18 March 2023, UN Anti Racism Day
International unity against racism and the far right on 18 March 2023
On Saturday 18 March 2023, we will be on the streets again as part of an international day of mass protests opposing racism and fascism.
In the face of the growing economic crisis, governments are using racism to divide and rule, to weaken opposition to their policies. Refugees and migrants are being scapegoated: Islamophobia, antisemitism, Sinophobia, racism against South East Asian people, and racism against Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, are all on the rise internationally.
The reality exposed by the international Black Lives Matter Movement is denied by governments, who try to hide the brutal truth of institutional racism.
Refugees die in their thousands in the sea and on land routes, blocked in Europe by FRONTEX and by their equivalents in other parts of the world. Barriers of all types and pushbacks mean that the right of asylum for refugees and of legalisation for migrants has been severely undermined by governments, thus breaching international law. Thousands suffer imprisonment in detention centres and isolation in camps outside the cities, on Aegean islands or in the deserts of Africa. Just on 24 June, up to 77 people were killed while trying to cross the frontier at Melilla, in an action on EU territory by Spanish and Moroccan security forces. Against this state racism, we demand save passage, and asylum and papers for refugees and migrants.
The use of systematic state racism is giving space to the racist and fascist right to grow as we have seen in France with Le Pen’s National Rally, the Swedish Democrats and now crucially in Italy where Meloni and the fascist Brothers of Italy are in power.
But there can be mass opposition to racism and fascism. Meloni was stopped by a solidarity movement when she tried to prevent the disembarking of refugees in Italian ports, in Greece neo-Nazi Golden Dawn leaders are in prison, and there are more examples.
In the face of a massive cost of living crisis internationally we have to oppose racism, the politics of divide and rule and the growth of the racist and fascist right.
It’s time to mobilise the antiracist majority. We must stand up together against racism and fascism.
The undersigned organisations are calling for broad and united protests against racism and the far-right on Saturday 18 March 2023, to mark UN antiracism day – a day inaugurated to mark the massacre of young people opposing the racist apartheid South African state in 1960.
See you on the streets – #RefugeesWelcome #StopRwanda #NeverAgain #WorldAgainstRacism
World Against Racism 