These are two of my articles written in the Czech Republic during my study abroad. They were published in the Spring 2008 issue of The New Presence Magazine.

Showdown in Plzen: Behind the scenes of the most recent Neo Nazis march

By Karen Yi and Aisha Gawad

Plzen, Czech Republic

On March 1, 2008, two hundred Neo Nazis marched through the center of Plzen. Using the pretext of freedom of speech they came to prepare the ground for future marches in the Czech Republic. It was the biggest test of Czech democracy to date – and they passed it with flying colors.

A Late Start

They sky was shrouded in clouds and an icy wind blew violently through the city. A light rain dampened the roads soon to be trodden by thick combat boots.

The march didn’t begin at 2p.m. as had been planned, because Hurricane Ema stranded most of the marchers on a train halfway between Prague and Plzen. Their buddies stood around in groups, smoking, chatting amiably, stomping their combat boots and trying to keep from shivering.

Finally, more than an hour late, the bulk of the marchers arrived, and a round of incendiary speeches resounded on Emil Skoda Square. “They say they are going to be some Neo Nazis here!” declaimed Vaclav Bures, the organizer of the march. “They make us the butts of verbal and physical violence, but we are the only ones who can rescue this country from the political and moral morass it finds itself in! Only we can restore it to dignity.”

More speeches continued in the same seditious vein. Thomas Vandas of the Workers Party derided the government, especially Human Rights Minister Dzamila Stehlikova, and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenburg, for his German accent. Vandas exhorted the assembled marchers to try to get into local politics.

“That’s where we can gradually implement our ideals, that’s where we can build our base, so that one day soon we can march into Parliament through the front door!” he blared into the loudspeaker.

Finally, the marchers, their shaved heads tucked in the hoods of their black sweatshirts, their faces hidden behind scarves or ski masks, lined up behind four large skinheads bearing huge black flags. Bures, waving a bullhorn, took his place at the front of the column and started warming up the crowd with catchy chants.

Once they were safely encased by four ranks of police, supplemented by dozens more on horseback, all dressed in full riot gear, including the horses, the procession began to move towards the center of town.

Meanwhile, near the town’s main synagogue, hundreds of angry citizens, along with young anarchists, were filling the streets. Many had a yellow Star of David pinned to their sweatshirts.

At 3 p.m., there was still calm. Cars continued to speed down the street and the anarchists sat around, smoking joints and passing around liquor. Even the police huddled together with no particular purpose.

Then, on cue from the police, emergency vehicles rushed to block the road. Water cannons and armored trucks rolled into position, insulating the sides of the street. The noise level began to rise; police dogs barked and the crowd stirred. Joints were extinguished and conversations were abandoned as people geared up for the coming fight.

“The totalitarian state will not let us sleep!” (Totalitni stat nencha nas spat!) Chanting their favorite slogan, the Neo Nazis came into view.

Actually, they were barely visible. Only the bobbing tops of a few baldheads and an occasional middle finger shooting out of the black cloud of police could be seen.

The crowd exploded into whistles and jeers.

“Shame!” yelled the citizens in front of the synagogue.

“We’re here legally!” the Neo Nazis yelled back.

The anarchists rushed the police barricades. The armored ranks shuddered, then held. A green apple and an empty bottle of Pilsner Urquell were thrown.

In less than five minutes, it was all over. The Neo Nazis marched on to the main square, and the police closed in a solid barrier around the anarchists, to prevent them from giving chase.

One of Many

The scene in Plzen is not an isolated event.

More and more, all over Europe, Neo Nazis are taking to the streets. The elite of the movement are becoming bolder and smarter. Organizing their still relatively small numbers, they are forcing themselves into the public consciousness as a serious political force, ostensibly fighting for law and order.

And they are doing it legally.

In November of last year, Bures, who is known for his affiliation with the Neo Nazi case, duly notified town hall officials in Plzen’s Third District that he was planning a march to support freedom of speech. By sheer coincidence, as he would claim later, the date of the march, January 19, was also the anniversary of the day when thousands of Plzen’s Jews had been deported to concentration camps.

The municipal authorities saw no reason to oppose the march. Plzen Mayor Pavel Rodl found out about the demonstration five days before it was scheduled to take place, and his internet research revealed that participants were being told to come armed.

Given contradicting advice from his lawyers, Rodl banned the march on January 17th. “When two lawyers are telling you ‘yes’ and two are telling you ‘no’ the moral decision prevails,” he said. “When you realize there are going to be right wing radicals on one side and left wing radicals on the other and a religious group in the middle…Yes, I could have looked the other way, but I realized that someone could get crippled because I didn’t act,” he told TNP.

The Plzen Administrative Court didn’t see it his way. It declared Rodl’s decision illegal, on the grounds that it violated the law of assembly, which states that a demonstration can only be banned within three calendar days after it is announced. The court ruled that Rodl would have to let Bures reschedule the march.

Rodl then appealed the decision to the Supreme Administrative Court in Brno, which backed up the lower court. Bures re-scheduled the event for March 1st and sued Rodl for abuse of authority.

“He had to sue me,” said Rodl. “If he didn’t, other towns would immediately take the same steps that Plzen had. He had to prevent that.” Rodl, who could face a jail sentence for abuse of authority, has appealed the higher Court’s decision to the Constitutional Court, asking for a change in the law.

“At least the time limit needs to be changed to three work days. Now, if they announce a march before a long weekend, the officials, even with the best of will, simply can’t get the information they need to put together a legal case to stop the event. Another problem with the way the law is written now is that, if you find out an event is going to be a catastrophe after the time limit runs out, you can’t intervene. That’s bad,” he says.

Just a Peaceable Demonstration

Admittedly, the Neo Nazis demonstrated peacefully enough. The lack of raucous behavior supported their claim that they were simply marching for freedom of speech. But appearances are deceiving. This is all just part of their new image, says Neo Nazi expert Miroslav Mares.

“They are trying to proceed in a much more sophisticated and well-thought out manner, consulting their own legal advisors to find ways to go right up against legal boundaries without actually committing a crime,” he said. “Since propagating outright Nazi ideology is against Czech law, they cloak their marches as protests against state oppression of rights.”

“The movement is more emboldened now in terms of coming out in public for demonstrations and arguing for freedom of speech,” said human rights advocate Gwendolyn Alberts, the author of the 2006 ENAR (European Network Against Racism) report on the Czech Republic.

“They are selecting dates for marches that are of extreme significance to the Holocaust with no other intention but to offend, but without actually breaking the law.”

Adolescent Extremists

The fact that most of the demonstrators were under 25 is telling. Youth, like the Hitler Jugend, have always been crucial to radical movements. In Eastern Europe, Neo Nazis are counting on youth to infiltrate the political scene.

In the past few years, using white power music concerts and public demonstrations, the Neo Nazis have started generating mass appeal among the youth.

To this end, they have even started changing their “look” to imitate the Black Bloc, an extremely violent anarchist organization. “Black Bloc fashion is in: black hooded sweatshirts, sunglasses, scarves covering the lower halves of their faces – a lot of times you can’t tell them apart from the anarchists – it’s all meant to attract a younger crowd,” Mares said.

Neo Nazis even have their favored fashion brands, such as Grassel, Thor Steinar and Lonsdale – they like the latter, due to the “NSDA” letter combination in the name, reminiscent of the “NSDAP” acronym of Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Party.

“They have to get into the consciousness of the public, especially the young people,” said Mares. “Then, the moment there is a social crisis, they could rapidly form a political party.”

Awkward Allies

Historical development has led to a strong connection between the Neo Nazis and the skinhead movement. Yet, while skinheads are recruited to gain political momentum for the movement, the aggressive teens often prove to be an embarrassment to their newer, slicker leaders – at their own peril.

On March 22, a graphic video of two Neo Nazis viciously beating up a third briefly appeared on the internet server You Tube. The victim was caught acting drunk and rowdy by television cameras at the first cancelled march on January 19. At the same time, the participants of several Neo Nazi chat rooms said he had to be punished for embarrassing the movement.

Nowadays, the elite are trying to get away from associations with the rowdy skinheads, while showing they are ruthless enough to even attack their own.

“Let us get away from people who give us a bad image!” Bures told the crown at the pre-march rally. Sporting a tie, leather blazer and slacks, he looked somewhat effete next to the hefty skinheads. But nobody was laughing at him, because they know he is the Neo Nazi of the future.

Some young people may see the totalitarian state he offers as a comfortable alternative to the chaos of a modern open society. But the Neo Nazis don’t much want to play up that part of their plan yet. At the moment, they want to attract sympathy by appearing to be meek, law-abiding victims, fighting for their rights against a totalitarian state.

The performance they gave in Plzen was flawless.

After the demonstration, the police did not let the marchers disperse to the local pubs, but kept them in a huddle in the old town square. In due time, half of the marchers were herded onto buses and driven to the train station, while the other half, still under police escort, sullenly marched back the way they came. Gone were the anarchists, and gone were the silly slogans. The only sound to be heard was the clop-clop of horses’ hooves on cobblestones.

Why Are They Still Here?

By Aisha Gawad and Karen Yi and Eva Munkov

More than 60 years have passed since the fall of Nazi Germany. While swastikas, straight-arm salutes, and the Thir Reich eagle have been outlawed, the Neo Nazi movement still hold a weird fascination – especially for the young.

What is it that sustains the Neo Nazi movement decades after the fall of fascism? What unites its followers? Why does this ideology of hate and racism still appeal here in the Czech Republic, which suffered so much humiliation at their hands?

Some experts say Neo Nazism feeds on racism and xenophobia in mainstream society. Others say anxiety over globalization and loss of national identity are contributing factors. There are those who blame insufficient education about the Holocaust, and still others who say the young are drawn to the regimented and hierarchical structure of the Neo Nazi movement because they lack a strong “moral force” to latch onto.

Indwelling Racism

A disturbing report appeared on the website of the Control Risks Group (CRG, www.control-risks.com), an international consultancy which provides risk related advice to companies, governments and international organizations that regularly send employees abroad.

The report, dated February 26, 2008, noted: Right-wing extremism remains a concern in the Czech Republic. Although neo-Nazi groups are illegal, several ’skinhead’ groups re known to be active in urban areas, and extremist groups attempted to stage gathering in Prague in November 2007. Targeted attacks are rare and extremist groups are best known for holding rallies. Most of their past actions have targeted Jews or members of the local Roma gypsy community. [Recent incidents serve] to highlight that such groups remain active and may occasionally target other ethnicities.

Czech xenophobia is mostly directed at the Roma minority.

On March 11, 2008 the US State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 wrote this about the Czech Republic: “Random violence, rallies, and vandalism by neo-Nazis and skinhead groups against Roma occured throughout the year. Societal discrimination against minorities, especially Roma, continued, and a lack of equitable education, housing, and employment opportunities for Roma persisted.”

On February 1, 2008, the European parliament’s call on the Czechs to tear down a pig farm built on the site of a World War II concentration camp for Roma near the South Bohemian town of Lety was ignored.

According to a poll conducted by the Open Group society of sociologist Ivan Gabal in 2007, two-thirds of Czechs say they find it hard to live with the Roma, and often characterize them as criminals or welfare cheats.

According to a Ministry of the Interior report, in 2006, the majority of 248 racist crimes “were committed by members of the majority society and these formed both verbal and physical attacks which were directed towards Roma.”

Worse, the racism seems to be systemic.

As the aforemented State Department Report point out, from first grade onward, Roma children are consistently sidelined in “special schools” and are thus deprived of a normal education.

Perpetrators of attacks against Roma often receive light sentences, even though for so-called hate crimes the opposite should be the case.

In 2007, for example, a regional court in Jesenik gave three youths found guilty of a brutal racist attack against a Romany couple, a three year suspended sentence. The government’s human rights commissioner Jan Jarab condemed the verdict, but conceded that there was not much to be done about it.

“I think it is correct to call it an outrage, but it wouldn’t be correct to call it a surprise,” Jarab told Cesky Rozhlas (Czech Radio). “In the last fourteen years, we have seen a number of such verdicts. It seems that it is the rule, not the exception, that people who commit such attacks – very brutal violent attacks against the Roma – and the offenders are themselves mostly members of the neo-Nazi organizations – are treated very lightly, as if they were just young hooligans who had drunk a little bit more than usual… It seems that a crime against a person, particularly if that person happens to be a member of a minority, is treated far more lightly [than property crimes] and that is wrong.”

And yet, he added, there is nothing the government can do about it.

“We cannot influence the courts, which are independent, on any particular case,” he said. “It seems that the independence of the judiciary in such cases is strikingly similar to the independence of the judiciary in the American south a hundred years ago, where you also didn’t go to jail for lynching a black person because an independent court would never sentence a white person for lynching.

The incident in Jesenik was only one of a series of barely-punished attacks on the Roma, human rights advocate Gwendolyn Alberts told TNP. She is the author of the 2006 European Network Against Racism (ENAR) report on racism in the Czech Republic.

“There were an incredible number od assaults on Roma people by skinheads in the 1990s, and the court system failed the victims completely,” she said.

Although the police statistics show that racially motivated violence has been declinign since 2004, when 473 racist crimes were recorded, Alberts syas the violence of the past decade has already set a precedent.

“There is a record here of racial violence going unpunished, so people come here from all over Europe to hold neo-Nazi meetings because they know they cam,” Alberts says.

She says that part of the problem lies in racist statements openly made by public officials. Former Deputy Prime Minister and Christian Democrat Party leader Jiri Cunek, for instance, made a derogatory remark in response to how people could receive subsidies similar to those awarded to the Roma: “For this they would have to get sun burnt (referring to Roma skin color), raise a ruckus with their family and build fires on town squares. Only then some politicians would say – they are really needy people.”

The fact that Cunek’s statements were tolerated – he never apoligized – sends a message to the rest of the Czech population.

“We are accepting people on government who are clearly racist,” says Alberts.

A Question of Identity

The changes in the Neo Nazi movement are not a uniquely Czech phenomenon. Other European countries, such as Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary and Poland – not to mention former East Germany – are experiencing similar developments.

Part od the problem is the fear of globalization, says Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international organization aimed at confronting anti -Semitism, hate and terrorism. “With globalization, there is a loss of national identity. Traditional likek is threatened and everything is becoming homogenized,” he told TNP..

Amidst a flood of external influences, such as the transition to a market economy (which is no open to competition from all over Europe), a surge in tourism and foreign investment, and a not-so-welcome inclusion in the European Union, Czechs are trying to forge a new national identity to sustain them in this rapidly changing world.

Neo Nazis as well as extreme nationalist groups are exploiting the Czech strugle to develop a collective identity in the midst of overwhelmigng global forces, Weitzman said.

“After fifty years of communism, without any mention of ethnic conflicts because the communists likes to pretend they didn’t exist, the Czechs are being thrown into a multi-cultural environment,” says Alberts. “We are facing a new era without coming to terms with the past.”

President Vaclav Klaus once said he feared the Czech Republic would dissapear into Europe like a spoon of sugar into coffee. This frightening image feeds the Czech’s fear of losing whatever makes the nation uniquely theirs, and the extreme right wing movements including the Neo Nazis, who are extremely anti-EU, are capitalizing on this fear.

A Gap in the Textbooks

Many insiders say that a lack of education on the Holocaust and on minority issues in schools gives the Neo Nazi movement a way in to society.

“I think that most of the Neo Nazi marchers have no idea what went on,” says Eva Sixtova, Chairman of the Plzen Jewish Community. “If they can say that there was no Holocaust, it means they are terribly uninformed. Most Holocaust survivors are quite old and they don’t pass on their experience to the young generation.”

Karel Sedlacek, spokesman for the Internation Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), an organization dedicated to resisting anti-Semitism in the world, points out that teaching about the Holocaust is not part of the mandatory curriculum in schools. Therefore, his organization is training a network of volunteers to give blocks of instruction about the Holocaust to students. Often, they are accompanied by Holocaust survivors.

“Nothing is more convincing than seeing someon who live through the Holocaust sitting in fron of you and hearing him talk about it,” Sedlacek says.

Alberts adds that young people are not receiving clear messages against racism from the government or from the education system, and the cultures of ethnic communities like the Roma are largely misunderstood.

Empty Goals

There are those who think youth are attracted to the Neo Nazis cause because it gives them a sense of importance at a time of life when self-esteem tends to run low. “Youg people find fulfillment in the movement at a time when tey can’t get in anywhere else,” say the Czech Republic’s foremost expert on right-wing extremism Miroslav Mares. “At the age of 13 or 14, they come into contacts with older Neo Nazis who tell them, ‘Look you’re nothing, but if you join us, te elite of the white race, then you’ll be elite too – you don’t even ahve to be all that clever. All you need to do is read our brochures’… The movement offers the young memebers a new reality – and they adopt its program as their own, and start believing they have to ‘fight’ for it.”

Sedlacek adds that a lack of strong values in society makes youth easy prey for extremist groups.

“The absence of fundamental values makes young people search for a source of strength to give them a sense of importance and a goal. They are looking for orientation, they want to be part of a group, and they want order, a leader, a direction and an enemy.”

According to 87-year-old Oldrich Stransky, a Jew who saw the inside of concentration camps in Terezin, Birkenau, Schwarzheide and Sachsenhausen, it is precisely the feeling of stregnth through discipline which attracts memebers to Neo Nazi movements.

“Many young people actually like to belong to disciplined gourps. That’s why they like summer camps, or Sokol, or the Boy Scouts,” he told TNP. “But it is also very easy for power humgry individuals to misuse their idealism for their own purposes.”

Below are a couple of my essays. Topics range from Latino studies to politics and media coverage analysis. Scroll down until you like what you see. Enjoy!

The Republican Horse Race - November 4, 2007

The Republican Presidential aspirants have finally settled at nine. Wait – make that eight, the largely unpopular and ignored Sam Brownback has officially dropped out. In a major race to decide the Republican nominee, there is no front-runner. There are four. Now add an actor, a Mormon and a Mike Huckabee. Clearly anything goes in this Republican primary.

October 9th and October 21st marked the most recent Republican primary debates. Most of the post-debate coverage by the press followed the wires, regurgitating the same quotes and story angles. As Timothy Crouse wrote in his 1972 revelation of campaign journalism, The Boys on the Bus, “campaign journalism, is, by definition, pack journalism. ” Just like the reporters from the 1972 Nixon campaign, most wires and dailies today are taking information at face value. For the most part, the press has failed to address the lack of substance and original policies behind the main contenders. What the country needs is not an extreme conservative or a candidate whose economic ideas consist of general policies of “lowering taxes.” However, some publications such as The Washington Post, Newsweek and Time Magazine are providing thorough and often insightful pieces. So while campaign journalism essentially remains the same as in 1972, more publications are trying to escape the imitative effects of the pack.

October 9, 2007 – Economic issues soared as the theme of the night as Fred Thompson made his debut in the sixth Republican primary debate hosted in Michigan. While both The Associated Press and Reuters reported on Thompson’s adequate performance, The AP highlighted some of Thompson’s stumbles compared with the other candidates. The AP however, was not alone in isolating and belittling Thompson. Headlines from The New York Times spotlighted Thompson’s novelty. They read, “Romney and Giuliani Spar as New Guy Looks On, ” “Calvin Coolidge Redux, ” “In Debate Reviews, Thompson Survives. ” Crouse addresses this point in his book, “the press likes to demonstrate its power by destroying lightweights, and pack journalism is never more doughty and complacent than when the pack has tacitly agreed that a candidate is a joke. ” In the same way the press constantly mocked George Romney in the1972 campaign, Fred Thompson has now become more of a spectacle than a candidate.

The coverage of Fred Thompson becomes more critical and aggressive from the progression of wires to dailies to weeklies. The New York Times continues to expand on his mistakes calling him “ill prepared, uninterested and lazy. ” Time Magazine’s article, “Did Fred Thompson Prove Himself?” by James Carney furthers the Times critique, yet provides some contextual analysis and valid thought . Crouse says, “By reporting a man’s political strengths, they made him a front runner; by mentioning his weaknesses and liabilities, they cut him down. ” While the Times did not produce any fresh print, Time Magazine went beyond simply reporting what they saw and heard. They describe Thompson’s policies and what he needs to do to “convince primary voters he’s their man. ” A weekly publication has more time to analyze and investigate compared to a daily. Yet The Washington Post, as opposed to the Times produces what George Orwell would call, “a fresh turn of speech. ”

The Washington Post establishes independence from the rest of the pack. Similar to Sarah McClendon, mentioned in The Boys on the Bus, who wrote the “toughest pieces on the 1972 Nixon campaign, ” The Washington Post truly exemplifies original reporting. McClendon “developed an uncompromising detachment” and a “bold independence of thought ” from her fellow pack of male correspondents. She was able to break away from the pack and report not just objectively, but honestly. Journalists Tom Kovach and Bill Rosenstiel describe objectivity as “the sorting out process ” to provide a functional truth. This approach at truth, they argue, “ is ultimately what sets journalism apart from all other forms of communication. ” The Washington Post does not just regurgitate the wires but rather provides a well-argued piece that highlights the lack of real substance in the debates. The article, “Two Hours, Nine Candidates, and Almost Nothing New” by Steven Pearlstein says, “the leading Republican candidates aren’t serious about economic issues. ” Instead of taking the candidates’ speeches at face value, Pearlstein delves deeper to explore the truth behind the fact. In a way he separates himself from the pack of reporters, trying to place the debate into the larger scope of politics.

October 21, 2007 – FOX News hosted the seventh Republican primary debate in Orlando, Florida. This debate was one candidate short after Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas dropped out. The pack portrayed the debate as the most aggressive one to date, as candidates bickered about which of them was the most conservative. The AP quoted Giuliani saying, “Thompson was the single biggest obstacle to tort reform in the U.S Senate. ” The same quote appeared in the Times and the Post, along with other reports similar to those released by the AP. Crouse describes this assimilating effect of pack journalism he writes, “they began to believe the same rumors, subscribe to the same theories, and write the same stories. ” Thirty years later, these pressures still remain. Journalists traveling in a pack cannot help but influence each other and produce similar reports. And journalists traveling with wire reporters cannot help but follow their lead.

The AP and Reuters’s debate coverage primarily focused on the spew between Giuliani and Romney. Again, Thompson served as the humorous antidote, as he was constantly undermined. Because the wires did not spotlight the other candidates, the rest of the “herd” followed suit. Yet Newsweek broke ranks, choosing to spotlight an often-marginalized candidate, Mike Huckabee. Jonathan Alter in “The GOP’s Best Bet” explains Huckabee’s potential to clinch the 2008 Presidential election if elected as the Republican nominee. Huckabee, he explains, is, “more believable than Romney more intelligent than Thompson and fresher than McCain. ” Here’s a publication that has gone beyond just taking the candidates at face value. Newsweek has shed light on a forgotten candidate, in a way adhered to Kovach and Rosenstiel’s principle of giving voice to the voiceless.

Crouse’s 1972 claim that campaign journalism is pack journalism still holds true. The wires remain a constant source of reference and imitation for other reporters. Yet weekly publications provide provocative pieces with new interpretations. They analyze events within a framed context as opposed to the dailies that provide up-to-the-minute news. Simultaneously, some dailies also manage to evoke fresh takes on the campaign, clearly deviating from the pack. The complexities within pack journalism signal that the basic structure of pack journalism remains the same as that in 1972. Crouse’s description of the pack is right on, “they [journalists] often work as a herd when they should act as individuals, and they claim their right to perform as individuals when they should close ranks and act as a group. ”

The 2008 Republican primary election will prove whether or not the press’s judgment of the “front-runners” is accurate. Although with four front-runners, chances of accuracy run pretty high – unless Mike Huckabee manages to sneak past the press. Let’s just hope the pack revs up their gear and uncovers what’s really behind these candidates. America does not want another Nixon to slip under the radar. **

Teenage Rebellion - Extremist Style

On Saturday, March 1st, 2008 two hundred neo-Nazis took to the streets in the town of Plzen. They marched in the name of freedom of speech in order to legitimize their cause. The march was scheduled to begin at 2pm in the bus terminal.

Water cannons, armored combat cars and rows of riot police rolled into position, lining the sides of the main street. Hundreds of local citizens and young anarchists anxiously waited behind police insulation, ready to protest.

Muzzled police dogs began barking as enforcement vans came down the street in endless succession. It was faint, but growing louder. People began to stir, tensions began to escalate as the chant became louder and the bare skin of their heads became visible. “The totalitarian state will not let us sleep!” The neo-Nazis had arrived.

The march in Plzen is indicative of recent changes within the neo-Nazi movement. The movement is growing bolder and smarter; generating mass appeal among the youth and perverting a once working class subculture into a source of elitism and racism.

Racist Roots?

The neo-Nazi movement has taken on a new face, combining its fascist ideology with skinhead subculture. Both the neo-Nazi and skinhead movements are generating mass appeal among the youth. Though skinheads are a marginal element of society, their association and even adoption by the neo-Nazis is forcing a once fringe group to the forefront, questioning its ideals and origins.

What began as a mere celebration of white working class youths quickly became a source of racism and xenophobia. The neo-Nazi seepage from Germany combined with the imported skinhead culture has transformed into a social movement against homosexuals, drug addicts, anarchists, Roma and immigrant community.

The skinhead subculture originated in England among white, working-class teens. Their inability to afford the lifestyles of the upper class brought them together over ska, reggae and black soul music. Their shaved heads symbolized a clean, presentable outlook – one that took pride in being working class. Early skinheads were characterized as hooligans and were known to cause violent skirmishes. Initially, the violence was geared towards fellow skinheads, police or other subcultures. It was not until the 1980s that racism and xenophobia entered the skinhead scene, targeting minorities and the Roma population.

Exposed and influenced by skinheads in his teens, 27-year-old Charles University student Pavol Kutaj explained, “skinheads used to be futbol, beer and fun at the beginning [but now] they can be racist.”

Teenage Angst or Cause for Concern?

The neo-Nazi leaders are molding the minds of their young members. Prior to the march around Plzen, Tomas Vandas, a speaker from the Workers Party said to a cheering crowd of neo-Nazi skins, “I just see people with a sense of nation – no one else.” Despite having earlier discussed the need to “assimilate sexual deviants.”

But what draws wandering teens into the grip of these extremist movements? Why do these movements prove such a temptation to the youth?

“Its based on violent appeal to people who are somehow hurt,” explains Pavol. As a teen skinheads were very real to him, he was part of the anti skinhead movement and often the victim of threats and violence. “The relationships are very intense, based on trust,” he said, “they have a common enemy.” The idea of belonging to a group and finding an identity as a young struggling teen proves very appealing.

Mayor of Plzen Roedl said, “Young people are always radical. It’s radicalism that attracts them. A person stops being radical when life kicks him around a bit. Until they getexperiences and get smacked down a few times it’s very easy to be radical.”

The mayor sees these extremist groups as a place to express teen angst and rebellion. But then again what does that say about society in general? Being a skinhead is a teen thing and eventually they will get over it? What kind of society will allow their youth to express themselves and find belonging in radicalism?

Karel Sedlacek, spokesman for ICEJ, a Christian organization dedicated to resisting anti-Semitism said “the lack of fundamental values in society leads them to look for another uniting force to give them a sense of purpose and importance. They want order, a leader, a direction and an enemy.”

The idea of a “common enemy” allows the youth to channel their emotions and resentments into one entity, and whether that entity is an ethnic group or something different, extremist ideology helps legitimize their anger and passion.

At the same time, the concept of having someone to hate, in a way elevates these teens into a level of superiority that they could otherwise not have achieved. Neo-Nazi expert Miroslav Mares said being a part of extremist groups allows teens to “realize their own ambitions” and become a part of “a self-declared elite.”

The lack of education and the immature mentality of teenagers make them easy prey for recruitment into the neo-Nazi skinhead movement. At the same time, party leaders reach out to young people in an attempt to gather support for party politics. “They have to get into the consciousness of the public, especially the young people,” said Mares.

Conflicting Ideology

Yet the neo-Nazi promise of superiority and elite status is often at odds with teen rebellion. Mares explains that the youth “tell themselves they are the elite but then they start committing acts of violence.” The leaders “tell them they’re being aggressive in the streets and that they’re an embarrassment to the movement.”

Therein lies the contradiction: neo-Nazis recruits young skinheads for political purposes and skinheads are drawn to the lure of potential power through protests and demonstrations such as the Plzen march.

Original skinheads claim that associating with the neo-Nazis is “a bastardization of the original racially-mixed skinhead movement.” A skinhead website dedicated to calling their members back to their original non-racist roots attributes the neo-Nazi infusion to economic problems, saying minorities were “easy scapegoats” for problems such as unemployment and recession.

According to Pavol Kutaj, some “skinheads don’t like neo-Nazi, because they are turning their aesthetics into something political.”

The neo-Nazi movement has become a global force. The complexities and convergences of the skinhead and neo-Nazi movement have led to the development of different groups within the skinhead subculture. European groups such as the SHARPS (skinheads against racial prejudice) and Blood and Honor (a racist neo-Nazi group) have created a melting pot of extremist youth subcultures.

Present at the Plzen march, were primarily young neo-Nazis. These extremists were sporting the new skinhead look: shaved heads, black ski masks, hoods and scarves – a similar appearance to the anarchists.

Gone Like the Wind

Deep chants and shaved heads bobbed down the main street as the neo-Nazis marched in Plzen. Anarchists rushed the barricades. The heavy police insulation held them back.

Escorted by horsemen, the neo-Nazis, were nearly impossible to see, their bald heads the only thing visible in the crowd. “Shame!” yelled the citizens in front of the synagogue. “We’re here legally!” responded the neo-Nazis, waving their middle fingers in the air. It was a five-minute exchange of jeers, whistles and floating middle fingers. Then it was all over.

The neo-Nazis marched toward the town center and were escorted back to the bus terminal, dispatched as quickly as they had come.

While the numbers may be low and the culture rendered marginal, these extremist groups are indicative of the underlying social unrest that plague the youth of this country. For Pavol, “skinheads are not too much of a concern, it was in my teens. Maybe I am too removed from it.”

Yet the scene of angry, bald neo-Nazi skinheads flicking off the entire city of Plzen does not seem like a reasonable form of teenage rebellion. **

"Into the Dustbin"

George Orwell would be ashamed of political writers’ failure to kick their imitative habits “into the dustbin, where [they] belong.”

Orwell’s 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language,” scorns inflated and vague political writing critiquing “this reduced state of consciousness… favorable to political conformity.” This claim remains true, apparent in the lack of thoughtful precision of recent immigration articles. Orwell argues the need for “concreteness,” “clarity of thought” and simplification. Through clear and useful language, writers can uphold journalists Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s principle to serve as a government watchdog and give “voice to the voiceless.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Richard Alba in “Demographics and the Golden Door” and Washington Times contributor Frederick Grab in “Imagine, America, What Open Borders Would Do” address immigration from an elitist viewpoint, failing to provide immigrants with a voice. Grab falls into the habit of using preconceived phrases. Describing, for instance, immigrant America having “severe air pollution, beggars and cardboard shanty towns,” phrases that evoke predetermined notions of the Third World. Alba reduces immigrants to an investment venture using “ready-made phrases” like “recruitment” “human capital” and “credentials.” He argues that immigrants can yield economic benefits for the United States if they are educated in their own countries. Alba’s careless business jargon dehumanizes the immigrants.

Both pieces highlight the decaying relationship between language and thought. Orwell recognizes the circular process: degradation of language leads to degradation of thought which in turn circles back to a degrading use of language. Thought can be seen as a foreign language whose subtle details are lost in translation.

Habit obstructs the process of translating thought to language – “words and meaning have almost parted company.” When hurried or lazy writers choose words that do not reflect precise thought, their pre-fabricated phrases come with pre-fabricated ideas, concealing the intended meaning. Orwell cautions against habits that keep political writers from monitoring power. Alba and Grab do not uphold this principle instead assuming the role of a border coyote, weakening the watchdog role. They fail to provide new insights, hiding worn-out ideas underneath pretentiously abstract language.

Alba, for example, sews decorative lace obscuring his central argument. His “golden door” metaphor falls into what Orwell calls “staleness of imagery.” Alba also “dress[es] up simple statement[s],” saying, “this apparently unalloyed positive in fact is fraught with negative ramifications.” He knits an overly complex creation detracting from his extremist argument. Using pretentious diction such as “reducing racial cleavages,” he masks his belief that immigrants are a poor investment. He suggests we should instead “attract the cream of the talent from other countries” whose education of course, has “been paid for by their home societies.”

Grab’s article is similarly afflicted when he begins his piece questioning the cause of anti-immigrant sentiment yet never directly answers his own question. He indulges in contemporary music to parallel his nostalgia for his childhood America, constantly quoting Bruce Springsteen. Lost on his own tangent of musical metaphors, Grab falls into the trap of exhausted images, “main street’s whitewashed windows and vacant stores,” letting them take over his stream of thought. Grab is persuaded by lyrical generalizations of his thoughts, ending with the overused “change is inevitable” and with a sweet “it was still my America.” Grab’s imitative blandness proves Orwell’s critique that “the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”

Alba and Grab fail to adhere to Orwell’s admonitions, contributing to the decay of language and thought. Through their imprecise and vague diction, they fail to monitor power and give voice the immigrants.

Political writers have yet to make Orwell proud. They need to wake up from their mental slumbers and listen to Orwell. We need “fresh, vivid, homemade turn of speech,” clear and simple. **

"Editor-in-Chief: The Ghosts of Old"

Objectivity is non-existent. Fairness is debatable. The New York Times recently published a critique against our newspaper for failing to uphold core journalistic principles. This is an excerpt from the op-ed piece:

Time and again they have proved to reverse the progress of the journalistic profession. What happened to the goal of objectivity and informing the public above all else? Compare their paper on any given day to every other and you will find a great inconsistency in the stories covered. Guess that whole two-reporter-per-story deal leaves them short on reporters.

It’s 2033 New York Times, get with it. The lure of print media has shifted; glittering headlines don’t quite cut it anymore. Easy access to the Internet provides the public with the latest news updates. Let the online providers race to get it first. Print media no longer hungers for scoops.

We hunger for significance. The quality of our reporting far exceeds that of the Times. Don’t believe me? Check the circulation numbers, I believe our method seems to be working. The Times recently covered the recurrence of thefts in lower Manhattan, highlighting the criminality of the acts. We, on the other hand, in “Beyond the Violence of the Lower East Side” explored the implications of the robberies on the ever-changing reputation of the Lower East Side. Our articles are distinguishable for admirable reporting and relevance. We add meaning to the outpour of instant news.

“What happened to the goal of objectivity?” you ask? We nixed it. We believe in honesty and loyalty to the public. Our paper provides a viable means for readers to make sense of the world around them. The subtle nuances of our articles are indicative of original reporting. The legend on our license: This is what we know and understand.

The whole “two-reporter-per-story-deal” allows us to publish significant information. Two reporters are sent out for each story, to allow for thoroughness and accuracy. While one weaves the story, the other connects the loose pieces to attempt to find the truth about the fact. Take, for example, today’s lead, “Riots Reminisce of Times Lost.” The two reporters did a spectacular job of investigating the deeper causes and implications of the riots rather than simply framing it as a racial clash. In contrast, the other papers perpetuated stereotypical frameworks of black versus white. Though the public is more familiar with racist constructs, we challenged preconceived notions and dissected the conflict in more than two ways.

The strength of our pieces lies in the nuances of our reporting. Simplification threatens to overlook the subtle aspects that make an article admirable. The Times thinks our pieces are “hard to swallow” and are “not fit for a daily publication.” But the depth of our stories are not meant to confuse our readers. They are stories with a purpose. “Riots Reminisce of Times Lost” and “Beyond the Violence of the Lower East Side” for instance, are meant to serve the public need to know and understand the world. We invest meaning and thought in every story we cover to present our reader with significant and relevant information that allow them to self-govern. The sensationalist news common of the 21st century is no longer sufficient.

But for those nostalgic woes, you’re welcome to peruse our “Guilty Pleasures” page. We’ve opened Daniel Boorstin’s floodgates of pseudo-events. If you want to keep up with superficial cocktail talk, learn the latest media trivia. This provides an outlet for those unforgotten days of sensationalist journalism. Today’s main story: M&M is once again allowing their consumers to vote on their new candy color, and the Empire State Building will light up the color of the M&M winner. The line between honest news and ambiguous over-dramatized pseudo-events is clear: just turn to page A17 to get your daily dose of mindless worldly drama. Take a cursory glance at what has attempted to displace the foundational element of journalism of providing the public with truth -a truth that is an intrinsic component of our paper.

We approach this truth with honesty and transparency. Facts are checked and then double-checked. Mistakes are immediately corrected and published with direct references to the previous mistaken reports. When it comes to anonymous sources, we proceed with caution. Rules for anonymous sources are as follows: 1) Make sure their contributions are relevant and add to the story. 2) Be transparent: why should we believe the anonymous source? Name their authority and motivation for speaking. Basic rules help provide rough guidelines for our reporters.

The Times also finds our offices disturbing. “Their reporters are compressed like pack –rats into large chaotic clusters.” I agree with The Times, structure says a lot about content. The reporters in our newsrooms are concentrated in clusters, mixed in with editors. But during the deadline rush you realize the strategic architectural move: reporters, legal aids, and editors are allowed to feed their festering curiosity. Everything is overheard and everyone has a say.

The op-ed continues, “Now let’s talk about their management, or lack thereof. Editors seem to be mere figureheads, susceptible to the raging passions of the mass of reporters.” Reporters are subject to the editors’ edits, but the editors are subject to the voice of the reporters. Anything an editor chooses to omit can be overridden if at least a majority of reporters reach a consensus. It’s an effective way to keep editors in check and keep the paper intellectually diversified.

We believe not just in intellectual diversity but in cultural diversity. With our international exchange program, American journalists have the opportunity to work abroad in one of our 37 international sites. Reporters return with a new level of consciousness. After working in Peru, China or Turkey for instance, reporters gain new cultural sensitivities and incorporate that into their work. Conversely, foreign journalists work in the United States. Our reporters are not afraid to get the back-story from the poor, the marginalized, and minorities. Their experiences abroad contribute to their ability to relate and engage the voiceless. It helps bring out the muted stories and provide public awareness.
Now about the progression of journalism, who said progress was one-directional? We look back to project forward, resurrecting the basic journalistic principle of truth above all else. It’s 2033 and print media has to go beyond glittering headlines and beyond the binary of propaganda and pseudo-events. We have developed a new consciousness between oversimplification and synthetic complication. We are the paper for the young intellectual sipping his espresso at the corner café bistro. We are the paper for the liberal and conservative alike. We are the paper for Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians. We are about diversity.

The Times is right, we are moving in a different direction, but I don’t think its all that bad. Pull out your tattered dusty copy of The Elements of Journalism. Good old Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel knew what they were talking about, let’s resurrect the forgotten purpose of journalism and help make sense of the world around us.