Friday, May 20, 2011

Reevaluating Arthur Jones

Due to constant attacks both mentally and physically from anti-fascists there's an obvious decline of white nationalist activism in Illinois. The question has been on our minds for some time now; who is going to step forward and remain dumb enough to try lead their pathetic scene back into the slightly less pathetic state that it was a year ago or so? Because Lets be honest, although the INSF and their counterparts organizing was something to be taken serious, there quick demise has proven they did not have what it takes to live up to what groups like Matt Hales World Church of the Creators(WCOTC) were many years ago. Maybe ignoring them would have allowed so, but that wasn't gonna happen on our watch. So we thought maybe it was James Logsdon, the redneck sadly trying to save his creators from exstinction. But after hearing the toothless wonders ideas on how he proposed to build the white berets back up we realized we over estimated him. The one who we might actually have to look out for, is someone who has crossed our radar twice in two months; Art Jones not only launched a failed attempt at a Hitler birthday celebration at P.J Klems on April, 16th this year but was also at David Irving's Chicago date at the Drake hotel last week Thursday seig heiling and preaching national socialism during dinner. Thanks Art, you bastard, we were afraid things were going to start getting boring around here. We will see to it that your attempts at white activism in Illinois are as pitiful as your electoral success.

Arthur J. Jones
7744 Ogden Ave, Apt 3
Lyons, IL 60534
(708)442 6334

From OnePeoplesProject.com:

For as long as he has been around, there surprisingly isn't much to say about Arthur J. Jones. He has spent the past thirty years being the butt of every anti-Nazi joke in the Chicago area, and given how much grief antifa have given him in recent years he seems to enjoy it. He is kind of having a few last hurrahs before he has to go away for good, but..

Born in 1948, Jones like to pound his chest about being a Vietnam Veteran, thinking that gives him a pass when he advocates undermining the freedoms that he had supposedly fought for, but we sure would have loved to have been there if any of his World War II-era superiors ever found out that he even took a copy of Mein Kampf with him to study while in Vietnam, and was all about Nazism from since he was a kid. We do know his father, Art Jones, Sr. was none too happy about it. Confronting his son when the younger Art was a member of George Lincoln Rockwell's group the National Socialist White People's Party, the elder Art walked away in tears when his son threatened him. "It ain't worth a damn," he said in an interview years ago. "I fought those goose-stepping rascals during World War II. Everybody can have their beliefs, but I don't believe like he does."

Art's main thing is to bitch about Blacks, Jews and especially homosexuals, protesting various gay pride events and marches over the years. But overall, it's the same goal. "Our aim is to establish a white-run world, he once said in an interview. "The world would be better off with the white man in charge of everything. There'd be light where there is now darkness, knowledge where there is ignorance, law where there is anarchy, food where there is famine."

Although he has bounced around from one group to another, his main thing for the past three decades or so has been his America First Committee. Now this is not the group that railed against the U.S. getting into World War II. Jones and Richard Wendorf from the National Socialists, the group best known for their attempted march in Skokie, IL in 1978, formed this America First Committee after the NSWPP fell apart over a disagreement over party policy on Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and after Jones soured on the National Socialists. It was in this capacity that people would see Jones doing the talk show circuit in the late 80s - early 90s during that phenomina that had every daytime talk show on at the time looking to be the next Geraldo by booking white supremacists. In fact, at one time Jones was a sort of "unofficial advisor" to the Jerry Springer Show by suggesting panelists who could make sparks fly. Jones himself did get his ass kicked on one of thoseSpringer programs in May 1993 when former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee, Sr. - himself a complete piece of shit as one of the original members of the New Black Panther Party who also once declared that if race relations didn't improve by 1995, he would endorse "urban gurellia warfare" from blacks - joined him on a panel along with Tom and John Metzger of White Aryan Resistance. When, during a discussion on crime and supposed racial trends, an audience member asked Jones how he could explain a Jeffrey Dahmer, the white cannibal serial killer from Milwaukee. "For every Jeffrey Dahmer we produce, you produce 10,000 rapists, murderers, robbers, thugs, dope addicts, pimps, and whores," Jones replied. "Now that's a fact. Those are the crime statistics of the FBI."

That pissed McGee off, him responding. "I do not take insults, and so if you sit here and continue to insult and you use that word about whores, we'll start a war right now." Jones continued on with his bullshit, and eventually McGee got out of his seat and knocked Jones out of his. Being that this was the early years of the Springer show, this was one of those fights that didn't get aired, and when taping resumed, Jones shook McGee's hand as a gesture of peace. But things soured real fast after McGee wasn't charged with assaulting him, and Jones sued McGee, Springer, the executive producer and the syndication company for $2 million in damages. It was around this time you started seeing Jones less and less in the national spotlight.

Jones is best known as the Nazi who name keeps showing up on election ballots every now and again. He has been running for one thing or another since 1976, more often than not for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District in Illinois. But his insurance salesman's salary doesn't exactly cover election costs, plus he's an asshole, so he never wins.Truth be told, Jones is a washed-up Nazi still trying to milk it for all its worth. Even the groups he associates with is a sign of his diminishing goals. For one thing, he found himself hitching his wagon to Bill White's American National Socialist Workers Party, which quickly became the path to ruin for a number of people. And while he still maintains the America First Committe, now there is another banner he flies that is more localized - "Illinois United". This group has held a few Hitler Birthday Celebrations, but in 2011, it had to be canceled after unknown antifa set off smoke bombs and sabotaged toilets at the PJ Klems in Lyons, IL where the "birthday party" was to take place. Jones is getting along in years and as he fades more and more away, he has to do so knowing that nothing he ever did went right, and increasingly sent him further into the crapper.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Nazi Scum David Irving Speaks at Drake Hotel in Chicago

On Thursday, May 12, after going through rigorous security measures to keep his racist gathering in secret, the location of David Irving's holocaust-denial lecture was leaked to anti-fascists. Upon learning that the meeting took place in a private room at the prestigious Drake Hotel(312.787.2200, 140 E Walton Chicago, IL) at 6:00 PM, a phone jam was initiated. Hundreds of people called the Drake demanding to know why they would host a racist gathering but managers and receptionists either hung up or defended David Irving with the usual argument stressing the importance of defending the free speech of Nazis. Anti-fascists were on the scene but were unable to amount any meaningful protest or disruption due to heightened hotel security and Chicago Police present at the event to ensure Irving's speaking event went on as planned. The next morning anti-racists gathered in the early morning prepared to confront Irving as he left the Drake but he was no was a no-show(most likely booked a room at another hotel or quickly scurried out of Chicago as soon as his speech was over). Even so, hundreds of fliers were distributed to people on the streets and in front of the Drake informing them of their harboring of nazi-sympathizers despite community opposition.

Details about the event were given up by an attendee named David Schoeplee who was so scared after being contacted by anti-fascists he gave up a full run-down of the event asking only to not be exposed as a snitch or anti-semite(oops!) After a bland potato and chicken dinner, Irving told multiple long-winded stories about his research and time spent in prison for holocaust-denial. The atmosphere was pretty tense at several points, with Irving repeatedly looking out the window and telling stories about "masked ninjas" disrupting previous events. Irving's talk focused on Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler. Irving made numerous jokes about his personal assistant Jaenelle for not showing up out of fear of antifa disruptions. Attendees spoke favorably about the direction of the Tea Party movement, and cracked jokes about Irving about how he "only reads his own books". Only about a dozen people attended(less than half as many as last year): all of which were older males besides two women and a younger skinhead. Local America First Committee ringleader Arthur Jones (who organized the recently shut-down Hitler Birthday Party) gave a well-received Sieg Heil during a dinner conversation.

The midwest portion of Irving's 2011 holocaust denial tour began with disaster in Indianapolis where antifa not only shut down his scheduled speaking event at the MCL Cafeteria by smashing several of their windows, but also left a lasting mark on the hosting group Hoosier Nation / American Third Position run by Matt Parrott and Jaenell Antas who were forced to find a new location for their regular meetings. The very next day, Irving was supposed to show at the Staybridge Suites(1855 Craigshire Road) in St.Louis, where even more window smashings as well as graffiti went down. The rest of his tour Irving and his band of Hitler-worshippers scurried from town to town in frightened secrecy avoiding public light just like the cowards that they are.

Irving should have known better than to return to Chicago, a city where racist pigs are beaten and ran out of town without mercy, a city where Irving has been confronted every single time he has come to town in the past five years. The last time he attempted to speak at the Edelweiss restaurant on the northwest side, a mob of black-clad anti-fascists disrupted his event by flipping tables, assaulting attendees, and destroying Irving's merchandise. Months later, John Gisselbrecht, an attendee who was hospitalized by the confrontation, hired a major Chicago law firm to file a lawsuit against both David Irving as well as the hosting Edelweiss restaurant for not providing adequate security for the racist scum attending his events. All of this pressure contributed to why Irving's meeting was half as large and four times as expensive as previous years. Despite the fact that Irving's speech went on, one thing is clear: Chicago area anti-fascists are organized and prepared to remind David Irving and other racists nazi sympathizers that they are not welcome in our communities.
‘Holocaust denier’ prompts bogus bomb threat at Drake
CHICAGO (STMW) - Bomb sniffing dogs and explosive technicians responded to the Magnificent Mile on Thursday night when someone called in a bomb threat targeting a Holocaust denier at the Drake Hotel. No one was hurt and no bomb was found.

About 7:30 p.m., authorities were notified that someone called a bomb threat in to the Drake at 140 E. Walton Pl., apparently not pleased that a man named David Irving was allegedly staying there, police said.

“Someone was upset that this Nazi group was having a meeting at the Drake,’’ according to a police Bomb & Arson investigator. “They said, 'If you don’t kick them out, I’m going to blow up a bomb.' "

The hotel was not evacuated but police bomb-sniffing dogs and explosive technicians searched it. Nothing was found and nothing exploded, police said.

According to an editorial written by George Will published by the Sun-Times in February 2006, Irving was born in England in 1938, and was a "prodigy of perversity."

He asked for a copy of Mein Kampf as a school prize. He grew up to be  a "moderate fascist" -- his own description -- historian who has made a  career of arguing, in many books and incessant speeches, that although many Jews died of disease and hardship during the second World War, nothing like the Holocaust occurred, according to the editorial.

The Drake’s general manager was not immediately available Friday afternoon.

No one was arrested and Belmont Area detectives are investigating.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Anti-fascists vs fascism vs the state: a three way fight, not democracy in crisis

The State: The compulsory political institution of a centralized government that maintains a monopoly of the use of force within a certain territory. It applies to the courts, the cops, the laws, the politicians etc… 

Fascism: A form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other loyalties. It emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after a period of decline or destruction. Fascism has a complex relationship with established elites and the non-fascist right. It is never a mere puppet of the ruling class, but an autonomous movement with its own social base. In practice, fascism defends capitalism against instability and the left, but also pursues an agenda that sometimes clashes with capitalist interests in significant ways. There has been much cooperation, competition, and interaction between fascism and other sections of the right, producing various hybrid movements and regimes. (Matthew N Lyons)

Capitalism: An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

  

The way we describe things and how we define them is important. Misunderstood and misused terminology, and definitions that are not appropriate to their origins and genealogy are dangerous. In this case, the term at hand is 'fascism'. You can attempt to describe fascism in a static image, as we have before, for reasons of simplicity, but it is best understood by examining how it has existed and how it has functioned.

Often, to understand what something is you must understand what it is not. Many leftists and even anarchists fail to understand, that fascism and the State are two very different things. There are two reasons why it is necessary to recognize these as completely separate ideas.

First, to equate fascism with the State (or even worse, bureaucracy, is to misunderstand fascism and to obfuscate what it really is. This minimizes its opposition by maximizing its abilities to go unnoticed. Second, to recognize the state as fascist fuels an attempt to attack its “fascist” leadership. This strengthens the state by taking away from the idea that it is oppressive in its very nature; that the system itself, its entire framework, must be destroyed, not just its leadership.

Liberal antifascists may recognize the difference in definitions, yet do not oppose the state or capitalism. They attempt to stage the discourse and struggle of anti fascism as a battle between democracy vs fascism.  They see fascism as, most importantly, a threat to the established order. This once again strengthens the state, by urging the necessity for a more democratic society and a purer form of capitalism.

We recognize that fascism is something different, yet we also want nothing to do with capitalism and the state. So which is worse? There is no simple answer. Fascism in power (which some purists would argue is not fascism at all, given it had to sacrifice its own ethics to gain that power) may be far more brutal; however, if every stage of fascism is a fascist movement in itself, then one that never got past its own self-realization could certainly not be worse than U.S democracy. Further, how do we measure strength? Is it how easy something is to destroy? Obviously fascism is far easier to defeat than Capitalism. Maybe it is a question of which produces the other. Some Marxists say that fascism is capitalism in crisis, and that democracy is the mode of operation from which fascism is born. But the question of which produces the other becomes irrelevant when we realize that both fascism and the state must be destroyed.

Workers file charges over racist symbols, hostile work environment

About a month ago,  the National Socialist Movement (NSM) held a conference in Pemberton, New Jersey.  The largest U.S. Nazi group's conference ended with a bloody war between them and anti-fascists, leaving several Nazis injured and 4 in the hospital. In Chicago on April 16th, Nazis from the "unity" group Illinois United attempted to have a Hitler Birthday celebration that was shut down with a smoke bomb. It has become clear that in response to the incompetent but rising tide of fascism, anti-racists and anti-fascists are fighting back to repress a movement that falsely claims itself to be both struggling for white civil rights and victims of oppression, while at the same time teaching white supremacy and genocide.

The tensions of white supremacy not only exist in the halls and back rooms of restaurants, but on the street and in the work place. At Schenker Logistics in Joliet (a home base of the former white supremacist group World Church of the Creator), employees have been subject to racist propaganda such as swastika and KKK graffiti and confederate flags. Their employers, though cognizant of the issue, have refused to act. In response, workers have filed lawsuits over this and other discriminatory practices experienced at Kraft/Cadbury and DB Schenker. From People's World:

Workers file charges over racist symbols, hostile work environments

CHICAGO - Nine workers filed charges here with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission April 28, alleging the company they work for, and it's management, has repeatedly refused to address several counts of discrimination including the use of hate symbols.

The mostly African American workers say the Kraft/Cadbury warehouse in Joliet, a suburb just west of here, and DB Schenker, the company running the warehouse, along with its supervisors and their lack of action to correct the problem has created a hostile work environment.

"There are Nazi signs on the walls," said Angela McDonald, 44, who has worked at the warehouse for the last three years. She and her co-workers have repeatedly complained about the swastika graffiti and other charges to their managers and supervisors. "But they don't want to talk to us," she said.

The workers say that when management was approached about the problem they claimed that the black and Latino workers painted the swastikas in order "to get attention." On top of the Nazi symbols the workers also say a vehicle displaying confederate flags has consistently been seen parked on the property near the warehouse entrance.

"They're discriminating against my race and it's hateful," said McDonald, adding how the swastikas have not been removed from public areas at the warehouse, including the break room and the men's rest room. "They have been up for over eight months now. Those symbols represent hate and slavery and are not just offensive to blacks but everyone. We shouldn't have to put up with that," she said.

"When I'm leaving at one in the morning, there is no security and I know there are people who are hateful and prejudiced in the building," said McDonald. "I'm afraid of someone hurting me."

McDonald and a group of her co-workers and labor activists recently met with civil rights leaders and local clergy to mobilize support against the company's failure to address the issue.

Mark Meinster with Warehouse Workers for Justice said his group has been fighting for the rights of warehouse workers in the area for years. He points to a study released by the group last year, which found nearly 40 percent of Will County warehouse workers, where the warehouse in question is located, reported being discriminated against. The report, Bad Jobs in Goods Movement, found that 63 percent of workers in Will County warehouses are employed by temp agencies, earn poverty wages and have few benefits.

"We still don't have a society where workers are free from these types of discrimination charges," said Meinster. "And we're not just seeing discrimination at one place but it's happening throughout the warehouse industry in the area." Worker injustice is being allowed all over and target Latino and immigrant workers too, he said. Too many are being denied promotions based on their race, age and immigration status. And most of them are temp workers, he said.

"That's why workers need to come together and get organized and fight back. This recent battle is just the tip of the iceberg," said Meinster. "We're calling on the company, DB Schenker, to remove the hate symbols immediately and we want the local management to be completely replaced, because they clearly don't have the capacity to respect workers' basic human rights."

After the charges are filed and if the company fails to move, Meinster said the workers and supporters will step up their campaign, which will include pressure from the community, clergy and elected officials.

"We have to speak out and let them know we don't tolerate discrimination in our community and at our workplaces," he said.

McDonald said she was born and raised in Joliet. She is the mother of three and has several grandchildren.

"A lot of people still use the N-word, but I hate that word and I never allow my children to use it," she said. "I want my grandkids to know their history and I don't ever want them to have to experience what we are going through today at the warehouse. I just want the company to treat us fairly, to stop treating us like less human because we all deserve equal rights, black, brown and white. And we're not going to stand for it. By ... saying nothing, they're really saying something. But we want some changes."

Chris Williams, an attorney with the Workers' Law Office said mostly African American workers, both male and female, and one Latino worker filed the charges. Although the majority of the workers claim racial discrimination, others include being denied promotions for complaining about it, age discrimination and sexual harassment.

The warehouse loads and distributes various candies, cough drops, gum, chocolate bars and ingredients to make such items.

Photo: During an April 28 press conference in Chicago, Angela McDonald shows a picture of swastika graffiti at the Joliet, Ill. warehouse where she works. Pepe Lozano/PW.