Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 23:14:22 -0500 From: vacirca-AT-charm.net (robert brown) Subject: AUT: ARA article that might be interesting >Hey Bob - > >Here's an interesting article (i thought) on Anti-Racist Action out of >the new VIBE magazine that I got forwarded to me. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Skinnin' Heads >by Jonathan Franklin > >Forty years ago, Detroit's Motown Records made history delivering "the >sound of young America." Giants such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder >were more than entertainers; they shaped American culture and even >helped bridge the racial divide. But today, there's another record >label in Detroit that's opposed to everything Motown stands for. > >Since 1994, Resistance Records has distributed and promoted a >soundtrack for white supremacy. Resistance fronts skinhead groups >like Berserkr and Nordic Thunder. You can buy the latest releases at >skin-sponsored concerts, on the Internet, even at some alternative >record stores. What are these bands preaching? The group Berserkr >chants: "Niggers just hit this side of town / Watch my property values >go down / BANG! BANG! / watch them die / Watch those niggers drop like >flies." > >These groups don't just make records; they also perform live, though >many clubs don't welcome them. Last November, members of the hate >group Aryan Nation and executives from Resistance Records figured they >could hold a fund-raiser and concert under the cover of the >Thanksgiving holiday without making any news. The organizers chose a >suburb of Detroit where they rented a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. >On a rainy November 29, the racists arrived to rock out to Max Resist >& The Hooligans, trade white-power Bound For Glorys CDs, and network >with American and Canadian neo-Nazi leaders. Instead, they were >picketed and roughed up by a group of teenagers who appeared out of >nowhere, shouted them down, maced them, and disappeared into the rain. > When the police later arrested and questioned three protestors, they >confirmed that the sweaty, brawling action was the calling card of a >group calling themselves Anti-Racist Action, or ARA. > >NON-NONVIOLENCE >ARA is a quiet revolution involving thousands of antiracist youth in >the Midwest, with bases in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis. ARA has >no president and no membership dues, but it does have a solid history >of beating racist fascists - sometimes ideologically, sometimes >literally. When organized hate groups gather at events like >Resistance Records concerts, ARA members blockade the entrances or >lobby the owner - anything to get the concert cancelled. > >On that freezing night last Thanksgiving, 80 ARA activists surrounded >the entrance to the VFW hall for three hours. By night's end, a >hundred or so neo-Nazis had busted through and entered the party, but >carloads of racists skipped the event when they saw the protest and >the cops it had attracted. "We figured we pushed it as far as we >could without starting to take major arrests," said 23-year-old ARA >organizer Kieran, who, like most ARA members, keeps his identity a >secret. Kieran calls himself an antiracist skinheads but looks more >like a white frat boy in his Boston Bruins hockey jersey. "Even if we >didn't shut it down one hundred percent, we definitely put them on >notice." > >"They tried to throw a couple of beer cans at us," says Stevie, a high >school junior who says he acted in self-defence during the protest. >As the son of a black mom and white dad ("Call me muuuuulatto," he >says), Stevie is a frequent target for racists. He had his own >reasons to protest the "white power" concert, but then they gave him >the excuse he needed. "This big, ugly motherfucker type, he tried to >run through us like a linebacker. I had a can of mace. I sprayed him >right in the eyes. Then my friend" - he pauses to come up with an >alias - "'Kfrog' hit him over the head with a Maglite." > >The next day, when Stevie returned to high school, the gossip spread, >and the story mutated until talk of Nazis, guns, cops and ARA swirled >through the school. Suddenly, his friends began to strut the halls >with ARA t-shirts showing a fist smashing a swastika. Stevie is now a >recruiter for ARA. When the call comes down from the Toronto or >Minneapolis chapters that something's about to go down, his Unity Crew >pack up sleeping bags, bullhorns, mace, and hit the road to organize >an in-your-face, get-out-of-town protest. > >This isn't just about breaking up racist concerts. In Motown, ARA >groups protest police brutality and the redevelopment plan for >Downtown. When the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the release and >retrial of two white police officers convicted of beating black >motorist Malice Green to death with a police flashlight, ARA hit the >streets to protest the cops' release. > >When alternative record stores carry hate music by labels like >Resistance, ARA "educates" the owner. "At first the store owner says >it's about free speech," says One Love, a 46-year-old ARA organizer in >Detroit. "But we tell them that it's about neo-Nazis organizing not >only to take away your right to speak but your right to live." > >CRUCIAL CONFLICTS >Since 1992, ARA has been on the front lines protesting against >organized fascists, neo-Nazi skinheads, and the Klan. Today they're >the largest nationwide youth group to mobilize against hate groups. >They have a proven ability to whistle together 50-75 students every >time the Klan or neo-Nazi thugs come to town. Last fall, when white >supremacists organized a "Nordic Fest" in a forest in the upper >Michigan pennisula, ARA members invaded the nearby National Cherry >Festival and told the apolitical crowd what nobody wanted to hear: The >Nazis were near. The ARA launched a full PR assault: Thousands of ARA >newsmagazines and stickers were distributed. The group sold t-shirts >with pictures of Hitler blowing his head off emblazoned with teh >message "Follow Your Leader." > >If kinder, gentler measures don't work, ARA members use bottles, mace, >fists and boots to kick undesirables - especially Nazis or racist >skinheads - way out of town. It's highly controversial - but also >highly effective. When the KKK paraded in Fresno last January, >carloads of activists ran convoys into town, harassed the racists, and >shouted them down. In Memphis, ARA activists trying to prevent a >Klansmen march on the spot where James Earl Ray killed Reverend Martin >Luther King Jr. were gassed, beaten and chased away by Memphis police. > In Detroit, a neo-Nazi clubhouse "outed" by the local chapter of ARA >became the target of two drive-by snipers. > >Some ARA members acknowledge the danger in their use of more >aggressive strategies. "Violence isn't something you want to get >addicted to," warns Kieran, who admits he "was attracted to the >violence of ARA - for sure." > >In its willingness to face-off with the Klan and Aryan Nation, ARA has >collided with the agendas of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and >other traditional antihate groups. "I can certainly understand the >rage of those who want to take physical action," says Donald Cohen, >Michigan director for the ADL, which places a premium on cooperation >with the police, the FBI, and federal authorities at all levels. "But >when it turns to violence? Challenging law enforcement? When they >are trying to maintain a peaceful situation? I think it sends the >wrong message." > >Tony, a 22-year-old organizer with ARA Detroit, argues that ARA needs >an aggressive public face to recruit youth. "A lot of these kids who >get involved with Resistance Records don't know that there is any >other outlet," says Tony, rings wiggling from all corners of his >pierced face. "This is at least a safety valve. They can say, 'There >is something else I can do; somebody else talked to me besides the >goons.'" Asked what message he'd send to high schoolers who love the >sound of breaking glass, Tony smiles and rubs the tattoo on his left >wrist. "Break the right kind of glass." > >THE SKIN I'M IN >Most people don't realize that the skinhead movement started in >England in the late 1970's as a counter-action to the racist National >Front. But in recent years, knucklehead white-power skins have >monopolized the public image of skinheadedness. In much the same way, >the image of ARA as a bunch of brawlers has lent them a kind of street >credibility - but that was never the goal. Before ARA was formed, >Native American, African and white boys wanted to hang in Minneaplois >with out being harassed. A 16-year-old Native American graffiti >artist known as Gator was instrumental in organizing what was then >known as the Baldies, a skinhead crew that welcomed all races. The >multiracial Baldies rumbled with the Nazi-oriented White Knights gang >- - and won. Over time, they evolved into Anti-Racist Action, expanding > >their base and redefining their tactics along the way. > >Just as the racist rock movement has grown (Resistance Records showed >a profit for the first time in 1996), so too has the antiracist >movement. Two yars ago, the ARA News - a free zine - went out to >1,500 people. Last January the circulation was 55,000. During the >same period of time, the number of ARA chapters across North America >quadrupled to 102. There are probably about 2,000 core members across >North America, and if there isn't one near you yet, there probably wil >be soon. > >Although racist music is part of the problem ARA is fighting, ARA has >the support of a growing number of bands, from the New York ska group >The Toasters to England's Chumbawumba. There's even a tour called Ska >Against Racism, inspired by Britain's old Rock Against Racism shows, >organized by Asian Man Records. Ska Against Racism, now completing a >nation-wide jaunt that features performances by the Blue Meanies, >Mustard Plug, Five Iron Frenzy and MU330, promises to bolster ARA's >puny bank account and attract thousands of new members. > >A chance meeting at a 1994 Lollapalooza show hooked ARA up with their >plaid sugar daddies, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The group's lead >man, Dicky Barrett, stopped by an ARA booth at Lollapalooza in >Cleveland and chatted up the volunteers. "These guys told me they had >actually been to Klan rallies and fucked them up," Barrett said in a >recent between-shows telephonen interview. "That impressed me. They >are the type of people who have the nerve to brawl, but they don't >show up to brawl." Now when the Bosstones play - last year they had >an estimated 320 gigs - Barrett always points out the ARA literature >table in the back of the club. "We have given them lots of money," he >says. > >Like the ARA, the Bosstones resort to action whenever necessary. When >misguided neo-Nazi punks wander into their shows giving the Nazi >stiff-arm salute, the concert stops, and the action begins. Barrett >says he usually urges the intruder to get out before trouble starts, >but Bosstones bassist Joe Gittleman doesn't always wait. German Nazis >murdered several of Gittleman's relatives, so he has little tolerance >of neo-Nazis. At one show in Florida, he flipped. "I never saw Joe >move so quick," says Barrett, laughing as he recounts the now >legendary bonk to a Nazi punk's shiny bald head. "Joe came off the >stage; people kinda cleared. The guy was just as ballsy as he thought >he was and kept his Seig Heil! up." That's when Joe came down on the >side of his head with an electric guitar. "In hindsight it probably >wasn't the best idea, but it worked." > >"There's not much need for fighting at this time, it's >counterproductive," says Jim McNamara of ARA Columbus, who's been >organizing youth since 1967. "Our work should now be political and >educational, relating to people different than us, creating real >inter-racial coalitions." > >According to statistics from Pennsylvania (which thoroughly tracks >hate crimes), two thirds of racially motivated violence is committed >by youth under the age of 20. Thus, the best way to stop hate crimes >is to organize young people. Positive peer pressure may sound like a >soft approach to organized neo-Nazis, but underneath those boots and >swastikas are sometimes lonely kids crying out for attention. When >both parents work, millions of "virtual orphans" are ripe for >recruitment into gangs, clubs, and secret societies of all extremes. >"A lot of these kids haven't graduated from high school," says Tony of >ARA Detroit. "The minute somebody will share a beer with them, they >think, You're my buddy, you're cool with me. That is why we need to >be there." > >For more information on ARA, check its Web site: www.aranet.org >-- > -- "A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer" Long live the fool. --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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