In the aftermath of the general election, immigrants in Sweden's third-largest city Malmö have started a group called "Welcome to the Resistance" in a bid to stop "everyday racism" and, by their own admission, secure their existence.
The group is not affiliated with any party or organization, instead embracing first and second-generation immigrants and refugees living in Malmö and who claim to have suffered firsthand from racism.
On Sunday, the first "Resistance" demonstration gathered several hundred participants. One of the slogans, according to the local Sydsvenskan daily, was "Strike Hard, Wogs! The City, the Country, Everything Is Ours." Another motto shouted during the demonstration was "Entire Malmö Hates Racists." During the demonstration, a banner saying "No one but us" was also spotted.
"We felt that we need our own voice. During the election movement, everybody kept talking about people who look like us," Miriam Negash told Sydsvenskan. "We are many here in Malmö, over 30 percent. We will not have to walk the streets in fear," she added.
On its Facebook page, the "Resistance" movement published a manifesto claiming that the very existence has been questioned during the election campaign, adding that it was "not about shirt-clad Nazis," but about "most parliamentary parties and the public service."
"We choose to build our own movement, one where we fight back, and don't let ourselves be pushed around, where we show civic courage, where we stand up for each other. We are immigrants, second-generation immigrants, adoptees and those who are being racified," the manifesto, which is also available in Farsi, said.
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Malmö is Sweden's third-largest city with a population of 330,000. In 2017, approximately over half of Malmö's population had at least one parent born abroad. Historically, the Danish diaspora has been the largest, but has in recent years immigration to Malmö has been dominated by Iraqis, people from the former Yugoslavia and the Horn of Africa.
