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Shut Down The White Suprmeacist Recuriting Drive, York, PA 01/12/02

CALL TO ANTI-RACISTS TO CONVERGE ON YORK, PA, JANUARY 12TH:

SHUT DOWN THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS' "RECRUITING DRIVE"!

This coming January 12, at 12 noon in York, PA, three white supremacist groups with ties to racist terrorism -- the World Church of the Creator, the National Alliance, and the Eastern Hammer Skins -- are planning a public meeting to capitalize off racial tensions which have been brought out recently by the prosecution of York's mayor for his role in the 1969 race riots in that town. Mayor Robertson, then an officer on the York City police force, is accused of encouraging white kids to "kill as many n----rs as you can" during the riots, and giving them ammunition which was used to kill a black woman driving through a white neighborhood. We are calling all concerned anti-racists to come out and help shut down these nazis.

NEVER GIVE THE NAZIS SPACE TO ORGANIZE!

No matter how radical they claim to be, white supremacists always show their true colors by siding with the police when things get heavy. The National Alliance targeted York earlier this year for a stickering campaign supporting Mayor Robertson's actions during the riots. And now three well-known fascist organizations are planning to hold a public meeting with the same message.

The World Church of the Creator has been on the rise since the shooting spree undertaken by one of its members, Ben Smith, in July of 1999 (Smith targeted Asian, Black and Jewish people, killing 2 and wounding 9). After exploiting the media attention in the wake of the shooting for all it was worth, WCOTC leader Matt Hale began a campaign of holding public meetings in libraries around Central Illinois to spread his fascist ideology. These meetings are a bid to appear respectable and to bring white supremacy into the mainstream. Hale's usual language of racist slurs and calls for RaHoWa (Racial Holy War) are toned down and buried behind smooth-talking claims that the WCOTC is only interested in helping white communities. The WCOTC's shock troops of violence-prone thugs are encouraged to dress sharply to present a good public image and to refrain from violence ... for the time being.

The National Alliance tends to organize more 'respectably' -- in Maryland, one of their most prominent members is a correctional officer at Hagerstown -- and are somewhat slicker about using popular white racism to build a mass movement along the lines of the original Nazi Party. They claim to have more than doubled their numbers in the past year, and were quick to turn the September 11th tragedy to their advantage, both blaming Jews and the U.S.'s support for Israel for the attack, and exploiting anti-immigrant sentiment to their own ends. In Florida, the NA recently commissioned a billboard saying, "Stop Immigration Now", and in DC, they've held two rallies at the Israeli embassy, trying to turn anti-imperialist sentiment against Israel into white-supremacist organizing here.

And the fact that these two groups are now coming together with Hammerskins is especially cause for alarm. A loose organization of white supremacist "skinheads" (we put the word in quotes out of respect for anti-racist skinheads, who have often been in the front lines confronting them), Hammerskins are well-known for tracking down anti-racist organizers and beating them up (thankfully plenty of times they've more than met their match!) but generally shy away from any political organizing. While Hammerskins have often served as "security detachments" at the World Church of the Creator's events, historically the Hammerskins didn't have a lot of respect for the NA, seeing them as being too uptight, disciplined, and not active. But this has changed as the Hammers have seen the massive growth that the NA has claimed, and the energy that anti-racist activists have devoted to countering the NA's recent efforts. At a recent nazi rally in Washington, DC, a leader of the Eastern Hammer Skins yelled to the anti-racist counter-demonstrators, "Any of you gotten your asses kicked in Baltimore lately? If so, that was us!" Indeed.

Whatever their game plan, none of these groups have anything whatsoever to offer, and we refuse to allow them space to spread their racist fantasies. Previous WCOTC meetings -- in Wallingford, CT and Peoria, IL, to name two -- have met with massive, determined, and forceful community opposition. The National Alliance has been consistently outnumbered, beaten with crowbars, and pelted with balloons filled with urine at their recent rallies in Washington, DC. We hope that anti-racists will similarly rise to the occasion in York and show up to stand in the way of these nazis. We insist that public humiliation is the best medicine for these fools suffering from delusions of supremacy!

THE PROBLEM IS THE POLICE AND INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.

The race riots began as a confrontation between a few neighborhood crews, who, following the "laws of gravity" came to pick sides along racial lines. Nothing new, gangs fight all the time. But as long as cities are divided by race and racism, conflicts based on race and racism are gonna happen. The issue at stake is that the police used the white gangs, as they had for some time, as shock troops against blacks who were turning the everyday fighting into an opportunity to make a stand against decades of abuse and oppression that showed no sign of relenting. By rallying white opposition to black insurrection, the police deflected attention and anger directed at them and kept the conflict largely in the realm of a "race war". Class war was, and is, the order of the day. At that time, few whites were ready to recognize that, but things change.

WE DEMAND THAT ALL CHARGES BE DROPPED against the eight men accused of shooting Lillie Belle Allen and the two men accused of shooting officer Henry Schaad. While the outcome of the 1969 riots is still felt by many in York, especially the families of the victims, the healing process won't be helped by dragging these people through trials at this point. They were, all of them, really just kids caught up in fighting a war they had no part in making. Why is it that the only "justice" the state offers is the chance to ruin more lives?

But Mayor Robertson's role is something completely different. He (and how many of his fellow police officers?), armed and provoked a group of white teenagers to kill blacks. Lillie Belle Allen, an unarmed black woman in the wrong place at the wrong time, became their victim. By all acounts, the city's police force was (and largely still is) up to its neck in white-supremacist attitudes. THE ONLY WAY FOR YORK TO DEAL WITH THE PAST IS TO FULLY INVESTIGATE POLICE AND CITY GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE RIOTS, AND TO EXPOSE ONGOING RACIST PRACTICES AND POLICIES BY THE CITY AND THE POLICE. Until this is done, we have no guarantee that this situation will not happen again. The social barriers that separate whites, blacks, and Puerto Ricans can be and are being broken down, but only if the people are allowed to deal with their own conflicts without being played against each other by a racist police force which maintains its own power by "dividing and conquering." If there was one lesson to be had from the riots it was "Don't trust the po-lice."

NEVER MIND THE BUREAUCRATS!

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the same state agency which has called Anti-Racist Action a "hate group" in the past, seems to feel that the best way to deal with groups like the World Church of the Creator is ignore them at the same time that they provide them space to meet, organize and recruit, even when that means closing the town library to residents and spending tax money on a massive police presence to protect a small and irrelevant group of neo-nazis from the consequences of their hate.

The Pennsylvania state government is the last place we'd look for advice on fighting racism. The state has no real interest in stopping nazis from organizing. They're happy just as long as everything stays in the bounds of "law and order". But government officials don't have to deal with nazi attacks or the effects of racist organizing in their communities.

WE BELIEVE THE EVERYDAY PEOPLE OF ALL RACES AND NATIONALITIES face similar problems, and can work through those problems together when the racist government and their fascist supporters don't interfere.

White power groups are free to preach their cross-eyed idiocy and we're free to stand in their way.

WE WILL SHUT DOWN THE NAZIS!

SIGNED,

Baltimore Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Claustrophobia Collective, Baltimore, MD Tute Nere Collective, Washington, DC Barricada Collective, Boston, MA Lancaster ABCF Support Group, Lancaster, PA Roundhouse Collective, Baltimore, MD

Shut Down The White Suprmeacist Recuriting Drive, York, PA 01/12/02

OTHER GROUPS MOBILIZING INCLUDE:
Anti-Racist Action Columbus, Columbus, OH
Philly Anti-Racist Action, Philadelphia, PA

Shut Down The White Suprmeacist Recuriting Drive, York, PA 01/12/02