Over the past few years, far- right nationalism and racism have been on the resurgence throughout Europe.
From Italy, to Germany, to Sweden through to the Ukraine, formations which just 25 years ago were reviled as not worthy of even being listened to are now kingmakers in coalition governments and, in some instances, are on the verge of being elected to the highest offices in their countries.
In the United States, the president has declared himself a “nationalist” and right-wing nationalists close to him, such as his former advisor Steve Bannon, are so emboldened that they go on speaking tours to Europe and are hired by far-right leaders such as Hungary’s repressive Viktor Orban.
Twenty-five years ago, right-wingers and racists across the globe were a fringe. When two of their own, the detestable Clive Derby-Lewis and the dissembling Janusz Walus murdered SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani in a desperate attempt to trigger a race war in our country, they were shunned throughout the globe, except by small pockets of right-wing diehards.
Now they are lauded as heroes in Walus’s native Poland.
In fact, reported London’s The Observer newspaper last week, “Walus has become a cult figure among right-wing Polish football fans, in particular, who frequently display banners at matches with his portrait and slogans such as ‘Free Janusz Walus’ and ‘Stay Strong Brother’”.
It reported further that “when football fans gathered at the Jasna Góra monastery in south-western Poland, the country’s holiest shrine, for a ‘patriotic pilgrimage’ in January last year, a priest led the congregation in prayer for Walus’s release. The National Radical Camp, the successor to a pre-World War 2 Polish fascist movement, recently held an indoor football tournament in his honour”.
Some younger readers may not know who Chris Hani was. Every South African should learn about Hani. A militant, courageous ANC leader, he stood up for ordinary members in the party’s camps in exile.
When he returned home in 1990, he remained militant and revolutionary, yet embraced peace. He was spoken of by many as the man most likely to succeed Nelson Mandela as ANC leader.
On April 10 1993, Walus – in cahoots with Derby-Lewis, a Conservative Party MP and perhaps others – walked up to Hani at his Boksburg home and shot him four times, killing him instantly in front of his 14-year-old daughter Nomakhwezi.
At their trial in 1993, Walus and Derby-Lewis lied to police about the circumstances surrounding the murder of Hani.
They lied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997. They have lied and changed their stories numerous times in parole applications.
After Derby-Lewis was paroled and died in 2016, Walus has continued to try for freedom. He is now on the verge of success. This lying monster may now walk free in the next few months due to technicalities in his parole application.
How did he succeed? The Guardian reported that several Polish MPs have argued that he is a political prisoner.
“Walus is sometimes described as the “last Cursed Soldier”, a reference to Polish resistance fighters who were tortured and executed by the communist authorities in the Stalinist era – an implication that Hani’s murder constituted a continuation of that struggle.
“Walus’s sympathisers provide more than just moral support, collecting money that goes towards paying his legal fees,” it said further.
Walus deserves no forgiveness, for he has demonstrated no remorse for his deeds. Most importantly, though, he and his comrades have not told the truth about Hani’s murder.
People should read Evelyn Groenink’s book, Incorruptible, to begin to answer some of the questions Walus has evaded.
The impact of rising right-wing nationalism and racism is bigger and more insidious, though. It diminishes the world we have built for our children. It encourages hate and division and unilateralism across the globe. It fails to recognise the great advances of humanity over the past 60 years were because a great number of leaders turned their backs on narrow nationalism and racism and instead encouraged multilateralism and open borders.
The far right is here, and it is making the world a very dangerous place indeed...