Faced with the rising threat of neo-Nazism, a new resistance movement unfolds and struggles to stop it before it's too late. On January 19, in Athens and in over 40 countries, thousands marched against fascism and racism, as a signal that the hope that struggles bring can defeat despair and fear.

Increasingly, governments are playing the card of racism blaming immigrants for their dead-end crisis and mass unemployment. They want to turn immigrants into scapegoats for their bankruptcy.

Neo-nazis are bred by racism, the policies that build concentration camps for FRONTEX and the closure of the borders fortress Europe. They are also bred by the intensity of "anti-crime" policing, which governments attribute it to immigration, instead of blaming the poverty and misery that their policies bring. The neo-Nazis attempt to attract angry voters in a period of severe political crisis and undermining of democratic rights.

It's time to escalate, to strengthen and coordinate all over Europe and the world our common steps to resist the threat of fascism and racism.

There can be no tolerance for the attempt to legitimize the fascists using the national elections, the European Parliament and the local elections as a means to whitewash their criminal activity in the streets and our neighbourhoods. We need to build the struggle to defend the unity and workers' rights regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender, skin colour, sexual orientation. We need to defend the richness of multicultural society. Let’s make our neighbourhoods and our cities bridges of friendship and solidarity, away from rationales of separation. We should not allow the neo-Nazis to form attack squads, to raid and wreak terror by burning mosques and synagogues, beating migrants, refugees and Roma, attacking homosexuals and targeting militants of the left.

We urge the unions, youth organizations, the anti-racist and anti-fascist organizations, immigrant communities, movements defending the rights of gays, women, Roma to join us in the fight for a Europe and a world without racism and fascism, to block the lies, ignorance, fear and prejudice that breed racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and pave the way for the fascists.

Let’s unite against fascist organisations and racism and islamophobia!

We invite you in Athens on 5-6 October to a first international meeting of antifascist and antiracist movements to coordinate our steps.

ΕΝΩΜΕΝΟΙ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΑ ΣΤΟ ΡΑΤΣΙΣΜΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΦΑΣΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΑΠΕΙΛΗ antiracismfascism@yahoo.gr www.antiracismfascism.org