Brittany

[Fulub-le-Breton]

Here you go, a portal to the Breton political movement; The Breton Connection: http://thebretonconnection.blogspot.com/
Feel free to circulate it and all suggestions are welcome.






edited by: Fulub-le-Breton, Mar 09, 2008 - 03:24 PM

[Ilovehelston]

let's not forget jean marie le pen, the most famous breton

[Fulub-le-Breton]

For people with Breton connections I'd prefer Jack Kerouac.

[Fulub-le-Breton]

44 is the departmental number for the Loire Atlantique which is part of the Breton nation but has been hacked off by the French state and added to another region called Pay de la Loire.

If you can imagin North Cornwall being cut off and added to Devonshire you'll get the idea.

[Strattonian]

"If you can imagin North Cornwall being cut off and added to Devonshire you'll get the idea"

Over my cold, cold dead body

[Fulub-le-Breton]

Where there is a will there is a way.

Brittany have created a 'national' side for Football and are playing Congo on the 20th of May: http://www.bretagne-football.org/

[Fulub-le-Breton]

As an aside, Normandy too has a small autonomist movement: http://www.normanring.eu.md/index.php

[Morvran]

Fulub-le-Breton said:
As an aside, Normandy too has a small autonomist movement: http://www.normanring.eu.md/index.php



Perhaps they'd like our aristocracy back?

[Fulub-le-Breton]

Looking good (the other one is for Corsica). It'd be nice to see the UK government allowing something similar for Kernow but there is fat chance of that I suppose.

The new plate will carry both the Breton flag -Gwen ha Du- and the name for Brittany in Breton -Breizh-. A surprising move for the centralist state that is France!

[Fulub-le-Breton]

Comédie-Française

Regional and minority languages should be protected, in France, and elsewhere.

Quelle horreur ! The 40 élite members of the Académie française are jumping out of their fauteuils, incensed that legislation passed by France's National Assembly would put regional languages such as Breton, Occitan, Corse, Alsatian, Catalan and Basque into the constitution as part of the national heritage. The members are particularly outraged that the regional languages would get a mention in the first article of the constitution — which defines France as an "indivisible, lay, democratic and social republic" — ahead of the second article, which designates French as the official language. The academy, created in 1635 to guard the purity of the French language, voted unanimously this month to condemn the move as "defying logic", and being a threat to the nation.

Actually, "defying logic", is an apt description of the vote itself. Globalization is already threatening to extinguish half the world's 6,000–7,000 languages. That would be a tragic loss to humanity and our understanding of it, if only because knowledge and culture are inescapably interwined with the languages within which they evolved. Languages also enrich each other, and provide a trove of data for research in linguistics and history. The other main French academy, the Académie des Sciences, should make itself heard on the matter.

Multilingualism has other practical benefits. French scientists who speak regional languages in addition to the national tongue testify that early bilingualism has helped them go on to master English and other languages. Some even argue that the thought processes involved have helped them to be better and more creative scientists.

The Académie française argues that France's regional languages are so obviously part of its heritage that there is no need for constitutional safeguards. That is disingenuous. It is precisely the lack of constitutional recognition that has blocked France from ratifying key international treaties to conserve minority languages: the courts have ruled that ratification is forbidden by existing constitutional principles, such as the indivisibility of the Republic and the unity of the French people.

Indeed, if earlier French governments had had their way, Breton, which is spoken in Brittany, would have been eradicated long ago. Only stubborn Breton persistence has prevented this from happening, notably through the creation of the Diwan Breton-language schools from the 1970s onwards.

Yec'hed mat (to your health) to that — because regional and minority languages, like endangered species, merit protection. Languages that aren't revitalized through constant exercise die out. It's hypocritical that France, which is one of the first to staunchly defend its own elegant national language, should deny that same right to regions that wish to keep their own languages alive and vibrant. The National Assembly's legislation was rejected last week by France's conservative Senate. But it could yet be reintroduced, and should be: for the sake of both science and its own rich heritage, France should remove the constitutional obstacles as quickly as possible, and ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

[Fulub-le-Breton]

Just a quick note on two subjects; 1) to highlight the story below and 2) to bring to your attention the all new singing and dancing Eurominority website.

‘Regional’ languages recognised as ‘part of France’s heritage’

Brussel - Bruxelles, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 Ecrit par Davyth Hicks

The clause that “Regional languages are part of France’s heritage” will be included in Article 75 of France’s Constitution following a vote in the Senate yesterday. The Senate’s decision followed a second vote last week in the National Assembly calling for the introduction of the clause. The move has been given a qualified welcome by ‘regional’ language supporters, with the NGO EBLUL calling for France to go the extra mile and ratify the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

As reported on Eurolang, recognition was previously voted down by the Senate in June following a vitriolic response from the French Academy, which had called for the withdrawal of the proposed clause because recognition of ‘regional’ languages would, it said, "undermine national identity". This provoked a huge outcry from language supporters, many of whom have seen their languages become endangered because of an ongoing French state policy of eradication.

Marc le Fur, the Breton UMP deputy who pressed for the clause, expressed his “great satisfaction” yesterday on the Senate’s decision.

In a press release EBLUL President, Neasa Ní Chinnéide, while welcoming the move, added that, “EBLUL stresses that the regional languages of France also belong to a European and global linguistic heritage. It is hoped that this recognition will reinforce the European policy of meaningful linguistic diversity on the continent. On this point, EBLUL also expects that France, which currently holds the Presidency of the European Union, ratifies the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which would give its languages a concrete and pragmatic European framework, for their development.

The statement continued that, “EBLUL believes it is high time that France puts an end to its policy of destruction of its autochthonous languages that has undermined its credibility both in Europe and internationally, and that concrete measures be taken quickly to translate this recognition into realities.”

The President of the Academy of the Basque Language, Andres Urrutia, hailed the reform as an "important and significant", but adding that this is only a "first step… It is not enough to recognize the heritage of the Basque language, it more important that this heritage is alive,” he said. (Eurolang 2008)

EBLUL http://www.eblul.org/

Diwan http://www.diwanbreizh.org/

Ya d'ar Brezhoneg http://ouiaubreton.com/

[Fulub-le-Breton]

CELTIC LEAGUE - PRESS INFORMATION

BRETON 'SHOW TRIAL' CONDEMNED BY LEAGUE

A number of groups and individuals, including Parti Breton, the Green
Party, musician Alan Stivel and the Gorsedd of Brittany, have spoken
out against the imminent trial of three Breton activists, which is
due to begin on the 17th November 2008.

Gaël Roblin, Kristian Georgeault and Pascal Laize will face a special
court in the Palais de Justice, Paris, where they will be accused
of being implicated in the Breton Revolutionary Army (ARB) and the
bombing of a MacDonalds restaurant in Quevert, Brittany, in 2000,
in which one person died. After the fatal bombing, the three above
named defendants, along with nine other Breton activists, were arrested
and held without charge until their trial at another special court
in Paris, in 2004. Both Roblin and Laize have always denied any involvement
in ARB activities.

After their 2004 court appearance, which was largely seen as little
more than a Paris show trial - it could not be proved that any of
the defendants were linked to the Quevert bombing and many had to
be released immediately due to the long prison terms they had already
served, including Gael Roblin. Gael Roblin, Kristian Georgeault and
Pascal Laize however were sentenced to 3, 11 and 8 years respectively.
Laize was also prohibited from returning to Breizh/Brittany, despite
the fact that all his family (including his two daughters) lived there.

The police however, have still not been able to find the culprits
of the Quevert bombing and now the French state public prosecutor
has called for the trial of the three defendants to be opened up once
again. Not surprisingly, many in Brittany see the case as being politically
motivated and it will not be the first time that Georgeault and Laize
have been tried for the same charge. Georgeault and Laize were initially
arrested in 2000, like Roblin and were sentenced in 2004 for involvement
in the ARB and then again in 2005, in a different court for the same
charge. Like in 2004, the court hearing in Paris this month will be
held without a jury and the defendants will be accused of the same
crime once again.

All three defendants have had to slowly rebuild their lives after
being held in prison for such lengthy periods, with the loss of jobs
and financial security. Many of those originally arrested have subsequently
chosen not to take such a prominent role in Breton politics. All three
defendants however are well known in Brittany and Gael Roblin is now
involved in the Breton solidarity movement that supports prisoners
and persons under investigation, Skoazell Vreizh. Jerome Bouthier,
another activist who was also arrested in 2000 and held without charge,
is now President of the Skoazell Vreizh organisation.


Today, suspicion by the French state in matters relating to the Breton
political movement can still be seen in Breizh/Brittany, as was observed
at first hand by Celtic League delegates at their AGM in Landerne/
Landerneau, in 2006. At this time Roblin was invited to speak at the
Celtic League AGM, on behalf of Skoazell Vreizh, to inform delegates
about the situation of Kristian Georgeault, whose release the League
were campaigning for at the time. The French Gendarmerie police also
turned up however and waited conspicuously at the end of the road.

The League's General Secretary (GS), who campaigned vigorously for
the release of those arrested in 2000, including Roblin, Georgeault
and Laize said:

"The Celtic League condemns the French authorities for their seemingly
never ending witch hunt of Breton political activists, which they
have pursued vigorously since the end of World War II, based on false
and fabricated accusations and executing many people along the way.

Gael Roblin, Kristian Georgeault and Pascal Laize have all been accused
of having something to do with the Quevert bombing, but previous trials
have found nothing against them. There have been many instances of
French state inspired terrorism in the past and it has been widely
rumoured and even brought up in court that the French intelligence
services were possibly responsible for the Quevert bomb, after they
found the device at another MacDonalds restaurant in Pornic, six days
earlier. The Pornic device had been planted by the ARB, which they
freely admitted, but they have always denied having anything to do
with the bomb that went off in the MacDonalds in Quevert.

Whatever the verdict of the Paris trial, later this month, there is
no doubt what the French authorities are trying to do, once again.
The French state prosecutor is looking for a way to close the Quevert
case, while at the same time try to discredit and break the spirit
of the accused. Fortunately this time around, more people will be
aware of the injustice being inflicted upon these Breton activists,
which will go some way to show a wider audience the difficulties that
the people of Brittany have to endure under French state rule."

On Saturday November 15th 2008, there will be a gathering of supporters
of the three activists in Rennes to demonstrate their solidarity
with the accused.