The recent attack on a phone shop in Coalisland along with Nazi swastika graffiti which has appeared in the town recently indicate that far right elements are organised in all communities. It is also concerning that groups of men not from this area are travelling by train and other methods of transport to put racist leaflets through doors in housing estates.

The Workers Party has been at the forefront of condemning and demonstrating against those who bring hatred and racial threats to our communities across Northern Ireland. Just a few days ago in Newry a family member of the Party representative was racially abused by young girls who demanded to know if he was a Muslim. This abuse happened in full view of his wife and children, girls aged between 13 and 15 years old who were born and raised in Newry. We must ask who is teaching this behaviour and racism to the children they claim they want to protect? Children are not born with hatred they are taught to hate, and this 21st century expression of hatred is a sad indictment on our society

All people involved in political, civil, church, and community organisations have to send a clear message to those who seek to threaten and intimidate ethnic minorities that it is the racists with their ideology of hatred and prejudice who are not welcome in our communities.

There can be no excuse or justification given for attacks on migrants who have chosen to live and work in Northern Ireland or for those refugees who have had to flee from their homelands because of wars, oppression, and persecution.

Those who say we are being 'overrun by foreigners' are telling a lie to suit their own warped narrative. The social conditions and economic crisis that we face are not the fault of immigrants; they are the results of the failure of a government that has wedded itself to the capitalist pusuit of profit before people.

The relatively tiny number of people who control the wealth and power in our society thrive on division between working people on the grounds of class, race, gender, and all other forms of prejudice.