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Apply NOW! http://click.topica.com/aaabh5bz8SnrbAjwjxa/NextCard ============================================================ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 6 February 2001 Vol. 5, Number 8 (#510) __________________________________________________________________________ Action Alerts: New York, 8 Feb, Fundraiser for the Center for Law and Social Justice Rightwing Crime In the News: Nils Myklebost (AP), "Neo-Nazis Detained in Norway," 28 Jan 01 AP, "German Teens Jailed in Beating Death," 2 Feb 01 Real Political Correctness: PlanetOut News Staff, "Bush to Fund 'Faith-Based' Groups," 30 Jan 01 What's Worth Checking: 10 stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION ALERTS: On Thursday, February 8, 2001, the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College is having a fundraiser/concert featuring Tulain Kinard. Tulani wil performing songs from her new CD "Expressions of my Mind." Tickets are $20.00 in advance and $25.00 at the door. For further information and tickets call (718) 270-6291 or (718) 604-4564. The concert will be begin at 7pm and will be held in the performance hall at Medgar Evers College at 1650 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHTWING CRIME IN THE NEWS Neo-Nazis Detained in Norway Nils Myklebost (AP) 28 Jan 01 OSLO, Norway -- Five neo-Nazis have been detained in connection with the weekend stabbing death of a black teen-ager, which prompted a rally Sunday denouncing what was seen as a racially motivated slaying. Hundreds of people rallied Sunday at the site where 15-year old Benjamin Hermansen was killed late Friday in the multiracial suburb of Holmlia as he was swapping cell phone covers with a friend. Police detained three men in their 20s and two 17-year-old girls on Saturday, saying the suspects were active in the neo-Nazi group known as Bootboys, which has about 200 followers. All five were charged with murder, which carries a sentence of up to 21 years. They were caught in an Oslo apartment filled with Nazi paraphernalia, police said. Police confiscated books by Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, and posters for "white power" concerts, as well as a pitbull and a snake. Police said all five had criminal records, ranging from attempted murder to robbery and vandalism. Two of the men and one of the girls had been arrested in a stabbing incident in December but were released pending the trial. Police inspector Finn Abrahamsen said he was shocked by the crime. "I have served in Lebanon and Yugoslavia. There people were killed because of their race. I never thought this could happen in Norway," Abrahamsen was quoted as saying by the daily Dagbladet. Hermansen, whose deceased father was from Ghana and whose mother is Norwegian, was a popular figure in his neighborhood, where he was active in fighting against racism. Last summer, he appeared on Norwegian television to talk about being assaulted by neo-Nazi youths during a soccer tournament in Denmark. - - - - - German Teens Jailed in Beating Death AP 2 Feb 01 BERLIN -- Three far-right teen-agers who helped beat a homeless man to death at a Baltic island resort because they considered him a social outcast were sentenced Friday to terms ranging from three to 12 years. The Stralsund court sentenced a 19-year-old man to 12 years in prison and a 16-year-old accomplice to eight years in youth custody for murdering the 51-year-old man in the resort of Ahlbeck last July. Another 16-year-old was sent into youth custody for three years for causing bodily harm. Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for the older defendant and 24- year-old Gunnar Doege, the chief suspect in the murder. Doege is being tried separately. The killing added to concern last year over a surge in neo-Nazi violence that spurred the government to pledge a crackdown on the far right and to call for ordinary Germans to stand up for the victims. Foreigners and Jews also have been attacked. The self-professed far-rightists had admitted attacking the man, saying he was an outsider who had no place on the island of Usedom, near the Polish border. According to prosecutors, they repeatedly jumped on the victim's head and body and kicked his genitals. The court has sought an additional psychiatric report on Doege, who was arrested last summer after a nationwide manhunt, to establish whether he can be considered responsible for his actions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been Bush to Fund "Faith-Based" Groups PlanetOut News Staff 30 Jan 01 SUMMARY: To the new president it's simply trying to aid religious groups that are doing successful charity work, but to his critics it's a dangerous mix of church and state. In a move supporters and opponents alike described as an unprecedented alliance between government and so-called faith-based organizations, President George W. Bush (R) announced a plan to distribute federal funds to religious groups for charitable social work. Bush signed executive orders on January 29 creating a White House office focused on helping religious and other community organizations access federal tax dollars and reducing regulations that he says hamper these charities' activities. A day later Bush unveiled the legislative portion of the initiative: a package that would allow religious groups to compete with secular organizations for federal money and would provide U.S. citizens with larger tax deductions for their charitable donations. The proposals immediately drew fire from civil! l! ibertarians who charged they violated the constitutional separation of church and state; they also raised the ire of some gays and lesbians who feared they would increase the influence of groups that discriminate against sexual minorities. Bush's White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, which will be headed by University of Pennsylvannia political science professor John DiIulio (a researcher in religion and criminal justice), will effectively determine how billions of dollars in federal funds are spent and will likely reroute tax dollars from government agencies to religious groups that provide services like treatment for drug addictions, promotion of literacy, and after school programs for children. Bush termed the U.S. "a nation of social entrepreneurs" and said that private organizations could be effective in doing some of the community work that has long been dominated by government. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was among the groups that immediately raised constitutional concerns about Bush's proposals. "A lot of people see this as one of the biggest violations of church-state separation that we've seen in American history," said Joseph Conn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. These groups suggested that "when government officials start pouring over proposals from religious groups, the government ultimately favors one program, and therefore one religion, over another," according to the Washington Post. "Government, of course, cannot fund and will not fund religious activities," Bush promised in answer to these concerns. "But when people provide faith-based services, we will not discriminate against them." Government Funded Proselytizing? However, the ACLU suggested that this line between religious and charitable activities will be hard to maintain. For example, "How can we be sure the funds go to drug treatment and not to the minister?" asked Laura Murphy of the ACLU's Washington, D.C. office. Although religious organizations are currently eligible for federal dollars, they generally have to create spin- off secular organizations in order to receive the money for their charitable work. The ACLU suggested that Bush's proposals would make it easier for these groups to combine proselytizing with charity. "If religious groups can get away with using government funds to preach and recruit, lesbians and gay men will pay a heavy price," said ACLU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project Director Matt Coles. He pointed to a Baptist agency in Kentucky that receives $13 million a year from the state and recently fired a children's therapist because she was a lesbian. Coles noted that the agency said she was fired "because as a lesbian, she was incapable of inculcating fundamentalist Christian ideas in the children she is supposed to help." Bush, who announced his executive orders surrounded by leaders from a variety of religions, emphasized that multiple faiths -- or no faith at all -- could be effective in combating social ills. "I want to be very clear. The office is the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, so we're not just focused on religious organizations. We're interested in achieving important civic purposes," said DiIulio. Bush said he was open to changing details of the program based on input from Capitol Hill. He already enjoys some bipartisan support: among those joining him for the announcement were Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), the number two man on the Democrats' failed presidential ticket. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story7/> Tom Coyne (AP), "KKK Fights Rally Waiting Period," 1 Feb 01, "A federal judge on Thursday rejected arguments by the Ku Klux Klan that an extended waiting period for rally permits in the city of Gary is unconstitutional. The city argued that it extended the waiting period from seven to 45 days because it cannot evaluate, process and approve permit applications in fewer than 45 days. U.S. District Court Judge James T. Moody said the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Butler, failed to rebut the city's reasons." <2071.txt> David McHugh (AP), "David Duke Shifts Sights to Russia," 2 Feb 01, "Under investigation by federal agents at home in the United States, white supremacist David Duke has taken his crusade against Jews and non-Europeans to Russia, which he now sees as 'the key to white survival.'' During several trips to Russia over the past year and a half, Duke has spoken in public, exchanged views with hard-line Russian nationalists and published a book, according to his Web site." <2072.txt> AP, "Holocaust Suspect, 93, Faces Lithuania Verdict," 2 Feb 01, "Prosecutors in a Nazi genocide trial called on Friday for a Lithuanian court to deliver 'historical justice' by convicting a 93-year-old former U.S. resident even though he has been found too ill to go to jail. Prosecution lawyers called for a conviction while presenting closing arguments in the trial of Kazys Gimzauskas, who is charged with handing over at least five Jews to Nazi death squads while deputy head of the Vilnius regional security police during World War Two." <2073.txt> Reuters, "Denmark Holds Suspect in Norwegian Racist Death," 2 Feb 01, "Danish police have detained a Norwegian neo-Nazi suspected of involvement in the murder of a Norwegian-African teenager that spurred record anti- racism rallies in Norway, police said on Friday." <2074.txt> AP, "KKK Loses Rally Fight in Indiana," 2 Feb 01, "The Ku Klux Klan lost a fight against a new waiting period to hold rallies in a predominantly black city after a judge rejected the group's attempt to have the rule declared unconstitutional." <2075.txt> Reuters, "Colombians fleeing paramilitaries into Venezuela," 4 Feb 01, "Hundreds of Colombians have fled into neighboring Venezuela in recent days to escape right-wing death squads which pillaged their communities, Venezuelan newspapers reported Sunday." <2076.txt> Iver Peterson and David M. Halbfinger (New York Times), "New Jersey Agrees to Settle Suit From Turnpike Shooting," 2 Feb 01, "New Jersey's attorney general agreed today to pay nearly $13 million to settle a lawsuit arising from the state's most explosive racial profiling incident, in which several young minority men were shot and wounded by state troopers in a 1998 traffic stop." <2077.txt> Rebecca Allison (The [London] Guardian), "FO seeks block on MI6 author's profits," 3 Feb 01, "The government ratcheted up the pressure on MI6 renegade Richard Tomlinson last night when Treasury solicitors issued an injunction freezing profits from his memoirs. The royalties ban was secured three days after the first copies of The Big Breach arrived in Britain from Russia after attempts to ban them by the British authorities failed." <2078.txt> Michael Schwartz ([U. of California[ Daily Bruin), "Slave labor means big bucks for U.S. corporations," 31 Jan 01, "It seemed like a normal factory closing. U.S. Technologies sold its electronics plant in Austin, Texas, leaving its 150 workers unemployed. Everyone figured they were moving the plant to Mexico, where they would employ workers at half the cost. But six weeks later, the electronics plant reopened in Austin in a nearby prison. At the same time, the United States blasts China for the the use of prison slave labor, engaging in the same practice itself. Prison labor is a pot of gold. No strikes, union organizing, health benefits, unemployment insurance or workers' compensation to pay. As if exploiting the labor of prison inmates was not bad enough, it is legal in the United States to use slave labor. The 13th Amendment of the Constitution states that 'neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States'." <2079.txt> Reuters, "Date set for trial in murder of Guatemala bishop," 1 Feb 01, "Three army officers, a priest and an elderly cook will stand trial in Guatemala City on Feb. 15 for the 1998 murder of human rights advocate Bishop Jose Juan Gerardi, legal officials said on Thursday. Judge Jose Eduardo Cujulun told reporters the five were charged with murder." <2080.txt> * * * * * 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. 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