People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“International Holocaust Memorial Day is this Thursday 27 January.
People Before Profit will be calling on Derry and Strabane Council to hold a minute’s silence at 6pm during this week’s full Council meeting to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to recommit the Council to the ‘Never Again!’ campaign aimed at stopping the rise of fascist, anti-Semitic and authoritarian movements.
The Holocaust was one of the darkest periods of human history. 6 million Jews and millions of others were murdered by Nazi and fascist regimes.
The genocide of the Jewish people and other minorities was the sickening outworking of capitalist economic crisis, big power conflict and the racist scapegoating by ruling elites.
The message ‘Never Again’ is crucial to hear and act upon. Fascism was defeated and should have been binned forever. However, there are today reactionary and authoritarian political forces seeking to exploit frustrations with capitalist inequality, with demographic change and with the pandemic to target Jews, minorities and social justice campaigners.
The far-right has been hard at work describing the pandemic as a hoax instigated by a Jewish elite to re-engineer society.
Last year Derry City and Strabane councillors unanimously supported a People Before Profit motion commiting the Council to actively opposing anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.
We all need to be alert to attempts by the far-right to utilise anti-Semitic scapegoating and the targeting of minorities – and we need to be prepared to take whatever action is necessary to stop it.”
