| Fighting Right Wing Extremism - IUSY Training |  |  |
 During the IUSY World Festival in July 2011 IUSY held a training workshop "Promoting open and inclusive society – youth response to the challenges of movements of extreme political right in Europe". Thirty participants from 13 organizations all over Europe attended the workshop that took place on July 26-30, aiming at providing space for young people to formulate their response to the strengthening of the ideas and movements of extreme political right and explore tools available to our global progressive youth movement for promotion of diversity in our societies. The main goals were to address the methods of movements of extreme political right for mobilizing public support, especially the fact that they attract more and more young people who are embracing the ideas of closed, conservative, authoritarian societies and to explore the tools available to our organizations to expose these movements, their ideas and the projects that stand behind them.As a global youth movement, IUSY and the youth organizations gathered in our political family are deeply concerned with the fast and almost undisturbed strengthening of the ideology and groups of extreme political right, and we recognize the severe threat they represent to our efforts for building diverse inclusive societies, assuring equal treatment and equal chances for all. We believe that progressive youth organizations in Europe need to be more active than ever in approaching young people to promote our values of diversity, tolerance, equality and solidarity as pillars of a truly democratic and open society. During these five days the participants had the possibility to explore reasons for strengthening the ideas and movements of extreme political right in European societies, to discuss and formulate their responses to these challenges and to explore the ways in which the participating organizations and IUSY as a whole can work together and support each other's actions in this struggle. In addition, the participants had the chance to visit the commemorative site of the Mauthausen concentration camp and reflect upon the history and development of the ideology of extreme political right, its impact and the threat it represents to the society. We met exciting new friends, had fun and learnt a lot. We hope to all stay in contact over the years to come, as we know that a person becomes richer with each new friend and the network of organizations we are all working to support is stronger through our personal ties. We thank each of the participants for the invaluable contribution they gave to this important event. IUSY would like to express special thanx to the European Youth Foundation for their invaluable support to our work, without which we would not be able to realize this and many similar activities.
with support of the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe
|
