On The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination -2019

IMA Canada Statement
March 21, 2019

As we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) Canada Chapter condemns the massacre of 50 innocent Muslims in their house of prayer in Christchurch, New Zealand

The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination proclaimed by the United Nations in 1960 was to remind the international community that what happened at Sharpeville, South Africa where the police fired at and killed 69 people in a demonstration against the apartheid laws should not happen again. It was also a call to increase all efforts to eliminate racism and all forms of discrimination.

Unfortunately, racism and discrimination are well alive and strong. The massacre at Christchurch, New Zealand is only one of the many attacks against the Muslim communities. In Canada, we remember the attack at the Quebec City Mosque that left six worshippers dead and several others injured. A similar incident happened on January 29, 2017 in a Quebec City Mosque.

The anti-Muslim sentiments, incidents of Islamophobia globally have been going on for decades. Since the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya were forced to flee their homes, with rape, murder, and arson committed against them. In 2017, renewed violence triggered an exodus of hundreds more. Since US President Donald Trump took office, violence committed by white supremacists and white nationalist organizations in the US have increased and become more visible, as witnessed in the Charleston church massacre and the deadly alt-right terror attack in Charlottesville.

To fight against racism and discrimination is to fight capitalism and imperialism. The migration from the global South to the Global North for work, escape persecution and wars of occupation and even destruction of their communities destroyed by mining and other forms of environmental destruction is the migration of the poor and the dispossessed. Capitalism and imperialism have profited from migrant-bashing, from the unfounded fear that migrants are stealing jobs and driving down wages and the local economies. Pitting workers against workers – we have seen this in New Zealand and here in Canada, and elsewhere. The crisis of capitalism creates state fascism and terrorism to ensure that the people remain in constant fear and divided.

We are saddened with the deaths of our Muslim sisters and brothers and our condolences go out to their families and communities. We work with more urgency to build, nurture and strengthen our international solidarity with the masses of the people to fight and defeat white supremacy, capitalism and imperialism towards a vision of a just and dignified society for all. ###