Re: Southern Poverty Law Center on U.S. Radical Right and Globalization

Jeffrey L. Beatty wrote:

>[Apologies for multiple posting]
>
>This article is from the Winter 2000 issue of _Intelligence Report_, 
>a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center (note that it is 
>copyright material--be careful about reposting it).  For those 
>unfamiliar with it, the Center serves as a watchdog monitoring the 
>extreme right in the United States.  Klanwatch is its most familiar 
>program.  It also monitors right-wing militias, neo-Nazis, and 
>similar racist hate groups.  This issue of _Intelligence Report_ 
>available online at 
>http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-index.html
>
>Think of this as, uh, "another take" on Seattle and the emerging 
>"anti-globalization" movement.  I submit it just in case list 
>members need something to depress them.
>
>I might add that the convergence between radical left and radical 
>right is something that some social scientists have anticipated for 
>some time.  See Mats Friberg and Bjorn Hettne,  "Local mobilization 
>and world system politics."
>International Social Science Journal 40 (August 1988): 341-60
>
>Some list members may find some of the rhetoric in the following 
>offensive.  If so, let me apologize for those quoted, the Center, 
>and myself.  I'm sure list members realize my only purpose is to 
>inform.


This is pretty demented stuff. Racist antiglobalizers were invisible 
in Seattle - I was there for 6 days and spent a lot of time walking 
around & watching & talking to people - as it was in DC for A16/17. 
The SPLC thrives on scaring liberals with tales of imminent Nazi 
takeover - it has a fund of something like $100 million, which it 
hardly spends on anything but more fundraising. (The newsletter 
Counterpunch <http://www.counterpunch.org> has done a fine job of 
exposing this over the last few years.) Yes there are rightwing 
antiglobalizers, but they have no role in the movement I've been 
watching develop. Discard this as devious, destructive nonsense.
-- 

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
Village Station - PO Box 953
New York NY 10014-0704 USA
+1-212-741-9852 voice  +1-212-807-9152 fax
email: <mailto:dhenwood@panix.com>
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