WYKOPMY RASIZM ZE STADIONÓW: POLSKA KAMPANIA ZAPREZENTOWANA W BRUKSELI

Osiągnięcia kampanii społecznej ‘Wykopmy Rasizm ze Stadionów’ Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ zostały zaprezentowane w Brukseli na forum ekspertów Unii Europejskiej.

Sesja grupy ekspertów UE ds. przeciwdziałania radykalizacji (EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation) odbyła się 16 marca 2026 roku. Jej temat brzmiał: ‘Od klubów do społeczności: sport i radykalizacja’.

Współzałożyciel Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’, prof. Uniwersytetu Civitas Rafał Pankowski przybliżył doświadczenia organizacji w prowadzeniu działań edukacyjnych poprzez sport. Przywołał m.in. program ‘RESPECT Diversity’ (‘Szacunek dla różnorodności’), realizowany przez Stowarzyszenie w Polsce i Ukrainie przed i w trakcie turnieju Euro 2012.

Przedstawiciel ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ omówił inicjatywy edukacyjne prowadzone w szkołach, a także szkolenia dla stewardów i personelu na stadionach. Działania te realnie przyczyniły się do przyjaznej atmosfery wyjątkowego wydarzenia sportowego, jakim były polsko-ukraińskie Mistrzostwa Europy w 2012 r.

Jak stwierdzono podczas dyskusji, popularność piłki nożnej umożliwia docieranie z pozytywnym przekazem do różnych grup społecznych, w tym do młodzieży narażonej na radykalizację. W prezentacji Rafał Pankowski odniósł się również do takich wyzwań, jak infiltracja środowisk kibicowskich przez skrajną prawicę oraz szerzenie na stadionach propagandy wymierzonej przeciwko uchodźcom z Ukrainy i innych krajów.

Pankowski przypomniał ponadto niedawny apel Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ dotyczący bojkotu nadchodzącego Mundialu 2026 w USA. Podkreślił, iż obecnie udział w turnieju byłby sprzeczny z podstawowymi wartościami takimi jak poszanowanie różnorodności i godności ludzkiej.

Unijna inicjatywa Knowledge Hub została powołana jako forum eksperckie dla naukowców i praktyków. Daje możliwość wymiany doświadczeń w dziedzinie zapobiegania ekstremizmowi i przemocy.

– ‘Nasze działania udowodniły, że piłka nożna może być motorem pozytywnych zmian społecznych’ – stwierdził przedstawiciel Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’. – ‘Poprzez wspieranie kultury szacunku na boisku i poza nim, możemy marginalizować skrajności i współtworzyć lepsze relacje międzyludzkie’.

Kampania ‘Wykopmy Rasizm ze Stadionów’ została zainicjowana w połowie lat dziewięćdziesiątych przez śp. Marcina Kornaka, założyciela Stowarzyszenia ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’. Była to pierwsza tego typu inicjatywa antyrasistowska w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, propagująca tolerancję oraz postawę fair play.

Stowarzyszenie ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ od 1999 roku jest członkiem-założycielem sieci Futbol Przeciwko Rasizmowi w Europie (FARE). W Międzynarodowym Dniu Kobiet, 8 marca 2026 roku, sieć FARE wyróżniła dr Annę Tatar jako jedną z 12 liderek walczących z dyskryminacją w sporcie. Doceniono jej wieloletnią działalność w Stowarzyszeniu ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’, w tym redagowanie ‘Brunatnej Księgi’ dokumentującej ataki na mniejszości.

Stowarzyszenie ‘NIGDY WIĘCEJ’ jest powstałą w 1996 roku niezależną, apolityczną organizacją, która prowadzi kampanie społeczne, m.in. ‘Muzyka Przeciwko Rasizmowi’ i ‘Wykopmy Rasizm ze Stadionów’.‎ Prowadzi także ‘Brunatną Księgę’, czyli monitoring incydentów na tle rasistowskim, ksenofobicznym i aktów dyskryminacji.

Dodatkowe informacje:

https://www.nigdywiecej.org/o-nas/nasze-inicjatywy/wykopmy-rasizm-ze-stadionow

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://bsky.app/profile/neveragainnw.bsky.social

https://www.instagram.com/stowarzyszenie_nigdy_wiecej

FOOTBALL’S ROLE IN FIGHTING HATE SHOWCASED AT EU KNOWLEDGE HUB

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association presented the organization’s long-standing campaign ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’ as a model for championing diversity during a session of the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation held in Brussels on 16 March 2026.

The session was entitled ‘From Clubs to Communities: Sports and Radicalisation – insights, gender considerations and tools for local practitioners’.

‘NEVER AGAIN’s co-founder Rafal Pankowski, who is a sociology professor at Civitas University in Warsaw, shared insights from the Association’s decades of experience in using football to promote social inclusion, e.g. the UEFA EURO 2012 ‘Respect Diversity – Football Unites’ program, which he coordinated across Poland and Ukraine.

Pankowski detailed how ‘NEVER AGAIN’ successfully implemented educational initiatives for schools, promoted hundreds of Inclusive Zones, trained stewards and officials, and worked with monitors during the tournament. These actions in both countries contributed to a friendly atmosphere during the historic tournament.

The session explored how football’s mass appeal can be leveraged to reach different social groups, including vulnerable youth, which is critical in challenging extremist influences. The presentation also addressed contemporary challenges, such as the infiltration of football fan circles by far-right actors and the spread of xenophobic propaganda in stadiums directed against refugees from Ukraine and other countries.

In a significant update to the association’s international advocacy, Pankowski also highlighted the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s call for a boycott of the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States. Pankowski stated that participation in the tournament under current conditions would contradict the core values of diversity and inclusion that the association has championed for decades.

The EU Knowledge Hub, established to bridge the gap between research and practice, serves as a platform for practitioners and policymakers to exchange best practices in preventing violent extremism across the continent.

‘Our work has proved that football can be a powerful engine for positive social change,’ said Pankowski. ‘By fostering a culture of respect on and off the pitch, we can marginalize extremist tendencies and build more inclusive societies’.

The ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’ campaign was initiated by the late Marcin Kornak in the mid-1990s as the first anti-racist sports campaign in the region of East-Central Europe. Disabled since the age of 15, Marcin Kornak was the leader of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ and a visionary advocate for using culture and sport to combat social exclusion.

Since 1999, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been a founding member of the FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) network. On 8 March 2026, the FARE network named Dr Anna Tatar one of 12 leading women fighting discrimination in sport. This honours her work with the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, including her role in documenting hate crimes for the 'Brown Book’ monitoring report.

Founded in 1996, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is Poland’s leading anti-racist organization. It monitors hate speech and crimes through its ‘Brown Book’ and runs educational campaigns ‘Music Against Racism’ and ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’.

UEFA EURO 2012 ‘RESPECT Diversity – Football Unites’ project report:

https://www.nigdywiecej.org/pdf/en/Respect_Diversity_Project_Report.pdf

Rafal Pankowski on the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s call to boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Trump’s USA:

More information:

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://neveragainnw.bsky.social

https://www.instagram.com/stowarzyszenie_nigdy_wiecej

RED CARD FOR TRUMP’S WORLD CUP

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association Calls for Global Boycott of 2026 World Cup in the United States

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, a leading international anti-racist organization announced its call for a boycott of the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States. This decision comes in response to the escalating human rights crisis under the current US administration led by Donald Trump.

For decades, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has championed the message ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the Stadiums’. However, the association believes that the current climate in the US – marked by systematic attacks on immigrant communities, the rollback of civil rights, and the recent threats to peaceful neighbouring states – renders the country an unfit stage for a tournament intended to ‘unite the world’.

According to ‘NEVER AGAIN’, the Trump administration’s aggressive policies targeting refugees and immigrants contradict the fundamental principles of dignity and inclusivity that football should represent. The deployment of militarized law enforcement in host cities and the targeting of vulnerable populations, endangers the safety of fans, particularly those from minority backgrounds. Awarding once again the hosting of a World Cup by FIFA to a regime that actively undermines anti-discrimination efforts serves only to ‘sportswash’ authoritarianism and xenophobia. Recent rhetoric regarding the possible annexation of foreign territories (such as Greenland) highlights a flagrant disregard for international law that the global sporting community must not ignore.

– ‘Football is a powerful tool for peace, but it must not be used as a veil for prejudice’, said Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and a 2024-25 Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University, Kampala. – ‘To participate in this World Cup is to remain silent in the face of rising hate. We call on FIFA, national federations, and fans to stand on the right side of history’.

‘NEVER AGAIN’ calls upon them to withdraw participation or issue formal protests against the host’s human rights record. It has also called upon FIFA to immediately implement binding human rights guarantees and respect the values of human dignity, diversity and fair play.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent anti-racist organization founded in Poland in 1996. It is a founding member of the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network. It has long cooperated with UEFA and FIFA to combat racism and promote multicultural understanding across Europe and the world. Among other things, it coordinated the official UEFA Euro 2012 Social Responsibility Program ‘Respect Diversity – Football Unites’ in Poland and Ukraine.

More information:

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://neveragainnw.bsky.social

Ugandan-Polish History Inspires Solidarity with Refugees

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has commemorated the ordeal of Polish refugees in Africa during World War II and appealed for solidarity with refugees in today’s world.

From 1942 till 1952, up to 20 thousand Poles – mostly women and children – found refuge in Uganda and other countries of East Africa. They had been victims of Stalinist repressions and deportations who were evacuated from the Soviet Union after the Nazi invasion against the USSR. The Polish refugees in Africa were met with a warm welcome by the local communities.

This little known page of history has been remembered in the form of a multi-lingual mobile exhibition, also available online, prepared by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in cooperation with the Rotary Peace Centre at the Makerere University in Uganda, the most renowned university in the region of East Africa.

‘Our project aims to restore memory of an important page of shared Polish and Ugandan history. By highlighting this story, we hope to build a social climate of openness and intercultural empathy’ – said the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s co-founder Dr Rafal Pankowski, Professor at Warsaw’s Civitas University and Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University, Kampala. In 2024, he initiated the educational project ‘Building Bridges – Inspire Peace: Towards an Intercultural Understanding Between East Africa and Poland’.

On 1 November 2025, Polish and Ugandan members and supporters of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ lit candles at a Polish refugee graveyard in the village of Koja, in the Mukono district of southern Uganda.

The memory of the Polish refugee experience was presented at the annual Capstone conference of the Rotary Peace Centre in Kampala on 23 October 2025. On 22 October, Rafal Pankowski delivered a lecture for Makerere University students coming from across Africa and beyond on the subject of genocide in world history and the message of ‘NEVER AGAIN’. A special contribution to the session was recorded by Gregory Stanton, the author of the model of Ten Stages of Genocide and founder of Genocide Watch.

Earlier, on 11 October 2025, the ‘Building Bridges’ project had been presented during the multi-cultural Human Rights Academy organized in Warsaw by the Dunaj Institute of Dialogue. On 29 August 2025, the story of the Polish deportees in the USSR who found themselves in Uganda was the topic of a lecture by Rafal Pankowski at the Marc Bloch Library of Civilizations in Chisinau (Moldova).

The graphic design of the exhibition was prepared by Andrei Sergunkin, a Warsaw-based anti-war political exile from Russia and a member of the Memorial group, renowned for its efforts to commemorate the victims of Stalinist repressions.

The ‘Building Bridges’ initiative is accompanied by workshops prepared in the frames of the project. During interactive sessions, the participants are encouraged to reflect on the issues of refugees, migration, international solidarity as well as counteracting racism and discrimination.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue, and human rights across the world.

More information:

https://www.nigdywiecej.org//docstation/com_docstation/172/building_bridges_towards_an_intercultural_understanding_exhibition.pdf

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://neveragainnw.bsky.socials

A LIFE ON THREE CONTINENTS – WITOLD LILIENTAL’S STORY

Witold Liliental is a witness to history, having lived through the most significant events of the 20th century across three continents. He survived the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland and experienced the apartheid era in South Africa. He then immigrated to the US and later to Canada. In June of 2025, his memoirs entitled ‘Two Worlds’ (in Polish: ‘Dwa swiaty’) were published under the auspices of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association by the renowned publishing house Austeria. Currently, the memoirs are published in Polish only.

Dr Witold Liliental is a Polish-Canadian activist and a long-time supporter of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association. He was born in 1939 in Warsaw on the eve of World War II, in an assimilated family with Jewish roots. His father, a reserve officer of the Polish Army, was killed in the Katyn massacre, perpetrated on Stalin’s order in 1940. His mother was actively involved in clandestine education activities under the German occupation. After the war, she left Poland with her son and settled in South Africa. Witold engaged in anti-racist activism against the apartheid regime. In 1959, he returned to Poland, where he graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1981, he moved to the US and ten years later to Canada.

Witold Liliental ‘Two Worlds’

In the ‘Two Worlds’, Witold Liliental writes, ‘Due to my own experience, I am allergic to any kind of racism and bigotry, and I watch in horror the ever-growing indifference of some parts of the Polish society to the suffering of other nations, as well as the increasing wave of racially motivated attacks. Of course, the great aid provided to the Ukrainian refugees has helped to improve the image of Polish people, but it is hard to forget the situation at the border with Belarus, where the refugees have a darker skin and pray to a different God. (…) I live in Canada, a country where multiculturalism and openness to the Other are cherished and practised. And I do envy that, as I dream that the same could happen in my first Homeland.’

Dr Anna Tatar from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association says, ‘Witold Liliental’s book discusses transformative events in world history. But this epic story is bound together by a perspective of one man, who managed to intertwine his own experiences with a universal account of the human condition. His memoirs, written in a vivid language and full of anecdotes, serve as a tribute to diversity. The author values respect among people of various skin colours, roots, or religions, who create a community based on equal rights for everyone.’

Witold Liliental with his Black colleagues in Applied Physiology Laboratory, South Africa

Witold Liliental has collaborated with the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association for many years. He is a co-author of the ‘Brown Book’, a chronicle of racism and discrimination, and he has written numerous articles for the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ e-zine. His writings focused on, among other things, the persecution of the First Nations in Canada, the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021, and the legacy of apartheid in South Africa. Moreover, Liliental is a commentator of social and political events for the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ daily and ‘Angora’ weekly in Poland, among other press titles. He never hesitates to stand up for minorities, and he condemns all types of bigotry.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue, and human rights across the world. It has participated in important initiatives to commemorate the Holocaust and to combat Holocaust denial. In September 2024, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ was awarded the prestigious Ronald Eissens and Suzette Bronkhorst Award for ‘exceptional work in combatting online hate and promoting human rights’.

Austeria Publishing House focuses on publishing books related to Jewish subjects as well as Yiddish, Hebrew, Italian, French, German, and Hungarian literature. Its office is located in Kazimierz, an old Jewish district of Cracow, in a historic mikvah building, a Jewish ritual bath. In 2021, Austeria was awarded the title of the Ambassador of New Europe by the European Solidarity Centre in Gdansk.

Witold Liliental’s article: ‘South Africa – Land of my Youth’ (in English – PDF):

https://www.nigdywiecej.org//docstation/com_docstation/188/witold_liliental_south_africa___land_of_my_youth._e_zine_never_again_no._1_20.pdf

More information:

http://www.NeverAgainAssociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://neveragainnw.bsky.social

A Hero’s Welcome For An Apartheid Killer

On the anniversary of Chris Hani’s tragic death, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association publishes a report on the glorification of the racist killer Janusz Walus. On 10 April 1993, Walus assassinated Hani, a leading South African anti-apartheid activist and a close associate of Nelson Mandela. In December 2024, Walus landed in Warsaw, Poland. The far right has created a peculiar cult around the killer.

Walus emigrated to South Africa from Poland in 1981. He became involved in the activities of a neo-Nazi organisation called Afrikaner Resistance Movement (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, AWB). By murdering Hani, he tried to stop democratic changes aimed at dismantling the system of racial segregation. He was sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In 2022, he was granted parole but was required to remain in South Africa for an additional two years.

During his deportation flight back to Poland, Walus was accompanied by Grzegorz Braun, a Member of the European Parliament and candidate in the 2025 presidential election in Poland, an infamous antisemite, charged with several hate-related crimes.

On his return to Poland, Walus confirmed his attachment to the ideology of racism and his complete lack of remorse for the murder he had committed. In one of his YouTube interviews, he argued his case firmly by exclaiming ‘We had to eliminate someone’.

According to Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, Professor at Warsaw-based Collegium Civitas, and Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda: ‘Walus is downright proud of his crime. He has become a symbol of the internationalization of violent racist extremism. It is terrifying that he has become a role model to so many’.

The report of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association documents public expressions of support for Walus upon his arrival to Poland made by Members of Parliament and other figures.

The appreciation for Walus was demonstrated during the football fans’ annual pilgrimage to Czestochowa (Jasna Gora) – the most important Catholic monastery in Poland – in January as well as on banners during football games and on the street walls in several cities. Walus’s supporters announced multiple fundraiser initiatives on his behalf, and the far-right organisation The Patriots of Bydgoszcz (Bydgoscy Patrioci) celebrated his birthday with a  cake and a banner describing the killer as a ‘Lone White Wolf’.

Numerous online expressions of support for the racist murderer were reported by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association to the administrators of Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube. Dr Anna Tatar of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association informs, ‘Only Facebook reacted and removed most of such content reported by us. Twitter/X did not delete anything. Coincidentally, its owner Elon Musk himself originates from South Africa’. YouTube also failed to remove the reported videos praising Walus and his crime.

The report includes an appendix with the words of Ewa Walus, the daughter of Janusz Walus, who contacted the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, ‘I have never shared my father’s views. I think that proclaiming such harmful, racist and neo-Nazi statements is outrageous, but above all, it is dangerous. Because we see how the world is getting radicalised’.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights across the world. It has actively participated in civil society networks, including the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GAADHE), the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), and the Alliance Against Genocide.

Rafal Pankowski (‘NEVER AGAIN Association’) with Lester Kiewit about the welcome of Chris Hani’s unrepentant killer Janusz Walus by the far-right in Poland:

https://nigdywiecej.org/en/multimedia/video-materials/5543-rafal-pankowski-with-lester-kiewit-about-the-welcome-of-janusz-walus-by-the-far-right-in-poland-24-01-2025

Report ‘«We had to eliminate someone». A Hero’s Welcome For An Apartheid Killer’ (full version in PDF file):

https://www.nigdywiecej.org//docstation/com_docstation/172/a_heros_welcome_for_an_apartheid_killer._report.pdf

Additional information:

www.neveragainassociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

https://pl.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

https://neveragainnw.bsky.social

THE AGGRESSOR WEARS A BROWN SHIRT. A NEW REPORT BY ‘NEVER AGAIN’ ASSOCIATION

The so-called civic patrols against migrants, brutal assaults on an Azerbaijani student and several Indians at a worker hostel, are just a few examples of racism and xenophobia in Poland from recent weeks. The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has published the new ‘Brown Book’, which documents some of the attacks on minorities that happened in 2023 and 2024.

Dr. Anna Tatar, who co-authored the report, explains, ‘This escalation of violence comes as no surprise. We have warned countless times that when politicians instigate fear or hostility towards migrants and refugees, street violence will always follow’.

‘NEVER AGAIN’s ‘Brown Book’ lists racist and xenophobic physical assaults, acts of discrimination, and desecrations of cemeteries or monuments to the Holocaust. It includes racist incidents committed by football hooligans, too. In addition, the report documents hate speech in the Polish public debate, especially on social media.

Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, Professor at Warsaw-based Collegium Civitas, and Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, says, ‘Hatred towards minorities is a global issue. This is why solidarity with all the victims of discrimination and violence is so important’.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was founded in 1996 as an independent anti-racist organisation, which runs the ‘Brown Book’: ongoing documentation of events with xenophobic and antisemitic context in Poland. Its initiator was the long-time leader of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Marcin Kornak (born 1968, died 2014).

Between 1 September 2023 and 15 October 2024, the ‘Brown Book’ monitoring was supported by the Henryk Wujec Civic Fund.

In September 2024, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was awarded the prestigious Ronald Eissens and Suzette Bronkhorst Award for ‘exceptional work in combatting online hate and promoting human rights’.

The incidents described in the new ‘Brown Book’ by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ include:

  • LODZ. On the night of 25/26 March 2023, a group of a dozen or so people, men and women, attacked two Ukrainians. The aggressors shouted at them, ‘We hate you, you are from Ukraine, out back home!’ and four thugs brutally beat them: they punched them, knocked them to the ground and kicked them. The Ukrainians were taken to the hospital, one of them had a broken jaw and rib, the other bruised kidneys and a damaged tooth.
  • WROCLAW. On 30 June 2023, a teacher from the Philippines was attacked by an unknown woman. The attacker insulted her and threatened her with violence and death. She shouted, ‘I f*cking hate you! Because you are all cruel and evil. You transmit various diseases’.
  • RACIBORZ. On 15 August 2023, a dark-skinned teenager who had left a kebab shop was insulted and threatened by a passer-by. The man shouted to him, ‘You fcking Pki, get the fck out of here, I’ll fck you up’.
  • PIEKOSZOW. On 21 October 2023, one of the locals, 36-year-old Szczepan B., brutally beat a twelve-year-old boy from Ukraine. ‘The perpetrator insulted but also beat, punched, kicked the boy’s head and entire body with his legs, causing the child to lose consciousness’.
  • WARSAW. On 11 November 2023, the participants of the so-called March of Independence burned flags of the European Union. They also chanted slogans that were racist and xenophobic, ‘White honour, white pride’, ‘White power is and was’, ‘Poland for Poles’, ‘There will be a stick for the leftie snout’. Moreover, the demonstrators displayed banners with the Celtic cross, a flag in the colours of the Third Reich, and banner with the slogan ‘Stop the Ukrainisation of Poland’.
  • GDANSK. On 2 January 2024, on Owsiana Street, ‘unknown perpetrators’ destroyed a plaque commemorating the ghetto where Jews from Gdansk and other areas occupied by the Third Reich were held during the World War II.
  • WARSAW. On the night of 30 April/1 May 2024, a juvenile perpetrator tried to set fire to the Nozyk Synagogue on Twarda Street. He threw a Molotov cocktail which crashed against the façade near one of the ground floor windows.
  • WARSAW. On the night of 24/25 August 2024, a student from Azerbaijan was beaten because of his skin colour. In one of the shops a group of men and a woman flung racist insults at him. The victim reported, ‘They said «Poland for Poles», and they called me a «fcking ngger». […] I got hit on the head with something hard […]. I fell to the ground, and I think I lost consciousness right away. They started hitting me with their hands and kicking me’.
  • NOWY SACZ. On 8 September 2024, at the Jewish cemetery on Rybacka Street, several attackers assaulted a group of Jewish tourists who intended to visit the necropolis. The perpetrators hurled antisemitic slurs and threats at them.
  • ZYRARDOW. On 21 September 2024, the town witnessed a far-right march, self-described as a ‘civic patrol’. The protesters chanted, ‘This is Poland!’ ‘This is Zyrardow, this is where we’re walking! We are doing what everybody should!’ Moreover, members of the ‘patrol’ brutally assaulted migrants residing at a local worker hostel. Ukrainians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians defended themselves with fire extinguishers. As a result, 70 migrants resigned from their work in Zyrardow.
  • SZCZECIN. On 7 October 2024, a Ukrainian taxi driver was assaulted due to his nationality by his passenger. The man started to insult the driver, punched him in the face and head, and shouted, ‘Ukrainian tw*t!’

‘Brown Book 2023-2024’ (full version of the report – PDF)

More information:
www.NeverAgainAssociation.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ
www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

PRESTIGIOUS AWARD FOR ‘NEVER AGAIN’ AT ANTI-CYBER HATE SUMMIT

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has been awarded the prestigious Ronald Eissens and Suzette Bronkhorst Award for ‘exceptional work in combating online hate and promoting human rights’.

The award commemorates Ronald Eissens and Suzette Bronkhorst who were pioneers in the struggle against online hate speech, founders of the Magenta Foundation, the Dutch complaints bureau for discrimination on Internet (MDI), and the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) in 2002. The first award went to Jean-Hubert Bondo and his organization Africa Sans Haine (Africa Without Hate) from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021.

– ‘Your long-standing efforts to fight antisemitism, racism, and xenophobia through education and advocacy have been truly remarkable. The NEVER AGAIN Association’s impact in Poland and globally, especially through initiatives promoting tolerance and peace, has made a significant difference in the fight for human dignity’ – wrote Brieuc-Yves Mellouki Cadat-Lampe, the chair of the Magenta Foundation and chair of the Award Jury, in his letter to the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.

The award ceremony took place during the INACH’s Anti-Cyber Hate Summit on Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Legal Climate held in Budapest, Hungary on 27 September 2024. The award was presented by Panayote Dimitras, the 2023 laureate, a veteran human rights activist and founder of the Greek Helsinki Monitor. This year’s award was shared by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA), an organization dedicated to combating rising online antisemitism.

-‘It is a real honour for us to be awarded the prize named after Ronald and Suzette. For more than two decades, their commitment and passion in the struggle against hate speech has had a major impact on the activity of the NEVER AGAIN Association’ – said Rafal Pankowski, ‘NEVER AGAIN’s cofounder, during the ceremony.

In September 2024, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ published its most recent report ‘The Twitter Standards of Hate’ about the prevalence of hate speech on Elon Musk’s platform. In the same month, the activities and experiences of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association were presented by Rafal Pankowski during the International Workshop on Right-Wing Extremism organized by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Project on Countering the Far Right and Nueva Sociedad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organization founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against discrimination, racism and xenophobia both in Poland and internationally. It has actively participated in civil society networks, including the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GAADHE), the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) and the Alliance Against Genocide. It takes part in international projects to counter hate speech, Get The Trolls Out and SafeNet: Monitoring and Reporting for Safer Online Environments.

For more information:

www.neveragainassociation.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

AGNOSTIC FRONT: A UNITED MUSIC FRONT AGAINST RACISM

Agnostic Front will be the headliner of the InterTony Festival organised in support of the ‘Music Against Racism’ campaign run by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.

The legendary New York band is one of the most famous hardcore music groups in the world. InterTony – Festival of Twin Towns in Chojnice, Poland, will take place on 15 June.

Agnostic Front was established in 1980, and is known for their socially aware songs, standing up for those oppressed and deprived of their own voice in the public space. The Festival will also host many other independent metal, punk, hardcore, and rock bands: Massive Assault (from the Netherlands), Peter Ullrich and Tortured Spirit (both from Germany), Praïm Faya (France), as well as Polish bands like Narbo Dacal, Super Potwor and Tyran.

‘Music Against Racism is a campaign which brings together diverse music genres. Its core message fits perfectly with the main idea behind InterTony which is to establish friendships between people from different countries’, Lukasz Jakubowski of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association explains.

InterTony is a project based on collaboration of international youth associations which operate in twin towns in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Poland. The organisers say, ‘We try to show the benefits of international cooperation based on mutual involvement, openness, and willingness to share good practices among democratic societies’.

The organisers of InterTony were inspired by DettenRockt, a festival against racism and discrimination in Emsdetten (Germany), supported many times by the Polish volunteers from Chojnice.

The ‘Music Against Racism’ campaign was launched in 1996 by the founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association Marcin Kornak (born 1968, died 2014). From the age of fifteen, due to an accident, Marcin lived with a physical disability. He was a poet and songwriter who cooperated with independent rock bands. The campaign was followed by ‘Music Against War’, announced on the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, and joined by musicians who want to express their solidarity with the refugees and to protest against violence in the world.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association invites musicians, record labels and promoters who are interested in releasing music tracks or videos as well as organising concerts with the promotional support of ‘Music Against Racism’ / ‘Music Against War’ to get in touch via email: info@neveragainassociation.org .

The ‘Music Against Racism’ album was first released in 1997, and on the 20th anniversary of that fact it was also uploaded on YouTube:

In 2021, the double album ‘One Race – Human Race. Music Against Racism, part 2’, got its first LP edition, with the original CD release back in 1998. You can listen to it on YouTube, too:

‘NEVER AGAIN’ is an independent anti-racist organization founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights both in Poland and internationally.

More information:

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org
www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity
www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ
www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association

NEW ‘BROWN BOOK’ DOCUMENTS PREJUDICE AND HATE

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association published the ‘Brown Book’ – documentation of racist, xenophobic and homophobic crimes and acts of discrimination in Poland in the years 2020-2023.

The long-time author of the ‘Brown Book’ was the late Marcin Kornak (1968-2014), founder of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association, social justice activist and poet. He was the mind behind social campaigns promoting respect and diversity. 20 March marks the ninth anniversary of his death.

The United Nations General Assembly established 21 March as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 1966 to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. On this day in 1960, police opened fire on Black people protesting against apartheid. Sixty-nine protesters were killed and one hundred and eighty were injured. The tragic anniversary is commemorated all over the world to express opposition to racism, discrimination, and xenophobia.

The latest edition of the ‘Brown Book’ on more than 300 pages describes cases of physical assaults on the basis of skin colour, language, or religion, as well as acts of verbal aggression. In addition, the report documents street demonstrations with slogans inciting hatred, acts of discrimination against minorities, and fascist banners displayed at football stadiums. Examples of hostility towards refugees from Ukraine can also be found therein.

– ‘In the Brown Book we paid a lot of attention to online hate speech, including the widely disseminated anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories, disinformation, and direct abuse against Ukrainians’, said Dr. Anna Tatar, co-author of the report.

– ‘The Brown Book documents negative social attitudes towards minority groups. In this edition of the report, we have described, among other things, attacks on people of Asian origin as well as other minorities who were accused of spreading Covid-19’, said Jacek Dziegielewski from the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.

Selected examples of events documented in the ‘Brown Book 2020-2023’:

SZCZECIN. In mid-March 2020, unknown perpetrators devastated a plaque with an inscription commemorating the Jewish residents of the city who were murdered during World War II in the Belzec extermination camp. Someone painted a swastika and the SS symbol on the plaque.

LUKOW. On 19 March 2020, three pupils of a local elementary school attacked a fifty-nine-year-old Vietnamese-born resident of the town. They shouted insults, including ‘She comes from China and has coronavirus’, ‘F*ck off you slut!’, and ‘Get the f*ck out of here, you whore, you f*cking Chinese woman!’ The perpetrators hurled stones and litter at her, spat in her direction, and one of them pushed her.

GDANSK. On 20 June 2020, an unidentified assailant attacked a man of Egyptian origin. He yelled at him, ‘Get out from here, you black w*ore’ and punched him in the face. He also tried to stab him with a knife.

WARSAW. On 17 February 2021, a gay couple was attacked. The assailant shouted, ‘Stop holding hands, children are watching’ at the men and stabbed one of them in the back with a knife. The injured man was hospitalized.

POZNAN. On 14 March 2021, on a tram one of the passengers made threats and racist insults towards a Guatemalan man travelling with his wife and child.

SZCZECIN. On 12 December 2021, Konfederacja (Confederation, far-right party) organised a ‘Shooting Competition named after Kyle Rittenhouse’ (Kyle Rittenhouse shot two participants of Black Lives Matter protests in the USA in 2020). The poster announcing the competition contained an image of Rittenhouse with a machine gun and a Confederate flag, a symbol of racial discrimination.

SEDZISZOW MALOPOLSKI. On 13 January 2022, a resident of the town brutally beat a homeless man. He punched him in the face twice, and when the victim fell to the ground, he kicked him unconscious in the head, causing numerous injuries. As a result of this attack, Slawomir K. died after spending several days in hospital.

BIALYSTOK. On 15 January 2022, during the demonstration of COVID-19 deniers, its participants chanted, ‘This is Poland and not Polin!’ (the word means Poland in Hebrew; for the extreme right it has become synonymous with the alleged rule of Jews over Poland).

KATOWICE. On 9 June 2022, at a bus stop and on the bus an unidentified man attacked a teenage boy from Ukraine. He threatened him and hurled xenophobic slurs at him.

LUBLIN. On 30 August 2022, three Black students were attacked by a group of several men. The attackers shouted ‘Black c*nts’ and punched them repeatedly.

WARSAW. On 24 September 2022, the streets of Warsaw witnessed the protest march under the slogan ‘Stop Ukrainization of Poland’, organised by Konfederacja Korony Polskiej (Confederation of the Polish Crown), a far-right party headed by Member of Parliament Grzegorz Braun. The participants unfurled banners ‘This is Poland and not Ukropol!’ (a conspiracy theory claiming that Poland is being overtaken by Ukrainians) and ‘Stop replacing the ethnic structure of Poland’.

LUBLIN. On 7 January 2023, two men attacked a Ukrainian woman, her 13-year-old son and her pregnant daughter. They shouted at them, ‘Ukrainian wh*res’, ‘F*ck Ukrainians’, ‘Get the hell out of Poland’. When the boy tried to call the police, they knocked him to the ground and punched him on the head. They also pushed the pregnant woman. They were charged with publicly insulting the Ukrainian citizens, making death threats, and using violence.

POZNAN. On 7 March 2023, activists of Mlodziez Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youth, a far-right organisation) disrupted a meeting with Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko. They chanted ‘Poland is for us!’ Meetings with the writer were also disrupted by members of Mlodziez Wszechpolska on 21 November 2022 in Krakow and on 14 February 2023 in Warsaw.

GDANSK. On the night of 11/12 March 2023, two juvenile perpetrators painted a swastika on the entrance to the synagogue in Gdansk-Wrzeszcz. Three ‘K’ letters, which stand for Ku-Klux-Klan, also appeared on the façade.

In April 2022, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association published a report entitled ‘Let’s Maintain Solidarity with Refugees’ about cases of discrimination and hate speech against Ukrainians, refugees, and ethnic minorities in Poland in the context of the ongoing war. In January 2023, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association published a report on hate speech as well as antisemitic and anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories propagated on the Media Narodowe (National Media) online tv channel. After the report had been published, the channel was removed by YouTube.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent anti-racist organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has monitored hate crimes and hate speech as well as campaigned against antisemitism and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights both in Poland and internationally.

From 1 March 2022 to 1 March 2023, data collection for the ‘Brown Book’ was supported by the Henryk Wujec Civic Fund. Henryk Wujec (1940-2020) was an activist of the Workers’ Defence Committee (KOR) in the 1970s, political prisoner in the 1980s, member of the International Auschwitz Council and civil society mentor.

‘Brown Book 2020-2023’ (full version of the report):

https://www.nigdywiecej.org//docstation/com_docstation/172/brown_book_2020_2023.pdf

Additional information:

www.nigdywiecej.org

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

https://twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association