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The Internet Anti-Fascist: #43, Wednesday, 3 December 1997 ______________________________________________________________________
ANTI-FASCIST ACTION ALERT #4:
"The Labor Studies Department at Laney College in Oakland is being sued and the coordinator [Albert Lannon <avlannon@sfsu.edu>] is being asked to inform on students who participated in legal and peaceful demonstrations. Here's the story...." at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/story014.txt>
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WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
no author [Agence France-Presse], Nazi gold inventory found in Vienna: A total of 22 microfilms containing more than 700 documents relating to Nazi gold had been in the possession of Herbert Herzog, a commercial traveler and survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp'." 30 Nov 97, via: <http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/world/113097/world19_17501_S1_nofra- mes.ht ml>
International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions, "Pay Us Our Wages! Support Russian Workers' Campaign Against The Scandal of Unpaid Wages" via: <http://www.icem.org/campaigns/no_pay_cc/index.html>
Bob Campbell, movie review, "Ride is wild on 'Starship' battling beastly bugs," movie review, [Alabama] Star Ledger, 2 Dec 97, at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/story006.txt>
Chris Potter, movie review, "Starship Troopers: '... [a] bluntly totalitarian epic." Ann Arbor News, 24 Nov 97, at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/story008.txt>
Jay Carr, movie review, "Paul Verhoeven's close encounter with space bugs," Boston Globe, 2 Nov 97, at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/story009.txt>
Paul Tatara, movie review, "Fascist 'Starship' troops lacking in irony: '... the world's first winkingly fascist film'.... 'It's "Melrose Place" meets "Triumph of the Will'...." CNN Interactive, 11 Nov 97, at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/story007.txt>
School of the Americas Watch, "The US Army School of Assassins, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the School of Assassins have been responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are some of the most notorious dictators of Latin America: Manuel Noreiga and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia." via: <http://www.soaw.org/>
U.N.'s 1948 "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" EarthWINS, via: <http://www.earthwins.com/udhr.html>
On a lighter side (or heavier note) from the Christian Fundamentalists: Rapture Index "The Rapture Index by no means is meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is meant to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture." via: <http://www.novia.net/~todd/rap2.html>
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TODAY'S "GYPSY" AS UNIVERSAL SCAPEGOAT: NOTES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOVER ANTI-NAZI ACTION, Part 4
There's no hysteria like a good old-fashioned witch hunt. I followed the talk-show circuit of people like Faye Yaeger and others with their tales of 50,000 children sacrificed each year in dark Satanic rituals by millennia-old sinister forces that dominate the news media, cops, and courts. The "witch" is similar to the classical silent psychoanalyst onto whom anything can be projected. The absence of Yaeger's witches makes them the perfect blank screen onto which all manner of hysterical delusions can be viewed.
But converting political hysteria into hate-based action needs a visible enemy.
There's a fundamental difference between the cute PC Term-of-the-Week and language that's been used for hundreds or thousands of years. I am grateful for the corrections readers made over my confusion of Romi and Roma. But I read even favorable news stories that start "Gypsies (they call themselves Roma) ...."
What would our perceptions be of a story that started "Shylocks (they call themselves Hebrews)" or "Darkies (they call themselves Africans)?"
The first example is more than mere hype. For like the anti-Semite's tale of the Jewish "shylock" who engages in unfair business practices, the Roma small business person will "gyp" you in the trade.
Note how the mainstream media depicts the Roma. You can still see the classical anti-Semitic image of the Jew, but you usually have to visit anti-Semites to find it. Not so with the Roma.
Think back on the movies you've seen that had Roma characters. They were almost always presented as two types. The first was the "King of the Gypsies" who looked and sounded vaguely oily and wore an expensive but vaguely lower-class suit. All of the others tended to be distinctly lower class, anti-social, and unsocialized. Perhaps the woman was in league with the dark sinister forces or simply a fraudulent fortune- teller.
Does someone hate women? They've heard that "all Gypsy women are whores." Do they have a similar sexual problem from the other side of the gender line? Then they believe that the men force women into prostitution.
The meaning of the "dirt = disease" equation was covered in the last issue. Those who share concerns for "racial purity" see the Gypsy as dark-skinned though not quite African. And if the immediate fear of "racial monopolization" does not develop when your daughter marries one, the "Gypsy will steal your child."
The myth of the "Gypsy" contains a bit of hate for every bigot.
The "Wandering Gypsy"
The "Gypsy" is the prototypical Outsider in an increasingly xenophobic U.S. culture. Scapegoating today especially targets immigrants and others--like the homeless--seen as not quite "belonging" in our neighborhoods. There's even a connection to the sense of military aggression as the bigot speaks of the "foreign invasion."
Hate works best here when the responsibility is placed on the victim. Immigrants, in this stereotype, do not flee unbearable economic conditions or political persecution; rather they come for "our" welfare or to take our jobs. Yet it is not the bigot who sees him- or herself making the victims the outsider. This status is projected onto the victims themselves because of the projected refusal to integrate or to become "normal" people.
The "wandering Gypsy," like the earlier "wandering Jew," is perceived as victimized only because of his own actions and, above all, his own aggressive behavior.
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Administrative Matters
In TINAF #39 I wrote of the problems many on-line journals were having with URLs to news stories on the net. Often the URL "died" before readers could access the story/file. To avoid this I am now trying to save and store the material on my ftp site in the "/story" directory at: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story/>.
This means that the stories should always be available for you to read. Remember, too, that all the back issues of TINAF are archived and indexed at the ftp site. You can use the TINAF index to help you locate older stories from the "What's Worth Checking" section.
Other more-or-less permanent web sites (as opposed to news articles) will be cited by URL as usual. Happy reading.
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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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