CFOW Weekend Update
August 17, 2017
Hello Stalwarts – In light of the events at Charlottesville, and the subsequent meltdown of Trump, our vigil on Saturday will focus on opposing white supremacy and memorializing Heather Heyer, the young woman who was killed in Charlottesville. We will meet in Hastings at the VFW Plaza (Warburton Ave. and Spring St.) from 12 to 1. PLEASE JOIN US!
The rally is co-sponsored by the Greenburgh Human Rights Advisory Council and Hastings RISE, and I've posted the rally info on the FB pages of several other organizations, so with any luck we will have more people than usual; SO please get to our rally spot (the VFW) a bit before noon so we can look sharp and have a large contingent to start the vigil. – We'll have a sound system, so we can have a "speak-out" if people would like to speak. – ALSO, if anyone would like to pass out leaflets at the farmers market, starting e.g. at 10 a.m., please send a return email.
This mailing is more of an Announcement than a "Weekend Update"; but down below I've linked a few articles/essays about Charlottesville and related concerns. Before proceeding, please check out this powerful short documentary film about Charlottesville from Vice News, an outstanding inside look at what makes the fascist world tick re: white supremacy, anti-Semitism, the Confederacy, etc. Over the past week, the progressive daily news program Democracy Now! has had several segments about the events at Charlottesville; to follow their on-going coverage, go here.
And if you must have a Reward for such a brief reading effort, Tina Fey, a graduate of the University of Virginia, analyzes the Charlottesville events for "Saturday Night Live." Also of interest is this 1943 War Department instructional film connecting white supremacy with support for the Nazis, "Don't Be A Sucker." Very interesting, imo.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME GOOD/USEFUL READING ABOUT CHARLOTTESVILLE, WHITE SUPREMACY, ETC.
What Happened In Charlottesville?
Top 10 Misconceptions About Charlottesville
By David Swanson, ZNet [August 15, 2017] [Link].
(Video) Ta-Nehisi Coates: Given Trump & GOP History of Racism, Violence in Charlottesville was Predictable
Photos of Peaceful Charlottesville Vigil: 'Our Home, Not Their Home'
By
---- Thousands of people gathered on the University of Virginia campus here Wednesday night in the glow of candlelight, striking a peaceful contrast to the torches wielded by white supremacists on Friday. Marchers — many of them college students — sang hymns, gospel songs and other anthems of belonging, including "This Land Is Your Land," "Lean on Me" and "This Little Light of Mine." The vigil was largely organized by word of mouth, and its leaders strove to keep the plans off social media. The result was a warm gathering that provided some small measure of relief to a college town left in turmoil by the weekend's events, in which a rally on Saturday organized by white nationalists devolved into a series of street fights and ended in the death of a local woman. [See pictures of the vigil]
(Video) Full Remarks of Heather Heyer's Mother at Charlottesville Memorial Service
From Democracy Now! [August 16, 2017]
---- A memorial service was held today in Charlottesville to remember Heather Heyer, who died Saturday after she was run down by a neo-Nazi named James Alex Fields. Heyer had repeatedly championed civil rights issues on social media. Her Facebook cover read, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." [See the Program]
Who Are the White Supremacists/Nazis? What Motivates Them?
A New Generation of White Supremacists Emerges in Charlottesville
From Pro-Publica [August 14, 2017]
---- The white supremacist forces arrayed in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend — the largest gathering of its sort in at least a generation — represented a new incarnation of the white supremacy movement. Old-guard groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and the Nazi skinheads, which had long stood at the center of racist politics in America, were largely absent. Instead, the ranks of the young men who drove to Charlottesville with clubs, shields, pepper spray and guns included many college-educated people who have left the political mainstream in favor of extremist ideologies over the past few years. A large number have adopted a very clean cut, frat-boyish look designed to appeal to the average white guy in a way that KKK robes or skinhead regalia never could. Interviews show that at least some of these leaders have spent time in the U.S. armed forces. [Read More] Also useful (from last Sunday's CFOW newsletter) – Spencer Sunshine, "The Largest Fascist Rally in Recent Memory -- Can the Left Unite Against It? [Link]; David Swanson, "Welcoming the Fascists to Charlottesville," [Link]; and Daniel Ross, "White supremacist rally explained," Vox [August 13, 2017] [Link].
Why the Charlottesville Marchers Were Obsessed With Jews
By Emma Green, The Atlantic [August 15, 2017]
---- The "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville was ostensibly about protecting a statue of Robert E. Lee. It was about asserting the legitimacy of "white culture" and white supremacy, and defending the legacy of the Confederacy. So why did the demonstrators chant anti-Semitic lines like "Jews will not replace us"? … For these demonstrators, though, the connection between African Americans and Jews is clear. In the minds of white supremacists like David Duke, there is a straight line from anti-blackness to anti-Judaism. That logic is powerful and important. The durability of anti-Semitic tropes, and the ease with which they slide into all displays of bigotry, is a chilling reminder that the hatreds of our time rhyme with history and are easily channeled through timeless anti-Semitic canards. [Read More]
Free Speech for the Nazis/White Supremacists?
[FB – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was widely criticized for the legal defense of the "Unite the Right" march and rally after the city government denied the protesters permit application. Here the president of the ACLU defends what they did, as does Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept. Further down, Natasha Leonard argues for popular opposition, not governments, as the vehicle to prevent Nazi rallies. -- And this just in: "ACLU Shifts Position on Defending Armed Demonstrations after Charlottesville" Common Dreams.]
Equality, Justice and the First Amendment
By Anthony D. Romero, American Civil Liberties Union [August 16, 2017]
There is another practical reason that we have defended the free speech rights of Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Today, as much as ever, the forces of white supremacy and the forces for equality and justice are locked in fierce battles, not only in Washington but in state houses and city councils around the country. Some government decision-makers are deeply opposed to the speech we support. We simply never want government to be in a position to favor or disfavor particular viewpoints. And the fact is, government officials—from the local to the national—are more apt to suppress the speech of individuals or groups who disagree with government positions. Many of the landmark First Amendment cases, such as NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and New York Times v. Sullivan, have been fought by African-American civil rights activists. Preventing the government from controlling speech is absolutely necessary to the promotion of equality. [Read More]
The Misguided Attacks on the ACLU
By Glenn Greenwald The Intercept [August 13, 2017]
---- Each time horrific political violence is perpetrated that is deemed to be terrorism, a search is immediately conducted for culprits to blame other than those who actually perpetrated the violence or endorsed the group responsible for it. It's usually only a matter of hours before the attack is exploited to declare one's own political views as vindicated, and to depict one's political adversaries as responsible for, if not complicit in, the violence. Often accompanying this search for villains is a list of core civil liberties that we're told ought to be curtailed in the name of preventing similar acts of violence in the future. … This same warped mentality — blaming civil liberties advocates for the bad acts of their clients — was on full display yesterday in the wake of the heinous car attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, by a white nationalist on a group of anti-fascist protesters. That attack killed one woman, a 32-year-old paralegal, Heather Heyer, and injured multiple anti-racist protesters…. The flaws and dangers in this anti-free speech mindset are manifest, but nonetheless always worth highlighting, especially when horrific violence causes people to want to abridge civil liberties in the name of stopping it. In sum, purporting to oppose fascism by allowing the state to ban views it opposes is like purporting to oppose human rights abuses by mandating the torture of all prisoners. [Read More]
Not Rights but Justice: It's Time to Make Nazis Afraid Again
By Natasha Lennard, The Nation [August 16, 2017]
---- The intolerable events in Charlottesville bring new urgency to an old debate: Should we allow neo-Nazis a public platform? Every aspect of the Unite the Right rally—not only its bloody denouement—stands as grounds for a resounding "no." With torches, swastikas, metal poles crashing into a black man's skull, and a Dodge Charger plowing into defenseless bodies, the far right has made undeniable what was already clear: They are enemies, not political interlocutors. This makes it all the more crucial to delineate what we do or do not mean when we demand an end to according space for speech and assembly to far-right racists. … It is thus a profound misunderstanding of the antifa position (in which I include myself) to suggest we are in the business of seeing rights curtailed. Antifa is a promise to neo-Nazis and their bedfellows that we will confront them in the streets; we will expose them online and inform their place of employ. We are not asking venues to deny space to far-right events; we are vowing that all far-right events will be bombarded and besieged. [Read More]
How Do We Move Forward?
It's Not Hysterical to Recognize the Threat Trump Poses: Democracy, such as it is, really is in danger.
By Katha Pollitt, The Nation [August 2017]
---- Talk about bad timing. Even as white supremacists and neo-Nazis massed in Charlottesville, complete with torches, shields, MAGA hats, sticks, and guns, even as one participant allegedly ran his car into a crowd of peaceful counter-demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, and injuring some 19 others, The New York Times was publishing an op-ed warning against taking the whole Trump thing too seriously. [Read More]
Petition To Censure Trump Gains Momentum
By Peter Dreier, Common Dreams [August 14, 2017]
---- In less than two weeks, a petition calling for Congress to censure President Donald Trump for misconduct and misdeeds has attracted more than 14,500 signatures. … A growing number of other prominent Americans have endorsed the petition, including former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, legal and human rights scholar and Tufts University Professor John Shattuck, political theorist Michael Walzer, and attorney and writer Richard North Patterson. The petition, which can be found on its website, asks both the Senate and the House of Representatives to censure Trump and sets forth a description of misconduct and misdeeds that have occurred since Trump's inauguration… [Read More]
