Skin heads in Cinn. make appeals to recruit racists

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CINCINNATI-Recently, a local cable service aired a disturbing advertisement on a community-access television channel. It called for people to "join the American Nazis and smash Red, Jew, and Black power." The ad was placed by the White American Skin Heads (W.A.S.H.), one of several neo-Nazi groups recently formed in Cincinnati.

The ads run by these groups on the local cable service have stirred up a controversy. Community leaders are in a dilemma on how best to respond to the neo-Nazi groups.

W.A.S.H. claims that young, white, working-class males are becoming secondclass citizens. The solution it offers is to "smash the present anti-white, Zionist (Jew), puppet-run government with a healthy, new, white man's order."

Of the three local neo-Nazi groups, W.A.S.H. has the largest membership, about 40 people. There are about 15 members in a group calling itself the SS Action Group, and 15 more in the National Socialist Skin Heads Alliance.

"It seems to me that when the content of a message is so offensive to community standards and threatens certain groups of people, it should not be protected by the First Amendment," said Mayor Charles Luken.

The Cincinnati Rainbow Coalition has called upon the city council to draft legislation "prohibiting the activity of fascist terrorist groups such as the Nazis and the Klan."

On the other hand, Nick Lewis, 19, cofounder of W.A.S.H., claims his group "is 4 SOCIALIST ACTION a legal, political organization that deserves the same rights as any other organization."

If the government authorities are entrusted with the job of censoring or outlawing the activity of far-right groups, they will have been given the opportunity to also limit the activity of other "controversial" movements-such as antiwar, abortion-rights, gay and lesbian, or socialist organizations.

The First Amendment of the Constitution defends what we approve as well as what we disapprove. Our civil liberties must be protected.

At the same time, youth, trade-union, (continued from page 20: “Jesse Jackson announces candidacy: He'll use presidential campaign to 'expand' Democratic Party”) the Rainbow, local activists will find that their real role will be to garner additional support for Democratic Party candidates.

Rather than building an independent mass movement in the streets, they will find themselves ringing doorbells and stuffing envelopes for a party that supports the profit system which causes the very problems they hope to remedy.

Just as Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern convinced thousands of antiwar activists that the most practical way to end the Vietnam War was to work for their election, Jackson will dupe thousands into believing that working for his nomination can help stop U.S. intervention in Central America, end apartheid, and win a decent standard of living for all Americans.

NOVEMBER 1987 civil-rights, Black, and Jewish organizations should join together with others to effectively counter-organize, out-mobilize, and loudly protest against the presence of W.A.S.H. and similar groups.

On Oct. 23, a rally protesting the neoNazis attracted 100 people, mainly students and young workers. W.A.S.H. counterdemonstrators had to be to escorted away by the police for their own safety. On Oct. 24, a local bar, Sudsee Malone, held a Rock Against Racism all-afternoon concert.

Although these neo-Nazi groups are—at the present time—a pathetic parody of their historical cousins, they represent an incipient danger in our society. For this reason, it is necessary to develop an organized public repudiation of their poisonous ideas. We must be ready to answer and denounce skin heads/neo-Nazis wherever they are and wherever they go!

He will use his supporters as bargaining chips to increase his power within the Democratic Party. Just as the McCarthy and McGovern campaigns diverted attention from the real causes of war and the bipartisan support for U.S. foreign policy, the Jackson campaign will place the blame for society's ills on "Reaganism" and "misguided leadership."

Jackson's "new direction" is the same old direction of dependence on the Democratic Party and the capitalist state which has led to defeat after defeat for working people. The goals of peace, jobs, and justice, which many Rainbow supporters sincerely believe in, can never be advanced by following this old direction-no matter how bold the leadership.

Instead, working people need their own politically independent party—a labor party based on the trade unions—to represent the interests of all those who suffer from the injustices of capitalism. finger most directly on the responsibility of the U.S. government for the situation facing the gays and lesbians. In his speech, he called on the government to stop funding the contras and to begin proper funding for the battle against AIDS.

The Oct. 11 march and rally were the highlights of a long weekend of activities that included the unveiling of a huge quilt covering the length of two football fields with the names of some 2000 people who have died of AIDS.

Other activities included a ceremonial wedding of gay and lesbian couples, the dedication of a memorial site for slain San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and a civil-disobedience action at the Supreme Court to protest the 1986 decision upholding a Georgia sodomy law.

A number of the events during the weekend showed the progress that gays and lesbians have made in recent years in gaining recognition for their rights. A labor reception, for instance, held in the AFLCIO's national headquarters, drew some 500 labor leaders and union members on the day preceding the march.

The task now is to build on the success of the 1987 March. Continuing mass actions must be held demanding more money for AIDS research and education, free medical care, and equal rights for gays and lesbians. The spirit of the march must be kept alive.

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