Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 19:33:35 -0400 From: Paul Kneisel <tallpaul-AT-nyct.net> Subject: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 -- 5:67 1/2 (#589) __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 24 August 2001 Vol. 5, Number 67 1/2 (#589) __________________________________________________________________________ Action Alerts: ISWoR, "Help Russians Kick Racists/right-wingers out of the anti- globalisation movement!" 21 Aug 01 Announcements: Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) et al, "Memorandum to US Government Concerning the World Conference on Racism Xenophobia and Related Intolerances," 16 Aug 01 Web Sites of Interest: International Solidarity with Workers in Russia -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION ALERTS: Help Russians Kick Racists/right-wingers out of the anti-globalisation movement! International Solidarity with Workers in Russia (ISWoR) 21 Aug 01 Dear activists of the anti-globalisation, labor, antiracist and progressive movements, In July the Genoa protests saw the first ever participation of an organised Russian delegation in the international protest movement. Now, despite the offer of the Putin government to use massive police brutality, live firearms, etc to make the country the "safest" place for future assemblies of the G-8, WTO, IMF, etc, there is a growing determination to build the movement in Russia and the Ukraine. But there is a great danger! As many of you know, Russia and other countries of the ex-USSR have suffered the collapse of their industry and the near-total impoverishment of their people since the market economy was re-introduced. Diseases such as TB are now epidemic in Russia, and the average male life expectancy is down to 56. Russians have every reason to be angry at the world's capitalist leaders, the neo-liberal monsters, coming to Moscow as Putin requests. But into all this misery have stepped the venomous forces of racism, fascism, bigotry - who try to divert the just anger of Russian people away from those responsible and onto traditional scapegoats - Chechens, Muslims, Black people, Jews, the gay community, etc.. In July the international association ATTAC (via its French and Belgian sections) largely financed the trip of the joint Russian-Ukrainian delegation to Genoa. Alexander Gelenin, a Russian left activist known for his uncompromising stand against racism, nationalism and collaboration with neo-liberals, has exposed the participation in the delegation of racists (the so-called "red-browns") as well as a former Yeltsin money-launderer (see link to The Gelenin Letter, below). In Genoa, and then back in Russia, these right-wingers succeeded in taking almost all the credit for the delegation in the mass media. Two participants of the delegation, Nicolaev and Vedernikova, are leading members of the RKRP, an extremely racist and homophobic party whose members worship the murderous dictator Stalin. Many of the youth closest to the party are admirers of the butcher Pol Pot. The party recently published material urging Russians to struggle against rap music (!), on the grounds that Russians and Black people can never agree. In 1997 the party approved an official statement blaming the economic crisis in Russia on Jews, and they have also published material urging that gay men be locked up in prison. On their return from the trip, Nicolaev appeared prominently in the Russian mass-media, where he was quoted by Interfax urging indiscriminate smashing of windows, property, etc., reminiscent of the provocateurs who infiltrated the Black Bloc in Genoa. Another delegation participant, Sergey Khramov, head of the union Sotsprof, was in 1996 involved in the laundering of millions of dollars for the Yeltsin election campaign. In Genoa he made statements in favour of Putin on national TV. (N.B., Khramov, it seems, had alternative funding for his journey, nevertheless he was a leading voice of the delegation in Genoa). Additionally, Evgeny Kozlov was present. This man is responsible for bringing the nazi National-Bolshevik Party, who call for imprisonment of Black people in labour camps, into the leadership of the Leningrad branch of the mass Labour Code campaign. In the outcry afterwards, he publicly defended his actions. During the trip these named individuals were able to gain effective leadership of the contingent. On their return home, the delegation held a press conference in which plans to build an anti-globalisation movement in Russia were revealed. The racists were allowed to appear in the mass media as spokespersons for the newly-forming movement. In the anti-globalisation movement internationally, people are becoming more and more aware of the threat from nationalists who advocate protectionism and racism as the antidote to "globalisation". As a result people are now using slogans such as "globalise resistance" in order to demonstrate the need for unity of all peoples in the fight against the corporate giants, not for exclusion. We urge you to sign the e-mail petition below to help our Russian friends kick racists, bigots, and pro-Putin forces out of the emerging anti-globalisation movement in Russia. The events which soured the Russian delegation to Genoa must not happen again! -- From the Executive Committee International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR - - - - - Petition/letter - please sign below Dear ATTAC, I am writing to express my/our extreme disappointment on learning that, during the recent anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa, a Russian-Ukrainian delegation mainly funded by ATTAC included leading members of a red-brown organisation, the Russian Communist Workers Party (RKRP), an individual responsible for promoting the fascist National Bolshevik Party in Russian labour campaigns, and a former Yeltsin money-launderer who, during the demonstrations, praised Putin in front of the mass media. Further, these individuals manoeuvred to assume political leadership of the delegation and afterwards stole the limelight in the mass media. We condemn the Putin government, and its western puppet masters, the IMF, World Bank etc., for imposing the market-led impoverishment on Russian working people. We oppose the hardened racists, the bigots, the ultra-nationalists. We call on you to ensure that in future the funds or the name of ATTAC are not misused in this way again. In general the bringing of Russian activists of the labor, civil rights, and women's movement to Genoa was a very positive achievement, and we welcome the birth in Russia of a resistance movement to global corporate domination. We assert our solidarity with all genuine internationalist organisations who are fighting Putin, the IMF and the neoliberal privatisation which has devastated the lives of ordinary people in Russia.. Signed NAME ORGANISATION TOWN COUNTRY EMAIL Now send to following addresses: attacfr-AT-attac.org belgium-AT-attac.org shein72-AT-mail.ru ISWoR-AT-aol.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENTS: Memorandum to US Government Concerning the World Conference on Racism Xenophobia and Related Intolerances Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) et al 16 Aug 01 Congress of South African Trade Unions; South African Communist Party; South African National Civic Organisation; Joint Statement The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African Communist Party (SACP) and South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) have today, 16 August 2001, submitted the following memorandum to the US Ambassador, Pretoria, and US Consul, Durban: The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), South African Communist Party (SACP) and South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO) are angry and disgusted at the United States' threats to boycott the World Conference on Racism Xenophobia and Related Intolerances unless certain issues are removed from the agenda. SACP, COSATU and SANCO are firmly behind the demand that debates must take place on reparations for the victims of slavery and racism and on Palestine and the Middle East. The US government is objecting to the conference conducting a discussion of Zionist racism against Palestine and reparations for victims of slavery and colonialism. This is not acceptable. Zionist racism and reparations for victims of slavery and colonialism must be on the agenda of the World Conference. When the issue of reparations for the victims of Nazism was being debated, the US was enthusiastically in support. Yet now that reparations for the victims of slavery are being discussed, they want it removed from the agenda. There is a clear case of double-standards being applied. The struggle against Zionist racism and effectively addressing the issue of reparations is part of the struggle of the poor and working people across the world against capitalist globalisation and for social progress, freedom, justice, democracy and peace. The difficult situation in Palestine represents 52 years of apartheid, occupation, Israeli state terrorism, violent subjugation and an unfair economic blockade of Palestine by Israel. This situation has continued unabated and worsened in the last eight months, with the complicity of the United States of America. Even more tragic has been the insufficient international outcry at this situation - a silence which basically amounts to a pat on the back for the apartheid Israeli state. This conference presents an opportunity for the world community to engage in democratic debate and take united action to end all forms of discrimination, including the legitimate struggle for Palestinian freedom and addressing the issue of reparations for colonialism and slavery. Governments have been invited by the United Nations on the assumption that they are all opposed to racism and xenophobia. If this is not true of the Bush Administration, then their participation will not be missed. We cannot however tolerate threats to blackmail the rest of the world to accept its own agenda for the conference. In South Africa, institutionalised racism has left a deep-seated legacy. While the apartheid system has been defeated politically, its economic and social ravages are still visible. In the rural areas the majority African population still live in poverty and fear, while their white employers prosper as before and on some farms even use violence to impose their power. There is still huge racial inequality in the distribution of wealth and power. While Africans make up 76% of the population, their share of income amounts to only 29%. Whites, though less than 13% of the population, take away 58.5% of total income. The economy is still mainly owned and controlled by a few large white-owned corporations. South Africa is a society of two nations - one powerful, wealthy and white, the other powerless, poor and black, while at the same time a new gap is opening up between the small new black capitalists and middle class and the rest of the African population. Internationally too, the legacy of slavery and colonialism continues to impact on relations between, as well as within nations. Today's wealthy imperialist powers built their wealth on the enslavement and exploitation of the colonialised world. Capitalist globalisation threatens to entrench and widen this unequal distribution of resources. But the World Conference Against Racism provides a unique opportunity to address these historical inequities. We support the growing demand for reparations from the former colonial and slave-owning countries to compensate the millions of people who have suffered, and continue to suffer, as a result of colonialism, racism and slavery. The developed countries must be committed to an international trade regime that benefits countries of the South, unlike the present situation that makes the Southern economies vulnerable to collapse at every stock market jitter in the developed countries. Essential too is the cancellation of developing countries' accumulated debts, especially those owed to the IMF and World Bank, which are a serious barrier to development. However the most effective remedies to reverse the devastating consequences of racism, slavery and colonialism are far-reaching structural changes to the world economy, which must extend beyond the narrow understanding of reparations as financial compensation to individual victims or countries. For the first time in history nations of the world can act in genuine partnership, to build non-racialism in action, working together to ensure a better life for all. This will only be successful, however, if all nations and peoples, including the United States of America, are prepared to collectively acknowledge the crimes of the past, change the present and build a future free from racism, discrimination and xenophobia. SANCO, the SACP and COSATU demand that the US Government join this movement, stop trying to blackmail the world and participate fully in the debates at the conference. We demand that your government must take the following steps: * Withdraw its opposition to the inclusion of the issues of Zionism and reparations for victims of slavery and colonialism in the agenda of the World Conference Against Racism. * Support long-standing UN resolutions on ending Israeli occupation, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and securing the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel. -- Patrick Craven and Moloto Mothapo, Acting COSATU Spokespersons <patrick-AT-cosatu.org.za> 082-821-7456 339-4911 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEB SITES OF INTEREST: IWKoR <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html> Further information can be found at: <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/news/genoagel.html> the letter by A.Gelenin exposing the reality of the Genoa delegation <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/isworarts/Russianleft01.html> links to a recent article explaining the above with far more detail <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/isworarts/rkrp2001.html> Lisa Taylor article on the Russian Communist Workers Party, the RKRP <http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/discuss/cesspit.html> article on red-brown phenomenon in Russia * * * * * 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. 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