IMMIGRANTS IN! ZUNDEL OUT!

CALL TO ACTION AGAINST HOLOCAUST DENIER ERNST ZUNDEL AND THE WHITE SUPREMACIST CANADIAN FAR-RIGHT

DATE: This Sunday, July 25th, 2004. MEET LOCATION: Kipling Subway Station, at the bus bay (organizers will be present around the vicinity of the subway station to direct participants to the meeting area). TIME: We will meet at 12:00 Noon, and roll out shortly thereafter. Don’t be late! DESTINATION: Metro West Detention Centre, 111 Disco Rd, Toronto.

Young Left (YL) and Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Toronto call upon all anti-fascists to mobilize on Sunday, July 25th, for direct opposition to the upcoming appeal being launched by German-born Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel in his bid for freedom from a possible deportation to his native Germany where he has been called to answer for charges relating to the promotion of hatred and the denial of the Holocaust. We will be taking a stand against neo-nazi organizations at the centre of the pro-Zundel campaign and moving to effectively shut down their projects on July 25th. At the present time white supremacist groups from across Canada have been rallying regularly in Toronto and Edmonton in support for the denial of the Holocaust which murdered six million Jews and large numbers of gays and lesbians, Communists, physically and mentally challenged persons, as well as many others living in marginalized communities. We stand firmly opposed to the attempts being made to re-write history in a pro-nazi fashion, which would in effect seek to destroy the memories of the millions who perished at the hands of the most brutal fascist regime the world has ever been victim to.

Ernst Zundel is originally from Germany, but Canada had the misfortune of receiving him in 1959 when he moved here. He quickly began working with Adrien Arcand, an avowed fascist who led pro-nazi movements throughout Canada up until the war, when he was imprisoned as a security risk. Zundel campaigned actively against Communists and the Jewish community in Montreal where he lived and studied, trying to paint a bizarre image of an international Communist / Zionist conspiracy. Zundel traveled extensively around the world and eventually translated his first Holocaust denial text, "Die Auschwitz-Luge" - "The Auschwitz Lie" by Thies Christophersen in the early 1970s. He went on to translate a similar publication by Austin App entitled "The Six-Million Swindle". At this point concerned Canadian officials turned down his request for citizenship. Eventually he founded his Holocaust denial publishing company, 'Samisdat Publishing', and produced the first Canadian edition of "Did Six Million Really Die?", a Holocaust-denial text authored by Richard Harwood. Fed up with Zundel's propagation of hate and lies, over 2,000 protesters converged on his house in the early 1980s in downtown Toronto in a militant demonstration calling for his arrest and deportation.

A decade later various trials were still ongoing involving Zundel's activities and the security risk he posed to Canada. Zundel was by then working actively with Canada's main white power organization, the Heritage Front, and had connections with the ultra-violent and anti-Semitic group called the World Church of the Creator (now known as the 'Creativity Movement&#39. Between 1994 and 1995 Zundel made his bumbling journey into online hatred when he started up his notorious 'Zundelsite'. During the increased legal controversy surrounding the site, protests still gathering thousands grew larger, lead heavily by ARA and an array of community solidarity and defence groups. Opposition culminated in May of 1995 when Zundel's bunker headquarters from where he ran Samisdat Publishing was firebombed while he was out of town. Years of continued court burdens went on, and Zundel finally left Canada for the United States. In the U.S., Zundel preached all the hatred he liked - until he recently missed an immigration hearing. At that point the U.S. government deported him for Canada (as it was the country from which he had arrived) where he was promptly arrested and is presently being held on a security certificate since he is considered a serious threat to Canadian society. If the Canadian government decides to deport Zundel to his native Germany as the German government has requested, he will face very serious charges relating to the denial of the Holocaust (he long arranged and participated in the importation of illegal hate literature to Germany from Canada).

Throughout this entire drama, white supremacist organizations across Canada have rallied in support of Zundel and his Holocaust denial. Those pulling the strings of the Canadian far-right are none other than long-time pains Paul Fromm (self-appointed director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression, Canadians for Foreign Aid Reform, and the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee) and his faithful goon Marc Lemire (webmaster of the Freedomsite and leader of the Heritage Front). Both are leaders in the Canadian neo-nazi movement and are widely-known for their work in defending Zundel and painting him as nothing more than an "oppressed pacifist" and an "artist and publisher" - titles which make no publicity of Zundel's fervent and rabid denial that millions of innocents were gassed, starved, and shot to death by the nazis in concentration camps during World War II.

Below is a little backgrounder into those heading the Zundel campaign in Ontario:

- Paul Fromm is a former Ontario school teacher who was dismissed from his job for associating with dangerous far-right white supremacist organizations - actions which clearly contradicted codes of ethics held by and for educators. Following repeated warnings to cease his involvement with racist groups, Fromm was eventually fired after giving a speech in front of a nazi flag at an event celebrating Adolf Hitler's birthday. He now heads the Canadian efforts to free Ernst Zundel. Championing Zundel's

cause by labelling it a "free speech" issue, Fromm the ego-maniac considers it to also be an opportunity to drum up membership in one of his hobby groups, the Canadian Association for Free Expression. Aside from appointing himself leader of three far-right groups, Fromm is a card carrying member of the neo-nazi Heritage Front organization. His main goals in life at the present moment are to unsuccessfully apply for unemployment insurance and to campaign against the rights of immigrants and refugees.

- Marc Lemire a former military reservist, the leader of the Heritage Front, and webmaster for Canada's most extensive online neo-nazi archive, the Freedomsite. Lemire is closely-linked to former Ku Klux Klan leaders David Duke and Don Black. He was unsuccessful in an attempt to smuggle a carload of copies of Duke's racist autobiography into Canada. At the present moment he is a co-accused in a Human Rights Complaint that charges him with subjecting identifiable groups to hatred and / or contempt contrary to section 13 (1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act. Amongst other things, Lemire's website was found to contain:

- Statements referring to blacks as "niggers", Asians as "chinks" and "gooks", Hispanics as "spicks" and "wetbacks", and a declaration that it is "open season on all Jews";

- Written desires that white colonizers should have killed all First Nations inhabitants that they encountered and that "all Indian heathens should be killed";

- Calls to "kill non-whites" as "God gave Canada to the white man", and specific threats of murder towards visible minorities in certain Toronto neighbourhoods;

- Incitement to "kill the French foreigners from Quebec" and the statement that "the only good French man is a dead French man";

- Large quantities of 'jokes' mocking the murder and torture of Jews in the Holocaust, and others targeting blacks, Hispanics, and members of the First Nations.

At least three pro-Zundel rallies have happened within the last half a year outside the Metro West Detention Centre in Toronto, none of which have seen significant opposition. Suit-and-tie neo-nazis like Fromm and Lemire have been quietly making substantial gains in Ontario, as have their associates in the western provinces, using fascist politics pleasantly disguised with buzzwords like "free speech", "equal rights for whites", "pacifist publisher", and "dissent" to push their white supremacist, anti-immigrant agenda, and to drum up ignorant support for Holocaust deniers such as Ernst Zundel.

We believe that to deny that the Holocaust took place is to open the floodgates of history and allow for some of the most horrendous atrocities ever to repeat themselves. ARA Toronto and the Young Left refuse to debate with fascists on the grounds that engaging in debate on such a topic - or in general with neo-nazis - automatically gives their views the appearance of possibly having logic as they are being considered as potentially correct. To debate whether or not the Holocaust (one of the most detailed and recorded mass killings in the history of the world) took place is to give validity to the suggestion that it may not have taken place. Debating with fascists gives their hate-filled, genocidal views legitimacy in the public eye as being "another side of the coin", so to speak. This is the highest and most dangerous disrespect to those who suffered and died at the hands of fascists in nazi-run concentration camps and ghetto communities.

Holocaust denial (or "revisionism" as neo-nazis call it) is one of the more sugar-coated approaches used by fascists to establish a far-right political and social system in Canada. The bloody legacy left by the nazis on history will forever haunt those who seek to rebuild the racist, xenophobic empire established in Germany during World War II. As the overwhelming majority of the world is opposed to genocide, neo-nazis have sought to deny rather than explain the actions of the fascists who came before them - a perfect recipe in preparation for said atrocities to occur again. Fully incorporated into this scheme are accompanying 'causes' that they fight for, including "equal rights for whites" (the maintenance of a white supremacist class system) and "free speech" (the 'right' for them to rally against individuals and groups by targeting visible minorities, immigrants, and other marginalized communities).

The safety and security of our communities depends on us taking a strong and determined stand against the likes of Fromm and Lemire, and their white power poster boy Zundel. Increases in hate-motivated attacks and intimidation are not coincidental, mysterious social oddities. They are directly linked to surges in racist, far-right organizing and recruitment which invest an undue sense of power and authority into neo-nazi thugs to terrorize immigrants, gays and lesbians, people of colour, and leftists. Fromm and Lemire are at the centre of the entire pro-Zundel effort, and are attempting to give credit to their fascist agenda through warping the issue of "free speech" into something used to defend those who incite hatred and racism in our communities.

The people of Canada, Quebec, and the First Nations have had enough! We will not tolerate neo-nazis organizing in our communities under their guise of "free speech". Holocaust denial, fascist activity, and an intimidation of immigrant communities is not welcome in the Greater Toronto Area or anywhere else! While we support measures to extradite Zundel to Germany where he should be put on trial, we realize that the moves being taken to deport him to Germany are not the free-will of the Canadian state, but rather ones results of decades of street-based community mobilization protests against Zundel and his propagation of Holocaust denial material.

We will not rely on the federal government to enact sufficient changes systemically to combat racism. It is - and has historically been - an inherently white supremacist entity in and of itself since colonization. In fact, the security certificate legislation currently being used to hold Zundel has traditionally been used to wrongly detain and deport Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants and refugees on groundless "terror" charges that stem from the widespread anti-Muslim hysteria now wreaking havoc across Islamic communities in the west. Strong efforts of anti-fascists have only now brought about this uncommon proper application of the certificate to someone who deserves it, and this rare legal victory should not be considered in any measure as justification of the security certificate, but rather as evidence of the power of the people united in a mission to combat white supremacy and Holocaust denial.

We call upon all people to rally in opposition and defiance against not only Ernst Zundel, but especially against neo-nazis Paul Fromm and Marc Lemire, and their public propagation of hate against non-white immigrants and refugees, Jewish persons, and leftists. Join us in direct opposition against the centre of the Canadian neo-nazi movement and pro-Zundel campaign. United and militantly we stand in saying "¡No pasaran!" They shall not pass! On Sunday, July 25th, we fight back for a safe, diverse, nazi-free Toronto!

DATE: This Sunday, July 25th, 2004. MEET LOCATION: Kipling Subway Station, at the bus bay (organizers will be present around the vicinity of the subway station to direct participants to the meeting area). TIME: We will meet at 12:00 Noon, and roll out shortly thereafter. Don’t be late! DESTINATION: Metro West Detention Centre, 111 Disco Rd, Toronto.

For additional information, questions, or media inquires please feel free to contact YL and ARA Toronto at these addresses:

[email protected] [email protected]

Brought to you by: Young Left (YL) and Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Toronto.

Endorsed by the Coalition Against War and Racism and Socialist Alternative.

http://www.antiracistaction.ca

http://www.rebelyouth.ca

http://www.socialistalternative.ca