Anti-National Translation

Matthew Lyons on Occupy

antigermantranslation — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:22:38 +0000

Occupy movement: Anti-capitalism versus populism

Occupy Wall Street is one of the most exciting political developments in years, but like any social movement it has its contradictions. As I noted briefly at the end of my previous post, the Occupy movement is vulnerable to right-wing overtures to the extent that many progressive-minded activists lack clear anti-capitalist and anti-fascist politics. While some Occupiers have put forward a radical class analysis, others have voiced a sort of liberal populism, which identifies the problem as specific institutions, policies, or subjective behaviors rather than the capitalist system. Several leftists on other websites have addressed this political limitation and its unfortunate resonances with right-wing ideology. Here I want to summarize some of their main points, then offer an important counter-example of Occupy movement anti-capitalism – the plan by West coast Occupy movements to blockade ports on December 12th.

Against “corporate greed”

Bill Weinberg has urged Occupiers to take a clear stand against capitalism, rejecting the defensive slogan, “We aren’t against capitalism, we’re against corporate greed.” Weinberg counters: “The assumption behind this response is that with enough public oversight or (in the more reactionary versions) if Wall Street brokers acted with greater patriotism, capitalism could ‘work.’” Failing to target capitalism as a system, he argues, offers more room to “gold-standard crankery, Federal Reserve fetishism and other right-wing, pro-capitalist responses to the crisis” – including antisemitism.

Ross Wolfe similarly criticizes the tendency by many protesters to blame greed for the inequities of capitalism, arguing that this “mistakes an epiphenomenal characteristic of capitalism for something more fundamental” and “ignores the way that the capitalists themselves are implicated by the intrinsic logic of capital.” Even the capitalist who enjoys the benefits of great wealth “is constantly compelled to reinvest his capital back into production in order to stay afloat.” Thus “capitalism is not a moral but rather a structural problem.” Wolfe further argues that blaming capitalist inequities on rich people’s moral failings “ultimately amounts to what might be called the ‘diabolical’ view of society – the idea that all of society’s ills can be traced back to some scheming cabal of businessmen conspiring over how to best fuck over the general public. (The ‘diabolical’ view of society is not all that far removed from conspiracy theories about the ‘New World Order, the Illuminati, or ‘International Jewry.’…)”

Glorifying the “real” economy

The Occupy movement’s focus on banks presents a related pitfall, depending on whether banks are targeted as a major component of the capitalist system or as a parasitic growth on it. As BobFromBrockley points out in a wide-ranging discussion of Occupy, “the valorization of the good, honest, organic ‘real economy’ against the predatory tentacular finance capital is not just a feature of the Zeitgeist movement and antisemitic cranks,” but has also been taken up, for example, by liberal Christians. Bob continues:

“The idea that capitalism would be fine if we removed all that smoke and mirrors finance stuff and got back to the ‘real’ production of stuff is both deeply reactionary (based on nostalgia for something that never existed, and with a close kinship to the ‘socialism of fools’ that thinks the problem is Jew-financiers) but also empirically nonsense. Sweatshops where adults and children labour for long hours in appalling conditions to make clothes and electronic components are part of ‘the real economy’. As are the biofuel plantations that are eating up the rainforests that produce the air we breathe. As are the oil wells and oil pipes that poison our river deltas; the manufacture of weapons of torture and warfare; the coltan mines that central African child soldiers kill and are killed for; the soybean and rapeseed monocultures that we rely on for our daily meals, the beds we sleep on wrought from rainforest lumber; and so on. All wage labour involves exploitation, whatever part of the capitalist economy you’re in. The ‘real economy’ may be realer, but it is ultimately no better.”

West coast port shutdown and class politics
In contrast with liberal populism, the plan by West coast Occupations to shut down West coast ports on December 12th defines the movement as confronting structural, class inequality. The action is specifically planned in solidarity with labor battles by port workers in Longview (Washington) and Los Angeles, but more broadly to “economically disrupt ‘wall street on the waterfront.’” The website for the action declares, “U.S. ports have…become economic engines for the elite; the 1% these trade hubs serve are free to rip the shirts off the backs of the 99% who turn their profits.” Occupy Seattle’s port shutdown statement declares further that “the Occupy movement is part of the workers’ movement,” whether its members are union members or non-members, unemployed, students, or homeless. The Seattle statement also draws connections between corporate union-busting, government budget cuts that target working people, and police violence and harassment of Occupy activists worldwide. (Occupy Seattle organizers have issued an emergency fundraising request to help charter buses for the port shutdown. Donations can be made at https://www.wepay.com/donate/42135.)

Anti-capitalism versus liberal populism is only one dimension of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This issue doesn’t capture the movement’s dynamism or fluidity: the way it has opened up important new space for people to tell their stories and debate what is happening in the economy and society, and the way people’s politics can shift and change – sometimes very quickly – when participating in mass activism or facing police repression. Critiquing capitalism as a system isn’t a full recipe for radical change, but it is a necessary ingredient.

Occupy Wall Street: saving capitalism from crony capitalists (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
Occupy Ports (wcward57.wordpress.com)
ANALYSIS | Neil Macdonald: The year capitalism became a dirty word in the U.S. (cbc.ca)

Filed under: Another anti-capitalism is possible Tagged: Anti-capitalism, Bill Weinberg, capitalism, Occupy, Occupy Wall Street, Populism, Wall Street

Looking back at 2011

antigermantranslation — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:05:48 +0000

Here’s what 2011 looked like here.

Germany of the Mind

antigermantranslation — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:48:06 +0000

Interesting article by by Joel Schalit. Here’s a short extract to get you tempted:

“Racism is no longer a problem,” said the sociologist, as she put down her drink. “Amongst Germans, it’s no longer an issue. They accept difference now. Today, it’s the immigrants that are the problem, like the eastern Europeans, who are intolerant of Islam, and of women wearing burkas. A lot of work needs to be done with them.”[...]

Judging from Friedrichshain’s cosmopolitan character, one would be hard-pressed to disagree with the sociologist. From South Asian restaurants to doner parlors and sushi places, the neighborhood has an unmistakeably global air to it. Throw in some skate shops, squats, organic groceries, endless leftist flyers, and a cinema that shows Israeli movies (Ajami had just been featured) and you’d think that Fascism was over and done with too.

“Sometimes, I feel like I’m in Berkeley, or Ann Arbor,” I remember telling my friend Vance, who came out to visit us from Seattle. “It’s so politically correct here. All the same creature comforts are available.” Walking through a former Nazi train depot along Revaler Strasse that had been transformed into a skate park and concert space, (among other things,) the parallels with America were obvious.

Obvious, that is to those who, like myself, and the people I know who have made the move from the US, can sense. There are enough parallels between Germany’s capital, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York, to see why there is so much traffic between them. Especially for Americans looking for cheap places to live and work, as artists, and as writers. Berlin is an America we can still afford. At least for now.

Yet, there is an inescapable darkness to the German edition that clarifies the differences. “You’d never see that in the US,” said Vance, as he pointed out a mural of a wide-eyed Klaus Kinski painted on a dilapidated building. Unfamiliar with the activities of this former train depot, the scene put all kinds of discomfiting thoughts into my head about the Holocaust, and the transportation of prisoners to concentration camps. As it was intended to do, I guess. If not that, at least something approximate.[...]

Filed under: germany Tagged: berlin, germany, Joel Schalit

The Hitler youth hairstyle

antigermantranslation — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:24:51 +0000

I read this in the israelnationalnews:

‘Hitler Youth Hairdo’ -Silly Fashion Statement or anti-Semitism?

Is it a sign of a burgeoning anti-Semitic movement – or a silly fashion statement? Some Jewish community officials, who did not wish to be named in order not to “fan any flames,” as one put it in an interview, have expressed concern over the latest style in haircuts – the “Jugend,” or the “Hitler Youth” hairdo that has begun gracing an increasing number of heads in the more “hip” areas of Manhattan.

The New York Times “outed” the hairdo in a weekend story, interviewing a Greenwich Village barber who says he has been getting many requests for the haircut from young men frequenting his shop. Although he prefers not to refer to it as such, says the barber, Sam Buffa, that’s what the customers are asking for – “buzzed on the sides, longer on top and slicked back with a dab of pomade,” as theTimes describes it.

The haircut seems to be inspired, the Times said, by retro TV shows and movies depicting the 1920s and 1930s that have achieve popularity recently. The Times piece quoted a photographer as saying that he himself had sported the haircut, and that he had been unaware of any Hitler connections. In “any photography book of Paris in the ’30s, almost all the guys had that cut,” said the photographer, Scott Schuman.

But several activists in the Jewish community are not so sure that the “Jugend” is just another silly fashion statement. “Not that these are members of Hitler youth, but the fact that the term is thrown around so cavalierly is of concern,” said one activist in the New York Jewish community. “I am far from being someone who sees anti-Semitism in every little thing, but we have in recent weeks witnessed numerous attacks on Jews. Anti-Semitism seems to be in the air right now,” the activist said.

I was skeptical, and thought this was yet more zionist hyteria. So, I googled the hair do, and I have to say I was disturbed at the casualness with which the do is described as “Hitler Youth”.

Here’s style and celeb website Frisky.com:

The New York Times alerts us to the new hair trend for quirky (read: hipster) boys, which has many names: the “synth,” the “undercut” and the “Youth” — short for the Hitler Youth. Yes indeedy, the look of pure evil itself — hair shaved severely on both sides with a flop of gelled bangs across the top — is back in vogue. The cut and its variations are widespread in popularity across Europe, and its been worn by everyone from Joe Jonas to Win Butler of Arcade Fire and photographer Hedi Slimane. I have to say, I really like it! It looks modern and edgy, and I don’t believe guys wear it as a walking billboard for fascism. In Europe, and especially Germany, people are careful not to refer to the cut with names that hint of totalitarianism, the Times says.

Here’s the NYT fashion pages:

CLEAN-CUT young men have been going to F.S.C. Barber in the West Village and asking for the same haircut: buzzed on the sides, longer on top and slicked back with a dab of pomade. You could call it a modified McSqueeb, a J. Edgar Hoover or maybe a Jimmy Darmody, after the character in “Boardwalk Empire.” But a lot of them just ask for a Hitler Youth, said Sam Buffa, a founding partner of the barbershop. “I was trying to not use that” term, he added.

The old-school coif has become a go-to haircut not just for Web designers in heritage-brand clothing, but for fashion designers and D.J.’s in the style capitals of Europe….

In Berlin, where National Socialist connotations are more troubling, variations on the hairstyle have become common in fashionable quarters of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, said Annika von Taube, the editor in chief of Sleek, an art and fashion magazine there. But no one associates it with fascism, ironically or not.

“We usually refer to this cut as the ‘undercut,’ and there are gazillions of variations, for boys and girls,” Ms. von Taube said. “We are aware that non-Germans refer to it as the ‘jugend’ ” — German for “youth” — “or the ‘Hitler’ even. Maybe it’s a case of selective perception.”

Here’s some examples. This is from a blog about haircuts:

Hitler youth will never die

This is my friend Josh. We usually keep his hair neat and classic but today we went with a slightly edgier look. High and tight. I think it rules. Feast your eyes on this!!!

From Flickr, entitled “a boy’s attempt at hitler youth”

From a hipster blog, way back in ’09 (the Jewish press and NYT are so 2009):

The Hitler Youth Haircut

Now I know what’s it called! It’s the Hitler Youth haircut! I’ve always wanted to have a hairstyle same as Cole Mohr I just dont know if I can pull it off..

From a fashion forum, also back in ’09

hitler youth it.

hitler youths are superior, nein?

And, finally, a sensible voice from Jezebel:

But the Hitler Youth? Even if only one single barber in the West Village of New York has ever heard a customer use the term, that is still just not an acceptable thing to call a haircut. Nazi is not a trend! Not for fall or for anytime! How does that even work? How does any self-respecting man who’s read The Diary of Anne Frank, who’s ever gone on a school field-trip to a World War II memorial, find himself settling into a barber chair and saying the words, “Gimme the Hitler Youth, Sam.” NO SERIOUSLY. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN. Are these men all ironic Facebook friends with David Irving, too? And what does Sam say in response? Does he ever just start humming “Karma Police”? I need someone to re-enact the whole exchange for me because I do not understand how this actually takes place. In the 21st Century. Outside of some fringe David Duke survivalist commune in Montana. This is not okay. Please, men. Can’t we stop the madness?

We say: DOWN WITH HIPSTER CULTURE! ENOUGH ALREADY WITH IRONY!

Previous style tips from Anti-National Translation: Keffiyehs are out! Nikes are out! T-shirts are in!

‘Hitler Youth’ Hairdo So Hot Right Now [Fashion] (gawker.com)
Some Hipster Idiots Are Asking For A Haircut Called The ‘Hitler Youth’ (thegloss.com)
Nazi youth slur creates a furore (theage.com.au)
Senator apologises to Jews for slur (theage.com.au)

Filed under: psuedo-alternative culture Tagged: hair, hipsters, Hitler Youth, new york

Understanding capitalism

antigermantranslation — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:51:52 +0000

An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital

by Michael Heinrich

ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-288-4

Cloth (ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-289-1)
Forthcoming in June 2012

The global economic crisis and recession that began in 2008 had at least one unexpected outcome: a surge in sales of Karl Marx’s Capital. Although mainstream economists and commentators once dismissed Marx’s work as outmoded and flawed, some are begrudgingly acknowledging an analysis that sees capitalism as inherently unstable. And of course, there are those, like Michael Heinrich, who have seen the value of Marx all along, and are in a unique position to explain the intricacies of Marx’s thought.

Heinrich’s modern interpretation of Capital is now available to English-speaking readers for the first time. It has gone through nine editions in Germany, is the standard work for Marxist study groups, and is used widely in German universities. The author systematically covers all three volumes of Capital and explains all the basic aspects of Marx’s critique of capitalism in a way that is clear and concise. He provides background information on the intellectual and political milieu in which Marx worked, and looks at crucial issues beyond the scope of Capital, such as class struggle, the relationship between capital and the state, accusations of historical determinism, and Marx’s understanding of communism. Uniquely, Heinrich emphasizes the monetary character of Marx’s work, in addition to the traditional emphasis on the labor theory of value, thus highlighting the relevance of Capital to the age of financial explosions and implosions.

In only 220 pages the author achieves a summary of the three volumes of Capital: explaining the connection between labor, commodities, and money, how surplus value arises, what capital is, the role of banks and stock exchanges, and from where crises arise. Alongside this he manages to fit in the history of Marxism, demystify the ambiguous term dialectic, and throw in a final chapter on the role of the state in capitalism, all the while refuting common mistakes about the Marxian corpus. —Stephan Kaufmann, Berliner Zeitung

Michael Heinrich teaches economics in Berlin and is managing editor of PROKLA: Journal for Critical Social Science. He is the author of The Science of Value: Marx’s Critique of Political Economy between Scientific Revolution and Classical Tradition, and editor, with Werner Bonefeld, of Capital and Critique: After the “New Reading” of Marx. Translator Alexander Locascio was previously active in the U.S. labor movement and now lives in Berlin, where he is a member of the party Die Linke and of ver.di, the German service workers union.

After Jappe

Detail from Cathy Wilkes’ I give you all my money, 2008

In a recent article Anselm Jappe says :(…) “The miseries of the world are not due , as in the Middle Ages to natural catastrophies, but to a sort of bewitching which separates men from their products.. that which does not function any longer is the “interface” which lays between men and what they produce: money. The crisis confronts us with the founding paradox of capitalist society. The production of goods and services is not here as a goal, but only as a mean. The sole goal is the multiplication of money, it is to invest one euro in order to extract two.

(…) One must maybe prepare ourselves for the after-money as we preparing for the after-oil.”

Anselm Jappe in Le Monde, L’argent est-il devenu obsolete? Un fetiche en voie de devalorisation, 1 November 2011

Comment: Jappe forgets that people who work produce commodities, which are then sold. They do not produce money in the first instance. It seems that Jappe makes a fetish of money. There is no shortage of money. On the other hand there is a shortage of jobs, and hence workers are out of work, and then they can’t buy the goods and services. Jappe needs to reread Marx and Postone. Maybe he has read too much Debord. in any case he failed to criticize Debord’s ghastly book Commentaries on the society of the spectacle where he fell into the conspiracy theory of history. Maybe Jappe did not want to upset people in Paris, he wanted to keep a foot in the pinko-leftist door. It did not work. Because he failed to criticize that awful stuff. Today Le Monde calls him a specialist of the works of Debord. More inflation. So what we live in are times of inflation…the end of his piece is dramatic; he calls for an ‘after money time.’ It won’t happen until the commodity and work are abolished.

Jappe resembles any pinko-leftist when he comes out with such stuff. It won’t do.

Written on the 4 of November by Michel Prigent, exclusively for Principia Dialectica,- the magazine that reaches parts other mags dare not touch…

Also:

Intakes on the summer riots in the UK from Aufheben
Operation Piggy Bank: Escalating Conflicts are causing the European House to Falter. By Tomasz Konicz (article originally published in German in the October 21st, 2011 issue of the newspaper analyse & kritik)
Lucas Zeise – The Bloated Financial Sector
Thodoris Velissaris: Letter from Greece: Brief notes on Revolt and Crisis in Greece and the Greek situation in Platypus

Karl Marx’s letter to Abraham Lincoln… (gunnyg.wordpress.com)
Kritik & theory (antigerman.wordpress.com)
Marx is hot 2 (newpoliticsreview.wordpress.com)
Critique and theory (antigerman.wordpress.com)
Karl Marx is hot (newpoliticsreview.wordpress.com)
Critique and theory: Producerism, populism, capitalism, anti-capitalism, disasterism, imperialism, nationalism (antigerman.wordpress.com)
Kritique and theory (antigerman.wordpress.com)
Marx is hot 3 (newpoliticsreview.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Aufheben, Karl Marx, Marx, marxism, Michael Heinrich

Paranoid style in the age of late capitalism

antigermantranslation — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:51:37 +0000

Here are some reflections on antisemitism, populism and conpirationism in the Occupy movement:

The Occupy Movement, Populist Anti-Elitism, and the Conspiracy Theorists by Spencer Sunshine in Shift.
The Zeitgeist Movement and Occupy UK: An Anti-Globalisation Cult by Andrew Coates
Occupy Wall Street and the perils of the big tent by Adam Holland
Against conspiracy theories: Why our activism must be based in reality a talk given at Occupy Wellington, in LibCom via Ent.

And here is a post on left-right convergence:

Tehran: French Fascists Received With Honour By Islamist Regime by Andrew Coates. (“Parti Solidaire Français of Thömas Werlet (former Right Socialist and member of a particularly violent groupuscule with a ‘national Bolshevik’ cultural and social line) has been received with honour byHusseini who is Ahmadinejad’s Minister of Culture.”)

Anti-capitalism today (antigerman.wordpress.com)
US entrepreneurs cash in on Occupy movement (guardian.co.uk)
#OCCUPYFAIL: The Occupy Wall Street movement may be starting to lose its luster with the American p… (pjmedia.com)

Filed under: Another anti-capitalism is possible, Autonomous politics Tagged: national bolshevism, Occupy, Occupy Movement, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, Parti Solidaire Français, Thömas Werlet, Zeitgeist Movement

Anti-capitalism today

antigermantranslation — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:52:25 +0000

Some helpful reading:

Ross Wolfe: Capital in history, a lexicon

Federico Campagna: Recurring Dreams – the red heart of fascism / I am not the 99%

Facing the War: The position of the observer / Some thoughts on the occupations

Adam Holland: Occupy Wall Street, antisemitism, and the perils of the big tent

Filed under: Another anti-capitalism is possible, critique and theory Tagged: Anti-capitalism, Occupy, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Wall Street, OWS

The Big Neo-Nazi Crib

antigermantranslation — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:00:22 +0000

Further to this, here’s Antifa.cz:

Have you noticed the shift in image of some neo-Nazis – a shift from the skinhead-look to an anarchist/antifascist image? Whether or not you’ve noticed, you can learn more about this recent strategy of certain factions of the neo-Nazi movement from the following analysis.

Some people say that we live in a time of uncertainty. For those who watch the neo-Nazi movement from a distance it might be hard to tell if a gathering of people dressed in black is a neo-Nazi or antifascist gathering. There are people denying holocaust on some of the demonstrations in the name of freedom and people raising right hand on some of the hiphop shows. A neo-Nazi is no longer just seen as a skinhead in boots holding a beer bottle. The scene that attracts the followers of National Socialist ideology has undergone major changes in the past few years.[...]

The Nazi Image Turns

German neo-Nazis faced the same problems in the mid-90s and tried to find a way out from their limited reach. The NPD appeared on the political scene, offering neonazis an official platform (the same as the Workers‘ Party in Czech Republic at the end of 2007), and ways of attracting young people were being sought. Neo-nazis were starting to look to the style of the autonomous antifascists – their political opponents – and to copy it. The first “autonomous nationalist” organizations appeared, and brought a brand new aspect to neo-Nazi street politics. The Plagiarism era had begun, and it still goes on, in spite of the conflict between the skinhead neo-Nazi traditionalists and those who see copying the antifascist image and practices as the way out of the ghetto. Something has changed, though. Most neo-nazi groups in Germany have implemented the concept of autonomous nationalism. The names of these groups vary – Kamaradschaften, Free Nationalists, Autonomous Nationalists – yet they all copy the antifascist and autonomous demonstration tactic (the media-beloved Black Bloc) and they all have changed the structure of the hierarchical groups according to the older neo-Nazi pattern, so-called Leaderless Resistance. The groups are supposed to be leaderless, but “small leaders” emerge from the regional groups, with the rest forming into a mindless mob of followers.

Right behind

In Czech Republic, Filip Vávra was the first pioneer trying to import a new style, but the conservatives in the National Resistance didn’t want to hear about any kind of change. The first organization implementing the new image appeared later, in 2005. Autonomous Nationalists Kladno came into existence in an attempt to organize local Nazis and change their only previous activity – sitting around in bars. They also started to promote their own version of Black Bloc – but for them, it has been more of a new fashion trend than a tactical element. In addition, they’ve tried to get a hold on a variety of new topics, such as ecology, anti-capitalism, resistance against multiculturalism, globalization or animal rights. They partially managed to get into the techno subculture through Filip “DJ Beax” Pošva.

Lets create something ourselves or neo-Nazism as a lifestyle

The new visage was successful at the beginning. As mentioned above, the neo-Nazis were in a situation where any change was for the better. In the previous decade, their self-presentation was in the name of hatred and negation, but now they are starting to present National Socialism as something that can influence everybody’s life here and now – not just after the takeover. Almost everything can be “National-Socialist” – from biking or graffiti to an Asian grocery store boycott. Through this strategy, neo-Nazis offer a lifestyle that contributes to the struggle for the white Europe they dream of so much.

The all-European flagship of the new neo-Nazi lifestyle is the“politically-cultural web project Zentropa, that concentrates on artist reflection of European tradition and European culture”. This web project presents a broad range of information on events such as exhibitions, fashion or concerts. The German affiliate of Zentropa, Syndikat-Z, is managed by Anne-Marie Doberenz, femme fatale to the important German Nazi-activist Steffen Pohl from Duisburg, who she almost got to commit a and who she made to end in mental hospital in autumn of 2008.

Anne-Marie Doberenz at Workers Party (Dělnická Strana) event in Prague in 2008, and an evolution of her image since 2002.

Steffen Pohl, wearing American anti-racist hardcore band Walls of Jericho motif on his sweatshirt at a demonstration in Dortmundt

And here he is wearing a sweatshirt of an American anti-racist band Agnostic front at a Workers Party demonstration in 2008 in Prague, mentioned above, where Pohl made a speech. The person wearing a kefiah on Pohl’s left is Tomáš Málek from National Resistance (Národní Odpor), a leader of Workers Party in Brno, the person on Pohl’s right is Workers Party leader from Vlašim and National Resistance Vysočina member Jiří Bárta.

The founder of the National Resistance, Filip Vávra, presented one of his many one-man shows trying to promote vegetarianism among neo-Nazis, but his fellow warriors laughed at him. He then tried to get patronage from the Agricultural Animals Protectors‘ (OHZ) chief, who, surprisingly, offered him space on the organization’s website for an antisemitic petition against the killing of kosher and halal animals. Most of the former OHZ supporters turned away from the organization after it co-operated with him. Vávra’s commitment to the vegan lifestyle didn’t last long and after a few failed attempts with the vegan diet, documented by other neo-Nazis, he turned away from it.
Brown political marketing
Besides their surface appearance, neo-Nazis also had to radically change their political agenda when they realized the difficulty of gaining power with an agenda of blood-line nationalism, racism and honoring of the Third Reich. The lack of real political theories and thinkers is characteristic of the neo-Nazi movement and it results in inconsistency of opinion and chaotic moves amongst many theories, including Jewish plot, 19th century social darwinism, opposition of capitalism, glorification of capitalism, refusing Islamic fundamentalism and supporting Islamic fundamentalism. Most fascists and neo-Nazis still rely on historical revisionism, one that concentrates on denying historical facts such as the Holocaust or the causes of World War II.

Traditional neo-Nazism started to fall apart when it started to agree with the apologetic neo-Fascists. The New Right, a movement that started in 1968, has been a major influence on contemporary neo-Nazis and neo-Fascists. The best known member of this movement is Alain de Benoist, who helped to build the nationalist think-tank GRECE (Group for Research and Education of the Civilization of Europe). They don’t take a primitive racist stand, but they criticize and oppose multiculturalism and promote the “crisis of the European identity”. Benoist is known for his disgust for American imperialism and capitalism with his views approaching the authoritarian left, leading to statements like “It is better to wear a Red Army helmet than to live in Brooklyn and eat hamburgers”. The stand he takes towards Le Pen and his fascist National Front is also interesting. He considers the National Front members incapable of understanding the complexity of the world and accuses the group of blind hatred, passivity towards social problems and intellectual laziness.

The new musical-political project, RIF (Rock Identitaire) is rooted in the same ground. It offers a cultural platform for spreading neo-Nazi or neo-Fascist views without mentioning Hitler or Mussolini. Identitaires also conduct projects typical of the anarchist and autonomous scene – information centers and community houses called “Houses of the Identity”. The movement doesn’t use racist theories, but instead it works with the concept of “Identity” as it’s connected to national and cultural being.

The rest of the neo-Nazi opinion vacuum is filled with copies of their opponents’ views. The neo-Nazis in Germany have been trying to infiltrate the Green Party since the eighties and yet have shown shallow interest in ecology – it is obvious that their interest ends with statements and no action. Similar to other topics, ecology is being used to attract supporters rather than to solve problems.

Another topic that is gaining popularity among Nazis is anti-capitalism. However, as with so many other topics, their criticism usually ends with nice phrases on banners or cliches about a society of consumers. Neo-Nazis themselves confess in the discussions that they are not really against capitalism and that they like the idea of free market, but only in its pure form – because it is similar to the natural selection that they adore so much. When neo-Nazis speak about capitalism, their criticism sounds like a radical version of the left-wing parliament political parties. Neo-Nazis don’t want to end capitalist oppression, they just want to control it leaving the influence of capitalism untouched.[...]

READ THE WHOLE THING: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Plea hearing delayed in 11-year-old Riverside boy accused of killing neo-Nazi father (dokmz.wordpress.com)
Czech Republic: Two detained after neo-Nazi provocation in Ústí nad Labem (dokmz.wordpress.com)
Third Body Found; Neo-Nazi Suspected in Rampage (dokmz.wordpress.com)
From Casa Pound to Anders Behring Breivik: Looking at recent developments in European fascism (antigerman.wordpress.com)
Germany Bans Neo-Nazi Group (israelnationalnews.com)
Free T-Shirts Given to Neo-Nazis Revealed a Secret Message After Being Washed (idiotyouth.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Fascism and antisemitism, national anarchism and autonomous nationalism

The New Right and national anarchism

antigermantranslation — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:24:35 +0000

From Hope Not Hate:

a coalition of some of the finest Jew hating conspiracy theorists around are having a meeting of their own. And, in time honoured far right tradition, they are having a factional split of their own. The “New Right” is a quasi-intellectual political group formed by the former National Front activist Troy Southgate and unites various strands of far right thinking into a bi-monthly talking shop.

Having split into two warring factions, they’re aptly enough holding their next meeting in a London pub on the 5th November. The who’s who of the group makes for interesting reading. One faction is led by a professed “National Anarchist” and the other by a man who until recently boasted of working for Military Intelligence.

From the full report:

New Right organisers

Troy Southgate

A self-described “National Anarchist”, Southgate is a former Political Soldier and a prolific biographer of obscure political figures. A onetime adherent of the “radical” leadership surrounding Nick Griffin, Southgate moved out of the NF in the very early 90’s with the “Political Soldiers” before falling foul of the chief exponent of radical catholic fascism, Derek Holland.

Before discovering “National Anarchism”, Southgate led the “English Nationalist Movement” and the “National Revolutionary Faction” both of which dissolved and which he ran prior to the New Right. He is the vocalist in the band H.E.R.R and plays in numerous “Neo Folk” bands.

Some of the speakers at past New Right events

Michele Renouf

Former model and actress, Australian born Renouf is a staunch defender of a number of well known Holocaust deniers including David Irving, Robert Faurisson, Richard Williamson, Germar Rudolf, Ernst Zündel and countryman Fredrick Töben. Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem told “The Australian” newspaper: “This woman is especially dangerous… she can put a pretty face on a very ugly movement.”

Renouf has previously described Judaism as a “repugnant and hate-filled religion”. She attended a “Holocaust denial” conference hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entitled “Holocaust Review: A Global Vision” in Tehran in December 2006. Others at the conference included former KKK leader David Duke.

From Anarchonation back in the summer:

For the second time in as many years, and following his denunciation by former comrade Troy Southgate, Andrew White (aka ‘Andrew Yeoman’) has declared the BANANAs [Bay Area National Anarchists] have- once again- split. [...] Given the short time that elapsed between the first time the BANANAs called it quits and their resumption of pea-brained ‘activism’, it’s likely that activities will indeed be resumed at a later date, although given the bad smell that surrounds the group’s name, it may also be that it will come under a new label.

As is stands, the ‘national anarchist’ project in the English-speaking world has come more or less to a standstill, with supporters either (re-)lapsing into neo-Nazi activity or simply ceasing public political activity altogether. Of related interest is the following article by Matthew N. Lyons in the US journal New Politics (April 29, 2011): Rising Above the Herd: Keith Preston’s Authoritarian Anti-Statism

From Slack Andy:

In the UK, occult publisher ‘Scarlet Imprint’ has issued a statement on ‘Occultists and Fascists’ (June 10, 2011), distancing them from fascist bizarro and ‘national anarchist’ Troy Southgate.

We were approached recently to contribute to Troy Southgate’s Black Front Press whose last published work was a Crowley anthology.

After a little research, we were disturbed to find their rather murky history hidden beneath the anti-corporate, anti-capitalist and permaculture ideals.

Though we are very happy to promote the independent esoteric and occult authors and publishers whose work and dedication invigorate and stimulate our community, it is entirely another matter to contribute our energy to a project which would seem to be attempting to use a multiplicity of voices from the occult scene to promote the ideas of the so-called New-Right.

The Wild Hunt add:

Scarlet Imprint noted that they held a “profound” disgust for the views expressed in the National Anarchist manifesto, and stated that “what is clear in magickal history is that racial mixing has been incredibly beneficial.” The well-regarded San Francisco esoteric book-seller Fields Books thanked Scarlet Imprint for their stance, and promises “a longer and more nuanced response to all of our customers soon” on the matter. In response, some Crowley fans instantly went on the defensive, wondering if there was going to be a “blacklist” of contributors, bemoaning the “war of ideologies” that will be raised on the issue. This is exactly the kind of response that National Anarchists like Southgate hope for, since a veneer of an apolitical “pox on both your houses” attitude is what gives these New Right/third positionist groups their oxygen.

From Datacide: From Subculture to Hegemony: Transversal Strategies of the New Right in Neofolk and Martial Industrial:

Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial are two sub-categories of Industrial Music, which developed in the 1980’s. Industrial as such was a direction that – parallel to Punk Rock – worked with the latest electronics in order to create an aesthetic of futuristic noise machines of the late 20th century and research extreme zones of contemporary society and history. Throbbing Gristle already thematized concentration camps, serial killers, Aleister Crowley etc by using cut-up techniques of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin and thus with strategies of liberation from brain washing. Similarly, Cabaret Voltaire were said to wage a “propaganda war against the propaganda war” (Industrial Culture Handbook). With SPK this was combined with a critique of Psychiatry and a presentation of extremes of the body and death. In the 80’s there were agitational and critical bands such as Test Dept., Nocturnal Emissions and Bourbonese Qualk which were often associated with the ever broadening spectrum of “Industrial”. However, with Laibach the critique of totalitarianism became more ambivalent. This ambivalence was at first seemingly shared by Death In June, the band that in many ways was at the origin of what is now considered Neo-Folk and Martial Industrial.[...]

A great importance is attached to avoid being easily associated with the brown swamp. Their attitude is intellectual and elitist with adoration for Ernst Jünger and Julius Evola not Hitler and Mussolini. Even with key figures who have undeniably been members of far right political groups (in Britain this is crystallized around the mid-80’s National Front and its “Political Soldier” faction), there is a surprising eagerness to distance themselves from allegations of “fascism”. This has a historical precedent in the French “Nouvelle Droite” (see appendix) who, motivated to get out of the neo-Nazi cul-de-sac, and on their march through the institutions, tried hard to avoid being tagged fascists while serving old wine in new bottles, or old ideology in new phraseology for to the present day.

Troy Southgate, head of the group HERR, seems particularly eager not to be branded a fascist despite his history as a wanderer from one group of the extreme right to the other (such as the National Front, the International Third Position, the English Nationalist Movement, the National Revolutionary Faction etc). Presumably this is a tactical move not to scare away potential recruits to his more recent “National Anarchist Movement”. With a list of his favorite authors including pre-cursors like Bakunin, Proudhon and Nietzsche, “classic” fascist and National-Bolshevik authors such as Julius Evola, the Strasser Brothers, Ernst Jünger, Martin Heidegger, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Ernst Niekisch, Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, Karl Haushofer, and finally more contemporary fascists and esoteric Hitlerists like Francis Parker Yockey, Miguel Serrano and Savitri Devi, one wonders why he pretends to be so allergic to the f-word. While this is not necessarily a homogenous bunch of authors, and most of them are not “Nazis” in the sense of toeing the line of the NSDAP, all of them (minus the 19th century pre-cursers) can reasonably be called fascist in the sense of using “fascism” as an umbrella term for tendencies including the conservative revolution, national bolshevism, the Hitler-Nazis to the various strains of the contemporary New Right.[...]

Wakeford and Southgate are by no means the only ones involved in the far right. Ian Read, a founding member of Sol Invictus and occasional member of Current 93, [...] has a history as a far right militant as he acted as security for Michael Walker and Michèle Renouf at events around 1990. Renouf is one of the leading figures of British holocaust denial and anti-Semites. Amongst other things, she participated in the Teheran holocaust conference, and is one of the most active supporters of David Irving. She also pops up in our context again in 2007 when she spoke at an event of Southgate’s New Right groupuscule, as reported by the anti-Fascist magazine Searchlight. This (and a looming leadership contest) led to disputes within the British National Party, since its culture commissioner, self-declared “philosopher” and “artist” (who made garish oil paintings with titles such as “Adolf and Leni” or “Freud was wrong”) was simultaneously Southgate’s partner in the New Right grouplet. This was at a time when Nick Griffin (former Political Soldier, now BNP chairman and recently elected to the European Parliament) tried to create a more “respectable” image for the party. Of course if leading functionaries rub shoulders with radical anti-Zionists and anti-Semites, who, as Renouf does, believe that “Hamas fights for us all”, then Griffin’s attempt to clear the BNP from charges of anti-Semitism have little credibility.

From Paul Stott: Imitation As Flattery? How Europe’s Fascists Are Copying Anti-Fascists

Antifa in the Czech Republic have recently published a fascinating analysis of how some fascist groups appear to be busying themselves adopting the imagery and style of anarchists and anti-fascists. The Big Neo-Nazi Crib illustrates examples of this from clothing, sticker designs, badges, t shirts and logos. Quite who gains from these maneouvres is another matter entirely – it certainly provides easy fodder for the lazy ‘they are all as bad as each other’ media talking heads. Here in the UK (where the trend identified by Czech Antifa is nowhere near as pronounced) attempts to link anarchism and fascism are usually the preserve of the secret state and its useful idiots on the last century left such as Searchlight and bloggers such as Andy Newman over at Socialist Unity.

The closest we have perhaps come is some of the literature of the International Third Position in the 1990s, when they attempted to rally against McDonalds and corporate capital – with little real success. Or perhaps the stalled attempts to create ‘National-Anarchism’ by Troy Southgate and others. Why did they fail? Well firstly you do have to wonder if the participants heart was ever in it – Southgate quickly popped up in BNP circles when Nick Griffin was at his peak. But most importantly, people do tend to prefer the original, to the copy – if they have to copy our ideas to attract young supporters, what does it tell us about the confidence the fascists have in their own belief system?

See also: Anton Shekhovtsov, ‘Apoliteic music: Neo-Folk, Martial Industrial and “metapolitical fascism”’, Patterns of Prejudice, Volume 43, Issue 5 (December 2009), pp. 431-457; Arne Gräfrath ‘Far-Right Tendencies in the Wave and Gothic Scene‘ Originally from D-A-S-H.org; Not for Profit ‘Pro-Nazi, Pro-Rape, Pro-Pedo Music in London‘ Indymedia.

Previous: Faces of the new right, National Anarchism update, National Anarchism and white nationalism, Who makes the Nazis?, Troy Southgate and national anarchism, Troy Southgate and Nationalist Alternative.

Filed under: Fascism and antisemitism, national anarchism and autonomous nationalism Tagged: Black Front Press, Michele Renouf, national anarchism, Neo-folk, new right, Scarlet Imprint, Troy Southgate

Syrian statelessness, National syndicalism, Israeli social protest

antigermantranslation — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:20:53 +0000

Catching up with Entdinglichung, back since the end of September from a long summer break from blogging. Here is some of the great stuff you’ll find there.

**ein Artikel auf Support Kurds in Syria: The Stateless Kurds of Syria**

„… In 1962, the then Syrian government executed an irregular, single-day census in al-Hassake – the province with the highest concentration of Kurdish inhabitants. The purported purpose of the census was to identity those who had entered Syria illegally since 1945. However, implementation was inconsistent. Many in the largely agricultural community were simply unaware that a census was taking place; others were unable – at short notice – to present documentation to substantiate claims dating back more than seventeen years. Additionally, some were suspicious of intentions behind the census and refused to hand over documentation when the outcome of doing so was unclear.

As such, the status of individuals was determined somewhat arbitrarily, with members of the same family often recognized differently. ‘My grandfather and all his siblings’ explains our informant ‘were born in Syria. While some of his brothers and sisters kept their nationality, my grandfather and a further two brothers were working in the fields and did not attend.’

Almost half a century on, the impact of the census in Syria is no less significant. For, statelessness – just like nationality in Syria – is hereditary via the father. The problem is further exacerbated by the discretionary bias implicit within the stratified structure of Syria’s stateless population …“

On Nazi syndicalists

- Das Querfront-Nazi-Projekt „Fahnenträger“ wurde eingestellt (Syndikalismus) Here’s my very rough translation:

Since the mid-2000s, a confrontation of former and current neo-nationalist revolutionaries with anarcho-syndicalism had become noticeable. Around the magazine “Fahnenträgers [standard bearer]” around gathered a number of people who call themselves “national syndicalists”, “social revolutionaries” and “Third Front” labeled and took up anarcho-syndicalist writings by theorists such as Rudolph Rocker, reinterpreting them in a nationalistic way. They include articles dealing with the Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD), the national-syndicalist movement in Spain and council socialist models. Although every now and then they sounded tones of class struggle and the reformist social democratic trade unions have been subjected to quite striking criticism, the last step of breaking with nationalistic views they did not take. They remained in an arrested state of anti-internationalist, irrational and helpless national response. They failed to see the obvious fact that the workers of the world have a thousand times more common than ever with their national exploiters and oppressors in corporations and governments confounding the eternal nationalist lie of ”We’re all in the same boat”. Not for nothing are the international class struggle and international solidarity is an essential part of the revolutionary and anarcho-syndicalism.Syndikalismus.tk published in 2007 together with the “militant syndicalists” a booklet entitled “National Revolutionary – Go to hell.” In it we hit out at this group and its ideology. (Link to leaflet pdf).

How does the website of the “Fahnenträgers“ is to be found to date, their project will be set. One of the reasons why it is said: “By now the Fahnenträgers has degenerated into a de facto one-man project, which ultimately sprang from a fatal mixture of progressive emaciation of personnel, political reorientation, frustration and widespread consumer attitude of the target group. So time to draw the final conclusions.[...]. “

Preceded by the setting of the Fahnenträgers is already a tacit resolution of the “network Socialist Nation” (NWSN), a cross-front group, which included the maker of the Fahnenträgers. NWSN gathered in a wild mix of neo-Nazis, Strasser-trailers, eco-Nazis, and esoteric volklich sympathizers with Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, etc., etc. Recently, the debate came with the Communist Party and the nationalist Thälmann National Bolshevik KAPD group led by Heinrich Laufenberg added. All in all it was a hodgepodge of reactionary political views, which have its own label as “Advanced” and “Time In” failed completely. Egomaniacs, busybodies, and internet heroes…

Syndikalismus.tk

Social protest in Israel

- Assaf Adiv: Is a new unionism developing in Israel? (New Unionism blog)

- Yacov Ben Efrat: The protest and the revolution, zu den Sozialprotesten in Israel (Challenge)

Syria, Yemen opposition warn dictators: You’re next (cnn.com)
1911 (poumista.wordpress.com)
The friends of Durruti (poumista.wordpress.com)
Iraqi Kurds blame Syria for official’s death – CNN (cnn.com)
Syria: Gaddafi Death Inspiration For Protesters (huffingtonpost.com)
Syrian security forces ‘fire on mourners’ (independent.co.uk)

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Fahnenträger, Kurdish, Kurdistan, Kurds, National-Syndicalism, Querfront, Syria

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ein Artikel auf Support Kurds in Syria: The Stateless Kurds of Syria

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Social protest in Israel

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**ein Artikel auf Support Kurds in Syria: The Stateless Kurds of Syria**