Tag: Far-right parties

Former SMP leader links Immonen’s writing to Nazis

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The former chairman (1979-89) of the Rural Party (SMP), Pekka Vennamo, linked Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Olli Immonen’s recent column to Nazis, according to tabloid Iltalehti. The far right PS MP wrote in his most recent blog entry about how nationalism should play a central role in Finnish politics.

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Vennamo, who is the son of Veikko Vennamo, the late founder and legendary political figure of the SMP from which the PS emerged in the mid-1990s, doesn’t spare Immonen much sympathy. ”[Using the term] nationalism always brings Nazis first to mind,” he said.

Immonen, who is chairman of the extremist anti-immigration Suomen Sisu association that aims to keep Finland white, didn’t take the former SMP leader’s views lightly. “Pekka Vennamo is a turncoat and an old nut,” he said.

The former party chairman said that SMP was never against immigrants and even less against the EU. “We were warmly in favor of the country joining the EU and being in the euro,” he said.

Despite assurances by PS’ chairman Timo Soini that his party isn’t racist or that it harbors racists, its anti-immigration wing has found a permanent home in the PS.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has called Soini’s relationship with the PS’ far right as a pack with the devil.

He writes: “The spirit that Soini opportunistically freed from the bottle by accepting extremist [candidates] of the Suomen Sisu [association] to run for office will soon permanently tarnish the ability of the party to cooperate with other ones and may even soon threaten Soini’s position as party leader.”

The biggest threat to Europe are those who claim to be afraid on our behalf

Posted on by Migrant Tales

I’m neither afraid of cultural diversity nor terrorism. Being against different cultures in a globalized world is like being against sex. Cultural diversity, interculturalism and sex are part of the human condition. You cannot make them illegal in any way, shape or form.   

If we’d embrace far right and mainstream anti-immigration ideologies so common in today’s Europe, it would be like placing a noose around the neck of our civil rights. Terrorism and our fear of terrorism would not diminish but grow as a result. Remember what happened in Germany in 1933?

More terrorism would lead us on a perilous path of totalitarianism, where we’d not only do everything possible to undermine and deny cultural diversity but use it as a scapegoat for all our problems and unhappiness.

I’m not afraid of cultural diversity. I want populist politicians especially of the Perussuomalasiet (PS) party  to stop being afraid on my behalf.

Don’t use the riots in Husby, Sweden, as an excuse to attack who I am or deny my right to be different from you in my country.

Accept the fact that NONE of your present or future laws will prevent Finland from being culturally diverse or keep it safe from terrorism. Finland tried between 1939 and 1995 to severely limit immigrants and foreign investment from coming here and failed. I doubt that any sensible person would want to return to the days of cold war Finland.

Since anti-immigration Islamophobists like to equate immigration with terrorism, terrorism remains extremely rare in Europe never mind in Finland, according to the EU Terrorism and Situation Report 2012.  Despite the tragic murder of a member of the British armed forced this week, reaction to it in the UK reveals that the greatest threat to Europe isn’t Islamic terrorism but from groups that claim to defend us from it.

Stop spreading fear and absolutely stop being afraid on my behalf! You’re most likely in Europe to be killed by a policeman, medical error or car accident than terrorism never mind cultural diversity.

The biggest threat to our society is you. Yes you, the one that is being afraid on my behalf and ready to put my civil rights in cold storage.

Blood strawberries from Nea Manolada, Greece

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As Europe’s far right raises its head, the more violent things become. Some 30 migrant workers were injured in a shooting on a strawberry farm in Nea Manolada, Greece, after requesting salaries that had not been paid. Thanks to @ritorikaxalikia for the heads-up and the poster below. 

Writes the BBC:  “The Council of Europe – the main European human rights watchdog – issued a report this week detailing abuse against migrants in Greece. The report warned of a growing wave of racist violence, stating that “democracy is at risk”. It highlighted the role of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.”

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Whiteness and white privilege speak European languages

Posted on by Migrant Tales

As we hold our collective breaths and await to know the identity of the bombings in Boston Monday, too many don’t see a suspect but a whole ethnicity or religious group. Tim Wise put it very well in an opinion piece where he makes some distributing revelations about the power of whiteness.

If we understand in Finland, the Nordic Region and Europe that white privilege in the United States means the same thing here, we can begin to understand the social ills that have inflicted us as well.

Being “white” in Europe means that you are a member and identify with the dominant ethnic group of a country. You can speak Italian, be a white Romanian, Estonian-speaking Estonian, or an Englishman or a white Englishwoman to enjoy white privilege over other groups that are visible minorities.

Wise affirms that the Boston bombings are another lesson about ethnicity, whiteness, and specifically of white privilege.

He writes: “White privilege is knowing that even if the Boston Marathon bomber  turns out to be white, his or her identity will not result in white folks generally being singled out for suspicion by law enforcement, or the TSA, or the FBI…And if he turns out [the killer] to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Belfast. And if he’s an Italian American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.”

Anders Breivik, who killed in cold blood 77 victims on July 22, 2011, is a good example of white privilege in the Nordic and Europe. Despite his horrific act, nobody in this part of the world thinks that all white people are mass murderers.

On the contrary. Whites privilege and time make us forget such horrors. Wasn’t Breivik a deranged lone wolf?

We should start to speak more about white privilege.

Not talking about it  shows another feat by white privilege: Playing down the issue.

Finland’s response to extremism should be more openess and democracy

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An editorial on Thursday’s Helsingin Sanomat comments about Anjem Choudary’s visit to Finland last week. It points out correctly that hate speech should be condemned irrespective who makes it. Living in a culturally diverse society requires more mutual acceptance, not less acceptance and respect.

Some of the controversial statements made by the cleric was that it was only a question of time when the flag of Islam would be waving on our parliament building. It was an interesting coincidence that on the same day of Choudary’s visit, Image magazine exposed a Perussuomalaiset (PS) councilman from Vaasa who gave a clock with Adolf Hitler and swastikas to a neo-Nazi club in that city.

Which of the two are the greatest danger to our democracy? Choudary or the Vaasa councilman who appears fascinated by a dictator who dragged Europe into World War 2, unleashing mass war that claimed an estimated 60 million lives?

How seriously should we take Choudary’s threats? If we react to them violently by censoring them, or as PS youth leader Simon Elo suggested that the cleric should be banned from coming to Finland, we’d do a favor to their causes.

It’s unfortunate that too many editorials like the one in today’s Helsingin Sanomat sideline the big picture: Why does radical Islam exist? If we look at the West’s colonial history with the Arab World as well as in other parts of the world, there are a lot of arguments and grievances to justify radicalism. Even so, our democratic system offers us the opportunity to challenge and correct those past and present injustices.

Just like radical Islam, we have to look at the causes of far right and right-wing populist anti-immigration sentiment in Europe these days. On this front, we have a lot of historical and sociological information on their causes. One of the most frightening of examples is the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.

We were horrified by 9/11 but some of us were even more alarmed by our reaction to it.  Former President George W. Bush’s so-called war on terror fueled greater radicalization among Muslims. If anything, the attack on the WTC Twin Towers showed the United States as a perpetrator of violence and not as a victim of terrorism.

Our reaction to terrorism and radicalism should be the total opposite to Bush’s. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg showed the way after Norway was mourning 77 victims murdered in cold blood by Anders Breivik. Contrary to Washington’s reaction after 9/11, the Norwegian prime minister said that his country’s response to the mass killings will be more openness and more democracy.

We must be on our guard against those politicians and groups that demand less democracy during these difficult times, when far right anti-immigration radicalism is raising its head throughout Europe.  What is especially worrying is that such opinions are being echoed by the mainstream media as well.

Timo Soini and Olli Immonen, the foxes in the chicken coop

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini was asked Tuesday by YLE what he thought about PS MP Olli Immonen being elected as the new chairman of Suomen Sisu, an extremist anti-immigration association. Soini offered his usual cock-and-bull answer by comparing Suomen Sisu to a harmless hunting, farming or youth association.

It appears that YLE has learned a thing or two from BBC’s HARDtalk, when Soini was put on the hot seat about racism in his party. YLE understood the wider context of the story and correctly pointed out that Soini had no objection to one of  his MPs being chairman of an extremist association.

Another PS MP, James Hirvisaari, said last month that he was pressured to resign from Suomen Sisu.

Suomen Sisu has been called a lot of things in the past, from Nazi-spirited to extremist by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo). The group still lives in the murky world of eugenics, a disgraced pseudo-science whose aim was to create a master white race by wiping out other ones.

Suomen Sisu openly supports “racial hygiene” and discourages white Finns from marrying foreigners.

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Watch news here.

Yle spoke to Immonen, who admitted last year never visiting the very neighborhoods that he claims are becoming ghettos in Eastern Helsinki.

“For example, we can see small examples of neighborhoods where certain national groups want to live and marginalize themselves from the rest of society,” he said. “This type of development must be stopped.”

Immonen’s comment about ghettos mirrors his negative views of cultural diversity, which is the main core of his anti-immigration stance. According to him, immigrants don’t have a right to live in the same neighborhood.

The PS MP, who is a security guard by profession, forgets that the most normal thing in the world for immigrants is to live together. That’s how many Finnish immigrants lived when they migrated to the Americas. Some even founded colonies in countries like Argentina and lived near-isolated from the outside world.

Let’s not expect anything but the usual denials from Soini concerning Immonen. Why? Because he’s leader of a party that has given a political voice to a record number of racists, Islamophobes, immigrantphobes, isolationists, anti-EU supporters, male chauvinists, homophobes, neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.

Asking Soini to condemn Immonen for being a member of a Nazi-spirited association is like asking two foxes starved for many days to behave inside a chicken coop.

Far right and anti-immigration quotes in English by the PS

Posted on by Migrant Tales

There’s a new site that publishes quotes by your favorite Perussuomalaiset (PS) politician in English. Those PS politicians are none other than Jussi Halla-aho, James Hirvisaari and Juho Eerola.

 

You can visit the site at truefinns.tumblr.com

The editors state the following: “Quotes by some leading politicians of the True Finns party. Note that we do no approve of the views they represent. Actually we just want to show what kind of crazies they are. Complaints about the opinions of the True Finns should be directed to the True Finns themselves.”

Here’s one quote by Hirvisaari: “A hate crime was committed in Helsinki some time ago. I believe it was a rare and unique event. It is not always racism if a skinhead beats up a black man, it can be just boys being boys. But if it was a typical case of molesting women, maybe it the black man deserved it.”

And another one by Juho Eerola: “I am attracted to fascism and especially (to) the economic policies.”

Let’s not forget Halla-aho: “What is relevant is that all terrorists are Muslim.”

PS MP Hirvisaari now says he was “pressured” to resign from Suomen Sisu

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP James Hirvisaari, who was convicted for ethnic agitation in December, announced Saturday on Twitter that he was “pressured” to resign from the extremist Suomen Sisu association. He announced on Friday that he was resigning from Suomen Sisu because he was too old to belong to “a youth organization.”

Hirvisaari tweets, “The truth: I was pressured to resign from Suomen Sisu.”

In his usual far right tone, Hirvisaari wrote on his blog: ”[I didn’t resign] because there was something wrong with the association, but because it is a youth organization.”

And continues: “I thank Suomen Sisu’s smart young men and women for their inspiring, intelligent, peaceful and authentic love for the fatherland and for their company and great example.”

So what does this latest piece of news about Hirvisaari’s motive to resign from Suomen Sisu tell us? It reveals that there is a big struggle in the PS between the far right faction led by MP Jussi Halla-aho and the party’s chairman Timo Soini.

Hirvisaari now regrets resigning from Suomen Sisu.

Is this tweet by Hirvisaari an outright declaration of war against Soini?

Are Hirvisaari’s days counted in the PS?

Maybe.

Sources: Hannele Kosonen and Turun Sanomat

 

How far has the PS beachhead spread in twenty-two months?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales wrote the following day after the historic April 17, 2011 election had sent shock waves throughout Finland and Europe: “Far-right populism is an illness inflicting Europe at present and it now has a beachhead in Finland.” 

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Back then, our blog got got cited by Time Magazine. The above quote was a response to PS chairman Timo Soini’s statement: “We [the PS] are not extremists so you can sleep safely.”

The rise of a large right-wing populist party with Counterjihadists could not have been possible without the complacency and silence of other political parties. The PS in its present state and size is a knee-jerk reaction to Finland’s ever-growing cultural diversity, the euro crisis and political establishment.

Even if the PS claims to be an option to the way politics have been traditionally practiced in Finland, it’s a mirror of the other parties in their crudest form. In those traditional parties, like the PS, you’ll find many who are just as conservative, intolerant, oppose cultural diversity and see the outside world with manifest unease.

How far has that beachhead spread in twenty-two months?

There’s bad and good news. The bad news is that the PS will remain, at least for the time being, a player in Finnish politics that other parties will eye with distrust and unease. The good news is that it’s doubtful that the party will ever match its 2011 election result. That became clear in the presidential and municipal elections, which were disappointments for Soini and the party.

Another important wild card to hit the PS was mass-killer Anders Breivik.

The Nordic region was never the same for anti-immigration populist parties like the PS after Breivik erupted with his Counterjihadist crusade and started murdering in cold blood innocent people.

These factors, together with many the many scandals that have rocked the party in recent months, have undermined the PS if not permanently from ever becoming a credible party.

Even if Soini claims that the municipal election was a clear victory for the PS, it was anything but that if  we compare it with their parliamentary election victory. Half of those that voted for the PS in April 2011 had ditched the party by October 2012.

While the PS has been a great source of scoops for Finland’s yellow press, it must be a disappointment for some of its supporters.  What has it accomplished in parliament except for poisoning the air with its Finnish teaparty populism?

Even if the PS appears to have suffered unconvincing election setbacks in the presidential and municipal elections, the party is on a collision course with itself as well.

Right after the municipal elections of October 28, Soini announced that the PS will become the biggest party in Finland in the EU parliamentary elections of 2014.

Making such promises and having to eat your words will not help the PS but deepen its problems.

A party that cannot root out its racists, fascists and political opportunists can never lead a good country like Finland, unless we wish to destroy what we’ve worked so hard to build.

Jyväskylä may turn into another blow to Finland’s Counterjihadist -anti-immigration hardliners

Posted on by Migrant Tales

If the Counterjihadist-anti-immigration tide turned in Finland and the Nordic region after 22/7, when Anders Breivik went on the rampage killing 77 innocent people, the attack in Jyväskylä on Wednesday by suspected far-right thugs could be a serious blow to anti-immigration and far right groups in Finland. 

Whenever hatred metamorphoses into violence, like in the case of Breivik, and now the attack on the event in Jyväskylä, people get scared  and think twice before jumping on the hate bandwagon again.

It’s like picking and bullying somebody in a group. It may seem “fun” at first but when it turns messy that’s when people start regretting what they did.

Since politicians who built their popularity on racism and intolerance are the worst opportunists, it’s clear that they will play down what happened in Norway, as Jussi Halla-aho and James Hirvisaari did, and as Juho Eerola now does with Jyväskylä.

Eerola not only told the suspected neo-Nazis in Jyväskylä how to crash the next book event, but that the organizers had staged what happened in order to sell more books.

Halla-aho, Hirvisaari and Eerola are Perussuomalaiset (PS) MPs who have built their political careers by spreading hatred and intolerance of immigrants. All three are or have been members of the extremist href=”http://www.migranttales.net/supo-suomen-sisu-is-an-extremist-group/”>Suomen Sisu association.

Migrant Tales has written before that you cannot keep racism on a short leash. Intolerance knows now master. It can bite back at its keeper and hard as we saw in Norway in July 2011.