Společně proti rasismu a fašismu

Společně proti rasismu a fašismu, Česká republika

Together against racism and fascism, Czech republic

We are watching with concern the growth of the far right in the Czech Republic and around the world. In the Czech Republic, the left has disappeared from parliament and the only opposition to government reforms is from the populist right and the far right. The anger of people who are rightly angry about the right-wing government’s cuts in social spending and the reduction of their real wages due to inflation is thus redirected towards false goals. We want to stress that it is the establishment that has an interest in stirring up racism, not poor and excluded people.

This development is part of a worldwide trend towards the normalisation of the far right. This is a spectrum ranging from conservatives and populists to outright fascists. Alongside Donald Trump in the US and Orbán in Hungary, we see outright fascist formations in the form of Meloni in Italy, Le Pen in France and Modi in India. However, these formations would not have had such strength if the mainstream politicians and media had not joined in the normalisation of racism. For example, the mainstream newspaper Mlada fronta DNES of 6 July 2023 begins its front-page analysis with the racist words: “The week of the bonfires showed France the cautionary fact that not all French people are French, even if they were born in the country.”

Fortress Europe fortifies its borders against refugees who find death at the bottom of the sea.

The targets of hatred are so often the weakest – Roma, refugees from Ukraine or the Global South, those affected by war, poverty and unemployment. The old anti-Semitism has been joined by Islamophobia, which erupted in the Czech Republic in 2015 with the arrival of the refugee wave from Syria.

We believe that the best antidote to the rise of the far right is to create the broadest and most diverse movement possible. We can look to Britain and Greece as examples, where mass demonstrations and other grassroots actions have proved very effective. Our struggle is international and we are inspired by like-minded organisations associated in the free network World against racism. The centre of our efforts is the protests on Saturday, which is the closest to the UN International Day Against Racism on 21 March. We call on all people who agree with our efforts to join us in our struggle against the far right..