This computer kills fascists: #34: Wednesday, 29 October 1997
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- WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING?
For information on the Romi, see the list of links on "The Patrin: Roma Organizations" web site, via:
<http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/orgs.htm>
Several members of the Russian-based Anti-militarist Radical Association were arrested in Moscow at a demonstration against conscription. Details can be found via:
Please note that this "ARA" is a different organization from the "Anti Racist Action" ARA based in Canada and the U.S.
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- ACTION ORGANIZING ON THE INTERNET
I hoped to have several issues listed as Anti-Fascist Action Alerts in this issue. I don't. That's why I'm writing this essay. TCKF isn't suitable for sending out lots of information on individual struggles; it works best to inform people of existing struggles and giving them pointers to where they can get the details and suggestions of what actions to take.
One of the issues involved opposition to anti-Romi acts in the United Kingdom. The Romis or Romanis are commonly known as "Gypsies" and they, like the Jews, were a specific target of Nazi extermination efforts. The sweeping changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe triggered new outbreaks of both anti-Semitic and anti-Romi actions and many Romis have fled to England only to be met with new hostility there.
The struggle against hate-based anti-Romi actions seems to me to be quite supportable. Unfortunately, there is no source of information on the web to which I can point you. The one person who has posted the information is forced to use his work computer and because of understandable job security considerations does not want his e-mail address published.
It is a not uncommon problem. But there are ways of working around it that net-based anti-hate activists can use. The first is to explore getting a free web site at some place like <geocities>. Then you need to get your story up at the site, converted into the right data format. There are several free web authoring tools you can use for this. I'm testing some now and will write a bit on them in the future. I'm not interested in locating anything fancy; I want to find a simple, plain vanilla, easy to use and fast to learn software package that lets busy activists do one thing: get data into web format as fast as possible. You can also explore the "anti-fascist web" and try to get some webmasters interested in your struggle who will then post your information on their web pages.
The second thing you want is an e-mail contact address where people can write for even more information. Several companies provide free e-mail accounts you can reach via the web. This can protect your security at work. It also means you don't even need a personal computer to get e- mail since you can contact the mailbox from a public computer at a friend's house or from many local libraries.
Many readers are from large well-established groups who might ask "what can a tiny number of individuals do when none of them can even afford computers?" The most obvious answer is use some of these techniques to get out the information on their struggles and win the support of the large groups who *are* in a position of waging a successful campaign against hate-based actions.
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-- tallpaul Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
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