Pacifica Forum:
Eugene's leading white supremacist organization
by Mark Robinowitz
on this page:
see also:
www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/11/01/views3.html
Fake Debate: beyond binary thinking
by Mark Robinowitz
related pages at oilempire.us:
If the Party could reach into the past and say of this or that event "it never happened"
surely that was more terrifying than mere torture and death.
--
George Orwell, 1984
Holocaust denial is not a neutral topic of historical inquiry, it's a lure cast by Nazi apologists for vulnerably open minds, which exploits their fresh sense of distrust of history by suggesting that this, too, must be a lie.
-- Jeff Wells, Rigorous Intuition
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2006/03/inoculations_16.html
Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.
-- Primo Levi, survivor of a year's imprisonment in Auschwitz
http://www.arifrankel.com/levi18.html
Eugene and Lane County have a long, shameful history of white supremacy. Lane County is named for Joseph Lane, an early pioneer who reportedly was a supporter of slavery. The native peoples of the Willamette Valley suffered genocide, land theft, ethnic cleansing and incarceration on remote reservations at the hands of the settlers - and no efforts have been made, even in recent years, to make amends for these crimes. In the early 1900s, the KKK had a strong presence in Eugene, and African Americans were forbidden from living in the town of Eugene (most of them were forced to live in swampy ground in what is now Alton Baker Park, before there was a bridge across the Willamette River). To this day, many non-whites report a variety of racist treatments from mild to severe, and there has been some reporting of the "Exit Files" (lists of non-whites who moved from Eugene rather than continue to cope with racism in our mostly white town).
Anti-semitism has been less of a problem than these other virulences, but a pseudo-peace group that meets at the University of Oregon called "Pacifica Forum" is the primary effort in Eugene trying to legitimize white supremacy as a legitimate point of view.
Pacifica Forum promoting neo-Nazi speaker
http://www.geocities.com/pacificaforum/
Pacifica Forum, Friday@ 4 pm, in Mckenzie 129
11/17 - POST-MORTEM ON MARK WEBER VISIT
11/10 - KRISTALLNACCHT ANNIVERSARY
11/3 - (conferences with Mark Weber)
11/2 - THE INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW (Orval Etter) - (evening lecture by Mark Weber)
[note: Krystalnacht was the nationwide pogrom on November 9, 1938 that attacked the remaining Jewish institutions in Germany. It is rather obscene for a group to promote one of the loudest neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers - Mr. Weber - and then express an interest in the anniversary of Krystalnacht.]
Ironically, on November 2, Temple Beth Israel in Eugene is sponsoring "Remembering Yitzhak Rabin - Havdallah, Film Discussion, Another Side of Peace." That seems like a more worthy discussion than listening to Mr. Weber distort historical facts.
The so-called "Pacifica" Forum (Pacifica means "peaceful") is sponsoring on Nov 2, 2007 a rant by Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Revisionism, a neo-Nazi white supremacist organization primarily focused on Holocaust denial. It would be interesting to know how a group that does not have any campus sponsorship is able to use (and abuse) University facilities to spread vile racism. Campus events need a campus group to co-sponsor them in order to use these facilities for free, and Pacifica Forum is not a University of Oregon group. The University schedulers state that the "Campus Civil Liberties Circle" is a supposed campus group behind Pacifica, but this alleged organization seems to only exist as a front group for Pacifica's primary spokesperson (a websearch for it only retrieves a letter to the editor written by Professor Emeritus Etter).
The "Pacifica" flyer advertising this event claims that the speaker is "America's most prominent revisionist historian." The term "revisionist" is a euphemism for "Holocaust denier" -- and the speaker has spread neo-Nazi propaganda for decades. The Institute for Historical Revisionism has a multi-decade track record of ugly racism and lies.
www.holocaust-history.org/revisionism-isnt/
the euphemism of "revisionism" is really Denial
The only question is whether anyone in "Pacifica Forum" is a deliberate COINTELPRO agent seeking to discredit legitimate criticism of Israeli behavior and the local peace movement, or are the Pacifica members merely all "useful idiots." Hopefully omeone in that so-called Forum is really a government provocateur paid to disrupt the community, since when people realize what "Pacifica" is about to do there will be a lot of anger directed at them for their flagrant racism, which is exactly the response that neo-Nazis want to provoke. If none of the "Pacifica" people are agents, then they need psychiatric counseling and should find something other than politics to occupy their free time, since they are severely counter-productive. (Anyone who sincerely wants to change US policies with Israel and the Middle East is going to have to be in alliance with the more liberal parts of the American Jewish community.)
One of the Pacifica Forum people told me (George Beres) that he looked forward to hearing Mr. Weber since he would criticize Israel, and that was his main interest. Sane people would not invite David Duke of the KKK to explain the human rights abuses in Darfur or in Zimbabwe. Most peace supporters are very aware of the destructive alliance between militarists in the United States and Israel, and do not need fascist liars to remind them of this.
I'm sure the racists in Pacifica who support this insanity (inviting a neo-Nazi to speak in Eugene) will go ballistic at my last name and call me (again) a Zionist and Israeli collaborator. But I don't support the "right" of Israel - or of Palestine - to exist. I support the right of Israeli and Palestinian PEOPLE to exist, the governments that seek to represent them have to earn their legitimacy by the consent of the people. At least in theory ... It's funny - and tragic - to see some sincere people get baited by fascists into lending unintentional support for the empire, since their disgust for Israeli militarism gets co-opted into some extremely vile politics by these supremacists. It's time for the peace movement to learn critical thinking.
It is likely that at least some of the Holocaust deniers are really covert operatives of the empire seeking to discredit peace activists.
www.oilempire.us/holocaust-denial.html has some circumstantial evidence for this.
Free speech also implies responsibility, and Holocaust denial is the equivalent of burning a cross on someone's lawn -- it not merely speech, it is incitement to violence and whitewashing of one of the worst crimes of the 20th century.
a web search found this link:
Mark Weber to Speak at the University of Oregon - Stormfront White ...
Founded by Orval Etter, emeritus associate professor of public affairs and administration, the Pacifica Forum firmly supports freedom of speech. ...
www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=4691631 - 43k - Cached - Similar pages
note: "stormfront" is a white supremacist organization
www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?mid=6156
Frank debate or complicity with racism?
BY DAVID LUEBKE
Published: Wednesday, October 17, 2007
News item: The Pacifica Forum has invited Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review, to speak at the University of Oregon on “The Israeli Lobby: How Strong Is It?”
Here’s a thought experiment. Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that a civic organization in a medium-sized, predominantly white town invites a speaker to the local university, under the pretext of promoting frank and open debate.
Let us further suppose that the speaker has been invited because he denies that the horrors of slavery ever stained this country; that Africans came to America without coercion; that their well-meaning American employers never destroyed their families; that the immigrants from Africa suffered no physical abuse; that all sexual relations between white employers and their African employees were consensual and involved no violence; and, finally, that the Africans were never lynched, but committed suicide, voluntarily.
Let us also suppose that the speaker and his local supporters hold these falsehoods to be so self-evidently true that they believe anyone who disagrees with them must be part of a plot to deceive the public.
Let us suppose that a leader of the civic group writes ominous-sounding letters to the local newspaper, warning his fellow citizens that any protest against the speaker is an attempt to stifle free speech.
Now, you’re a sane and reasonable person. You know that slavery was a heinous institution, an everlasting stain on this nation’s honor; you also know that millions of African slaves came to America against their will and under unimaginably horrific conditions; you know that hundreds of thousands died before ever reaching American shores; you know that slave masters exploited their labor ruthlessly and had no qualms about destroying a slave family if they could turn a profit in the act; you know that the masters’ power over their slaves was so immense that they could rape slave women without fear of legal consequences; finally, you know that the descendants of slaves were still being lynched, brutally and frequently, within living memory.
You know that things are true because hundreds of thousands of historical documents and eyewitness testimonies attest to them. And you know that denying these facts is as idiotic as claiming that the Earth is flat, or insisting that the sun sets in the south. Perhaps you have a hunch that things more sinister than a commitment to “frank and open debate” motivate the invited speaker and his local supporters.
Let us suppose all these things. For the sake of argument.
What should you do? Should you protest against the speaker and his vicious, incendiary lies? If you protest, how will you answer the charge that you make yourself the unwitting tool of a secret but powerful conspiracy to muzzle free speech in America? Or should you stand by silently, and by your silence allow the speaker to spread his racist filth without contradiction? Does your silence make you complicit in the horrors of slavery?
For better or worse, there is no need for such thought experiments. Under the pretext of promoting frank and open debate, the Pacifica Forum has invited Mark Weber to speak on the UO campus on Nov. 2. As director of the Institute for Historical Review, Weber is the only person in America, as far as I know, who gets a salary for denying that the Holocaust occurred.
What should you do about it?
David Luebke is an associate professor of history at the University of Oregon. He worked for the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., from 1989 to 1993.
media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/
paper859/news/2006/07/13/Commentary
/Pacifica.Forum.Is.AntiIsraeli.Not.ProPalestinian-2131562.shtml
Pacifica Forum is anti-Israeli, not pro-Palestinian
By: Pira Kelly
Issue date: 7/13/06 Section: Commentary
The campus community seems to have been largely oblivious to the Pacifica Forum; whether this is fortunate, because it limits the spread of their anti-Semitic statements, or unfortunate,
because it allows them to go unchecked, is debatable.
Supporters of PF make the argument that they are being unfairly labeled as anti-Semitic because they are pro-Palestinian and critical of Israeli government policies.
While I consider it ironic (to put it nicely) when white U.S. citizens feel entitled to look solely outside of themselves
for a colonial power to fight, intelligent solidarity with Palestinian struggles is clearly important right now, and all governments deserve criticism. This support and critique can and should be done without mobilizing historical oppression,
obviously. PF's method, on the other hand, can be summarized as blaming Jews worldwide for everything that's wrong with the
world and U.S. foreign policy while rarely mentioning Palestine at all.
I was a co-director of the Survival Center during that group's sponsorship of PF.
We did not stop sponsoring them because they promoted Palestinian solidarity; I'm not sure they ever did, and if they had it would not have been a problem.
We stopped sponsoring them because they claimed the holocaust was caused by an international Jewish conspiracy.
Pira Kelly
University student
[emphasis added]
http://www.dailyemerald.com/home/index.cfm?
event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=4daa9fd0-259b-413e-a079-0a0ff7c06a2f
Task force denounces lecture as hate speech
By: Tess McBride
Posted: 11/21/06
McKenzie 125 was far from packed Friday night, as Valdas Anelauskas delivered the eighth installment of his highly controversial lecture series titled "Zionism and Russia," which has been openly condemned as anti-Semitic and hateful.
"Jews never apologize for anything. They are professional victims," Anelauskas said as the lecture began for the Pacifica Forum, an organization that provides different points of view regarding war and peace from a historical perspective, according to the organization.
A self-proclaimed white separatist and nationalist, Anelauskas lived and breathed the harsh oppression of Lithuania while the country was under the control of the former Soviet Union. Anelauskas said that oppression serves as his motivation to exercise his free speech rights today, even when they infringe on the "taboos" society has against questioning the Holocaust and Jews, he said.
The Eugene Anti-Hate Task Force, a grassroots organization of 28 people, said Anelauskas' lecture series has concerned them and the community.
"This is how things started in Nazi Germany in the '20s and '30s," said Craig Weinerman, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council and task force member. "Anti-Semitic thought provides fuel for other hate groups."
Orval Etter, founder of the Pacifica Forum, said the purpose of the group is to endorse free speech that some people don't agree with.
"He's expressed some views some people in the forum have regarded as somewhat racist," Etter said of Anelauskas' lectures. "It's been generating a full round of heat recently."
In fall 2003 the Eugene Fellowship of Reconciliation dropped their sponsorship of the Pacifica Forum after "some members became aware that a number of people were deeply offended by certain Pacifica Forum presentations," especially anti-Semitic content, task force member Michael Williams said.
While the Pacifica Forum has invited Holocaust deniers in the past, none has spoken as many times as Anelauskas, according to the task force.
"I didn't deny the Holocaust existed; it's a historical fact," Anelauskas said. "But for some reason, if you speak of the Holocaust, you get in big trouble."
Anelauskas said he disagrees with details of the Holocaust, which he believes should be openly discussed, such as the number of deaths, the "horrible atrocities" of soap made from human fat and lampshades from skin and "those gas chambers."
[note: in Mr. Anelauskas's home country of Lithuania, the Holocaust was implemented largely through mass shootings. The Jews in the major cities of Vilna (Vilnius) and Kovno were rounded up and forced into ghettos shortly after the Nazi invasion in June 1941. The Vilna Jews were marched, thousands at a time, to the forest of Ponary near the town and shot in large pits. By mid-1943 nearly all were dead except for a small group that escaped to nearby forests to join the Partisans. The Jews of Kovno were shot in a military fort overlooking that town. About 90% of the roughly quarter million Baltic Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
The gas chambers were not deployed in Lithuania or Latvia, but were instead built in Poland to murder Jews from Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, Greece and other countries. Most of the Holocaust victims in the Soviet Union were shot in mass shootings, most of them in large pits dug near towns with Jewish populations. The fact of the gas chambers at the extermination centers Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor and Chelmno is extremely well documented by forensic evidence, testimony from perpetrators, victims and bystanders.
Anyone claiming that the number of deaths was greatly exaggerated is either unfamiliar with the facts or is trying to whitewash the crimes. While no precise figures exist to count every single victim -- the number of victims from 9/11 is even subject to some debate -- the only historical dispute is over a small percentage and is irrelevant.
Unfortunately, the Nazi liars try to take advantage of people's credulity to believe that something this monstrous really happened, and try to sow doubt, especially through the new medium of the internet. As time passes, most of the people alive during that time die of old age and there will be a point where no survivors will remain to tell their story.]
[the website Holocaust History notes that this sort of distraction is a typical Denial tactic:
www.holocaust-history.org/denial/revisionism-qa.shtml
What evidence exists for the charge that the Nazis used the bodies of Jews to make, among other things, soap and lampshades?
Some evidence exists that this was done on a small, experimental scale. In any event, it is not critical to the Holocaust, but rather a sadistic by-product of it. "Revisionists" try to use this red herring to deflect discussion from the overwhelming proof of the Holocaust.
"There were many things added after the war," he said, explaining how sections of Anne Frank's diary were written with a pen that wasn't invented until after the war, and how he believes her father might have added to the journals for profit.
note: this is quite vile and not worth responding to
While these accusations are rightfully protected under the Constitution, Anti-Hate Task Force members believe the lectures' anti-Semitic and racist indictments should be exposed and rejected.
"Hate speech just means what the Jews hate to hear," Anelauskas said. "As far as I know, the Jews dictate what you can say, what you can't say."
note: this suggests that Mr. Anelauskas should have remained in Lithuania and not emigrated to the United States. While immigration is often a good thing, allowing fascists who embrace Holocaust denial to become US citizens is a mistake.
Anelauskas said moral and ethical boundaries on speech shouldn't exist because they are impossible to define according to different people's beliefs.
"The real issue is 'what kind of speech we should encourage?'" Williams said, who has been attending the Pacifica Forum's lectures on behalf of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Anti-Hate Task Force, for three and a half years. "I think we should discourage it."
Anelauskas said that this country and community is prided in its diversity and multiculturalism, and he doesn't understand why people can't have tolerance for his opinions.
"I can say some stupid things, but should you put me to jail? In free society there should be no taboos," Anelauskas said. "I respect very much free speech for my opponents," and for himself.
Task force members say they don't want to censor Anelauskas, but monitor him to prevent the incitement of violence and the possible formation of neo-Nazi organizations in the community.
Williams said he would feel more comfortable if the lecture had a disclaimer so students don't think the lectures are sanctioned by the University or mistake their content for "real history," which he believes they are not.
"It doesn't take long for (anti-Semitism) to go raging through a community," said task force member Irwin Noparstak, who believes the Pacifica Forum is grooming Anelauskas to take over when Etter dies. "It can happen here. It can lead to violence."
Anelauskas said he is only practicing his freedom of speech rights, which were nonexistent in Lithuania while it was under control of the Soviet Union. His father spent almost 10 years in prison camps, and his friend was arrested for owning a copy of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-four," in the year 1984, Anelauskas said.
Anelauskas said he was followed 24 hours a day by the KGB, the Soviet secret police, who waited on his doorstep for him to leave his home, where they would continue to follow him.
"Anti-Hate Force in Eugene is nobody," Anelauskas said with a laugh, comparing the Anti-Hate Task Force with the KGB. "I'm not afraid, but I hate to see people in free country act like KGB."
After being "kicked-out" of Lithuania, Anelauskas moved to New York City, where his expectations were of freedom and the rights he was never granted.
"I didn't need big American dream, I needed American freedom," he said, though he was disappointed by the reality of America. "If you disagree with something, you are enemy of the people."
Task members said they agree that Anelauskas has a right to free speech, but plan to continue to monitor the lectures, though "there is only so much you can stomach," Weinerman said.
© Copyright 2007 Oregon Daily Emerald
What is the Institute for Historical Revisionism?
www.holocaust-history.org/questions/ihr.shtml
Institute for Historical Review (IHR)
Question: What is the Institute for Historical Review?
Andrew Mathis Responds:
The IHR was founded by Willis Carto in 1978. Carto has a long history on the far right-wing, first in the John Birch Society and then later as founder of the Liberty Lobby, a PAC dedicated to ending U.S. aid to Israel. He also served on the Wallace for President campaign in 1968, and he has published the newspaper Spotlight, which featured conspiracy theories and alternative views of history.
It may be easy to say that Carto is merely critical of Israel and he is not an anti-Semite. However, his advocacy for neo-Nazi "martyr" Francis Parker Yockey (author of Imperium, which the IHR sells, a Mein Kampf for the postwar era) makes it quite clear that he is a garden-variety Jew-hater, not to mention an anti-black and anti-Latino racist.
The IHR was wrested from Carto's control about a decade ago in a dispute over money left to the organization by Thomas Edison's granddaughter (the Edison family and Thomas Edison himself were anti-Semites). Since the early to mid-1990s, effective control of the IHR has been in the hands of Mark Weber, who is the alumnus of several neo-Nazi organizations, including the NSDAP/AO (based in Nebraska and headed by Gary Lauck) and the National Alliance (once the largest neo-Nazi organization in the U.S. and headed by the late Dr. William Pierce, who wrote The Turner Diaries , the Bible of the far right). Weber was arrested in Germany while a student there for distributing neo-Nazi material, and while under arrest, he claimed he was defending the "Aryan race." Weber's relationship with Pierce lasted, according to some accounts, right up until Pierce died, and Weber continues to have contacts with the National Alliance and other neo-Nazi organizations. Just to show you that my statement here is true, I am CC'ing this e-mail directly to Mark Weber, who may refute it (i.e., lie to you) if he so wishes.
As for the IHR and its "journal," the Journal of Historical Review is not peer-reviewed (as is nearly every major academic journal in the U.S. and abroad) and it is basically a place where these Nazi apologists and associated miscreants and losers can publish their garbage because no reputable journal would in a million years.
I hope I've answered your questions regarding the IHR, Carto, and Mark Weber. Please feel free to follow up.
Best,
Andrew
www.nizkor.org/faqs/ihr/
Willis Carto and the Institute for Historical Revisionism
www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/mermelstein.mel/mermelstein.text
Institute for Historical Revisionism successfully sued by an Auschwitz survivor
www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/adl/embattled-bigots/background.html
Holocaust denial depends on the embrace of a mass conspiracy
theory -- the allegation that Jews, academics, historians and others
falsified or maliciously distorted all testimonies, reports and pictures
of the Holocaust. Holocaust deniers explain Jewish motivation behind
the "Zionist conspiracy" as a means to gain power and influence.
In Carto's opening speech to the 1981 IHR convention, he asserted that
"Zionists" are "predators" who exploit the "guilt"
of Western society and "offer us expiation for the sins of our
fathers by giving us the magnificent opportunity to contribute to the
building of God's promised land for God's chosen people with our tax
money." The IHR's game plan is simple; by legitimizing "debate"
over the settled historical veracity of the Holocaust, deniers hope
to sow the seed of doubt, which in turn will foster anti-Semitism in
the form of resentment against those who have promoted this "hoax":
the Jews.
Fake Debate
www.oilempire.us/fake-debate.html
Zionists and extreme anti-Semites each tell their supporters that they can only support Israeli apartheid or Holocaust denial, and that the presence of the other is a reason to support them. However, within Israel there is a much broader range of opinions about the morality of Israeli policies than within American politics, although most American Jews do not support the Likud (ultra militarist) faction in Israel. We don't need neo-Nazis to tell us that Israel violates human rights. It is possible that some of the Holocaust deniers are provocateurs intended to give uncritical supporters of Israel an excuse to avoid examining human rights abuses against Palestinians, among other contemporary crimes.
www.waynemadsenreport.com
December 8-10, 2006
Germans are quite upset at the upcoming convocation in Tehran of an international conference on the Holocaust. The event has drawn Holocaust deniers from around the world -- most of them the usual suspects who have been pushing their way out theories for a number of years. Local German authorities responsible for the issuance of passports have denied far right-wing National Democratic Party (NDP) politicians passports for travel to Tehran to attend the conference. Holocaust denial is a severe crime in Germany and is rigorously prosecuted by the authorities.
The intentions of conference host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, put into office by a minority of the Iranian electorate (a large number of voters boycotted the election), play into the hands of neo-cons in the U.S. and Europe who are looking for any excuse to attack Iran. Religious extremists like Ahmedinejad, George W. Bush, and Israeli Cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman and their conferences, machinations, and contrivances should be shunned rather than entertained by the international community. The Persians who surround Ahmedinejad are in state of denial about the Holocaust and as long as they remain so, peace in the Middle East will be harder to attain.
-- Wayne Madsen
http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/2006/05/dylan-co-suck-up-to-holocaust-denier.html
At 20 May, 2006 09:26, Alex said...
What gets me is the sheer...arrogance and horror behind these "revisionists". They cloak themselves in the mantle of "legitimate research" by saying they're not "denying the holocaust" but rather trying to prove that ONLY 2 million died. That's like claiming that Jeffrey Dahmer didn't kill 16 people, but instead ONLY had 7 victims. Frankly, even if you were right, what kind of demented individual would actually WANT to prove that?
In the case of Dahmer, it'd have to be either a close family member who still cares about him despite his crimes, or someone who really, REALLY hated his victims. In the case of holocaust deniers, it's quite clear what their agenda is. They can attempt to masquarade it as "legitimate research" all they want, but the way they present their "facts" always destroys any legitimacy behind that claim. There's only two reasons why they'd spend so much effort attempting to revise the historicaly accepted number of Jews (and other minorities) massacred during the holocaust. Either they're neo-nazis trying to clean up the image that they present to the world, or they're anti-semitic assholes who simply hate Jews. There's really no other alternative.
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