Virginia's Governor declaring April "Celebrate Chattel Slavery Month." Gubernatorial candidate and California Charter School Association (CCSA) founder Steve Poizner threatening to send the National Guard to the border. Textbooks in Texas now eschewing Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in favor of renowned racist reactionaries like Newt Gingrich. Green Dot Public [sic] Schools and American Indian Public Charter School requiring "pledges" to capitalism. Teabaggers allowed to display open racism and homophobia towards members of Congress. Los Angeles Parents Union Parent Revolution's Ben Austin getting appointed to the California Board of Education by fellow Milton Freidman acolyte Arnold Schwarzenegger. DFER Charter-Voucher school cheerleader and hedge-fund manager Whitney Tilson being able to say things like "we need a lot more well-off, well-educated white folks" in public forums.
These are just a sample of recent incidents and current events. From them it's clear that despite small numbers, the fringe right has a great deal of momentum and power disproportionate to their size. During times of economic crises — like this great recession caused by Wall Street — politics are polarized. This means many people are beginning to draw the correct conclusions about our economic system and imperialism, and how it needs to be discarded. Sadly it also means there are some people drawn to right wing extremism. White supremacist groups including NSM, Stormfront, Teabagging, KKK, Neo-Nazis, and other reactionary right wing groups are actively recruiting and growing. Their vile hate speech allows politicians, media sources, and other right wingers just to the left of them to appear "reasonable" in comparison. This explains how a right-wing Democrat like Yolie Flores Aguilar, Inc. was able to lift and employ the dubious and infamous operative segregationist phrase "school choice" from the Jim Crow era, and then be heralded as a civil rights advocate by her fellow right of center DFER/DLC peers.
This is why it is so important to stamp out neo-fascistic movements wherever and whenever they appear. Join a multi-racial coalition this Saturday to send the Nazis back under the rock they crawled out from.
2010-04-14 Update - Press Conference Announced:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Linh Hua | 310-622-3511 | linh.hua.mail@gmail.com
Danielle Heck | 310-404-1739 | danielleheck@earthlink.net
WHO: Coalition of Community Activists, Students, Teachers, Community Members, and Labor and Religious Leaders
WHAT: THIS IS OUR CITY! Press Conference
WHERE: Los Angeles City Hall, South Side
WHEN: Thursday, April 15; 9:30am
WHY: SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE NEO-NAZI RALLY. WE SAY NO TO RACISM! WE SAY NO TO SCAPEGOATING! WE SAY NO TO HATE SPEECH! THIS IS OUR CITY!
WE DEMAND THAT MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA STAND WITH HIS CITY AND REVOKE THE PERMIT ALLOWING THE NEO-NAZIS TO RALLY AND RECRUIT IN OUR CITY!
An ad hoc coalition of community activists, students, teachers, community residents, and labor and religious leaders will gather on the South Side of Downtown City Hall tomorrow, THURSDAY, April 15th, to SPEAK OUT against the Neo-nazi rally and recruitment scheduled for Saturday, April 17th. Known formally as the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the Nazis call for a white-supremacist world order built fundamentally upon hate and violence against immigrants, Jews, non-whites, the LGTB (lesbian, gay, transsexual, bisexual) community, and what they call "pro-Marxist unions." They aim to "reclaim the Southwest" by attacking the cultural strength of Los Angeles. According to Adam Lerman, an organizer with the National Women's Rights Organizing Coalition (NWROC), one of several groups scheduled to speak at Thursday's press conference, "LA is the home of the great immigrant rights marches of 2006 and the new mass student movement of 2009/10. We will not allow the racist scum of the NSM to use our city as a launching point for a campaign of racist harassment, abuse, assault and murder. The NSM seeks to convince white youth that the best way to respond to the economic crisis, budget cuts and the increasing cost of higher education is to fight to strengthen white privilege. We stand for building an integrated, united struggle for increased resources, for greater educational opportunity for everyone, for equality."
The coalition demands that our representatives meet this serious attack on Los Angeles with serious action!! "History clearly shows that when good people fail to take Nazi rallies seriously, they and other neo-fascist groups grow ever stronger," warns James Lafferty, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, L.A.
Given the dire economic conditions that we are currently facing, the city of Los Angeles must vigilantly stand against all incitement of hate and scapegoating. As local LA Unified teacher Bill Neal pointedly observes, "The truth is that mainstream politics fuels the hate that Nazis exploit... This problem can only be resolved by the voices of ordinary people rising above the callous blame game, the hopeless scapegoating, and violent hate, and building a grassroots alternative to the politics of despair."
We demand that our city representatives stand with us against Nazi terrorism. We demand that city revenue go towards education, jobs, healthcare, not police protection for Neo-Nazis. As Geri Silva, Executive Director of Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS) argues, "The more we find ourselves linked by our position outside the bounty of what society is offering, the more we find comfort with each other, the more we need and accept each other and conversely the less we will tolerate groups that espouse race hatred and white supremacy. Neo-Nazi groups have no rights that good people have to respect."
Mayor Villaraigosa, WE SAY NO TO RACISM! WE SAY NO TO SCAPEGOATING! WE SAY NO TO HATE SPEECH! THIS IS OUR CITY!!
Among those participating in this coalition to protest the Nazis are The Jewish Labor Committee--Western Region, Peace and Freedom Party, International Socialist Organization, National Womens Rights Organizing Coalition (NWROC), Librarians' Guild, Radical Women, the Southern California Immigration Coalition, Rev. Jay Atkinson, Minister Unitarian Universalist Church of Studio City, T Santora, President, CWA 9000; riKu Matsuda--host of Flip the Script on KPFK, Union del Barrio, the Here to Stay Coalition; Sonia Bautista, President of REFORMA, L.A.; organizers from the March 4 student protests; the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (FMLN/LA); Marie Cartier, PhD at Cal State Northridge's Gender and Women Studies Department; Circulo Mictlanxiuhcoatl; the Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid, Southern California; AIDS activist J.T. Anderson; Thandisizwe Chimurenga of the Ida B. Wells Institute; the Arbeter Ring (Workmens Circle); and the Puerto Rican Alliance.
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