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ON THE PROWL #1 - FALL 1993 CELEBRATING THE ANNIVERSARY OF ARA A CLIMATE OF FEAR ANOTHER ARA CAMPAIGN: TORPEDO SHOWBOAT LETTER OF THE MONTH LOCAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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CELEBRATING THE ANNIVERSARY OF ARA ARA IS BORN Anger turned to action in 1992 as Toronto took to the streets to make a stand against racism and fascism. The resurgence of neo- nazi organizing and terror campaigns in Europe had provided a loud and clear warning to anti-racists in Toronto that white-supremacist and neo-nazi organizing here could not go unchallenged. And so, when the Toronto-based neo-nazi Heritage Front took to the streets in September of '92, we were there to send them running. The organizing effort had been a 40-hour word-of-mouth effort launched by youth who refused to let fascists march unopposed. One hundred to one hundred and fifty people turned out, almost tripling the number of fascists who when confronted by the unexpected anti- racist presence, fled through the bushes and into the courthouse. By shattering the intimidating image the fascist march was intended to convey, this opposition was a victory for anti-fascists and marked the beginning of street-level opposition to Toronto's new fascist movement. Anti Racist Action was born. Over one year later, the Human Rights Commmission hearings have been postponed indefinitely without any show of results. Due to community pressure, criminal courts have been forced to serve a temporary injunction limiting what can be spewed on the hateline. 1 YEAR ON... Together, Toronto's anti-racist community has fought to deny any space for the fascists to grow and to destroy the climate of intimidation and fear neo-nazis have tried to foster in targetted communities. In the schools, ARA has been there speaking in classrooms, workshops, forums and rallies, driving the nazis out and organizing with a diversity of student and community groups. We organised in the West-end against neo-nazi teacher, Paul Fromm who has been a highschool teacher and far-right leader for nearly two decades! In the East-end we organized at Riverdale. ARA has wasted no time waiting for the state to provide solutions. While the court process crawls along, the Nazis have continued to organize on the streets and in the schools, carrying out propaganda campaigns, bomb threats, harassment, assaults, attempted murders, weapons training and arson attacks. But, on the streets we've exposed, opposed and confronted them by shutting down their meetings, confronting their marches, destroying their public face, curtailing their recruitment and placing them on the defensive. We will continue to take the fight to them. These fascists cannot march on our streets without resistance from the community and as long as far-right activity exists, on any level, ARA will remain ON THE PROWL. A CLIMATE OF FEAR The past few months have seen a marked increase in the number of violent attacks on people of colour in Metro Toronto, particularly experienced by this city's Tamil community. Throughout a two-week period during the month of June, one Tamil was murdered and two others critically injured. One of the victims was beaten into a temporary coma and partially paralyzed by a neo-nazi who attended a fascist concert sponsored by the Heritage Front, featuring RAHOWA (Racial Holy War). The Heritage Front is a white- supremacist group which has been primarily active in Toronto, recruiting and organizing disenfranchised white youth. With a strong anti-immigration platform, the HF envisions the 'forced removal' of racial, ethnic, sexual and religious minorities towards a 'pure' all-white society. Historically, the far-right in Canada has used the issue of immigration as an avenue to reach mainstream politics, as well as taking issues one step further in fuelling the fires of hatred against people of colour. As economic restructuring and welfare cuts drive the poor and working classes into absolute despair, immigrants suffer the frustrations of authoritarian and xenophobic tendencies. This climate of fear is utilized by the far-right, but it is the inherent racism visible in the political justice system itself which perpetuates this climate. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND THE STATE The far right is making use of this climate of fear on two fronts. They are recruiting and increasing their membership while at the same time, pushing their violent attacks against identifiable minorities on a street level, far enough to test their limits. The politicians are caving in to these demands and using them to justify restrictive border controls. Groups like the HF work along parallel lines in developing a common culture which defines all third world people as immigrants and refugees, and all immigrants and refugees as criminals and terrorists. For the electoral benefit of polititians, the portrayal of refugees as a mass of undesireables has been detriment to mainstream Western/European politics and successfully diverts attention from the actual causes of mass-migration. The initial displacement of millions of people all over the world has been caused in significant part by the ever-increasing domination of transnational corporations of the economies of third world countries. This provides the wealthy continents with populations available for recruitment as cheap labour, where they face further marginalization in a society that excludes minorities from many societal processes. The factors of criminalization, poor housing, low-income jobs or unemployment, racist educational and justice systems contribute to the overwhelming numbers of minorities in our prisons. Maintaining the portrayal of refugees and immigrants as 'economic parasites', lays the groundwork for racist attacks on their communities in these times of economic strife. Ironically enough, it is Western society in its xenophobic policies against the all-too-easy-prey of welfare recipients and foreigners, that is parasitical. The ingrained racist conditioning of society is what the ruling powers are actively trying to maintain and thereby protect economic superiority which stands at the root of the problem to begin with. In the present political climate, the right- wing attacks on foreigners serve the state by fuelling media hype and hysteria around the refugee issue. THE NEW EUROPE Within the borders of the rich, predominantly christian, white nations of the European Community, politicians are scrapping the policy of refuge, blaming the influx of new arrivals for fuelling neo-nazi violence and draining social welfare coffers. Since the onset of this coordinated E.C. assault on illegal immigration, the fires have been fanned as neo-nazi murders and attacks have been on the upsurge. Immigration clampdowns are tacit government support for the racist premise that foreigners bring nothing but misery. Europe's Asylum policies are seen not as issues of human rights, but as a matter of national security and strict control of the movements and activities of 'second-class' citizens. The framework for a system of regulation has been in the building stage for quite some time to establish a controlled fortress Europe. ON THE HOMEFRONT As Europe slams its doors shut on immigration, North America follows suit within the world economy of redesigned borders and territories. Under Canada's present Act, the issues of immigration are in the hands of police agencies that with criminal enforcement specifically. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) recently issued a proposal to cut immigration numbers from 250,000 to 150,000. Detrimental life and death issues of refugeees and immigrants are controlled by an agency which has no valid background and no apparent interest in minority affairs; an administration that prosecutes in the category of 'drug-dealers, gun-runners and terrorists'. STRATEGIES In order for the North American anti-fascist movement to be successful, it is important for anti-racist initiatives and strategies to remain active on two fronts. Firstly, the fascists must be confronted physically on a street level to prevent their cancerous growth within the community. Secondly, the fight must simultaneously be directed against the internal controls of the state, which is in itself inherently racist and repressive in its policies and treatment of minority issues. When the presence of neo-nazi activity is eventually eliminated on a street level, anti- racist activists must not cease their activity. This has traditionally been the mistake of the anti-racist initiative, for while the state-sponsored conditions remain intact, there will always be fertile ground for further fascist growth. While organizing the community against the threat of far-right activity, concrete support must be extended to working alongside refugees and people of colour, using means which fit the conditions under which they live. OPEN BORDERS AND ASYLUM RIGHTS FOR ALL! SMASH THE HERITAGE FRONT! TORPEDO SHOWBOAT The novel by Edna Ferber was not about the empowerment of African-Americans. It was written in an era when the Ku Klux Klan continued to fulfill the terror of its mandate: to rape and murder Black women; to castrate and lynch Black men! This era also witnessed the rise of nazism as it prepared to colonize Europe, as europeans colonize(d) Africa and the Caribbean. Edna Ferber, using white-supremacist imagery similiar to that of such anti-Black period films such as "Birth Of A Nation", described African- Americans as savadges and idiots. Showboat, a musical production based on the racist novel, opened the new and publicly-funded North York Centre for the Performing Arts. Highschool students will not be used to legitimize this racist play. Drabinsky (producer and president of Livent) has pressured school boards of Metro to send a quarter of a million students to what he calls a "black history lesson". On October 24, the ARA Highschool Crew occupied and demanded the Toronto School Board make a decision to refuse to send students to this mockery of history. We will be back! LETTER OF THE MONTH ..Thanks for your latest update on activities in the Toronto area (...) One of the prisoners here whose politics fall to the right of the Right maintains contact with people up that way. He insists that ARA actions have led to productive recruitment drives by the HF, et.al. I doubt it. People don't gravitate to fascism because some brownshirts leave some brown stains in their pants. What the ARA is dealing with, the way it's dealing with it, and the criticism from other 'progressives' is remeniscent of the heady days of the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee in the early 80's. Today in the U.S., fascist/racist activities are wide spread. Much of it doesn't come under a formal neo-nazi/klan type grouping, but it's there and just as violent. Of course there are areas that are very unhospitable to nazis (...) I presume that's part of what you're doing in Toronto: maintaining it as a nazi-free zone. Better load up on baseball bats... Ray Luc Levasseur #10376-016 P.O. Box 1000 Marion, IL 62959 LOCAL ANTIFA NEWS A SMALL FISH Heritage Front lackey, Elise Hategan appears in court again on November 24 facing charges of creating and distributing hate literature stemming from a flyer she produced which targetted a black woman who had worked with ARA during the time of its appearance. The flyer consisted of this woman's photo next to that of a baboon, complete with the woman's name and home phone number and the contact name of a ficticious group. This is an important case for the HF as it is the first of its nature in Toronto since that of neo-nazi publisher and holocaust-denier, Ernst Zundel. Elise is a small fish in the sea in comparison to the flood of white-supremacist hate literature which Zundel ships in staggering quantities to fuel fascist movements in Europe. Zundel, who operates from his fortified home here in Toronto, provides the concrete ideas which have led in part to attacks on refugee centers in Germany. Hate laws have banned such material from being printed there so they obtain it from Zundel. Let's take the fight to the big fish! OVER AND OUT... The Ottawa branch of the Heritage Front has been instructed to shut down their racist hotline as of October 8th. The line, run by Mark Larson, must be disconnected in the face of charges of contempt of court. Over and out nazi scum! BAD NAZI, NO DONUT Neo-nazis Leslie Jasinski and Ken Barker (HF organizer in Oshawa and coordinator of Equal Rights for Whites hotline) have been charged in the Sept.27 stickup of an Oshawa doughnut shop. This incident led police to Heritage Front member, Phillip Grech in connection with his role in robbing an Oshawa bank in a clown mask. Found in the home of the accused was a partially-constructed explosive device. JUST SAY "NON MERCI" On Oct.2, ARA marched with anti-racist groups on the site of a planned fascist conference held in Montreal. Three key members of the Front Nationale (a fascist electoral party from France) came to confer with Montreal fascists in order to build on groundwork for further fascist growth in Canada. The massive anti-racist presence succeeded in disrupting their meeting. Reports of the fascist summit in Montreal were received in Britain and made for a major issue in the American press but in Canada we have witnessed a virtual media blackout on the entire event. STOP CRIMINALIZING ANTI-RACISTS! In the aftermath of the ARA-organized demonstration at the nerve-center of the racist Heritage Front Hotline on June 11, four young anti-racist activists have been arrested and charged with so- called criminal offences. The main elements of the charges are mischief to property and disguising with intention of committing an indictable offense. The cops and the Attorney General can hardly get it together to lay charges on the hatemongers who run the hotline, but with the help of neo-nazis who produced a videotape of anti-racists at the demo, they ran a coordinated undercover campaign to arrest four youths who remained active within the anti- racist movement after the demo. One was busted after representing ARA on a radio talk show and two others were picked up at a mass demonstration protesting recent racist attacks in Toronto. Charges of 'disguise with the intent to commit an indictable offence' have been dropped but the ARA 4 are still facing charges of mischief. FIGHTING RACISM IS NOT A CRIME! INTERNATIONAL ANTIFA NEWS OBITUARIES Follow Your Leader: Infamous Church Of The Creator founder and author of the pathetic 'White Man's Bible', Ben Klassen did himself in. He awoke one morning, gazed in the mirror and that was it. Good riddance. Another One Bites The Dust: Ian Stewart, the prominent youth organizer of Britain's fascist movement and vocalist for the white-power rock group Skrewdriver, as well as another nazi scumbag from the group, finally lived up to the name of his crappy band and died in a drunk-driving accident. Rest In Pieces. (source: NN#145) GERMAN NEO-NAZIS RUN DIAL-A-DEMO SERVICE Neo-nazis in Germany run a telephone information service informing skinheads on where to go for upcoming anti-foreigner riots and refugee center attacks. Neo-nazis phone certain numbers to hear pre-recorded propaganda messages or calls for violence against foreigners, but the texts are carefully worded as to avoid legal consequences. This national information telephone system is the central calender for the fascists, which by count of security officials, number about 6400. Officials refuse to admit that fascist groups are organised on a national level but statistics show that over 25 people have died in right-wing extremist violence in the last 18 months. (condensed from: Reuter-93/06/26) NEO-NAZIS ATTACK INFORCENTRE Combat 18 is an underground British neo-Nazi group which was founded in 1992 to take 'action' against their perceived Jewish/Left enemies. C18, of which the '1' and '8' correspond with the letters A and H (standing for Adolf Hitler), represent the paramilitary wing of the British National Party (BNP). On March 27 of this year, masked C18 nazis destroyed computer and phone equipment at Freedom Press, a left/anarchist bookshop in London. On June 3, the premesis of the Freedom bookshop and press was attacked again, as arsonists burned out the bottom floor, destroying the printshop. C18 is also suspected in a recent attempt to burn down the 121 Center in Brixton. (source: Contra Flow) U.S. BONEHEADS FOILED! In Los Angeles, authorities arrested 8 racist skinheads who had been plotting to blow up a Black church and assassinate Black and Jewish leaders in an attempt to incite a 'Racial Holy War'. Their 'hitlist' included Louis Farrakan, Chuck D of Public Enemy, Rodney King, and others. The boneheads charged had ties to the white-supremacist organizations of White Aryan Resistance (WAR), Forth Reich Skinheads, and the Church Of The Creator (COTC), a U.S.-based white-supremacist paramilitary group which is also active in the Toronto area. FRIGHTENING PARALLELS Britain has felt the recent upsurge of far-right activity in a situation that mirrors the beginnings of what we're facing here in our fight against the fascists. Quddus Ali, a 17 year old Asian student was attacked by 8 racists is East London and put into a coma. In another case amidst a rising tide of attacks, a Bangladeshi youth may never recover from injuries suffered at the hands of racists. Last month, the British National Party (U.K.'s biggest neo-nazi party) won its first council seat in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, claiming a major victory for the far- right in Britain. This came as a shock to community, leftist, and anti-racist groups who underestimated the threat of the BNP prior to their electoral success. Community resistance continued to build up to Oct.16th's biggest anti-racist demo in twenty years; a 30,000-strong march consisting of various contingents such as Anti- Fascist Action, Anti-Nazi League, and Panther UK, demanding the closure of the BNP headquarters/bookshop in Southeast London. The basic right of self-defence against fascists was taken away by viscious attacks from the police, who blocked off the route, protected the BNP and criminalized the anti-racist protesters. We must learn from the experiences of Germany and Britain and never underestimate far-right growth in our communities.

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