From: Paul Kneisel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [proletarism] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 7 Aug 2001 --
5:62 (#584)
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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 7 August 2001
Vol. 5, Number 62 (#584)
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Reduced Summer Publication:
Action Alerts:
Wales, 11 Aug: Stop the Nazi Festival!
Web Sites of Interest:
TechTV Story: Lone Wolves Hunt Online -- The white supremacist movement
is finding a new voice on the Internet. It's also finding a more
violent way of spreading its message
News On Other Ethnic/Religious Bias
U.S.H.C., "Helsinki Commissioners Remember Romani Holocaust; Call For
Greater Action to Address Current Human Rights Violations," 2 Aug 01
Reuters, "Philippine Muslim Rebels Behead Four Christians," 3 Aug 01
The Hindu, "Academics attack 'Vedic Astrology' in curriculum," 6 Aug 01
Aseem Chhabra (Rediff), "United in Hatred: Hindu far Right & the Jewish
Far right tie up on the Internet," 24 Jul 01
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REDUCED SUMMER PUBLICATION:
We will be publishing reduced issues throughout the rest of the Summer to
permit us to catch up on other anti-fascist research and writing.
Have a nice summer and be sure to inform us of any changes in your address.
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ACTION ALERTS:
Stop the Nazi Festival!
Saturday 11 August 2001
Assemble Llanerfyl on the A458 9 a.m.
The Nazi BNP have organised a two day rally in Wales. Nick Griffin the
leader of the BNP has a farm Y Gribyn, Llanerfyl, Welshpool, Powys SY21 OJQ
(01938 820 198 or 01938 820 560) and intends to hold the rally on an
adjoining farm called Llechwedd-du.
Griffin is organising to bring in Nazis from across Britian to redirection
points via his mobile (0781 332 8955) before ferrying them to the farm to
listen to Nazi speeches and a presentation on White Slavery.
His mother Jean Griffin (1 Waterloo Terrace, Welshpool, Powys SY21 0JQ) is
organising B&B accommodation for the Nazis (0700 900 2671) with the help of
Griffin's wife who is a district nurse in Welshpool.
The BNP hotline boasts about the Red White and Blue festival. It is the
only time in the year all the BNP Nazis are able to get together. The BNP
hotline then plays the Nazi CD of the month by a band called Avalon.
Avalon's most well known song was "Combat 18 are calling".
There is anger locally at this Nazi gathering. The National Farmers Union
has urged its members not to cooperate with the BNP and the local residents
from Welshpool, Newtown, Llanfair Caereinion, Llanerfyl, Llangadfan and
Foel have written to the local paper as the "People of the Banwy Valley"
stating their horror at the BNP event.
The ANL are assembling at Llanerfyl at 9am on the A458 to stop the
festival. Posters and leaflets (English and Welsh) can be downloaded from
the ANL website. Contact the office for transport from South Wales, the
North West, West Yorkshire, West Midlands and London. The ANL
demonstration is supported by local trade unions and Plaid Cymru, who don't
want the Nazi BNP in Wales!
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WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
TechTV Story: Lone Wolves Hunt Online -- The white supremacist movement is
finding a new voice on the Internet. It's also finding a more violent way
of spreading its message.
http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/viceonline/story/0,23008,3302043,00.html
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NEWS ON OTHER ETHNIC/RELIGIOUS BIAS
Helsinki Commissioners Remember Romani Holocaust; Call For Greater Action
to Address Current Human Rights Violations
U.S.H.C.
2 Aug 01
WASHINGTON D.C. -- United States Helsinki Commissioners remembered the
Romani Holocaust today and called on governments to address the human
rights violations against Roma.
"The single most defining experience for Roma in the 20th century was the
Holocaust, known in Romani as the Porrajmos, the Devouring. During the war
itself, Roma were targeted for death by the Nazis based on their ethnicity.
At least 23,000 Roma were brought to Auschwitz," said Helsinki Commission
Chairman Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO). "Almost all of them
perished in the gas chambers or from starvation, exhaustion, or disease."
On the night of August 2-3, 1944, the order was given to liquidate the
Romani camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. During the course of that night, 2,897
Romani men, women and children were killed in the gas chambers. Roma around
the globe have come to remember their Holocaust experiences on these days.
"In the coming days, Roma will gather - from Temple Emanu-El in New York to
London, from Thessalonika to Hamburg," said Commission Co-Chairmen
Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ). "Not surprisingly, some of these events, such
as those scheduled for London, will also protest the continuing human
rights violations of Roma. Unfortunately, there are too many incidents
happening today that illustrate how vulnerable Roma continue to be."
Since late April 2001, there have been four violent attacks on Roma in the
Czech Republic; the attack in Svitavy on July 21 resulted in the death of
one Romani man. In Hungary, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a Romani
house in Jaszladany on June 5 and, on June 18, two Romani children were
burned when a Molotov cocktail was thrown into their home in Hencida. In
Slovakia, a Romani man died in police custody on July 5 after reportedly
being chained to a radiator and beaten over the course of 12 hours.
"It is shocking," said Ranking Member Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD), "that
Belgian authorities would use ink to mark numbers on the forearms of Roma
to identify them as they were being deported back to Slovakia. It is
shocking that a Hungarian mayor who says 'every Gypsy should be shot with a
single bullet' can get re-elected to one term after another. I commend OSCE
Chairman-in-Office Mircea Geoana for scheduling a meeting on Romani human
rights issues in Bucharest in September, and hope that meeting will serve
as a forum to promote greater government action to address these human
rights violations."
Information on the OSCE meeting can be found at: www.osce.org/odihr/cprsi
Background: Although Roma were among those targeted for complete
annihilation by the Nazis, their suffering before and during World War II
is not well known. During the 1920s and 1930s, institutionalized racism
against Roma took on an increasingly virulent form, and policies similar to
those instituted against Germany's Jews were also implemented against Roma:
race-based denial of the right to vote, selection for forced sterilization,
loss of citizenship, incarceration in work or concentration camps, and,
ultimately, deportation to, and annihilation at death camps.
During the war itself, at least 23,000 Roma were brought to Auschwitz, and
almost all of them perished in the gas chambers or from starvation,
exhaustion, or disease. Some Roma also died at the hands of sadistic SS
doctors, like Joseph Mengele.
Elsewhere in German-occupied territory, Roma were frequently killed by
special SS squads or even regular army units or police, often simply shot
at the village's edge and dumped into mass graves.
Approximately 25,000 Roma from Romania were deported en masse to
Transnistria in 1942; some 19,000 of them perished there. Although it has
been very difficult to estimate both the size of the pre-war European
Romani population and war-time losses, some scholars put the size of the
Romani population in Germany and German-occupied territories at 942,000 and
the number of Roma killed during the Holocaust at half a million.
After World War II, the post-Nazi German Government strongly resisted
redressing past wrongs committed against Roma, seeking to limit its
accountability. In addition, Roma have been discriminated against in court
proceedings and their testimony has often been viewed as, a priori,
unreliable.
The first German trial decision to recognize that Roma as well as Jews were
the victims of genocide during the Third Reich was not held until 1991.
Understanding of the nature and extent of Romani losses continues to
expand, as new archival material becomes available and as a new generation
of researchers begins to examine this part of the Holocaust.
Additional information on Romani Holocaust experiences can be found on the
website of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at:
www.ushmm.org/research/center/roma/index.html
Helsinki Commission hearings, reports, and statements relating to Roma can
be found at: http://www.csce.gov/issue_query.cfm?issue_id=14
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Philippine Muslim Rebels Behead Four Christians
Reuters
3 Aug 01
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- Hooded gunmen from the Abu Sayyaf Muslim militia
beheaded four Christian villagers on a southern Philippine island after
kidnapping more than 30 people, the army said on Friday.
Two villagers managed to escape after the attack on Thursday night on the
island of Basilan, 560 miles south of Manila, officers said.
Nine villagers were set free and one of them brought back a message from
the gunmen that the others would be killed unless a military offensive on
the Abu Sayyaf was halted, army chief Lieutenant General Jose Calimlim told
reporters.
The Abu Sayyaf is holding at least 21 other hostages on Basilan, including
a U.S. missionary couple kidnapped in May.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (news - web sites) said the guerrillas
could not blackmail her government.
"Probably...because the heat is so strong, the Abu Sayyaf had to do this
retaliatory action or diversionary action," she told a news conference.
"That's how war is. War is never one-sided so my reaction to all this is
that as a government we cannot be blackmailed."
The military also condemned the recent attack on civilians.
"This is a barbaric act, they killed innocents. This showed how barbaric
they are," Calimlim said.
The self-styled Abu Sayyaf rebels claim to be fighting for an independent
Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines but their
main activity is kidnap for ransom.
The attack came as the two larger Muslim groups in the Philippines signed a
unity agreement which could lead to an overall peace deal with the
government.
The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) signed the agreement in Malaysia. The MNLF agreed to a peace
deal with the government in the 1980s and the MILF is in talks with Manila
on ending its decades-long insurrection.
The Abu Sayyaf is the smallest of the three groups and government officials
say it uses the banner of Muslim independence only to gain local sympathy.
They say it is mostly a grouping of bandits and other lawless elements.
The Philippine military has launched intensive operations to rescue the
hostages, but so far to little avail.
Police said they recovered four beheaded corpses near the raided village,
near a known stronghold of the guerrillas, early on Friday. The dead were
identified by family members as among the abducted villagers.
"I fought back and grabbed the rifle of the one who guarded me," one of the
two who escaped, Ian Rebollos, 17, told reporters.
The other man who escaped was attacked by the bandits with machetes and
played dead. He was found by pursuing troops and was taken to hospital for
treatment, the army said.
Calimlim said about 40 Abu Sayyaf men participated in the raid on the
village near the town of Lamitan. He said hundreds of troops were pursuing
the rebels and the hostages but said his men were at a disadvantage.
"No matter how many battalions you deploy, we cannot cordon the whole
place," Calimlim said. "The terrain is so vast, too densely forested and
mountainous. The terrain is to their advantage."
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Academics attack 'Vedic Astrology' in curriculum
The Hindu
6 Aug 01
NEW DELHI -- Academics continued their attack for the second day against
the saffronisation of education system by the BJP-led NDA Government at a
convention organised by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) here and
said introduction of `Vedic Astrology' as a subject in universities was a
part of such a move.
Criticising the Government for introducing the study of `Vedic Astrology',
the former University Grants Commission Chairman, Mr. Sathis Chandra, said,
"the move is an attack on the liberal, human and rational values on which
the university system of learning has been founded."
Coming down heavily on the Human Resource Development Ministry for its move
to introduce the `Vedic Astrology' as a subject at the university level,
Chennai-based Mathematical Institute scientist, Mr. T. Jayaraman, said it
was aimed at "thwarting scientific nvestigation."
The former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniyam Sundaranar University, Ms.
Vasanthi Devi, accused the Sangh Parivar of attempting to distort the
history and exhorted academics to organise themselves against any such
move.
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United in Hatred: Hindu far Right & the Jewish Far right tie up on the
Internet
Aseem Chhabra (Rediff)
24 Jul 01
When the Bajrang Dal's official site in the US -- HinduUnity.org -- was
shut down by its service provider, the group approached a most unlikely
ally -- Kahane.org, a radical Jewish group that is banned in Israel and is
on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. The common goal
that brought the two groups and the sites together -- their dislike and
mistrust of Muslims and Islam.
As Michael Guzofsky, the director of Kahane.org and the Brooklyn-based
Hatikva Jewish Identity Center, said: "If someone is coming to kill me and
that same person wants to kill somebody else and together we can defend
ourselves, you have to be insane not to band together against the common
enemy that wants us all dead."
The Hindu Unity site first went on a server hosted by Addr.com, of
Greenwood Village, Colorado in February 2000. The Hindu Unity group -- led
by its elusive leader in New York, Rohit Vyasman, 30 -- was responsible for
the design and the content of the site, while Addr.com would load the site
on the Internet. The fee to host the site was a mere $ 9.95 per month.
The Hindu Unity site would regularly post messages and editorial content
against Muslims in India and in Pakistan. Against the backdrop of dripping
blood each page contained interpretations of Indian history, verses from
the Koran and other anti-Muslim statements, presented from the Hindutva
point of view. Little wonder Addr.com received complaints about the site.
Addr.com does not keep record of the number of complaints it receives.
Matt Johnson, an Addr.com representative, said even if the company had
received one complaint, it would have investigated the site. "If you take
a look at the Hindu Unity site now, there are several features such as the
hit list and the radical quotes that can be offensive to some people, so we
can't host a site like that," he said.
The hit list that Johnson mentions identifies 32 individuals as enemies of
Hindutva. Among them are Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf (the top name
on the list), Pope John Paul II, Osama Bin Laden, evangelist Pat Robertson,
Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti
Basu, painter M F Husain, actress Shabana Azmi and director Deepa Mehta.
There are a few Indian journalists on the list -- Asian Age editor in
chief M J Akbar, Kuldip Nayar (who is referred to as a resident of
Pakistan) and ediff.com columnist Dilip D'Souza. A surprise name on the
list is Kanwal Rekhi, since the group he founded -- The Indus Entrepreneurs
-- has decided to invest in Pakistan.
The list also includes two 'anti-Hindutva pseudo-scholars' -- Amitava
Kumar, associate professor of English at Pennsylvania State University and
Vijay Prashad, assistant professor of international studies at Trinity
College at Hartford, CT. Prashad is referred to as a 'pretend to be Hindu
bastard' and the site warns him to beware since the Soldiers of Hindutva
are watching him.
Johnson said Addr.com tried to negotiate with Vyasman and his group.
"Eventually we realized they were not going to change the content or the
approach of the site," he said.
Vyasman, who initially agreed to be interviewed for this article, later
changed his position. In emails to this reporter he said he was too busy.
An interview was arranged with another Hindu Unity member, but this
individual is based in Mumbai and does not have first hand knowledge about
the relationship between the HinduUnity.org and the Kahane.org sites.
When Addr.com dropped HinduUnity.org as one of its clients, Vyasman called
Guzofsky's office in Brooklyn.
Guzofsky is a follower of Rabbi Meir David Kahane, a Brooklyn-born, former
member of the Israeli Knesset, who called for the expulsion of Arabs from
Israel. Kahane was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990, by an Islamic
militant. Late last year Kahane's 34-year-old son and political heir,
Binyamin, was killed in an ambush in the West Bank. Binyamin's wife,
Talia, 31, was also killed in the same ambush.
Guzofsky was in Israel when he received the call from Vyasman, but called
back in a couple of hours. Soon an alternative arrangement was made.
Guzofsky connected Vyasman to Gary Wardell, a businessman in Annandale, VA.
Wardell's web service business now hosts both the HinduUnity.org and
Kahane.org sites. The two sites also have a mutual link.
"We heard the site was taken down because of Muslim pressure and that is
something we have ourselves experienced," Guzofsky said. "The Hindu group
was taken down for its views in America and especially on the Internet
which is the ultimate vehicle for free speech. Regardless of their views
they have the right to preach them. It is clear that certain Muslim groups
in America will do everything in their power to silence Jews or Hindus or
anyone."
Guzofsky said the Kahane.org practiced the principle of free speech and
allowed people to post anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish messages. "Sometimes
there is nasty language and we do not approve of it, but we are not there
to censor it," he said.
HinduUnity.org also maintains a message board, but with a very different
approach to free speech. The top section of the message board clearly
states: 'All anti-Hindu posts and propaganda will be deleted. All messages
that contain threats, promote harm/violence ill be deleted.'
Since the strengthening of the relationship between the two sites earlier
this summer, the two groups have joined in supporting each other's causes.
Guzofsky and some of his supporters recently attended a rally outside the
United Nations protesting the Taleban's edict that all Hindus in
Afghanistan must wear a symbol which would distinguish them from the rest
of the Afghan population. The rally was called by several Hindu groups in
the New York area, and Hindu Unity and Vyasman were among the sponsors. The
Hindu Unity groups have marched in a couple of anti-Palestinian and pro-
Israel rallies.
Guzofsky said in the past the two groups had not met as often as he would
have liked to. "I think this is the beginning of what will hopefully be a
fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship for both Hindus and Jews,"
he added.
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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