From: Paul Kneisel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 21:26:59 -0500
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Peoples War] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Fri, 9 November 2001 --
5:90 (#617)
_________________________________________________________________________
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday 9 November 2001
Vol. 5, Number 90 (#617)
[mailed Wednesday, 14 November 2001]
__________________________________________________________________________
Action Alerts:
01) Benjamin Colle (UNITED for Intercultural Action), "Don't Throw Away
Those Old Newspapers Yet: Please check them for articles on the
'Kristallnacht' commemoration first!," 14 Nov 01
02) New York City: 29-30 Nov: Women for Afghan Women Conference
Web Sites of Interest:
03) EPIC: Counter-Terrorism Proposals
More On U.S. Fascists and the Current Hysteria
04) Jack McCarthy (CounterPunch), "Neo-Nazis and 9/11," 29 Oct 01
05) Patrick Martin (World Socialist Web Site), "US anthrax scare: Why
the silence on right-wing terrorism?," 27 Oct 01
More On Civil Liberties and the Current Hysteria
06) James S. Robbins (Objectivist Center), "Commentary: What Will Happen
Now?," 21 Sep 01
07) [London] Guardian, "MI5 posts terror appeal on Arab websites," 26
Oct 01
08) Argiris Malapanis (The Militant [U.S.]), "Socialist in Miami wins
support in fight against political firing," 19 Nov 01
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ACTION ALERTS:
01) Don't Throw Away Those Old Newspapers Yet: Please check them for
articles on the "Kristallnacht" commemoration first!
Benjamin Colle (UNITED for Intercultural Action)
14 Nov 01
Dear friends,
Last week, on and around 9 November 2001, thousands of people in 30
European countries commemorated the "Kristallnacht" pogrom together and
showed their will to resist against intolerance. In our European report
about the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism we want to
reflect the diversity of activities in Europe.
We need your help to complete our picture of what has happened on 9
November and to make the campaign report as informative and nice as
possible. For that we need: - reports (just a few lines is enough)
- leaflets, posters, other publicity material
- newspaper articles
- photographs
and all other graphic material which you have produced and which
documentates your activities. Especially interesting would be the
documentation of reactions from the public and the press. The better the
information is we get, the better the report will be!
Please send all information to us as soon as possible, but at the latest
before 7 December.
You'll receive the report in the first mailing of the new year. If you need
additional copies (for example for your sponsors), let us know. You can
find more information on the campaign on http://www.unitedagainstracism.org
(check out 'new on this site'). If you have suggestions or ideas about the
campaign next year, we'd like to hear them!
Keep up the good work!
Start your cyberday on http://www.icare.to
Internet Centre Anti-Racism Europe
UNITED for Intercultural Action
European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of
migrants and refugees PB 413, NL-1000 AK Amsterdam
phone +31-20-6834778, fax +31-20-6834582
NB: new email / website!!
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<http://www.unitedagainstracism.org>
- - - - -
02) Women for Afghan Women Conference
New York City, Thursday 29 Nov - Friday 30 Nov
9 AM - 4 PM
Keynote Speaker: Sima Wali, Refugee Women in Development
Proschanksy Auditorium, CUNY Graduate Center,
365 5th Avenue at 34th Street, NYC
Some Confirmed Speakers: Rina Amiri, Harvard University; Sara Amiryar,
Georgetown University; Farida Azizi, Afghan Peace Activist; Dr. Riffat
Hassan, Feminist Theologian; Angela King, UN; Sister Sanna Nadin, Qur'anic
Scholar; Zohra Rasekh, Global Watch Group; Gloria Steinem, Ms. Magazine;
Fahima Vorgetts, Afghan Women�s Rights Activist; and Flouran Wali, Doctors
of the World
This conference is free of charge and is co-sponsored by Women's Studies
Certificate Program at The Graduate Center/CUNY
Conference agenda updates available at
<www.womenforafghanwomen.org>
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Supported by The Sister Fund, The Global Fund for
Women and the North Star Fund
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEB SITES OF INTEREST:
03) EPIC: Counter-Terrorism Proposals
<http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/>
"The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a
dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding
importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities"
to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the
military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism."
Justice William Brennan, Brown v. Glines, 444 US 348 (1980)
Field Guidance on New Authorities (Redacted): Enacted in the 2001 Anti-
Terrorism Legislation
<http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/DOJ_guidance.pdf>
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MORE ON U.S. FASCISTS AND THE CURRENT HYSTERIA
Neo-Nazis and 9/11
Jack McCarthy (CounterPunch)
29 Oct 01
The post-September 11th guessing game rages on.
Did the U.S. government know beforehand that the World Trade Center would
be attacked?
Who is responsible for delivering unsolicited anthrax mail?
I recently bumped into my old Iranian friend Ali, a fundamentalist of the
Khatami stripe who monitors Middle East news the way bookies follow horse
races.
I asked Ali two questions. One, what was the most interesting thing he'd
read on the events of September 11th. And two, did he think the anthrax
attacks were foreign or domestic.
Ali said the most interesting stuff he's read-gulp-- was the pre-Sept 11th
radio speeches of neo-nazisms answer to Dr.Strangelove, Dr. William Pierce.
Upon perusing his speeches from 1998-99 I discovered that Pierce, who heads
the so-called "National Alliance, " did indeed utter some most interesting
(pre-Sept 11th)--if not prophetic--remarks about Osama bin Laden and bio-
terrorism.
The running theme in Pierces commentaries is--to paraphrase his hero
Hitler-that Osama Bin Laden's warning to America is "I Am Coming." And so
is bio-terrorism.
In one chilling commentary Pierce, (after noting that Bin Laden and the
rest of the lost generation of angry Moslem youth had it with their
parents' compromises and were hell bent on revenge against infidel America)
issued this stark, prophetic warning in a 1998 radio address titled, "Stay
Out of Tall Buildings."
"New Yorkers who work in tall office buildings anything close to the size
of the world trade center might consider wearing hard hats..." Pierce
warned.
With Hitchenesque flair, Pierce, in another broadcast made during the
Clinton presidency, rails against the sodomitic Bill Clinton who only had
two goals in life: personal pleasure (sex) and serving those who sponsored
him (Jews).
Pierce, in another surreal but interesting commentary, goes on to second
the emotion of Osama Bin Laden, who in a speech which he could well have
given after reading Hitchens' anti-Clinton screed "No More Lies") issues a
blood curdling warning to the majority of Americans who continued to
support Clinton despite his sexual dalliances. Those who support their
"dissolute President" Osama(seconded by Pierce) warns, are fair game for
destruction and annihilation.
Readers of Pierce's oft cited classic which allegedly spawned Tim McVeigh,
"The Turner Diaries" will be aware that one of Pierces vivid scenarios in
the plot of the far right to create mass chaos, anarchy and panic in Jewish
owned America is the use of bio-terrorism.
Also recall that one of Pierces followers, the notorious Nevada based
microbiologist Wayne Harris, has been arrested twice over the last decade,
once for possession of bubonic plague materials and the other for
possessing and alleging planning to use anthrax.
Harris claims in one of his writing (available by typing in "Wayne Harris"
on Google search engine) that he was warned by an Iraqi woman named Mariam
Arif (supposedly the daughter of Iraqs General Arif, murdered by Saddam in
a Baath party purge many years ago) that over the years Iraqi women have
smuggled in to the U.S. mass quantities of lethal poisons.
Saddam's Vaginal Monologe: According to Harris Saddam Hussein vials of
anthrax and other weapons of mass destruction were smuggled in by Iraqi
women who hid the vials in their vaginas. And more ominously that a
biological attack on America by Saddam was imminent.
If Pierce and others in the paramilitary right don't know something the
rest of us don't know, they definitely know more than the U.S. government
and the ridiculous "Homeland Security" agency headed by Tom "Beats Me"
Ridge.
- - - - -
05) US anthrax scare: Why the silence on right-wing terrorism?
Patrick Martin (World Socialist Web Site)
27 Oct 01
Amid the saturation media coverage of the anthrax attacks in Florida, New
Jersey, New York and Washington, DC, a central political issue is being
suppressed. There is every likelihood that those responsible for mailing
anthrax spores to media and government targets are right-wing extremists
bent on spreading panic and creating the conditions for new attacks on
democratic rights. Many such elements have close political links to the
Republican Party and the Bush administration.
So much misinformation has been spread by government spokesmen and
rebroadcast by the media that it is difficult to be sure of many of the
facts surrounding the anthrax scare. More than a dozen people have
contracted the disease, which is relatively rare among humans but not
unusual among farm animals. Three people have died, four others have
contracted the more dangerous pulmonary form of the disease. Three letters
carrying anthrax spores in powder have been recovered, one at NBC News, one
at the New York Post, the third at the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom
Daschle.
Thousands of people have been tested for possible contamination and
hundreds of thousands affected by the shutdown of schools, workplaces and
public facilities and the cancellation of plane, train and bus service. The
overwhelming majority of the reports of possible anthrax contamination have
proven to be unfounded or the result of panic, largely provoked by semi-
hysterical media coverage.
Dozens of people have tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores, but
the majority of these are not actually infected. The significance of these
results is not clear. The tests show the presence of disease-fighting
antibodies, but there is no way to easily determine when the person came
into contact with anthrax. Many of those who initially test positive may
not be victims of a recent terrorist attack, but may have merely
encountered the bacteria at some time in their lives.
There is similar uncertainty over the significance of the presence of
spores, usually in minute quantities, in postal and other mail-processing
facilities. Anthrax spores have been known to persist dormant in the soil
for up to 80 years. Public health officials have not provided a baseline of
the �normal� occurrence of anthrax antibodies in the population, or of
anthrax spores in the environment, against which to compare the results of
the current tests.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MORE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE CURRENT HYSTERIA
06) Commentary: What Will Happen Now?
James S. Robbins (Objectivist Center)
21 Sep 01
[Note: The Objectivist Center is devoted to the views of Ayn Rand. Whether
Rand would support the view below is problematical. As usual, the material
is included since the views of non-fascist ultra-conservatices is of
interest to anti-fascists. -- tallpaul]
The question before us is how to respond to the atrocities of September 11.
First, obviously, the government must visit heavy retribution of those
directly responsible for the attack and on those states and organizations
that aided them. That is a matter of justice. Secondly, Washington (by
bringing unbearable pressure on state sponsors of terrorism) must smash the
global Islamic fundamentalism's global terrorist network in order to deter
future attacks. That follows from the government's obligation to minimize
the number of attacks on its citizens' rights. Thirdly, the government must
put in place defensive mechanisms and the means to cope with the
consequences of large-scale terror attacks if they should recur. That is a
matter of government's obligation to thwart attempted attacks on rights or
at least to minimize the extent of damage from such attacks.
How can these tasks be carried out?
Consider, first, the domestic side of the war. The most important task is
to render America secure, for it would be a grave mistake to believe that
no more attacks are coming. The enemy could still do significant damage
through chemical or biological attacks, or strikes at critical
infrastructure. Such attacks would not be as dramatic as the events of
September 11, but they could have infinitely greater consequences. And, at
this point, the enemy has nothing to lose. The U.S. response will be total
anyway.
Therefore, we must turn to security experts to tell us what we can do to
defend ourselves, and to emergency management experts to tell us how to
deal with the aftermath of attacks. But one question that political
philosophers may rightly ask is: Do we, in preparing to defend ourselves
against attacks, face a dichotomy between freedom and security, in which
the former necessarily retreats in pursuit of the latter?
The evidence is that a trade-off exists, but it is not a straight trade-
off. Much can be done that does not touch demonstrable individual rights.
The reason is that, in this type of war, the dichotomy is more often
between security and convenience. As one frequent traveler put it, "by the
time you get on a plane in Tel Aviv you've been strip searched so many
times you start to enjoy it." In any event, the Objectivist theory of human
rights does not specify what security procedures can and cannot be
incorporated into the contract terms of an airline ticket or a job offer.
In my line of work I go through several security checkpoints every day and
never feel "less free" because of it. Sometimes I am inconvenienced,
sometimes even annoyed. But I know it is done for my protection, so my
values remain unchallenged, and, most important, my freedom to bitch about
it is sacrosanct.
Occasionally, the threat alleged is not even to convenience but to some
fashionable liberal notion of what "freedom" comprises. The New York Times
quotes the Leftist law professor Bruce Ackerman of Yale as complaining that
some measures being discussed�namely, surveillance cameras�would threaten
our "anonymity." Is anonymity a right of the individual? Were we less free
when communities were smaller and everyone knew everybody else? People
might have been subjected to more ostracism and opprobrium, but that is a
matter of moral judgment, not coercion.
Undoubtedly, some proposals will curb current liberties. Speaking for
myself, however, the recent assault on America has had a significant
clarifying effect. Since last Tuesday, some of my "go to the wall"
libertarian views, such as opposing a national ID card, have seemed
trivial. The potential for government abuse is present, but the need for
providing security is actual. So long as there are adequate checks and
balances, so long as the enabling legislation is circumscribed and
directed, the measures currently being touted seem a reasonable cost.
The British, after all, have survived heightened safety measures for thirty
years in the face of IRA terrorism and have kept their freedoms largely
intact. Freedom House, in its ranking of countries' protection of civil
liberties, places Great Britain in the second tier of states, along with
Germany and Japan. Even Israel, though necessarily under a more stringent
security regime, maintains both an outpost of democracy and a reasonable
respect for civil liberties. Freedom House rates Israel a perfect 1 for
political rights and a 2 for civil liberties (upgraded this year from a 3).
Can political philosophers say anything about drawing the line between
security and freedom? Because the United States is a country with a written
constitution, we can say that the rule of law demands the Supreme Court
strike down patently unconstitutional curbs on freedom. Beyond that,
however, it would seem that philosophers can say only this: Our
representatives must listen to security experts and civil libertarians, and
then decide democratically what constitutionally permissible regulations
they believe our national security requires. It is a matter capable of
dispute.
Now, what about the offensive side of the battle? The "war on terrorism"
will actually be a mixture of war and foreign policy with a shifting line
between them. If any nation state is found to be behind the September
attack, then the primary task will be simple: wage war against it. But even
in that case, the president has now said, the war on terrorism will also be
a war on terrorist organizations, and that will be more difficult, for
these organizations are hidden, scattered, and hard to reach. Coercion by
regular forces will probably be of little use against them. The means of
punishing them will therefore have to be specialized, involving
intelligence agencies, law-enforcement agencies, special operations forces,
counterterrorism forces, and foreign operatives. What part each of these
will play it is a matter for military planners. One obvious tactic,
however, would be to locate and seize the global financial assets of the
terror groups, which is their lifeblood, the thing that gives them mobility
and access. But we should have no illusions: the prosecution of this war
against the terrorists will not be in the hands of international bankers.
It may involve extremely disquieting tactics: assassinations (which are
already being discussed); secret trials (to prove we have the right guys
without revealing to other terrorists how we know); and even torture (to
avert imminent attacks, say).
A second part of the "war" will be a highly aggressive foreign policy to
persuade states to stop sponsoring terrorism. Conventional military
instruments, such as bombers and ground troops, certainly can have a role
in persuading reluctant states to cease such behavior (as the 1986 strike
on Tripoli did). But even here raw firepower will have its limits. Bombing
Afghanistan back into the Stone Age would not significantly lower its
standard of living. Other states are more vulnerable to military
intervention, but Washington will not want to go to war simultaneously with
the Taliban plus all seven countries on the State Department's "sponsors of
terrorism" list. Fortunately, we have many "means short of war" that can
bring powerful pressure to bear on these parties, if used in an
uncompromising way. And, should they fail, war is always a last resort.
In summary, then, we can say this: Our government must take seriously the
need to protect America from further terrorist attack. To a large extent,
that undertaking will be defensive and preventive and will be the work of
President Bush's new Office of Homeland Security. But the government must
also take the offensive and ensure that the people directly and indirectly
involved in perpetrating this atrocity and other terrorist acts spend the
rest of their lives on the run, in hiding, always looking over their
shoulders until the inevitable day when, in one form or another, justice
prevails. A few commentators have warned that we must not allow terrorists
to find martyrdom. For my part, I think that we should help them achieve
it.
- - - - -
07) MI5 posts terror appeal on Arab websites.
[London] Guardian
26 Oct 01
MI5 has taken the unprecedented step of posting an appeal for information
about potential terrorists on dissident Arab websites.
Its message in Arabic has been placed on sites MI5 knows is accessed by
extremists, including islah.org, a Saudi opposition site, and qoqaz.com, a
Chechen site which has advocated jihad, or holy war. The Chechen site has
been chosen because a number of Muslims in Britain are known to have fought
in Chechnya.
There, security sources say, they "bonded" with sympathisers and supporters
of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network.
MI5 wants to attract people "on the edge of extremist communities who are
sufficiently shocked [by the September 11 attacks] to want to contact the
agency", a security source said yesterday.
The message reads: "The atrocities that took place in the USA on 11
September led to the deaths of about five thousand people, including a
large number of Muslims and peoples of other faiths."
It continues: "If you think you can help us to prevent future outrages call
us in confidence on 020-7930 9000."
They acknowledge that MI5's open attempt to tap a potentially useful market
could attract hostile responses and cranks.
MI5, which so far has posted its message on just two websites, intends to
place it on more of the 15 known to be used by radicals and dissidents.
But some of them have been shut down by the FBI.
MI5 officers do not engage in discussions or "chatlines" on the
internet.
The initiative is designed to encourage people to call the MI5 number. The
switchboard is staffed by trained intelligence officers who will ask those
who appear to have genuinely useful information to meet an MI5 officer
face-to-face.
- - - - -
08) Socialist in Miami wins support in fight against political firing
Argiris Malapanis (The Militant [U.S.])
19 Nov 01
MIAMI -- "This is an attack on the right of all working people to express
their point of view, to think and discuss their ideas and opinions without
fear of intimidation or of losing their jobs," said Michael Italie at an
October 29 press conference held outside the Goodwill Industries garment
manufacturing plant here. Italie, a sewing machine operator and the
Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Miami, was fired a week earlier by
the Goodwill bosses for his political views. At the well-attended media
event Italie described the support he is winning from co-workers, defenders
of democratic rights, and others in the fight to reverse the firing.
Goodwill bosses openly say they dismissed Italie for speaking out against
the U.S. government's war on the people of Afghanistan and its simultaneous
attacks on workers' rights at home during his mayoral campaign. As an
article in the October 29 Miami Herald put it, "Of the 10 mayoral
candidates, Italie stands alone in supporting the 1959 Cuban revolution and
in opposing the war against the Taliban government in Afghanistan."
"We cannot have anyone who is attempting to subvert the United States of
America," Goodwill's chief executive officer Dennis Pastrana told the Miami
Herald in an interview published October 30. "His political beliefs are
those of a communist who would like to destroy private ownership of
American enterprises and install a communist regime in the United States."
In a televised interview aired October 30, Pastrana further stated that
Goodwill's attorneys had advised him that advocacy of political views is
not a protected right for those who work for a private employer.
Goodwill is a major contractor of the U.S. government, producing military
uniforms and flags used in burial of U.S. servicemen. The company is
viciously antiunion and often pays well below the minimum wage, numerous
workers at the plant report. Italie talked about the need to organize a
union with his co-workers in order to improve conditions in the plant, win
wage increases, and establish a level of dignity for workers on the job.
"Goodwill Industries and other employers don't want workers to be able to
discuss, organize, and fight to improve our conditions," Italie said in an
interview with the Militant. "This political firing is aimed at my co-
workers, and tens of thousands like them in the Miami area who are fighting
to defend their unions, or win them for the first time, as they resist the
offensive by the employers against our working conditions, wages, and
safety on the job."
'Treasonous views'
The socialist candidate blasted statements by Mayor Joseph Carollo to the
Miami Herald. Carollo backed Goodwill's decision to fire Italie, and said
that he considered the socialist candidate's views to be "treasonous."
Carollo added he thought Italie "would have made Benedict Arnold seem like
a patriot.'' Benedict Arnold was a general in the American revolutionary
war who turned traitor and became a spy for the British.
"The week before my firing," Italie said, "Carollo, myself, and other
candidates were speaking at a debate. Carollo twice demanded the moderator
prevent me from stating my views about the U.S. government's assault on
workers' rights and their brutal imperialist assault on the people of
Afghanistan. The moderator refused the mayor's attempt to squash freedom of
speech, allowing me to continue to present my views."
"Carollo's actions and statement to the Herald help shed light on the fact
that the U.S. ruling class and their political spokespeople do consider
opposition to their wars, to employer assaults, to racism, and other
outrages of capitalism to be treasonous," Italie noted. "With his statement
the mayor takes my firing a big step beyond the action taken by the bosses
at Goodwill. Carollo too is threatening workers' rights.
"Workers and farmers have fought since the American Revolution for the
right to speak our views and even advocate a revolutionary change in
government as a right under the U.S. constitution," Italie said. "This is
how the Bill of Rights--including the freedom of speech and expression--
became enshrined in the constitution. Workers and farmers have fought and
shed their blood defending these liberties and attempts by the capitalists
and their government to roll them back."
Italie pointed out that the SWP took the government to court in 1973 in
what became a 15-year battle against FBI and secret police harassment,
spying, and disruption targeting the party. In the end, a federal judge
ruled the SWP's advocacy of the need to replace the capitalist government
with one of workers and farmers to be constitutionally protected activity.
The garment worker urged other candidates for mayor, whether or not they
opposed the firing or agreed with Italie's views, to condemn the mayor's
attack and urge Carollo to withdraw his statement.
Attempt to keep co-workers away
Italie and his supporters scheduled the news conference to coincide with
the end of the workday in order to talk with as many co-workers as
possible. In one news spot covering the press conference, TV Channel 4
showed a CBS reporter approaching the gate of the Goodwill plant only to
find it shut down. A security guard told CBS that the company was not
allowing any media into the plant.
It turned out that the company halted production at the plant and sent all
400 workers home two hours early, with full pay, to try to prevent them
from meeting and talking with Italie or the press. According to several
workers interviewed by the Militant, bosses told workers to punch out at
3:00 p.m. rather than the 4:30 p.m. regular ending time because "Mike the
communist would be out there talking to the media." They were also told by
the company that no one was to stay outside to wait for the press
conference.
"This is an attempt to silence Mike and cut him off from his co-workers,"
Sydney Royal, a retired health service worker who is African American and a
supporter of Italie's campaign, told the press at the October 29 news
conference. "This can backfire. Many will identify this firing as an
attempt at thought control."
Outside the plant gate the next day, nearly 70 workers took campaign
literature from Italie, including a fact sheet on his firing, and some
purchased copies of the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. A number of co-
workers smiled at seeing Italie there and wished him success in his fight
against the firing. Only one employee told others to stay away from the
socialists, without much success.
In discussions with the socialist candidate, a number of workers agreed
with Italie that the company's decision to fire him is part of the
intensified assault by the ruling class on workers' rights. Italie pledged
to continue the fight to protest his firing, regardless of whether he can
mount a legal challenge, "just like public workers in Minnesota went on
strike despite being told by the governor there they were unpatriotic, and
despite the governor using the National Guard to undermine their fight."
Italie is campaigning for a shorter workweek without a cut in pay and for a
massive government-funded public works program to build housing, schools,
hospitals, and other much needed infrastructure in order to create jobs. He
calls for a substantial increase in the minimum wage and other affirmative
action measures. The socialist candidate demands full cost-of-living
protection in wages and retirement benefits to protect working people from
inflation, and government-guaranteed lifetime health, pension, and
disability benefits for all.
The socialist candidate is discussing with fellow workers the need to
demand a halt to farm foreclosures, and having the government guarantee
cheap credit and a living income for small farmers. His campaign also calls
for cancellation of the foreign debt of the semicolonial countries and for
lifting all tariffs and other obstacles to trade and travel erected by the
U.S. rulers, including those in Miami. Italie's main campaign brochure
states that these demands are aimed at building solidarity and to unite
workers and farmers internationally.
"These demands cannot be won in Miami alone," Italie said. "They are part
of building a revolutionary movement to take power out of the hands of the
capitalists, to establish a workers and farmers government, and to join the
worldwide struggle for socialism."
As part of the fight to reverse the firing and defend workers' rights,
Italie has filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union
charging that Goodwill violated his right to freedom of speech as
guaranteed by the First Amendment. ACLU local president Lida Rodriguez-
Taseff told the press the civil liberties organization is looking into the
matter. "If it is determined that Goodwill gets government funding, he
might have a case," she stated.
Italie's October 29 press conference, attended by reporters from local CBS
and Univision affiliates along with the Miami Herald, received wide media
coverage here. The next day, a reporter from the local NBC TV channel
interviewed Italie at his campaign headquarters, which shares space with
the Pathfinder bookstore in Miami's Little Haiti. Other television stations
picked up stories on the news conference. The local affiliate of National
Public Radio and other radio stations have also covered the story.
Italie wins support
"Veye Yo, a longtime grassroots organization, denounces the unjust firing
of Socialist Worker Michael Italie for his democratic views on the war
against Afghanistan," said Tony Jeanthenor, a leader of the Haitian rights
organization, in a statement distributed to the press October 29. "This
terror against workers' rights must be stopped or someone must come out and
tell the world that there is martial law in the U.S. and the democratic
rights of everyone are suspended."
Danny Couch, deacon in the Church of the Body of Jesus Christ and the only
African American among the 10 candidates in Miami's mayoral race, also sent
a statement. "I support your effort to freely speak your beliefs and to
exercise your rights as an American," Couch wrote to Italie. "As an African
American I know all too well what you are going through and I must, as you
must, continue to fight for your self-respect."
Two youth who took part in an October 18 mayoral debate at Miami-Dade
Community College (MDCC) and have become supporters of Italie's campaign
also attended the news conference and brought handmade signs reading:
"Defend workers' rights! Protest the firing of Mike Italie." It was after
that event, which received media coverage, that supervisors began inquiring
about Italie's campaign and what seemed to have sparked his firing.
"The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives us the right to think
and feel what we will," said Heather Page, 19, one of these youth who spoke
at the October 29 news conference.
"It's unjust to fire someone for their political beliefs," said Aldo Nahem,
24, who is a student at MDCC and was assigned to cover the October 18
mayoral debate for the campus student newspaper Metropolis. He also took
part in the press conference outside the Goodwill plant. "Fighting this
firing is part of the struggle to change society."
Since the firing, Italie has received numerous invitations for campaign
speaking engagements.
He spoke at a philosophy class at Florida International University (FIU)
South campus October 30. Other engagements include a candidate's forum at
the Martin Luther King Center and a presentation to a class at MDCC's North
campus October 31, and another candidate's debate sponsored by a number of
organizations in the Black community November 1.
The Militant Labor Forum will host a speakout against Italie's firing
November 3. The panel of speakers include Tony Jeanthenor of Veye Yo, Ram�n
G�mez representing the Miami Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba,
Heather Page, and Michelle Beer, a philosophy professor at FIU South.
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
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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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