An urgent appeal to all activists seeking Justice and Freedom for the Palestinian People from Anti-Racist Action

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Revolutionary Greetings,

I am writing this as a member of Anti-Racist Action, as an open letter to all activists who work towards the goal of Freedom and Justice in the Occupied Territories. There is a two-fold purpose for my writing of this letter - (1) to build support for our own struggle; the struggle against the rising tide of fascism and white supremacy, and (2) to warn my comrades in the struggle for a Free Palestine of a very real political danger. This danger is of those on the right attempting to usurp the movement for a Free Palestine, not to help the Palestinian people or out of any sense of real justice, but for their own political goals and agenda.
First, an introduction to my organization and our work is in order for those of you who are unfamiliar. Anti-Racist Action is a grassroots, youth-based, direct-action organization dedicated to fighting fascism. For 15 years we have been organizing directly and militantly in our own communities against the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and fundamentalist bigots. We have succeeded as often as not in checking the growth of these groups through direct confrontation on the streets. We are now an international organization of some 60 chapters in the US, Indonesia, Argentina, Columbia and Canada.
I writing you today to alert you to a new trend in the American fascist movement and an important event taking place in Washington DC on May 11th. The National Alliance, this country's largest neo-Nazi organization, will be holding a large demonstration at the Israeli Embassy to protest the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people.
Since September 11th, neo-Nazis have clamored over themselves to show support for various causes in the Middle East. They are doing this for two reasons: to appear oppositional to the policies of the United States government (which they consider to be controlled solely by Jewish interests, indeed they refer to it as ZOG, the Zionist Occupational Government), and to use the struggle of the Palestinian people to build crude anti-Semitism and thus their fascist movement.
This May 11th event will be the 3rd such event in DC. It will also be the largest. On March 23rd, Anti-Racist Action conducted surveillance on a planning meeting for this rally in Elmwood Park NJ. Over 100 neo-nazis were in attendance at the 4 hour meeting. White Supremacists from as far away as Virginia and Massachusetts participated in skills-building workshops and political training for this event and events to come.
Anti-Racist Action is mobilizing to directly confront the National Alliance and its allies on the streets of DC. We are prepared as always to struggle against the neo-Nazis for control of the streets. We welcome any like-minded allies in this endeavor. However it is critical to us, and to other people more directly working for the Palestinian cause, that we have allies in the struggle for ideological space.
We can not allow the struggle for Justice in Palestine to be undermined by opportunists from the right. We can not allow the opponents of a Free Palestine an opportunity to tar the movement wholesale with charges of anti-Semitism and Nazism. We must show the world who truly cares about Palestine, and who is just seeking an opportunity to build their own vile cause.
We are calling therefore for a demonstration "For a Free Palestine and against Fascism" (or whatever other slogan sounds better but means the same thing). Today, we find the struggle against Zionism and the Struggle against Nazism linked in the strangest of fashions. Let us go together onto new ground with resolve, intelligence, and solidarity. Together we all carry a new world in our hearts, a just world that is growing this minute.

Yours in Struggle,
----Jerry Bellow
for Columbus Anti-Racist Action.

For more information about the mobilization, or about fascist groups, their aims and the struggle to defeat them contact:

Columbus ARA aracolumbus-AT-hotmail.com
Baltimore ARA claustro.phobia-AT-verizon.net
Chicago ARA ara-AT-wwa.com