1368 lines
62 KiB
Plaintext
1368 lines
62 KiB
Plaintext
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Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
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LOVE AND RAGE
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Electronic Edition
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|
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 1993
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|
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Love and Rage is created by the Love and Rage Network, a group of
|
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people from across North America who find themselves in general
|
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political agreement. Love and Rage is one of the many projects of
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the Network to which supporters contribute time, money, and
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energy. Major decisions and overall policies are set by the
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Network.
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Individuals and supporting groups who participate in the Network
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gather in an annual conference, at which most major decisions are
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made. The Network Council, made up of up to two delegates from
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each supporting group, meet at least once between conferences to
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make interim decisions. A popularly elected Coordinating Group
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makes urgent decisions. Ongoing debates take place in our
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Discussion Bulletin (Disco Bull), out every six to eight weeks.
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More timely information goes out bi- weekly in the Network
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Bulletin. Day to day editorial decisions about the paper are made
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by the volunteer Production Group (PG). A group of elected
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Coordinators shares responsibility for the general work of the
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Network. Two of these Coordinators, the Co-Facilitators, work with
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the PG on production of the paper and help coordinate the projects
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of the Network. In an effort to further democratize and strengthen
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the Network, temporary Regional Organizing Contacts volunteer to
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be a contact for their local areas.
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The Love and Rage Network is not a closed circle of friends. You
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can become part of the Network and participate fully in the
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decision-making process. Ask the person who sold or gave you this
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paper, or write to one of the many Love and Rage contacts listed
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in this paper.
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Coordinating Group
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Erric, Atlanta, GA
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Liz, Boston, MA
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Paul, Berkeley, CA
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Ana, Mexico D.F., Mexico
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Terry, New York, NY
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Crystal, Chicago, IL
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Jodi, Columbus, OH
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Jean-Marc, Minneapolis, MN
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Fur, Atlanta GA
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Gene, Newark, NJ
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Ojore Lutalo, Trenton, NJ
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Coordinators List
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Regions Coordinator
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Britt, 702 S. Illinois Ave. Apt. 115
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Carbondale, IL 62901
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Network Coordinator
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Shannon c/o Love and Rage
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Interorganizational Coordinator
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Phillip, 27 School Street
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Sommerville, MA 02143
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International Coordinator
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Todd c/o Love and Rage
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Finance Coordinator
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Matt c/o Love and Rage
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Fundraising Coordinator
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Rick c/o Love and Rage
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Info-Share Coordinator
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Jodi c/o AA, PO Box 10007
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Columbus OH 43201
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Discussion Bulletin Coordinators
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Jean-Marc and Nikolas
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PO Box 581354, Minneapolis, MN 55458-1354
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Co-Facilitators
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Dema Crassy and Ms. Tommy Lawless
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c/o Love and Rage
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Production Group:
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Gene, Dema, Jane, Christopher, Bob, Matt, Rick, Sara, Matt,
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Shannon, Todd, Tommy, Clyde, Polina, Pablo, Peter, Greg
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[PG Members who didn't work on this issue are marked
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with an *]
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Translators
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Eugenio, Todd, Ana*, Gustavo*, Cath
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Love and Rage is printed on recycled paper, using soy- based inks.
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Love and Rage is printed by a union printer. ISSN # 1065- 2000.
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Submission deadlines for the next three issues: March 1, April 15,
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and June 15. When we don't have the money to produce our regular
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twenty page full-size edition, we produce an eight page Broadsheet
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edition. If you're having trouble getting the paper, please call
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the office.
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Boring Disclaimer
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Look. Articles, Letters, Notes of Revolt, and other things printed
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in Love and Rage do not necessarily represent the opinions or
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views of the Love and Rage Network or of any person involved
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therein. We print a variety of articles for a variety of reasons,
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including articles we don't agree with, because we believe that
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they are interesting or provocative. So there.
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Love And Rage, PO Box 3, Prince Street Station,
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New York, NY 10012, (212) 569 0989 or (201) 344 3397
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e-mail: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
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loveandrage@igc.apc.org
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tunderwood@pisces.rutgers.edu
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-30-
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In this Issue:
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|
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Part 1: USA News
|
||
|
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Cops and The Klan
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||
Don't Talk to Grand Juries!
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||
MOVE: Ramona Africa in Philadelphia
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||
IWW Unites Loggers & Environmentalists
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||
A Short History of the Wobblies
|
||
Anti-Fascist Skinheads: "Not All Skins Are Racist"
|
||
Statement from Animal Liberation Front Fugitive
|
||
Direct Action Manual
|
||
The 1993 March on Washington
|
||
Round Up: Fascist Attacks
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||
Short Takes
|
||
|
||
Part 2: International News
|
||
|
||
The Real Agenda in Somalia
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||
European Newsbriefs
|
||
Spanish Anarchist Needs Support
|
||
Anti-Fascist-Action Fights the Right in Britain
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||
Mexico: Anti-Columbus Day Actions
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||
|
||
Part 3: Prison News/ABC Page
|
||
|
||
Mumia Abu-Jamal Responds to Hentoff
|
||
Support Sundiata Acoli, Political Prisoner
|
||
Kenny Tolia Freed
|
||
Vacaville: Intolerable Conditions for HIV+ Inmates
|
||
Campaign for Anarchist Prisoners in Spain
|
||
Help Political Prisoners in Nigeria
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||
Political Prisoners: Contacts for Activists
|
||
|
||
Part 4: Letters to the Editor, Notices
|
||
|
||
A Few Words About Politics
|
||
Changes at Love and Rage
|
||
Changes: ABC and OGB Pages
|
||
Where's AYF?
|
||
Letters to Love and Rage
|
||
|
||
Part 5: Resources
|
||
|
||
Announcements & Upcoming Events
|
||
US Activist News Roundup
|
||
Kill Your Television
|
||
Resources for Anti-Racist Activists
|
||
Anarchist Resources
|
||
Supporting Groups & Regional Contacts
|
||
Disco-Bull
|
||
..................................................................
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||
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LOVE AND RAGE
|
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Electronic Edition
|
||
|
||
FEBRUARY/MARCH 1993
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Part 1
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COPS AND THE KLAN
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THE PROBLEM OF ORGANIZED white supremacist activity among law
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enforcement and other uniformed services is widespread, and is
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only growing in the '90s, despite affirmative action in police
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||
departments (or sometimes because of entrenched resistance to it
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||
among white cops).
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||
|
||
The latest disclosures regarding Robert Bauman, a civilian
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||
employee of the Los Angeles Police Department for 23 years,
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||
underscore the seriousness of the problem. Assigned to investigate
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applicants for police permits, with access to criminal records,
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||
tax filings, and other data, Bauman was discovered by undercover
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LA and Huntington Beach cops participating in activities organized
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||
by Tom Metzger and other white supremacists in Orange County.
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||
Huntington Beach police reported that he apparently engaged in
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||
counter-surveillance activity against them, disrupting their
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||
attempt to cover the meeting and apparently identifying them as
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||
cops to other participants.
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||
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||
A subsequent investigation by the LAPD's Anti-Terrorist Task Force
|
||
and by Internal Affairs uncovered other connections to white
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supremacist activity, and after a warrant was obtained, a search
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||
of Bauman's home disclosed a vast collection of material on the
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nazis and white supremacist literature. Bauman however, claims he
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||
is only a independent historical researcher, not affiliated with
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||
Metzger.
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||
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||
Whatever his affiliation, Bauman used his access to LAPD computers
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||
to run checks on Metzger, Stan Witek of the local nazi party,
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||
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Irv Rubin of the JDL, a private
|
||
investigator and Peace & Freedom Party candidate, Jan Tucker, and
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||
as many as 200 others. His defense is that he was obtaining the
|
||
information for his personal historical research and interest in
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||
right wing and left wing groups. He says that he was angry at
|
||
Rubin for disrupting a historical society meeting in Pasadena,
|
||
apparently a reference to the holocaust- revisionist outfit, the
|
||
Institute for Historical Review, tied in to Willis Carto's
|
||
Spotlight/Liberty Lobby network and Joe Fields' Populist Party.
|
||
|
||
Bauman has been given a 10-day suspension, and new Police Chief
|
||
Willie Williams promises to tighten up access to police computers.
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||
But Bauman has appealed his suspension, saying even 10 days is too
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||
much, and citing the cases of at least 45 other cops and civilian
|
||
employees who have been disciplined in the last three years for
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||
using the computers for unofficial business. Most received only
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||
reprimands or one or two day suspensions.
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||
|
||
Meanwhile over at the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Block has been
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||
criticized for not implementing the reforms proposed by Judge
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||
Kolts. The Kolts report on the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department,
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||
like the earlier Christopher Commission report on the LAPD,
|
||
proposed mostly band-aid solutions for a serious problem. But the
|
||
worst part of the Kolts whitewash of the LASD was its
|
||
determination that there is no proven foundation to charges of
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||
organized white supremacist activity in the sheriff's department,
|
||
specifically through such quasi-gang formations as the Vikings and
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||
the Cavemen, whose members have been involved in shootings and
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||
killings of Black and Latino youth.
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||
|
||
This finding flies in the face of a court ruling that the Vikings
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||
were a neo-nazi formation, and another requiring that if
|
||
prosecutors could talk of the gang affiliations of defendants, the
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||
Viking affiliation of Sheriff's Deputies also be entered into
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||
evidence. One such ruling, requiring that the LASD actually abide
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||
by its own stated guidelines on the use of force, was recently
|
||
voided by an appeals court as being too far-reaching. But the
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||
Kolts Report's most glaring omission illuminates the reality of
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||
organized racist activity in the department.
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||
|
||
In criticizing DA Ira Reiner's refusal to prosecute deputies for
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||
brutality or murder, the Kolts Report cites the case of one deputy
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||
who went out looking for trouble on New Year's Eve three years
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||
ago. He was overheard making racist comments and ended up shooting
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||
and killing a Mexican national. Yet Kolts fails to mention that
|
||
the deputy involved, Brian Kazmierski, had previously been
|
||
investigated by the FBI and kicked off the force for burning
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||
crosses inside the county jail to intimidate Black prisoners.
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||
Kazmierski had been reinstated to the department on the express
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||
orders of Sheriff Sherman Block.
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||
|
||
The media went along with this coverup, not reporting on
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||
Kazmierski's history, and refusing to print letters which pointed
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||
it out. Another area of white supremacist involvement has been
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||
among fire fighters.
|
||
|
||
The LA Fire-Fighters Association recently ran an ad showing a
|
||
fire-dog under the cross-hairs of a gun, with bullet-holes in the
|
||
ad, to protest budget cuts. The ad was a thinly veiled reference
|
||
to the LA uprising, in which some fire-fighters were fired upon.
|
||
But much more naked racism has come to light among fire
|
||
departments nationwide. In 1989, for example, the City Council of
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||
Montgomery, Maryland was forced to withhold funding from a
|
||
volunteer fire department after the white chief called a Black
|
||
volunteer nigger boy. In 1990, a Black cop who had helped expose
|
||
Carrollton, Georgia Fire Chief, L.A. Dukes, for having allegedly
|
||
designated nigger beds for African-American fire- fighters, was
|
||
found drowned under mysterious circumstances. In April of 1992,
|
||
Scott Lowe, the former fire chief of Grovetown, Georgia, who had
|
||
been exposed as a Grand Titan of the Christian Knights Klan, was
|
||
arrested for having burned a cross at the home of a local Black
|
||
family back in 1987.
|
||
|
||
Open racism and hidden white supremacist involvement are an even
|
||
more serious problem among police forces. In Houston, where the
|
||
Klan has been waging an active recruitment campaign among the
|
||
police for over a year, a police Corporal, Al Csaszar, was put on
|
||
paid leave in July of 1992 after beating a Nigerian immigrant and
|
||
yelling racist epithets at him. His partner was also taken out of
|
||
the field. In June 1992, Boynton Beach, Fla., police officer Dave
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||
Demarest sought reinstatement to the department after having been
|
||
fired in February for having flaunted a swastika tattoo to several
|
||
other cops, including a Jewish woman officer.
|
||
|
||
In his defense, Demarest presented that racism and nazism were
|
||
widespread and generally accepted at the department. He submitted
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||
as evidence a photo of two officers dressed in nazi uniforms for a
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||
Halloween party; the picture had been displayed in the office of
|
||
the deputy chief. A lawyer for Demarest said that another
|
||
detective had mounted a picture of a Black man on his office wall,
|
||
captioned Is it a chimp?
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||
|
||
Such incidents are not restricted to the South by any means. In
|
||
Denver, Col. in August 1992, two cops, Bill Carter and Ruth
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||
Potter, of the intelligence unit assigned to monitor Klan
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||
activities, were re-assigned after they sent baby shower gifts to
|
||
Klan leader Shawn Slater, a former nazi skinhead. In a copyrighted
|
||
interview with Kerwin Brook, an anonymous white Denver police
|
||
officer described how many cops will go out and call Black or
|
||
Mexicano people on the streets nigger or spic, hoping to provoke
|
||
an angry response and a fight where they can jump or arrest the
|
||
person. In a separate article, Brook reports the experience of
|
||
13-year old Jessica Vargas, who was on her way to protest a Klan
|
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rally, when a Denver cop flashed a KKK hand sign at her and her
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friends. We know the cops are against us, but to see him do it
|
||
with his own hands! And he just smirks, said Vargas. You just get
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||
shocked.
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||
|
||
In Texas, a Deputy Sheriff named Scott Tschirhart brutally beat
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||
two young Chicanos last July; Tschirhart had been forced off the
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||
Houston police after killing three Black men. In Calif., it's
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||
ironic that the very Huntington Beach police department which
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||
uncovered Bauman's involvement with racist and anti-semitic groups
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||
is being charged with anti-semitism and harassment by two Jewish
|
||
cops, who found themselves the victims of constant slurs by fellow
|
||
officers and superiors. In the northwest, several police forces
|
||
have recently had Richard Masker address them about white
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||
supremacist groups. Masker was fired from a municipal job in
|
||
Oregon for mailing out Hitler birthday cards, and in August, he
|
||
was reprimanded at a similar job in Idaho for sending a letter to
|
||
a business association accusing it of being part of an
|
||
international Marxist, Zionist conspiracy.
|
||
|
||
Another area of great concern is white supremacist involvement in
|
||
the military. In August 1992, members of the Aryan National Front
|
||
and the Confederate Hammer Skins, along with Klan leader Bill
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||
Riccio, were arrested in possession of military explosives and
|
||
ammunition for machine guns at an Aryan Fest concert. In Colorado,
|
||
the Army was forced to issue a ban last July on military personnel
|
||
attending Klan organizing rallies at Fort Carson and threatened
|
||
GI's with discharge if they got involved in Shawn Slater's KKK
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||
campaign.
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||
|
||
One particular area of bigotry among cops is anti-gay sentiments
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||
and violence. In Dallas, Tex, for example, the City Council voted
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||
earlier this year to uphold a police department ban on hiring gays
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||
and lesbians. The Dallas PD uses a 100-year old Texas sodomy law
|
||
to reject such applicants; people who apply to be cops in Dallas
|
||
are subjected to a lie detector test and asked if they have ever
|
||
committed a homosexual act. In 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah, a cop
|
||
was suspended for an off-duty gay bashing when he and two friends
|
||
were charged with assault and anti-gay name calling against a gay
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||
man. In Santa Cruz County in northern California last year,
|
||
Sheriff Al Noren, reluctantly forced to meet with gay leaders to
|
||
discuss harassment of gays by deputies, issued a memo calling the
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||
gay community vicious and devious. Noren defended his remarks as
|
||
justified because one gay protestor had described a deputy he
|
||
encountered as obviously a nazi. The sheriff said he considered
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||
that remark vicious.
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||
|
||
People Against Racist Terror (PART) has available a full length
|
||
research report Blue By Day, White By Night? about cops and the
|
||
Klan, with dozens of documented incidents of organized white
|
||
supremacist involvement in police, military and other uniformed
|
||
forces over the past decade or more. It's available for $2.00
|
||
from:
|
||
|
||
PART
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||
P.O. Box 1990,
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||
Burbank, CA 91507
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from Turning the Tide Vol. 5, #6
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||
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-30-
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-30-
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DON'T TALK TO GRAND JURIES!
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||
|
||
GRAND JURIES ARE SLEAZY, scummy things that are on the planet
|
||
mainly to harass and gather information on activists. In a
|
||
nutshell, you either answer their questions or you go to jail,
|
||
(and if you answer their questions you probably still go to jail
|
||
anyway). While limited legal representation is possible, your
|
||
lawyer cannot be in the courtroom with you, (neither can observers
|
||
or the press). You can be granted immunity from incriminating
|
||
yourself (Fifth Amendment), but once granted, you have no legal
|
||
right to refuse to answer questions. The Jury can still ask you
|
||
questions about other people. Also, you can still be convicted on
|
||
the testimonies other people give the Grand Jury about you. So
|
||
you are not really immune.
|
||
|
||
So to make a long story short don't talk to Grand Juries! If
|
||
called before a Grand Jury, immediately call the National Lawyers
|
||
Guild in your area requesting pro bono representation. Tell as
|
||
many people as you can. Alert the media. Try to rally community
|
||
support to blitz the authorities with phone zaps, fax-a-thons,
|
||
letter writing campaigns, and petitions. Let the robed-ones know
|
||
that they are being watched. We can make their lives hellish with
|
||
pesky (but-oh-so-legal) behavior. Knowing how to resist Grand Jury
|
||
coercion and repression is very important these days.
|
||
|
||
For more information, contact the:
|
||
|
||
Movement Support Network of the
|
||
Center for Constitutional Rights at
|
||
(212) 614 6438.
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
MOVE: RAMONA AFRICA SPEAKS IN PHILADELPHIA
|
||
|
||
by Bob Helms
|
||
|
||
THE ANARCHIST COMMUNITY OF Philadelphia hosted a discussion with
|
||
Ramona Africa of MOVE at the A-Space on Baltimore Avenue on
|
||
September 28, 1992. Over eighty people squeezed in for the
|
||
hour-long talk and the hour-long question and answer session.
|
||
|
||
Ramona is the only adult survivor of the City of Philadelphia's
|
||
bombing- slaughter of eleven MOVE members, including five
|
||
children, on May 13, 1985. She was released this past May after
|
||
serving the maximum sentence of seven years on riot charges
|
||
relating to the day of the state murders.
|
||
|
||
MEMBERS MASSACRED
|
||
|
||
Riot, as Ramona explained during the talk, is the official term
|
||
for sitting in one's own home and minding one's own business while
|
||
hundreds of cops dump thirty-seven pounds of the military
|
||
explosive C-4 (which cannot be used legally by police) and 10,000
|
||
rounds of ammunition into the house, burning it (and about sixty
|
||
other homes) to the ground. Before the shooting began that day,
|
||
the cops watched some of the MOVE women take the children out of
|
||
the house, across police barricades, and into Cobbs Creek Park.
|
||
(The park is one block from the MOVE house, where the women would
|
||
chat and the kids would play every morning of every year.) The
|
||
cops then watched them go back, past the barricades and into the
|
||
house. Then the cops proceeded to burn them all alive. Anyone, of
|
||
any politics or any intelligence, can see that the city government
|
||
deliberately exterminated these non-combatants, with obvious
|
||
malice aforethought.
|
||
|
||
While MOVE is not an anarchist group, and anarchists might not
|
||
concur on every particular of MOVE's philosophy, anarchists and
|
||
MOVE have far more in common than we have in contention. Based on
|
||
John Africa's teachings, MOVE's mission is: first, environmental
|
||
to stop industry from poisoning the environment and enslaving
|
||
people and animals; second, educational to set the example of
|
||
revolution for people to follow when they realize how they've been
|
||
victimized and tricked by the government and the system in
|
||
general, and to show people the need to totally divorce themselves
|
||
from the system. I, for one, think that these purposes are in
|
||
harmony with those of most anarchists.
|
||
|
||
Ramona was a law student at Temple University when she began
|
||
keeping track of MOVE's legal troubles and attended some of the
|
||
trials. It became clear to her that none of the jurisprudence
|
||
she'd learned in the classroom was being practiced before her eyes
|
||
in court. All this began Ramona's life On The Move. Her training
|
||
in law was well in evidence in the clarity and precision with
|
||
which she presented her organization's case to the Philly
|
||
anarchists.
|
||
|
||
MYTHS SHATTERED
|
||
|
||
One by one, Ramona crushed the misconceptions about MOVE members,
|
||
about the myths related to the 1985 siege at Osage Avenue, and
|
||
about the 1978 police riot on Powelton Avenue. (These two sites
|
||
are in different parts of West Philadelphia, each within a mile of
|
||
A-Space.)
|
||
|
||
Ramona crushed the myth that MOVE was insanely confrontational and
|
||
had a siege mentality. The incessant and murderous attacks by
|
||
police abundantly justified MOVE's defensive postures. She
|
||
eradicated the misconception that MOVE lived in filth, filled
|
||
their yard with garbage, and didn't teach their kids to read. To
|
||
the contrary, MOVE members are perfectly clean and extremely
|
||
healthy; they have discovered composting and teach the kids at
|
||
home. (I've seen some of the MOVE kids. They're bright,
|
||
happy-looking lively kids, who have wonderful dreadlocks.)
|
||
|
||
Ramona also denounced the accusation that MOVE is a black-only,
|
||
racist cult as totally false. While most members are
|
||
African-Americans, there are very committed Hispanic and white
|
||
members. MOVE's philosophy simply isn't racist. The surname
|
||
Africa, adopted by all members, is a gesture of devotion to John
|
||
Africa, MOVE's coordinator, and is not a fixation on Africa, the
|
||
continent.
|
||
|
||
RESISTING REPRESSION
|
||
|
||
The MOVE organization deserves all of the respect that anarchists
|
||
can give it. If our movement were targeted for extermination by
|
||
the government, how many of us would hold fast to our ideals so
|
||
bravely and defiantly as Ramona and dozens of her comrades have
|
||
held to theirs? Would YOU pass up parole, offered on the
|
||
condition that you renounce anarchism and shun all of your
|
||
anarchist friends? Ramona herself as well as Carlos, Alberta, Sue,
|
||
Consuela, and Alfonso Africa all have resisted this powerful
|
||
method of State coercion, sacrificing many years of liberty in
|
||
doing so.
|
||
|
||
I've been corresponding with Delbert Africa, who has been doing a
|
||
thrity to one hundred year sentence since the August 1978 police
|
||
attack at Dallas, PA. The scenario of the attack went like this: a
|
||
cop was killed, by one bullet, during a full-scale police assault
|
||
upon MOVE's house. All evidence was either destroyed, created, or
|
||
suppressed by the police, the DA, and the coroner. As a result,
|
||
nine MOVE members got murder raps. Plenty of eyewitnesses say that
|
||
the police officer was killed by friendly fire.
|
||
|
||
ON ANARCHISTS
|
||
|
||
Now some fourteen years have passed, and Delbert Africa sits in
|
||
Dallas prison. He is familiar with anarchism, by way of anarchist
|
||
inmates, and has read some of the movement's literature.
|
||
|
||
About the MOVE philosophy vis-a-vis anarchism, he writes: There
|
||
shouldn't be any conflict per se, between any anarchist and MOVE,
|
||
because we don't believe in any form of external government. . . .
|
||
This system's foot is on all our necks, so all of us should work
|
||
to get it off.
|
||
|
||
I feel that the new world that we anarchists carry in our hearts
|
||
ought to have plenty of room in it for the brave and committed
|
||
militants of MOVE. Let's think of them as very much on our side.
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
Wobblies on the Move Again
|
||
|
||
|
||
IWW UNITES LOGGERS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS
|
||
|
||
by Jess Grant
|
||
|
||
IN THE OLD GROWTH REDWOODS of northern California, in the
|
||
post-industrial decay of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, and in the
|
||
gay bars of San Francisco's South of Market area, the Industrial
|
||
Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies) are on the move again.
|
||
Long relegated by many to the pages of American labor history, the
|
||
IWW is experiencing a resurgence of activism that belies their
|
||
reputation as a clique of Joe Hill Memorial archivists. This
|
||
resurgence poses a direct challenge to the dominant trade unions,
|
||
in tactics and philosophy if not in numbers.
|
||
|
||
LOGGERS AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS GET TOGETHER
|
||
|
||
In 1989, eco-organizer Judi Bari helped found IWW/Earth First!
|
||
(EF!) Local #1 on the North Coast of California, in an effort to
|
||
build an alliance between loggers and environmentalists. She knew
|
||
that she wasn't comfortable blaming the loggers themselves for the
|
||
destruction of the forests. She recognized that they were as
|
||
expendable to the timber corporations as the trees they were paid
|
||
to cut, perhaps more so. When several workers at a Georgia
|
||
Pacific sawmill in Ft. Bragg were poisoned by a PCB spill, it was
|
||
IWW/EF! Local #1 who came to their defense. The International
|
||
Woodworkers Association (IWA), the trade union which supposedly
|
||
represented the mill workers, did nothing to help, and in fact
|
||
supported the company's position that nothing amiss had occurred.
|
||
But Local #1 raised hell until an Occupational Safety Hazard
|
||
Administration (OSHA) inspector came to the site and confirmed
|
||
what the workers already knew that the spill was toxic, and not
|
||
mineral oil as the company had claimed.
|
||
|
||
ORGANIZING MARIJUANA TRIMMERS
|
||
|
||
Local #1 is now engaged in its most ambitious organizing campaign
|
||
to date organizing not just timber workers, but marijuana trimmers
|
||
as well! As legitimate jobs disappear and the economy worsens,
|
||
more people are turning to the pot fields to pay the rent. Like
|
||
most underground industries, the lack of regulation and labor
|
||
solidarity has created a climate ripe for exploitation and greed.
|
||
Working conditions are often intolerable, with hours and
|
||
piece-rate wages not much better than those of urban sweatshops.
|
||
|
||
Of course, the industry has some unique fringe benefits to offer
|
||
its workers, but smoking all the pot one wants hardly compensates
|
||
for the lousy pay and the paranoia that comes with the job.
|
||
|
||
QUEER JANITORS UNITE
|
||
|
||
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a queer workers movement is emerging
|
||
from the IWW's efforts to organize the End Up, a popular gay bar
|
||
in the South of Market district. In July of 1992, all five of the
|
||
bar's janitors had joined the IWW, in response to years of
|
||
arbitrary discipline and firings. After four months of a
|
||
successful experiment in collective self-management, the general
|
||
manager appointed a supervisor over the maintenance department,
|
||
pushing an already disgruntled crew to the point of action.
|
||
|
||
After two of the Wobblies presented a contract proposal to the
|
||
management, four of the five Wobblies lost their jobs. They
|
||
responded to the firings with direct action: blocking daytime
|
||
liquor deliveries with their picket lines and getting the word out
|
||
to the queer community about what had happened. They called for a
|
||
boycott of the End Up, getting the support of such diverse groups
|
||
as Teamsters Joint Council #7, ACT-UP San Francisco, and School
|
||
Board Commissioner Tom Ammiano.
|
||
|
||
Queer community members continued to patronize the bar despite the
|
||
boycott. On September 1, 1992, the Wobblies' Press Conference and
|
||
Media Circus caught the attention of the local alternative and gay
|
||
media. IWW member Deke Nihilson burned the rainbow flag, long a
|
||
symbol of diversity and unity in the gay community, to illustrate
|
||
how deadly the deception of queer solidarity can be in the absence
|
||
of class analysis. The Bay Guardian, the Bay Times, and the Bay
|
||
Area Reporter all ran feature pieces on the dispute, printing
|
||
verbatim the IWW's critique of queer-on- queer exploitation in the
|
||
name of community.
|
||
|
||
After two months of intense pressure from the IWW, both on the
|
||
streets and in the media, the End Up could no longer pretend that
|
||
the union would just go away. Despite their best efforts to
|
||
characterize the dispute as one ex-employee with a grudge, the
|
||
Wobblies' tenacious tactics influenced the community and posed a
|
||
threat. The bar hired the most notorious union-busting law firm in
|
||
San Francisco, Littler and Associates, to scare off the union. Pro
|
||
bono labor lawyer Marc Janowitz is helping these janitors in the
|
||
paperwork fight. Their case has gone to the National Labor
|
||
Relations Board (NLRB) against the workers' will.
|
||
|
||
Ultimately, the End Up is a battle to educate the queer community
|
||
abut the kind of exploitation that occurs under the guise of gay
|
||
and lesbian solidarity. It will also push the mainstream trade
|
||
unionists to examine their own homophobia and disregard of this
|
||
culturally and economically marginalized workforce. It's natural
|
||
that this issue would arise in San Francisco, for decades a mecca
|
||
of gay and lesbian culture, yet for the IWW there was nothing
|
||
planned about it. Some of their members got fired, that's all, and
|
||
they reacted as best they knew how.
|
||
|
||
LEHIGH VALLEY WOMEN FIGHT MANAGEMENT
|
||
|
||
Thousands of miles to the east, meanwhile, in the decaying
|
||
rustbelt of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, a very different sort of
|
||
IWW battle is taking place. There a dozen women at a bingo parlor
|
||
joined the Wobblies to fight the abusive management policies of
|
||
the non-profit groups which use the bingo money to fund their good
|
||
causes. Unlike the End Up workers, these bingo workers filed
|
||
Unfair Labor Practice claims with NLRB to protest the firings that
|
||
came down in the wake of unionizing. They were slapped with a
|
||
picketing injunction just the same. Although the NLRB has now
|
||
ruled in the workers' favor, the harassment firings continue.
|
||
|
||
Though frustrated by the bureaucratic shackles placed on them, the
|
||
Lehigh Wobs have been inspired by the outpouring of support from
|
||
their community. Two years of steady grassroots work in Lehigh
|
||
Valley, building coalitions with peace and environmental groups,
|
||
has paid off. These Wobblies have credibility among progressive
|
||
activists and regular working folk.
|
||
|
||
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL
|
||
|
||
When the IWW's best-known organizer, Judi Bari, suffered an
|
||
attempt on her life as a result of her eco-labor activism, IWW was
|
||
there offering supprort. Bari was targeted with a car bomb (by
|
||
whatever corporate/governmental cabal tried to take her life) in
|
||
the spring of 1990.
|
||
|
||
In 1991, the Wobbly Bureau of Investigation (WBI) was formed to
|
||
pursue an investigation of the bombing, as well as a lawsuit
|
||
against the police agencies involved in the original
|
||
(non)investigation and coverup. The IWW membership overwhelmingly
|
||
approved a referendum to loan the WBI $25,000 seed money to get
|
||
the project off the ground, thus putting into action their old
|
||
motto, an injury to one is an injury to all.
|
||
|
||
The WBI's case just recently cleared a major hurdle. A federal
|
||
judge allowed Bari and her co-plaintiffs Darryl Cherney, Betty
|
||
Ball, and Gary Ballto move forward with their case (discovery
|
||
motions and deposition of defendants). The judge threw out the
|
||
defense's motions for dismissal.
|
||
|
||
SOWING THE SEEDS OF REVOLUTIONARY UNIONISM
|
||
|
||
Although these actions are small in scale, they reveal the value
|
||
of IWW tactics and philosophy. These are worth re-examining in
|
||
light of the ineffectualness currently gripping the dominant trade
|
||
unions: the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial
|
||
Organizations (AFL - CIO).
|
||
|
||
Wobblies reject the importance of the traditional strike. The IWW
|
||
innovated the sitdown strike, later popularized by the CIO, as a
|
||
way of paralyzing production without leaving the shopfloor. The
|
||
whole issue of replacement workers, now such a hot topic, would be
|
||
irrelevant if workers simply refused to leave their workstations.
|
||
Scabs can't take your place if you never leave it to begin with.
|
||
|
||
The IWW's emphasis on direct action, with all the creative
|
||
possibilities that offers to workers, has been utterly abandoned
|
||
by the AFL - CIO. Because autonomous action on the shopfloor
|
||
bypasses the authority of the labor bureaucracy, it's been deemed
|
||
unacceptable by those who stand to lose control. Yet tactics like
|
||
work-to-rule, slowdowns, and dual power (ignoring the boss) are
|
||
tremendously empowering actions when undertaken collectively by
|
||
groups of workers.
|
||
|
||
Marginalized workers are still the focus of the IWW's organizing
|
||
work. While the AFL - CIO tends to only be interested in
|
||
organizing workers if they're relatively skilled and grouped in
|
||
large workplaces, the Wobblies are open to any worker, anywhere.
|
||
|
||
Finally, the IWW places no faith in the labor institutions created
|
||
by the US Government to supposedly protect workers. Though the
|
||
context of the contemporary labor struggle often appears to leave
|
||
unionists no alternative but to engage in these bureaucracies, the
|
||
Wobblies do everything possible to stay out of bureaucratic
|
||
clutches. The courts and the NLRB are the boss' friend, not the
|
||
worker's. Even many trade unionists will reluctantly admit that
|
||
this is so.
|
||
|
||
The IWW offers no challenge to the AFL-CIO in terms of numbers,
|
||
financial resources, or political clout. Still small, the IWW
|
||
today counts about five hundred members, most of them in the US
|
||
and Canada, with a smattering in Australia, Europe, and one
|
||
delegate in Brazil. The older generation has largely passed on,
|
||
leaving the union in the hands of younger activists raised in a
|
||
different political climate than their predecessors. The machismo
|
||
of One Big Union has given way to a generation of radicals who
|
||
were brought up on feminism and ecology.
|
||
|
||
The Wobblies pose no direct threat to the AFL-CIO since, after
|
||
all, eighty-five percent of the American workforce is now
|
||
non-union. Raiding the trade unions is the last thing on the
|
||
IWW's mind. The IWW has plenty of fertile turf in which to sow the
|
||
seeds of revolutionary unionism without stepping on the ground of
|
||
that dominant labor federation. But if radical ideas and a long
|
||
memory prove threatening to the powers-that-be, then the IWW may
|
||
live to again see a day when the name of the Wobblies is as
|
||
reviled by the ruling class as that of the Bolsheviks and Murphy
|
||
Brown all rolled together.
|
||
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE WOBBLIES
|
||
|
||
|
||
THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS of the World was founded in 1905. It
|
||
quickly established itself as the most militant, and most
|
||
revolutionary, wing of the labor movement in the US.
|
||
|
||
The IWW was modelled on the emerging syndicalist unions in France
|
||
and Spain. It pioneered the organization of all workers in a
|
||
single industry into a single union, twenty-five years before the
|
||
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) launched its successful
|
||
organizing drives on the same principles.
|
||
|
||
The IWW opposed the division of workers into competing trades and
|
||
pushed itself as the One Big Union of the entire working class.
|
||
The IWW was the first predominantly-white union to consistently
|
||
reject the racial segregation of the labor movement.
|
||
|
||
During the 1910s, the IWW waged countless militant strikes and
|
||
advanced its anti-authoritarian vision of the abolition of the
|
||
wage- system. Although smaller than the more conservative American
|
||
Federation of Labor (AFL), the IWW captured the imaginations of
|
||
some of the most downtrodden sections of the US workforce.
|
||
|
||
The IWW suffered heavy repression due to their opposition to World
|
||
War I. The Russian Revolution and general upsurge of revolutionary
|
||
activity at the end of the World War brought further repression:
|
||
the Palmer Raids. Hundreds of radicals, including many Wobblies,
|
||
were arrested and deported. Under the leadership of the Russian
|
||
Bolsheviks, many of the remaining Wobblies abandoned the IWW in an
|
||
attempt to influence the AFL unions.
|
||
|
||
Since the early 1920s, the IWW has not been a significant force
|
||
within the workers movement in the US. However, its legacy has
|
||
continued to influence many militant and radical labor organizers,
|
||
and the IWW itself has persisted tenaciously as an organization,
|
||
always attracting enough new people to keep the old revolutionary
|
||
vision alive.
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
NOT ALL SKINHEADS ARE RACISTS!
|
||
|
||
by MAYDAY SKINS/RASH
|
||
|
||
THESE DAYS, IT SEEMS EVERYONE thinks all skinheads are racist.
|
||
Thanks to the mass-media (looking for a sensationalized story to
|
||
sell papers and air time), and the increased growth of the racist
|
||
right's organizing efforts in North America, our subculture has
|
||
been stolen and demonized.
|
||
|
||
|
||
THE ORIGINAL SKINS
|
||
|
||
The original skinheads first appeared in England in the late
|
||
1960's, growing out of the rude-boy and hard-mod movements. White
|
||
working class culture united with that brought to the UK by
|
||
Jamaican immigrants, and skinheads were the result. The original
|
||
skins were black and white and listened to ska music (a speeded up
|
||
more danceable form of reggae), as well as soul and blue beat.
|
||
|
||
These skins had a very tough, clean style which expressed their
|
||
working class backgrounds, wearing Doc Marten workboots, Levi's
|
||
jeans, donkey jackets and suspenders (called braces). At dances
|
||
they would wear flashy suits and would mix freely with West Indian
|
||
youth, whose music and culture they admired. Racial violence by
|
||
skinheads was near non-existent at this point. How could there be
|
||
when the skinhead style grew out of black culture and skins
|
||
listened to black music?! (For this reason, we call neo-nazis
|
||
boneheads because they are and abomination to where real skinheads
|
||
come from.)
|
||
|
||
It is true that skinheads were often linked to violence (which was
|
||
frequently mindless). Skinheads frequently got into scraps with
|
||
other subcultures, the police, and, towards the end, other
|
||
skinheads. This eventually lead to their downfall, and by 1972 the
|
||
original skins were a rare breed.
|
||
|
||
THE Oi! YEARS
|
||
|
||
Out of the punk rock explosion of the late 70's grew Oi, a street
|
||
level movement of kids dedicated to bringing punk back to its
|
||
angry roots. Oi! bands sang about real issues faced by youth in
|
||
the UK - such as unemployment, prison, and authority. And many
|
||
bands had an obvious left-wing slant (such as SHAM 69, THE
|
||
BUSINESS, and the ANGELIC UPSTARTS).
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately, other people sought to cash in on the new skinhead
|
||
revival. Garry Bushell, a writer for SOUNDS music magazine (the
|
||
SPIN or ROLLING STONE of the UK), frequently played up Oi!'s
|
||
negative image of violence and aggressiveness, while at the same
|
||
time making a hefty amount of money by promoting records of
|
||
bonehead bands. This attracted a lot of thugs to what was once a
|
||
positive, working class movement.
|
||
|
||
At the same time, due to outreach by the NATIONAL FRONT (a fascist
|
||
political party which at that time was at its height in Britain),
|
||
racist and neo-nazi skinheads also began to appear. A mutation of
|
||
the original racially-mixed skinhead movement, they sought easy
|
||
scapegoats to the problems of unemployment and recession, blaming
|
||
immigrants, blacks and other minorities instead of the
|
||
conservative British government (then under Margeret the Vampire
|
||
Thatcher). Nazi skinhead bands, such as SKREWDRIVER and BRUTAL
|
||
ATTACK, and organizations like BLOOD & HONOUR, a racist skinhead
|
||
network, made the message popular and accepted in the skinhead
|
||
subculture.
|
||
|
||
Of course, the mass media helped the nazis along by giving them
|
||
exposure without debate. Interested only in selling papers, the
|
||
media refused to allow anti-racist skins a voice. And thus the
|
||
media effectively silenced those who directly fought this
|
||
nazi-resurgence on the streets, and they flooded the skin scene
|
||
with right wing scum. Despite this setback, real anti-racist skins
|
||
continued to fight on for their tradition by organizing Oi!
|
||
Against Racism concerts and physically fighting nazis out of the
|
||
streets and shows.
|
||
|
||
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A SKIN
|
||
|
||
Real skinheads hold certain ideals in common. We are all working
|
||
and lower-middle class. We believe in unity, pride in our class
|
||
and in ourselves. We enjoy music, dancing and a good night out.
|
||
Many of us like beer (though some don't). We seem to get in a lot
|
||
of fights (though many of us do not start them). We are militant
|
||
in standing up for what we believe in. And WE HATE RACISM. We
|
||
fight it wherever it rears its ugly head.
|
||
|
||
People ask why we don't just give up being skins, since we get
|
||
attacked both by the right, for being anti-racist, and by the left
|
||
and general public, who think all skins are racists. To this we
|
||
answer that skinhead is our identity. We believe in it. It's who
|
||
we are, and we could no more give it up than change where we were
|
||
born or the color of our skin. We are proud of being what a skin
|
||
really stands for (and not the racist shit preached by the right
|
||
and the media), and we want to create a culture that expresses our
|
||
ideals. In short, being skins is our life and we won't let anyone
|
||
take that away from us.
|
||
|
||
THE NEW BREED
|
||
|
||
There is a growing section of the skinhead movement which is not
|
||
only anti-racist, but also strongly left-wing. Many of us are
|
||
anarchists, socialists, communists, and anti-fascists. In addition
|
||
to fighting racism, we fight against sexism and homophobia (the
|
||
verbal, physical, and psychological attacks on gays and lesbians).
|
||
We fight against war, against attacks on the poor and working
|
||
class (such as strike breaking, cutbacks, etc.), against
|
||
imperialist intervention, police brutality, and prisons. We fight
|
||
for a better world based on our beliefs.
|
||
|
||
FIGHT FOR YOUR CLASS, NOT YOUR COUNTRY
|
||
|
||
While many skins are nationalists, and proudly display the flag of
|
||
their country, we are against this. Being nationalist goes against
|
||
what being a skin means to us. Patriotism is a tool of the
|
||
politicians and the rich of all nations to make the working class
|
||
fight one another, instead of fighting their real enemies.
|
||
Nationalism has poor kids killing each other in wars and blaming
|
||
foreigners and immigrants for the lack of jobs (instead of the
|
||
corporations who exploit us all). Patriotism has been responsible
|
||
for slavery and the massacre of millions of indigenous people.
|
||
Instead of nationalism, we promote pride in our class and culture.
|
||
We believe in uniting the international working class against the
|
||
rich bastard rulers who screw us over every day.
|
||
|
||
FENCEWALKERS
|
||
|
||
Many skins argue we should keep our beliefs out of the scene. To
|
||
this we argue that being a skin means standing up for what you
|
||
believe in and having pride in it. We hate the rich, the police,
|
||
the nazis, and the politicians. We want change because we're tired
|
||
of being screwed over, and we want a better world. Politics
|
||
affects our lives, and we're sick of letting others crucify us
|
||
without a fight. We're proud of our beliefs because they are part
|
||
of who we are. So our politics reflect who we are, where we're
|
||
from and where we want to go. And we're working-class skins who
|
||
want a change, so our beliefs belong at the shows, clubs, and
|
||
dancehalls.
|
||
|
||
Also, the nazis offer something to angry kids. These kids often do
|
||
not start out as white supremacists, but they are in a process of
|
||
rebelling against authority. The nazis offer scapegoats,
|
||
revolutionary solutions (though we think the wrong ones), and a
|
||
strong movement to be part of. If we want to stop the nazis and
|
||
get our subculture back, we have to offer a strong movement as
|
||
well, preferably one which offers REAL revolutionary solutions
|
||
beyond patriotism and nationalism. Fencewalkers are skins who
|
||
refuse to take sides, but claim to be into unity. We argue there
|
||
can be no unity with boneheads. In the coming battle you have to
|
||
choose sides - the nazis or us. And you'd better know which side
|
||
of the fence you stand on!
|
||
|
||
UNITY IS STRENGTH
|
||
|
||
Being isolated is a drag. Only if we unite can we make a
|
||
difference in our lives and in this world. If we want to change
|
||
the media's and general public's view of skins, we have to make
|
||
our voices heard. If we want to stomp out nazis and reclaim the
|
||
skinhead tradition, we have to get organized. A better world based
|
||
on our ideals must be fought for - no one can make it for us!
|
||
|
||
We are hoping to set up a network of red, anarchist, anti-fascist,
|
||
and anti- nationalist skins. Through this network, we hope to
|
||
increase correspondence, trade tapes and scene info, organize
|
||
against racism, and have a laugh. We will hopefully one day put
|
||
together zines, a distribution, a record label, concerts, and
|
||
other things to reclaim our working-class, anti-racist history.
|
||
|
||
If you're a skinhead interested in getting involved, write us.
|
||
Send a self-addressed stamped envelope, and we'll help you get in
|
||
touch with folks in your area. Tell us what's going on with you:
|
||
your ideas, criticisms, info from your area, and anything else you
|
||
think would be of interest. Change starts with us working
|
||
together!
|
||
|
||
For more info, contact:
|
||
|
||
Mayday Skins/RASH-NYC
|
||
PO Box 365
|
||
Canal Street Station
|
||
NY, NY 10013-0365
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT PRESS RELEASE
|
||
|
||
PRESS RELEASE (no date)
|
||
|
||
|
||
ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT (ALF) spokesperson, Rod Coronado, who has
|
||
been hiding due to threats against his life from the Federal
|
||
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the fur industry, is willing to
|
||
surrender to federal authorities under the following conditions.
|
||
|
||
1) That all grizzly bears held hostage as experimental subjects by
|
||
Washington State University (WSU) be released to a wildlife
|
||
rehabilitation center approved by People for the Ethical Treatment
|
||
of Animals (PETA 301-770-8969) and Earth First! (406-728-8114),
|
||
with the intent of returning the bears to their native homeland
|
||
from which they were removed.
|
||
|
||
2) That WSU issue a public statement promising never to capture or
|
||
acquire more endangered species as research subjects or for any
|
||
other purposes.
|
||
|
||
3) That all tax-payer supported research being conducted on mink,
|
||
coyotes and otters by Washington State University, Oregon State
|
||
University, Michigan State University, and Utah State University
|
||
be suspended.
|
||
|
||
Although the Coalition Against Fur Farms (CAFF) and the ALF do not
|
||
approve of the incarceration of any native wildlife, Rod Coronado
|
||
believes that the hostage exchange of one species for another is a
|
||
reasonable alternative. If these three conditions are agreed to,
|
||
and met, and negotiated through PETA and Earth First! I, Rod
|
||
Coronado, will turn myself in to federal authorities in Montana at
|
||
the tribal headquarters of the Blackfoot Nation. As part of the
|
||
agreement, I, Rod Coronado, swear to cooperate fully with Grand
|
||
Jury Inquisitions into ALF activity that I am suspected in,
|
||
relating to the defense of native wildlife and the environment. I
|
||
swear to testify and answer all questions relating to my role as a
|
||
spokesperson on behalf of the ALF, and as the Coordinator of the
|
||
CAFF.
|
||
|
||
I, Rod Coronado, believe that my non-violent actions in defense of
|
||
the earth, are innocent acts to protect the ecological integrity
|
||
of this country's natural heritage. This statement of conditions
|
||
of surrender is in no way an admission of guilt to charges laid by
|
||
the United States Government, or any other law enforcement agency.
|
||
It is my belief that with a fair trial, the citizens of this
|
||
country will recognize that the real acts of terrorism committed
|
||
on university campuses in the last eighteen months, are those
|
||
carried out by Oregon State researcher Ron Scott, Washington State
|
||
researcher John Gorham, Michigan State researcher Richard
|
||
Aulerich, and Utah State researcher Frederick Knowlton.
|
||
|
||
Recent attempts by the FBI to portray me as a fugitive evading
|
||
arrest are standard practices by the US Government to convince the
|
||
public that I am guilty and that I am a violent criminal the first
|
||
steps in justifying the assassination of Native American activists
|
||
who choose to maintain their cultural and religious beliefs.
|
||
|
||
Through the example of US history, it is my understanding that if
|
||
I was to continue my defense of Native American wildlife and
|
||
lands, then I would be murdered by the FBI or people within the
|
||
fur industry. The FBI, while questioning David Howitt in June
|
||
1992, acknowledged a threat against my life. In May 1992, when the
|
||
FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) raided
|
||
my mountain home in southern Oregon, the presence of automatic
|
||
weaponry in my attempted arrest is a testament of the US
|
||
Government's willingness to use deadly force to squash my
|
||
representation of Native American wildlife, and those who defend
|
||
that wildlife.
|
||
|
||
In over ten years of non-violent resistance to the destruction of
|
||
native wildlife and lands, I have never caused an injury or loss
|
||
of life to any living being. Through my obligation as a citizen of
|
||
the earth, I have only ever targeted the implements of life's
|
||
destruction, i.e. whaling ships in Iceland. I have never, nor will
|
||
I ever, carry or use firearms or explosives in my defense of my
|
||
earth mother. My religious beliefs recognize the sanctity of all
|
||
life and would never allow me to justify a violent act that would
|
||
result in the loss of life. It is only because of the FBI's record
|
||
of violence against Native Americans such as Anna Mae Aquash,
|
||
Leonard Peltier, Tina Trudell, Pedro Bisonette and other American
|
||
Indian Movement (415-552-1992) activists that I avoid contact with
|
||
the US Government by living a life in hiding.
|
||
|
||
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
|
||
|
||
Rod Coronado
|
||
Coordinator, Coalition Against Fur Farms
|
||
Spokesperson, Animal Liberation Front
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
Continent-wide Project:
|
||
|
||
DIRECT ACTION MANUAL
|
||
|
||
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA anarchists are initiating a continent -
|
||
wide effort to write and produce a manual for direct action and
|
||
street protest geared to the conditions of the 1990s. One of the
|
||
primary goals of this project is to draw on the collective
|
||
experience and current knowledge of anti-authoritarians engaged in
|
||
radical protest in the streets, neighborhoods, and cities of North
|
||
America, and to impart this useful information to others in the
|
||
form of a Direct Action Manual.
|
||
|
||
TO ORGANIZE AGAINST THE STATE
|
||
|
||
Street protests in the past several years have become both more frequent
|
||
and more militant throughout North America. In the Bay Area, mini-
|
||
rebellions occurred because of the Gulf War, People's Park, a gay rights
|
||
bill veto, the Rodney King incident, and activist Rosebud Denovo's
|
||
recent murder. Since May 1992 there have been a number of flashpoints
|
||
all over North America where people's rage has spilled over into a
|
||
powerful force in the street.
|
||
|
||
The State has become quite effective in responding to any incipient
|
||
uprising. The crackdown in May 1992 is just a glimpse of the kind of
|
||
police - state action to be expected as the United States collapses
|
||
internally and people begin to rise up against the continuing
|
||
injustice.
|
||
|
||
Activists in the 1990s need to seriously re-evaluate current forms of
|
||
resistance and to consider more appropriate strategies and tactics.
|
||
|
||
CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLES
|
||
|
||
There are several existing handbooks for resistance, many around the
|
||
anti-nuclear and environmental movements, that we can look to as
|
||
models. These contain very useful information on affinity groups, group
|
||
dynamics, consensus decision - making, feminism, and non-hierarchical
|
||
organizational structures. But these handbooks are geared toward specific
|
||
types of action (such as nuclear weapons site occupations).
|
||
|
||
The Direct Action Manual will be different. We hope that it will
|
||
lend itself to broad interpretation, so that it can be applied to a number of
|
||
different situations, not just specific actions, issues, and geographical
|
||
regions. Also many of these existing handbooks embrace non-violence.
|
||
This manual will not exclude militancy and seeks to encompass a wide
|
||
range of tactics.
|
||
|
||
A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT
|
||
|
||
The Bay Area Web Collective is coordinating this project and is urging
|
||
publications, groups, organizers, and individuals from all over the
|
||
continent to submit articles and offer support. Materials sent in will be
|
||
circulated in the form of a periodic discussion bulletin. We hope this will
|
||
initiate an exchange of ideas to develop this project in a cooperative
|
||
manner. (To receive this bulletin, send a donation to cover costs.)
|
||
A preliminary outline for the manual is now being circulated.
|
||
|
||
Please start sending draft material or finished copy right away.
|
||
Keep articles as short as possible. Already published articles are
|
||
welcome. If possible send material on MacIntosh disks.
|
||
|
||
At the Atlanta Conference, the Love & Rage Network decided to
|
||
endorse and support this project, as resources are available. Endorsement
|
||
and involvement of other groups is sought. Let The Web know how you
|
||
want to help. For financial contributions, checks can be made payable to
|
||
the ``Aspect Foundation'', and sent to the Web. Send a SASE for a copy
|
||
of the preliminary outline and send your comments, suggestions, ideas,
|
||
and especially draft submissions for the manual to:
|
||
|
||
The Web Collective
|
||
PO Box 40890
|
||
San Francisco, CA 94117
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
THE 1993 MARCH ON WASHINGTON
|
||
|
||
by Liz A. Highleyman
|
||
|
||
|
||
FOR LESBIAN, GAY, AND BI Equal Rights and Liberation will take
|
||
place on April 25. This event will be the largest queer action
|
||
since the 1987 March on Washington, and organizers are predicting
|
||
attendance by up to a million people. The Love & Rage Network is
|
||
calling for a contingent of anarchists as an alternative,
|
||
anti-authoritarian presence at the march. Many Network members are
|
||
queer themselves, and the Network has consistently supported queer
|
||
liberation.
|
||
|
||
The march is being organized by delegates from across the US, as
|
||
well as representatives of special groups such as AIDS activists
|
||
and prisoners. The organizers are committed to gender parity and
|
||
participation by people of color.
|
||
|
||
The march platform contains a wide range of issues and was hashed
|
||
out at national meetings over the course of the past year. As
|
||
might be expected, there has been considerable controversy. More-
|
||
conservative people opposed planks concerning civil rights for
|
||
people of color, reproductive rights, and universal health care,
|
||
wanting to maintain a single issue focus on gay civil rights. More
|
||
radical queers opposed the focus on mainstream electoral politics,
|
||
on the demand for gay participation in the military, and on the
|
||
demand for same-sex marriage. Needless to say, many people will
|
||
not agree with every position in the platform, and participation
|
||
does not imply 100% support. (In fact it may be even more
|
||
important for those who do not agree to attend and make their
|
||
voices heard.)
|
||
|
||
This march appears to be the beginning of a broad coalition for
|
||
sexual and gender liberation, which encompasses and goes beyond
|
||
the existing gay and lesbian movement. After much discussion and
|
||
debate, bisexuals were explicitly included in the title of this
|
||
march. Transgender people were not included in the title this
|
||
year, but their concerns are represented in the platform and many
|
||
transgender people plan to participate. Leatherpeople plan a
|
||
strong presence as well.
|
||
|
||
Several broad based (non gay-specific) politically progressive
|
||
organizations have endorsed the march and plan to take part.
|
||
Hopefully there will be a large showing of non-gay/lesbian/
|
||
bisexual people who support the freedom of sexual choice. After
|
||
the showing by the ultra right in the recent election, many are
|
||
considering this march to be a show of queer strength and support
|
||
in the face of reactionary attacks, as well as a reminder to the
|
||
new administration that sexual minority concerns cannot be ignored
|
||
now that the election is over. It is important that anarchists
|
||
have a presence in the march to let people know that we cannot
|
||
rely on laws and the government to guarantee queer liberation.
|
||
Direct action groups such as Queer Nation and ACT UP will have a
|
||
strong presence. In addition to the march itself, civil
|
||
disobedience actions are planned for the following Monday (April
|
||
26).
|
||
|
||
The Love & Rage Network Council meeting will be held on the same
|
||
weekend of the march, on Friday Saturday, April 23 24. Plans for
|
||
any actions that the anarchist contingent might want to take
|
||
during the march or the day after can be discussed at this time.
|
||
It was decided at the conference in Atlanta that a black bloc is
|
||
probably not the best tactic for this march. As queers and
|
||
supporters of queer liberation we want to be seen, not hide behind
|
||
masks. (This relates to the historical need for queers to keep
|
||
themselves hidden.) We also discussed the need to be very careful,
|
||
especially as a non-gay-specific group, to select appropriate
|
||
targets for any actions and to make our message clear. (Many felt
|
||
that this was not done well at last year's reproductive rights
|
||
march.) The provisional plan is to see what ACT UP and other
|
||
direct action groups have planned and to plan our actions
|
||
accordingly. We hope that many anarchists and anti-authoritarians
|
||
will participate in the contingent, not only those who consider
|
||
themselves Love & Rage affiliates and supporters.
|
||
|
||
Because so many people are expected in DC, travel and
|
||
accommodations will be tight. (Several national organizations are
|
||
holding their yearly meetings that weekend as well). So plan
|
||
early, and come to DC to support queer liberation! Contact Love &
|
||
Rage at (212) 569-0989 for information on travel and lodging
|
||
arrangements.
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
Round-Up: FASCIST ATTACKS
|
||
|
||
The following is a small sample of recent fascist attacks:
|
||
|
||
TORONTO, ONT -- Hate crime statistics indicate that there were 500
|
||
more hate crimes here in 1992 than in 1991. -from National
|
||
Public Radio
|
||
|
||
TAMPA, FL -- Christopher Wilson, an African-American man from
|
||
Brooklyn, was set on fire by three white men on New Year's Day,
|
||
1993. A note found at the scene of the burning read, One less
|
||
nigger, one more to go, and was signed KKK. -from NY Newsday
|
||
|
||
PATTERSON, NJ -- A Paterson police officer, Lt. VanKluyve, was
|
||
caught with a cache of neo-nazi literature, machine guns and gun
|
||
parts, and $97,000 cash, strongly suggesting that he is linked to
|
||
organized white-supremist terror. (No kidding!) After VanKluyve
|
||
tried to buy two gun-silencers from undercover federal agents, his
|
||
home in Wyckoff, NJ was raided by a joint force of federal,
|
||
county, and city agents on January 5, 1992. -from Plain Words
|
||
|
||
OPOLE VOIVODSHIP, POLAND -- A group of neo-nazis from Germany, the
|
||
National Offensive, has set up headquarters in this Polish
|
||
village. Nazi literature is sold in local stores. Throughout the
|
||
region, memorials with German-language plaques have been erected
|
||
to nazi soldiers. The National Offensive claims that their aim is
|
||
to restore a Greater Germany, stretching all the way to Lithuania.
|
||
So far no specific acts of violence have been linked to the group,
|
||
but Poles in the area are concerned. -from The Polish-American
|
||
Journal
|
||
|
||
SOFIA, BULGARIA -- Among the youth here there have recently ppeared
|
||
disturbing nationalist, neo-fascist, racist and anti-semetic
|
||
tendendies. In Sofia, as in the west, this has occured mainly with
|
||
skinheads. They support neo-fascist ideas and endorse racism and
|
||
violence. Groups of these youths attack other, innocent youths on
|
||
the main streets of Sofia. They provoked the terror at Club 113 of
|
||
the University of Sofia. There is nothing left for us to tell you
|
||
except: HIT THE NAZIS IN THE MUG!
|
||
|
||
Federation of Anarchist Youth
|
||
Antonio Grozdev
|
||
|
||
-from Action Newsletter
|
||
|
||
NOVI SAD, CROATIA -- Petar Babic, a Serb , was postering the
|
||
following text when he was beaten by a Serbian mob in October
|
||
1991. In November 1991 he was found dead, killed by a bullet.
|
||
|
||
The reemergence of nationalism throughout the world is a
|
||
phenomenon of importance too great to be ignored. ~ Nationalism
|
||
will define us, divide us, and dominate us; it has no place in the
|
||
struggle towards self-realization, free global interaction, and
|
||
liberty. ~ Categorize humans you cannot. Nations are false
|
||
divisions. We are one because we are all human beings. We are
|
||
separate because we all recognize the viability of free
|
||
personality....~ Independence movements are the veneer of national
|
||
hatreds and political trickery. Don't buy the lie. Your oppressor
|
||
isn't just there. It's all around you. It might even be yourself.~
|
||
Power to the people,not to their nations. The borders we build are
|
||
the borders we will have to live behind. -- from the
|
||
Extra-Nationalist Commission
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
Short Takes:
|
||
|
||
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FIGHT TO SAVE AUDUBON BALLROOM
|
||
|
||
NEW YORK CITY -- COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS SHUT DOWN Hamilton
|
||
Hall (a University building) with a blockade, on December 21,
|
||
1992, in protest of the University's plans to turn the Audobon
|
||
Ballroom a bio-genetic research lab. The Audubon Ballroom, the
|
||
assassination site of Malcolm X, is located in the middle of
|
||
Harlem. The bio-genetic testing could endanger the lives of nearby
|
||
residents. Instead, students and community residents want the
|
||
building turned into an international multi-cultural research
|
||
center, for community use. Demonstrators successfully and
|
||
spontaneously shut down two main roads first Broadway, then
|
||
Amsterdam Avenue, and then Broadway again. The cops were too slow
|
||
and unable to arrest anyone. A series of smaller demonstrations
|
||
followed the next week.
|
||
|
||
*
|
||
|
||
Whites Set Black Man on Fire
|
||
|
||
TAMPA, FLORIDA - Christopher Wilson, an African-American man from
|
||
Brooklyn, was set on fire by three white men on New Year's Day,
|
||
1993. A note found at the scene of the burning read, "One less
|
||
nigger, one more to go," and was signed "KKK." Wilson suffered
|
||
burns over forty percent of his body. --from the NY Post
|
||
|
||
*
|
||
|
||
NAZI COP
|
||
|
||
PATERSON, NEW JERSEY - A Paterson police officer, Lt. William
|
||
VanKluyve, was caught with a cache of neo-nazi literature, machine
|
||
guns and gun parts, and $97,000 cash, strongly suggesting that he is
|
||
linked to organized white-supremist terror. (No kidding?) After
|
||
VanKluyve tried to buy two gun-silencers from undercover federal
|
||
agents, his upper-middle class home in Wyckoff, NJ, was raided by a
|
||
joint force of federal, county, and city agents. The raid took place on
|
||
January 5, 1992.
|
||
|
||
from Plain Words #1
|
||
|
||
*
|
||
|
||
Klan Rally
|
||
|
||
AUSTIN, TEXAS - The Klan held a rally at the state capitol
|
||
building on January 16, 1992, to recruit new members and to
|
||
protest Martin Luther King Day. A counter demonstration and march
|
||
was organized by Peoples Anti-Racist Coalition (PARC), a peace and
|
||
justice group. --from some anarchists in Austin
|
||
|
||
*
|
||
|
||
Tiny Vandals
|
||
|
||
FINDLAY, OHIO -- TWO SECOND-GRADERS AND A FOUR YEAR-OLD were
|
||
arrested on charges of vandalizing an elementary school, causing
|
||
$20,000 of damages, over the weekend of January 9, 1993. Officials
|
||
are unsure of how to proceed. All power to the young people!
|
||
|
||
-30-
|
||
|
||
|
||
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
|
||
@ _Love & Rage_ is a Revolutionary Anarchist newspaper produced
|
||
@ by the Love and Rage Network. The Love and Rage Network is a
|
||
@ continental network of groups and individuals in Canada, Mexico,
|
||
@ and the United States. Subscriptions to the newspaper cost:
|
||
@ $13 for first class (fast, envelope), $9 third class (slow, no
|
||
@ envelope), $13 international (outside of United States), free for
|
||
@ prisoners, GI's, published bimonthly.
|
||
@ Please write to us at POB 3, NY, NY 10012
|
||
@ email: lnr%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
|
||
@ or: loveandrage@igc.apc.org
|
||
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
|
||
|
||
|
||
|