our View: Time to lance the boil of burgeoning neo-fascism (Cyprus)

[pampango]

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/opinions/our-view-time-lance-boil-burgeoning-neo-fascism/20101121

TWENTY per cent of the population living in the Cyprus Republic is foreign, according to interior ministry estimates. Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said there were currently 66,000 non-EU nationals working legally in Cyprus and some 34,000 illegal immigrants (equivalent to 10 million in the US given our population); there were also 97,645 workers from EU countries registered with the state. This is a big number of foreigners in a country whose population does not exceed 800,000 and which until 15 years ago lived in an ethnically and culturally homogenous society. ... The foreign workers, on the other hand, live among us, are part of our daily life and, whether we like it or not, have become part of our society.

The rising xenophobia has been cultivated and encouraged by newly-formed extremist, nationalist groups with an overtly racist agenda. With names such as Movement of Greek Resistance (it organised the anti-immigrant march in Larnaca), Movement for the Salvation of Cyprus and National Popular Front, these groups have been recruiting youths and indoctrinating them with ideas of racial superiority and hatred for other ethnic cultures. They also have a political agenda – stirring hostility towards the Turks because they are opposed to a federal settlement.

They are no different from neo-fascist groups in the rest of Europe, inventing conspiracies and non-existent threats to our society. To cover up their racist agenda, they claim they are only against illegal immigrants and asylum seekers, arguing that their influx is part of a Turkish plot to ‘Islamicise’ the free areas. They cite the flow of illegal immigrants from the occupied area as proof; one of the extremist leaders described this as ‘an act of war by Turkey’. This is the type of language that is used in order to stir the hatred of impressionable youths.

Unfortunately, nobody apart from the Immigrants Support Movement (KISA) and a few individuals has taken a stand against this disgraceful racism. Quite the contrary, populist politicians, sensing there are votes to be won from xenophobia, are constantly protesting about lazy immigrants collecting state benefits. While there may be such cases, the sweeping generalisations only encourage racism, especially as the demagogues never mention the important contribution foreign workers make to our society.

[Hannah Bell]

1. it's not going to be lanced because it's the state & big business cultivating the

neo-fascists around the globe: overtly and covertly.

including here at home.