On November 15th, neo-Nazis walked through the streets of Wunsiedel. We could not stop them – but we could make them walk for something meaningful: and that is how for the first time a right-wing memorial march became a charity walk – without knowing of the participants. For every meter they walked, €10 went to EXIT-Deutschland – a Nazi opt-out programme. The result: €10.000 and lots of surprised right-wing extremists.
fascists
That new Greek government seems kinda fascist
Mark Ames shows were certain of Greece’s new ministers are coming from:
See the guy in the photo there, dangling an ax from his left hand? That’s Greece’s new “Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks†Makis Voridis captured back in the 1980s, when he led a fascist student group called “Student Alternative†at the University of Athens law school. It’s 1985, and Minister Voridis, dressed like some Kajagoogoo Nazi, is caught on camera patrolling the campus with his fellow fascists, hunting for suspected leftist students to bash. Voridis was booted out of law school that year, and sued by Greece’s National Association of Students for taking part in violent attacks on non-fascist law students.
With all the propaganda we’ve been fed about Greece’s new “austerity†government being staffed by non-ideological “technocrats,†it may come as a surprise that fascists are now considered “technocrats†to the mainstream media and Western banking interests. Then again, history shows that fascists have always been favored by the 1-percenters to deliver the austerity medicine.
Because the elected Greek government could not be trusted enough to act against it’s population’s interests, the EU has now installed a new “technocratic” government with added fascists. Poetic, really. As Ames also shows, the Greek military meanwhile is bought off with new toys: tanks and warships beause austerity doesn’t mean having to stop buying unnecessary weaponry.
Doin’ the Rand Paul Curb Stomp
I could never watch American History X because some kind soul spoilered the horrific curb stomp scene in it, in which a skinhead forces a victim to lie prone on the ground biting the curb, then kicks him hard in the back of the head. Now, thanks to the Rand Paul campaign, we can finally watch a pg-13 version of that scene:
The victim in this case is Move-On volunteer Lauren Valle who was leafletting in front of a Rand Paul campaign meeting, while the perp is “the Rand Paul for Senate Bourbon County coordinator Tim Profftt“. Apparantly Valle’s shocking display of political disagreement and blatant liberal propaganda activities made this guy and his friends see red. Rand Paul is supposed to be on the libertarian end of the Republican spectrum, but based on his supporters’ behaviour straight out fascism is a more accurate description.
Best news of the election
The defeat and self destruction of the BNP:
In the next 12 hours, Griffin’s worst fears were realised – and even exceeded. The party was thrashed in its two key parliamentary constituencies of Barking and Stoke Central. Its record number of council and parliamentary candidates failed to make a single breakthrough; and of the 28 BNP councillors standing for re-election, all but two were beaten.
But the Barking and Dagenham council election result was the most dramatic. The BNP had plans to take control of the authority – instead, it lost every one of its councillors there. Twelve elected in 2006. Twelve thrown out in 2010. A ruthless purge, more shocking because they didn’t see it coming. Neither, for that matter, did their opponents. It was the miracle of Barking.
According to one analyst quoted in the article, Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, the reason the BNP was so soundly defeated was that Labour pulled its finger out of its ass and started campaigning against them:
“It would appear that the vote for the BNP in 2006 was some kind of political cry of anguish, based on the perception that the Labour party simply didn’t understand the concerns of that part of the electorate. The fact that the BNP has been dropped in 2010 heavily suggests this section of the electorate now believes it has got the attention of the Labour party.” Back in 2006, the morality of supporting an intrinsically racist party wasn’t an issue, says Travers. “The voters simply used the most shocking mechanism they could to get Labour’s attention.”
But there is good and bad in that conclusion. Good because it suggests people in Barking voted BNP for reasons other than racism and antisemitism. Bad because if it was all a means to an end, did no one consider the impact on community relations of voting for the far right?
The BNP vote as a form of protest? Perhaps, but there is a hardcore of racist voters as well, as well as more people who more or less agree with the BNP’s (public) views on immigration etcetera but who usually vote out of other concerns. It might also just be that the more serious economic concerns, as well as the genuine three way race this time made voting for racists a bit of a luxury. Finally, it should always be remembered that defeating the BNP does not matter if it means other parties taking over parts of their rhetoric and political programme. Under New Labour we’ve had a gradual rightward march on immigration and treatment of refugees, which, even if it was just embraced as a tactical measure, has led to real misery on the ground — see Chickyogs passim for evidence.
I must represent poison in my diet. It is just another food, after all.
Michael Rosen presents the best put argument yet on the folly of allowing the BNP to appear on Question Time
The BBC also has a requirement to represent different ‘communities’ and to be itself diverse. It is also clear it cannot do this if it represents the BNP for the simple reason that the BNP wants to eliminate different ‘communities’ and diversity. Griffin has made it clear that he wants to whiten the BBC itself – with his comments about the black Friar Tuck on ‘Robin Hood’ for example and his booklet on Jews in the BBC. In other words there comes a point where total diversity breaks down. And that’s when there is a political party that wants to use the BBC in order to smash the very polity that is putting that party on air. It would be as if, I, believing in principle I should eat a variety of foods, also on that principle knowingly drink poison. ‘Ah well,’ I say to myself ‘I must represent poison in my diet. It is just another food, after all.’