Translated "Avante" article by Jorge Cadima, member of the International Department
The terrorist massacre in Norway demands condemnation and to be under surveillance. It is inseparable from the violence, war and a right-wing more and more openly racist promotion campaign. It is inseparable from the “ civilization conflicts” theorization, which try to” legitimate” the endless imperialist aggression wars within the Middle East and the Arab world. Blood shed in Norway, this weekend, but the evil has spread through Europe, for a long time.
As in the past, dominant class sectors try to canalize discontent, provoked by their exploitation and plunder policies, against scapegoats. In the 30’s, they accused the “Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy”, currently they talk about the “Islam”. At the same time, they promote fear, repression and authoritarianism. One knows the initial reaction of a large range of the media, which immediately sentenced an “ Islamic matrix”, as being behind the Oslo bomb. And insinuated the attacks were caused by Norway being “too tolerant”.
That same evening of the facts, but when it was already known that a fair-haired, man, with blue eyes, massacred young people in an island, general Loureiro dos Santos stated on television, that probably the Oslo attack was either the Al Qaeda or the Libyan government work. In order to sustain this second presupposition, he mentioned Norway’s participation during the aggression against this country. But someone as well informed as the general, knows the Norwegian government
announced it was “ to totally withdraw from the NATO operation [in Libya] until August 1st”(in Associated Press, 11.06.10). If it is true Norway has troops in Afghanistan, the current Norwegian government has been, within the European framework, a friend of the Palestine cause. It was one of the few countries which did not cut contacts with Haniya, the Hamas PM ( in BBC, 07.03.20). Israeli companies were, in many occasions, excluded from the Norwegian sovereign fund investments - created with the oil incomes - by participating in the apartheid wall (in Bloomberg, 09.08.24) or in the occupied territories settlements building (in Haaretz, 10.08.24). Some days before the attack, the Norwegian government stated its support to Palestine as an UN full right member (the foreigner. No,11.07.19) and Abbas, the Palestine president paid a visit to Oslo, where he was received by the Foreign Affairs minister. On the eve of the terrorist attacks, that very Norwegian FA minister visited the camping which would be the massacre target, in Utoya island, declaring that” the Palestinians must have their own State, occupation must end, the wall must be demolished and that must occur immediately” (in politisk.tv2.no, 11.07.21).
The attacks to Norway by Israel supporters are frequent. A M. Gerstenfeld writes, in a Israeli newspaper (ynetnews.com, 11.03.27) that “Norway is a precursor of anti-Israeli and anti-Semite actions. […] and the Norwegian society is dominated by an elite of politicians, journalists, academics, NGO’s and some bishops, among which there are many promoters of anti-Israeli hatred”. From that elite, the second greatest Norwegian party is excluded, the Progress Party, of right-wing and anti-immigration nature, which Gerstenfeld classifies as “pro-Israel”. Anders Breivik ,the Utoya butcher, was an active member of that party, until 2006.
Norway’s massacres illustrate well the dangers of the current whitening campaign and promotion of old and new fascisms and racisms. Within our country, they take the shape of Salazar’s revivalism. It is concerning to see, two days upon the massacre, the great capitalist, Belmiro de Azevedo’s newspaper promotes, in its editorial, the so deceitful and dangerous thesis of a “ North-American counsellor in his struggle against terrorism”, that “ killing common citizens in this manner is unusual for right-wing elements, specially Europeans” (in O Publico, 11.07.24). In the 30’s, the great capital promoted a Nazi-Fascist throw in order to look for a violent way out for its crisis. Vigilance is needed and determination before what might be in the forge ahead within the current crisis.