Feb 26, 2022
In today's episode, we speak with Leona of the Louise Michel, a refugee rescue ship funded in part by the elusive British street artist Banksy.
During the Louise Michel's last mission in the central Mediterranean in January this year, the crew witnessed the EU-supported Libyan Coastguards shot at the people they had intercepted as they tried to swim away from them.
Leona tells us all about that, as well as the Louise Michel's previous missions: one earlier this year which saw fossil fuel giant Shell help send refugees stuck on one of its oil rigs to Tunisia, and how in 2020, the Maltese authorities abandoned the Louise Michel's crew with over 130 shipwreck survivors within its search-and-rescue zone.
--- Show notes ---
For more on Louise Michel, visit: mvlouisemichel.org
Follow Louise Michel on Twitter:
@MVLouiseMichel
For more on Banksy, check out: banksy.co.uk or check him out on Instagram.
For more on Louise Michel, the French anarchist and feminist, you can find some of her writings on the Anarchist Library, here: bit.ly/3tb5xaG. Zoe Baker has a great video about her here: bit.ly/3t9s87n. And I'd really recommend this graphic novel, The Red Virgin and The Vision of Utopia, too: bit.ly/3BT2sjo.
Read this written interview with Louise Michel crew member Lea from 2020 here: bit.ly/3tfTA3g.
Fossil fuel giant Shell and EU maritime authorities accused of complicity in Mediterranean refugee ‘pullback’: bit.ly/3vgBGjM.
For more on the situation in Libya, check out episode 15 of The Civil Fleet podcast for an interview with European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights's Silvia Rojas-Castro and Lawyers for Justice in Libya's Elise Flecher.
Leona mentions the Seabrid and Calibri 2 in the interview. These are two activist run reconnaissance plans, the first operated by Sea-Watch and the other by Pilotes Volontaires. Check out episode 1 of The Civil Fleet podcast for an interview with Sea-Watch's Felix about the Seabird and Moonbird planes.
Don't know what Alarm Phone is? See episodes 3 and 5.
For more on Mediterranea's Mare Jonio rescue ship, see episode 18.
Leona mentions that she was Rhib at one stage in the interview. A Rhib is an acronym for Rigid-hull Inflatable Boat - the kind of boat you'd see launched from a larger ship during rescue operations. Check out The Civil Fleet's glossary for more terms like this one: bit.ly/3Hnd2QP.
For more on Europe's walls, read this 2018 report by the Transnational Institute, which points out that EU member states "have constructed almost 1,000km of walls, the equivalent of more than six times the total length of the Berlin Walls, since the nineties to prevent displaced people migrating into Europe:" bit.ly/3HlAkGJ.
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