Fascism, Alive and Thriving
Extremists in Europe are promising to turn back the clock, to a purer past. "Europe has seen a boost in right-wing extremism", claims Nora Langenbacher, head of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's Combating Right-Wing Extremism project located in Berlin. "Particularly in times of crisis, right-wing extremists and right-wing populists in many places are trying to use the fears of European citizens to promote their 'cause' by providing simple answers to complex social challenges."Neo-Nazis celebrate the past, mourn its passing, promise its return. The new world order that fascist Germany promised in the Third Reich is yet to be fulfilled. The "Fourth Reich" is a promise-in-waiting seeking fulfillment. Ethnic and cultural purity is an imperative. Swastikas, jackboots, stiff-armed salutes, race-generated violence against Jews, blacks, gays - and now Muslims have gained prominence.
Greece's Nikos Michaloliakos, leader of Golden Dawn and his followers exemplify the new breed of neo-Nazis. Roma are being attacked in the Czech Republic. Gay pride parades in Sweden attract sneering, violence-prone homophobic bullies outfitted in Nazi uniforms. Internationally and locally, magazines, websites, CDs, books, radio stations, clothing manufacturers cater to those celebrating Nazi ideals and regalia.
(Paradoxically, while Athens has no mosques it has hundreds of thousands Muslim immigrants. Makeshift mosques are set up in basements of apartment blocks. And lately are being fire-bombed. Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos talks about "cleaning up Athens", "taking the dirt [immigrants] out of the country". He has adopted the same methods as violent Islamists who cultivate the gratitude of the poor and underprivileged by giving them valuable services, and food aid.)
Europe's largest and strongest extra-parliamentary neo-Nazi movement has an estimated 50,000 members in Germany, birthplace of the jack-booted skinheads. "Every day in the Federal Republic of Germany there are at least two or three violent attacks by radical-right-wingers", according to Ms. Schellenberg.
A survey led to the results that claim 13% of Germans are looking for a new "fuhrer". Another 14.9% found the statement: "There is something special about Jews, something peculiar. They don't really fit in with us", complementary to their way of thinking.
In India, Hitler memorabilia has become exceedingly popular, so much so that one publisher insists he has sold over 100,000 copies of Mein Kampf in the last ten years. Mahatma Gandhi would not have been amused. Most far-right extremists are held to have emanated from the working poor enclaves of Europe; poorly educated, and xenophobic; socially oppressed and pessimistic about personal financial outlooks.
Polls in countries like Austria suggest the most popular force among 18 to 25-year-olds represents the far-right. Parties once on the political and social fringes now hold significant political weight in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Latvia and Slovakia. And count in the European Parliament.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, European Union, Human Relations, India, Political Realities, Racism, Societal Failures
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, May 15, 2012
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