HUMOUR:

AIRPORT SECURITY:

CANADIAN POLITICS HAMILTON:

CONSERVATIVE AUTHOR BLATCHFORD PROTESTED IN HAMILTON:

Conservative author Christie Blatchford has made something of a name for herself over the years, but at least in Hamilton it seems she draws more protesters than fans. Regular readers of her columns in the Globe & Mail might think that she is a one note band devoted to kinky crime cases, but she's published on a lot more things over the years. The controversy reported here comes from her book on what seems to be the never ending saga of the Ontario town of Caledonia and the competing claims of land developers and local first nations people. Here's the story from the Ontario platformist site Linchpin.

◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙

Blatchford Abuses Privilege as Journalist

By Devon Ridge

[Hamilton, November 16th]- The momentum of concerned citizens confronting Christie Blatchford's speaking tour continued last night in Hamilton. Blatchford spoke to a relatively small and tightly-knit crowd consisting of several Caledonia Councilors, and a local MP.

About a dozen Hamiltonians from diverse communities gathered at the event to hand out resources and ask critical questions. They helped open doors for those attending the event and smilingly welcomed discussion. The group carried a Two-Row Wampum flag and signs stating 'Blatchford's Bad News' and 'Hamilton Does Not Welcome Racism'.

The group's focus was to question the strong media support Blatchford's book is receiving, while calling into question its undeniable ties to racist, anti-native organizing.

Blatchford’s book blames the government and police for a failure to protect the citizens of Caledonia, while neglecting to comment on the matter of land claims in the area, which is at the heart of the dispute. Blatchford has been known to publish material criminalizing anti-racist activists and accusing leftists of violence against their communities, meanwhile praising racist actors despite the violence that they perpetrate. This same trend is found in her book, Helpless, in which Blatchford gives praise to anti-native organizer Gary McHale.

Demonstrators felt the importance of creating a presence of opposition comes from a biased media slant, which suggests that the opinions of Blatchford reflect those of many people of Caledonia and the surrounding area. In fact, the Hamilton community did not support Blatchford's presence.

Many community members advocated for a constructive public discussion. Local Hamilton bookseller and businessman Brian Prince initially supported the event in Hamilton as a host - that is, until Blatchford, for whom democracy is, in her words, a 'game' denied his request to allow an alternative voice to speak at the event.

The vibrant and diverse presence of opposition to this speaking event demonstrated that many people in our community are opposed to the rhetoric of white supremacy that is blindly perpetuated by the corporate media.

CANADIAN POLITICS MONTRÉAL:
MARCHE POUR LES VICTIMES DE BAVURES POLICIÈRES/MARCH FOR THE VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY:

À Samedi Octobre 22 à Montréal. On Saturday, October 22 in Montréal.
PBPBPBPBPB



MARCHE COMMÉMORATIVE: Justice pour les victimes de bavures policières!
Time Saturday, October 23 · 12:30pm - 2:30pm

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Location Guy & de Maisonneuve (métro Guy-Concordia)
Montreal, QC

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Created By No One Is Illegal Personne n'est illégal MONTRÉAL

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More Info [English below]

Justice pour les victimes de bavures policières!

MARCHE COMMÉMORATIVE
...SAMEDI 23 octobre, 12h30
Rassemblement: Guy & de Maisonneuve
(métro Guy-Concordia, sortie Guy)

Nous commémorerons le souvenir de Anas Bennis, Claudio Castagnetta, Ben Matson, Quilem Registre, Gladys Tolley, Fredy Villanueva et de toutes les autres victimes.

JOIGNEZ-VOUS à nous pour la Journée nord-américaine demandant l’arrêt de la brutalité policière. Montrez votre soutien et votre solidarité avec toutes les victimes de bavures policières. Avec les familles des victimes et leurs alliés, demandons vérité, dignité et justice.

Évènements familiaux – Bienvenu à tous et toutes !
INFO: 514-848-7583 – 22oct.mtl@gmail.com -- http://www.22octobre.net
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Les familles de personnes tuées par la police, leurs amis et leurs alliés organisent une vigile et une marche à la mémoire des victimes. Ces familles, qui doivent se battre pour connaître la vérité et pour obtenir justice pour les êtres qui leurs étaient chers, ont besoin de notre soutien.

Le vendredi 22 octobre, une vigile aura lieu en compagnie de certaines des familles devant la Fraternité des policiers et des policières (480, rue Gilford, sortie St-Joseph du métro Laurier) entre 16 h et 18 h. À la fin de la vigile nous allumerons des bougies en mémoire des victimes de brutalité policière.

Le samedi 23 octobre, une marche contre l’impunité systématique dans les cas de bavures ou de violence policière aura lieu. La marche commencera à 12h30 au coin des rues Guy et de Maisonneuve, ce sera un évènement à caractère familial. Descendez nombreux dans la rue pour montrer votre soutien aux familles. Le nombre fait la force!

Ce que nous recherchons, c’est LA DIGNITÉ, LA JUSTICE ET LA VÉRITÉ.

Le but principal de la marche est de :
- COMMÉMORER les personnes victimes de bavures policières
- SOUTENIR leurs familles par tous les moyens

Nous soutenons les revendications des familles Bennis, Castagnetta, Matson, Registre, Tolley et Villanueva. Leurs revendications incluent:
- LA FIN de la brutalité policière
- LA FIN de l’impunité policière
- LA FIN du profilage racial, social et politique
- L’ACCÈS rapide à toute l’information
- DES ACCUSATIONS CRIMINELLES contre les policiers ayant tué une personne
- LA TENUE d’enquêtes indépendantes quand une personne est tuée par la police
- L’APPLICATION des recommandations du coroner
- LA FIN de l’utilisation du Taser

Cette initiative est née suite au Forum contre la Violence Policière et l’Impunité qui a eu lieu de janvier 2010 à Montréal, durant lequel des familles ont exprimé leur désir de se réunir pour commémorer leurs proches et renforcer leurs luttes pour la dignité, la justice et la vérité. La date symbolique du 22 octobre a ensuite été choisie pour organiser des événements familiaux pour commémorer les victimes de bavures policières car cette date est la Journée Nationale de Protestation aux États-Unis, organisée par la Coalition du 22 octobre pour arrêter la brutalité policière, la répression et la criminalisation d’une génération depuis 1996.

Nous demandons le soutien d’autres groupes. Pour endosser nos revendications et participer, communiquez avec nous au (514) 848-7583 ou écrivez à 22oct-mtl@gmail.com . Vous pouvez passer prendre des dépliants et des affiches au GRIP Concordia (1500, de Maisonneuve, 2e étage).

Évènements familiaux – Bienvenu à tous et toutes !
INFO: 514-848-7583 – 22oct.mtl@gmail.com -- www.22octobre.net


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Justice for Victims of Police Killings!

COMMEMORATIVE MARCH
SATURDAY, October 23, 12:30pm
Gathering at the corner of Guy & de Maisonneuve
(métro Guy-Concordia, Guy exit)
facebook event:

We remember: Anas Bennis, Claudio Castagnetta, Ben Matson, Quilem Registre, Gladys Tolley, Fredy Villanueva and all the other victims of police killings.

JOIN US on the North American Day to Stop Police Brutality & Repression to show your support and solidarity with all victims of police killings. Together with the families and supporters of police victims, we demand truth, justice and dignity.

Family friendly - Welcome to all!
INFO: 514-848-7583 – 22oct.mtl@gmail.com -- www.22octobre.net
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The families of people killed by the police, their friends and their allies are organizing a commemorative vigil and march to remember victims. These families, who face an uphill battle in uncovering the truth and obtaining justice for their loved ones, need our support.

Friday, October 22: There will be a family-led vigil in front of the Police Brotherhood (480 Gilford St., Laurier metro, St-Joseph exit) between 4 and 6 p.m. We will end the vigil by lighting candles in memory of the victims of police killings.

Saturday, October 23: There will be a family-led, family-friendly march against the systemic impunity in the face of police killings and police violence. The march will begin at 12:30 p.m. on the corner of Guy St. and de Maisonneuve. We strongly encourage as many supporters as possible to come out on the streets and show our support for the families. There is power in numbers!

What we are seeking is DIGNITY, JUSTICE and TRUTH.

The main purpose of the march is to:
- REMEMBER the victims who lost their lives to police violence and abuse and;
- SUPPORT their families in any way we can

We support the list of demands of the Bennis, Castagnetta, Matson, Registre, Tolley and Villanueva families. Their demands include:
- END police brutality
- END police impunity
- END racial, social and political profiling
- ACCESS all information in a prompt manner
- LAY criminal charges in police killings
- HOLD public independent inquiries in police killings
- APPLY the recommendations of the coroner
- STOP the use of tasers

This initiative came out of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity in January of 2010, during which the families expressed their desire to come together to remember their loved ones and strengthen their respective struggles for dignity, justice and the truth. The symbolic date of October 22 was subsequently chosen for a family-friendly march to commemorate the victims of police killings to coincide with the National Day of Protest in the United States organized by the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation, which has been mobilizing every year since 1996.

We ask for your group’s endorsement. To get involved contact us at (514) 848-7583 or at 22oct-mtl@gmail.com . You can pick up flyers and posters for the event at QPIRG Concordia (1500 de Maisonneuve St. W 2nd floor).

Family friendly - Welcome to all!
INFO: 514-848-7583 – 22oct.mtl@gmail.com -- www.22octobre.net

AMERICAN POLITICS- ARIZONA:

PROTEST DRACONIAN ARIZONA ANTI-IMMIGRANT BILL

The following appeal to protest the recent anti-immigrant bill passed in the state of Arizona comes from the United Farm Workers Union. This bill will make the state the first in the union to declare that being an illegal immigrant is actually a crime and not just an administrative offense. It also mandates that police can stop and demand documentation from anyone they have a suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. This translates, of course, into "being brown". Sounds something like creeping totalitarianism to me. In addition the bill contains provisions that actually reach the level of bizarre. It will allow lawsuits against the police should any parties feel that they aren't enforcing the law vigorously. No direct injury need be adduced. I challenge anyone to come up with another example of such a provision anywhere in the world. Then there is another section that makes it a crime to knowingly drive an illegal immigrant. There's one exception. Those "driving illegal immigrants to church" are exempt from prosecution. I kid you not. Only in America ! Here's the appeal.

APAPAPAPAPAPAP
Chilling new AZ law could be signed Friday. Take Action Now
Can you help us? An appalling bill with chilling repercussions, especially for Arizona Latinos, can reach AZ Governor Jan Brewer's (R ) desk by Friday.

According to a Los Angeles Times front page story, "The bill, known as SB 1070, makes it a misdemeanor to lack proper immigration paperwork in Arizona. It also requires police officers, if they form a 'reasonable suspicion' that someone is an illegal immigrant, to determine the person's immigration status...Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state." Alessandra Soler Meetze, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said, "A lot of U.S. citizens are going to be swept up in the application of this law for something as simple as having an accent and leaving their wallet at home."

This means that anyone, even you, who walks in Arizona can be charged with a misdemeanor if you're not carrying identification to prove you are a legal resident.

The bill has just passed the Arizona House and could be on the governor's desk by Friday. Please send contact Gov. Brewer today and tell her not to sign the bill into law.
http://action.ufw.org/az410

Please go to the link above to read more and to ask the Arizona Governor not to sign this bill- Molly.

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS/CANADIAN LABOUR:

INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION:






Today, March 21, is the day declared by the United Nations as 'International day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination'. This begins a week of events in solidarity with victims of racial discrimination. Human beings are one species, and it is a hangover of more primitive times that they are divided by race. the international anarchist movement has always worked against this prejudice, and, in my opinion, its elimination is both possible and necessary even under our present economic system- managerial society. It will actually be one of the great tasks of "the managers" before they pass from history, and the accomplishment of this task is necessary before (not after) a free society can come to birth. Great advances have already been made, but there is much more to do. Here's the statement of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) about this day.
CLCLCLCLCLCLCL
Eliminating racial discrimination
March 21 is the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination. On the day in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid “pass laws” in Sharpeville, South Africa.




Events and activities worldwide, which mark the day, aim to remind us of racial discrimination’s negative consequences. It also reminds us of our obligation to combat racism in all its forms.




Racism contradicts and undermines our union struggle for equality, inclusiveness and social justice. Intolerance, hatred and discrimination lead to the denial of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms, endangers peace and economic and social security.
Help fight racism
**Challenge your own racist assumptions and beliefs.
**Learn more about racially visible people and their communities.
**Stand with racially visible communities and speak out against hatred and racism.
**Challenge governments’ racist and discriminatory policies and laws.
**Organize a panel discussion on racism.
**Set up an information booth or a lunch-time video that promotes better cross cultural understanding.
**Act against racism, whether jokes, slurs, graffiti, or name calling.
**Organize a speaker on human rights at your next union meeting.
**Identify barriers to equality at work and find ways to remove them.
**Put equality issues on your bargaining agenda.
**Organize education on anti-racism in your local.
**Make sure your union newsletter or website carries ethnic culture success stories and send your stories to your local newspaper.
**Encourage public institutions and officials to show their support for human rights and anti-racism when an issue arises in your community.
**Work with other unions and local allies on a plan to end racism in your workplace, local institutions and community.
**Join or support organizations that are working to build inclusive communities.
**Get involved, have courage and take a stand against racism and hate!

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS:

SUPPORT THE ROMA-RALLY TOMORROW:

The following appeal for a demonstration tomorrow, may 3, comes via the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

()()()()()()()()()()()()

EMERGENCY RALLY THIS SUNDAY AGAINST RACIST ATTACKS:‏
EMERGENCY RALLY THIS SUNDAY: Enough is Enough!

Please see below for information on a rally this Sunday being organized by the Roma communities in Toronto and Hamilton against escalating racist violence in the Czech Republic and surrounding Eastern European countries.

The rally in Toronto is part of international "Enough is Enough" demonstrations organized by Roma people in and outside of the Czech Republic.

We were asked to support the effort here by Roma community members in Toronto and a Roma man from Hamilton who is very active in our Raise the Rates campaign (Hamilton brought a busload to the special diet rally a few weeks ago). If people can really try and come out to this - in spite of the busy weekend - it is an important one.

DATE: Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

TIME: 2:30-4pm

LOCATION: Immigration and Refugee Board

74 Victoria Street (south of Richmond, one block east of Yonge)

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Background Information:

*"Enough is Enough", demonstrations to take place 3 May 2009

**Prague, 27.4.2009, 15:03, (ROMEA)

*FROM www.romani.cz

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the flagrant and cowardly act to which a Romani family in Vítkov has fallen victim. As a result of an arson attack, three people were severely burned. A two-year-old child who suffered burns over 80 % of her body is fighting for her life.

The Roma in the Czech Republic are embittered by this arson attack and want to show their solidarity with the family. We are preparing a public collection for them and protest gatherings that will take the form of a"chain" demonstration.

*Chain Demonstration

*Symbolism: Protest gatherings will take place simultaneously at the same time of day nationwide. We call on everyone who condemns the terrorist attack on this Roma family to participate in these demonstrations on Sunday, 3 May 2009 at 16:00.

*Towns and locations of the demonstrations

* - Prague

- Karlínské námìstí

- Litvínov

- Námìstí míru

- Ústí nad Labem

- Mìstské sady

- Pardubice

- Per¹týnské námìstí

- Náchod

- Námìstí T. G. Masaryka

- Plzeò

- Námìstí T. G. Masaryka

- Ostrava

- Námìstí T. G. Masaryka

- Jablonec nad Nisou

- Horní námìstí

- Liberec

- Námìstí Dr. E. Bene¹e

- Lysá nad Labem

- Husovo námìstí

During these demonstrations people will be able to sign a petition condemning rising neo-Nazism in the Czech Republic. A charity collection will also be part of this event. Roma organizations will dedicate the proceeds to the afflicted family so they can secure new housing and mainly so they can afford future medical care.

We thank all the organizations and people who have been moved by this horrifying crime and are expressing their solidarity toward the afflicted family and Roma organizations.

*D¾eno Association:

Ivan Veselý

ROMEA,

o. s.: Jarmila Balá¾ová

DAR Association:

Petr Tulija Slovo

21, o. s.: Jelena Silajd¾iæA

ssociation of the Roma of North Moravia

(Sdru¾ení Romù Severní Moravy):

Milan Ferenc Romodrom,

o. s.: Marie Gailová

Central Bohemian Regional Coordinator for Roma Affairs:

Cyril Koky*

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April 27, 2008

Roma Community Centre - Toronto

ASYLUM IN CANADA IS NECESSARY UNTIL THE EU CAN GUARANTEE SAFETY

The Roma Community Centre in Toronto wishes to bring to the attention of the current Canadian government and the Canadian people the surge in violence that is being perpetrated against the Roma minority in the eastern member states of the European Union.

On March 21 in Kosice, Slovakia a group of young Roma boys were forced to kiss each other, slap each other, and then strip naked upon the orders of police who recorded this incident on video on their mobile phones, reminiscent of the events of Abu Ghraib.

On April 22 in the town of Tiszalök, the fourteenth murder of a Roma citizen in Hungary was committed.

Two weeks ago a Romany woman and her 2 year old daughter were burned severely in Vitkov, Czech Republic, where the daughter suffered second and third degree burns over 80% of her entire body and remains in intensive care.

These are just the latest updates in a slew of pogroms that has plagued the region. It was also last week that our Canadian Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, claimed that the 993% increase in refugee claimants coming from the Czech Republic was due to unscrupulous commercial operations. We ask him to reconsider his statement prior to the Prime Minister's meeting with the Czech government on May 6, 2009.

Amnesty International has recently issued a statement calling on Prime Minister Topolanek of the Czech Republic to ensure that the authorities duly enquire into all cases of racially motivated attacks, and to impose punishments on the perpetrators that would correspond to the seriousness of their guilt. We agree with this statement and AI's call on Czech politicians to resolutely condemn all displays of hatred and intolerance, whoever their target. They must make it clear that such conduct is unacceptable and unlawful, something they have failed to do since 1989.

The Czech Minister for Human Rights and Minorities, Michael Kocab, called this most recent attack on Roma citizens an act of terrorism. It would be nice to think that there has been a change of heart in the leadership of the Czech nation. Strong words need to be backed by strong actions and unfortunately there has been no evidence of any effort to respect the rights of minorities since the fall of communism, twenty years ago.

The Czechs have been receiving the benefits of being a member of the EU without having to do the prerequisite work for it: creating a civil society. They have gained visa free access to Canada as a result of the bargaining power of the EU, yet they have not attempted to remove a pig farm from the site of a former concentration camp for Romanies during the Second World War. They are waiting for funds from the EU to pay for the cost of compliance with the Helsinki Accords.

This welfare mentality must stop. Czechs need to live up to EU standards. If the EU failed to hold them accountable in the screening its new members, they need to take a more active role in ensuring compliance from its new member states. Until then Canada should continue to grant asylum to Roma from the eastern EU member states. The Czech Republic is shirking its duty to all of its citizens, not just its Romany citizens who have been present in the Czech lands for over 300 years.

Numerous violent attacks go unreported. Doctors often refuse to file medical reports in cases where their testimony is critical in reporting racially motivated attacks, due to fear of reprisal from vigilantes against the medical community. The police are systemically reluctant to act on racially motivated crimes. Twenty years of these types of precedents have created an environment of tacit complicity with the extreme right wing terrorizers. Until the leadership vacuum in the Czech Republic is filled with people willing to address this, the Roma will continue to leave.

It is not Canada's job to solve the problems that Czechs, Hungarians, and others in that region have failed to address. Canadians nevertheless should not turn away those individuals who come here seeking safety. We urge Prime Minister Harper in his negotiations to hold the Czechs accountable for their actions while being mindful of the lives he can save by allowing the Roma to continue to come to Canada.

INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-RUSSIA:

RACISM AND ANTI-RACISM IN RUSSIA:

The situation of migrants may be dire anywhere in the world, but, of 'developed countries" that of migrants to Russia may be one of the worst. In addition to the usual anti-immigrant agitation there are numerous racially motivated murders. This, however, doesn't go unopposed, and anarchists are in the forefront of fighting the fascists who thrive on this xenophobia. Here, from the English language section of the Russian anarchist news site Avtonom, is a recent interview with two Russian anti-racists conducted by a Swedish activist. The following has been slightly edited for English grammar and spelling.

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Interview with Russian anti-racists:
Recently Swedish activist Etranger questioned two Moscow activists, Utka and Igor, on the state of anti-racist movement and activities of anti-migrant groups. The Swedish version of the interview was published in http://www.motkraft.net/text/396. In this interview, Utka and Igor represent themselves and not any particular group.

How many anti-migrations groups are involved in the movement against migrants? What is the strategy of these groups?

Utka: Still you hardly can speak about a common movement against migrants. There are several groups and some of them started to cooperate.







The main anti-migration organisation is the DPNI (Movement against illegal immigration, founded in 2002). The main purpose was to create a modern right wing movement in the style of Le Pen or Joerg Haider. They have strong groups in some bigger cities and the leader of the DPNI, Aleksandr Belov, is involved in some building business, where the most of the workers are foreigners from the CIS countries. The DNPI is very close to the neonazi organisation Slavic Union (SS) of Dmitry Demushkin. Especially, the DPNI works on a strategy to show, that the whole Russian people fight against foreigners, and not only right wing movements. The DPNI inflates conflicts at participation of non-Russians and submits them in an absolutely other key, that means as ethnic conflicts even if they are not ethnic.







Only in 2008, when during the economic crisis discussions about “illegal” immigration became more important, did some pro-Kremlin youth organisations supporting the government raise the item of “illegal immigrants” . One of them is the Young Guard, the youth organisation of the party United Russia.







Some years ago the organisation was not very active - especially if you compare it with other pro-Kremlin youth organisations (for example, the movements "Going Together" and "Ours"). Feature the Young Guard (MGER) in comparison with "Ours": "Ours" basically are careerists not from exclusive layers; the active part of the Young Guard are mainly children of members of Putin's power structure.







Under the slogan “Our money for our people” members of the Young Guard, the youth organisation of the Kremlin party United Russia, held anti-foreigner demonstrations on 1 November (and again on 8 December) in several big cities.







In particular, they took pages out of the DPNI’s tawdry book, by demanding a halt to the migration of foreign workers to Russia, the deportation of migrants without proven residence status and offered themselves for street patrols to seek out illegal foreigners.







A few days later, the Young Guardists and their fellow pro-Kremlin activists of Mestnye (“Locals”) signed an agreement to coordinate their activities in the fight against “illegal migrants.” Letting the cat out of the bag, Mestnye leader Sergei Fateyev also announced his readiness to work together with the DPNI.







Away from the courts, Russki Obraz (RO – Russian Kind), one of the fascist outfits that co-organises the so-called “Russian Marches”, has been trying to raise its public profile as a rival in xenophobia to front-runners like the Movement against Illegal Immigration and the Kremlin-linked youth organisation, Young Guard.







On 11 December, about 30 RO supporters gathered in the centre of Moscow to demand changes in the law to limit the number of migrant workers in the ongoing economic crisis and to have the term “ethnic crime” written into the penal code. This latter demand is likely to find misguided support amongst many people because hardly a day passes without the Russian media reporting on minor crimes committed by foreign workers hit by the crisis and deprived of basic rights.







The RO has already found ready listeners in the Russian parliament, the State Duma. The day before its Moscow rally, it held a round table on “The Migration of Labour in Times of Crisis: Threats and Challenges.” Alongside some of the usual suspects from the far-right, Maxim Misshenko also took part.







Misshenko, 31, is not only an MP for prime minister Vladimir Putin’s party United Russia but also heads another Kremlin-linked group, Rossia Molodaya (Young Russia), and is frequently present in the media. As well as lending RO his presence, Misshenko added to its credibility by receiving a petition outlining a raft of racist legislative proposals.







And, as if that were not enough, three hundred right-wing extremists staged an authorised march on Russia’s Constitution Day, 12 December in Moscow where they heard speeches by members of the Nazi Slavic Union, the Russian National Bolshevik Front and the DPNI. The event was used as an opportunity by mob of Nazi boneheads to give Hitler salutes, actions likely to be repeated when the far-right stages its next “Russian March” in March.







Grabbing even more publicity, however, for its xenophobic campaigns has been Young Guard, the youth organisation of Russian premier Vladimir Putin’s United Russia, which, on 19 January organised rallies against migrant labour at the railway stations of several Russian cities. In Moscow, about 50 Young Guard members showed up to dish out their leaflets to passengers newly arrived from Tashkent and to wave placards with the slogans “If you want to work, pay your taxes” and “Illegal = thief”.







This performance drew some resistance from anti-fascist anarchists who held up a banner with the slogan “No human being is illegal” and pelted the Young Guard members with eggs. It was the first action against these kind of official meetings. I might become the beginning of a more organised struggle against the anti-migrant groups. There were some efforts to organise migrant groups, but they are directed at trade-union activity. Russian NGO’s condemn the the anti-migrant groups, but they don’t have any activities to stop them. The official migration authorities condemned the efforts of the Kremlin youth organisations, saying they are stupid.







The Young Guard has his own security. It is not clear, whether it consists of official police employees or former police employees. But at least the police know them, as far as I understood during the action on 19 January.

Igor: One pro-Kremlin youth organisation campaigned against migrants already in autumn of 2006, that is "Locals" - on dubious legal grounds they raided marketplaces in Moscow region, looking for illegal migrants and beating up some of them.

Utka: Yes the “Locals” organised campaigns against migrants on a local level, but now it seems, that the campaigns are becoming more organised under direct instructions of the head of the party.

Is there any self-organized resistance or other kinds of resistance against theses groups?

Utka: I think, that actually in Russia there is no anti-racist movement at all. There is a lack of knowledge and resources as well as a lack of understanding on which level it makes sense to fight racism.

Igor: In terms of when it comes to groups other than small anti-fascist and anarchist groups (such as Autonomous Action), I think these come down to three - "Civic Action" of Svetlana Gannushkina, which does humanitarian work for refugees and also speaks against racist violence in media. Their website http://www.refugee.ru/ apparently only has materials in Russian. They help both refugees from outside of Russia and from conflict regions inside of Russia.







There is also "Tadzhikistan Fond", a support structure for migrants from Tadzhkistan. Other diasporas have similar structures.

Utka: The “Tadzhikistan Fond” is very special. Unlike other structures of diasporas it somehow may rely on official representatives of the Tadzhikistan embassy in Moscow, which a least makes efforts to avoid deportation of Tadzhik migrants etc.







There is a trade union of legal migrants in Moscow and other regions. It was founded two years ago. In fact it works not really like a real trade union, because it seems to work more as an labour recruitment agency. The organizing of illegal workers is much more difficult. At the moment in Moscow a small initiative is starting to work, which should fulfill the function of a trade union, mainly concerning the non-payment of salaries. One of the main problem is how to put pressure upon small firms which exist today, but tomorrow they don’t. The point is, that in these cases the legal way to demand money from the head of the firm doesn’t help, you need to find more effective ways to deal with it.

What do you think is the most important issue for the anti racist movement in Europe and how we can help each other in our struggle?

Igor: I think this depends a lot on the local situation. For example in many European countries there is a danger of rising populist parties, but that is not the case in Russia as its undemocratic system (which is of course a problem in itself) does not give a chance for such parties. As a result, the frustration of nationalists creates terrorist violence, and the number of recorded racist murders around Russia already reach several hundreds. Thus in Russia there must be more focus on the extreme violent fringe of the ultra-nationalists, which consists of only a small part of the anti-migrant movement.




But really, there is not yet such a thing as "anti-racist" movement in Russia. There are several actors in the anti-racist area and contacts abroad (for example many Russian radicals have joined anti-border camps in Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Poland and Finland), but not any common efforts to coordinate work. Counter-demonstrations against racists are rather weak, although occasionally there have been some successes, such as dispersion of the racist picket of DPNI in St. Petersburg in September of 2006. In my opinion, the anti-racist movement in Russia is in a serious need of strategical approach; currently focus is on tactics only.

CANADIAN POLITICS:

CONSERVATIVE SLIP-UP ON IMMIGRATION:

One has to hand it to Sneaky Stevie. Riding shotgun on as cranky a crew as the thinly disguised Reform/Alliance party rebranded as the 'Conservatives' must not be easy. You can expect one of the party's true neandertals to slip up and let the cat out of the bag at any time. This happened the other week when the Calgary Centre candidate Lee Richardson let his true feelings show by suggesting that "immigrants" are "responsible for crime". Oops. You can believe that amongst your friends at the local fundamentalist church and at Conservative booze-ups. Just don't mention it is public. To date the Harper team has resisted calls for the party to turf Richardson, Harper being willing to bulldoze a middle way between the Canadian public on the one hand, offended by such remarks, and much of the hardcore of his party who think the idea is spot-on.

The Harper government has a revealing history on immigration. Here's the story from the Harper Index website.

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Ethnic strategy undermined by racial slurs :
Immigrant-bashing attitudes and a growing economic gap for racial minorities neutralize political outreach efforts to new Canadians.
TORONTO, September 26, 08:

This week's immigrant-bashing comments by Calgary Centre Conservative candidate Lee Richardson highlighted the contradictions of his party's strategy to court voters from recent immigrant groups.

Stephen Harper and multiculturalism secretary of state Jason Kenney have worked hard to court "ethnic" voters with grand gestures, public announcements, and hundreds of community meetings. They're working against long-standing impressions that the Conservatives are anti-immigrant, however. These impressions are reinforced both by daily experience and by comments like these, which regularly seem to come from Conservatives.

Even Harper's ethnic diplomat Kenney has had his problems. In 2000, he suggested that "overheated Sikhs" may be "playing the race card" during the general election that year. He later apologized for the comment.

Now Harper is facing demands that Richardson resign or be fired as the party's candidate in Calgary Centre for suggesting that immigrants are prone to commit crimes. "Look at who's committing these crimes ... They're not the kid that grew up next door," Richardson told the Calgary newsmagazine Fast Forward Weekly.

"Particularly in big cities, we've got people that have grown up in a different culture," he said.
"And they don't have the same background in terms of the stable communities we had 20, 30 years ago in our cities and don't have the same respect for authority or people's person or property." Richardson later apologized, saying he was only talking about a "small minority" of people.

Many new Canadians and members of ethnic minorities see comments like these as representing the true feelings of Conservatives, rather than being merely "gaffes".

There is a "perception that the Tories, especially the people behind the new Conservative Party, the old Reformers, are not friends of immigration or immigrants," according to Mohammed Boujanene of the Canadian Arab Federation. He acknowledges "They did make an effort to recruit candidates from different ethnic groups... but at end of day it's not the outreach strategy that counts, it's the policy." Immigrants, he says, feel negative impacts of Conservative policy constantly in everyday life.

"They put forward legislation and policies that are completely against new immigrants and racialized minority groups." The cancellation of the Court Challenges program, anti-terrorism laws, and recent changes to the Immigration and Refugee Act all contribute to a sense of rejection for many. He says it doesn't help that Harper is linked to the US Republicans and that Harper's position on Israel is so "completely biased" that even when Canadian citizens were ducking Israel bombs in Lebanon, in 2006, Harper would not call for a ceasefire.

The controversial changes to immigration under the Conservative budget "were completely oriented toward one goal, the business agenda, and bringing more temporary workers to this country. We're turning our backs on inclusion and on helping families reunify. They gave the minister of immigration incredible power to cherry-pick immigrants, which could open the door to racial profiling," a practice, he says, that the Conservatives have promoted with their security policies. In recent years, immigrants "from the Arab part of the world are waiting longer," says Boujanene. "Refugees coming from Palestine and Iraq have a tougher time." Canada was chastised by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in 2007 for its treatment of refugees, he says.

A further insult many members of racial minorities felt, he says, was the government's refusal to attend the UN conference on anti-racism in Durban.

The Conservatives' outreach to immigrant communities clashes with their record in office, according to Boujanene. In the last election, the Conservatives said they would correct the problems foreign-trained professionals are having getting credentials. "The only thing they did was to open a registry service," he says. "It's sad to have people with medical training driving taxis when we don't all have access to a family doctor."

"We tend to hear more about access to jobs than anything else," says Amy Casipullai, of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. She regularly hears frustrated stories of "internationally trained professionals finding barriers when they try to enter the work force here. They say, 'Canada lied to us. I came here because I was told I could get job in my field.'" She says the Conservatives have achieved some success in immigrant communities with their political initiatives but, "There seems to be tremendous frustration with labour market access."

The other big concern, she says, is delays in sponsorship for family reunification. "There is tremendous frustration around the fact that there are delays, especially delays from certain parts of the world and not others," but she admits some of these problems predate the Conservative government.

The Conservatives' refugee policy, however, is their own, and like Boujanene, she thinks it sends powerful negative signals to immigrants. "There is tremendous concern that Canada's abandoned refugee principles. We seem to have taken a step backward."

The rate of poverty for immigrant families is higher than for non-immigrants, and Boujanene says the gap is growing. A 2007 Wellesley Institute study called The Colour Of Poverty showed that, from 1980 to 2000, the rate of poverty for Canadians of European descent was reduced by 20 percent, while for racial minorities the gap increased by 360 percent. "The Harper government is not doing anything to alleviate these problems," he says.

"If Harper is attracting any one, it is most likely the most conservative members of any given community," said Gurpreet Kaur Sodhi, a multi-cultural policy consultant of Punjabi descent who lives in Toronto. "In some case I would say the attraction is only skin deep and goes away once people become aware of the true cost of the Harper policies."

Kaur Sodhi says that while Harper has recognized the political importance of ethno-cultural communities, he "continues to disrespect" them, citing the immigration changes hidden in the budget implementation act, Bill C-50 as a prominent example.

"Recent research and Census data show that immigrants tend to be underemployed, earn less than their Canadian-born counterparts and experience high levels of contingent employment. Immigrants and refugees from diverse communities experience higher levels of poverty than their Canadian-born counterparts. People from diverse ethno-cultural and faith communities, including those born in Canada are over-represented among Canada's poor. The Harper government has not addressed the racialization of poverty."

Related individuals, organizations and significant events

Immigration changes contradict Conservatives' ethnic outreach
Links and sources

The Colour Of Poverty, The Wellesley Institute, 2007

Tory candidate blames immigrants for crime, The Canadian Press, September 26, 2008

ITALY:

ITALY AND THE ROMA-ECHOES OF MUSSOLINI:

The following article from the British newspaper, The Independent, tells the story of the present "security emergency" that the Italian state has concocted, and how its persecution of the Roma (the "gypsies") echoes what was done under fascism.

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Plight of the Roma: echoes of Mussolini
The compulsory fingerprinting of Italy's Gypsy population is the latest example of the country's increasingly repressive attitude towards minorities – and an ominous reminder of the policies of the former Fascist dictator. Peter Popham reports

Fingerprint the lot of them: the idea had the satisfying smack of firm government. Now the Italian government was doing something tough; something long overdue.

The Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni, a leader of the rabble-rousing Northern League – close allies of Silvio Berlusconi on the government benches – has explained his next step in his assault on the "emergenza di sicurezza", the "security emergency": fingerprinting all Gypsies.

It was the only way, he told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, for Italy to guarantee "to those who have the right to remain here, the possibility of living in decent conditions." For this purpose the Roma – those with Italian nationality and those without, EU citizens and those from outside the Community – will all have their fingerprints taken. And the rule will even apply to Gypsy children – for reasons that to many of Mr Maroni's supporters must have sounded obvious: "to avoid phenomena," as he put it, "such as begging". The new measures, he said, were indispensable "in order to expel those who do not have the right to stay in Italy".

For anybody not swept up in the wave of anti-Roma fury, the campaign has a strong whiff of Mussolini and Hitler about it.

The task of counting and identifying the residents of Italy, citizens or otherwise, who happen to belong the most despised minority in Europe is, in fact, already under way.

Giovanna Boursier, an Italian journalist, found one small camp where the count had already taken place on the furthest southern outskirts of Milan. "There is not even a bar where one could ask the way," she wrote in Il Manifesto, "but once you scramble up a hill you see the roofs of the huts. There are about 10 of them, along with the caravans, dotted around the outskirts, under flyovers and high-tension wires. Around 40 Roma lived here."

They told her that the police arrived at dawn, woke everybody up, surrounded the camp and flooded it with lights and then went from home to home, demanding identity documents and photographing them. All the residents were Italian citizens. It made no difference. "This wasn't a census," protested a Roma called Giorgio. "This was an ethnic register."

Fingerprinting was the detail they omitted – lacking, at that point, the power to do it. But Mr Maroni has now set about remedying that.

Italy's "security emergency" is a strange and distracting phenomenon which has been brewing up slowly for the past decade as economic growth slowed to a stop. It intensified dramatically with the admission of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU in January of last year, and now bulks so large that it was the biggest factor in Mr Berlusconi's election victory and continues to dominate the media. It led to the decision last week to allow police numbers in the big cities to be augmented by up to 3,000 troops.

The issue is strange and distracting because it does not seem to exist, either statistically or as a fact of personal experience. Crime is not a big deal in Italian cities. There is no epidemic of burglary, mugging, bag-snatching, rape. Italy remains a country where it is pretty safe to walk the streets. Yet the government is behaving as if this were Colombia. And Colombia with a very special difference: that the supposedly soaring rate of crime is the work of one particular ethnic group, known as "nomadi rom."

Gypsies or Roma are visible in Italian cities as in the rest of Europe, and their number has increased. In Rome your subway journey may be made slightly less enjoyable by their accordions and violins and the appeals of their begging. Your eyes may be offended by the sight of them fishing in the waste bins, or hauling stuff home for recycling. Rome is so badly policed that small, utterly miserable squatter camps have sprung up in many places. They are a disgrace – unhygienic, unaesthetic – and have no place in a civilised modern country. But as the source of a "security emergency"?

Giovanni Maria Bellu, a La Repubblica journalist and an expert on Italy's minorities, said the problem was one of misunderstanding. "Most Italians make no distinction between Italian Roma and those who arrived from Yugoslavia during that country's break-up," he said. "And many Italians think that 'Rom' is an abbreviation of 'Romanian' – and since the arrival of Romania in the EU there has been a large influx of Romanians. People conflate these separate things. There have been crimes committed by Romanians – and people confuse these with the Rom, and the Rom end up being blamed for everything.

"Security was the over-riding theme of the general election, which is why this conflated Roma-Romanian theme became so big, and a part of the left is very timid about confronting the problem. The security emergency itself is a myth: there has been no increase in the number of rapes, for example – in fact, the number has declined. But when a single case occurs it is splashed on the front page of certain papers for a double reason: it increases the climate of fear; and it damages the centre-left, which is perceived as being weak on security."

Italy's Roma paranoia spilled on to the world's front pages on 13 May, when a woman in a suburb of Naples called Ponticelli alleged that a Roma girl had tried to steal her baby. The community erupted in fury, and thugs belonging to the Camorra crime syndicates threw petrol bombs into the local gypsy squatter camp, driving out the inhabitants and burning the place to the ground. Suddenly there was no avoiding the fact: the Italian hatred for the Roma had taken a dramatic new turn.

But the origin was an ancient fear, rooted not in fact but legend. Mr Bellu said: "There is nothing in police records to support the idea that Roma have stolen babies. It's just a legend. But one that still has people in its grip."

Marco Nieli, the president of Opera Nomadi, the most important organisation representing Italy's Roma, said: "The first Roma arrived in Italy in 1400 and have been here ever since, and are Italians in every respect. The real problem is one of crass ignorance: if someone says that Roma steal babies, the political parties reflect and amplify this nonsense. This way all the problems are swept under the carpet."

Thomas Hammerberg, European commissioner for human rights, visited a big Roma camp in Rome earlier this month. "I visited Casalino 900 camp, where 650 or so Roma live," he said. "There was no electricity, no water. It was a very bad slum."

And the fear of the "ethnic register" was already rampant, he said, "due to what happened to them in the past in Germany and elsewhere. They also raised the question, why us? Why not others? Many of those in the camp I visited had been in Italy for 40 years; they came over from Yugoslavia, some of them still have problems with identity papers, squeezed between the old and the new country. If you've been in a country for 40 years, are you still a foreigner? This talk about fingerprints was another reminder that their status has never been settled.

"The basic problem of Roma is widespread in Europe: housing, health, education, employment, political representation... But for a long time in Italy the Roma have been a symbol of something that is unwanted.

"The Nazis and the Fascists used the same methods of singling them out in the 1930s. It's not surprising that they are frightened."
A pocket dictator and the Manifesto of Race
Racism is often seen as intrinsic to fascism, but the inventor of the ideology, Benito Mussolini, was brought around to the Hitler obsession with race late in his career and after a great deal of arm-twisting.

Jews had lived in Italy for centuries without persecution. The community in Rome, though confined to the historic ghetto area for many centuries, has the longest uninterrupted history of any Jewish community in the world. In Mussolini's Italy, upper middle- class Jews continued to live and prosper without persecution – until 1938.

In that year Mussolini introduced his Manifesto of Race, closely modelled on the Nazi Nuremberg laws, which stripped Jews of their Italian citizenship, the right of Jewish children to go to school and of adults to work in the government or the professions.

Traditional Italian tolerance and/or indifference towards Jews meant that many were sheltered during those years, but after the fall of Rome, when Mussolini moved to the town of Salo on Lake Garda and was set up by the Nazis as the pocket dictator of the Republic of Salo, deportations of Jews to the death camps began in earnest.

And what of Italy's Roma during the grim final years of Mussolini's rule? Some 1.6 million Roma died in Germany and elsewhere during the Holocaust, a proportionately greater genocide than that suffered by the Jews.

The history of their treatment under Mussolini is a subject that contemporary Italian historians have been loath to look into, according to Marco Nieli, president of the Italian Roma organisation Opera Nomadi.

"It's a fact that there were concentration camps for Roma in Italy during the Fascist period, and it's also a fact that thousands of Roma died in them of hunger, cold and over work," he claimed. "Studies are now under way to discover the extent of the suffering that took place."