hi all
Chris wrote:
>I like Peter's response, though given the prolly fairly organized activity
> >of these scum, I think it is necessary to try and respond collectively,
>as >much as possible, to make it as hard as possible for them to even
>appear in >public.
thanks Chris. my response was rather brief because i didn't have much time.
>Direct confrontation with no >political alternative only goes a little
>ways.
i agree, beating up nazis is only the first step and racism or homophobia is not primarily because of a few nazis. unfortunately i'd say that only revolution or at least mass class struggle will stop the nazis. for instance the big dec 95 strikes in france probably did more damage to le pen than any of the campaigns against him. serbia arguably went much further than france with the mass strikes and protests overthrowing milosevic. however i'd say the particular circumstances of the 'revolution' didn't mean an automatic defeat for the serbian nazis. some of these circumstances are 1) in ex-yugoslavia the left is generally identified with the Communist regime and as such is pretty discredited. so people identify with the right as the bearers of freedom. 2) everyone from fascists to anarchists was involved in the overthrow of milosevic whereas in france le pen opposed the strikes. 3) while there was a pretty important proletarian element in the overthrow of milosevic the narrowness of the movement meant that any anti-capitalist content was mostly lost. 4) the serbian population was subjected to ten years of extreme nationalist propaganda from the government. 5) to the best of my knowledge there were no mass feminist or gay/lesbian movements in the ex-yugoslavia and movements that could be considered 'anti-racist' such as the Kosovar one were primarily oriented towards national liberation rather than anti-racism as such. i certainly wouldn't claim that sexism, racism and homophobia don't exist in australia or other western countries anymore but one of the striking things about visiting ex-yugo was how socially acceptable such prejudices are compared to australia. 6) there are some good grounds for the nationalists to claim that the serbian nationalist project was betrayed eg succesful military offensives suddenly stopped apparently because the commanders were bribed. 7) something like half a million serbs have left serbia in the last ten years. many of these people tended were young draft dodgers, who perhaps might have been anti-nazi if they'd stayed. 8) there are no real prospects (even in the limited capitalist sense) for young people, just about everyone under 30 who i met wanted to emigrate so plenty of unfocused discontent for the nazis to recuperate. 9) the new government unsurprisingly hasn't been able to deliver too much. in summary plenty of 'objective conditions' favourable to the nazis, some of which would also be favourable to revolutionaries.
>Who knows? To what extent is gay bashing tolerated? To what extent
>areanti-gay attitudes ingrained andperpetuated in supposedly 'harmless',
> >'merely verbal or mental' ways?
see above.
>The gay community has the right to defend itselfby any and all means,
>against any and all attacks. In fact, as Peter pointed out, it isn't a
> >question of a right, its a question of self-defense against oppression.
in the specific instance in belgrade a gay rights march of a few dozen had the misfortune to run into at least a thousand nationalists protesting the extradition of milosevic so in that case there was probably not much they could do and were fortunate that the police eventually rescued them.
peter
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