Calling international solidarity with the anti-fascist murdered by a nazi in Madrid

by scorchio Mon Nov 19, 2007 22:20

Saturday evening after this call to solidarity some thousand & more anti-fascist demonstraters found their gig end in a serious altercation in which at least 50 and possibly 60 people were injured. Of which 25 were members of the Catalan police (for this was a barcelona antifascist thing) & 5 (including one minor) were arrested & detained (only to be released earlier today).., Gurggle the Spanish state news agency EFE quoted barcelona indymedia along the way to hours of fun presently coming out of the Roman Catholic bishops' radio COPE.
None of the ackowledged Irish diasporia collective played a great part in any of this though. They were teaming up with local residents in another neighbourhood moving goalposts to reclaim a community sports place at the request of a bunch of middle aged parents who don't like doing both direct action politics and heavy lifting at the same time. All the same happy community photos were taken & everyone has an alibi.
OF course this wouldn't be an antifasc article without a mention of the literally hundreds veterans of the Falange who gathered for the last legal time to celebrate a nazi salute display at Franco's burial shrine in the mountains behind Madrid. It was noted that this year they're not wearing moustaches. Oh but the sunglasses are still there. But the George Clooney liquor adverts have managed to take the sinister out of moustaches. Bingo - the falanage are clean shaven.
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2634832

by scorchio Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:26

It appears the Catalan supreme court (a title which implies it has much more power than it ever seems to prorogate itself) will not decide a speaking gig called by the neo-nazi bookshop in Barcelona for Saturday is illegal. There is currently much gurgling about a police presence, (as if we on the anti-fascist side are pleased to know attendance at such events is peppered with cops). I am pleased to see less than a week since the "altercation" of last Saturday that mainstream intellectuals & types signed the petition which brought the case to the supreme court seeking an "injunction". But I'm likewise worried that curfuffle is doing little more than bringing attention to a tiny shop of repelent books, nicnacs & novelty goods. All the same, but not quite -
Tomorrow if there be one illegal or prohibited flag, symbol, or scrap of handbook in that commercial premises there will be an appropriate response. = no platform.

*David Duke rose to prominence in the USA as a young moustachio'ed KKKman who redefined white supremacism to include "celtic" notions & thus admit Catholics as members. He served as congressman for Louisiana & has produced several works of revisionist history. He no longer has a moustache.

No Platform.
...................no bookshop.

by scorchio Fri Nov 23, 2007 22:23

The Spanish state union of students called a march yesterday to show mass opposition to neo-nazism, fascist organisation & the murder of Carlos Palomino on the 11th of this month in Madrid. Meanwhile the activities of the two principle parties of the far right & the 251 identified far right, fascist, fascistic or xenophobic groupings are receiving widespread media attention including tonight's Friday equivalents of that peculiarly Irish social nanny sermon show "the late late show".

Tomorrow as I explained in the last comment one of the leading global white supremacist, neo-nazi ideologues David Duke will address a meeting in a small bookshop in Barcelona as part of his "Spanish tour" to launch the spanish translation version of his latest book on "jewish supremacy". It has now been confirmed that the Catalan Supreme Court will not declare the meeting illegal but it shall be stopped if at any time there is incitement to hatred or violence. The Catalan police will (as I mentioned in the last comment) attend the event & speech to monitor its content & to prevent rotund action or reaction on the part of anti-fascist activists. In my own joking way I've already suggested on the activist grapevine of Bcn a hooded & solemn call to the faithful "just like easter" gathering of protest. However, joking aside the visit of Duke & the role played by the U.S. far right in European affairs must not be tolerated or ignored any longer. There are currently two threads which treat on the murder of Carlos Palomino; this call to action from Madrid indymedia (which we may read as heeded) & another article which reported the news - http://indymedia.ie/article/85086 In the comments to which one of us (readers &/ or contributors) correctly mused that we must understand fascism or nazism. To which end I intend on publishing tonight or tomorrow a text on the nature of 21st century neonazism in Europe using these recent events in the Spanish state as starting points but inviting you (readers &/or contributors) to consider what steps we must urgently take in our communities, societies, places of work and/or education & at thereafter at the level of new legislation & the application of existing law.

by iosaf Sun Nov 25, 2007 18:38

It's been a long week for those whose interest in European extremist ideologies, organisations & their effect as regards historical reconciliation, memory & identity go beyond the blame game .

Last weekend for the last legal time thanks to the final passing of the "law of memory" veterans of the Falange militia & Fascist organisations who brought Franco to power celebrated the anniversary of his death. (BBC report on the divisions this annual event causes. The same day a Computer game was launched which invites players to re-enact the Spanish civil war & decide who wins. (Guardian report on the game http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,2212614,00.html )- The mainstream media of Spain preferred to cover the death of one its cinema's most loved and revered personalities & his funeral with full honours which saw his coffin draped in anarchist flag. The same media had spent the previous week musing the significance of the death of a 16 year old and the clash between hugo Chavez and their King as the former declared Aznar to be a fascist and the latter asked why he didn't shut up. They had also seen the spokesperson of the right wing PP (Aznar's party) Mr Zaplana of Valencia propose legislation to illegalise fascist groupings who promote or excuse violence. During which they had pondered last Saturday's riot in Barcelona and the age old question of "immunity" or soft-handling of certain groups in certain places. Just one week before that CCTV cameras had internationalised the scene of a 15 year old Ecuadorian migrant being kicked in the face by a far right youth during a routine train journey. He became a hero to the groups who now use Swiss visual language of a flock of white sheep expelling the black. Thereafter the Latin Kings a predominantly youth hispanic gang formation with varying legal status worldwide or in the Spanish state issued a death threat to that train booting youth.
The last week has seen the former grand wizard of the KKK and former congressman for Louisiana, David Duke attempt a peninsular tour to promote his latest book "jewish supremacy". The Spanish student union brought thousands of its members to the streets of the state's principle cities to link their rejection of hate violence & neonazism with their equally scheduled solidarity with international groups opposed to gender violence. The same elements who brought the "law of memory" to through the Catalan legislation the same day the Pope beatified his victims of "20th century terror" who were placed on the Franco side of the civil war - then began wondering when would the illegal Franco symbols be removed from the army recruitment & training grounds. The march 17th 2005 paddy's day removal of Franco from Madrid's public squares seems so far away now..,

___________________________________

Last night nobody wanted to ask David Duke where he stands on Iraq, Guantanamo, Burma, nuclear power for Iran (at whose holocaust conference he fine tuned his latest book), the destruction of Israel, the memory of the Shoah, the unmarked graves of near 200,000 reds of the Spanish civil war, the desolation of New Jersey and its black folks, his thoughts on single mothers, apartheid, segregation, migrant expulsion & imprisonment, his selection of migrants of menial work, prostitution, drugs, slavery, Green Clinton or Dixie Bush.

Last night nobody wanted him in Barcelona except for the convicted hate crime nazi who invited him to a small bookshop. And whilst in Madrid the council deemed anti-fascist gatherings to be illegal, the Catalan Police couldn't seem to figure out which law they needed to stop protecting him from us & simply fo their job.

The Catalan minister of the interior lives in the same neighbourhood with his lifelong partner who leads the green party in the city municipal government. The gig was cancelled, because every nazi, every falange, every anarchist, every intellectual, every military fetishist - has a phone number these days.

As I attempted to make clear to the international solidarity movement in the past, as we saw the book burnings of eastern Germany, the mobilisations in Russia, Poland, Prague etc of the far right, as we watched aghast as the western European media ignored the seizing of a neighbourhood in Utrecht by far right gangs during three weeks -

this is not about gangs.
It is about moving the goalposts.
Neither the far right nor skinheads nor KKKmen are going to sit in government after Cheney, Rice, Aznar, the Polish twins, Thatcher, the Bush.

But they move goalposts.
So must we.

by Antifa Britain with the Anarchist Federation - IFA. Sun Nov 25, 2007 19:20

activists held a demonstration & information event at the International Brigades monument at the Thames in London to mark Carlos Palomino's death & its inclusion in the struggle against fascism.
The monument is found next to the "London eye" in the grounds of lawn which fit between the former GLC building (now aquarium) and Shell building (now Shell). Flowers are always welcome.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386504.html

London Memorial Rally in Jubilee Gardens, 24 Nov 2007

by oxford anti-fascists Mon Nov 26, 2007 21:04

the topic being freedom of speech

Not holocaust denial, single mothers, gypsies, migrant expulsion, the poor black folks of New Orleans, the poorer black folks of Darfur, the not so poor but pretty fucked black folks of the US army occupying Iraq, Iran and the nuclear power question, Mickey Mc Dowell and the "what does it mean to be Irish?" question.

Nope.

They're talking about freedom of hate speech & lies for the first time in their constant onslaught of attempts to be allowed do so at the university of Oxford this evening. Just as the Catalan cops this week, the Brit plod are in the audience monitoring the men who arrived protected by private security ( black water lousianna swamp probagbly true blue blood bulgarian mercenaries in cracker white make-up ). ....."Chief Inspector Dennis Evernden said: "Our role in this event is to prevent any breach of the peace, facilitate any lawful protest and reassure the general public. We are very used to dealing with protest in Oxford and will deal with this event in a sensitive and professional manner."..........

as an oft overlooked oxonian I'd just like to suggest the exact same formula which worked to stop the KKK meeting :- no platform no bookshop.............or in this case no effing university.....hee hee hee.

coverage in Guardian up to date till last hour.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2217429,00.html
link to Oxford indymedia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2007/11/3....html