______________________________
ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN
News * Analysis * Research * Action
______________________________
- AFIB No. 261, August 6, 2000 -
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & PRISONERS OF WAR!
Plans for a proposed coup d'etat [in Italy] found in October 1973 (for the
beginning of 1974) consisted of : Phase 1: The operation to be financed on
the basis of support from extreme right-wing industrialists, bank robberies
and kidnappings. Phase 2: Application of the Strategy of Tension and
perpetration of outrages throughout the peninsula to be attributed to both
left and right with the object of creating "psychosis" among the populace.
Phase 3: An offensive against leftist organisations, assassinations of
leftist leaders. Phase 4: Military intervention. Officers and putschist
troops combine with far right in neutralising "democratic" officers. Phase
5: Execution of 1624 named individuals. Phase 6: Creation of a regime based
on the principles of Mussolini's Salo Republic. -- Stuart Christie, Stefano
Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist [London, Anarchy
Magazine/Refract Publications, 1984] p. 69.
* * *
Contents: Number 261
01. REFUSE & RESIST! [US]: Protest Arrests/Harassment/Attacks; Refuse &
Resist! Statement: Its Important to Do the Right Thing.
02. WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE [UK]: Over 450 Arrested During Republican
Convention in Philadelphia.
03. INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA [US]: Released R2K Prisoners
Hold Press Conference.
04. WIRED NEWS [US]: Army Battle-Ready for Convention.
05. ANTI-FASCIST ACTION [London]: AFA News: Goose Steps?
06. GERMANY ALERT [Berlin]: Curious Motivation.
07. GREEN LEFT WEEKLY [Australia]: South Korea: Workers Step Up Protests
Against Repression.
08. PINOCHET WATCH [US]: Pinochet's Immunity Stripped.
09. THE INDEPENDENT [London]: Pinochet Regime Dumped Bodies at Sea, Says
Colonel.
10. REUTERS: Italian General Alleges CIA Link to Bombings.
11. ASSOCIATED PRESS: Italy Marks Bombing Anniversary.
12. IRISH NEWS [Belfast]: BNP to Contest at Least One Seat in North.
13. THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH [London]: Germany's Far Right Turns on 'Enemy Within'.
14. THE OBSERVER [London]: It's Time to Resist the Neo-Nazi Killer Gangs,
Germans are Told.
* * *
REFUSE & RESIST!
305 Madison Ave. Suite 1166
New York, NY 10165
Tel: 212-713-5657
Fax: 212-822-8535
E-mail: refuse@calyx.com
Web: http://www.mojo.calyx.net/~refuse
- Friday, 4 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
PROTEST ARRESTS/HARASSMENT/ATTACKS
____________________________________________________________________
by C. Clark Kissinger, cck1@earthlink.net
We've sent out quite a bit of info on the level of arrests and horrible
treatment of people in jail, or on their way to jail. At the same time
there has been intense surveillance, harassment and attacks against the
Philly Freedom Summer (PFS)Youth working in Germantown and West Philly.
They are now being constantly followed and sometimes stopped and searched.
Some have been thrown up against a wall and threatened if they don't leave
the area. One young woman was hit on the head with a police baton.
Uninvited servicemen have been showing up at the places where they are
staying and there seems to be round the clock plainclothes surveillance of
these locations. Cops have been talking to people in the neighborhood --
agitating against the young people working to stop Mumia's execution.
However, when the PFSers have returned to these same areas, they have been
warmly welcomed -- people admired them for what they were doing and called
them "the rebels".
At the same time, the mainstream media have given only very limited
coverage to the street actions and almost no coverage at all to the many
other kinds of protests like press conferences, interfaith services,
rallies and the like. We must oppose all attempts to try to pit different
aspects or sections of our movement against one another. We won't let them
divide us. We are united against the executioners' ball (RNC) and their
enforcers (the police) in the streets and in the neighborhoods.
PLEASE CALL AND PROTEST THEIR ACTIONS
Mayor John Street 215-686-2181
Deputy Commission Mitchell (in charge of Demonstrations) 215-686-3364
Captain Fisher (head of Civil AFfairs) 215-685-3684
Chief Maxwell (Head of Criminal Investigations) 215-686-3362
Police Commissioner John Timoney 215-686-3149 or 215-686-3388
City Council President Ann Verna 215-686-3442 or 215-686-3412 and 3413.
Mayor's Chief of Staff Stuber 215-686-7508
Roundhouse Jail 215-686-1776 or 215-685-8574
Philadelphia Inquirer 215-854-4417 [FAX 215-854-5099] (AND OTHER MAJOR MEDIA)
* * *
____________________________________________________________________
Refuse & Resist Statement:
IT'S IMPORTANT TO DO THE RIGHT THING
____________________________________________________________________
- Thursday, 3 August 2000 -
On August 1, young people took to the streets of Philadelphia. When the
leading practitioners of capital punishment and injustice were gathered for
a gaudy coronation of their presidential nominee, the only right thing to
do was to bring "business as usual" to a screeching halt. Refuse & Resist!
is proud to have been a part of doing just that.
Stripped of all its rhetoric, the "compassionate conservatism" of the GOP
means nothing but more executions, more prisons, more women's lives put at
risk with the elimination of abortion rights, and with the stamp of greed,
racism, and inequality on society as a whole.
August 1 became a day when all those who yearn for a spirit of justice
could take hope and rejoice. It was a day of repudiation of the death
penalty, the frame-up of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the entire criminal injustice
system.
The day was remarkable for its breadth of participation. Rev. Jesse Jackson
and author Jonathan Kozol spoke to a packed press conference. Musician
Michael Franti, leaders of anti-death penalty organizations, Ramona Africa,
and activists from many groups spoke to a rush-hour rally. The statue of
the infamously racist Mayor Rizzo was appropriately desecrated. And
thousands of youth as well as older people took to the streets in many
different forms of protest. Everyone shared a determination that their cry
for a different future must be heard.
The media attempted to praise the police for their "restraint." But the
"Officer Friendly" facade of cops in shorts riding bikes quickly gave way
to the reality. In an outrageous pre-emptive raid, cops chopped through
doors to arrest 70 people making street puppets that were to represent the
135 people executed by George W. Bush. And by the day's end, over 300 were
arrested with clubs and horses.
Republican Convention officials tried to dismiss the protests, which
involved several thousand people, as the work of professional disrupters.
The real "professionals" are to be found in the likes of Lynn Abraham, the
Philly District Attorney known as the Queen of Death, the Republican
governors, like Tom Ridge and the Bush brothers (whose three states alone
account for 30% of the prisoners on death row), and the Philadelphia Police
who celebrated three decades of violence and mayhem with the televised
beating of Thomas Jones.
The press charged that many of those taking part in the protests were
veterans of the battles in Seattle and Washington. To that we say, "guilty
as charged," and we pledge to continue building both our numbers and our
experience. The youth who took to the streets of Philly stood up for and
fought for a future of justice. Their courage and determination issues a
challenge to all: Who do you want to go into the future with? Which side do
you want to be on?
Stand up against the politics of cruelty and death!
Stand up for justice for Mumia and for all political prisoners!
It was right to Crash the Executioners' Ball!
We demand that all the protestors be released and the charges dropped!
Refuse the politics of cruelty!
Unleash a spirit of resistance!
*****
WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
Published by the International Committee
of the Fourth International (ICFI)
Web: http://www.wsws.org/
E-Mail: editor@wsws.org
- Friday, 4 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
OVER 450 ARRESTED DURING REPUBLICAN CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA
____________________________________________________________________
News & Analysis: North America
By Eula Holmes and Tom Bishop
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/aug2000/prot-a04.shtml
Over 450 demonstrators are being held by the Philadelphia police after
rallies, marches and acts of civil disobedience against the death penalty
on Tuesday. As the Republican National Convention was celebrating
"Prosperity with a Purpose" several miles away, those arrested were
reportedly being held under harsh and brutal conditions.
Over 400 demonstrators are being held at Philadelphia's police headquarters
known as the Roundhouse. According to the Independent Media Center (IMC),
protesters have told their legal contacts harrowing stories of beatings,
solitary confinement, refusal of bathroom privileges and denial of
medication. Prisoners suffering from problems such as anxiety, asthma,
hemophilia and injuries incurred during their arrests are not receiving the
treatment they need. Seven witnesses reported seeing a woman dragged down
the hallway, naked and bleeding.
Another 25 people were held at the city's Holmsburg Prison on Tuesday and
Wednesday, a decrepit, turn-of-the-century prison several miles from their
place of arrest. It was closed down in 1995 but reopened for the
convention. Jay Hockburg, a legal observer from the ACLU, described
Holmsburg as "really horrible, horrible conditions. I've heard that
firsthand from lawyers, very bad conditions." The Holmsburg prisoners were
moved to the Roundhouse on Thursday.
According to the R2K Network, the umbrella group for activists gathered for
the week of convention-related actions, 22 prisoners are also being held in
the 23rd District jail and are being denied food and medication, and there
is no running water in their cells. They were told their lawyers were not
coming when, in fact, their lawyers were never contacted. Their attorneys
were not being allowed into arraignment hearings. Bails have been reported
to range from $100 to $400,000.
According to IMC, on Wednesday evening police were sweeping areas of Center
City, arresting suspected protesters on sight. There were multiple reports
of unjustified car and pedestrian stops, often involving intimidation,
searches, and occasionally violence. Police were seen in roving arrest
squads in the area around 16th, 17th, Market and Chestnut in Center City.
According to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, roving patrols of
bicycle police, made up of about 25 cops each, were chanting the
protesters' chant as they were being arrested: "Who's streets? Our
streets!"
Supporters of the jailed demonstrators, varying from dozens to hundreds at
a time, have been holding a round the clock vigil at the Roundhouse despite
adverse weather conditions from thunderstorms which have caused flooding. A
demonstration is planned Friday to demand their release. Supporters are
under constant surveillance and frequent harassment by police.
The IMC reported that police toilet-papered one of their own squad cars at
the demonstration site, photographed it with the protesters in the
background, and then moved into the park as if to break up the campsite.
However, the stunt seemed designed simply to intimidate the group, as no
arrests were made.
The arrests came on Tuesday during planned actions of civil disobedience to
protest the death penalty and demand the release of jailed political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Protesters staged coordinated acts of civil
disobedience by sitting down at six intersections and access ramps to city
freeways. According to activists, the actions were carried out by isolated
cells operating autonomously but under the coordination of a central,
secretly located dispatch center, using a collection of cell phones and
walkie-talkies. In at least two instances activists surrounded buses
carrying RNC delegates, delaying their trips considerably.
An atmosphere of panic was created before a rally in support of political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal as the police swept the City Hall area telling
store and restaurant owners to lock their doors and lower gates in
preparation for riots in the streets. The attention of about one thousand
participants at the City Hall rally was drawn to the surrounding streets as
sirens wailed from all directions, helicopters hovered overhead, and
several hundred police in full riot gear and on horseback or bicycles, and
others running to the area in formation, then lined the streets where
hundreds of protesters were sitting and chanting. Protesters were arrested
one by one over several hours as spectators chanted, "The whole world is
watching."
According to R2K Network, at other sites police used pepper-spraying,
beatings with batons--leaving at least one activist unconscious and
hospitalized--and carried out arrests of people not committing civil
disobedience who were perceived by police to be "leaders." R2K reported
that observers noted that police appeared to single out people of color for
harsher treatment.
At each civil disobedience area, police used knives to cut through the
street protesters' banners and ropes tying protesters together. One
demonstrator, Jamie, who was carrying a 20-foot red banner reading, "Stop
the Texas Killing Machine!" told the WSWS: "I had wired the banner so that
the police could not cut it. When they tried to they bounced back. One of
the cops who had tried to cut the banner was angry and tried to grab it.
But the way my hand was linked trying to hold it, I got twisted up in it as
he tried to grab it... He ended up pulling me to the ground as he tried to
get the banner. I was all twisted up in it and trapped. Then I was kicked
and beaten by police and they managed to handcuff me with the banner
twisted among the handcuffs."
Jamie continued, "I was really upset by the next thing they said, 'It's
going limp, Where do you want to take it? Take its leg. Take its arm.' I
wasn't even a person to them. I was 'it'... They threw me in the back of
the van. As the van pulled off with me lying in the back, bottles of drinks
fell on me. Then I had trouble breathing from the pepper spray earlier and
my asthma. It was a tight space. When the officer driving the van got me to
the police station and saw my condition, he decided not to arrest me and
took me to the hospital. At the hospital they told me I had deep contusions
and bone bruising, a possible concussion, throwing up and breathing
problems." Jamie's face was swollen and discolored, and her arms had
bruises and scratches.
An hour before Tuesday's protests began, police raided the "Ministry of
Puppetganda," a studio where puppets were being assembled, trapping over 70
activists inside for about four hours before arresting everyone. According
to the Philadelphia Inquirer, police claimed to have infiltrated the group
and found information that the warehouse stored weapons and materials to
block roads, although they "declined to elaborate" on the details.
Protesters said they were doing nothing more than assembling large puppets
for street theater. After obtaining a search warrant, police arrested the
occupants who had been preparing to bring the large puppets to the
demonstrations.
The IMC reported that during the police raid on the warehouse, neighbors in
the area told police, "The only ones here breaking the law are you." The
demonstrations and arrests were widely reported by the Philadelphia news
media. Invariably, the reports praised the police for their restraint and
featured video of police cars with broken windows or overturned trash
dumpsters.
Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.
*****
INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER OF PHILADELPHIA
Web: http://www.phillyimc.org
E-mail: tech@phillyimc.org
- Sunday, 6 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
RELEASED R2K PRISONERS HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE
____________________________________________________________________
By John Tarleton
http://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=00/08/06/0335245&mode=thread
A half-dozen recently released R2K prisoners held an emotional press
conference Saturday afternoon. They described repeated instances of police
brutality and neglect during their time in custody. The extraordinary bails
(as high as $1 million) being levied against protesters also came under
fire.
"I think these bails are meant to stifle dissent," said Paul Hesnekker of
the R2K Legal Team. "It's part of an attempt to criminalize political
activism in this country."
Jimmy Graham, a legal oberver for the National Lawyers Guild, was arrested
when he tried to film a group of police officers who had ambushed a young
woman wearing a Rainbow-colored bandana. She was suffering an asthma attack
and vomiting. When Graham told her she would be o.k., the police began
slamming his head into the wall. He would later be charged with four
misdemenors: failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, obstruction of a
highway and obstruction of justice.
"I foolishly thought I wouldn't be arrested because I was a legal
observer," Graham said. "I thought the yellow hat would give me at least a
little bit of protection."
Graham was taken to the hospital for treatment of his head wounds. He was
told by a police officer that he would be charged with aggravated assault
of an officer for having done so.
Later, after he was discharged to the 23rd precinct station, Graham was
placed in a jail cell that had no running water with which he could wash
his wounds. Fellow prisoners used wawa tea cartons to pass along water to
Graham before they were confiscated by guards.
Jordan, a labor organizer from New York city, said that it was common at
the Roundhouse for five or six prisoners to be held in a single 5'x7' cell
with one metal cot. Joseph Rogers, a local Quaker activist, said prisoners
were subject to random beatings. "It didn't really matter if you were
cooperating," he said. "They still treated you with brutality."
Jessica Mammarella, a sophomore at Temple University, was one of 78
"puppetistas" arrested Tuesday at the puppet warehouse on 41st and
Haverford Avenue. She said she ws placed on a boiling hot bus for hours
without water before the police gave the 32 arrestees on board a 16 oz.
water bottle to share. Later, as it began raining, Mammarella was able to
stick her middle and index fingers through a slit in the bus window. The
rainwater ran down her arm and people took turns drinking it as it trickled
off her elbow. When people were too weak to get up, others would cup their
hands beneath Mammarella's elbows and carry the rusty-tasting water to
their friends.
"You guys don't think about it," she said."But it felt great to be able to
drink water."
Mammarella faces nine misdemenor charges. She posted a $1,500 bond, which
came out of tuition money she had saved for the fall semester.
"I feel so righteous," she said. "We did nothing wrong. Our puppets will be
seen"
For more about what it's like to be in jail solidarity see,
http://www.cybertraveler.org/jail_a16.html
The Independent Media Center of Philadelphia assumes no responsibility for
any material posted on this site except where specifically noted. All
responsibility for verifying the truth and reproducibility of a submission
rests with the author who posts it. By posting material to this site, an
author agrees that it may be redistributed for noncommercial purposes. Any
such redistribution must credit both the Independent Media Center of
Philadelphia and the author who posted the article, and clearly indicate
any modifications.
*****
____________________________________________________________________
ARMY BATTLE-READY FOR CONVENTION
____________________________________________________________________
WIRED NEWS
Politics
Tuesday, 1 August 2000
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37920,00.html
by Declan McCullagh, declan@wired.com
PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. Army is prepared to respond to disruptions ranging
from civil disobedience to nuclear explosions at the Republican National
Convention, a confidential government document says.
The terrorism response plan includes flying giant C-5 Galaxy cargo planes
loaded with military gear into <http://nasjrbwillowgrove.navy.mil/>Willow
Grove Naval Air Station, about 25 miles outside the city, and assembling
troops at three National Guard armories near the downtown protest areas.
(http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/C_5_Galaxy.html)
"Preparedness for nuclear, biological, chemical, and civil disturbance
events, as well as potential weather-related disaster events, must be
considered," says the Federal Emergency Management Agency document
(http://www.fema.gov/), obtained by Wired News from a source who asked to
remain anonymous.
A FEMA spokesman confirmed the authenticity of the document, but said he
did not have any information that a terrorist attack was likely to happen
during the GOP convention. (http://www.gopconvention.org/)
"We try to plan for any event like this as we would plan for a hurricane,"
said Ross Fredenburg, FEMA's regional public information officer.
The 75-page operations manual, labeled on each page "For Official Use
Only," says: "There is a greater probability that an act occurring during
the RNC could result in high-risk situations and possibly necessitate a
tactical response by the local, state, and federal governments."
Security is already at an all-time high for a convention, with flight
restrictions in place over central Philadelphia, nearly all city police on
duty, and guards equipped with mirrors searching for bombs under vehicles
that approach the First Union Center.
The document, created by FEMA to supplement its usual procedures, says that
the U.S. First Army will, if necessary, execute Operation Garden Plot to
quell any serious civil disturbances.
(http://www.first.army.mil/military_support_to_civil_author.htm)
Operation Garden Plot has long been an object of speculation by conspiracy
theorists, (http://www.vaix.net/~api/gp.htm) but the watchdog group
Federation of American Scientists describes it as the military's overall
plan for "support related to domestic civil disturbances" that was last
used during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
(http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/jtf-la.htm)
Critics such as the American Civil Liberties Union have protested the
recent trend to use military troops for law enforcement purposes.
(http://www.aclu.org/)
The FEMA plan even goes so far as to spend 12 pages listing hospitals and
numbers of licensed beds -- including places as far away as St. Luke's
Hospital in Quakertown, a 40-mile drive.
(http://www.cmrg.com/cmrg_cfmfiles/detail.cfm/33538/SNF.htm)
"The RNC will dominate national headlines," the FEMA document says. "The
potential occurrence of an event that would reflect negatively on
Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or the United States
demands that every effort to preclude such an event be taken."
It notes that the convention, which ends Thursday, means a "high
concentration of dignitaries, worldwide media coverage, and increased
population density."
But the document says the Secret Service, from its "multi-agency
communications center" at 20th and Johnson streets, is in charge of
handling convention security. The FBI's "forward command center" is also
located there.
If a terrorist attack happens, FEMA is responsible for aiding the FBI. But
if the president declares martial law in response to looting, vandalism, or
civil unrest, FEMA works with the Defense Department.
In case of a catastrophic attack on Philadelphia -- a nuclear assault, for
example -- a backup FEMA regional command post is located at the U.S. Army
Reserve Center at Willow Grove. "The Willow Grove NAS has been designated
the mobilization center for the staging and/or movement of federal
consequence management resources for the RNC," the plan says. "This is a
closed facility with a pass required for entry."
Fredenburg said FEMA would be called out if the president decides state and
local officials can't handle a serious situation at the convention. "...
Bringing in federal assets is a worst-case scenario."
Fredenburg said the California FEMA office has prepared a similar plan for
the Democratic convention in mid-August.
Under the 1984 Stafford Act, FEMA is in charge of coordinating military
responses to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, or
thunderstorms. In August 1992, for instance, the Army was deployed in South
Florida under FEMA direction to aid in recovering from Hurricane Andrew.
Copyright 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
*****
ANTI-FASCIST ACTION
Box BM 1734
London, WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0976-406-870
E-mail: londonafa@hotmail.com
Web: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/5602
- Thursday, 3 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
AFA News: GOOSE STEPS?
____________________________________________________________________
Top pop performers Steps took a 'step' into the political arena recently
when they made a number of inflammatory remarks about asylum seekers in an
interview with the Sunday Express (30/6/00) and later picked up in the
pages of gay paper The Pink. Lee from the band stated "I think there should
be more jobs for English people" while Claire chimed in with "why are we
paying for all these people to come into the country anyway?". The band
then made a tearful plea for income tax to be lowered and the death penalty
to be restored before passing comment on "British people" being given
priority for housing.
While AFA welcomes real debate on the issue of asylum seekers beyond the
knee jerk responses of the reactionary Right's 'send 'em back brigade' and
the liberal Left's 'asylum seekers welcome here', in which the needs of all
communities are catered for - working class host communities and asylum
seekers - these comments are an ill-advised step in the dark. With the
'respectable' fascists of Jorg Haider in government in Austria and the BNP
picking up a quarter of the vote in recent elections in south east London
and the West Midlands, these comments are unhelpful, inflammatory and naive.
If the band are political innocents who have made the mistake of opening
their mouths without thinking of the consequences, then we ask them to
withdraw their comments. However, if this a more studied political analysis
we warn them that they will be likely to attract the attention of
anti-fascists.
Order Fighting Talk in print. Prices for 4 Issues by land mail:
UK: Individuals £4/ Institutions & Organisations £14
Overseas: Individuals £10/ Institutions & Organisations £17
Cheques/orders payable to 'Anti-Fascist Action'
Fighting Talk, BM 1734, London, WC1N 3XX
*****
GERMANY ALERT
`The Free Flow Of Uncensored Facts'
Web: http://www.germanyalert.com
- Thursday, 3 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
CURIOUS MOTIVATION
____________________________________________________________________
BERLIN (3 August 2000) -- Few things give rise to more concern than the
German establishment's curious motivation for clamping down on neo-Nazi
terror.
Government seems unmoved by the plight of foreigners who are are in fear of
being murdered as others have been. Authorities seem numb to anti-Semitic
attacks, which have been going on for the past decade without much done to
prevent them.
Only the oft repeated warning of "the things they are saying about Germany
abroad" seems to propel mainline political leaders to speak out clearly
against extreme rightwing violence. Die Zeit, a weekly news magazine, asks
what they are saying about Germany in foreign countries in light of ongoing
brown terror. Government ministers refer gravely to Germany's "image
abroad" being damaged by the attacks.
Yet many might ask how any nation could even begin to solve an internal
crisis if its motivation were limited to concern about what the neighbors
are thinking and saying.
Quotable
BERLIN (2 August 2000) -- From the Berliner Zeitung of today: "The SPD and
CDU eagerly forget their 'the boat is full' rhetoric contributed to the
acceptance of foreigner-hostile thought patterns" in Germany.
Copyright 2000 Germany Alert. All rights reserved.
*****
GREEN LEFT WEEKLY
E-mail: glw@greenleft.org.au
Web: http://www.greenleft.org.au
- Number 414, 2 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
South Korea: WORKERS STEP UP PROTESTS AGAINST REPRESSION
____________________________________________________________________
BY IGGY KIM
http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/414p2.htm
SEOUL -- On July 29, more than 13,000 workers and students amassed in the
city centre to mark one month since the Kim Dae-Jung regime violently
cracked down on striking workers from the Lotte Hotel and the Public Health
Insurance Office. Using flares and stun grenades, around 3000 fully
armoured cops had savagely beaten both groups of workers to break up
workplace occupations that had been part of the strikes.
After listening to speeches at Seoul Railway Station, the protesters
marched to Myongdong Cathedral, the traditional refuge of workers fleeing
state repression. Singing anthems of the democratic union movement and
rhythmically punching their fists into the air, the workers were an
inspiring sight.
The solidity of every contingent was intensified by the wearing of
distinctive union vests and multitudes of brightly coloured banners, each
union federation sporting its own colour: green for the construction
workers, red for the public insurance workers, blue for the metal workers,
and many more. The rally and march were part of a national day of
mobilisation organised by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
The Social Insurance Workers Union made up the largest contingent,
comprising well over half of the marchers. The SIWU's more than 7000
members had converged in Seoul from all over the country for the week.
Since the 1987 upsurge and the birth of the democratic union movement,
South Korean workers have tended to campaign in a highly mobile way, often
setting up snap tent-cities and workplace occupations. In this tradition,
the SIWU carried out a series of "guerrilla actions" around Seoul during
the week, including a vibrant mass protest outside the headquarters of the
Public Health Insurance Office on July 27.
Despite severe police intimidation, the SIWU repeatedly attempted to
re-occupy the office building. After several charges into police lines and
a subsequent stand-off, the workers made a tactical retreat to Myongdong
Cathedral.
The SIWU is struggling to force the government to meet its 50% commitment
to the national health insurance scheme, for the scheme to be expanded to
cover specialist treatment, and for all the public insurance plans to be
merged into a single social insurance scheme (hence the union's name).
It was truly moving to witness such determination for such selfless demands
on the part of white-collar workers who 20 years ago would have felt
themselves to be above the working class. The SIWU, which was born in the
1987 upsurge, has a proud tradition of vigorous strike activity for demands
that benefit the whole working class.
During the SIWU's week of action, the government tried to defuse the
situation. During a meeting at the Blue House, (the presidential palace),
the regime offered significant pay increases to the workers in exchange for
an end to their campaign.
The SIWU flatly refused. Neither cowered by the vicious police attack nor
softened by the bribe attempt, the union's contingent at the July 29 rally
seemed all the more determined.
All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution permitted with this
notice attached. Redistribution for profit prohibited.
*****
PINOCHET WATCH
Produced by the Institute for Policy Studies
E-mail: s-jonas@mindspring.com
http://www.tni.org/campaigns/pinochet/watch/watch23.htm
- No. 23, 3 August 2000 -
-----
____________________________________________________________________
PINOCHET'S IMMUNITY STRIPPED: Press leaks Supreme Court Decision
____________________________________________________________________
Unofficial Chilean Supreme Court sources confirmed yesterday to Chilean
press that General Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary
immunity, leaving him open to prosecution for charges brought against him
in the so-called "Caravan of Death" case. The actual tally of votes,
however, is still contended. Government sources claim a vote of 11 to 9 and
military sources say the vote was 12 to 8, while the on-line Chilean
newspaper El Mostrador reports a vote of 14-6. Publicly, the court has
issued no official verdict. They announced, however, that they have reached
an agreement, but will not issue the text of the decision until sometime
next week.
When confirmed, yesterday's decision will uphold the Santiago Appeals Court
ruling that stripped Pinochet of his immunity in early June. In the Supreme
Court hearing, six prosecuting attorneys argued that there exist
"well-founded suspicions" of Pinochet's involvement in the disappearance of
nineteen political prisoners in October of 1973. These disappearances were
part of the "Caravan of Death" case, the name given to a military squad
that summarily executed seventy-two political prisoners in several cities
shortly after Pinochet's bloody 1973 coup. Because the remains of nineteen
of the seventy-two disappeared prisoners were never found, they are
considered ongoing and unsolved cases of kidnappings, and are therefore
excluded from the Amnesty Law of 1978. The recent ruling to strip Pinochet
of his immunity will allow the retired General to be prosecuted for these
crimes against humanity.
With this ruling the Chilean courts have set a historic precedent for the
international community, demonstrating that heads of state must be held
responsible for human rights violations committed under their rule.
IPS Director John Cavanagh responded to the court ruling, saying, "We are
overjoyed that the long struggle against Pinochet has taken another step in
the direction of justice. Dictators around the world will be deterred from
human rights abuses by this historic decision in Chile."
Once Pinochet's immunity has been officially stripped, investigating judge
Juan Guzman Tapia will most likely order medical exams for the retired
General. Chilean law requires that any defendant over 70 years of age must
be submitted to medical examinations before facing prosecution. However,
the defendant can only be exempted from prosecution if found to be
"demented" or "completely insane". These exams will be carried out by the
Legal Medical Service which is made up of a multidisciplinary group of
doctors appointed by the government.
Pinochet's family has publicly announced that if medical exams are ordered
after the immunity verdict, Pinochet will refuse to be subjected to them.
Instead, in a statement that his family will reportedly release after the
official ruling, Pinochet plans to announce his decision to "prove his
innocence before the tribunal that will preside over his case."
For more information on "Pinochet Watch," contact Stacie Jonas, Institute
for Policy Studies, 733 15th St. NW, #1020, Washington, DC 20005. Tel:
202/234-9382, ext. 239. Fax: 202/387-7915. Email: s-jonas@mindspring.com.
For previous issues: http://www.tni.org/campaigns/pinochet/watch/watch.htm.
The Institute for Policy Studies is an independent center for research and
education founded in 1963. IPS has worked to bring Pinochet to justice
since the murders of two IPS colleagues, Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen
Moffitt, at the hands of Pinochet's agents, in 1976.
Copyright 2000 Institute for Policy Studies
*****
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PINOCHET REGIME DUMPED BODIES AT SEA, SAYS COLONEL
____________________________________________________________________
THE INDEPENDENT
World News: Americas
Saturday, 5 August 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/2000-08/sea050800.shtml
By Jan McGirk, Latin America Correspondent
A retired Chilean Air Force colonel has disclosed how security forces
disposed of the bodies of some 780 dissidents murdered under the regime of
General Augusto Pinochet by ditching them in the ocean.
The colonel's anonymous revelations, written in a four-page letter to a
Methodist pastor, Enrique Viches Millar, are the first concrete results of
a new government policy that encourages the military to come forward with
any evidence about thousands of leftists who "disappeared" under the regime
by not requiring them to identify or implicate themselves.
To ensure no bodies would wash ashore, the letter said, the Chilean armed
forces would rent merchant vessels and carry shiploads of dead prisoners to
the high seas. Thebodies were injected with chemicals to speed up
decomposition, and tied to iron rods so they "would sink as deep as
possible". The letter did not gives details of the dates or manner of the
political executions.
More than 60 per cent of those murdered by the Pinochet regime were dumped
at sea, particularly during the early months after the 1973 coup, so the
victims' families have had no chance to confirm that their relatives are
dead.
Human rights activists, awaiting an official announcement about whether the
former dictator will face 157 charges of kidnap, torture and murder, want
to cite this letter as evidence against him. But they are concerned that
the Army Commander, Ricardo Izurieta, and the Air Force Commander, Patricio
Rios, have threatened to end military co-operation in locating the regime's
victims if they deem a political vendetta is being waged against their
former Commander in Chief. The Interior Minister, Jose Miguel Insulza, has
criticised the two generals for meddling.
A brief government statement acknowledged that the letter was authentic,
but said it was of little practical use in locating any of the estimated
1,000 dissidents still missing, or additional remains of the 3,097
recognised victims of state-sponsored murder. The statement said: "The
information he made available does not include background ... to reach some
conclusion on the actual whereabouts of the victims."
Copyright 2000 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.
*****
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ITALIAN GENERAL ALLEGES CIA LINK TO BOMBINGS
____________________________________________________________________
REUTERS
Friday, August 4, 2000 4:55 PM ET
By Raffaella Malaguti
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian secret service general said Friday the CIA gave
its tacit approval to a series of bombings in Italy in the 1970s to sow
instability and keep communists >from taking power.
``We cannot say that the CIA had an active and direct role in the bombings,
but it is true that they knew the targets and culprits,'' General
Gianadelio Maletti told la Repubblica newspaper in an interview from
Johannesburg, where the former spy is in self-imposed exile.
Maletti said the military secret service division he led in the 1970s found
out explosives were being sent from Germany to the neo-fascist paramilitary
group Ordine Nuovo (New Order).
Three Ordine Nuovo members were charged with the bombing of Milan's Piazza
Fontana in 1969, which killed 16 people.
The whistleblower said the explosives' discovery had been reported to his
superiors but nothing happened.
``We made the discovery and pointed out that the explosives used in Piazza
Fontana came from one of those cargoes (of explosives from Germany),'' he
told the paper in the interview conducted in a Johannesburg park.
Maletti did not explain why the explosives came from Germany or who sent
them. But he did say West Germany hosted a powerful CIA base at the time.
Italian secret services and the CIA were alleged to have colluded in the
1970s in a strategy to keep Italy's increasingly popular Communist Party at
bay and the conservative Christian Democrats in power by sowing terror and
instability in Italy.
Ludicrous, Says Cia
In Washington, the allegations made by Maletti drew a terse response from
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
``The allegation that the CIA was involved in bombings in Italy is
ludicrous,'' a CIA spokesman said.
The Piazza Fontana bombing, now into its eighth trial, is one of the many
unsolved crimes that plagued Italy during the height of bloody urban
guerrilla activity from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Italy's Nobel
laureate Dario Fo based his play ''The Accidental Death of an Anarchist''
on the outrage.
Maletti, wanted on various charges in Italy, including allowing neo-fascist
suspects to flee the country, spoke out following the 20th anniversary
Wednesday of the Bologna railway station blast, which killed 85 people.
Prime Minister Giuliano Amato said in Bologna he felt ''humiliated'' by the
state's complicity with the crimes committed in those years and by its
failure to punish those responsible.
Giovanni Pellegrino, chairman of a parliamentary commission looking into
the unsolved attacks of those years, called for state archives to be
opened.
He said the comments by Amato in Bologna and the Maletti interview required
a political response to get to the truth.
``There should now be an order (from Amato) for the archives of the
carabinieri (military police) and the Guardia di Finanza (tax police) to be
opened,'' Pellegrino told a news conference.
``There are some documents which have not yet been made available to the
commission and there are some officials who have not told all they know,''
he added.
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
*****
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ITALY MARKS BOMBING ANNIVERSARY
____________________________________________________________________
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, August 2, 2000 3:50 p.m. EDT
ROME (AP) -- Fifty-thousand people marched Wednesday to commemorate the
20th anniversary of one of post-war Europe's worst massacres, a
still-mysterious bombing that killed 85 at the Bologna train station.
The procession ended at the yellow-brick Bologna station, where a minute of
silence at 10:25 a.m. ended with the piercing shriek of a train whistle.
At that minute on Aug. 2, 1980, two explosives-packed suitcases exploded in
a second-class waiting room, tearing through trains and a summer crowd of
vacationing travelers.
``It is humiliating for me to admit that many times within the state there
has been connivance, there were mistruths and lies, and we don't know what
was at the bottom of it,'' Prime Minister Giuliano Amato told the marchers.
Turning to the victim's families, discernable by daisies in their
buttonholes, Amato said, ``You're right to still feel owed something
because in this case truth and justice are wanting.''
The bombing came during Italy's ``Years of Lead,'' from 1969 to the
mid-1980s, when right- and left-wing terror killed hundreds.
Prosecutors called the bombing a neo-Fascist attack bent on undermining
Italy's democracy. Speculation was that Bologna was targeted as a
stronghold of Italian Communism.
Those convicted, but later acquitted on appeal, included the grandmaster of
the secret ``P-2'' Masonic Lodge, accused of nothing less than plotting a
right-wing coup with the aid of officials of Italy's own secret service.
The two right-wing extremists convicted of dropping off the bombs repeated
in TV and newspaper interviews this week their denials of guilt.
The man and woman are now on limited release from prison.
The president of the association of families of the bombing's victims used
the anniversary to renew the group's appeal that a state-secrets provision
be lifted in cases of massacres.
``Silence prevails on those who ordered the bombing, on those who inspired
it politically, on those who used the massacre for political ends and for
power,'' Paolo Bolognesi said.
Italian authorities classified the investigation of the bombing as secret,
restricting information on it, until arrest warrants were announced fully
five years after the attack.
Unusually for Italy, the long blocks of marchers Wednesday included no
political banners -- a request of the families.
The bombing injured another 200 people. Until the breakup of the Balkans,
it stood as a high water-mark of bloodshed in post-World War II Europe.
A plaque at the station lists the names of those who died. Outside, a clock
in the square still stands at 10:25 -- the minute it stopped 20 years ago.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
*****
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BNP TO CONTEST AT LEAST ONE SEAT IN NORTH
____________________________________________________________________
IRISH NEWS
Politics
Tuesday, 1st August 2000
http://www.irishnews.com/current/politics2.html
By Alan Erwin
THE controversial British National Party is set to contest at least one
Northern Ireland seat in the next general election.
The extreme right-wing party's commitment came after it was forced to
abandon plans to field a candidate in the forthcoming South Antrim
by-election.
Growing support for the party, which campaigns for a halt to immigration
and the strengthening of Section 28, had raised the prospect of a BNP
representative standing in the constituency. Section 28 prevents the
promotion of homosexuality in sex education in schools.
Around 30 members are believed to have attended a meeting in the south
Antrim area last week to decide whether to contest the by-election.
But House of Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd's decision to retire from
politics brought an end tothese plans. "Events have overtaken us
completely," said Northern Ireland regional organiser Alan Moore.
He said the party was now focusing resources on contesting Ms Boothroyd's
West Bromwich West seat in the by-election arising out of her retirement.
Deputy leader Sharon Edwards has been put forward as the party's candidate
in an area which has seen the party poll well at local government level.
"It was felt that we should donate our resources to that campaign and go
for a good vote," said Mr Moore. "But with a general election likely next
May we would like to think that we would be fighting at least one seat."
Among the constituencies most likely to feature a BNP candidate are North
Belfast, South Antrim and possibly East Antrim.
However, Mr Moore was far from downhearted, insisting his party was
"definitely on the up" here.
He was particularly heartened by recent sales of the party's Northern
Ireland newsheet, True Brit. "In Kilkeel on a Friday night and all day
Saturday we sold 221 copies of True Brit, and that was just going
door-to-door."
Alliance South Antrim representative David Ford said he was "delighted" the
BNP will not be contesting the by-election. "Their form of extreme
right-wing politics has nothing to offer the people of Northern Ireland,"
he said. "The task for mainstream politics is to seek to unite people, not
to promote further division."
Copyright 2000 the Irish News Ltd.
*****
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GERMANY'S FAR RIGHT TURNS ON 'ENEMY WITHIN'
____________________________________________________________________
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
International News
Sunday, 6 August 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
By Tony Paterson
THE German government last week launched a new crusade against the far
Right following a bomb attack that injured nine Russian immigrants,
including six Jews.
Lothar Bisky, a middle-class German professor in his sixties, does not look
like a natural target for far-Right attacks. But as leader of the former
communist Party of Democratic Socialism, he lives in constant fear of his
life. The attacks against his family started when Mr Bisky's 11-year-old
son was surrounded by neo-Nazi skinheads at a children's playground near
the family home in a Berlin suburb.
Mr Bisky said: "They stubbed out a burning cigarette on his head because
his father was a PDS politician. I won't forget that." Since then Mr Bisky
has narrowly escaped death when a bomb that was to be planted by Right-wing
extremists at a political meeting he was to address in the eastern city of
Wittenberg, exploded in the perpretrators' flat. Since then Mr Bisky has
come to regard far Right violence as routine.
Police have advised him to use different cars to get about and have
recommended that he should not travel to work at the same time each day.
His neighbours warn him against going to certain pubs because they are "too
dangerous" for him. Mr Bisky is among the growing number of non-foreign
targets singled out by the German far Right.
The names and addresses of justice officials, government ministers and even
well-known actors deemed to be anti-Nazi have been discovered on "hit
lists" drawn up by a plethora of neo-Nazi groups, some of which have links
to Swedish, Dutch and British organisations such as Combat 18.
Police confiscated a neo-Nazi brochure entitled Wehrwolf (Werewolf) earlier
this year which singled out the leader of Germany's conservative Christian
Democratic Party, Angela Merkel as a legitimate target for attack. It
included her address and those of other prominent politicians.
The Wehrwolf document is believed to be part of the far Right's
"anti-Antifa" campaign, set up to combat the country's well established
Left-wing anti-Nazi movement which is known as the Antifa. The anti-Antifa
has already published "hit lists" on the internet and in brochures.
The German journalist Bernd Wagner, who specialises in writing about the
far Right, says that neo-Nazi violence has continued almost unchecked since
the early 1990s when skinheads burned a block of flats inhabited by
Vietnamese immigrants in Rostock. He said: "It has become so commonplace
that attacks on foreigners are worth only a paragraph in local newspapers."
The Düsseldorf train station bombing that injured nine Russian immigrants,
including six Jews, 10 days ago is one of the reasons that the government
announced a clampdown. On Wednesday, the German Foreign Minister, Joschka
Fischer, unveiled plans for "zero tolerance" on neo-Nazi violence, while
other politicians have demanded a formal ban on the extreme-Right National
Democratic Party (NPD).
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000.
*****
_________________________________________________________________________
IT'S TIME TO RESIST THE NEO-NAZI KILLER GANGS, GERMANS ARE TOLD
Four murders and a bomb attack show the threat to foreigners by the extreme
Right is growing
_________________________________________________________________________
THE OBSERVER
International News
Sunday, 6 August 2000
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,351068,00.html
Denis Staunton from Berlin
As a visiting academic in the eastern Germany city of Leipzig, Atiqur
Rahman could be forgiven for losing his way. But when a gang of skinheads
saw him standing alone in a telephone booth near the city centre, they left
the Indian visitor in no doubt about the mistake he had made.
When they finished thumping and kicking him, the young thugs set a dog on
Rahman and chased him until, covered in blood, he found refuge in a student
hostel.
Until last week, stories such as Rahman's merited little more than a few
lines in local German newspapers as part of an endless catalogue of
right-wing violence in the East. But after four murders in eight weeks and
a bomb attack on a Düsseldorf commuter railway station that injured nine
immigrants >from the former Soviet Union, five of them Jewish, Germany has
woken up to the growing menace.
'We can stand by no longer as violent right-wingers hunt foreigners and
asylum-seekers in the streets,' Klaus Zwickel, the leader of Germany's
biggest union, IG Metall, said last week.
Politicians across the spectrum, from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to Edmund
Stoiber, the conservative Prime Minister of Bavaria, have called for
tougher action against neo-Nazis and for more civil courage from ordinary
citizens.
Business leaders warn that racist violence is damaging the country's
chances of attracting foreign investment and deterring the high-skilled
workers Germany hopes to attract from abroad with a new, green card visa
system.
But as the daily toll of attacks rises and intelligence chiefs warn that
right-wingers are turning to terrorism, there is little agreement on what
to do about the problem. Bavaria's Interior Minister, Günther Beckstein,
who distinguishes between 'welcome' and 'unwelcome' foreigners, has called
for a ban on the biggest party of the extreme Right, the
Nationaldemokratische Partei (NPD).
A number of senior politicians, including one member of Schröder's Cabinet,
agree. But lawyers argue that Germany's constitutional court is unlikely to
approve a ban and the NPD's leader, Udo Voigt, said last week that his
party was relaxed about the prospect.
'In the thirty-sixth year of the NPD, this is a propagandist, populist
demand that has been made by many Interior Ministers before. None has
succeeded. Besides, new organisations can be created afterwards,' he said.
Before Voigt took over the party leadership four years ago, the NPD was
broke, demoralised and dominated by old men who pined for the days of the
Third Reich. A political scientist by training, Voigt shifted the party's
emphasis towards social questions, with slogans such as 'Jobs for Germans
first!' and attracted young members in the East with concerts, parties and
the distribution of neo-Nazi, skinhead music.
The NPD has earned millions of deutschmarks from its music business and,
through its youth wing, the Junge Nationaldemokraten (Young National
Democrats), has become the party of choice for young right-wingers. 'If
there are attacks on foreigners in Germany, that is of course a sorry tale,
but it is the responsibility of the established parties who continue to
allow uncontrolled flows of foreigners - now with a green card - while they
are not in a position to guarantee the right of all Germans to work.
'They have to reckon with the fact that people will develop a will to
resist at some stage. But that is a normal, popular reaction. We don't need
to orchestrate that,' Voigt said last week.
Banning the NPD is unlikely to stop the violence, not least because violent
right-wingers are organised in hundreds of small, independent groups known
as Kameradschaften. Often no more than skinhead gangs, the Kameradschaften
have only the most informal relationship with organisations such as the
NPD, although they come together for the party's bigger political
demonstrations.
The skinhead gangs target not only foreigners but any group that does not
fit into their nationalistic, conservative world view: gays, the disabled,
left-wingers and even young people who listen to the wrong kind of music.
Social workers in the eastern Harz mountains have reported a wave of
attacks on single mothers who were told they should create a proper German
family.
Right-wing internet sites have started publishing the names and addresses
of prominent left-wingers and of celebrities they have identified as
Jewish; death threats are a daily event for left-wing politicians and
Jewish leaders. In many eastern towns, skinheads have created no-go areas
for foreigners and left-wingers, known as 'nationally liberated zones', and
police warn that they cannot guarantee the safety of anyone who strays into
them at night.
'It is easier to attack a socially weaker foreigner than the socially
respected Wessi (west German), against whom the real hatred has been
directed since unification,' says Dr Hans-Joachim Maaz, a psychotherapist
from the eastern city of Halle.
'They strike the African but they really want to hit the west German.'
Easterners are twice as likely to be out of work as their western
counterparts and some left-wingers believe right-wing violence is a direct
consequence of mass unemployment. But Heinz Fromm, the president of
Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the equivalent of
MI5, says few violent right-wingers are under-privileged.
'Many are at school, in training or have a professional qualification,' he
says. 'Only one-fifth are unemployed. So it is not true that these are
mainly people from socially excluded groups.' In fact, extreme right-wing
views have become mainstream among young people in many parts of eastern
Germany, as a recent survey of 1,600 15-year-olds in the port city of
Rostock revealed. Forty per cent agreed with the statement that foreigners
were 'totally' or 'mainly' responsible for unemployment and 26 per cent
believed Germany needed a strong leader ('Führer') again. The Federation of
German Industry called last week for right-wing extremists who have become
'noticeable' to be sacked from their jobs. General manager Ludolf von
Wartenburg explained that the business leaders' concerns had less to do
with the welfare of minorities than with the effect of such violence on
profits.
'If this image becomes fixed throughout the world, I am afraid of dramatic
effects on the investment of foreign firms in Germany,' he said. In
Eisenhuettenstadt, near the Polish border, the steel manufacturer Eko
Stahl, which is the town's biggest employer, has had a zero-tolerance
policy towards right-wing extremism for the past two years. Would-be
apprentices are questioned during their first interview about their
attitude towards foreigners and, before they start their training, they
take part in a week-long workshop on tolerance and diversity.
The French-owned company, which took over the former Stalin Steel Works
after German unification, organises regular youth exchange schemes in
France and Poland in an effort to broaden the horizons of the young
easterners. 'The young people can get to know each other and break down
prejudices. If you talk to these young people, they sometimes open their
eyes,' said personnel manager Andre Koerner.
Despite the attacks on foreigners, there is little political support for
right-wing groups, and parties such as the NPD have few public
representatives, even at local level. The German far Right has no
charismatic leader to compare with Austria's Jorg Haider and most
disaffected easterners register their protest against the new order by
voting for the ex-communist Party of Democratic Socialism.
But the public debate over government initiatives to reform Germany's
citizenship laws and to allow highly skilled foreign workers to take up
jobs in Germany revealed a deep-seated, popular opposition to the idea of a
multicultural society - despite the presence of seven million foreigners in
the country. The opposition Christian Democrats won an election last year
in the southern state of Hesse after a shamelessly xenophobic campaign
against allowing foreigners to become German citizens more easily.
One Berlin police officer who is involved in the fight against right-wing
extremism warned last week that, unless attitudes changed throughout German
society, the threat from the Right could only become greater.
'The fertile ground is there. Unfortunately, many citizens think along the
lines that right-wingers give voice to. Schoolchildren must be told clearly
what suffering the Nazis brought to the world. Right-wing extremism is not
just a problem for the authorities, but for the whole of society,' he said.
Denis Staunton writes for the 'Irish Times'.
Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
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