This video is brilliant. If we wait for fascists like Richard Spencer to herd us into concentration camps, then it's too late to punch them. I'm grateful that antifa and black bloc are doing the work to prevent these vile white supremacists and other assorted eugenists from growing.
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.
Saturday The Klan, SOS, MMP, F.A.I.R. front group CBA, and other white supremacist groups held a rally and march down Crenshaw Blvd. The theme of their little hate fest was that undocumented workers are somehow lowering standards of living. Ironically, their initial rally was located in front of the Wall-Mart on Crenshaw and MLK. If they wanted the real reason for declining standards of living, they should have looked at the sign behind them. Led by opportunist Ted Hayes, the group of about 60 marched towards Leimert Park with the intention of holding a hate rally and trying to incite brown black division.
SPLC has long documented instances of extreme right white supremacist anti-immigrant groups attempting to cover themselves by either enlisting, or forming spin off groups of people of color sharing their anti-immigrant views. We've seen that on a local level with SOS through the Joe Turner and Ted Hayes connections. We've also seen a local MMP/SOS push to support a group they helped form called "you don't speak for me," purportedly a grass root Latino group against immigration."If you disagree with somebody's point of view, they say you're racist," Hoang said.
I saw news of Pinochet's death on Univision while in the laundry-mat yesterday. I caught part of it over the noise of the dryers, but the noise and my translation skills left a bit more out than desired. That said, it was obvious that Univision was treating it as somewhat of an unfortunate event. No mention of the over 14,000 Chileans he brutally killed during his fascist reign after the murderous coup the CIA helped him orchestrate in order to dispose of the democratically elected Allende. While the death of a monster like Pinochet is no sad thing, it allowed him to escape the justice that several governments, including Spain, might have brought him to. The ruling class has had two close calls this year, first with Ken Lay, now with Pinochet, in which the perpetrators of such unthinkable crimes escape justice through a premature death.
"I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." - Henry Kissinger
