Hypocrits.
This is a post for my international, especially American and Australian friends so that they may understand some things about the recent situation in the Middle East with our little neighbouring country.
Europe has gained in racism over the last few decades with the increase of immigration. With neoliberal economic policies for labour and housing immigrants have been forced into poor areas, they have not had the chance to use the education in their home countries (friends of mine have ridden in taxis with professors from Albania, and many others hold academic degrees but have no chance of working as doctors, or as teachers or whatever it might be even as we lack teachers). They have gotten the chance to take lousy work, however, which has created some of the resentment. A mixture of crime and poor work has caused several right-wing extremist parties to crop up. In Belgium, in France, in Sweden, in Norway, in England and yes - in Denmark. Perhaps the greatest problem is not these small parties like the Swedish 'Swedish Democrats'. Perhaps the greatest problem are popular parties like the Swedish Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), the French ruling conservative party, the British Tories, some of the Italian parties (a minister there has recently said they should just throw out all the Arabs). These parties show their true allegiance as they stand against immigration. They're absolutely not parties for everyone, they're not parties for equal chance. Rather they take the opportunity to ride on the wave. The Swedish Social Democrats are not bad in the same sense but they seem to be quite fond of the idea of getting rid of democracy and personal integrity as they try to save it - a paradox that is just impossible.
To look at the problem of Denmark that all of you should be aware of by now let me inform you of a few things.
Jyllands-Posten is absolutely not a newspaper that stands for free speech. It has previously attacked socialists that have been outspoken over their ideological allegiance. They have refused to post pictures of Jesus as they would be 'inflammatory', they have written articles attacking the immigrants in Denmark. It is not as easy as some people believe - that they're just a newspaper without proper ideology which has posted some unfortunate pictures that test the limit of freedom of speech. They're a racist, right-wing newspaper which has previously attacked the Left and forced members to withdraw unpopular statements they have made - and now they themselves hide behind this law. The Danish government is allied with a right-wing, racist party of the same kind as Le Pen's who has been instrumental in 'protecting freedom of speech'. But which are these people that are 'protecting' it? It's the Swedish Christian Democrats, it is the French and German conservative newspapers, it is the Danish Folkeparti, it is the racists in Italy.
Perhaps this matter would be somewhat different if these things were not the case. Perhaps it would be different if it was so easy that Jyllands-Posten wasn't a right-wing, racist newspaper and perhaps it would be different if it hadn't been the case that the Western powers are aligned against the Muslim and that the Muslim leadership under their own right wing is trying to rally their people against a foreign aggressor. An aggressor that has spent the better part of the 20th century in direct, systematic imperialism against the Arab world.
So no, don't be fooled to believe that this is about anything else than a hypocritical right wing making yet another assault at what has become the new working class - the immigrants. They're hiding behind freedom of speech when they should observe some tact; violent Muslim protests are the results of a) political manipulation of their own leaders and b) the all-out assault from the Western powers against both sovereign nations and immigrants in the Arab world.
The solution, however, does not lie with diplomacy through nations. It does not lie in a stabilized Iraq. It does not lie with Iran, or Israel, though all of these things are important. In the end what matters is the solidarity between the working class no matter which nation they are from. Swedish, French, American, Danish, Iranian, Israelite, South African, Australian, Chinese...
The right wing tries to portray this as a clash of civilizations, but we know that it is not so. This has little to do with religion; religion just being something that comes in handy to justify aggression over aggression from Israel to Iran to the USA. Behind it lurks other things, a dying imperialism and a wish for global domination. Old blood between historical enemies. The unhealed wounds of French and British imperialism. The battlegrounds in Scandinavia are drawn as a battle between opportunists in the right wing and the misguided Social Democrats dancing to the tune of the European Union and the USA. The situation in Denmark is a part of a racist group attempting to make the most out of it's assault, not from an independent newspaper trying to give unbiased news.
Europe has gained in racism over the last few decades with the increase of immigration. With neoliberal economic policies for labour and housing immigrants have been forced into poor areas, they have not had the chance to use the education in their home countries (friends of mine have ridden in taxis with professors from Albania, and many others hold academic degrees but have no chance of working as doctors, or as teachers or whatever it might be even as we lack teachers). They have gotten the chance to take lousy work, however, which has created some of the resentment. A mixture of crime and poor work has caused several right-wing extremist parties to crop up. In Belgium, in France, in Sweden, in Norway, in England and yes - in Denmark. Perhaps the greatest problem is not these small parties like the Swedish 'Swedish Democrats'. Perhaps the greatest problem are popular parties like the Swedish Liberal Party (Folkpartiet), the French ruling conservative party, the British Tories, some of the Italian parties (a minister there has recently said they should just throw out all the Arabs). These parties show their true allegiance as they stand against immigration. They're absolutely not parties for everyone, they're not parties for equal chance. Rather they take the opportunity to ride on the wave. The Swedish Social Democrats are not bad in the same sense but they seem to be quite fond of the idea of getting rid of democracy and personal integrity as they try to save it - a paradox that is just impossible.
To look at the problem of Denmark that all of you should be aware of by now let me inform you of a few things.
Jyllands-Posten is absolutely not a newspaper that stands for free speech. It has previously attacked socialists that have been outspoken over their ideological allegiance. They have refused to post pictures of Jesus as they would be 'inflammatory', they have written articles attacking the immigrants in Denmark. It is not as easy as some people believe - that they're just a newspaper without proper ideology which has posted some unfortunate pictures that test the limit of freedom of speech. They're a racist, right-wing newspaper which has previously attacked the Left and forced members to withdraw unpopular statements they have made - and now they themselves hide behind this law. The Danish government is allied with a right-wing, racist party of the same kind as Le Pen's who has been instrumental in 'protecting freedom of speech'. But which are these people that are 'protecting' it? It's the Swedish Christian Democrats, it is the French and German conservative newspapers, it is the Danish Folkeparti, it is the racists in Italy.
Perhaps this matter would be somewhat different if these things were not the case. Perhaps it would be different if it was so easy that Jyllands-Posten wasn't a right-wing, racist newspaper and perhaps it would be different if it hadn't been the case that the Western powers are aligned against the Muslim and that the Muslim leadership under their own right wing is trying to rally their people against a foreign aggressor. An aggressor that has spent the better part of the 20th century in direct, systematic imperialism against the Arab world.
So no, don't be fooled to believe that this is about anything else than a hypocritical right wing making yet another assault at what has become the new working class - the immigrants. They're hiding behind freedom of speech when they should observe some tact; violent Muslim protests are the results of a) political manipulation of their own leaders and b) the all-out assault from the Western powers against both sovereign nations and immigrants in the Arab world.
The solution, however, does not lie with diplomacy through nations. It does not lie in a stabilized Iraq. It does not lie with Iran, or Israel, though all of these things are important. In the end what matters is the solidarity between the working class no matter which nation they are from. Swedish, French, American, Danish, Iranian, Israelite, South African, Australian, Chinese...
The right wing tries to portray this as a clash of civilizations, but we know that it is not so. This has little to do with religion; religion just being something that comes in handy to justify aggression over aggression from Israel to Iran to the USA. Behind it lurks other things, a dying imperialism and a wish for global domination. Old blood between historical enemies. The unhealed wounds of French and British imperialism. The battlegrounds in Scandinavia are drawn as a battle between opportunists in the right wing and the misguided Social Democrats dancing to the tune of the European Union and the USA. The situation in Denmark is a part of a racist group attempting to make the most out of it's assault, not from an independent newspaper trying to give unbiased news.
posted by Björn at 1:20 PM
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