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The Internet Anti-Fascist: #39, Wednesday, 19 November 1997 _____________________________________________________________________
STOPPING THE SECOND "DEVOURING" NOTES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOVER ANTI-NAZI ACTION
I think future history will reveal that last Saturday's anti-Nazi demonstration in Dover was more important that it appears today. Regular TINAF readers know that the U.K.'s National Front called an anti-Roma ("Gypsy") action and were stopped by a broad anti-fascist coalition. Dover is important for more reasons than the militant coalition that came together to defend Romani rights.
I've spent the past several days looking through the <igc> site and reading about immigration issues. I want to spend the next two or three issues of TINAF examining how immigrants are becoming a "new" scapegoat. The quotation marks are important because the far Right has always targeted them in one way or another.
But there is an unusually intense focus that today's Right has developed. Traditional right-wing groups have always used the myth of the dangerous outsider to whip up hate-based action. The KKK focused on Black people; the traditional European fascists targeted the Jews; right-wing Populists in the U.S. went after Catholics and Masons. And, of course, groups like gay people were always a reserve for additional projected fears.
Hate is transferable; the psycho-dynamics of hatred move--and can be moved--from one group to another. So I want to further explore why the Roma are the "ideal" ethnic group on which fascists focus hate. Then I want to examine how today's Right uses the immigration issue in its organizing both off and on the net.
Meanwhile, you can examine the "The Patrin" web site whose URL is listed below to see how the Roma have been treated through the centuries. It contains several excellent short articles on the "Porraimos" ("Devouring") which is how the Roma refer to the Nazi genocide. Other links are to articles showing what they're up against as many in Europe want to move to a second Devouring.
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Administrative Matters
Several readers wrote that last issue's links to the movie reviews of "Starship Trooper" weren't valid anymore. This is a problem that several on-line journals have experienced, particularly with current news articles. Newspapers often keep stories at their web sites for only a day or two. All of us are working on a solution to the problem.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
(1) The condition of the Roma today:
James Walsh, "Outcasts of Europe: Scorned, abused and rejected, Gypsies are a people without a home in their increasingly hostile surroundings." _Time_, 3 Nov 97, via: <http://www.pathfinder.com/@@ca763QYAvjePq7KB/time/magazine/1997/int- /971103/ europe.outcasts_of_e.html>
Isabela Fonesca, "At the Bottom of the Heap: What--or who--has made Gypsies the quintessential outsiders?" _Time_, 3 Mov 97, via: <http://www.pathfinder.com/@@EzagQwYAwTfCNGbO/time/magazine/1997/int- /971103/ europe.at_the_bottom.html>
_U.S. News Online_, "Looking for their heaven: '... the Communist collapse in Eastern Europe in 1989 released a flood of anti-Gypsy hostility. Since 1990, Gypsies have been the victims of at least 1,250 hate crimes in the Czech Republic alone'." 15 Nov 97, via: <http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/971124/24out3.htm>
_San Francisco Examiner_, "World Datelines: 'Some 233 racially motivated attacks have been reported in the Czech Republic this year alone, CTK news agency reported Monday. Gypsies are the most frequently targeted group'." 11 Nov 97, via: <http://www.sfgate.com/cgbin/examiner/article.cgi?year=1997&- month=11&day=1 1&article=NEWS15147.dtl>
CNN World News, "Canadian skinheads take aim at Gypsy immigrants," 27 Aug 97, via: <http://cnn.com/WORLD/9708/27/canada.gypsies.skinheads/> Gary Tuchman, "gypsies to join suit against Swiss over Nazi loot," CNN, via: <http://cnn.com/WORLD/9706/09/gypsy.gold/index.html>
Maek Clayton, "Gypsies find suspicion, not warmth, in Canada," Christian Science Monitor, 27 Aug 97, via: <http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1997/08/27/intl/intl.2.html>
Barbara Borst, "Gypsies get a cold reception: immigrants met by hostility in Canada," Houston Chronicle Interactive, 26 Sep 97, via: <http://www.chron.com/cgi- bin/auth/story/content/chronicle/world/97/09/27/gy psies.2-0.html>
Howard Schneider and Christine Spolar. "Czech prejudice--and TV--fuel Gypsy migration to Canada," Wasington Post, 1 Sep 97, via: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- srv/inatl/americas/sep/03/gypsies.htm>
"Roma exodus from the Czech Republic," Roma News Network, 17 Aug 97, via: <http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/czech1.htm>
(2) Romani culture and information on the web: anthropological, social, historical, etc. including related links:
"The Patrin: dedicated to Romani (Gypsy) culture and history and to extending awareness of the continuous Roma struggle to achieve and maintain dignity and freedom," via: <http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5121/patrin.htm>
(3) For a look at how the Right uses the immigration issue, see the links established by the pro-immigration "Political Ecology Group" via: <http://www.igc.org/peg/imm_env/links.html>
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-- tallpaul Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction.)
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