.
The participants introduced pioneering symbols for the transnational political organising of Romani people: a common romani flag in blue and green with a red chakra in the middle and the romani anthem “Djelem, djelem”. They declared 8 April as International Roma Day. Furthermore, they decided from now on to reject the racist foreign names and to insist on the self-designation Roma also in public.
The assembly elected the Yugoslav Slobodan Berberski, a former partisan and companion of the head of state Josip Broz Tito, as its president:
“Our goal is to unite and mobilize the Roma worldwide. We face the same problems everywhere: We want to stick to our own educational ideals, preserve and develop our Roma culture, ignite a new dynamic in our communities and shape the future in accordance with our habits and our faith.”
Interview excerpt Gratan Puxon:
As far as my role is concerned, I stressed that the congress should not be just a conference, a round of talks. There had to be an element of direct action to show that we wanted to fight for recognition and civil rights. I hired a coach to take all the delegates to Birmingham. In the town of Walsall, three children were burned in a caravan fire after an evacuation. It was during this journey that Žarko Jovanović composed the text of our anthem. So we stormed in the highest mood, led by military prosecutor Holomek, delegate from Czechoslovakia, angry into the local police station to protest”
(Grattan Puxon, Homepage Roma Center e.V.).
The second World Roma Congress in Geneva in 1978 was attended by 50 delegations from all parts of Europe as well as from the USA, India and Pakistan. They continued to denounce existing prejudices and demanded that the term Roma be used.