Dec 21, 2009

Minutemen and Klansmen

from blog Imagine 2050
By Joel Olson

I recently reviewed The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan by Rory McVeigh (University of Minnesota Press 2009) for the academic journal American Studies. The book is a little dry, but there were some notable lessons in it for understanding anti-immigration organizations today.

The Klan originated after the Civil War to restore white supremacy by terrorizing ex-slaves and antislavery whites during Reconstruction. This generation of the Klan ended when Reconstruction did in the 1870s. McVeigh’s book studies the second generation of the KKK, which started in 1915 (coinciding with the release of D.W. Griffith’s famous pro-Klan movie The Birth of a Nation) and exploded in growth from 1920-1924, with a membership of over four million people at its peak.

McVeigh argues that this version of the Klan emerged as a white Protestant response to the rise of large-scale manufacturing and retail, which squeezed small businesses and farms, diminished the political influence of the heartland, and strengthened the power of the cities—and the ethnic communities that lived in them. Klan organizers successfully mobilized White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) by playing on their fears of losing their economic, political, and social power as a result of these economic and political changes.

McVeigh argues that while the 1920s Klan was racist, its focus was not primarily on anti-Black terrorism like the Reconstruction-era KKK. Rather, the 1920s Klan was essentially an anti-immigration social movement. Most social movements, he notes, seek to win power and status for the powerless. But right-wing movements “act to preserve, restore, or expand rights and privileges of a relatively advantaged social group” (38). The 1920s Klan is an example of this. They used a populist rhetoric that attacked industrial elites above them for manipulating labor markets and the “rabble” below them (i.e. ethnic, Catholic working class communities) for flooding these markets and for being culturally alien. The top and bottom of American society, they charged, conspired to squeeze the virtuous, hard-working, upright, white Protestants in the middle.

The KKK argued that “true Americans” were losing ground to immigrants, that immigrants burdened public resources, and that they degraded American culture. The Klan mobilized anxious WASPs by presenting itself as a “one-hundred percent American” organization that promised to restore their status. The fears of these relatively privileged WASPs, combined with effective mobilization techniques by the Klan, led farmers and middle class white Protestants to join the KKK in droves.

These arguments—and many of the quotes McVeigh provides from Klan papers—could have come from the Minutemen today.

What this suggests is that the key to understanding today’s anti-immigration movement—as well as anti-Obama organizing such as the “tea parties”—is to see it as a “virtuous middle” movement. In other words, these are movements whose members see themselves as a virtuous middle—religious, moral, hardworking, patriotic and truly American—who face the threat of losing their relatively privileged social status. They fear that they are under attack by a bewildering global economy and unscrupulous corporations that are moving their jobs overseas. Even more, they feel they are being attacked by cultural elites—Harvard and Hollywood, the universities and pop culture—who undermine the moral values of this virtuous middle with moral relativism and sexual permissiveness. They also fear that they are under attack by the rabble below them—lazy people who live off public benefits paid for by the virtuous middle’s tax dollars (these folks are often secretly coded as black) and illegal aliens who are flooding the country, stealing jobs and degrading American culture (these folks are often coded as brown). The virtuous middle fears that cultural elites from above and the black and brown rabble from below are conspiring —now with the help of a black president!—to undermine their social status and by extension the moral, political, and economic foundations of America. The fall into Sodom is right behind.

This fearful “virtuous middle” (or the “silent majority,” to use Nixon’s term in the 1970s) is a commonplace in American history. Jacksonian Democrats used it in the 1830s to attack corporate elites and slaves (but not masters), populists used it in the 1890s to attack corporate elites and defend segregation, the Klan used it in the 1920s to attack economic elites and Catholics and immigrants, Nixon used it in the 1970s to attack cultural elites and Black and student protestors, and now the anti-immigrant right is using it today.

From the perspective of participants in the anti-immigration movement, this is an effective strategy that should be continued, for it has often worked in U.S. history. From the perspective of those who support immigrant rights, it seems to me that the task is to convince this middle that their true interests lie in a united front with the black and brown “rabble” below them against the capitalist elites above. That would be hard, but it would also make for interesting times.

Joel Olson is the author of The Abolition of White Democracy (University of Minnesota 2004). He is a member of the Repeal Coalition, a grassroots organization that seeks the repeal of all anti-immigrant laws in Arizona.

new antifa blog: Nomattimen

Nomattimen is a new blog. Lots of news and has an international perspective.

However, while its cool to give a nod to the Indigenous/First Nations, it's puzzling to see the antifas at nomattimen calling out for an anti-fascist "brotherhood".

Assuming that the comrades at nomattimen agree that the struggle against fascism is a struggle premised on a joint work that is not limited to and infact seeks to undermine "brotherhood", then why the emphasis?

The history of antifascist struggle is rich in cross gender, gender bending, and non-male idetified partisans and militants.

An element of fascism is determining strict gender roles. The revolutionary and anti-capitalist antifascism that our side advocates is about identifying and promotring opposition to the current values of this class-patriarchical society and developing new human relations and expressions, both individual and collective. Brotherhood aint what this struggle is about.

With that said, we welcome
nomattimen and look forward to engagement with 'em.
..................................................................................................................................

Nomattimen is a word in the ancient Native American Algonquian language. It means "we are brothers".

In this blog we support the anti-fascist brotherhood.

http://nomattimen. wordpress. com

RIP Ivan “Kostolom” Hutorskoy!

November 17, 2009...05:20

RIP Ivan “Kostolom” Hutorskoy! Moscow Antifascist murdered by Nazis

Yesterday, on November 16 we lost our friend.

Ivan Hutorskoy, also known as “Kostolom”, was an Antifascist and he died for his beliefs.

Ivan was one of the founders of Russian militant Antifascist movement.

He was one of those few kids who stood up against the Neo-Nazi hordes, dominating the Russian punk/hardcore scene in the 90-s and early 00-s.

While the majority of the scene was compromising with Nazi assholes, Kostolom and his closest friends started to kick the fascists out of the gigs. Soon Ivan became the founder and respected leader of Moscow RASH (Red And Anarchist Skinheads).

Throughout the years he was fighting Nazis on the streets, organizing the security of punk/hardcore gigs, taking part in countless demos, training kids in martial arts.

Neo-Nazis hated Ivan, always scared of him as one of their most dangerous enemies. His photos, address and death threats to him were posted on countless Neo-Nazis web-sites.

He had been attacked many times, ambushed near his house, always jumped by numerous opponents packed with knifes, bats and screwdrivers. He used to spend weeks in hospitals, often balancing on the edge between life and death. But he always stayed true to his beliefs and ideals.

Always on the front line. Always ready to fight any enemy, even when outnumbered. His nickname – Kostolom (“Bonecrusher” in Russian ) spoke for itself.

Ivan was ambushed near his apartment. The cowards shot him twice in the back of his head, too scared to face him even with a gun in their hands.

He lived his life like a warrior and died like a true hero.

Rest in peace, uncle Vanya! You are in our hearts forever! Never forget!

November 17th, 2009: 26-year-old antifascist skinhead Ivan Khutorskoy murdered

Anti-Fascist Youth Activist Killed In Moscow

A member of an anti-fascist youth group in Russia has been shot dead in Moscow, according to investigators.

Violent clashes between activists have become more common in Russia's capital
The young man died from head wounds after being shot during a clash with ultra-nationalists in eastern Moscow on Monday evening.

It is reported that he was the informal leader of a committee called Collective Action and is the sixth anti-fascist to be killed in the capital since 2006.

A spokeswoman from the committee identified the victim as 26-year-old Ivan Khutorskoy during an interview with a Moscow-based radio station.

Mr Khutorskoy's role in the group included organising security at anti-fascist rock concerts and he also ran free-style fighting tournaments.

He was nicknamed "Bonebreaker" and had reportedly taken part in street battles with Russian nationalists.

This was not the first time Mr Khutorskoy had been attacked by nationalists.

It is thought he had survived attacks involving a knife, a baseball bat and a screwdriver on three previous occasions.

Fascist gangs have become a growing problem in Russia in recent years and as a result anti-fascist youth groups have raised their profiles.

The fascist gangs typically target non-Slavic migrants and people they perceive as anti-Russian.

Confrontations in Moscow have become increasingly common and violent.
Experts have linked the killing to the arrests earlier this month of two nationalists suspected of the high-profile shooting of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in January.


Russian anti-fascist activist shot dead in Moscow

* Death follows arrests of ultra-nationalists

* 26-year-old campaigner died on spot

MOSCOW, Nov 17 (Reuters) - An anti-fascist campaigner was shot dead in Moscow, investigators said on Tuesday, in what a fellow activist said may have been revenge for the arrests of ultra-nationalists earlier this month.

A man opened fire on an "active member of the anti-fascist movement" on Monday evening in the Russian capital, state investigators said in a statement. He died on the spot.

Local media reports identified him as 26-year-old Ivan Khutorskoy.

"Various motives are being explored, including that he was murdered for his involvement in the anti-fascist movement," the investigative branch of the Prosecutor-General's Office said in a statement posted on their website, sledcomproc.ru.

Earlier in November, two ultra-nationalists were arrested for the murder of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and opposition reporter Anastasia Baburova, who were gunned down in broad daylight near the Kremlin in January.

In 2006, Markelov represented the mother of an anti-fascist campaigner who he said was killed by neo-Nazis.

A fellow anti-fascist campaigner, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Monday's murder could be out of spite: "Ivan (Khutorskoy) knew Markelov. His murder was either revenge, or a challenge to the authorities following the arrests."

Leftist political website ikd.ru wrote: "For the majority of Ivan's friends, it's clear that his murder was carried out by Russian Nazis."

Russia suffers from a high number of street attacks on its migrant workers, mostly dark-skinned Muslims who come from former Soviet countries, that are widely blamed on neo-Nazis. (Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Charles Dick)


Leader of Russian anti-fascist skinheads killed in Moscow

Ivan Khutorskoy, one of the leaders of the Russian left-wing skinhead movement was shot dead in Moscow on Monday evening. The victim’s friends and relatives see political motives behind the murder.

Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that 26-year-old Khutorskoy was killed with two pistol shots in the back of the head in the stairwell of the apartment building where he lived.

According to several Russian leftist skinhead websites, Ivan Khutorskoy was one of the leaders of the movement in Russia. His activities included providing security at concerts and organizing mixed fights among young leftists and anarchists. Khutorskoy survived three attempts on his life over the past four years. In 2005, several attackers slashed his head with a razor. Later he was repeatedly stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver and beaten with a baseball bat, and he was stabbed in the stomach with a knife in January this year.

The “Collective Action” website wrote on Tuesday that all Khutorskoy’s friends and comrades blamed the murder on Russian neo-Nazi groups.

The website also reminded that this was the sixth time an anti-fascist activist has been killed in Moscow over the past 5 years. Police have solved one such case, after which several activists of right-wing skinhead groups were sentenced to prison terms.

Antiracists and far-right youths battle in Moscow

November 18, 2009

By MANSUR MIROVALEV and STEVE GUTTERMAN (AP)

MOSCOW — A simmering confrontation between far-right youths and ant-racist activists has erupted into Moscow's streets after the fatal shooting of an anti-racist activist known as the Bonebreaker.

The violence stems from deep animus between two aggressive camps with starkly different visions of Russia's future — neo-Nazi skinheads who rank in the tens of thousands and militant anti-racist groups that call themselves Antifa, short for anti-fascist.

Former punk rocker Ivan Khutorskoi, 26, provided security for meetings of antifascists. He also was known for organizing underground bare-knuckle boxing matches among them, and taking part in violent attacks on ultranationalists.

Khutorskoi was gunned down in his apartment building on the city's outskirts Monday night. A day later, dozens of masked men pelted the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin youth group Young Russia with stones, trash and steel rods, Young Russia's leader said.

Kremlin critics say Russia's leadership created Young Russia and similar youth organizations to keep its political opponents in check and provide support, and sometimes muscle, on the streets. Anti-racist groups claim they have close ties with the ultranationalists they call fascists or Nazis.

Nobody was hurt in the attack late Tuesday on the office of Young Russia. But its message, delivered first with projectiles and then over the Internet, seemed clear.

"If no one but us tries to stop Nazis and those who provide cover for them, we will act by all means necessary," blogger Anarcho Punk wrote Wednesday. Other anti-racist bloggers said the attack was retaliation for what they claimed were the group's links to Russian neo-Nazis. They "dedicated" the assault to their leader, Khutorskoi — an outsized figure and a role model among antifascists, who say he had survived three previous assassination attempts. He was shot twice in the back of the head near the door to his apartment on Moscow's eastern outskirts, police said.

Khutorskoi sometimes provided security at press conferences of Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer hated by ultranationalists — but not at the one last January after which Markelov and a journalist were fatally shot on the street.

Antifa groups have been rapidly adding to their ranks in Russia in recent years, said Galina Kozhevnikova, the director of Sova, a respected independent hate-crime watchdog monitoring group. She said their ideology attracts leftist-minded youth and people concerned about persistent hate crimes and xenophobia in today's Russia.

"The army of ultranationalists is definitely bigger, as the movement is much older," Kozhevnikova said.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups like Young Russia are also a significant force. Experts believe their emergence was a Kremlin response to the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, where youth groups played a key role in street protests that ushered a pro-Western presidential candidate to power.

Young Russia is known for street rallies and pranks against anti-Kremlin politicians. The group has also been involved in attacks on anti-government protesters and opposition youth activists.

Young Russia's leader, Maxim Mishchenko, said about 80 masked men attacked the office in central Moscow. A 22-year old attacker was seized by Young Russia activists and handed over to police, he said.

Anti-fascist bloggers claimed Mishchenko, a Russian parliament member with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, has close ties with Russky Obraz, a radical ultranationalist group that antiracists claim was behind Khutorskoi's killing.

Mishchenko denied the allegations, calling them "as absolute lie."

A spokesman for Russky Obraz, Yevgeny Valayev, told The Associated Press that the group had "no Kremlin-appointed supervisors" but had cooperated with Mishchenko on several initiatives, including an extreme nationalist march in Moscow early this month.

National Socialist Front members ambushed by antifa in Chicago

The National Socialist Front (NSF) is an offshoot of the dying American National Socialist Workers Party (ANSWP). The ANSWP was started by Bill White after he was expelled from the National Socialist Movement (NSM).

The ANSWP is attempting to recruit from a wide range of nazi groups including former NSM and WCOTC/Creativity members.

The organizations HQ appears to be out of Peoria, Illinois ( former location of Matt Hale's WCOTC).

They have carried out a few agitation actions including a flier distribution at the annual South Side Chicago St. Patrick's Day Parade (see video at bottom of post) and have several websites and youtube channels. The NSF appear to be in competition to the NSM and both are attempting to gather together whatever nazi elements still exist in the face of a general collapse of many organized Nazi groups.

The following was forwarded to 3WF.

.....................................................................................................................................................

November 23, 2009

A post by the National Socialist Front, based in northwest Chicagoland, describes two members fighting off six antifa after an attempted ambush on November 23.

Like most other neo-nazi reports, that's not how we heard it.

Piecing together overheard rumors and reading between the lines of the NSF report, it seems the NSF wasted several months communicating with someone claiming to be interested in starting a chapter within Chicago itself. The two neo-nazis met with this person at a restaurant on the southside, but at some point they realized what was going on and either flashed or drew a knife. The restaurant owner noticed this and called the police as a brawl broke out. One antifa may have been stabbed, but the injury was minor.

The police arrived and detained, possibly arresting the NSF members for their weapons. Either way, the neo-nazis probably had to ask the cops for a ride home after discovering their disabled or damaged vehicle.

The NSF was probably looking to start a new chapter to become more public and more aggressive in preparation for their announced "White Pride Worldwide" march, scheduled for March 21, 2010, apparently in Chicago proper. Though based in the burbs, some of their members were seen at a Christian Identity meeting held on Chicago's northwest side several months ago; in the wake of the arrest of Bill White and the collapse of the IL ANSWP, the NSF could be positioning themselves as a dominant faction of the Chicagoland white power movement.

Hopefully, this will cause some hesitation and confusion as the NSF tries to grow, as there are probably a few more false relationships budding under their noses. It shouldn't be long before this WP group devours itself, just like many before it.

................................................................................................................

Video: Illinois National Socialist Front Distributes Lit and Cds at Chicago's South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day Parade March 15, 2009

David Irving Website's HACKED!

November 13, 2009

http://nyc.indymedia.org


By New Yorkers Against David Irving

Well, the crack forces used to guard David Irving's websites FAIL at doing the only thing asked of them. On the afternoon of November 13th, both http://fpp.co.uk and http://www.irvingbooks.com were hacked, the files, backups, databases, and emails destroyed. We can only imagine his tour is not going as well as he planned.




Neo Nazi David Irving's New Jersey speaking event is cancelled

Friday, November 13 2009

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20091113153002775

New Jersey Residents Against David Irving (NJ-RADI) is pleased to
announce that American Legion post 174 (not 175 as a previous release
said) has agreed to cancel David Irving's planned speaking engagement
tonight.

After being informed by NJ-RADI that the person who had booked the
event, Elizabeth Meyer, was in fact a supporter of Mr. Irving's, and
being filled in on what exactly Mr. Irving's views are, ALH Post 174
attempted to contact Ms. Meyer to confirm. When she refused to return
any calls they canceled the event.

NJ-RADI is comprised of New Jersey residents who have come together to
oppose David Irving's tour of hate-speech and "historical revisionist"
nonsense. His meetings serve as both a fundraiser and a networking
event for Irving and other neo-nazi scum. We REFUSE to sit idly by and
allow our state to be used to these ends.

David Irving talk disrupted on Chicago northwest side

11.24.2009

David Irving talk disrupted on NW side
Updated: A speech by Holocaust denier David Irving at the Edelweiss restaurant, 7650 W Irving Park, was disrupted and shut down by antifascists Monday night. 5-7 persons entered into the restaurant disrupting the event.

new antifa blog: On The Prowl


On The Prowl was a publication formerly distributed by the Anti-Racist Action chapter in Toronto. In tribute, we have used the name for this blog (and for an accompanying yet to be published print version).


On The Prowl was initiated to report on international anarchist news with a focus on anti-fascist and anti-racist organizing in the Mid-Atlantic states. We hope to serve as a center of information on organizing and action in our region against racism and for a just, liberatory world. If you are interested in getting involved in organizing for this kind of world in our region (especially in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, and Delaware) please get in touch with us! We would love to have you involved in the fight against racism in our region.


-On The Prowl News

ontheprowlnews.wordpress.com <http://ontheprowlnews.wordpress.com>