#attacks against refugees and asylum seekers

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Hey, so, if you didn’t know, there are legit racist pogroms happening in the UK, primarily targeting Muslim and South Asian communities especially refugees and immigrants. So for those of you who, like me, have the misfortune to live on rainy fascist island, and might want to help, here’s my list of advice. If any of this is unhelpful, POC please feel free to correct me as I want to be as accurate and useful as possible.

Disclaimer: this is written from my perspective as a white person with full citizenship. Asylum seekers and communities of colour don’t need my advice, and know best what they need and how to practice their own care and mutual aid. This is for people not directly targeted by the riots who want to show solidarity. So,

1) listen to those most impacted and be led by their needs and wants.

2) if there’s disorder going on in your local area, mobilise with other anti-fascists to outnumber and counterprotest the rioters so they can’t attack individuals or institutions trying to help migrants or local minority communities

3) similarly, volunteer on local cleanup and donations if places like Mosques, libraries, advice bureaus or refugee housing is targeted where you live

4) join a local mutual aid network to build cohesion and solidarity in your community and be able to respond rapidly to evolving emergency situations

5) donate money to charities or organisations that work to protect and care for immigrants, refugees, religious minorities and people of colour in the UK

6) learn street first aid, including how to help someone after an acid attack

7) write to your MP, mayor and councillors and ask them to stand up vocally against racism and to take action to stamp out fascism in your community. Arrange a meeting to discuss your concerns if possible

8) donate blood in anticipation of further violence

9) don’t be a bystander if you see individual hate incidents, there have been repeated cases of lone POC being cornered by racist mobs. Be ready to step in or seek help but don’t make stupid decisions that will just put the person (or you!) in further danger

10) make an effort to educate yourself more on other cultures and spend time with neighbours who come from a different background than you

11) learn about systemic racism and the legacy of fascism and colonialism that has made the UK the kind of place where this happens

12) this is also about your own safety, but put together a go bag and have an evacuation plan for you and your family/friends/neighbours in case of local violence

13) organise a solidarity rally in your town

14) argue with your racist relatives, have difficult conversations, hold them to account and make it crystal clear that these attitudes and behaviours are absolutely unacceptable

15) send complaints in to media outlets when they refer inaccurately to ‘protests’, ‘anti-immigration rallies’, ‘pro-British groups’ and ‘legitimate concerns’, when discussing fascist pogroms, or when they imply communities of colour organising in self-defence is equally dangerous and violent

16) check in with your friends who are more likely to be targeted and offer to help in any way that’s useful, but understand they might just want time and space to process and for you to leave them alone

17) donate money to the effort to rebuild Spellow library

18) carry a spare scarf or jumper to offer to any hijabis who might have their hijab torn off

That’s everything I can think of. Let me know if you can think of anything else or if any of these suggestions aren’t useful. Stay safe out there folks, solidarity with POC and as ever, fuck the fash.

[mariacallous]

In the context of a turbulent and unsatisfying three years in office, the incredibly awful September in progress might rank as the three-party German government’s grimmest month yet. After elections in the east that issued record results for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—another vote, in Brandenburg, looms on Sept. 22—the government is also reeling from the fallout of two Islamist terrorist attacks that left three dead and eight wounded. One of those attacks involved a Syrian asylum-seeker whose petition for protection in Germany had been denied; he had links to the fundamentalist Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

Now the government has announced its response: starting on Sept. 16, Germany will unilaterally impose border closures, for six months, on all nine of its borders with other European countries. Incoming foreign nationals will be screened according to arbitrary criteria, and rejected applicants will be forced onto Germany’s next-door neighbors.

Although some details remain unclear, Germany’s plan amounts to an unprecedented step. Eight of the neighboring countries are EU members, and all of them are part of the Schengen regime that guarantees freedom of movement across borders within the bloc and recognizes the right to political asylum. Meanwhile, Germany’s mainstream opposition party is demanding an even more severe policy—one that would essentially prevent the country from accepting any new asylum applicants onto its territory at all.

“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new common European asylum system, we must strengthen controls at our national borders,” said Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser. Her proposal involves expedited procedures at the German frontiers to determine whether each person who arrives may enter and apply for political asylum.

According to Faeser, the planned border screenings will limit illegal migration and “protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime.” There will be more deportations during this period, she said, but they will conform to EU law. But some experts disagree. European law expert Alberto Alemanno, a professor of European law at HEC Paris, told the Guardian that the German controls “represent a manifestly disproportionate breach of the principle of free movement within the Schengen area.”

And Sergio Carrera, a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), a Brussels-based think tank, told Foreign Policy that the border closures will most probably have a knock-on effect across the continent: “There’s the risk of these measures triggering a race to the bottom. Where’s the end point? We’re talking about rights that go to the very heart of what the EU is all about.”

The new measures at the German borders ratchet up pressure on European Union norms that are already strained. According to EU law, free movement within the bloc is guaranteed within the Schengen area, which encompasses most EU member countries (except Cyprus and Ireland) as well as Switzerland and Norway. Foreign nationals claiming political persecution have the right to apply for political protection in the country through which they enter the EU. But the bloc’s member countries may suspend Schengen’s guarantees in the case of “internal security concerns” as long as those concerns are proportional and legitimate and the suspensions temporary. Brussels must be briefed in advance.

Germany has had periodic border checks in place along the Austrian border since 2015—a response to the refugee crisis of 2015-16. Last year, in response to heightened migration flows, Germany established checks on its borders shared with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. In fact, across the European Union, member states have temporarily restricted internal border crossings 404 times since 2015, according to German daily Die Tageszeitung.

Germany’s move would take another step toward turning the exception policy of internal EU border checks into the rule, argued Christian Jacob of Die Tageszeitung. A European Parliament study issued last year claimed that this was already happening and that a “systematic lack of compliance with EU law” could undermine rule of law guarantees.

One result would almost certainly be a chain reaction across the bloc. Walter Turnowsky, a migration expert at Denmark’s Der Nordschleswiger, a German-language newspaper, fears exactly this. “Officially, the announced German border controls are also temporary, but ultimately the announcement means the end of free travel across the EU,” he said. “From now on, governments will claim: ‘Well, Germany controls its borders too,’” so they will do the same.

The new German measures aim to stop non-EU citizens who have already applied for asylum elsewhere in the bloc from entering Germany by bus, train, or car from Schengen zone neighbors. (Currently, only third-country nationals who have invalid papers or don’t intend to file for political asylum are refused entry.) Under the new measures, the migrants would be returned to the country where they entered the Schengen area and originally applied for asylum, which are usually one of the EU’s southern external border countries, such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, or Spain.

German border guards would detain the foreign nationals at the border—perhaps even in a kind of jail, apparently for no longer than five weeks—until their status can be verified. Foreign nationals who had not previously applied for asylum but who claim political persecution could then enter Germany and apply for protection, which German courts would rule on at a later date.

One of the looming questions is what criteria German police would invoke to screen those parties interested in entering the country. Since not every person traveling into Germany can be stopped, “it will be people who look different, regardless of citizenship,” said Carrera, of CEPS. “A certain racial appearance will make some people suspect. This is racial profiling, and it is illegal.”

Against the background of its fierce battle in eastern Germany with the AfD, Germany’s conservative opposition, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has opted to steal the other party’s thunder by endorsing measures very much like those of the far right—and until recently entirely taboo. Claiming that the government’s measures do not go nearly far enough, the CDU argues that no people—none at all—should be permitted to enter Germany in the absence of a visa or European passport.

This would de facto end the country’s commitment to offering asylum. In order to make this flagrant violation of international law at least appear to conform to EU regulations, under the CDU plan, Germany would declare a state of emergency as a result of internal security threats. This, the CDU believes, would legalize the across-the-board rejection of unwanted third-country nationals.

The proposal also goes a gigantic step beyond the limitation of movement in the EU, effectively eviscerating the right to political asylum.

“This kind of measure, and those the government are taking, will be investigated and could come before the EU court of justice,” Carrera said. “The EU will determine whether the security concerns really justify such a breach of EU law.” Other experts have said that Germany will not be able to prove that the recent attacks or the numbers of asylum-seekers—which have fallen this year—actually threaten the state’s internal security and thus justify (or indeed, are really aided by) these measures.

One of the many problems with the new German modus operandi: Neighboring states will have to accept people refused by Germany back onto their territory—and Austria, for one, which has general elections on Sept. 29 (and where polls indicate the situation for migrants is getting even worse, with a very strong showing of the far-right Freedom Party likely) said forget it, it won’t take them.

Poland is also up arms at the prospect of traffic jams at the borders that would obstruct commercial and private transportation. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the German move a “de facto suspension of the Schengen Agreement on a large scale.”

The Belgian daily Le Soir seems to hit the nail on the head: “With governments like this, there’s no need for the far right to be in power. The pressure of elections and the fear of extremes are causing those in power to run around like headless chickens, with migrants as the only means for decompression.”

EU expert Thu Nguyen, the deputy director of the Berlin-based Jacques Delors Centre, told Foreign Policy that unilateral decisions taken by Germany—the EU’s most populous state—are entirely unproductive. She noted that the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum, a set of new rules passed this year for managing migration and establishing a common asylum system at a bloc-wide level, addresses some of the concerns about immigration raised by Germany and other EU states, including by facilitating faster procedures for asylum applicants at the continent’s external borders.

After all, Germany—including the CDU’s parliamentary group in the EU, the European People’s Party (EPP)—was essential in drafting the pact, together with the 25 other EU member states. When the pact came in front of the European Parliament earlier this year, EPP parliamentarian Tomas Tobé said that “the absolute best way to help support a European migration policy is to be loyal to the whole migration pact.”

[queer-africa]

Hello our friends, how is everyone doing. We are lgbtiqa asylum seekers and refugees in Kenya crying out loud for help. We are being attacked, discriminated against, tortured and killed in the country we seeked asylum from.

It’s festive season and we have nothing to eat. We call upon everyone who could support to please help us through sharing our pinned post or donating as a form of support. Our campaign is attacked to our pinned post. Thanks 🙏

[kavumas-blog]

Hello friends, my name is kavuma Abdallah a refugee here in Africa and I need your love, help and support.

In 2020 , I left my home country and ran to Kenya to seek asylum as the community had turned against me because of my sexuality.

In Kenya, I got registered as an asylum seeker and then brought to the kakuma refugee camp but the situation was never easy for me as my fellow refugees who were homophobic attacked me several times.

At the end of 2023, I left Kenya as my life was in great danger and I went to a neighbouring country. In this new country, I struggle to get food and other necessities since I can't be hired because of my sexuality and I request you to help me survive this situation.

Make a change by donating or sharing my gofudme camping.

https://gofund.me/63d9b126

[beardedmrbean]

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- British authorities were gearing up for a wave of riots across England with reports of at least 30 planned for Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets.

A "standing army" of 6,000 police was mobilized after far-right groups circulated a list of 39 immigration lawyers, charities and groups that provide services to migrants and refugees on social media and 500 prison spaces had been freed up as public prosecutors threatened swingeing justice for those participating in or organizing violent disorder.

"All of us are concerned that a list is being circulated online," Communities Minister Jim McMahon told BBC Radio.

"We at this point don't know if those will transpire to be protests in the way that we've seen in other places. Or whether it's a list that's intended just to cause alarm and distress, or even to provoke.

"But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, our prosecutor response and also our court response," said McMahon.

The country's top prosecutor said at least one rioter had been charged with terror offenses and warned his office would consider the same where organized groups were planning "really serious disruption to advance an ideology."

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said his officials would deploy every legal means available to put people behind the disorder behind bars and that anti-terrorism laws were being used in one ongoing prosecution.

Police also said they were confident they would be able to maintain control.

The Law Society said it had "serious concerns for the safety and wellbeing" of its members with at least one immigration advice center boarding up its windows and doors in anticipation of trouble.

"A direct assault on our legal profession is a direct assault on our democratic values and we are supporting our members who are being targeted," the society's president, Nick Emmerson, said in a post on X.

He added that he had written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking that the threats against the profession be treated with the "utmost seriousness."

The non-profit advocacy group Hope Not Hate warned the list was an aspirational "hit list" that called for action, "up to and including terrorism" against the targets named at 8 p.m. local time, circulated by an anonymous individual who it said was also involved in instigating anti-Muslim violence in Southport and Liverpool over the past week.

"This actor, who has also called for the assassinations of public figures, must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law," HNH said in a news release.

The group said the purpose of the list was to spread fear and uncertainty as it was impossible to predict whether and where attacks might materialize and therefore "any and all services should be on high alert."

HNH said it was also monitoring a number of other far-right demonstrations planned for the days ahead which it said were emerging "more organically" and so may attract larger numbers of protesters.

The developments came after a night of relative calm with police in Liverpool and Durham tamping down tensions with the use of dispersal orders that give them powers to order people to leave the area.

The coroner was due to open inquests Wednesday morning in the Liverpool suburb of Sefton into the killings of Bebe King, 6, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, in nearby Southport on July 29.

The last of the eight other children and two adults injured in the stabbing spree at a dance studio -- triggering a week of unrest across England and Wales -- were discharged from hospital.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana,17, of Banks in Lancashire, was charged July 31 with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.

On Wednesday, the first rioters were also sent to prison with a judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentencing one man to three years for taking part in violent disorder in Southport last week when a mob hijacked a vigil for the slain girls, injuring dozens of police and attacking police vehicles and a mosque.

The man received a concurrent two-month sentence for assaulting a police officer.

Another man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for violent disorder and torching a police vehicle in Liverpool plus two months for perpetrating "malicious communication."

A third man was sent to prison for 18 months plus two months for a "racially aggravated element" of the offense.

The first significant prison sentences follow the jailing of an 18-year-old man sent to prison Tuesday for two months after pleading guilty to criminal damage charges following a riot near Manchester on Sunday.

About 100 among the more than 400 people arrested across the country since rioting erupted a day after the July 29 killings in Southport pleaded not guilty to various charges but, unusually, were refused bail pending trial.

Juveniles, however, continue to be bailed in line with standard policy.

[humanrightsupdates]

Misuse of Texas Troopers Has Broader Implications for the US

Authorities Unleashed Militarized Border Force on Students

While the pro-Palestinian student protests and accounts of police crackdowns at universities across the United States in April have fallen out of the newscycle, students at the University of Texas at Austin continue to face criminal charges and other punishment after Texas Governor Greg Abbott deployed the same police used to harm migrants at the US-Mexico border. The misuse of police against student and faculty protesters in Texas was perhaps the most egregious example from across the nation.

It is also a reminder that unchecked abuses carried out at the border often foreshadow abuses of people living in the US interior. And like the students, migrants also continue to pay a high price for exercising their rights in Texas.

The Columbia University encampment of solidarity with the Palestinian people sparked a wave of student solidarity encampments across the nation, including at UT Austin. Student leaders said they objected to the “Israel-led, US-backed genocide in Gaza” and called for an immediate ceasefire as “Israel continues to bomb hospitals, schools, homes, and refugee camps while cutting off food and water to more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.” The protesters demanded UT Austin divest from Israeli companies they say are complicit in killing Palestinians.

While university administrators in some states called local police to break up protest encampments, on April 24, Abbott also deployed the Texas Department of Public Safety – the same heavily militarized state troopers used against asylum seekers and border residents under Operation Lone Star.

Abbott’s multibillion-dollar Operation Lone Star has violated the rights of migrants and Texans alike and is enforced primarily by troopers, who have been involved in injuries and deaths under the program, including at least 74 deaths from high-speed vehicle chases. Operation Lone Star has also included attacks on freedom of association and expression of groups providing support to migrants in Texas.

On June 15, Abbott renewed the “disaster proclamation concerning border security,” first issued in 2021 and triggering the deployment of thousands of state troopers to the Texas-Mexico border to arrest migrants on state charges, including criminal trespass. Abbott’s perpetuation of the invasion and disaster narratives are false and risk fueling white nationalist violence.

The deployment of state troopers to disperse the peaceful protest and arrest students and faculty is just one manifestation of the growing misuse of police in Texas, demonstrating mission creep of the troubled Operation Lone Star. Under the program, the Department of Public Safety regularly carries out air and digital surveillance, racial profiling, unlawful arrests, and deadly high-speed chases; deaths and injurieshave also resulted from its use of razor wire and buoys with saw blades.

[head-post]

New rioting across UK cities, UN voices concern over violence in Belfast

Rioters threw petrol bombs, bottles and bricks at police officers in the Northern Irish capital Belfast on Monday night.

The violence erupted overnight in a series of protests across the UK since last week, with a crowd of more than 200 people gathering outside the Islamic Centre in Belfast.

According to the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, police and drones were on the scene and police also used Attenuating Energy Projectiles (AEP) against the rioters.

Monday night’s violence was largely driven by Loyalists, who traditionally oppose Irish nationalists who seek unity between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. First Minister Michelle O’Neill wrote on X following earlier disturbances on Saturday, which saw some businesses owned by Muslim refugees destroyed or damaged:

“There is no place anywhere on our island for racism or attacks on minority communities.” 

O’Neill also said it is “essential to ensure that those responsible for causing and orchestrating the racist violence on Saturday face the full force of the law.”

Protests by disgruntled residents

Britain has been gripped by riots for days, with crowds spewing racist and Islamophobic remarks, attacking Muslims, minorities and migrants.

The riots were fuelled by misinformation circulating on the internet that the suspect arrested after a fatal stabbing in Southport, England, last week was a Muslim asylum seeker, which turned out to be a false claim.

Three little girls were killed and five other children were seriously injured in the knife attack while attending a dance class last Monday.

Groups of disgruntled people are preparing for more violence targeting asylum and immigration centres in London and across the UK on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office expressed concern over the ongoing violent protests in the UK. Noting that the Office is closely following the unrest and violence that has erupted in different parts of the country over the past few days, a spokesperson for the Office told Anadolu Agency:

“As in any other State, we are concerned at violent incidents, including attacks on police, as well as instances of islamophobia and attacks against mosques, attacks against centres housing asylum seekers and migrants, and anti-migrant rhetoric.”

Thameen Al-Kheetan emphasised that while the right to peaceful assembly is fundamental, it must always be exercised peacefully. He also added:

“Advocacy of racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, is unacceptable and must be prohibited.”

He also welcomed the UK government’s commitment to tackling violence under the law at the “highest level.” Al-Kheetan also added:

“We urge the Government effectively to respond to incitement to hatred — especially when it targets segments of the population who are in the most vulnerable situations, such as asylum seekers — in a manner that complies fully with international human rights norms and standards.”

Read more HERE

[rainypoetrydefendor]

Your silence will not protect you.

Im sharing an important message about the LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers from kakuma refugee camp kenya and to all the people who believe in the justice and rights of the LGBTQ+ Persons. Inviting them to not fear of speaking up about the on going injustices in kakuma camp.

In times of conflicts and suffering, its important to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers with out taking sides. As an LGBTQ+ rights defender i reflect on our own history of struggle against illegal identity, just like us, these people have been facing constant aggression, harassment, destruction of culture, traditional values and most importantly freedoms, along with the destruction from community services.

This is done for along period of time to achieve agendas the real discrimination often lies in the Authorities entittled with community services. Lets work for a more just and peaceful world where we are treated with dignity and respect no matter our gender identity. When you are treated worse than an animal then you will became wasted. After the split of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers to different parts of the camp you forgot the religuous killings.

Dont speak about non violence when their is violence in everyone of us. When the homophobs treat the gays terribly. There is no mass media exposing who the real perpetrators are. There is no one now allowed to post the ongoing attacks in the camp because activist on the ground were all Summoned for no reason and intimidated to be imprisoned or repatriated to home country as a sign of shutting many of us down.

https://gofund.me/6930e2d7

[sa7abnews]

Stop gaslighting us: There is racist rot at the heart of the UK

New Post has been published on https://sa7ab.info/2024/08/11/stop-gaslighting-us-there-is-racist-rot-at-the-heart-of-the-uk-2/

Stop gaslighting us: There is racist rot at the heart of the UK

In 2021, an infamous government-backed report, the Sewell Commission, claimed that the UK was “a model for other White-majority countries” on issues of race equality. Much to the consternation of many anti-racists, the report found that there was scant evidence of institutional racism in the UK.

Just three years later, this “model” country is gaining international attention as far-right thugs intimidate, harass and attack people of colour.

As hotels housing people seeking asylum are torched and Nazi salutes are being thrown in the air  across the country, the UK is anything but a beacon of equality some would like us to believe. 

The violence that has long been simmering under the surface has finally reared its ugly head. As the Runnymede Trust warned, this is what happens when the scapegoating of migrants and people seeking asylum gains full sponsorship by mainstream political elites and the media.

This is what happens when political parties across the spectrum pursue hostile environment immigration policies over decades to distract from economic and political failings. 

When concerns about racism in Britain are ignored and diminished, the fascist right is emboldened.

Over the past five years in particular we have been sounding the alarm about the rowback of the civil and political rights of migrants, refugees and people of colour through recent legislation, and of the impact of harmful anti-migrant rhetoric.

Through these policies, the hostile environment has achieved what it set out to do: deputise its citizens to create a culture of fear and exclusion for migrants. 

From the Rwanda and Immigration Acts, which undermined the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, to the attack on the democratic freedoms of people of colour under the guise of the Public Order and Elections Act, people of colour and migrants have faced huge hostility.

But our concerns have been downplayed, replaced with attacks on civil society for highlighting the existence of structural inequalities.

How the UK establishment enables racism

As in 2021, at this moment of crisis, the concerns of people of colour are again being undermined and diminished.

Media coverage of the race riots have received criticism for focusing on the actions of ‘protestors’ and ‘demonstrators’ in British towns and cities rather than labelling them as rioters.

This is coupled with claims that the fascists marauding the streets represent legitimate frustrations and that the “dumping of millions of migrants from alien cultures”, the supposed failure of Black and Brown people to ‘integrate’ into British society and “uncontrolled, mass immigration” are to blame.  

There has even been a failure to name the violence as openly Islamophobic, despite the targeted attacks on Mosques and Muslim grave sites.

Indeed, when Zarah Sultana MP, a brown, Muslim politician went on Good Morning Britain to talk about the Islamaphobic nature of these riots, her treatment by presenters was widely criticised as patronising, and belittling.

Far-right politicians and figures are telling us to take seriously the claims that ‘two tiers of policing’ are being employed against rioters — that the policing response has been more heavy-handed than their response to, for example, the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

Not only is the institutional racism of the police service well-evidenced, a whole tranche of anti-protest legislation was introduced in the wake of BLM. To compare BLM demonstrations with the current race riots is wrong.

Ironically, former Conservative Cabinet Minister Robert Jenrick demonstrated the absurdity of this myth by advocating that, in the middle of this crisis of racist hatred against Muslim people, those who proclaim ‘Allahu Akbar’ in public should be “immediately arrested”. 

In other words, even at this moment of profound anxiety, tension and pain for communities of colour, every effort is being made by certain political and media elites to diminish, and sometimes demonise our concerns.

This is a well-worn tactic but should not deter us from struggling for justice in the face of these unspeakable horrors. 

People of colour are exhausted from being gaslit. We are tired of being told we should be happy with our lot, that anti-migration policies have nothing to do with race, that the demands of fascists are reasonable.

It’s time to take our concerns seriously, so that we can build a better future free from fear and violence.

Alba Kapoor is the Head of Policy at the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality think tank. She delivers large scale pieces of policy research and works to set out Runnymede’s anti-racist agenda. Alba was the recipient of the Kennedy Scholarship 2022-’23 at Harvard University. 

Follow her on X: @kapoor_alba

  Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.

[douxlen]

How Anti-Racist Demonstrators Overwhelmed Far-Right Riots in Britain

New Post has been published on https://douxle.com/2024/08/10/how-anti-racist-demonstrators-overwhelmed-far-right-riots-in-britain/

How Anti-Racist Demonstrators Overwhelmed Far-Right Riots in Britain

Britain was braced for a long night of violent rioting on Wednesday, after a tense week of anti-migrant uprisings swept across the nation. 

Around 6,000 specialist officers were deployed by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Stamer to control further attacks on Muslim and migrant communities stirred up by anti-immigration rhetoric and online misinformation after a fatal stabbing of children last week. Police had identified at least 100 targets, including immigration centers across the U.K. Local workers were sent home early, shops were boarded up, and many scared Muslims avoided being outside.  

But the riots never fully materialized. 

Instead, thousands of peaceful anti-racist demonstrators blocked the streets while chanting “refugees are welcome here,” and holding placards that said “Stop the far-right.” Small gatherings of the far-right were observed in Portsmouth, Southampton, and Blackpool, but they were vastly outnumbered by Brits sending a message of acceptance to their local community, according to local news reports and demonstrators who attended. In one of the larger anti-racist demonstrations, in the London neighborhood of Walthamstow, aerial footage shows as many as 8,000 people gathered in solidarity. Similar gatherings took place in Brighton, Newcastle, Oxford, Liverpool, and Southampton.  

A number factors likely contributed to the smaller-than-anticipated turnout of rioters, including the significant police presence and the deterrent of fast-tracked court cases for those affiliated with the riots. Starmer, who served as the director of public prosecutions during the 2011 London riots, described the recent violence as “far-right thuggery” and threatened the “full force of the law.” So far, more than 480 arrests have been made in connection to the riots, with 149 charges against perpetrators. Nick Lowles, leader of Hope Not Hate, a U.K.-based anti-facism advocacy group, also told the Guardian that the list of targets for Wednesday’s riots were compiled by one individual in Liverpool and widely circulated on social media apps, giving the perception of an overestimated threat level.

Read More: How Online Misinformation Stoked Anti-Migrant Riots in Britain

“Our aim was to bring people together,” says Weyman Bennett, co-convenor of Stand Up To Racism, a British anti-fascist group who helped to organize many of Wednesday’s counter protests. “Although they are a minority, we recognized that the far-right have got highly paid, well-organized people now, so it was necessary for us to bring all those forces together,” Bennett says. Many of the group’s elders have long-standing roots in community organizing for anti-Nazi and anti-facist movements, says Bennett, but a lot of people who he saw attending counterdemonstrations this week were newer faces who were “horrified” by what they had seen on the news. 

The first acts of violence broke out after misinformation spread that the assailant behind a mass stabbing that killed three young girls in Southport on July 29, was a Muslim immigrant. On July 30, enraged locals near the scene of the stabbing gathered to throw bricks and rocks at a local mosque.  After a U.K. judge lifted an anonymity ban for minors, it was revealed that the suspect connected to the stabbing was Axel Rudakubana, a 17 year old born in Cardiff, Wales, who is not Muslim. Still, the online campaign of misinformation galvanized similar acts of destruction in multiple U.K. towns and cities, culminating in attacks on Aug. 4, at two hotels where asylum seekers are housed. Across the week, scenes emerged of far-right rioters looting, smashing buildings and starting fires, as well as performing Nazi salutes and chanting racist slurs.   

Read More: How U.K. Immigration Lawyers Became a Target of Far-Right Riots

Initially as Stand Up To Racism began to organize counter demonstrations for Wednesday, some locals felt anxious about attending. “It felt like I could get into a full on scrap, and people were cautious of that but still ready,” says Provhat Rahman, a co-founder of Dialled In, an annual South Asian-run music festival which often takes place in Walthamstow.

Rahman, who lives close to Walthamstow, said people were unified in their efforts to make sure “no nonsense” happened in the area and they chanted together as a community. Rahman added that, as someone with Bangladeshi heritage, he was inspired by student-led protests against Bangladesh’s hiring quota system for government jobs, which saw at least 300 people killed and ended the autocratic rule of 76-year-old Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “It’s a reminder to make sure you stand for the things that you care about, and the places that are close to you,” Rahman says. 

In Brighton, a seaside resort in southern England, police had to form a protective ring around a handful of anti-immigration protesters after they became outnumbered by peaceful counter protesters on Wednesday. Around 2,000 locals joined together to hold placards reading “Love Not Hate,” enjoy music from a live samba band, and chant, “You can shove your racist bullsh-t up your arse.”  

One resident who joined the Brighton counterprotest said she felt terrified about scenes she had seen in the past week and wanted to do something about it. “I’m able bodied and white, and I have all this privilege so I might as well use it for those who can’t,” says Maddie Cottam-Allan. She hopes that any Muslims, migrants, and people of color who have felt scared this week are reassured that people will fight for their rights. Stand Up To Racism’s efforts, for one, aren’t over: the organization will be hosting a Stop the Far Right London protest on Aug.10. 

“I haven’t had much faith in England for a long time,” Cottam-Allan says, “but I did yesterday.”

[socialistworld]

Ireland: Workers' movement must resist rise far right attacks against refugees and asylum seekers

Ireland: Workers' movement must resist rise far right attacks against refugees and asylum seekers

The disturbances in the Coolock area of Dublin earlier this month are the latest in an escalating trend of far Right and fascist violence in the country. The State has made clear it is happy to allow […] Special financial appeal to all readers of socialistworld.net Support building alternative socialist media Socialistworld.net provides a unique analysis and perspective of world events. Socialistworld.net also plays a crucial role in building the struggle for socialism across all continents. Capitalism has failed! Assist us to build the fight-back and prepare for the stormy period of class struggles ahead. Please make a donation to help us reach more readers and to widen our socialist campaigning work across the world. Donate via Paypal

[mariacallous]

As Iranians head to a run-off presidential election this week to replace the late leader Ebrahim Raisi, one key—and unusual—electoral issue continues to grip the country.

While previous elections focused largely on the issues of civil liberties, women’s rights, and fraught relations with the West, immigration has also featured prominently in this year’s debate. Almost every candidate in the tightly controlled showdown touched upon the influx of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan and the socioeconomic ripple effect that it has created in Iran.

Discrimination and racial prejudice against Afghans have recently been on the rise in Iran, especially as economic hardships take a toll on citizens squeezed by corruption and poor governance at home and the burden of international sanctions from abroad.

According to the country’s latest census in 2016, more than 1.58 million Afghan nationals lived in Iran—making up roughly 90 percent of the country’s migrant population. Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the latest United Nations figures now put the number of Afghan refugees living in Iran at 3.7 million.

In its 2023 country report on Iran, Amnesty International cited “barriers to education, housing, employment, health care, banking services and freedom of movement” as the major cases of discrimination against Afghans. Roughly half of the country’s 31 provinces are regions that Afghan nationals aren’t allowed in by executive mandate. These include either the more economically advantaged provinces or those at the heart of acute ethnic fault lines in Iran.

Afghanistan is one of the only three Persian-speaking countries, meaning that there is no major language barrier between Afghans and Iranians. In religious terms, Islamic practices have tied the two nations for centuries. Culturally, commonalities are manifold and the two peoples’ admiration for such relics of a shared past as the Nowruz festival or the poetry of Rumi and Ferdowsi remains ironclad.

Against this backdrop, it’s shocking that the public discourse among Iranians about Afghans fleeing the Taliban’s tyranny has become so toxic. In preserving its imagined sociopolitical boundaries, Iran’s clerical establishment has reproduced negative clichés about a vulnerable community, making it more convenient for disgruntled masses to blame them for their country’s mishaps.

A succession of hate crimes and violent acts targeting Afghan migrants, often provoked by the irresponsible rhetoric of politicians and state media, testifies to an overtly unwelcoming and intimidating environment for the desperate asylum-seekers. Security forces mistreating Afghan nationals at ports of entry and public venues through physical abuse, verbal aggression and other forms of humiliating behavior has become routine.

In the absence of accountability for the state, ordinary Iranians have also become complicit in a pattern of villainizing and mistreating Afghans. Last April, an upscale shopping center in Tehran banned Afghans from entering the mall for four days. In October, a video circulated online showing a group of men in the city of Sanandaj beating a young Afghan refugee. And last December, following the killing of a 17-year-old Iranian from the city of Meybod, an angry mob attacked a housing estate hosting Afghan refugees, setting several apartments on fire.

The teenager was reportedly killed in a street fight that implicated an Afghan migrant, and his death reignited anti-Afghan sentiments that erupt in Iran from time to time. The second-largest city of the province of Yazd, Meybod hosts nearly 12,000 Afghans; after the incident, local authorities said that they would enforce restrictions on the living conditions of the “alien residents,” including walling their housing complexes off from the rest of the city.

Iranians are economically frustrated, seeing the government as unable to address their basic needs. In a petroleum-rich and relatively wealthy country, the World Bank has reported that 28 percent of the population is living under the poverty threshold and a further 40 percent is on the verge of falling into poverty. The youth unemployment rate stands above 22 percent, and the inflation rate is over 37 percent—higher than that of war-torn Yemen, for example.

The proliferation of anti-Afghan sentiment in the public domain was reinforced by the hostile rhetoric of the Raisi administration, which weaponized a mix of nationalism and religious zeal to rally a base of conservative loyalists around an anti-immigration platform. A hashtag in Persian that reads “expulsion of Afghans is a national demand,” now trending nationally, has been promoted by hardline sympathizers of the government, who have spoken ill of Afghan migrants as manipulating Iran’s demographic makeup and usurping job opportunities.

“I think Iranians have a long history of Persian chauvinism toward Afghans, Arabs, and other regional neighbors,” said Sahar Razavi, director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center at California State University in Sacramento. “The chauvinism obscures, for so many Iranians, those shared cultural, linguistic, and historical aspects between Afghan and Iranian societies.”

While mirroring the predispositions of far-right European parties and the U.S. Republican Party in their aversion to so-called out-groups, Iran’s hard-liners have not been shy about their denigration of Afghans as an inferior racial identity.

In last week’s presidential debate, former U.S. President Donald Trump made the demonization of migrants to the United States his key talking point. A similar dynamic can be seen playing out in Iran.

On Persian-language social media, stereotyping of Afghans as drug addicts, smugglers, violent criminals, and sexual predators is prevalent. In September 2021, when Iran’s state television aired a series called The Neighbor, the show’s producers received criticism for detailing the plight of Afghan migrants and humanizing their stories.

Spurred by lingering economic woes, the Islamic Republic insists it doesn’t have the resources to host more Afghans. According to a report published by the Danish Refugee Council, Iranian authorities have deported more than 1 million Afghan refugees since 2022. Some deportees have complained about facing maltreatment at the hands of law enforcement officers. Newer Afghan arrivals are likely to face an uphill battle as well.

“Despite their claims of liberal-mindedness and cosmopolitanism, many Iranians exhibit popular prejudice and condescending attitudes not only toward immigrants but also minority ethnic groups such as Kurds, Arabs, and Azeris,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert and Dean of College of Arts, Sciences, and Education at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Still, Boroujerdi says there are other factors that fuel anti-Afghan hostility, such as a perception that the Iranian government recruits impoverished Afghans into militia groups in exchange for economic and social rights for them when they settle.

As in other host societies receiving large numbers of asylum-seekers, the fear of vanishing jobs or declining social mobility because of new border arrivals continues to animate anti-immigrant stereotypes. What is idiosyncratic is that in a homogenous country reeling from chronic isolation, and where the plurality of the citizens may spend their lives interacting only with other Iranians, accommodating Afghans as the only external presence has become such a daunting task.

In the absence of prudent leaders to bring reason to the debate, the Iranian public—often self-assured about its progressivism—is negating its self-styled image of hospitality and displaying the unseen contours of its racial tolerance.

[queer-africa]

Hello our friends, how is everyone doing. We are lgbtiqa asylum seekers and refugees in Kenya crying out loud for help. We are being attacked, discriminated against, tortured and killed in the country we seeked asylum from.

It’s festive season and we have nothing to eat. We call upon everyone who could support to please help us through sharing our pinned post or donating as a form of support. Our campaign is attacked to our pinned post. Thanks 🙏

[redbards]

The long preparation of class struggle from above

(translated from perspektive-online.net)

The Salami Tactic: What sounds like a funny strategy from a party game is a tried and tested means of influencing public opinion in German politics. Whether militarization, the asylum debate, Agenda 2010 or the upcoming budget – over the span of months, rather uncomfortable facts are made acceptable and - at first glance - unobjectable. How the class war is being waged from above and what traps we must not fall into. - An analysis by Fridolin Tschernig

Three days after Russia's attack on Ukraine, the discussion about the introduction of a military draft started again. Since then, the idea of compulsory military service has flared up again and again in Germany. Slowly but surely we are supposed to be prepared for it. However, the population is still rather divided on such issues, not least because the overwhelming majority tends to reject a "war-ready" Germany with a "leading role in Europe".

As a trick, however, the state is discussing compulsory social service in order to be able to introduce compulsory military service via the back door. The idea is to gradually get the population in line and then present them with a fait accompli. If we're constantly being bombarded with confused arguments as to why compulsory military service is absolutely necessary, at some point we won't be so sure ourselves whether compulsory military service is really such a bad thing or not.

As a result, the actual steps towards compulsory military service remained largely opaque to us. A constantly changing discourse, which takes on different forms at different times, can quickly have surprising consequences. It's like the movement of the sun across the horizon: if we look at it every minute, it never seems to change its position. But if we wait three or four hours, it may have already set.

What we have seen since February 2022 in the case of compulsory military service can be seen in many of the attacks from above. Agenda 2010 did not come out of nowhere either: since 1982, social benefits for refugees have been gradually cut. From then on - and later with the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz („Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act“) - a catalog of cuts and sanctions was drawn up that reduced entitlements to a minimum. Together with extensive agitation by BILD and preparation by politicians, such as the Schröder-Blair-Paper.

We can also see this in the refugee debate. The AfD, whose most important topic is the refugee issue, occupies a special position here. But politicians in general are also working with the media to spread more and more hate speech and lies. We recently saw what this leads to in the discussion about Berlin’s public swimming pools. And on New Year's Eve, we can once again expect increased incitement against migrants. This is how politicians legitimize the intensified terror of deportation and the further abolition of the right to asylum - and there is no great outcry.

The whole thing can also be observed on a small scale: for example, increased police deployment is legitimized long in advance for actions on the street. The propaganda together with the special rights for the police before the G20 summit in Hamburg 2017 or the „Day X“ Demonstration in Leipzig 2023 serve as prime examples. These smaller campaigns are then used again to restrict the right of assembly throughout Germany. But, of course, this will also be done in stages, from state to state.

Last but not least, this also applies to the current discussion about the budget. Massive cuts will be made to social services in the future, that is certain. Politicians have been insisting for months that "we" have to make savings. Cuts have already been made at municipal and state level, youth centers have been closed and much more besides. Here, too, we are being bombarded with the wildest justifications and the first steps have already been taken in the direction of the budget cuts.

But why all this?Why do those in power want to impose their attacks on us piecemeal instead of all at once. Why is so much energy being expended on repeatedly stirring up debates and pushing through the smallest changes through day-to-day legislation? The answer is obvious: to prevent us from reacting.

After Agenda 2010, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against the cuts. Such mass protests in a very short space of time are not at all to the liking of those in power. And so they are trying to prevent similarly large-scale resistance by taking these small steps, massaging opinions and normalizing the issues to the public. The whole thing is called "salami tactics". It describes a process in which a small slice is repeatedly cut from a large whole instead of putting everything directly on the table.

This tactic is used in Germany for all issues. At present, attempts are being made to push through all changes as slowly as possible and as quickly as necessary. But even this tactic is subject to fluctuations: In politically dynamic times, in which the ruling class has to rearm faster and faster, decisions have to be implemented without long preparation. One example of this is Scholz's turnaround. In just a few hours, the entire geopolitical orientation of the Federal Republic of Germany was changed.

In order to understand how the class struggle is waged from above, we cannot avoid taking a long-term view and seeing through the strategy. For example now: We don't know exactly when, how and where cuts will be made. But we do know that we are facing massive cuts in the social sector. The extent of this is being concealed from us. But exposing this is precisely our greatest strength. And that's what we need to focus on again and again.

„The reintroduction of compulsory military service is a decicive signal.“ said Bernd Althusmann (CDU) on 27. February 2022.

„With around 200,000 soldiers, the Bundeswehr is too small.“, opined Patrick Sensburg from the reservist association on 28. April 2022.

„I would like us to have a debate about compulsory social service“, encouraged President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on 12. June 2022.

„It was a mistake to suspend compulsory military service“ – War Minister Boris Pistorius on 27. January 2023.

„Compulsory time strengthens our democracy.“, alleged Steinmeier on 26. Mai 2023.

„It is important and right to initiate the debate on compulsory social leave,“, SPD Commissioner for Care Claudia Moll on 22. July 2023.

„We need this stable backbone more urgently than ever, which is why I brought the idea of compulsory social leave into the discussion.“, Steinmeier said at a „town hall“ on 16. September 2023.

„Now is the time to talk about compulsory service“, added CDU parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul on 26. November 2023.

And just in time for the Festival of Peace War Minister Pistorius prophesied on 09. December 2023: „The discussion about it [compulsory military service] will pick up speed“.