Anti-Racists Defeat Neo-Nazi Recruiting Drive

Yesterday's events in York could only be considered a victory for anti-racism. Several white supremacist organizations had planned a meeting and rally in York to capitalize off of past racial divisions and tensions in
the city. Hundreds of people with basic common sense from York and elsewhere successfully rose to the challenge and prevented the event from going off without a hitch.

Despite massive police protection, neo-nazis, including the violent hate gang called Eastern Hammer Skins, were driven from the streets of York. After shouting across the street for hours at anti-racist activists and residents, the neo-Nazis turned and ran, and were still defeated in a nearby
alley. Several Hammerskins were pummeled unconscious and sustained massive damage to their vehicles despite threats of bringing firearms and claims of Aryan fighting superiority. "These kinds of people want to terrorize and
murder millions of people under the name of 'racial purity', but they like to hold these kinds meetings in public that are like spitting in people's faces, and then try and act like they're the victims of some unprovoked
attack," said ARA member Susan Booker, "and we need to stop them in every community, not just York."

The white supremacists selected York as a place for them to build their movement, in part by exploiting the tragedies of the past and in part because they have local organizers in the area. The Eastern Hammer Skins and the World Church of the Creator both have members in the York area. We
know that after we leave, there will still be nazis in York. there are local organizers on the ground, and they are supported by local officials and police. But we also believe that the York community is ready to confront
and expose this cancer in their body politic. We want to support local residents in this struggle as much as we are able.

The entire community was out with us, despite the police and mayor's story that local residents "stayed home". Our estimate of the size of the crowd was over 400 York residents particpating in the counter demostration. It is
clear to us that the people of York are angry that their community is being cyncially used by neo-nazis to build their movement, and also that their city government couldn't have found any better way to handle the
situation. Do the old "white power" politics run so deep among certain people in power that the city really HAD to let Matt Hale and his hateful followers hold their meeting? At what cost?

We were surprised by the blatant amount of brutality from the police. Even from our point of view, which is admittedly generally unfavorable to police officers, the violence ot the York Police Department and Pennsylviania State Patrol against the counter demonstrators was shocking. The Police attacked one young girl after she was run down by a speeding pickup driven by a neo-nazi. Memebers of her family were beaten and arrested shortly after that incident. Another neo-nazi, who pulled a handgun on protesters, was allowed to leave by police until he was chased for blocks by angry York citizens who demanded his arrest.

ARA intends to continue our ongoing work in the York community, to win the trials of our arrested comrades and the local residents who stood up to the nazis, and to work with the York community to defeat the organized racists
in the York area. This fight is long from over. While we won the conflict in the streets, the fight against white supremacy in the area must continue, and we plan to use every opportunity to continue our work to make York,
Pennsylvania, and the entire country a nazi-free zone. We have no intention of being intimidated by police brutality, and the neo-nazis have left us less than impressed.

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Anti-Racist Action