fascism Archives - Page 7 of 9

A small far-right Suomi ensin! demonstration again and the media cherishes a story

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Suomi ensin! (Finland first!) is a far-right group that goes to different places in Finland to stir up anti-immigration sentiment and hatred for migrants. Even if their demonstrations attract few people, they get a lot of attention in the national media. On Saturday afternoon their demonstration attracted 300* people to the eastern Helsinki neighborhood of Itäkeskus to listen to their xenophobic rhetoric.

One of the matters that the Suomi ensin! demonstrators complained about was too many foreigners at public swimming halls, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The demonstrators didn’t lose the chance to warn listeners about Islamization and how the government’s immigration policy is synonymous to treason.

Suomi ensin! calls itself a nationalistic movement, which is code for fascism.

Taking into account how this group pesters and antagonizes migrants in Finland, what would happen if a group of visible migrants went in front of the Perussuomalaiset* party’s headquarters and demonstrated in the same manner and make the same outrageous claims?

Ever wonder what kind of a media storm that would create? We doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in such a neutral manner as

We seriously doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in the same neutral news story manner as Helsingin Sanomat did with Suomi ensin today!

Today’s demonstration at Itäkeskus. Note the two skinheads on the right. Photo by Migrant Tales reporter.

Continue reading “A small far-right Suomi ensin! demonstration again and the media cherishes a story”

Racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, neo-Nazism are nothing more than ourselves staring back at us from a mirror

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Why aren’t we surprised and shocked by what we see today in Europe? Populism, racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, isolationism, and fascism spread thanks to the media and the tacit support of many who nod in approval and silence. Colonialism, wars, and exploitation of non-white Europeans through slavery are some of the windfall profits that gave us our present standard of living that is guarded by populism, fascism and bigotry.

We shouldn’t bite the hand that has fed us for so many centuries, right?

Our implicit gratefulness to slavery and colonialism for our high standard of living today exposes why racism and bigotry in Europe and elsewhere remain largely unchallenged.

A story by Helsingin Sanomat about the Estonian members of the Soldiers of Odin in Finland is a good example of how the media gives tacit support to white privilege, or doesn’t challenge it strongly enough.

While the reporting appears sound, there is one problem with the story. Helsingin Sanomat doesn’t follow up the article with an editorial.

Too often the Finnish media may write about a far-right group like the Soldiers of Odin. It may express some objection but we don’t see often enough editorials condemning such groups and how they pose a threat to our society.

How many editorials have you read about the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and how it threatens our Nordic welfare state?

The classic pipedream in Finland is that somehow racists and fascists can “debate” and come to an agreement about “the problem.” Certainly white people debating between themselves could do that but it’s more complex if you included migrants and minorities in the debate.

And have you ever seen a visible migrant or visible minority being interviewed by the media about the Soldiers of Odin?

Should we be surprised that reporting by the Finnish media of far-right vigilante and anti-immigration groups is so selective and one-sided?

If we went to a mirror as a society what would we see staring back at us? That would be far-right and right-wing anti-immigration populism, fascism, ultranationalism, racism and bigotry to name a few.

The fact that we live in denial about our history and the present is the fuel that feeds our selective and bigoted worldview.

Continue reading “Racism, bigotry, ultranationalism, neo-Nazism are nothing more than ourselves staring back at us from a mirror”

The face of fascism in Finland: Before and after

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Migrant Tales

There is a fascinating book published by Olli Silvennoinen, Marko Tikka and Aapo Romelius titled Suomalaiset fasistit (Finnish fascists). One of the authors, Silvennoinen, states in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat that the same arguments used in the 1920s to feed fascism are used today.

The argument is a simple one: Before, in the 1920s, the threat was communism. Today that threat is migration and Islam, according to Silvennoinen.

If there is a party that has given a political forum to fascism in Finland that party is without any doubt the Perussuomalasiet (PS)* with politicians like MEP Jussi Halla-aho, Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö, MPs Olli Immonen, Juho Eerola, Laura Huhtasaari and others.

Just like fascism in the 1920s and 1930s was a violent and hostile force, the PS’ anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric have the ability to match the violence and hostility we saw in the 1920s by fascist groups like the Lapua Movement.

Before…

Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

Continue reading “The face of fascism in Finland: Before and after”

Vigilante gangs, the Finnish police service and our denial of racism

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY WAS UPDATED

The big news story in Finland today is vigilante gangs by xenophobic, far-right and neo-Nazi groups. That’s not all. Some of the members of these vigilante gangs have criminal records.

Should we be surprised?

Not really. The political and xenophobic atmosphere in Finland is ideal for the growth of such vigilante gangs.

Neo-Nazi gangs with criminal records patrol the streets of Finnish towns and cities.

I use the term “gang” to describe these groups because for non-white Finns they don’t offer any sense of security but severely undermine it. Such vigilante gangs are a nasty reminder of Finland’s racism problem and how it is has come to back haunt us from the 1990s.

These vigilante gangs are as well a good example of how something racist in Finland gets national attention and becomes mainstream and a household word.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are the best example of how racism and hostility against migrants, minorities, and cultural diversity become mainstream and acceptable by the political establishment, media, and public. While our attention is on groups like the Soldiers of Odin the real culprits are the PS and us, who give them the benefit of the doubt and a platform for their racist views.

As long as the PS are in power and as long as the Center Party and National Coalition Party need their support in government to trim the welfare state, matters will get worse in Finland for migrants, minorities and our culturally diverse community.

How did racism become an instant political hit in Finland? The answer is that there was little to no opposition to it. The reason why there is too little opposition to such a social ill reveals our denial and how we play down the problem collectively. Racism doesn’t affect white Finns directly so there’s no reason to be too worried about the issue.

Continue reading “Vigilante gangs, the Finnish police service and our denial of racism”

Finland’s and fortress Europe’s razorblade chicken feed response to the refugee crisis

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Like cancer, fear, inaction and xenophobia cripple and destroy nations.

Finland and Europe are looking more lost than ever concerning the refugee crisis and this has been shamelessly exposed in the raw at the EU’s Malta summit. If we fail to resolve the refugee crisis as a region we will face another problem that will be many times worse: Forfeiting our noble values and freedoms for short-term ineffective quick fixes.

One of these freedoms at jeopardy is the Schengen Agreement, which allows passport free travel through 26 European states.

Since such short-term responses to the crisis, which aren’t responses at all, are doomed to failure it means that the matters will get worse before they improves. We know well what is at stake in Europe when we pander xenophobia and scapegoat groups.

According to The Guardian, there’s nothing to suggest that the “the confusion, disputes and mudslinging of the past few months” have brought the EU closer to a solution. Probably the most worrying question is that our inaction will exonerate isolationist hardliners like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“I don’t say he [Orbán] should be entirely supported,”a senior diplomat at the Malta summit was quoted as saying in The Guardian. “But he has a point. There is some truth in what he says. Drastic, restrictive positions would have helped earlier.”

In Finland anti-immigration politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Laura Huhtasaari are stating that we should scrap our international refugee agreements and laws in order to stop refugees from coming to the country.

While some of you may not think much about what Huhtasaari posted, her party is one of the coalition partners in government of a prime minister who offered his home to refugees not too long ago.

Imagine. Here’s an MP of a government party of a country making such a claim that saw over 1.2 million of its people emigrate between 1860 and 1999 and relocated some 420,000 refugees after hostilities ended with the former Soviet Union in September 1944.

Laura Huhtasaari Raato, if we close our border it’s still ok to seek asylum. We must now decide what agreements and laws we can respect because we have reached a limit [with the number of refugees].

Raato Laaksonen Do you mean that lawmakers will decide not to respect laws?

Laura Huhtasaari If laws and agreements bring considerable harm and turn against us we have to review whether we plan respect them.

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Continue reading “Finland’s and fortress Europe’s razorblade chicken feed response to the refugee crisis”

Turncoats and the Perussuomalaiset of Finland

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Can you trust a party that says one thing and then does the other? If you look at the adamant stand that the the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and its leader, Timo Soini, had against any bailouts for Greece, we have now witnessed one of the biggest turncoat performances in Finnish politics ever.

This link in Finnish will show you how Soini and the PS have had to eat their words big time as a result of the bailouts.

After using some of the most demeaning language against the last government, the PS unanimously voted in favor of the support package for Greece, reports YLE in English.

Continue reading “Turncoats and the Perussuomalaiset of Finland”

PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo claims racism to be “a matter of interpretation”

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Migrant Tales

In one of the most incredible statements yet by Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party secretary was quoted as saying on MTV3 that the term racism should be defined more clearly since it can mean many things to different people.

“Today it feels that way [that there is no clear definition of racism],” she said. “It’s even hard to get a [clear] definition from Wikipedia [sic]. We have to define it [racism] again like monoculturalism and other [similar concepts]. Is racism a matter of interpretation?”

Slunga-Poutsalo’s statement is another example of how the PS aims to encourage and make racism and bigotry more acceptable in Finland. In her statement white Finnish privilege is exposed as well.

If something is clearer to the PS, it is its anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity message that has become more open and hostile.

The PS is trying its hardest to change people’s perceptions of social ills like racism and fascism. The PS’ view of racism is similar to how dictatorships view human rights violations. In both cases the best way to deny social ills like racism and human rights violations is to redefine and change their real meaning.

Continue reading “PS party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo claims racism to be “a matter of interpretation””

Annammeko pimeyden laskea Suomen ylle?

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Maarit Snellman

Helsinkiläinen Hevibaari perui “natsikeikan” somekritiikin vuoksi.

Tämä viime päivien kohupuheenaihe on tuonut esiin myös aivan uusia piirteitä suomalaisten suhteessa uusnatsismiin ja fasismiin. Itse kukin voi käydä tutustumassa keskusteluun vaikka täällä:

http://yle.fi/uutiset/helsinkilainen_hevibaari_perui_natsikeikan_somekritiikin_vuoksi/8175235

Yllättävän – siis ainakin minulle yllättävän – monelle tämä nyt vaan on sanan- ja ilmaisunvapautta, joka kuuluu demokratiaan. Että taas meillä täällä turhasta nillitetään ja kyllä ihmisen pitää itse osata kriittisesti asioita kohdata. Tämä on vaan musiikkia. Onhan meillä punkkiakin.

Kuitenkin kyseisen konsertin tarkoitus oli välittää ihmisvihaa antisemitismin muodossa tällä kertaa. Bändin taustoista ei kuitenkaan ole minkäänlaista epäselvyyttä. Miksi oikeutta kansankiihottamiseen halutaan puolustaa?

Jossain kohdin ollaan menty vikaan. On hämärtynyt, mitä merkitsee sanan- ja ilmaisunvapaus demokraattisessa ja toistaiseksi edes jonkinlaisessa sivistys- ja oikeusvaltiossa. Ymmärtämättä jää, että puhekin on teko, jolla on seurauksensa. Viha synnyttää vihaa. Julmat teot mahdollistuvat, kun niihin jätetään yhteisönä reagoimatta ja puuttumatta.

Meillä Suomessa on vieläkin sotiemme jäljiltä läpikäymättömiä asioita, joista yksi ilman muuta on aseveljeys Saksan kanssa. Se todennäköisesti turvasi itsenäisyytemme, mutta voi olla sen jättäneen itämään siemeniä, joiden en ainakaan puuksi halua kasvavan.

Huomasin uusnatsien ilmaisunvapauden puolustajien olevan äänekäs porukka. Ihmisoikeuksien puolustamiseen toivoisi käytettävän saman verran aikaa ja vaivaa sekä ääntä. On harhaista ja itsepetosta edes kuvitella, että natsisaksan kaltainen ilmiö olisi syntynyt suoraan toiminnan kautta. Ensin on ajatuksia ja sanoja ja asenteita, joista sitten syntyy tekoja.

Melkoisen kaksinaismoralistista on sitten samaan aikaan tuomita ISIS sekä syyttää sen ja islamisti-jihadistien tekosista kaikkia muslimeja, kun sitten samaan aikaan puolustaa uusnatsien fasistisen propagandan ilmaisunvapautta. Kunhan vaan ne radikaalimuslimisaarnaajat eivät tule tänne. Jep. Jep.

Ylipäänsä uusnatsismin päännoususta tulee olla aidosti huolissaan. Euroopan rasismin ja suvaitsemattomuuden vastaisen komission vuosittainen raportti ei ole mieluisaa luettavaa. Sen mukaan on tapahtunut dramaattinen antisemitismin, islamofobian ja online vihapuheen nousu. Minkä verkossa oppii sen todellisessa elämässä taitaa (http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/Library/PressReleases/197-09_07_2015_AnnualReport2014_en.asp).

Valtiosopimuksessa vuodelta 1947 eli rauhansopimuksessa Venäjän kanssa sanotaan artiklassa 8 näin: “Suomi, joka välirauhansopimuksen mukaisesti on ryhtynyt toimenpiteisiin hajoittaakseen kaikki Suomen alueella toimivat fascisminluontoiset poliittiset, sotilaalliset tai sotilaallisluontoiset järjestöt sekä muut järjestöt, jotka harjoittavat Neuvostoliitolle tai muille Yhdistyneille Kansakunnille vihamielistä propagandaa, sitoutuu olemaan vastaisuudessa sallimatta senluontoisten järjestöjen olemassaoloa ja toimintaa, joiden tarkoituksena on kieltää kansalta sen demokraattiset oikeudet.” (https://www.finlex.fi/fi/sopimukset/sopsteksti/1947/19470020)

Tämä sopimus on edelleen voimassa. Jos oma moraali tai etiikka ei estä uusnatsististen ja fasististen ajatusten levittämistä, niin voisiko edellyttää edes lainkuuliaisuutta. Kun monet kuitenkin tässäkin yhteydessä vetoavat siihen isänmaahan. Miten ihmisviha voisi olla isänmaan etu? Aina löytyy syy vihata ja uusi ryhmä vihan kohteeksi.

Hitlerin T4 ohjelman toimenpiteissä menehtyi ainakin 11 miljoonaa ihmistä, joista suurin ryhmä olivat 6 miljoonaa juutalaista. Vammaisia, jotka katsottiin Hitlerin oppien mukaan taakaksi yhteiskunnalle, eutanoitiin noin 700 00. Mukaan mahtuivat sitten muutkin alempiarvoisten kategoriaan kuuluvat eli romanit, mustaihoiset ja homoseksuaalit. Lisäksi suoritettiin laajamittaisia pakkosterilisaatiotoimia edellä mainittujen ryhmien osalta sekä naisten, jotka harrastivat irtosuhteita. Leireille päätyi myös poliittisten mielipiteiden vuoksi ( Teittinen 2010, Pois Laitoksista! s. 65 – 84). Kaikki tämä mahdollistui vain ja ainoastaan, koska enemmistö vaikeni, sulki silmänsä ja antoi tämän tapahtua

Hakaristilipun liehuttaminen tai sen edustamaa aatetta levittävän musiikin esittäminen ei ole koskaan pikku juttu. Itse jätän Wagnerinkin väliin. Kuten ei alla olevakaan. Ainoa keino estää natsi-ideologian mukanaan tuoma pimeys on sen julkinen tuomitseminen. Jotta ihmisyys ei koskaan kuolisi.

http://www.ess.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/2015/02/08/hs-uusnatsien-toiminta-suomessa-luultua-jarjestaytyneempaa

A letter from a Finn to a Swede

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Dear friend, you probably read about the elections in Denmark and how xenophobia raised its head yet again in another Nordic country. The elections in Denmark didn’t surprise me. Two months earlier we had elections in Finland. Here too the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* became the second-biggest party in parliament and are now in government.

With the right-wing populist Progress Party (FrP) in government for the first time in Norway since it was founded in 1973, and with the Danish People’s Party (DPP) likely forming part of Denmark’s next government, Sweden is the only country in this part of Europe where populists haven’t clutched power.

The Swedish government of Stefan Löfven has succeeded, thanks to the support of other parties, given the far right Sweden Democrats the political cold shoulder.

After elections in Denmark, your example is even more important in light of the anti-immigration and right-wing populist shift being witnessed today in the Nordic region.

Thank you Sweden for being resolute and not caving in to populism and xenophobia.

I am grateful to Sweden for having the courage to stand up to the vicious us-and-them language being spread by parties like the FrP, DPP and PS.

Our problem in Finland with anti-immigration populists started in the last decade, when parties like the Social Democrats and National Coalition Party (NCP), which should know better, started to flirt with the PS.

The NCP, together with the Center Party, is sharing power in government with the PS.

Continue reading “A letter from a Finn to a Swede”

Treating immigrants in Finland as the problem IS the problem

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Migrant Tales

What’s wrong with the ongoing debate in Finland concerning immigration, refugees and cultural diversity? The problem is that they are treated as a problem by politicians, the media and public.*

Instead of treating these three matters as “a problem” we should make an effort to think outside of the current anti-immigration political climate and see them as a solution and opportunity for our country.

By treating immigration, refugees and cultural diversity as problems we begin to despair and give space to the ugly side of ourselves: hatred, intolerance and bigotry that mutate into populism, hate speech, intolerance and xenophobic political parties.

Want to solve the problem? Then repeat after me:

* Special thanks go to Markku Ikonen in Australia for sharing this idea with us.