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Hear that? It’s the dog whistling of election season

From the ABC:

Asylum seeker policy ‘an appeal to fear and racism’

A social justice advocacy group says it is concerned that both sides of politics are attacking asylum seekers in the lead-up to the federal election.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he wants a return to Howard-era policies including temporary protection visas and processing asylum seekers in other countries.

But the director of the advocacy group the Edmund Rice Centre, Phil Glendinning, says the proposals are “an appeal to fear and racism”.

“The situation on Nauru was not properly resourced, people did not have access to rights of appeal or to law, and it was in serious contravention of Australia’s obligations,” he said.

“It wasn’t about the UN, it was about Australia. Ultimately, people who come into our jurisdiction seeking asylum have done nothing illegal; their claims need to be assessed fairly and justly.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has defended the Coalition’s plan.

“It’s a problem we solved in government last time and its a problem we’ll be called on to solve in government again if we’re elected,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry… »

News brief · 28 May 2010

Jury Finds Bill White Guilty on Four Counts

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports…

A federal jury today agreed with some but not all of the government’s allegations that former neo-Nazi leader Bill White made threats against various people with whom he disagreed.

White was found guilty of threatening a Citibank employee, intimidating tenants of a Virginia Beach, Va., apartment complex, threatening a University of Delaware administrator and threatening a Canadian human rights lawyer, according to The Roanoke Times. He was acquitted of threatening the Citibank employee with the intent to extort, threatening Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts and threatening a New Jersey mayor.

The jury reached its verdict late this afternoon after deliberating for less than four hours. During the eight-day trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Va., the jurors heard testimony from victims who said they were terrified by the blog posts, telephone calls and E-mails that White used to target them. The defense, which did not call any witnesses, argued that White’s communications were protected free speech under the First Amendment.

White, 32, was the self-described commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, a neo-Nazi group, and ran the hate website Overthrow.com until his arrest last fall. He could be sent to prison for up to 40 years.

As our American comrades, the One Peoples Project, like to say, “Hate has its consequences”.

News brief · 23 December 2009

End of the road for racist Golliwog toys

The Herald Sun reckons that complaints about golliwog dolls are based in mere over-the-top, ‘politically correct’ hypersensitivity.

We don’t.

The Hun and other golliwog proponents are demonstrably ignorant of the history of golliwogs- but ignorance of why something is racially offensive doesn’t make it any less offensive.

There’s no question that golliwog dolls perpetuate negative stereotypes of people of colour- and 21st century children don’t need to be taught American racial prejudices rooted in the late 19th century.

Golliwogs are grotesque caricatures of African Americans in the vein of ‘Jim Crow‘ and other demeaning blackface theatre. It is the demeaning nature of blackface which makes it offensive- and golliwogs are part and parcel of that tradition of negative racial stereotyping of African Americans.

Remember that ‘golliwog’ is the root word of the term ‘wog,’ which remains in use as a racist epithet to this day in Australia and other Commonwealth countries.

From the entry about Golliwogs in Ferris State University’s Museum of Racist Memorabilia:

The Golliwog Caricature

The Golliwog (originally spelled Golliwogg) is the least known of the major anti-Black caricatures in the United States. Golliwogs are grotesque creatures,¹ with very dark, often jet black skin, large white-rimmed eyes, red or white clown lips, and wild, frizzy hair. Typically, it’s a male dressed in a jacket, trousers, bow tie, and stand-up collar in a combination of red, white, blue, and occasionally yellow colors. The golliwog image, popular in England and other European countries, is found on a variety of items, including postcards, jam jars, paperweights, brooches, wallets, perfume bottles, wooden puzzles, sheet music, wall paper, pottery, jewelry, greeting cards, clocks, and dolls. For the past four decades Europeans have debated whether the Golliwog is a lovable icon or a racist symbol.

The Golliwog began life as a story book character created by Florence Kate Upton. Upton was born in 1873 in Flushing, New York, to English parents who had emigrated to the United States in 1870. She was the second of four children. When Upton was fourteen, her father died and, shortly thereafter, the family returned to England. For several years she honed her skills as an artist. Unable to afford art school, Upton illustrated her own children’s book in the hope of raising tuition money.

In 1895, her book, entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls, was published in London. Upton drew the illustrations, and her mother, Bertha Upton, wrote the accompanying verse. The book’s main characters were two Dutch dolls, Peg and Sarah Jane, and the Golliwogg. The story begins with Peg and Sara Jane, on the loose in a toy shop, encountering “a horrid sight, the blackest gnome.” The little black “gnome” wore bright red trousers, a red bow tie on a high collared white shirt, and a blue swallow-tailed coat. He was a caricature of American black faced minstrels — in effect, the caricature of a caricature. She named him Golliwogg.

The Golliwogg was based on a Black minstrel doll that Upton had played with as a small child in New York. The then-nameless “Negro minstrel doll” was treated roughly by the Upton children. Upton reminiscenced: “Seated upon a flowerpot in the garden, his kindly face was a target for rubber balls…, the game being to knock him over backwards. It pains me now to think of those little rag legs flying ignominiously over his head, yet that was a long time ago, and before he had become a personality…. We knew he was ugly!”³

Read the rest of this entry… »

Upton’s Golliwogg character, like the rag doll which inspired it, was ugly. He was often drawn with paws instead of hands and feet. He had a coal black face, thick lips, wide eyes, and a mass of long unruly hair.⁴ He was a cross between a dwarf-sized Black minstrel and an animal. The appearance was distorted and frightening.⁵

Florence Upton’s ugly little creation was embraced by the English public. The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls was immensely popular in England, and Golliwogg became a national star. The second printing of the book was retitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. For the next fourteen years, Bertha and Florence Upton created twelve more books featuring the Golliwogg and his adventures, traveling to such “exotic” places as Africa and the North Pole, accompanied by his friends, the Dutch Dolls.⁶ In those books the Uptons put the Golliwogg first in every title.

The Uptons did not copyright the Golliwogg, and the image entered into public domain. The Golliwogg name was changed to Golliwog, and he became a common toyland character in children’s books. The Upton Golliwogg was adventurous and sometimes silly, but, in the main, gallant and “lovable,” albeit, unsightly. Later Golliwogs were often unkind, mean-spirited, and even more visually hideous.

The earliest Golliwog dolls were rag dolls made by parents for their children. Many thousands were made. During the early twentieth century, many prominent doll manufacturers began producing Golliwog dolls. The major Golliwog producers were Steiff, Schuco, and Levin, all three Germany companies, and Merrythought and Deans, both from Great Britain. The Steiff Company is the most notable maker of Golliwog dolls. In 1908 Steiff became the first company to mass produce and distribute Golliwog dolls. Today, these early Steiff dolls sell for $10,000 to $15,000 each, making them the most expensive Golliwog collectibles. Some Steiff Golliwogs have been especially offensive, for example, in the 1970s they produced a Golliwog who looked like a wooly haired gorilla. In 1995, on the 100th anniversary of the Golliwog creation, Steiff produced two Golliwog dolls, including the company’s first girl Golliwog.

James Robertson & Sons, a British manufacturer of jams and preserves, began using the Golliwog as its trademark in the early 1900s. According to the company’s promotional literature, it was in the United States, just before World War I, that John Robertson (the owner’s son) first encountered the Golly doll. He saw rural children playing with little black rag dolls with white eyes. The children’s mothers made the dolls from discarded black skirts and blouses. John Robertson claimed that the children called the dolls “Golly” as a mispronunciation of “Dolly.” He returned to England with the Golly name and image.

By 1910 the Golly appeared on Robertson’s product labels, price lists, and advertising material. Its appeal led to an enormously popular mail-away campaign: in return for coupons from their marmalade, Robertson’s sent brooches (also called pins or badges) of Gollies playing various sports. The first brooch was the Golly Golfer in 1928.⁷ In 1932 a series of fruit badges (with Golly heads superimposed onto the berries) were distributed. In 1939 the popular brooch series was discontinued because the metal was needed for the war effort,⁸ but by 1946 the Golly returned. In 1999 a Robertson spokesperson said, “He’s still very popular. Each year we get more than 340,000 requests for Golly badges. Since 1910 we have sent out more than 20 million.”⁹ The Robertson Golly has also appeared on pencils, knitting patterns, playing cards, aprons, and children’s silverware sets.

Robertson pendant chains were introduced in 1956, and, soon after, the design of all Robertson Gollies changed from the Old Golly with pop eyes to the present Golly with eyes looking to the left. The words “Golden Shred” were removed from his waistcoat, his eyes were straightened, and his smile was broadened.¹⁰

During the first half of the twentieth century, the Golliwog doll was a favorite children’s soft toy in Europe. Only the Teddy Bear exceeded the Golliwog in popularity. Small children slept with their black dolls. Many White Europeans still speak with nostalgic sentiment about their childhood gollies. Sir Kenneth Clark, the noted art historian, claimed that the Golliwogs of his childhood were, “examples of chivalry, far more persuasive than the unconvincing Knights of the Arthurian legend.”¹¹ The French composer Claude Debussy was so enthralled by the Golliwogs in his daughter’s books that one movement of his Children’s Corner Suite is entitled “The Golliwog’s Cakewalk.”¹² The Golliwog was a mixture of bravery, adventurousness, and love — for White children.

In the 1960s relations between Blacks and Whites in England were often characterized by conflict. This racial antagonism resulted from many factors, including: the arrival of increasing numbers of colored immigrants; minorities’ unwillingness to accommodate themselves to old patterns of racial and ethnic subordination; and, the fear among many Whites that England was losing its national character. British culture was also influenced by images — often brutal — of racial conflict occurring in the United States.

In this climate the Golliwog doll and other Golliwog emblems were seen as symbols of racial insensitivity. Many books containing Golliwogs were withdrawn from public libraries, and the manufacturing of Golliwog dolls dwindled as the demand for Golliwogs decreased. Many items with Golliwog images were destroyed. Despite much criticism, James Robertson & Sons did not discontinue its use of the Golliwog as a mascot. The Camden Committee for Community Relations led a petition drive for signatures to send to the Robertson Company. The National Committee on Racism in Children’s Books also publicly criticized Robertson’s use of the Golly in its advertising. Other organizations called for a boycott of Robertson’s products; nevertheless, the company has continued to use the Golliwog as its trademark in many countries, including the United Kingdom, although it was removed from Robertson’s packaging in the United States, Canada, and Hong Kong.

In many ways the campaign to ban Golliwogs was similar to the American campaign against Little Black Sambo. In both cases racial minorities and sympathetic Whites argued that these images demeaned Blacks and hurt the psyches of minority children. Civil rights organizations led both campaigns, and White civic and political leaders eventually joined the effort to ban the offensive caricatures. In the anti-Golliwog campaign, numerous British parliamentarians publicly lambasted the Golliwog image as racist, including, Tony Benn, Shirley Williams, and David Owen.¹³

The claim that Golliwogs are racist is supported by literary depictions by writers such as Enid Blyton. Unlike Florence Upton’s, Blyton’s Golliwogs were often rude, mischievous, elfin villains. In Blyton’s book, Here Comes Noddy Again, a Golliwog asks the hero for help, then steals his car. Blyton, one of the most prolific European writers, included the Golliwogs in many stories, but she only wrote three books primarily about Golliwogs: The Three Golliwogs (1944), The Proud Golliwog (1951), and The Golliwog Grumbled (1953). Her depictions of Golliwogs are, by contemporary standards, racially insensitive. An excerpt from The Three Golliwogs is illustrative:

Once the three bold golliwogs, Golly, Woggie, and Nigger, decided to go for a walk to Bumble-Bee Common. Golly wasn’t quite ready so Woggie and Nigger said they would start off without him, and Golly would catch them up as soon as he could. So off went Woogie and Nigger, arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song — which, as you may guess, was Ten Little Nigger Boys.¹⁴

Ten Little Niggers is the name of a children’s poem, sometimes set to music, which celebrates the deaths of ten Black children, one-by-one. The Three Golliwogs was reprinted as recently as 1968, and it still contained the above passage. Ten Little Niggers¹⁵ was also the name of a 1939 Agatha Christie novel, whose cover showed a Golliwog lynched, hanging from a noose.

The Golliwog’s reputation and popularity were also hurt by the association with the word wog. Apparently derived from the word Golliwog,¹⁶ wog is an English slur against dark-skinned people, especially Middle or Far East foreigners. During World War II the word wog was used by the British Army in North Africa, mainly as a slur against dark-skinned Arabs. In the 1960s the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, one of the most noted regiments in the British Army, wore a Robertson’s golly brooch for each Arab they had killed.¹⁷ After the war, wog became a more general slur against brown-skinned people. As a racial epithet, it is comparable to nigger or spic, though its usage extends beyond any single ethnic group. Dark-skinned people in England, Germany, and Australia are derisively called wogs.¹⁸ In the year 2000, a British police officer was fired for referring to an Asian colleague as a wog.¹⁹ The association of wog with racial minorities is also seen with the word wog-box, which is slang for a large portable music box, the European counterpart of the ghetto blaster. The wog-box is also called a “Third World briefcase.”²⁰

Some Golliwog supporters tried to distance themselves from the wog slur by dropping it from the word golliwog. James Robertson & Sons, for example, has always referred to its golliwog as “Golly.” In the late 1980s, when the anti-Golliwog campaign reached its height, many small manufacturers of the golliwogs began using the names Golly or Golli, instead of Golliwog. Not surprisingly, the words Golliwog, Golly, and Golli are now all used as racially descriptive terms, although they are not as demeaning as wog.

Golliwog is a racial slur in Germany, England, Ireland, Greece, and Australia. Interestingly, it is sometimes applied to dark-skinned Whites, as well as brown-skinned persons. Golliwog is also a common name for black pets, especially dogs, in European countries — much as nigger was once popular as a pet name. Golliwog was also the original name of the rock band Credence Clearwater Revival. They sometimes performed the song “Brown-Eyed Girl” (not the Van Morrison tune), dressed in white afros. This is not to suggest that they were racists, only to show that golliwogs were a part — albeit, a small one — in American culture.²¹

The Golliwog celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 1995. Golliwog collectibles, which always had a loyal following, again boomed on the secondary market. This popularity continues today and is evidenced by numerous eBay and Yahoo internet auctions and the presence of several international Golliwog organizations. A pro-Golliwog viewpoint can be found at the International Golliwog Collectors Club’s website: www.teddybears.com/golliwog/direct.html. Many collectors, primarily though not exclusively Whites, contend that the anti-Golliwog movement represents political correctness at its worst. They argue that the Golliwog is just a doll, and that the original Florence Upton creation was not racist, intentionally or unintentionally — this is reminiscent of the claims about Helen Bannerman’s Little Black Sambo (Read the Picaninny Caricature essay on this website for a more in-depth discussion of Little Black Sambo).

Critics of the Golliwog have launched a new attack. They are trying to get the image removed from all newly published children’s books, and they are trying to force businesses to not use the Golliwog as a trademark. The Black Trinidadian writer, Darcus Howe, said, “English [White] people never give up. Golliwogs have gone and should stay gone. They appeal to White English sentiment and will do so until the end of time.” Gerry German, of the Working Group Against Racism in Children’s Resources, was quoted in The Voice, a Black newspaper, as saying: “I find it appalling that any organization in this day and age can produce anything which would commemorate the golliwog. It is an offensive caricature of Black people.”²²

The Golliwog was created during a racist era. He was drawn as a caricature of a minstrel — which itself represented a demeaning image of Blacks. There is racial stereotyping of Black people in Florence Upton’s books, including The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls — such as the Black minstrel playing a banjo on page 45. It appears that the Golliwog was another expression of Upton’s racial insensitivity. Certainly later Golliwogs often reflected negative beliefs about Blacks — thieves, miscreants, incompetents. There is little doubt that the words associated with Golliwog — Golly, Golli, Wog, and Golliwog, itself — are often used as racial slurs. Finally, the resurgence of interest in the Golliwog is not found primarily among children, but instead is found among adults, some nostalgic, others with financial interests.

© Dr. David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology
Ferris State University
Nov., 2000

¹ The adjective grotesque reflects, of course, a subjective judgement; however, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), defines Golliwog as a “doll fashioned in a grotesque caricature of a Black male.” Found at www.bartleby.com/61/66/G0186600.html.

² Langenscheidt’s New College German Dictionary (Germany, 1993, p.283), has this citation for golliwog: gol-li-wog (g) 1. gro’teske schwarze Puppe; 2. fig. Vogelscheuche’ f (Person). The English translation is: 1. grotesque black doll; 2. fig. scarecrow’ (person). Thanks to Maryanne Heidemann for translating the definition.

³ D. Barton Johnson, “Nabokov’s Golliwogs: Lodi Reads English 1899-1909.” Found at http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/dbjgo3.htm.

⁴ This description is taken from Robert M. MacGregor, “The Golliwog: Innocent Doll to Symbol of Racism.” In, Advertising and Popular Culture: Studies in Variety and Versatility. Sammy R. Danna, editor, (Bowling Green State University Press, 1992), p.124. MacGregor is one of the few scholars to offer a thorough examination of Golliwogs.

⁵ Ibid, p. 125.

⁶ See, “golliwogs.com: A Brief Golliwog History.” Found at http://golliwogs.com/history/index.html.

⁷ See, “Gollies Through History — well, since 1928 anyway.” Found at http://www.sheepz.freeserve.co.uk/gthhist.html.

⁸ Florence Upton donated her original Golliwoggs drawings for public auction to support the WW II British war effort.

⁹ James Clark, “A sticky end at last for Golly?” Daily Mail, June 22, 1999.

¹⁰ “And There’s Even More: The history of Golly.” Golly Corner Website. Found at http://www.my-home.demon.co.uk/gollymore.htm.

¹¹ D. Barton Johnson, op.cit., p. 3 of 6.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Robert M. MacGregor, “The Golliwog: Innocent Doll to Symbol of Racism,” p.129.

¹⁴ Enid Blyton, The Three Golliwogs. (London: Dean & Son, LTD, 1968 edition), p. 51.

¹⁵ The name was later changed to Ten Little Indians, then later to Then There Were None. All of the books are still readily available on the secondary market.

¹⁶ There is some speculation that wog is an acronym for one of the following: Western Oriental Gentleman, Worthy Oriental Gentleman, Wily Oriental Gentleman, Wonderful Oriental Gentleman, or Working On Government Serive. The numerous variations and a lack of supporting evidence suggest that wog was not an acronym. See, “Dave Wilton’s Etymology Page: Letter W.” Found at http://www.wilton.net/ordorw.htm.

¹⁷ “And There’s Even More: Golly is not politically correct.” Golly Corner Website. Found at http://www.my-home.demon.co.uk/gollymore.htm.

¹⁸ Wog is also slang for non-Brits, and is used against the French and even the Danish. It is sometimes employed with a smug, patronizing tone of voice, rather than the snarl which usually accompanies the use of nigger, spic, and other racial ethnophaulisms. Wog is both an ethnic slur and a racial epithet.

¹⁹ “British policeman fired for racist remark in landmark case.” The Times of India. July 4, 2000. Found at http://www.timesofindia.com/today/04wor121.htm.

²⁰ Jonathan Green, The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. (New York: Stein and Day, 1984), p.309.

²¹ “A Brief History of CCR.” Found at http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-17068/sida4.htm.

²² James Clark, op. cit.

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News brief · 16 October 2009

There is no such thing as a ‘moderate’ anti-immigrant group

Like the last “moderate” anti-immigrant group the Republican Party championed, Youth for Western Culture, the leadership of the “Minutemen” have been arrested for serious violent crimes against minorities. This time, it’s multiple murder. This is what “respectable” racism looks like.

From KVOA-TV, Tuscon, Arizona:

Home invasion suspects tied to border group

Two of three people arrested in a southern Arizona home invasion that left a little girl and her father dead had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.

Jason Eugene Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges, said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Ariz.

The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a home about 10 miles north of the Mexican border in rural Arivaca on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter.

Their motive was financial, Dupnik said.

“The husband who was murdered has a history of being involved in narcotics and there was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location as well as the possibility of drugs,” Dupnik said.

Forde is the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group, and Bush goes by the nickname “Gunny” and is its operations director, according to the group’s Web site.

Read the rest of this entry… »

She is from Everett, Wash., has recently been living in Arizona and was once associated with the better known and larger Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

A statement attributed to officers of Forde’s group and posted on its Web site on Saturday extended condolences to the victims’ families and said the group doesn’t condone such acts and will cooperate with law enforcement.

“This is not what Minutemen do,” said member Chuck Stonex, who responded to an e-mail from The Associated Press sent through the Web site. “Minutemen observe, document and report. This is nothing more than a cold-hearted criminal act, and that is all we want to say.”

The assailants planned to leave no one alive, Dupnik said at a press conference in Tucson on Friday. He said Forde was the ringleader.

“This was a planned home invasion where the plan was to kill all the people inside this trailer so there would be no witnesses,” Dupnik said. “To just kill a 9-year-old girl because she might be a potential witness to me is just one of the most despicable acts that I have heard of.”

Dupnik said Forde continued working through Friday to raise a large amount of money to make her anti-illegal immigrant operation more sophisticated.

Forde denied involvement as she was led from sheriff’s headquarters.

“No, I did not do it,” she said. “I had nothing to do with it.”

Gaxiola also denied involvement; Bush was arrested at a Kingman, Ariz., hospital where he was being treated for a leg wound he allegedly received when the woman who survived the attack managed to get a gun and fire back.

Killed were 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her 29-year-old father, Raul Junior Flores. The name of the wounded woman who survived the attack hasn’t been released.

Forde is well known in the anti-illegal immigration community, said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

“She’s someone who even within the anti-immigration movement has been labeled as unstable,” Levin said. “She was basically forced out of another anti-immigrant group, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and then founded her own organization.”

Stonex, of Alamagordo, N.M., said he met Forde while on an Arizona border watch operation last fall, and liked her despite her reputation in the Minutemen community.

“I know she’s always had sort of a checkered past but I take people for what I see and not what I hear,” the 57-year-old said.

She recruited him to start a new chapter in New Mexico, but was secretive about her group or its members.

Stonex said he didn’t know how to recruit for a chapter and never did.

He said Forde called him on the day of the attack while he was visiting Arizona and asked him to bring bandages to an Arivaca home because Bush had been wounded.

Stonex said it appeared Bush had a relatively minor gunshot wound, which he treated.

He said Forde and Bush told him Bush been wounded by a smuggler who shot at him while the group were patrolling the desert.

Stonex said he didn’t suspect that might not be the case until was contacted by a deputy on Saturday about their alleged involvement in the crime.

Arizona, by the way does very bad things to people convicted on multiple murder raps.

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News brief · 14 June 2009

Rhythm needs your help

Rhythm Turner is a lesbian musician from San Diego, in the United States.

After a gig in Mission Beach on May 14th, Rhythm fell victim to a brutal attack by a man whose motivations were based in homophobia, leaving Rhythm with two very serious facial fractures and an inability to perform musically. The attacker was arrested for felony assault, but is not currently being charged with a hate crime.
Rhythm needs reconstructive surgery to fix her fractures, but as a full-time student and musician she has no health insurance.

If you’d like to help with these costs, please consider a contribution via this paypal link.

And you can listen to her band, Rhythm and the Method here.

http://www.myspace.com/rhythmandthemethod

From everyone at FightDemBack, we wish Rhythm a speedy recovery, and we ask anyone who can to help donate to get her face fixed. The United States, for all its wealth, has a health care system that does not provide adequate health coverage for people on low incomes without health insurance, so Rhythm needs all the help she can get, because as a professional performer a broken face can mean the difference between a gig and going hungry.

Fight dem back · 27 May 2009 · Discussion

Toben wins UK fight, Aussie fight remains

From The Australian:

Fredrik Toben wins UK fight over extradition to Germany
Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
November 21, 2008

AUSTRALIAN Holocaust denier Fredrik Toben has won his legal battle with the German Government after it ended its attempt to extradite him from Britain.

German prosecutors have withdrawn their appeal against a British court’s refusal last month to extradite the controversial historian, who was detained at Heathrow airport on a European arrest warrant for denying the extent of Adolf Hitler’s crimes against the Jews.

Dr Toben’s solicitor Kevin Lowry-Mullins said early today that he had signed a consent order with the German Government to end the action against his client.

Read the rest of this entry… »

Dr Toben had been expected to face a tough legal fight over his extradition early next year in the High Court inLondon.

He was arrested while in transit atLondon’s Heathrow airport on October1 under a warrant accusing him ofracism and publishing anti-Semitic views.

But Westminster Magistrates Court district judge Daphne Wickham ruled the extradition could not go ahead because the warrant contained only “sparse” details about Dr Toben’s alleged offences, including exactly what they were, as well as where and when they took place.

“This judgment makes no determination as to whether the (alleged) conduct (of Toben) … amounts to an extradition offence,” Judge Wickham said.

“But I do find the particulars in the warrant are vague and imprecise. Therefore I don’t find it to be a valid warrant and I can discharge the defendant.”

Granting Dr Toben bail, the judge laid down a set of strict conditions including that he come up with pound stg. 100,000 ($247,465) in cash as security. He had to reside at a specific address approved by British authorities and report daily to police but not use the internet, speak to the media or attend public meetings.

Dr Toben’s lawyers had argued that the arrest warrant was fatally flawed because it did not detail the time and place of the alleged offences, nor the 64-year-old’s exact involvement.

Lawyers acting on Germany’s behalf had said Dr Toben should be extradited so he could be put on trial for posting anti-Semitic and revisionist material on the internet between 2000 and 2004 in Australia, Germany and in other countries.

The case caused alarm in Britain about freedom of speech because, unlike in Australia and Britain, Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany and offenders can face up to five years in jail. Dr Toben, who founded the Adelaide Institute, was supported during his hearing by supporters including British Holocaust denier David Irving and former Australian beauty queen Michele Renouf.

When Dr Toben was released, Mr Irving said: “We defeated Germany again; we’ve defeated Europe in fact. We’ve always believed in freedom of speech in this country, no matter how crazy people’s views are.”

German prosecutor Andreas Grossmann, the Mannheim district prosecutor handling Dr Toben’s case, had told The Australian that he expected Dr Toben to be on trial in Germany early next year.

Mr Grossmann also warned that, although most prisoners in Germany served a third to a half of their sentences, the stubborn refusal of long-term Holocaust revisionists to recant their views meant they usually failed to win parole.

“These people have little chance of getting out before the end of their full sentence,” Mr Grossman said.

As a foreign citizen, Dr Toben would normally be sent back to Australia halfway through any sentence to serve the remainder of his term, but that move, too, would be threatened by a refusal to recant.

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News brief · 22 November 2008

The Good Ship BNP is a Leaky Vessel

Update

Press Gazette

Seven journalists appear on leaked BNP member list

under investigation

Bonus!

Know Your Product

Cor blimey, the BNP membership list got leaked!

http://bnpmemberslist.blogspot.com/ was one location where the list was published, but it’s since been closed. However…

There’s obviously been a fair bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth following this latest debacle, but the person (or persons) responsible have yet to be identified. In the running are filthy red hackers, or possibly ex-BNP Treasurer John Walker. Jilted John got the arse recently after clashing with BNP fuehrer Nick Griffin, and speculation is rife among fascist trolls on teh Intertubes that he may have enacted his rewenge by leaking the list.

Who knows?

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In Australia, there’s a handful of whinging pommy bastards with the dubious pleasure of claiming membership of the foreign trouble-making association. Unsurprisingly, all are blokes. In the white power stakes, Queensland comes out on top, with six men displaying bulldog spirit, followed by NSW with three, VIC and WA equal third with two, and one schmuck in SA and TAS.

Of most concern to the thousands of mentalists whose names, addresses, contact details, occupational status and in some cases even hobbies are zooming up, down and across the informational superhighways will be those handful belonging to the police, armed forces and other state and public institutions. As has been noted in The Daily Telegraph (BNP membership list leaked onto internet, November 19, 2008):

A police officer, more than a dozen soldiers, a vicar and a Chelsea pensioner have been named on a list purporting to comprise the entire membership of the British National Party… On the list are 16 servicemen, including a Royal Marines Commando. Among the 68 members listed as former servicmen are one Chelsea pensioner, three Paras, three Guards and two Royal Marines. One BNP member is listed as a Church of England vicar… According to Lancaster Unity, the anti-fascist group that first reported the list’s publication [Entire BNP membership list goes online, November 18, 2008], other members are noted as construction managers, receptionists, district nurses, lay preachers, company directors and teachers.

Some of whom will presumably be bracing themselves for some rather awkward workplace conversations. Well, apart from Rod Lucas: “TalkSport radio said it would ‘no longer use’ DJ Rod Lucas who covered late-night shifts for the station earlier this year” after he was outed as being a big fan of a Whites-Only Britain. [See also : DJ named on BNP member list joined to research story, The Guardian, November 19, 2008.]

Curiously, Rod Lucas recently (November 2) got a guernsey on BNP leader’s Simon Darby’s blog (Simon is “currently serving as both Director of Information Technology and West Midlands organiser”). Simon notes that: “…more light has been shone on the TalkSport radio incident I described a few days ago. A further email yesterday confirmed that on Thursday night/Friday morning 30th October whilst the presenter, Rod Lucas was interviewing Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch UK, it was announced that Nick had refused to come on the show. This is a total fabrication as Nick had already agreed to the slot and it was TalkSport who cancelled because they wanted to cover the Ross/Brand/Sachs story instead.”

In any event, there is speculation that the leak may cause a few BNP members to reconsider their commitment to the BNP, but I have my doubts. Griffin appears to have a stranglehold on the party, and past history suggests that even where party management has been found guilty of abuses of authority (most recently, in December 2007) or tactical errors, most remain loyal. Further, the BNP has seemingly cornered the market in neo-fascism, meaning there’s little real competition for ‘nationalist’ sentiment (and finance) — apart from, perhaps, the UKIP, or ‘extremist’ elements among the Tories — so an alienated segment of the Great British Public has few, if any, alternatives.

The man who taught Slim to be a pimp explained the hate equation that drives the relationship between a pimp and his whores:

“Slim, a pimp is really a whore who has reversed the game on whores…so be as sweet as the scratch, no sweeter, and always stick a whore for a bundle before you sex her. A whore ain’t nothing but a trick to a pimp. Don’t let ‘em ‘Georgia’ you. Always get your money in front just like a whore.”

On the other hand, maybe “It’s Time” for a new/old fuehrer?

Oh yeah, speaking of the devil…

Australia: Let’s Make It a Wog-Free Zone!

Visa fight over fascist visit
Connie Levett
The Age
November 16, 2008

DENYING a visa to British fascist leader Nick Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, will only increase the likelihood of Cronulla-style racial conflict, his supporters say… Darrin Hodges, the NSW head of the extreme Australian Protection [sic] Party, which is backing his visit, said: “Having a full and frank debate was more helpful than not … and suppressing the debate leads to events like Cronulla.” He said Mr Griffin would speak at private forums in Sydney and Melbourne.

Two points.

One: there was no “suppression of debate” prior to what, at the time, Darrin championed as being a White Civil Uprising. On the contrary, there was a massive campaign to whip up racist and xenophobic hysteria in the days and weeks leading up to the so-called ‘Uprising’; a fact noted even by NSW police in their investigation into the ‘riot’ and subsequent ‘retaliatory’ crimes. As The Fat Little Parrot otherwise known as millionaire shock-jock Alan Jones squawked at the time: “I’m the person that’s led this charge”.

Two: the Cronulla ‘riot’ was greeted with unabashed glee not only by Darrin, but others right across the white supremacist spectrum. According to Darrin:

“Friends, today was an historic day, the day Australians stood up against state-imposed multiculturalism,” he wrote on the night of the Cronulla riots [on the world's premiere white supremacist forum Stormfront]. Accompanying his posting is a series of photographs he took at Cronulla that day, including one of a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “wog free zone” and another of a sign offering free sausages to the crowd, with “no tabouli”. [Darrin] also speaks of footage he filmed on the day which Henderson-Hau [FightDemBack!] believes was used in a video released over the weekend that glorifies a mob of rioters bashing various non-whites at Cronulla.

Meaning Darrin is, as usual, being a lying wanker.

See also : ONE NATION MEMBERSHIP: THIN ON THE GROUND IN KINGSFORD-SMITH, BUT A HIGH PROPORTION RESIDENT IN NEW SOUTH WALES (July 8, 1998) — on former Labour MP Laurie Brereton’s response to the publication by the Australia/Israel Review of One Nation party membership — and one month later RUDDOCK MUST REFUSE ENTRY TO BRITISH RACIST AGITATOR (August 14, 1998) — on Brereton’s opposition to Nick Griffin’s previous attempt to tour The Colonies (he was refused entry).

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Slackbastard · 20 November 2008 · Discussion

Neo-Nazis want fascist visit… to prevent Cronulla Mk II

Bit weird, really, cos they rather enjoyed it the first time around.

From the Age:

Visa fight over fascist visit
Connie Levett
November 16, 2008

DENYING a visa to British fascist leader Nick Griffin, who has a conviction for inciting racial hatred, will only increase the likelihood of Cronulla-style racial conflict, his supporters say.

Mr Griffin, head of the far-right-wing British National Party, has applied to visit Australia to tackle the issue of “the demographic genocide … caused by large-scale immigration of people from the Third World”.

Darrin Hodges, the NSW head of the extreme Australian Protection Party, which is backing his visit, said: “Having a full and frank debate was more helpful than not … and suppressing the debate leads to events like Cronulla.”

He said Mr Griffin would speak at private forums in Sydney and Melbourne.

However, Jewish lobby groups opposed to the December speaking tour by Mr Griffin — a Holocaust denier with long-standing links to far-right-wing groups throughout Europe — believe the free speech argument has to be balanced against the harm done to local communities.

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News brief · 16 November 2008

Toben’s trial soon says prosecutor

From The Australian:

Holocaust denier Fredrik Toben’s trial soon: prosecutor
Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent
October 11, 2008

THE German prosecutor who wants to put Australian citizen Fredrik Toben on trial for denying the Holocaust warned yesterday that he was determined to see the former school teacher face justice.

Andreas Grossmann, the Mannheim district prosecutor handling Dr Toben’s case, said that despite his attempts to avoid extradition from Britain to Germany, he expected Dr Toben to be on trial early next year.

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Mr Grossmann also warned that Dr Toben faced up to five years in jail and, although most prisoners in Germany served a third to a half of their sentences, the stubborn refusal of long-term Holocaust revisionists to recant their views meant they usually failed to win parole.

“These people have little chance of getting out before the end of their full sentence,” Mr Grossman told The Weekend Australian.

As a foreign citizen, Dr Toben would normally be sent back to Australia halfway through any sentence to serve the remainder there, but that move too would be threatened by a refusal to recant.

Mannheim has become the centre of German efforts to enforce laws that criminalise the denial, justification or playing down of the Nazi slaughter of Jews.

As a result, the hulking, century-old prison in a quiet residential area on the edge of the city holds more prisoners convicted of those offences than any other prison in Germany, and it is where authorities hope Dr Toben, 64, will soon be incarcerated.

Holocaust deniers held at the brownstone prison include Ernst Zundel, a 69-year-old German neo-Nazi who lived in Canada for 42 years but was deported to Mannheim and is serving the maximum five-year sentence; and Germar Rudolf, a 43-year-old chemist expelled from the US and jailed for 30 months for insisting the extermination of Jews at the Auschwitz death camp could not have happened on the scale accepted by mainstream historians.

Mr Grossmann, a softly spoken lawyer who took responsibility in 2005 for prosecuting political crimes in Mannheim, said the district’s leading role on the issue was partly accidental and partly the result of the zeal of his predecessor, Hans-Heiko Klein.

In April 1999, Dr Toben, who was born in Germany, visited Mr Klein’s second-storey office on a busy Mannheim street and explained his views of the Holocaust. Dr Toben was asked to come back the next day and repeat his comments; he was arrested and sentenced to nine months in Mannheim prison.

When Dr Toben returned to Australia the following year he continued to express his views on his website and elsewhere. In 2004, Mr Klein laid a new set of charges against him.

Those charges were the basis of Dr Toben’s detention at Heathrow airport on October 1.

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News brief · 12 October 2008

Shocking Toben Development: Support from Irving

From the SMH:

Aussie Holocaust denier supported by David Irving

British Holocaust denier David Irving has joined Australian historian Dr Fredrick Toben’s fight against extradition to Germany, where authorities want to try him for his alleged anti-Semitic views.

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Toben, who founded the Adelaide Institute, appeared briefly at a London court today after being arrested at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday under a European Union warrant issued by a German court.

He has been remanded in custody, with a bail hearing set for October 10 at Westminister Magistrates Court followed by an extradition hearing a week later.

Watching on from the public gallery was a small band of supporters, including Irving, who branded Toben’s arrest “a disgrace on the name of Britain”, and Lady Michele Renouf, an Australian-born, British-based socialite known for her support of Holocaust denial.

The District Court of Mannheim in Germany wants Britain to extradite Toben for allegedly publishing material which allegedly rejects or plays down whether the Holocaust ever happened.

Unlike in Britain, Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany and offenders can face up to five years in jail.

Speaking to reporters outside the court Irving, who has been banned in the past from entering Australia on “character grounds”, condemned Toben’s arrest.

“I disapprove of some of his views but he has the right to express them,” Irving said.

“What we have seen here is Nazi Germany in pinstriped suits and it’s going to get worse.

“Ironically he is finding himself as an Australian in a kangaroo court in Germany.”

Irving, an historian who has written several books defending Adolf Hitler and denying the extermination of six million Jews during World War II, was jailed in Austria two years ago for glorifying Nazism.

While Irving says he is unable to afford to offer any money to secure Toben’s release on bail, he is willing to have the Australian live with him at his home at Windsor, west of London, while the extradition case continues.

“I wanted him to know all of his friends are here and we won’t abandon him,” Irving said.

During today’s hearing, Toben’s barrister Ben Watson told the court that the case “strikes at the heart of freedom of expression” and “the interpretation of racism and xenophobia”.

“This is an extremely important case,” Watson said.

“It strikes at the heart of the controversial European arrest scheme…and that is whether it’s possible for a person to be extradited from a country when their conduct wouldn’t be an offence in that country.”

A warrant for Toben’s arrest was issued in 2004, claiming he denied, approved or played down the mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis in material he published on websites in Australia, Germany and other countries.

Toben argues he should not be extradited to Germany because he could never receive a fair trial there.

He was given a 10-month jail sentence in Germany 1999 for publishing a newsletter denying the Holocaust but after being granted bail, fled to Australia.

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News brief · 5 October 2008

The Golliwog Caricature

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Australia: Let’s Make It a Wog-Free Zone!

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