THE VIRUS OF HATE AND STEVE BANNON’S DECLARATION OF WAR

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has echoed the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ warning against ‘the tsunami of hate and xenophobia’ sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The Warsaw-based organization has published its latest REPORT ‘The Virus of Hate: Brown Book of the Epidemic’. The report documents acts of racism, xenophobia and discrimination which have occurred in the context of the coronavirus in Poland in recent weeks and months.

The authors of the report recorded cases of assaults on members of minorities who are unjustly blamed for spreading the virus, as well as numerous examples of hate speech and conspiracy theories about the pandemic spread by the far right.

The descriptions collected on over 30 pages include the following events:

- On 1 March, during mass in the St. Michael Archangel church in Wroclaw Fr. Leonard Wilczynski, belonging to the Salesian order, stated in his homily that the COVID-19 pandemic is ‘God’s punishment for living in the sin of homosexuality’. He also added that the Chinese ‘are dirty, eat bats and dead fetuses’.

- On 25 March in Sosnowiec three men attacked a female of Chinese descent – a scientific worker of the Silesian University. The victim said: ‘They surrounded me, I was so afraid - even now I am trembling. They kept shouting «virus» and «China»’. She also added: ‘I do not feel safe here as a woman of Chinese descent’.

- On 8 April in Szprotawa local media reported that a security guard of the local supermarket refused a Ukrainian man entrance to the store on the grounds of his nationality. One witness to the event reported: ‘When the young man wanted to enter the store, the security guard asked him if he was Polish or Ukrainian. When he replied that he was Ukrainian, he was told that he could not go inside’. The employee’s xenophobic behaviour stemmed from the false belief that all persons of Ukrainian origin in the town were carriers of COVID-19.

- On 8 April, Radio Wnet in Warsaw presented its listeners with a special programme introducing a conspiracy theory pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, advocated by well-known British extremist, David Icke. According to Icke, the responsibility for the pandemic rests with a secret global group, described as a ‘cult’, with which ‘madmen from Silicon Valley’, the World Health Organization, the British heir to the throne Prince Charles, and entrepreneur Bill Gates are connected.

- In the second half of April in Poznan, in the middle of the night, unknown perpetrators smashed the windows of a flat occupied by a Filipino man, who has been living in Poland for ten years. A report about it was broadcast on 23 April on the television channel, TVN24, and that night, there was a second attack on the flat, with stones once again being thrown. According to the victim, both attacks were associated with the COVID-19 epidemic and hostility towards people of Asian origin. ‘Some Filipinos experience incidents of people shouting «corona!» after them on the streets. One of the Filipinos was spat in the face and called «Chinese». We are very afraid’ – he said.

- On April 25 Grzegorz Braun, a Member of Parliament representing the Confederation party, shared his views on the pandemic in an interview on YouTube: ‘Jew-communists are trying to use the coronavirus to get rid of Trump […]. Bill Gates is heading for a situation in which each person on this globe will need to legitimise  his or her existence with a certificate of kosher standard’. On 6 May, during a speech in the Polish Parliament, Braun made threats of death by hanging to the Minister of Health, Lukasz Szumowski, in reaction to sanitary measures introduced in the preceding weeks in connection with COVID-19. On 8 May in Warsaw Braun together with Piotr Rybak (who had been convicted for publicly burning an effigy of a Jew in Wroclaw in 2015) participated in skirmishes with the police during a protest against sanitary restrictions imposed to combat the epidemic.

- On 9th May, TVP Info, a Polish state-run television channel, broadcast a thirty-minute conversation with Steve Bannon, an idol of the international alt-right movement and former advisor to Donald Trump. Bannon presented an ideological conspiracy theory on the COVID-19 pandemic, using military rhetoric. He stated: ‘This is really a serious matter, and I think that every leader in every country in the world should listen when the commander in chief of the US Armed Forces [the President] says that we have been attacked just like at Pearl Harbour and this time the Chinese are responsible. […] The real dark days are ahead, […] now they are turning to a kinetic type of war. […] This was like an order of assassination. The death of each person, each nurse, each doctor can be blamed on the Chinese Communist Party’.  He also added a confrontation with China was inevitable and said: ‘This is our goal, our destiny’.

According to the research carried out in April 2020 by the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, as many as 45 percent of Poles believe in conspiracy theories alleging that ‘some foreign forces or countries intentionally spread the coronavirus’ and only 42 percent recognize its natural origin confirmed by scientific knowledge.

Rafal Pankowski, a co-author of the report of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and a sociology professor at the Collegium Civitas university, commented: - ‘The global pandemic is also a global crisis of social trust and values amid confusion and anxiety. It is fertile ground for the dangerous growth of xenophobia and conspiracy theories. For the first time in Polish history we are dealing with such a wave of hatred against people of Asian origin, but the antisemitic stereotypes are also present, together with hostility and contempt for various other groups - for example Roma, Africans, Ukrainians, Americans, Russians, as well as Muslims, refugees, LGBT people, environmentalists, vegans, and others’.

- ‘Unfortunately, the media are also involved in promoting conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, often inviting people with extreme views as experts. These «experts» are also gaining popularity on the web, where antisemitic and xenophobic content is distributed on a massive scale. Companies such as YouTube and Facebook, contrary to their formal announcements, often tolerate such content on their platforms’ - said Dr. Anna Tatar, co-author of the ‘Brown Book’.

- ‘Examples of hatred are unfortunately coming from the top. In a pandemic, conspiracy theories promoted by public figures: celebrities, artists, politicians, journalists and clergy are particularly alarming’ - adds Jacek Dziegielewski, also a co-author of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association report.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent organization established in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, both in Poland and internationally. Among others, it is a member of the International Network against Cyber Hate (INACH), which brings together organizations from twenty countries fighting hatred and discrimination on the Internet. Together with partners from Estonia, Slovakia, Romania and Spain, it conducts research on hate speech as part of the Opcode: Open Code for Hate-Free Communication project.

‘The Virus of Hate: Brown Book of the Epidemic’ (full text report in PDF)

Additional information:

www.nigdywiecej.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

RAPORT O WIRUSIE NIENAWIŚCI

Stowarzyszenie ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ opublikowało swój najnowszy RAPORT pt. ‘Wirus nienawiści: Brunatna Księga czasu epidemii’. Dokumentuje on akty rasizmu, ksenofobii i dyskryminacji, do jakich doszło w kontekście koronawirusa w Polsce w ostatnich tygodniach i miesiącach.

Autorzy raportu zarejestrowali przypadki napaści na przedstawicieli mniejszości, bezpodstawnie obwinianych o roznoszenie wirusa, a także liczne przejawy mowy nienawiści i teorie spiskowe na temat epidemii szerzone przez skrajną prawicę.

Wśród zebranych na ponad 30 stronach opisów znalazły się m. in. następujące zdarzenia:

- 1 marca podczas mszy w kościele pw. św. Michała Archanioła we Wrocławiu ksiądz salezjanin Leonard Wilczyński stwierdził w kazaniu, że epidemia koronawirusa ‘to kara boska za życie w grzechu: za homoseksualizm’. Dodał, że Chińczycy ‘są brudni, jedzą nietoperze i martwe płody’.

- 25 marca w Sosnowcu trzech mężczyzn obrzuciło ksenofobicznymi wyzwiskami pochodzącą z Chin pracowniczkę naukową Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Poszkodowana relacjonowała: ‘Otoczyli mnie, tak bardzo się bałam, ciągle się trzęsę. Krzyczeli «wirus» i «China»’.

- 8 kwietnia w Szprotawie lokalne media poinformowały że ochroniarz sklepu Biedronka nie wpuścił do sklepu Ukraińca z powodu jego pochodzenia. Jeden ze świadków tego zdarzenia relacjonował: ‘Gdy młody człowiek chciał wejść do sklepu, ochroniarz zapytał go, czy jest Polakiem, czy Ukraińcem. Gdy odparł, że Ukraińcem, usłyszał, że nie wejdzie do środka’. Jak się okazało, zachowanie pracownika wynikało z przeświadczenia, że osoby pochodzenia ukraińskiego są nosicielami koronawirusa.

- 8 kwietnia na falach warszawskiego Radia Wnet zaprezentowano teorię spiskową autorstwa brytyjskiego antysemity Davida Icke’a. Zdaniem Icke’a odpowiedzialna za pandemię koronawirusa jest globalna grupa określana jako ‘kult’, z którą związani są ‘szaleńcy z Doliny Krzemowej’, Światowa Organizacja Zdrowia, brytyjski następca tronu książę Karol i Bill Gates. Prowadzący audycję z powagą referował poglądy Icke’a, stwierdził też, że stanowią one ‘ciekawy głos w dyskusji’.

- 19 kwietnia (w rocznicę wybuchu powstania w getcie warszawskim) Kazimierz Płotkowski, były przewodniczący Regionu Śląskiego partii Polska Razem Zjednoczona Prawica, zamieścił na Twitterze komentarz: ‘Żydki na wszystkim umieją zrobić interes… może ten covid19 to nowy holoszwindel [określenie to stanowi nawiązanie do antysemickiego stereotypu dotyczącego rzekomego czerpania korzyści z Holokaustu – dop. red.]’.

- W drugiej połowie kwietnia w Poznaniu ‘nieznani sprawcy’ w środku nocy wybili kamieniami szyby w oknach mieszkania Filipińczyka, który od dziesięciu lat mieszka w Polsce. Reportaż na temat tego zdarzenia ukazał się 23 kwietnia w stacji TVN24. Kilka godzin po emisji materiału, znów w nocy, doszło do drugiego ataku na mieszkanie Filipińczyka. Ktoś ponownie obrzucił je kamieniami. Według poszkodowanego obie napaści były związane z epidemią koronawirusa i przejawami wrogości wobec osób pochodzących z Azji. ‘Niektórzy Filipińczycy mają takie doświadczenie, że ludzie krzyczą za nimi na ulicy «Korona!». Jednemu z Filipińczyków splunięto w twarz i ktoś krzyknął za nim «Chińczyk!». Bardzo się boimy’ – powiedział.

- 25 kwietnia poseł Konfederacji Grzegorz Braun w rozmowie z Tomaszem Sommerem (redaktorem naczelnym pisma ‘Najwyższy Czas’) na portalu YouTube snuł spiskowe teorie na temat koronawirusa, za dowód jego wcześniejszego przygotowywania uznając... filmy hollywoodzkie o katastrofach. Dalej Braun przemawiał: ‘Siła projektów kosmopolitycznych się urealnia. […] Amerykańska – użyjmy tego terminu fachowego, klasycznego – żydokomuna próbuje wykorzystać walkę z koronawirusem, aby się pozbyć Trumpa’.

- Grzegorz Braun (którego własna partia polityczna nosi nazwę… ‘Korona’) to działacz skrajnej prawicy, który szczególnie zaangażował się w głoszenie nienawistnych teorii spiskowych związanych z koronawirusem. 6 maja podczas debaty sejmowej poseł Braun groził śmiercią przez powieszenie ministrowi zdrowia Łukaszowi Szumowskiemu. 8 maja Braun oraz znany antysemita (skazany za publiczne spalenie kuły Żyda) Piotr Rybak brali aktywny udział w konfrontacji z policją podczas warszawskiego ulicznego protestu przeciwko restrykcjom sanitarnym.

Według badań Zespołu Centrum Studiów nad Demokracją Uniwersytetu SWPS przeprowadzonych w kwietniu 2020 r. aż 45 procent Polaków wierzy w teorie spiskowe twierdzące, że ‘jakieś obce siły lub państwa celowo przyczyniają się do rozprzestrzeniania koronawirusa’ (jedynie 42 procent uznaje jego pochodzenie naturalne zgodnie z wiedzą naukową).

Współautor raportu Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’, prof. Collegium Civitas dr hab. Rafał Pankowski stwierdza: - ‘Globalna pandemia to także globalny kryzys społecznego zaufania i wartości, dezorientacja, niepokój. W przestrzeni tej niebezpiecznie rozwija się ksenofobia i teorie spiskowe. Po raz pierwszy w naszej historii mamy do czynienia z taką falą nienawiści wobec osób pochodzenia azjatyckiego, ale obecne są też stereotypy antysemickie, a także wrogość i pogarda wobec rozmaitych innych grup – na przykład Romów, Afrykanów, Ukraińców, Amerykanów, Rosjan, a także muzułmanów, uchodźców, osób LGBT czy ekologów, wegan i masonów’.

- ‘Niestety, w promowanie teorii spiskowych na temat koronawirusa zaangażowane są także media, do których nierzadko jako eksperci zapraszani są ludzie o skrajnych poglądach. Takie osoby zdobywają też popularność w sieci, np. dzięki telewizji internetowej wRealu24, która szczególnie intensywnie rozpowszechnia treści antysemickie i ksenofobiczne. Wbrew zapowiedziom firmy, YouTube nadal toleruje takie treści na swojej platformie’ – dodała dr Anna Tatar, współautorka ‘Brunatnej Księgi’.

- ‘Przykłady nienawiści idą niestety «z góry». W czasach pandemii szczególny niepokój budzą teorie spiskowe wygłaszane przez osoby publiczne: celebrytów, artystów, polityków, dziennikarzy, duchownych’ – mówi Jacek Dzięgielewski, współautor raportu Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’.

Stowarzyszenie ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ jest założoną w 1996 roku niezależną, apolityczną organizacją ekspercką, która monitoruje zdarzenia na tle ksenofobicznym. Jest m.in. członkiem sieci International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH). Wraz z partnerami z Estonii, Słowacji, Rumunii i Hiszpanii prowadzi badania mowy nienawiści w ramach projektu Opcode: Open Code for Hate-Free Communication.

‘Wirus nienawiści: Brunatna Księga czasu epidemii’ (pełny tekst raportu w pliku PDF):

https://bit.ly/3fDlM8M

Dodatkowe informacje:

www.nigdywiecej.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

‘BROWN BOOK’ - A MEMENTO

To mark the International Human Rights Day, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has published a new edition of the ‘BROWN BOOK’, which constitutes documentation of hate crimes, racist and xenophobic incidents. This report collects acts of violence and examples of extremist hate speech in Poland in 2019.

- ‘Memory of the tragic past obligates us to take responsibility for words, especially in the age of the internet and its unlimited range’ – said Dr. Anna Tatar from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, the main author of the ‘Brown Book’. She added, ‘In this monitoring project we note numerous cases of language used in order to incite hatred against entire groups. This propaganda is conducive to physical aggression’.

In the ‘Brown Book’, during the last few months the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association noted numerous acts of violence against people belonging to sexual minorities in particular. Contempt for these people manifests itself in public announcements of politicians and journalists, as well as members of the clergy. In recent elections to the Sejm (the Polish Parliament), seats were won by extreme-right activists under the banner of the Confederation (Konfederacja) group, which demands punishments such as ‘flogging’ for homosexuality (Grzegorz Braun), announces ‘kicking out of LGBT from Polish public space’ (Robert Winnicki), or ‘slaughtering of those elite groups which promote deviancy’ (Janusz Korwin-Mikke).

The ‘Brown Book’ documents selected incidents from 2019, such as: beatings, damage to cemeteries and monuments dedicated to minorities, extreme nationalist demonstrations, racist and homophobic insults, cases of hate speech in the media, and acts of discrimination, as well as ideologically motivated signs of hostility towards minority groups. The list also includes examples of incidents in which football fans took part, amongst other acts, the unfurling of racist and xenophobic flags in stadiums, or shouting offensive slogans during football games.

Some of the many incidents documented in the ‘Brown Book’ include:

On a Warsaw municipal public transport bus, two men attacked a sixteen-year-old high school student for homophobic reasons. (Zabki near Warsaw, 3rd January).

A group of assailants shouted xenophobic abuse and assaulted a citizen of Ukraine who was an employee of a transport company. During a taxi ride, they demanded that the driver change the music to 'disco polo'. When he refused, they stated that he ‘does not respect the country, to which he came’, abused him verbally, and shouted ‘You f...ing Ukrainian, go back to where you came from,’ (Warsaw, the night of 8th March).

One resident of a housing complex attacked his neighbour for homophobic reasons. He shouted, ‘You faggot!’, and punched him in the face with his fist (Warsaw, 14th March).

Unknown perpetrators damaged a plaque commemorating Jews murdered by the Nazi Germans during World War Two. Two swastikas were painted on the stone plaque (Otwock, 6th April).

Residents of the town of Pruchnik took part in a rite known as the ‘hanging of Judas’ which has antisemitic undertones. They dragged an effigy through the streets, flogged it with sticks, and finally set fire to the huge straw doll, which resembled a stereotypical Orthodox Jew (Pruchnik, April 19).

On the wall of a Jewish cemetery, someone painted a set of gallows with the word ‘Jude’ (Jew in German) hung from them (Oswiecim, 21st April).

Two men attacked a black student from the United States who was participating in a Holocaust research tour (Warsaw, 30th May).

In an elementary school, an eleven-year-old pupil with Asperger’s Syndrome, was harassed. The school principal as well as one teacher reportedly humiliated her, derided her, called her names, and threatened her (Szynkielow, 11th June).

An unidentified man used racist name-calling and brutally attacked a citizen of India (Aleksandrow Lodzki, 21st June).

A man attacked a woman wearing a hijab and her three-month-old baby. He shouted: ‘Get the f...ck out, you dirty people,’ and made the gesture of the fascist ‘Heil Hitler’ salute, shouting ‘White power!’ (Rzeszow, 2nd August).

Four assailants mugged and verbally abused an employee of a kebab bar who was a citizen of Bangladesh (Lodz, night of 21st September).

A parking attendant attacked a citizen of Egypt for racist reasons. He shouted at him, ‘F...k off from our country’ (Lodz, 15th October).

The initiator and creator of the ‘Brown Book’ for many years was the late Marcin Kornak (1968-2014), the founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. Its title was inspired by the history of anti-Nazi resistance. This documentation has continued for over twenty years, and has earned international recognition as the most reliable and independent source of information related to xenophobic violence in Poland.

In 2019, the ‘Brown Book’ has won the support of the Citizens Fund, governed by the Fund for Poland under the honorary patronage of Adam Bodnar, the Human Rights Commissioner (Ombudsman). In 2018 he received the Norwegian Thorolf Rafto Prize, awarded for championing human rights and independent judiciary in Poland. In accordance with the wishes of Adam Bodnar, this prize was donated to the Citizens Fund to promote human rights activism in Poland.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent organisation established in Warsaw in 1996. ‘NEVER AGAIN’ has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, both in Poland and internationally.

The selection of racist and xenophobic incidents for 2019, documented in the ‘Brown Book’ can be found in: PDF

More information:

www.neveragainassociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

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