Keep the Klan Kleaning
Just when you thought that the Klan had been swept away by the tidal wave of racist anti-immigrant activity across the nation (that is, by the “mainstream” groups that stole the anti-immigrant mantra from under the hood) the robed warriors of the Springfield, Missouri area’s National Socialist Movement have once again triumphed in their abiding commitment to keep America clean.
A half-mile of roadsides outside Springfield will still be the Klan’s to clean in the adopt-a-highway program, complete (we presume) with a nice rainbow sign denoting their obligation. Naturally, Missouri officials have never been too supportive of the idea, but they lost that battle some time ago in the courts. Their most recent efforts to undercut the Klan by renaming the stretch of highway after the venerable Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, an icon of American theology and human rights, was kindly but firmly declined by Rabbi Heschel’s esteemed daughter, Susannah. Her decision should be deeply respected. Read more
Sheriff Joe Called Upon to Renounce Neo-Nazi Followers
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon came out swinging at Sheriff Joe last week, demanding that he renounce his neo-Nazi fan base in light of the Holocaust Museum shooting. Phoenix New Times Reports:
In a response to the tragedy today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where 88-year-old white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly opened fire killing a security guard before being severely wounded himself, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called on Sheriff Joe Arpaio to distance himself from his neo-Nazi and racist supporters.
“I’m calling upon the sheriff of Maricopa County to denounce the neo-Nazis and the Nazis today,” said Gordon during a press conference this afternoon.”Not that I believe that the sheriff is a Nazi or a neo-Nazi. Let me be very clear, he has given the sense of recognition to the neo-Nazis and Nazis that he’s associated with.” Read more
Bolivia’s Neo-Nazis: Imbedded in the Ballot and Bullet
While Bolivia’s diverse neo-Nazi and right-wing movements have a long and fruitful history in this majority-indigenous nation, the recent assassination attempt of President Evo Morales shows a new level of paranoia and extremism rising.
At dawn on April 16 an elite police unit, flown in from La Paz, stormed rooms at the Hotel Las Americas in the Department of Santa Cruz killing three men – Eduardo Rózsa Flores, Arpád Magyarosi and Michael Dwyer- who were planning several assassination attempts. It appears their targets included President Morales (the countries first indigenous president) and Vice President Alvaro García Linera. Rózsa Flores, the ringleader, was born in Santa Cruz of Hungarian-Bolivian parents. Flores, a supporter of the right-wing Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, founded the neo-fascist First International Platoon to fight for the far right in Croatia during the Balkan Wars. Read more
White Nationalists Tied to Tea Parties
It’s no secret that conservatives have a hard time keeping racism out of their ranks (airwaves), and now it seems it has surfaced in even their grassroots (astro turf) movements. The whole tea party thing (except with representation and a high income bracket this time) is being organized by conservative corporate lobbyists, Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity, who are no doubt milking this all the way to their billion dollar bank accounts.
If that wasn’t hard enough for real [sic] conservative activists to swallow, they are really going to hate showing up at rallies only to rub elbows with white nationalists. Kris Kobach got the party started in Kansas on April 4th when he hosted a joint tea party/anti-immigrant rally with Billy Gilchrist, Topeka chapter leader for the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. In 2004 Kansas Republican leader Timothy Burger wrote in response to Kobach’s failed congressional run, “It doesn’t help matters that Kobach was hired by FAIR, widely perceived as a racist anti-immigrant group during the campaign.” But that stinging accusation hasn’t stopped Kobach from working for the John Tanton network ever since, or from dipping his tainted toes into anything that smells ripe for manipulation and publicity. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Leaders Publicly Threaten Voters of El Salvador
U.S. Congressional leaders should immediately rebuke two of their colleagues for attempting to influence voters of another democratic country through threats and intimidation. The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) reports that two anti-immigrant congressional members, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), are publicly calling for El Salvadoran refugees and immigrants to be deported from the U.S., if the citizens of El Salvador elect opposition party, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), in Sunday’s upcoming elections.
The FMLN is running against the right-wing ARENA party in an election that will have historic consequences. ARENA has worked closely with death squads in El Salvador. The violence that included rape, executions and tortures sent thousands of refugees to the United States in fear in the 1980s. Read more
African American Student in Russia Stabbed by Neo-Nazis
By Maria Rozalskaya
On December 5th in Volgograd (Southern Russia), an 18 year-old African American was stabbed. Stanley Robinson came to Russia to participate in a student exchange program. On a Volgograd street he ran into a group of local teenagers who picked a quarrel with him, as a result he was hospitalized with two knife wounds. His mother who spoke with him by phone said they are sure it was racially motivated. Read more
Hate and Death: The Federation for American Immigration Reform Harvest in Suffolk County
When I first journeyed to Suffolk Country eight years ago to work with religious, civic, and immigrant rights groups facing growing anti-immigrant activity stoked by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, I was stunned to witness the depth of anger and hostility that the group’s organizer had helped unleash. It all started “respectably” enough. But the attempt in 2000 by neo-Nazis to kill two Mexican workers was a harbinger of where growing, unchecked anti-immigrant fever and fervor could go; other violence followed. Now, an Ecuadoran immigrant, is dead at the hands of area youth who reportedly set out to beat up “some Mexicans,” bringing the tragedy of Suffolk County to its inevitable end. Read more
Response to Obama Murder Plot Says Much about Belonging
I was a 6th grader at Clara Barton Elementary School in 1976. The school bus I rode everyday was a multi-racial smorgasbord of young kids who were excited to get to school so that we could shoot marbles or show off our newest toy before class started. It was on one of those days, on my way to school, that I was told something that changed my life forever.
On a Monday morning one of my school mates whispered that the previous weekend neo-Nazis protested against Jews and blacks in one of the parks that we passed along our way to school and that it had been in the paper. No one really talked about it much, and I’m sure that the conversation quickly turned to our favorite television shows, but from that day forward this park took on a sinister form in my mind. Read more
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