International antifascist conference of FIR and SUBNOR in October 2022

“Anti-fascism today and the danger of right-wing politics in Europe” – Under this slogan, FIR organizes an international antifascist conference in Belgrade on October 24, 2022. The event will take place in the framework of the anniversary of the uprising in Yugoslavia 80 years ago and the commemoration of the liberation of Belgrade.

The necessity of such a conference is unfortunately self-explanatory. Already on the occasion of the Executive Committee meeting at the end of August in Budapest, the associations and guests present there – together with Hungarian anti-fascists – are dealing with the “Faces of fascism today”, as the title of the international short conference reads. It will take place remebering the violent attack on our President Vilmos Hanti 10 years ago in downtown Budapest by Hungarian neo-fascists. With short contributions from different countries, we will deal with the current developments and the influence of the violent neo-fascists in different countries. Of course, the question of how anti-fascists and their organizations are able to react to this social threat is already at stake.

A clearly broader perspective is to be opened with the international conference in Belgrade. Together with the member federations of FIR and social partners from the international anti-fascist networks we want to try a political stocktaking of the dangers of the extreme right politics in Europe scarcely two years before the next European Parliamentary election. We will look at the politics of right-wing parties in power, as in Hungary and Poland, as well as the election results for extreme right wing and right-wing populist parties in France, Spain and Italy. These results are not only political moods, but also dramatic warning signs of the influence of neo-fascism on political decisions not only at the national level, but also for all of Europe. However, we also want to learn about examples that show this tendency can be stopped, e.g. the results of the elections in Slovenia.
Right-wing politics is not only expressed in election results, but also leads to an aggravation of domestic and foreign policy tensions on different levels. In particular, the rise of nationalist conflicts is an expression of increasing political instability in various parts of Europe, and of course, this is not unique to the war in Ukraine.

We know that the aggravation of social tensions in all European countries due to the enormous inflation and as an effect of the EU sanctions policy against Russia for ordinary people, as it will show in the fall/winter of 2022, is seen by the extreme right as a starting point of nationalist mobilization. Anti-fascists and their associations are therefore called upon to work in co-operation with the trade unions and social associations for an effective social mobilization against the passing on of the burdens of the crisis to the working population and ordinary people. What experiences have been and are being made with this, will also be evaluated at this conference.
We expect guests and delegates from all member federations of the FIR and from international networks, with which we are connected in the anti-fascist work. In this common consultation, we hope for answers to “antifascism today and the danger of right-wing politics in Europe”.

The congress is supported by SUBNOR and will take place in Hotel M in Belgrade. The arrival will be on October 23, 2022. On Monday, October 24, 2022, the full-day deliberations of the international antifascist conference will take place. On Tuesday, October 25, 2022, public commemoration ceremonies will take place in Belgrade together with the Serbian association SUBNOR and in the afternoon, the FIR will award the Michel Vanderborght Prize 2022. Departure is no later than Wednesday, October 26, 2022.
Those interested in participating are already registering by E-mail at office@fir.at.