http://www.antiracistaction.us/pn/

ARA originally came out of the efforts of Minneapolis anti-racist Skinheads to create an organization that could combat the presence of nazi skinheads in that city and its neighboring city, St. Paul. The Baldies, a multi-racial skinhead crew having members of Black, White, Asian, and Native American origins, was fighting the Nazi skinhead group, the White Knights, and had set a code within the local punk and skinhead scenes: if Baldies came upon White Knights at shows, in the streets downtown, or wherever, the nazis were warned once. If Baldies came across the nazis again, then the nazis could expect to be attacked, or served some of what the Baldies called "Righteous Violence."

While the Baldies actions went a long way to limiting the presence and organizing efforts of nazis in the Twin Cities areas, the Baldies realized that a successful drive against the nazis would mean having to form a broader group that appealed to kids other than just Skins. ARA was that group. However, the attempt to make ARA into a group beyond the Baldies was met with limited success, and ARA remained predominantly skinhead.

The experience of the Baldies was not limited to Minneapolis alone. Across the Midwest, nazi activity was growing and anti-racist Skinheads were organizing in similar ways to what the Baldies had done. Soon, these different anti-racist skinhead crews were meeting up with each other and deciding to create a united organization of anti-racist skinhead crews. ARA as a name was adopted and a brief network of the crews was formed: the Syndicate.

Like Minneapolis, Chicago had multi-racial crews. These ARA skins were generally left-wing sympathetic and in Chicago it was not uncommon to find some Skins warm to Black liberation/Nationalist ideas. And it was not just racist and nazi ideas that were confronted. The Chicago ARA crew banned the wearing of American flags patches on jackets. At this point in time this was a rather significant step in Skinhead circles. While many Skinheads could claim to be "anti-racist", a vast majority also were ProAmS (Pro American Skins). It was generally unheard of to find whole crews of Skinheads rejecting patriotic trappings. Taking their cue from the words of groups like Public Enemy, for many ARA Skins, America was a racist nightmare and the Stars and Stripes a symbol for "a land that never gave a damn."

Up in Canada, anti-racist skinheads and others in the youth subcultures were also uniting to get nazis out of their scenes. From 1990 to 1992 in Edmonton, the Anti-Fascist League waged a street-level propaganda war against a racist gang called the Final Solution, who were recruited and manipulated by the Aryan Nations. In Winnipeg, the United Against Racism crew fought to keep the bars and streets free of fascist violence. And in 1992, Toronto's Anti-Racist Action formed to take on a similar threat posed by the neo-nazi Heritage Front.

Toronto's ARA was inspired especially by the Minneapolis chapter, where anarchists and feminists had tried to broaden the mandate of the early skinhead fighting crews. From the jump, ARA Toronto included several activists with lots of experience in feminist, anarchist and First Nations solidarity groups.

In 1994 ARA Toronto attended the first conference of the Midwest Anti-Fascist Network in Columbus, Ohio. The conference was called by Columbus' ARA group, to co-ordinate and sustain the constant protests against Klan rallies throughout the Midwestern U.S. -- rallies which were often protected by legions of heavily armed police. Most conference goers were high-school students, punks, kids who fought with their schools over dress codes and the right to distribute political literature. Several veterans of the early ARA crews of Chicago and Minneapolis drove in for the gathering even though their own groups were pretty inactive.

This was not a government-funded, corporate-sponsored conference. The keynote speaker was a survivor of the "Greensboro Massacre" of 1979, when a Klan cell linked to the Aryan Nations and heavily infiltrated by police and FBI, shot and killed five anti-Klan protestors in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Like the subcultures that were the social base for this particular anti-racist movement, the gathering was predominately white, although people of colour of all ages played important roles. Women and girls were outnumbered but vocal. The dominant political tendency was anarchist, but there was a commitment to non-sectarianism and small groups of Trotskyists were also involved. Some of the key older organizers had a long history of work, dating back to Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s.

The ARA Network grew like crazy for several years. Annual gatherings drew hundreds of people, new groups were forming all over Canada and the US. In 2003, the growth spurt has ended. The anti-globalization movement became the next "new thing" and many kidz who wanted to get into activism were more turned on by Seattle, Washington and Quebec City than in confronting some loser boneheads. Now, with US aggression sparking the biggest anti-war movement in world history, anti-racist and anti-fascist activists have to look to ourselves again - how are we relevant to what's going on today?

But ARA has kept with the program and we're into something more slow and steady. There are dozens of committed and experienced ARA organizers across North America and several strong chapters with a lot of history. ARA is still fighting the fash at Klan rallies and white power shows all over North America. We're defending women's right to abortion services, we're protesting police brutality, we're writing to prisoners and standing up for First Nations and immigrant rights. We've represented in all kinds of anti-capitalist demos, and in the anti-war movement. In lots of places, ARA has become part of youth subculture, something taken for granted like punk or hiphop. And we're learning more about how we fit into a world of social movements and struggles as ARA puts down roots in South and Central America.

For 14 years ARA has been able to popularize the ideas of direct action in the fight against racism. It's also been an arena for debate and action around the connectedness of various forms of oppression. As we ACT we become CONSCIOUS, and our consciousness flows into our action. And all this outside of the control of the government, multinationals, religious institutions or other authorities.

Taken from ARA Toronto's awesome newszine, On The Prowl

source




Welcome to the Eastside Baltimore ARA: Together and Equal's web page.



This chapter of the ARA was founded in late November/early December 1997 in response to a KKK rally, KKK literature, and a general feeling of racial disharmony. The ARA has three principles of unity: 1) Fight against racism, sexism, homophobia, imperialism, and other forms of oppresion. 2) No reliance on the cops or the courts. 3) Non-sectarian defense of arrested anti-fascist activists. 4) Same time, same place direct action against fascist mobilizations.
We can be contacted through snail mail at:
Eastside Baltimore ARA
PO Box 4043
Baltimore, MD 21222-0043

For more information, Email us at EastBalARA@aol.com
Here are some more ARA sites for more in-depth info, etc:
AntiRacistAction Network
anti-racistaction
Anti-RacistAction, Columbus, Ohio Homepage
ARANET Network Homepage
And for you Canadians out there...ARA Montreal

The Eastside Baltimore ARA's snail mail address is:
Eastside Baltimore ARA
PO Box 4043
Baltimore, MD 21222-0043

Last Updated: 12/15/98

Coming Soon to this page:
-Upcoming Events
-More Links to other ARA sites nationwide

Cranked Up - "A Call For Solidarity"source
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Cranked Up hail from Philadelphia and features members of Violent Society, 2.5 Children, Bomb Squadron and Dead Empty. "A Call For Solidarity" is the band's first full-length release and blends raw & catchy '77 style Punk Rock with anthemic Oi! and traditional Rock'n'Roll elements. 14 soaring anthems of powerful, straight-forward Streetpunk with some great street-level lyrics to boot, similar in style to bands like Bonecrusher, Anti-Heros and The Boils. Working class skinheads and suburban punks alike will be singing along to these rockin' tunes. Superb album from a band that can sing, write and play!!
Tracklisting:
1 All Fucked Up
2 Emotionally Challenged
3 Guilty
4 Left Wing Scum
5 Jaded
6 Follow The Trail
7 Under Their Control
8 Don't Need Your Culture
9 Swindled
10 New Regime
11 Where You Stand?
12 Make Me Sick 13 On The Attack 14 They're Back Again (The Cigarettes)

*bump*

how come everytime i get on jury duty, there's a young african american man in the defendants chair. man that is so depressing.

why couldn't i get called up for lindsay or nicole's trial?!!

it's slavery baby.
inculcated,
conditioned
institutionalized.

most people don't see the set up for what it is, and get sucked in.

so much for sucker-free countdowns, natch...

what I learned?

there's a stupid thread today where some sneering racist post punk dipshit
wanted to be snarky so they called it nigger and then

framed it in the form of a question. bet they feel real fucking smart.


but that's how it is. every ethnic group has been enslaved
but in America they built the nation on the backs of slaves and the momentum of genocide. america is fucked up over and out because they try, try, try to make people PROUD of that shameful history. and it is still going on. americans who happen to be african have not really recovered from what is going on. instead, people say stupid shit like 'don't be politically correct.' like only stupid people WANT to be incorrect about something as important as politics - and if you think that means there are a lot of stupid americans, you are half right.


racism creates an emotional retardation.

in that emotional retardation zone, people learn to lie to themselves about what is fair and what is unfair, and it creates people who are fucked up and yet who lurch robotically like zombies with fucked up opinions like "all women are whores and deserve to be slapped by men. shuts 'em up."

that statement is racist against women. to which the stupid racist says that women are not a race. women are human beings -- and how fucked up it is drives people insane -- or the sort of functionally dysfunctional that i am terming emotionally retarded.

The A. R. A. internationally was a part of punk-rock before it got coopted by corporate mentalities, 120 minutes and pop. that is why i cling to it. uncool people say it is uncool, and then go on to say racist, sexist homophobic things without thinking it through.

back then we knew that Reagan was all of the solution and none of the problem. Now his retarded monkey Bonzo rules the planet. we talked about it.

California Uberalles,
Anarchy in the U. K,
all sorts of tunes. "a golden shower of hits."

so gimme more red dots. but FUCK YOU, RICH NERD GIRL.
fuck you in the HEART where it MATTERS and is NEEDED MOST.

from when it made a difference.

hey,

better brush those choppers,
mighty whitey

the majority of crimes are committed by young black men.

are you depressed because you think that this is not truly the case, but we are always presented with this as the outcome.

or are you depressed because this scenario repeats itself over and over, ad nauseum?

i think we should tell young black men to stop committing crimes.

satisfaction.

the trick is not taking any statements about race
made by someone calling themselves "luftwaffe" seriously. seek help.

Simple solution.... More white girls that look like Nicole or lindsay need to commit more crimes and get caught more...

Psst. 90% of the time if you look like Nicole and a Cop arrests you he will instead take you to a private place and if the cop ends up with a smile he will let you go...

Think about it 99% of all the women that actually get arrested and make it to the slammer do not look pretty....

Which brings up another question...

Why do they call jail "The Slammer"? Is it because the doors get constantly slammed?

i think that is why they call it the slammer.

and yeah:
the situation with race and gender is pretty much the same imbalance.

hate to be all serious about it
but not 'cause it aint the truth.

that's what they call 'being politically correct.'

in such cases being politically correct = not bullshitting oneself and others about what is fair and what is bullshit and domination.

ARA had its start being against
racism, sexism AND homophobia
because in the eighties the stance against tyranny was unified,
people had not yet been tricked into compromising their beliefs
in fear of being labelled "politically correct" -- that happened in the late eighties, early nineties. sure as fuck happened, though.


We have often been told that a just and peaceful society is merely a utopia-an impossible dream. We are taught religious dogmas of "original sin" and their secular updates in socio-biological theories about "selfish genes." Not coincidentally, in both cases, these notions are embedded in stories about how male dominance is either divinely or scientifically ordained.

We are also taught that Western civilization begins with brutally male-dominant and highly warlike societies and that if there was anything before patriarchy in our prehistory it was so primitive as to be unworthy of serious alienation. For example, we have been told that European civilization begins with the Indo-European invasions - with a way of structuring society in which women and anything associated with the "feminine" is held in contempt and relegated to a subordinate and subservient position.

Indeed, history as conventionally written has been literally the story of men, with only an occasional mention of "their" women. But if we re-examine our past taking into account the whole of our history, including prehistory, drawing from a database that includes the whole of humanity--both its female and male halves-a very different picture emerges.
Riane Eisler

http://kittyradio.com/soapbox/writte...ne-eisler.html

it strikes me
that learning about the dominator model of consciousness
and its centuries of terror acts against women
could lead people to breakthroughs in consciousness.

it's not DIRECTLY punk rock,
but jello is an old man.

once upon a time, like when it first mattered
being vaguely punk rock meant you understood the issues,
and where people stood. anarchy in the uk was a sarcastic statement about the real monster of the dominating religion/state mess that they grew up in. now, well, i don't know what the hot topic is, but i know i need some new pants.
cause i shit myself laughing at people.
some days.