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Dozens Turn out to Challenge Abortive Far-Right Launch
Date: Sat, 2017-07-22 09:00
From the Anti-Racism Network Ireland:
'Today about 50+ ordinary folks living in Ireland came together at short notice to mobilise in opposition to a new far-right group. We came together as a practical expression of anti racism and anti fascism. Generation Identity Eire is trying to politically organise in Ireland, using branding and ideas imported from other racist and fascist groups of the 'Identitiarian' movement across Europe. To this there is only one effective response: disruption so such organising cannot happen.
We stand in solidarity with all oppressed peoples and in opposition to the forces that threaten to tear Europe apart. When the far-right try to organise in Ireland they will continue to meet resistance. And there is a space for all to play in resisting hate in our own communities. We cannot and will not allow the normalisation of far-right organising in Ireland. Today we say, not now, not ever, No Pasaran'.
The meeting was abortive as they neglected to turn up to their own venue. Rather, they later posted a picture to social media of a handful of them drinking pints in a pub. Not a great start to a venture which grandiosely purports to seek to 'Defend Europe'. The left could mobilise 10 times more people at the drop of a hat than they could with presumably weeks of preparation.
Their ideas are simply a re-hash of the same far-right paranoia. 'White Genocide' has been re-branded 'The Great Replacement' - the (false) idea that soon white Europeans will become a minority in Europe, with the implication that this constitutes genocide and bears all its moral gravity. Originally 'white genocide' was said to be a plot by the cunning Jewish elite, a tradition carried on to this day for instance in repeatedly accusing left-wing groups of being funded by George Soros who is a Jewish billionaire.
This abortive meeting was an attempt to launch an Irish branch of a specific international far-right group, which is very similar to PEGIDA. They style themselves as a youth movement, millenial reactionaries. You might have heard that they crowdfunded a boat to patrol the Mediterranean to keep migrants from entering Europe, hilariously only to be detained by the Egyptian state for not having the proper documentation, and then accidentally facilitating 5 of their Tamil crew from Sri Lanka to claim asylum in Cyprus before being put under investigation by Cypriot police.
These people have no respect for freedom, including free speech. Their predecessors have dispensed with freedom of speech at the first opportunity, silencing their political rivals with brutal force and suppressing all dissent under their state regime. Moreover, fascist organising itself has a chilling effect on freedom of expression, fomenting an atmosphere of hostility and denigration which hinders the ability of migrants, queer people, women, people of colour, the disabled/different abled, and other marginalised groups to simply go about their own lives and be themselves. That is a crucial form of freedom of expression which is often left out of the 'free speech for fascists' debate, wherein some people put a premium on the right of Mussolini's descendants to recruit and spread the contagion.