Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 22:24:04 -0400
From: Paul Kneisel <tallpaul-AT-nyct.net>
Subject: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 14 Aug 2001 -- 5:64 (#586)



APOLOGY FOR DELAY:

Please accept our apologies for the delay in recent issues. We've recently
been off-the-net for the same reasons that produced Cult of the Dead Cow
and Computer underground Digest: physical destruction of cable.



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             The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 14 August 2001
                          Vol. 5, Number 64 (#586)
__________________________________________________________________________

Action Alerts:
    Sunderland, UK: 18 Aug: Stop the Nazi National Front Demo
Inquiries:
    WNET/NYC Channel 13, "American Masters: The Life of War Photographer
       Robert Capa"
Fascism In the News:
    Anti Nazi League, "Nazi rally a wash-out! Victory for Anti-Nazi
       protest," 13 Aug 01
    Eric Laursen (In These Times), "Who Is That Masked Man? New York Police
       Admit Profiling Anarchists"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACTION ALERTS:

STOP THE NAZI NF demonstration in Sunderland
Anti Nazi League
13 Aug 01

ASSEMBLE 1pm SATURDAY 18 AUGUST SUNDERLAND CITY RAILWAY STATION

The Nazi National Front are threatening to hold a demonstration in
Sunderland this Saturday.

These Hitler loving Nazis want to march to Seaburn to whip up racist
violence against refugees. Last year the BNP held a protest outside the
Park Avenue Hotel in Seaburn which resulted in the vicious beating of a
refugee. Three weeks ago the BNP F|hrer Nick Griffin visited Glasgow. The
BNP boasted in the July edition of its publication Identity that they are
"spearheading a new campaign against asylum seeker placements in the
Sighthill area". Two weeks later there was the brutal racist murder of
refugee Firsat Yildiz in Sighthill.

That is why the NF want to march in Sunderland. They want to divide our
community and cause racial violence on the streets.

This year the NF have been banned in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford. On every
occasion they defied the ban. They were responsible for causing fighting on
the streets in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford.

Now they want to do this in Sunderland. When the NF Nazis threatened to
march in Birmingham earlier this month they were forced to cancel their
demonstration due to massive local opposition.

We can do the same in Sunderland.  Join the demonstration to stop the NF
Nazis.

   --  Anti Nazi League
       PO Box 2566, London N4 1WJ
       Phone:  020 7924 0333
       Fax:  020 7924 0313
       <http://www.anl.org.uk>
       <anl-AT-anl.org.uk>

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INQUIRIES:

"American Masters: The Life of War Photographer Robert Capa"
WNET/NYC Channel 13

AMERICAN MASTERS, the award-winning arts and culture biography series
produced by WNET/THIRTEEN for national PBS broadcast, is in the research
and development phase for a 90-minute documentary film on the life of
ROBERT CAPA (1913-1954), the renowned war photographer who devoted his life
to creating the visual legacy of five wars.

Robert Capa was committed to telling the true story of war and its effects
on the men and women who served.  With this film, the first biographical
documentary portrait of Capa, we have the unique opportunity to pay tribute
to this extraordinary man.

It is our sincere hope that by reaching out to veterans who had personal
connections with Robert Capa, or direct knowledge about his life and/or
work, we will be able to enhance our film with exclusive stories and
original materials.

If you knew Robert Capa and have any evocative stories, photos, audio
recordings or moving images, please let us know so that we may share them
with the audience of this film.  If you or anyone in your family was ever
the subject of one of Capa's photographs, please tell us your tales of
working with Capa or the anecdotes that have been told to you.

You can reach Joanna Rudnick and the American Masters: Robert Capa Project
at 1-800-426-7027, ext. 2966 or by email at RudnickJ-AT-thirteen.org.

We welcome your contributions to the film.

Yours truly,

   --  Susan Lacy               Anne Makepeace
       Executive Producer       Writer/Producer/Director
       American Masters

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FASCISM IN THE NEWS:

Nazi rally a wash-out! Victory for Anti-Nazi protest
Anti Nazi League
13 Aug 01

Mid Wales raged against the BNP on Saturday and delivered a massive blow
to the Nazis.

BNP F|hrer Nick Griffin had promised that over one thousand people would
attend the so-called "Red White and Blue festival", held on an adjoining
field to his farm.  On Saturday afternoon, a meagre one hundred Nazis
huddled in the rain while the rally's start was delayed by three hours.

The rally was only able to take place due to the heavy policing of
Anti-Nazi protestors.  The ANL-planned demo in Llanerfyl was banned and a
ten mile exclusion zone imposed.  Anti-Nazis were allowed to gather
fifteen miles away in Welshpool which was also encircled by a twelve mile
exclusion zone subject to police roadblocks and searches.

Over one hundred and fifty people turned up and staged a four hour
demonstration against the BNP rally. The Welsh Shadow Minister for
Equality, Plaid Cymru's member for Llanelli Helen Mary Jones, was joined
by Labour Party councillors, trade unionists and the local Red Choir.

Local people had made banners saying "No Nazis in Wales" and someone had
made a huge pair of knickers, with "Pants to the BNP" printed on them.

Some ANL members managed to defy the ban, evading the massive police
blockades to join local people who turned out against the BNP in the tiny
village of Llanerfyl.  Around twenty people gathered to voice their
protest at the scene where Nick Griffin was working with the police
blockade to vet those entering the eleven mile road which leads to his
farm.  Earlier ANL members decorated the verges of the A458 (the main road
to Llanerfyl) with placards saying "Red White and Blue Festival cancelled
due to foot and mouth".  These created the sight of boneheads jumping out
of their cars and ripping them up - which took some time!  Even earlier,
protestors had managed to daub slogans on the A458 which read "BNP=Hitler"
and "NAZI SCUM".

The BNP failed to deliver their promised one thousand and will be
devastated at being forced to hold a Nazi rally that was heavily policed
and only attracted their existing hard-core members.

The event was intended to transform the BNP into a "respectable" political
organisation hosting a "family" weekend.  Only a pathetic 150 had turned
up on Saturday, and by Sunday, there were only 300 in a field in
torrential rain.  Their mood was hardly buoyant and it is rumoured that
leading BNPer Tony "Bomber" Lecomber wanted to go home on Saturday
afternoon.

Many local people joined the ANL and vowed to keep up the fight for as
long as Nick Griffin resides in Mid Wales. The protest against the rally
worked.  It exposed the true nature of the BNP as Nazis rather than a
genuine political party.  It sent a strong and defiant message to the
Nazis that the ANL is going to make sure that they do not build on their
election successes in the North West - or anywhere else.

- - - - -

Who Is That Masked Man? New York Police Admit Profiling Anarchists
Eric Laursen (In These Times)

This city was treated to a most unusual political trial in June, when 12
anarchists appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court charged with "masquerading
in public" on May Day 2000. It was the first prosecution in decades under a
150-year-old state law that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani dusted off two years ago
to block a Ku Klux Klan rally.

Thanks to an earlier court decision, the non-jury trial gave the anarchists
a rare opportunity to discuss and defend their beliefs in court--including
the black clothing and bandannas that have become common at protests. But
perhaps most important, officers who took the witness stand admitted what
critics have long charged--that New York police allowed out-of-town police
to attend rallies here and videotape them to profile activists in
preparation for protests in other cities. Judge Ellen Coyne's ruling is
expected in mid-August.

The case concerns the arrest of a group of anarchists just before an annual
May Day march. Police amassed along the parade route had received a
briefing from an NYPD "disorder expert" that the crowd could include "WTO-
Seattle-type protesters." A police surveillance videotape shows that the
anarchists, some of whom were wearing bandannas and some not, were standing
quietly when they were suddenly jumped by police, wrestled to the ground
and arrested.

The defendants were held in jail for as long as 36 hours on a range of
charges including violation of the mask law, which prohibits two or more
persons from "congregating" in public while wearing masks to obscure their
identities. The vaguely worded statute was adopted back in the 1840s, when
the state was trying to suppress the "Rent Wars," a series of tenant farmer
uprisings against landlords. The mask law languished for many years, but
other cities facing large-scale political protests--including Philadelphia,
Windsor, Ontario and Quebec--have adopted their own anti-mask laws.

"If Judge Coyne comes down in favor of the anarchists being able to
participate in political events while wearing masks," says Beth Haroules of
the New York Civil Liberties Union, "the message to the city is they
shouldn't be using loitering laws to clear the streets of people expressing
political beliefs." The NYCLU has filed a separate request with federal
Judge Harold Baer to declare the mask law unconstitutional.

Attorney Ron Kuby, who represents the anarchists, compares the case to
those of Chinese, South Korean and Iranian activists who have worn masks at
demonstrations in those countries for fear of reprisal. "At least some of
these defendants were aware that there was ongoing surveillance of their
movement in preparation for the [then upcoming] Republican National
Convention," which Kuby says justifies their wearing masks. "Indeed, the
Philadelphia police were there [at the May Day rally] taking pictures of
them."

At trial, Kuby grilled Michael Fox, who was in charge of the arrests, and
Thomas Graham, a deputy inspector with the NYPD's disorder control unit,
about their own knowledge of anarchism. Neither was familiar with the
leading anarchist thinkers Kuby mentioned Kropotkin, Bakunin, Berkman--and
Graham testified that a 60 Minutes segment was his principal source about
the movement.

Fox also acknowledged for the first time that the NYPD and other police
departments have been cooperating to profile demonstrators whom they
suspect of being "Seattle-type" activists. This included officers from
Philadelphia and Morristown, New Jersey, some of whom were recognized by
the defendants from those cities, and who were in New York videotaping the
anarchists before they were arrested.

Although the defendants expect an acquittal, that alone will not eliminate
the mask law as a threat to activists. "Even if we can prove to them that
prosecution is fruitless in these cases, that doesn't prevent the police
from making an arrest," Kuby notes. "Either the district attorney has to
tell them that it's not prosecutable, or the new mayor of New York has to
say 'don't do it.' "

This year's May Day was again marred by arrests when police charged a group
of activists who were performing street theater at a march in support of
immigrant workers. Police arrested five--one for violating the mask law.
The NYCLU is collecting activists' arrest stories going back to 1998 for a
possible class-action lawsuit against the NYPD.

Haroules is optimistic about the anarchists' chances of an acquittal,
noting that the courts have become "a lot more jaundiced in their
evaluation of the tactics the police are using." But for her, the real goal
is to change police action: "Unfortunately, that stance hasn't filtered
down to the behavior of the cop on the street."

                               * * * * *

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.

__________________________________________________________________________

                                FASCISM:
    We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
       (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)

                                - - - - -

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