UAB celebrates the Conferences against Fascism and Racism

On 9 and 11 March, dozens of students participated in the II Conferences against Fascism and Racism at the UAB. As a result of the conclusions of the first conferences against fascism and xenophobia, which took place in May 2014, students and student societies organised jointly with the Community Involvement Unit a second period of conferences to debate about the rise of fascism in Europe and Catalonia.

The conferences started with the talk by Dr Ferran Gallego, professor of the Department of Modern and Early Modern History of the UAB Faculty of Philosophy and Arts. During an hour, Dr Gallego argued about the roots of fascism in Europe during the 30s and he strongly defended the fascist nature of the Franco regime in Spain: “Republican and libertarian culture in Spain was destroyed by fascism and, whoever says it didn’t, he/she is making some kind of forgiveness”.

After that the association Mai Més! (Never again) was introduced. It is a local organisation from Ripollet that works on anti-fascist memory and culture. One of its members, David Fontanals, explained the framework for action of the association and he emphasized the need of carrying out specific actions in a local level. Finally, the day ended with the participation of Andrés Armengol, from the campaign “Tanquem els CIEs” (Let’s close the alien internment centres), who informed against exclusion policies imposed by the government and represented by the alien internment centres as institutional racism.

The second and last day of conferences started with the intervention of Aitor Carr, associate professor of the Universitat de Barcelona and with expertise in the Catalan extreme right-wing party Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC). Professor Carr explained the electoral success of the party and connected it with the new European extreme right-wing: “PxC imports and experiments the new extreme right-wing in Spain”. David Karvala, from the Unitat contra el Feixisme i el Racisme (Unity against Fascism and Racism) focused his intervention on the same point. He analysed the context of the current fascist movements and parties.

Finally, the conferences ended with the participation of Fatiha El Mouali, specialist in the Granollers City Hall, and an activity of film showing and debate by Javier Hernando, student and member of the student society En Lluita. The documentaries Feixisme SL and La dreta més enllà were showed and discussed.