A-Infos (en) The Internet Anti-Fascist: Sunday, 22 Feb 98--2.08 (#68)

[Paul Kneisel <tallpaul@nyct.net>]

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     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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          The Internet Anti-Fascist: Sunday, 22 February 98
                     Vol. 2, Number 8 (#68)
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              ANTI-FASCIST ORGANIZING: WHAT NEXT

The formal voting period for the three anti-fascist news groups
ended at midnight. I tried to pace myself to barely get through
it before collapsing of exhaustion.

But before doing so I want to thank all of you who acted, each in
your own way and capacity, to help us win.

Several of your also wrote yesterday and today asking where
things will stand after the vote is over. So I'll try to answer
this and then collapse.

In truth, we don't know.

Formally and under the best of conditions, the votes have to be
counted first. During the <rec.music.white-power> issue this took
about two months. The new automated vote 'bots should make this
procedure faster but we should not assume this will be the case.

After the vote is announced on the two news groups <news.groups>
and <news.announce.newgroups> there is a mandatory five day
period for readers to challenge the vote. Assuming that
objections are considered invalid, David C Lawrence then issues a
message to the Internet Service Providers of the world to create
the three new groups.

Then the moderators need to get to work to do the technical back
office work to make the groups operational. There are several
different moderation 'bots freely available. We have a technical
assistance group of people who have volunteered their time to
help with compiling programs and the like.

Then, finally, we'll let you know that the groups are tested,
debugged, and fully operational.

But all of the above describes abstract ideal conditions that do
not exist.

Before the vote was even over, opponents of the anti-fascist
organizing demanded it be canceled.

They call "vote fraud" what the U.S. Supreme Court and equivalent
bodies all over the world call "free speech."

While anti-fascists were attacked on the grounds that any anti-
fascist organizing violated the cybernazis rights, the real
censorship occurred against the anti-fascists themselves.

Even after <rec.music.white-power> was defeated, its supporters
were able to publish every post they wished praising racists
bands. Nobody threatened any action against the cybernazis for
singing the praises of groups with names like Racial Holy Way
(RaHoWa).

But we were told that if we posted the Call For Votes document
including on our own web site that the vote could be canceled. In
short, by every normal definition of the word, we were censored.

Opponents have just accused us of a far more serious violation of
the rules: ballot stuffing. "Ballot stuffing" would be,
essentially, the creation of false e-mail addresses from which
people cast votes. However, they have provided no evidence for
this charge, so we imagine it is simply the latest in the
standard string of false accusations.

Opposition from what even Stanton McCandlish of the Electronic
Frontiers Foundation called an Old Boys Network has been intense.
We see no reason why this intensity should decrease now that the
vote is over.

But specific data for this new period is not yet available.

  --  tallpaul
      21 Feb 98

PS: What next for TINAF? Two events occurred that dwarf other
issues of interest to anti-fascists. The first was the abortion
clinic bombing. The second was the right-wing plans to use
anthrax. We are working on several ftp supplements with reports
on these issues. On a personal note, I have postponed two very
minor but needed operations until after the vote, so I'll shortly
be going under the knife. My landlord is also under a court order
to make repairs on my apartment; the need to move things will
probably keep me off the net for a few days.

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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Wednesday, 18 February 1998
FTP Supplement #9 (#66): Machado and Online Anti-Asian Hate Actions

1) Noah Robischon, "Hate Mail," Netly News, 15 Nov 96
2) Jim Hill, "Hate Case Raises Internet Free Speech Issues," 8 Nov 97
3) CNN (no author), "Hate Continues to Surg the Net," 11 Nov 97
4) Reuters (no author), Hate-email Case Ends in Mistrial, 22 Nov 97
5) Reuters (no author), "Retrial in Internet Hate Mail Case," 2 Dec 97
6) Laetitia Mailhes, "Cyberspace hate crime charge goes to court
      again," Agence France-Presse, 2 Feb 98
7) CNN (no author), "Man convicted for sending hateful e-mail," 11 Feb
      98
8) Star Tribune (no author), "Cyberthreats; California verdict makes
      sense," 18 Feb 98

<ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/tinaf66.txt>

                              - - - - -

The Internet Anti-Fascist: Saturday, 21 February 1998
FTP Supplement #10 (#67): Abortion Clinic Bombing: Part 1

          The Birmingham Abortion Clinc Bombing: Part 1
                             BACKGROUND

1) Ann Rose, "Birmingham Clinic Bombing," web post via 
      <http://gynpages.com/birmingham/>, 29 Jan 98.
2) Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Eletronic Telegraph), "Death winning the 
      pro-life war," #604, 19 Jan 97
3) Greg MacDonald (Houston Chronicle), "Thousands protest abortion 
      decision: Foes, advocates mark 25th anniversary," 22 Jan 98
4) [Minneapolis] Star Tribune (no author), "Cases of abortion-related 
      violence," backgrounder, 29 Jan 98.

<ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/tinaf67.txt>
______________________________________________________________________ 

  -- tallpaul 
     Fascism: We have no ethical right to forgive, 
              no historical right to forget. 
 
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        <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> 
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