Thanks for putting this into a diary Bob. I wanted to respond to this in the Salon but didn't get chance.

This is really one of my worst fears coming true.  It's a slow process, allowing racism to creep in to such a high level.  But once it reaches a critical point it seems impossible to stop it advancing further into a position where it is able to dominate, such that we seem to be seeing with Switzerland and the SVP.

I know people often think that us lefties bang on about black people and migrants and their rights and the dangers of far-right parties and activists and they think "it's not a real threat".

But the failure to challenge and stamp out racism when it is only small local groups organising, leads to netowrkign and sophosticated organising and then to national parties getting a grip in running countries with no regard for the rights of black people and migrants and so on, but also with little regard for other minority groups of 'natives' or for the well being of the country as a whole.

And now we are seeing Nazi-esque legislation being discussed.  When will people learn?