"This album is a celebration of diversity & co-operation, & an alternative set of voices to the hysteria & xenophobia generated by politicians & the media over the issue of asylum." - Sleeve notes to 'Article 14'.
This is a benefit CD issued by Irregular Records (CD number IRR044) to help the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. It is copyright Irregular Records 2001.
At least £2 (USA$3? I'm not sure about the exchange rate) from the sale of each CD goes to the Medical Foundation which is, to my knowledge, a unique organisation and certainly one worth supporting. On the back of the sleeve notes, the Medical Foundation says this:
"The Medical Foundation is the only charity in the UK which works exclusively with survivors of torture and organised violence. Many of the people we support are refugees. They suffer all the stresses, often severe, associated with being a refugee: the loss of home, identity, culture, friends, job, & a fear of being returned to face further persecution. The Foundation aims to provide survivors of torture with medical, practical & emotional support; to train health professionals & others to work with torture survivors; to educate the public about torture; & to campaign to improve the law regarding the treatment of asylum seekers & refugees".
The last aim is currently very important; through 2000 and 2001 in Britain there was an outburst of barely-hidden racism against refugees. In the same way that Mary Whitehouse has ensured that "sex and violence" always go together, the likes of the Sun have ensured that "asylum seeker" is always prefixed with "bogus". The Conservative Party have been particularly guilty of refugee-bashing, with the result that vulnerable people are in detention centres (such as the now-incinerated Yarl's Wood Detention Centre) or given a council flat in a ghetto and a few food vouchers and left to cope.
The name of the album comes from Article 14 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution."
The track and artist listing is as follows: