Between Jihadism and the Right: Against the Vicious Circle

The day after the deadly in attack in Barcelona, the Falange, a far-Right organization that arose in connection to the fascist Franco regime, held a demonstration to try to profit off the climate of fear, and push its islamophobic agenda. In the end, only about 20 fascists came out, overwhelmingly outnumbered by the crowd of anarchists, antifascists, and others. Below is the translation of an anarchist text prepared for another anti-racist gathering in the nearby city of Manresa.

Yesterday, the 17th of August, a jihadist group carried out an attack in Barcelona with the objective of spreading fear and making headlines. We want to express a strong rejection of this mentality and the mentalities that make up the same vicious circle.

It’s no secret that the jihadists are pleased with every new xenophobic law, every new attack on Muslim immigrants. In their propaganda magazines and on their internet forums, they celebrated Trump’s victory and other electoral advances of the extreme right. In a similar language, they speak of a “war between civilizations” in a world that they consider to be dualist. The objective of their attacks is to polarize the societies they attack, to generate more xenophobia, more islamophobia, so that more immigrants feel excluded and brutalized. Racism here creates the next generation of jihadists.

The attacks and insults against migrants on the street as well as the organizations of the far right are just the tip of the iceberg of a latent racism. Institutional racism is more subtle but also more penetrating and worrisome because it is socially more accepted. The fences and the borders of Fortress Europe, the constant police harassment with raids, lock-up in the immigrant detention centers, deportations, all form a part of our daily environment without causing enough voices to be raised in protest. All of this prevents effective solidarity between immigrants and locals and facilitates a belief in the widespread rhetoric of Us and Them. The press speaks of terrorism, but they didn’t call it terrorism four days earlier when a white man from the far right intentionally ran over a few dozen people in Virginia. They don’t call the fascists here in the Spanish state “terrorists” when they stab people in the metro or on the street.

What’s more, there’s a double-standard in the information we get from the media: when hundreds die in attacks in countries in Africa or Asia, it seems normal, not even worth an article on the front page. The same is true when hundreds die in industrial “accidents”, working for Western countries to manufacture the products we consume every day. But when people die here, we put our hands to our hand and cry out, “why?”

Antifascists pushed nazis (who want to exploit yesterdays terror attack) from #Rambla #Barcelona Vid by @stluedke pic.twitter.com/nb4Z2leE9s

— Enough 14 (@enough14) August 18, 2017

Jihadism is a direct consequence of the colonialist policies of Western countries. It was the Azores Trio [a reference to the meeting between the US, the UK, and Spain to plan the 2003 invasion of Iraq] that got us into various wars to defend the interests of big companies. It’s the State that puts us in danger and people on the street who reap the consequences, whether in Barcelona, Paris, Syria, or Yemen. Nor should we forget how many people have died in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, or Libya. These deaths aren’t as important as the ones in Barcelona? Each one of those wars has been a greed-motivated venture organized by NATO or other alliances between Western governments, resulting in military occupations that should be labelled as terrorist. The international growth of jihadism is a direct consequence of the invasion or bombing of countries in the Middle East. Jihadism’s birthplace and training grounds have been in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Libya. Each of those countries is the site of a war carried out by Western countries with the intention of increasing their wealth and power, without caring how many deaths and how much misery they cause.

Nor can we leave out the interests that Western governments and companies have in countries that foment jihadism. No one remembers any more the cozy relationship between the Spanish royal family and Saudi Arabia? Or the sponsorship of FC Barcelona by companies of the Qatar regime? Where are the news stories now about the 20,000 military uniforms that El Corte Inglés [a major Spanish retail company with fascist ties] wanted to sell to jihadists in Syria? And who is criticizing the government in Turkey that supports the Islamic State?

There are those who will not hesitate to profit off of these deaths and the feelings of panic in order to increase their power and advance their interests. They are the ones who sow the ideal conditions for jihadism. In a terrorist attack, where we see tragedy, they see an opportunity. An opportunity to implement states of emergency, to amplify police powers and approve new laws. They will try to augment measures of social control, strengthen the borders, and attack dissidents.

For all these reasons, we think it is more necessary than ever to stand in solidarity with immigrants, against immiseration, precarity, and racism. One of the best ways to fight against jihadism is to fight against the wars and the policies of exploitation that give it wings. At the same time, we have to give support to the struggles that are on the front line against the Islamic State, like the feminist and queer groups in the Middle East, or the struggle of the Kurdish people against all forms of fundamentalism, nationalism, and statism.

Against jihadist fundamentalism and racist islamophobia!