Fascists united in joy!
‘Xenophobic climate’ fueling policies, violence in Italy
Anna Momigliano
The Christian Science Monitor
October 1, 2008Milan, Italy – For the past two weeks, groups of teenagers have mourned in front of “Shining,” a snack bar not far from Milan’s Central Station. Many leave flowers and cards. But some leave cookies and two euros, a provocative gesture referencing the killing of Abdul Guibre: the 19-year-old African-Italian youth who was allegedly beaten to death Sept. 14 by two shop owners for having stolen some cookies, worth a few euros.
This death comes on the heels of a recent wave of racially motivated attacks in Italy that are raising concerns about violence against minorities, and a potential backlash from those who feel they are unfairly treated as second-class citizens.
“This is the poisoned fruit of a process that began in the early 1990s, when the first boats of migrants came from Albania,” says Jean Leonard Touadi, a lawmaker in Parliament and an African-Italian born in Congo. “Since then, a syndrome of invasion, fueled by extremists, has been spreading in the broader public, even though until recently Italy [had] a lower migration rate than the rest of Europe.”
Tensions between Italians and immigrants have run high this year. On Aug. 18, the son of an Angolan diplomat was beaten in Rome by a neo-Nazi group. Earlier in the summer, Roma (Gypsy) camps were set on fire near Naples. Six African immigrants were killed in September in a small town in central Italy, though some reports say it was a Mafia killing.
“Unfortunately the life of someone who is perceived as different is not worth much these days” says Mr. Touadi, who adds he is deeply troubled by what he calls “a climate of growing xenophobia.”
…
Unmentioned in the CSM report — and seemingly unmentioned anywhere else on the CSM site — was the murder of Nicola Tommasoli on May 1, 2008. See:
“But I’m NOT a Nazi!” // Nicola Tommasoli, slackbastard, May 6, 2008
Nicola Tommasoli: A Death in Verona, slackbastard, May 6, 2008
More media on the murder of Nicola Tommasoli, slackbastard, May 8, 2008
An ‘untimely death’ in Verona, The View from Bologna, May 11, 2008
And from The Department-Of-At-Least-He’s-Honest:
I’m a fascist, says AC Milan star Christian Abbiati
John Hooper in Rome
The Guardian
September 27 2008One of Silvio Berlusconi‘s players at AC Milan has declared he is a fascist. Christian Abbiati, 31, an Italian international, said: “I am not ashamed to proclaim my political beliefs. I share [the] ideals of fascism, such as the fatherland and the values of the Catholic religion.”
The goalkeeper’s remarks, published today in Sportweek magazine, come amid debate over Italy’s fascist past and rightwing present under the leadership of AC Milan’s billionaire chairman.
The minority partner in Berlusconi’s parliamentary alliance, the Freedom People, is a party spun out of the country’s neo-fascist movement. Some members remain unabashed apologists for the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini.
The defence minister, Ignazio La Russa, sparked a row this month after he paid tribute to Italian soldiers who fought alongside German troops in the second world war. His comments came after the mayor of Rome, Gianno Alemanno, told a magazine he did not consider fascism an “absolute evil”. Berlusconi dodged a question on his own views, replying: “I think only of working to resolve the problems of the Italian people.”
Presumably, Abbiati will be playing for Lazio next season.
Wanker.
On the recent history of fascist violence sponsored by the Italian state, see: War & terror: Hurrah! for the state, April 29, 2008.
On anti-/racism in Italy, see EveryOne: “EveryOne Group is an organization of people who operate outside any political wing or faction and who are committed to fighting discrimination and in particular the persecution of minority groups and in favour of human rights. It is important to emphasize this aspect of our group, because it allows the group to protect minorities even when party ideologies are transformed and phenomena like racism, xenophobia and homophobia take root – like diseases – where we would least expect it…”
