The threat of racism is a rising tide across the world. Islamophobia and government indifference to the plight of refugees; institutional discrimination, anti-Semitism and the demonisation of migrants; these features can seem to many like a new normal. But last year over 1,000 people came together to send a message on the streets of Cardiff on United Nations Day Against Racism loud and clear, “We will stand up to racism.” Our march happened alongside a further 3,000 in Glasgow and 30,000 in London on the day that commemorates the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. But we have a great deal more work to do.
In the year to March 2017 over 60,000 race hate crimes were reported to police, while many suggest this grossly underestimates the real figures. This trend spiked after the vote to come of out the European Union, and the government has contemptibly treated EU migrant rights as a measly bargaining chip in negotiations.
The presence of racists at the Football Lads Alliance demonstrations, and the insufficient action to drive them out from the group’s leadership shows how those who seek to divide our communities are trying to exploit terrible incidents of terror to seek a greater foothold.
On the far right the fascist splinters such as National Action or the vestiges of the EDL are disorganised and marginal, but from France to Poland, Austria to Greece, we see groups with the same essential philosophy swap the jackboots for suits and make unnerving inroads in elections
Abroad, Donald Trump has so far been unable to get away with trying to ban Muslims from visiting the US, but is pressing ahead with attacks on migration and building his wall of shame to drive criminalise those seeking to improve their lives. Meanwhile the Rohingya of Myanmar flee for their lives from ethnic cleansing.We the undersigned know the only way to turn the tide is by standing together, and refusing to concede to those who would seek to divide us. We are a broad movement of everyone who wants a world free from racist oppression, and we stand in solidarity with all those in the global fight against it. We will support a mass demonstration in Cardiff on United Nations Day Against Racism in 2018. We will not allow the clock to be turned back to the darkest days of humankind. We will march. We will campaign. We are the majority. We will win. We will stand up to racism.
Be aware that this event is organised by Stand Up To Racism, a front for the SWP.
The threat of racism is a rising…
SOURCE: antifainternational.tumblr.com
