Local Youth Fight Back Against Widespread Xenophobia
By Sergey Chernov
Staff Writer
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Sergey Chernov / The St. Petersburg Times
Activists from the group Food Not Bombs hold a banner reading 'Toss Nationalism into the Trash' at an event on Sunday.
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While Russian authorities are stepping up nationalist rhetoric with Kremlin-backed youth organizations organizing rallies against migrant workers, a massive campaign against xenophobia has been launched by independent activists in St. Petersburg. Called Xenophobii.NET, or No to Xenophobia, the campaign kicked off with street performances by Vykhod (Way-Out), a gay rights organization, and the Russian Union of Social-Democratic Youth (RSDSM) followed by a Food Not Bombs event that saw anarchists and anti-Nazi activists distributing free vegetarian food to homeless people at Vladimirskaya Ploshchad last Sunday. “Last year [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin said that he and [President Dmitry] Medvedev were ‘nationalists in a good sense.’ This shows that nationalistic ideas find support at a very high level,” RSDSM leader Yevgeny Konovalov said by phone on Thursday. “If the authorities start to lose their influence they need an enemy. It’s not enough anymore to have an external enemy. The opposition as an internal enemy is weak and you cannot scare anybody with an Orange Revolution anymore. They need another enemy, and the simplest target is migrants who can be held responsible for all trouble. The authorities play this card now cynically to stay in power as long as possible, not thinking about the consequences it can lead to.” St. Petersburg, with its long history of neo-Nazi murders and beatings, is notorious for being one of the worst hotspots of nationalist violence in Russia. Earlier this month, Nazi skinheads attacked and beat a Jewish student on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s main street, while last week two teenagers carved a swastika on the arm of 14-year old girl, according to the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which monitors nationalism and racism in Russia. “The situation is very, very dramatic, because the economic crisis often helps radical views to prevail,” Konovalov said. “The authorities contribute to it, because if we turn on the radio or television or listen to some press statements from the Interior Ministry, we are constantly told that in connection with the economic crisis, crime will be aggravated by migrants who will rob people or get involved in other criminal activities. Of course, it benefits nationalists who immediately exploit the situation. “That’s why, in our view, there’s a great danger that nationalism may prevail in Russia and there’ll be a new ‘Reich’ in this country.” Promoted by a number of organizations, including the Russia Without Racism movement, the German-Russian Exchange, the Russian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network, the Oborona democratic movement, and Anti-Fascist Action, the anti-xenophobia campaign will continue through March 29. A number of film screenings, seminars, discussions and outdoor events are planned. Although different types of xenophobia have been targeted at various events in the city for the past several years, the current campaign is the most extensive and addresses all types of bigotry, including racism, prejudice against representatives of youth subcultures and homophobia, according to Konovalov. “It’s very important that this is the first time we’ve had a campaign about absolutely every kind of xenophobia, all together, because, in our view, you can’t protest about the infringement of rights of one group, and then agree to it regarding another,” he said. “Because the situation is so painful, it is high time for such a coalition to form, and I am glad that we have managed to do this, even if somewhat spontaneously. Our next step will be to export such a coalition, the St. Petersburg experience, to other regions of Russia. There has emerged a powerful fist that can beat off the nationalist onslaught.” With at least two passers-by on Sunday reacting aggressively, shouting and gesticulating, at Food Not Bombs activists holding the banner “Toss Nationalism into the Trash!” — and with Konovalov’s blog entry announcing the campaign being overloaded with hostile comments and threats — it seems the campaign’s activists will have plenty of work to do. “It’s evident that nationalists have got scared,” Konovalov said. “They write on the web, ‘Watch out, trouble has come to St. Petersburg.’ It means we’re hitting home.”
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