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The Internet Anti-Fascist: #40, Sunday, 23 November 1997 ______________________________________________________________________
THE IMMIGRANT AS THE IDEAL TARGET FOR HATE NOTES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOVER ANTI-NAZI ACTION, Part 2
The recent action in Dover by fascist forces of the National Front marked one of the first major violent-oriented actions against immigrants. The action against the Roma was stopped by a large anti- fascist turnout. But the anti-immigrant hysteria and the consequent stereotyping is significantly increasing in the English-speaking world as well as parts of Eastern Europe.
Scapegoating has always been part of the agenda used by the far Right in its organizing. Past issues of TINA have shown how hate directed against one group can easily be transferred to another. This week, for example, Oumar Dia, a 38-year-old Muslim refugee from Mauritania, was killed by a skinhead in Denver.
Immigrants are one of the safest targets for the far Right's efforts. Unlike other traditional targets they have few resources to defend themselves, to expose the Right's attacks, or to go on an anti-hate offensive.
This creates a danger for the broad anti-hate forces. People naturally tend to first notice attacks aimed at their own group. They also tend to devote the bulk of their organizing time to ward off attacks closest to them personally. This can let the Right launch oblique offensives that "slip by" the more powerful protest organizations.
Let's not take this into some proto-Right conspiracy theory. There is no massive united Jewish lobby or underground gay network. Nor do the feminists exert secret control over the media. The once-famed "NAACP- Communist Party alliance" existed only in the delusions of the KKK. But all of these groups have their own organizations that most immigrants lack. U.S. dentists are probably more organized with more power than new immigrants from Mauritania, East Timor, or the Roma.
It is crucial for the broad anti-hate network to understand how attacks on those outside their immediate groups can have a significant impact at a later time. Get people to hate the "dirty Roma" and you've convinced them to hate the "dirty Jew" or the "filthy [Black] homeless." Convince them that Elbonian immigrants "spread disease" and you've psychologically prepared the way for a new homophobic hysteria against "AIDS."
Whether we like it or not, whether we don't want to be bothered or are "too busy," it is still true that an injury to one is an injury to all.
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Administrative Matters
TINA's circulation has just skyrocketed and my old system for mailing is no longer works properly. Some people are on the list more than once, usually as an individual and a representative of an organization. Because of this and other problems, I am reorganizing the system to purge duplicates and make it more efficient. Consequently, the "header" above which you get TINA will probably change over the next several issues.
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WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, via: <http://www.nnirr.org>
"Turkey: Chief Editor of the Kurtulus weekly on trial!: 'The chief editor of the magazine Kurtulus, Ayten Ozturk, was arrested on October 13, 1997, on order of the State Security Court in Ankara. The journalist was charged with "leading an organization"....'," 21 Nov 97, Information Center For Free Peoples, via: <http://www.ozgurluk.org/press/msg00494.html>
"Editorial Cartoon Shows Muslims As Mad Dogs," Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR), 20 Nov 97, via: <http://www.cair-net.org/alerts/alert154.htm>
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-- tallpaul Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
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