Top members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn arrested (PHOTOS)

Nothing special, just a few photos of arrested top members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party ;-)

Nikos Michaloliakos

Ilias Panagiotaros

Christos Pappas

"Liberal" Ukrainian media defend neo-Nazis and racists

An important notice from the Stop far right violence in Ukraine group:

Several days ago popular Ukrainian media source LB.ua published an article written by Evhen Karas' (Svoboda party deputy assistant and one of the main members of paramilitary group C14 assosiated with Svoboda). In the article the author blames FARE along with a couple of left wing activists for FARE's report on racist conduct of Ukrainian football fans and for the announcement that Ukrainian national team may be docked points and made to play the next match behind the closed doors.

Pavlo Klymenko, FARE Eastern Europe Development office, turned to LB.ua in order to publish an answer to Karas' article to unmask fact fudging in Karas' text. Firstly, Pavlo was asked by the editorial board to cut his text. Then, the editors turned the text down by saying that "the text is full of accusations not supported by facts". It is interesting that Evhen Karas' text did not provoke such reaction on the part of the editors, though it had a lot of logical fallacies and was full of incriminations and accusations not supported by any arguments and facts.

Neo-Nazi thugs are defended by Ukrainian "liberal" media

Svoboda meets more European fascists at Festival Boreal

Svoboda never reported on its contacts with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany in May 2013, as its leaders are aware of the damage that these contacts can do to the image of a "respectable" nationalist party.

Likewise, Svoboda has not reported on another meeting it had with European fascists on 13-14 September 2013. This time it was the Boreal Festival held in Cantù (Italy) and organised by Roberto Fiore's Forza Nuova.

Online articles to be featured in the Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice

In December this year, Patterns of Prejudice will publish the double Special Issue on music and the Other which I have guest-edited. In its Latest Articles section, the journal has already published three of the articles to be featured in the Special Issue:

Lawrence P. MacCurtain, "Rhapsody in red: Shostakovich and American wartime perceptions of the Soviet Union"

MacCurtain addresses the role of Russian classical music in brokering popular American perceptions of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. With the launch of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the United States entered into an unprecedented wartime alliance with the Soviet Union, a state that had long conjured up domestic American anxieties, and was only recognized by the FDR administration in 1933. Specifically, MacCurtain examines how the composition and transport of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 to the United States in 1942 bolstered domestic commitment towards the wartime alliance with Stalin. By examining and comparing the critical and popular reception of Shostakovich's work in the United States, he found that the music possessed a populist appeal to the domestic audience that was seemingly capable of transcending the rhetoric and fear that previously defined the American image of the Soviet Union.

Catherine Baker, "Music as a weapon of ethnopolitical violence and conflict: processes of ethnic separation during and after the break-up of Yugoslavia"

Using illustrations from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s and their aftermath, Baker argues that understanding popular music and public discourses about it can help to understand the dynamics of ethnopolitical conflict. Studies of war and conflict have approached music as political communication, as an object of securitization, as a means of violence and as a symbol of ethnic difference, while international law in the context of another case of collective violence, Rwanda, has even begun to question whether performing or broadcasting certain music could constitute incitement to genocide. Drawing on poststructuralist perspectives on the media and ethnicization in conflicts, Baker explores and interrogates the discourse of popular music as a weapon of war that was in use during and after the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. Music during the Yugoslav wars was used as a tool of humiliation and violence in prison camps, and to provoke fear of the ethnic Other in line with a strategy of ethnic cleansing; it was also conceptualized as a morale-booster for the troops of one's own side. A discourse of music as a weapon of war was also in use and persisted after the war, when its referent was shifted to associate music-as-a-weapon not to the brave and defiant ingroup so much as the aggressive Other. This was then turned against a wider range of signifiers than those who had directly supported the Other's troops and had the effect of perpetuating ethnic separation and obstructing the reformation of a (post-)Yugoslav cultural space. Despite evidence that music did serve as an instrument of violence in the Yugoslav wars (and the precedent of the Bikindi indictment in Rwanda), Baker concludes that music should be integrated into understandings of ethnopolitical conflict not through a framework of incitement and complicity but with respect for the significance of music in the everyday.

Ryan Shaffer, "The soundtrack of neo-fascism: youth and music in the National Front"


Shaffer examines youth involvement in the National Front and the development of neo-fascist music as a conduit for its ideas. Using rare publications and interviews with National Front members, he argues that youth had a profound impact on post-war British fascism by influencing fascist ideology and tactics. Following challenges from the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against Racism, the National Front started its own youth outreach programmes that reshaped neo-fascism and how neo-fascists distributed their message. In adopting skinhead style and music, the organization spread ‘nativist’ culture not only to gain supporters, but to counter multiculturalism in popular music and politics. Shaffer's article explains how neo-fascist youth created their own publications, clubs, concerts and even a record company to provide entertainment, spread ideas, raise money, recruit and build associations with like-minded neo-fascists in other countries. With these new tactics, the young National Front members redefined British fascism, which had lasting impact on radical groups in Europe and North America.

The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party

In English: The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party
Українською: Старі та нові друзі української ультраправої партії «Свобода»
По-русски: Старые и новые европейские друзья «Свободы»

Міжнародна конференція "Різноманіття та Толерантність в Європі" (програма)

Різноманіття та Толерантність в Європі: Виклики та можливості для співпраці
Міжнародна конференція
10 вересня 2013, Київ, Україна

Місце: Готель «Amarant», вул. Костянтинівська, 71-Д, Київ, 04080, Україна
Організатори: Фонд ім. Фрідріха Еберта, Берлін; Проект з протидії правому екстремізму
Контакти в Україні: mail@fes.kiev.ua

ПРОГРАМА

09:00 Реєстрація учасників

09:30 Вітальне слово
Урсула Кох-Лаугвітц, Директор, Фонд ім. Фрідріха Еберта, Представництво в Україні та Білорусії, Київ

09:45 Сесія 1: Праві радикальні погляди в Європі
Модератор: Себастьян Серафін

Виступ 1: Праві радикальні погляди в Європі: розвиток та стратегія протидії
Д-р Ральф Мельзер, Керівник проекту з протидії правому екстремізму, Фонд ім. Фрідріха Еберта, Берлін

Виступ 2: Крайні праві в сучасній Україні
Д-р Мрідула Гош, Східно - Європейський Інститут Розвитку, Київ

Виступ 3: Європейські радикальні праві і «санітарний кордон»
Д-р Антон Шеховцов, Дослідницька група з питань радикалізму та нових медіа, Університет Нортгемптону

11:15 Дискусія

Articles for Searchlight in 2012/2013

Here are the articles I wrote for the Searchlight magazine in the 2012/2013 academic year:

• "Poland: Huge rise in nationalist marchers", Searchlight (December 2012), pp. 16-17.
• "Germany: After scandals and delays, the National Socialist Underground trial finally starts in Munich", Searchlight (May 2013), pp. 26-29.
• "Germany: Lessons learned?", Searchlight (August-September 2013), pp. 31-33.
• "The old and new European friends of Ukraine’s far-right Svoboda party", Searchlight (August-September 2013), pp. 5-7.