This article was written by Richard Cooper.

The pop star Madonna spoke out against anti-Gypsy discrimination at an August 26th concert in Bucharest, Romania.

Madonna should be commended for speaking out in Romania. She was probably stunned to find herself heckled by thousands of concertgoers when she declared herself saddened by anti-Gypsy discrimination. Her concert included a Gypsy band from Russia, called the Kolpakov Trio. She has also toured with Gogol Bordello, led by Eugene Hutz, a group that terms their sound "Gypsy punk."

In 1982, I visited Spain on a group tour. I speak, read and write Spanish. When we were in Sevilla, we had a guide with us at the Alhambra, the palace from the heyday of Moorish Spain. Someone mentioned that a friend or relative or acquaintance had been robbed by a mob of Gypsy children.

Our guide remarked that Hitler had killed both Jews and Gypsies. He went on to say something to the effect that it was a shame about the Jews being killed and that unfortunately most of the Gypsies in Europe escaped. I was so shocked I was speechless. I deeply regret not having taken him to task and failing to denounce him to our tour group.

The survival of intense, even murderous prejudice against the Gypsies, who call themselves Roma, is no suprise. While Communism has collapsed, socialism, nationalism and other collectivist notions remain.

The great Austrian economic Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), who fled Europe to escape the Nazis, wrote in "The Clash of Group Interests" "Our age is full of serious conflicts of economic group interests. But thse conflicts are not inherent in the operation of an unhampered capitalist economy. They are the necessary outcome of government policies interfering with the operation of the market. They are not conflicts of Marxian classes. They are brought about by the fact that mankind has gone back to group privileges and thereby to a new caste system." Mises's best known book was Human Action.

The Gypsies, like the Jews everywhere, the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Lebanese and Syrians in Africa, are the canary in the coal mine. The poison of collectivist ethnic group hatreds reaches them first. The world needs to turn to individualism and the order of free markets, individual liberty and personal responsibility.

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