LA anti-nazi mobilization

The "National Socialist Movement" (NSM), a neo-nazi formation with a
base in Riverside CA, has issued a call for a national gathering of
their organization in Los Angeles, featuring a rally on the lawn of
L.A. City Hall for which they have already applied for and received a
permit, on Saturday, April 17. They will be bringing a substantial
number of uniformed nazi thugs and boneheads from around the US as
part of their so-called "Reclaim the Southwest Campaign" and pose a
clear and serious threat of racist and sexist violence which always
follows open nazi organizing. Two years ago, when a similar nazi
group rallied in L.A. to commemorate the death of a founder of the
racist Silent Brotherhood Aryan underground, several of their members
were involved in a racist shooting incident on their way into town
from the Inland Empire.


There will be a planning meeting for a revolutionary anti-fascist,
anti-imperialist counter-mobilization next Saturday, March 13 at 11 AM
at Chuco's Justice Center, 1137 E. Redondo Blvd., Inglewood
(that's 2 blocks west and one block north of Florence & Crenshaw). It
is important to develop a front or pole of opposition to the nazis
that is based in revolutionary pro-liberation anti-imperialist
politics, so that it is clear that opposition to the nazis is not a
defense of the status quo.

Open nazis are not the main enemy in a struggle against colonialism,
capitalism and imperialism, but they are a significant element,
particularly in a period of ongoing economic crisis and political
instability within the belly of the beast. The National Socialist
Movement and similar open fascist forces are seeking greater
political legitimacy as well as influence within larger white
nationalist and reactionary social and political forces, such as the
anti-immigrant movement, the "tea-baggers," and the re-emerging
militia movement.

The NSM and similar nazi forces base themselves on two key elements:
they present themselves as a para-military type operation prepared to
use violence (and in fact are violence-prone, promoting racist,
anti-immigrant, anti-gay and anti-communist thuggery and bullying),
and they claim to be anti-capitalist and revolutionary (as Hitler
did). Liberal-type opposition, which tends to portray them as
"extremists," and to defend "multi-racial democracy and tolerance"
within the existing system, essentially concedes these strong points
to the nazis. It also relies on the police to "maintain peace,"
conceding the power of the state, which always protects the nazis in
the name of "free speech." It is essential to expose the cowardly
nature of the nazis as well as the reactionary, pro-imperial nature
of their politics by manifesting an opposition based on
pro-liberation, anti-colonial/capitalist politics, the right to
self-determination and self-defense, and independent direct action.

Too often, even militant anti-racists, socialists and anarchists
opposed to the nazis have operated without regard to questions of
self-determination and international solidarity, functioning
independently of the leadership of anti-colonial liberation forces.
It is essential, here in Los Angeles, that opposition to the nazis be
based on support for indigenous/Mexicano sovereignty, African
liberation, and decolonization for Asian and other oppressed people.
The provocation by the NSM provides an important opportunity to bring
home the point that ANY revolutionary action and initiative must be
based on such principles and on revolutionary anti-colonial leadership.

A little history is pertinent to the importance of organized
anti-fascist action led by revolutionary liberation forces. In 1981,
the Ku Klux Klan scheduled a rally in Washington DC to celebrate the
election and inauguration of Ronald Reagan (who had announced his
candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where civil rights workers
Schwerner, Cheney and Goodman were assassinated by the KKK with
police compliance). Massive community opposition by local Black DC
residents, supported by a national mobilization by, among others, the
John Brown
Anti-Klan Committee, a group of European-descent anti-racists in
solidarity with the Black liberation struggle, broke up the Klan
rally and chased off the Klansmen. Here in Los Angeles in 1992, the
neo-nazi Populist Party, fronted by pseudo-nationalist Robert Brock,
put on a program denying Hitler's genocide against European Jews in
south-central L.A., dishonestly claiming the participation of Prof.
Jeffreys from NY and the local Committee Against Black Exploitation
in the film industry. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, supported by
ARA-LA/People Against Racist Terror, called a counter-demonstration,
exposing the lies propagated by both the nazis and the zionist
Anti-Defamation League. The LAPD ran riot against community opponents
of the nazi gathering, probably one of the factors that fed the '92
rebellion. More recently, a counter-demonstration with leadership
from the Black Riders Liberation Party and Union del Barrio silenced
and neutralized a Crenshaw-area rally by the racist Minuteman group
and their reactionary Black front-man attempting to provoke
Black-Brown contradictions. These were important victories in which
there was clear revolutionary internationalist anti-capitalist leadership.

However, there are other, less successful examples. In 1983, here in
L.A., the nazis, the Aryan Nations, the Klan, and Metzger's White
Aryan Resistance, were able to hold a triple cross-burning in the San
Fernando Valley/Sunland area, with the complicity of the LAPD and the
compliance of the racist zionist Jewish Defense League, which had
advance intel on the time and place of the cross-burning. Several of
the people involved later became fugitives as members of "the Order"
Aryan underground, responsible for a number of racist killings and
robberies. In Toledo, OH, 3 years ago, a nazi group called a
pro-police rally and march in the Black community. Anti-Racist Action
and local anarchists called a counter-action, but the principal
response and opposition arose spontaneously from local Black
residents outraged at the nazis and their police protectors. A
mini-rebellion ensued, in which police brutalized community people
and made mass arrests, out of which several people were eventually
imprisoned on felony charges, despite ARA support for legal defense
efforts. In Riverside CA last year, the NSM was able to hold a second
rally, after their first one was broken up by militant opposition
(while liberal forces held a counter-rally several miles away). At
the second rally, police were in massive control, as the dominant
anti-nazi forces accepted police "free speech" pens separating them
from the nazis. The Brown Berets on the one hand, and direct action
anarchist anti-fascists on the other, were isolated and either
subjected to arrest (Berets) or marginalized (anarchists). The
lessons from those experiences point to the need for united action
based on international solidarity, respect for self-determination,
solidarity and self-defense to lead the anti-fascist protests that
are sure to emerge.

In the current period, the nazis are attempting to 'seize the time'
of the deepening economic crisis of militarism, unemployment,
foreclosures and austerity in education and social services to
project themselves as a pseudo-revolutionary alternative to business
as usual, by scapegoating African and indigenous people, migrants,
Jews, LGBTQ people and the left. Opposing them means putting forward
that authentic anti-capitalist revolution, anti-imperialist social
transformation and decolonization is the only solution to the crisis
of the empire. Such a pole of attraction can win over the poor and
working people of all nationalities who are increasingly
disillusioned with and frustrated by corporate domination and
politics as usual.

All who are committed to joint anti-imperialist anti-fascist work, on
the basis of international solidarity and support for
self-determination and self-defense, are invited to participate in a
campaign to shut down the nazis and send them packing, beginning with
the 3rd planning meeting next Saturday, March 13 at 11 AM at Chuco's
Justice Center, 1137 E. Redondo Boulevard, Inglewood CA (bordering
south LA -- 2 blocks west of Crenshaw, one block north of Florence at
West Blvd.). The next following meeting will be Sunday, March 21 (the
day after the big peace march) at a location TBA downtown.

Please call Anti-Racist Action-LA/People Against Racist Terror
(ARA-LA/PART) at 310-495-0299 for more information. Below,
FYI, are the 4 Points of Unity of Anti-Racist Action for those
interested in joining ARA. If you want to call or FAX the city to
stop wasting their money protecting nazi lowlifes,
Mayor Villaraigosa and the city councilmembers' phone numbers can be
accessed by calling 311.

The unity of the counter-protest is flush the nazis out and send 'em
packing, support for human rights and liberation for Black, Brown, Native,
Asian, women, LGBTQ and all poor and working people, no to racism,
sexism, imperialism, anti-semitism & genocide; we will not accept
penning by the police. We respect tactical diversity.

In solidarity,
Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-LA/People Against Racist Terror
(ARA-LA/PART)


ANTI-RACIST ACTION NETWORK FOUR POINTS OF UNITY
1) WE GO WHERE THEY GO: Whenever fascists are organizing or active in
public, we're there. We don't believe in ignoring them or staying
away from them. Never let the nazis have the street!
2) WE DON'T RELY ON THE COPS OR THE COURTS TO DO OUR WORK FOR US:
This doesn't mean we never go to court. But we must rely on ourselves
to protect ourselves and stop the fascists.
3) NON-SECTARIAN DEFENSE OF OTHER ANTI-FASCISTS: In ARA, we have lots
of different groups and individuals. We don't agree about everything
and we have a right to differ openly. But in this movement an attack
on one is an attack on us all. We stand behind each other.
4) We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. ARA intends
to do the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement
against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and discrimination
against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest and the most oppressed
people. We want a free classless society. WE INTEND TO WIN!


Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART)
PO Box 1055 Culver City CA 90232
310-495-0299
antiracistaction_la@yahoo.com
www.antiracistaction.org (click on "publication" for PDFs of "Turning
the Tide" or to subscribe to the ARA E-News.