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In a lengthy post on Facebook late on Thursday night, the AUESA said it was disbanding and would no longer seek affiliation.

"It has become extremely dangerous for AUESA to continue with the appalling rhetoric by people on and off campus regarding our group, supposed members and leadership (all entirely unverifiable and rumour) and who we are linked with, what we support, what our aims were, what supposed membership have done in their private lives and much more," the group's administrator wrote.

"We were asked to clarify numerous things and we did, yet it achieved very little. People had formed their own incorrect opinions on AUESA from the get go, and disregarded anything we had to say."

The AUSA said the group's Facebook page was "strongly indicative of a highly nationalist or white pride group".

A spokesman for the AUESA, Adam Holland, told NZME on Thursday the group's opponents were "hateful" and the AUSA should issue an apology.

Mr Holland made headlines last year after hijacking a mayoral debate with chants of "Allahu Akbar!" and swearing.

It's not clear if Mr Holland is actually a member of the group or just pretending to be.

The group's alleged founder has in the past expressed desire to set up an "alt-right" political party, according to screenshots posted to Facebook. The alt-right movement is a loose collection of neo-Nazis, anti-feminists, white supremacists, far-right conservatives, Donald Trump supporters and online trolls.

He told Newshub yesterday the similarity between the group's slogan and that used by the Nazi SS was a coincidence. The group later removed the quote.

AUESA supporters expressed regret at the group's disbanding, many posting on Facebook it was "reverse racism" and calling opponents "cucks" - a sexist insult popular with the alt-right.

A protest against the group's stall at "O" week had been planned today.

The University of Auckland said it had no control over student clubs, and students who feel threatened by the group should seek counselling.

Newshub.

Continued here:
Auckland University club linked to alt-right views disbands - Newshub

| Published 14 hours ago

TO THE EDITOR:

In response to the Feb. 13 letter-to-the-editor titled The Alternative Right Exists on our Campus, a group of graduate students and recent Ph.D. graduates in the Department of History, informed by the methods of our discipline, have come together to challenge the basic premises presented by its author. We come from working class and professional backgrounds, from many regions of the United States and the world and with a variety of expertise.

We do not wish to make sweeping generalizations about President Trumps supporters. The 64 million individuals who voted for Trump did so for diverse reasons, and the alt-right represents only one part of that coalition. The alt-right itself is not a monolith, but we can better understand its goals by considering its leadership.

Over the past month, some have taken to invoking alt-right figureheads like Richard Spencer and Milo Yiannopoulos as objects of sympathy. From the letter, one might assume these men are the unfairly maligned opponents of outsourcing. What do their words and actions tell us about their vision for our country? And what does history tell us about their claims?

Milo Yiannopoulos believes women are biologically inferior to men and supports Saudi Arabias ban on female drivers. He once described immigrants from the Middle East as [hordes] of homophobic Muslims...being imported to the west so they can shoot up gay nightclubs. Despite being gay himself, Yiannopoulos is no friend to the LGBTQ community. He refers to immigration advocates as whiny gay leftists and prefers not to hire gay employees. Last December, Yiannopoulos verbally harassed a transgender student at UW-Milwaukee after she challenged his presence on campus, saying he needs to man up and [the] way that you know hes failing is Id almost still bang him.

Because the author of the Daily Tar Heel letter paraphrased Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is worth noting that Richard Spencer has called the civil rights leader a degenerate. Spencers ultimate goal is to create "a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans. It would be a new society based on very different ideals than, say, the Declaration of Independence." Spencer supports peaceful ethnic cleansing," as if forcibly removing other races from the country is not itself a form of violence.

Fascism is still a slippery term to define, and this is not a claim we attempt to substantiate here. But it is clear that alt-right leaders believe in the superiority of whiteness, straightness and cisgender-ness. And their dream society values these characteristics at the expense of all others. Alt-right leaders promote these values without any regard for demonstrable evidence. Instead, they treat their conclusions as self-evident.

The author paints those who challenge the alt-right as opponents of free speech. Yet subjecting a claim to critique and analysis is not the same as telling someone to sit down and shut up. Historical scholarship requires us to interrogate all claims and to challenge any opinion that relies on empty rhetoric, stereotypes or assumptions.

The alt-right regularly and seriously misrepresents the American past and present. The author suggested that to fight for social justice is to undermine 240 years of blood, sweat and tears. Yet he neglected to specify who shed them. The historical evidence shows that oppressed communities, those that lead the fight for social justice, have shed much of the blood, sweat and tears. This is clear even on our own campus.

UNC was built upon ancestral Occaneechi land, and Chapel Hill was once part of a vast network of trading paths connecting the Occaneechis, Catawbas, Tutelos and other nations. Anglo-American settlers took possession of this land through violence, dispossession and disease. Enslaved Black people helped build UNCs campus. Before the Civil War, slave owners hired out enslaved Black people to clean dormitories, stoke fires and perform other menial tasks for UNCs white students.

Yet both Black and Native students were historically excluded from UNC. UNCs first Native student, Henry Owl (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), received his degree in 1929, and it was not until the 1950s that Black students began to graduate from this university. Even then, Black students were not permitted to live in the same facilities as their white classmates.

It took a long and dangerous struggle for Black students and faculty merely to gain access to this university. Today, Black students and their allies continue to fight institutionalized forms of discrimination at UNC. Joining the fight for social justice does not mean putting skin color above ideas. It means recognizing that: 1) white supremacy still exists, 2) members of oppressed communities continue to shape our campus and the world and 3) the work of forging a more egalitarian university and society is not complete.

The author is correct that working-class people have not outlived oppression, even in our own state and on our own campus. North Carolinas right to work legislation has made it nearly impossible for state employees to collectively organize, and the university has a rich history of combatting such efforts. But by dismissing the struggles of immigrants and other groups within the working class, alt-right leaders imply that the working class is exclusively white and male. In fact, it includes people of all races, faiths and gender and sexual identities. Therefore, supporting a living wage for women and people of color or standing against the Muslim ban are working class issues.

UNCs history reminds us that while all workers have indeed suffered, some have faced additional challenges. In 1996, UNC housekeepers won a long struggle against the university for higher wages, better educational and training opportunities and other benefits. These housekeepers were largely Black women, fighting a labor system where Black university employees received lower compensation and fewer opportunities for advancement than white employees. Such fights are not merely distractions. They are central to working class struggle.

In conclusion, we must hold the alt-right to the same standards of inquiry as other ideologies. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but as members of UNCs campus and of the global community, we have a responsibility to differentiate between personal beliefs and substantiated conclusions. When an opinion does not stand the test of inquiry or when it denies equality or basic human rights we must confine it to the dustbin of history.

Note: This letter does not represent the views of the Department of History, rather individual graduate and former graduate students of the Department.

Lindsay Ayling

Danielle Balderas

Justin Blanton

Alyssa Bowen

Ryan Branagan

Robin Buller

Anglica Castillo Reyna

Kirsten Cooper

Ansev Demirhan

Samuel Finesurrey

Ann Halbert-Brooks

Erika Huckestein

Aubrey Lauersdorf

Zardas Lee

Emily Lipira

Maria Matthes

Sarah Miles

Isabell Moore

Caroline Newhall

Mark Porlides

Jon D. C. Powell

Carol Prince

Mark Reeves

Anthony Rossodivito

Samee Siddiqui

Allison Somogyi

Jennifer Standish

Larissa Stiglich

Daniel Velsquez

Mary Elizabeth Walters

Garrett Wright

Justin Wu

Mishio Yamanaka

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Letter: What UNC's history tells us about the alt-right - The Daily Tar Heel

As President Trump is pressured to substantively respond to the rise in anti-Semitic incidents since his election, a new analysis reveals that Breitbart News under Trumps chief strategist Stephen Bannon fostered a comment section a sample of Breitbarts readership that increasingly reflected language specific to the white nationalist alt-right movement, including anti-Semitic sentiment.

Comparing the language of Breitbart commenters to thelanguage of the most aggressive far-right extremists online e.g. language used by Twitter users who advocate for violence against minorities and are openly pro-Nazi we can see a clear trend of increasing similarity over a three-year period, the bulk of it under Bannon. Bannon left Breitbart to join the Trump campaign in mid-August 2016 but the editorial focus of the site stayed the course he set it on.

Diving deeper into anti-Semitic sentiment we see a similar trajectory. In early 2013, the term Jewish was used in a similar way as white or black as a racial/ethnic descriptor, which is similar to how Jewish is used in the mainstream press. By 2016 on Breitbart, however, Jewish had morphed into an epithet, used in similar contexts as socialist or commie.

In a mainstream newspaper article, the word Jewish is statistically similar to words such as Muslim and Christian. This means that mainstream commentators usually rely on the word Jewish to describe someone or something religious. This was the case for Breitbart comments back in July 2013.

For far-right wing extremists, the word Jewish is used in a totally different context. Instead, its use is statistically similar to words such ascommunist, homosexual, anti-white, and satanic. Within Breitbarts comment section, Jewish was increasingly used in contexts similar to commie and socialist or even progressive.

After Bannon was appointed as chief strategist, his record as a far-right propagandist came under increased scrutiny. Most contested by Bannon and his defenders was his August 2016 comments to aMother Jonesjournalist that Breitbart became the platform for the alt-right.

Trump in an interview with theNew York Timesargued that Breitbart News was just a publication. Breitbart also went on the offensive. On Nov.19, Breitbart published Steve Bannon: Zero Tolerance for Anti-Semitic, Racist Elements of the Alt-Right.

In the article, Bannon wassummarized as saying:

Bannon also highlighted the diversity of views that were given a platform at Breitbart News, while also making it clear that both he and the site had zero tolerance for racial and anti-Semitic views.

Given the comment section analysis, however, it would appear Bannon and Breitbarts tolerance for anti-Semitic views was higher than zero. It confirms what Ben Shapiro, a former Breitbart editor, said when he claimed that Bannon turned the comment section into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.

On this point, Breitbart editors have repeatedly attacked critics who connect the website to the anti-Semitic elements of the alt-right by pointing to Jewish writers on staff and their editorial embrace of far-right Israeli politics. It is Breitbarts other coverage, however, that is most likely attracting these elements to the site.

A focus on globalist elites, traditionally an anti-Semitic dog whistle used by the radical right and a core appeal embraced by right-wing populists both in the US and in Europe today, was a rolling narrative covered extensively by Breitbart. One Breitbart London piece attackedWashington Postwriter Anne Applebaum bycalling her a Polish, Jewish, American elitistwith global media contacts is the best example, which was roundly criticized as being anti-Semitic. Similarly, Breitbarts undeniably inflammatory coverage of the migrant crisis and terrorism resonates with the hard right, which includes anti-Semitic fellow travelers.

Bannon, however, in aninterview with Politicoafter the first wave of criticism started to die down in late December, again embraced Breitbarts readership. As Politicoreported, Bannon said the best things about Breitbart are the comments section and the callers.

It was always great to hear what the hobbits had to say because at the end of the day, what they had to say was what mattered most. This whole movement, its really the top of the first inning.

Read the original post:
Breitbart under Bannon: Breitbart's comment section reflects alt-right ... - Salon

The Minneapolis Institute of Art(MIA) is breathing a sigh of relieffollowing an altercation between members of a right-wing groupand anti-fascistsinside its galleries. Punches were thrown, though no artwork was damaged in the incident, according to the New York Times.

February 25 was a normal day at the museum. Save, that is, for the 50-or-so protesters from the Twin Cities General Defense Committee (GDC), part of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) labor union,gathered outside. At first glance, it appeared they were speaking out againstthe anti-immigrant sentiment being stirred up by President Donald Trumps administration by the proposed border wall, increased deportation efforts, and the travel ban targeting seven Muslim majority countries. In actuality, their message had a more immediate target.

By Ben Davis, Feb 11, 2017

According to a statement from the GDC, the protesters had gathered after getting word ofa planned White Lives Matter rally from a group called AltRight MN at the museum.

A statement from AltRight MN contests this narrative, claiming that we were there only to meet a few new faces and enjoy the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collection of traditional art. However, when we got there, the IWW protesters were waiting. We had no idea that it had anything to do with us until two of our members were attacked upstairs.

They allege that the anti-fascist protesters had learned of their meetup by posing as a Trump supporter to gain access to a private chat room.

Conflict broke out when the two groups came face to face. On its website, GDC has shared a photo of a man appearing to give a Nazi salute in response to the gathered protesters. One witness told Twins Cities news outlet City Pages there were shouts of Heil Trump!

Image of alleged fascist protester at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.Courtesy of the Twin Cities General Defense Committee.

According to theStarTribune, three men who appeared to be neo-Nazis, one of whom allegedly sported neo-Nazi imagery on his jacket, entered the museum. IWWprotesters followed, leading to a heated encounter in a gallery of 18th-century art, home to French armchairs, English landscape paintings, and a piece of Svres porcelain.

In their statement, the GDC alleges that one of the groups involved wasIdentity Evropa, which hasadopted classical European art as a symbol of defending white culture. For instance, Identity Evropa has taken credit for the appearance of posters of MichelangelosDavidwith the words Lets Become Great Again around the Minneapolis area last year.

A search of the internet reveals that Identity Evropa has been on a postering campaign across the country, targeting campuses.

I heard voices that were louder than usual for a museum. There [was] a large man with a buzz cut arguing loudly with some people. They were getting in each others faces and quickly started pushing each other, Vijit Nanda, a visitor who witnessed the incident, told theTribune. The people who were fighting started throwing punches.

A female security guard reportedly broke up the fight after a protester knocked one of the men down and was hitting him.

She was terribly brave, MIA director KaywinFeldman told the New York Times. As you can imagine, our security officers are trained not to put themselves in harms way ever. And so this was just a reaction on her part to protect another human.

In his account, Nanda added that, as he was leaving the museum, a group dressed in mostly darker colors walked out in front of us chanting and pumping their hands in the air. I honestly do not remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of Nazi scum get off our streets!'

TheTribune reported that there were no arrests made, but that police responding to the scene did impound a large knife from one of the individuals involved in the fracas. AltRight MN claims that the weapon was found on one of the assaulters, while the GDC claims that they disarmed a man with a nazi flag shirt carrying a large folding knife after he started a physical brawl.

Link:
Alt-Right and Anti-Fascists Face Off at MIA | artnet News - artnet News

I've written previously about how the Catholic historical experience with nativism can serve as a reminder that the church should be out front in confronting the racism and anti-Muslim bigotry that fuels contemporary strains of white nationalism. That experience is unusually relevant these days. Donald Trump won the White House in part by selling a restorationist vision for reclaiming America often rooted in racial appeals, and a nostalgic narrative that harkened back to a time when white hegemony, culturally, and politically, were assumed to be as American as eating apple pie and ice cream.

Several scholars, advocates, and researchers tackled this subject last week at an event, "How Catholics Should Respond to the Rise of the Alt-Right," co-hosted by the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at The Catholic University of America and Millennial, a journal and blog edited by young Catholics. Robert Christian, a fellow at the institute who edits Millennial, told me he hoped the forum would help draw attention to "the need for Catholics to express greater moral clarity on the nature of the alt-right and its fundamental incompatibility with Catholic moral and social teaching."

Maria Mazzenga, who manages the archives at Catholic University's American Catholic History Research Center, introduced the discussion with a helpful framework that contrasts two postures among American Catholics that have often been in tension. "Exclusionary Catholic Americanism is defensive, adopts a siege mentality, emphasizes persecution of enemies, views other religious traditions as threatening to its very existence," she said. "Inclusive Catholic Americanism seeks to reconcile American ideals of religious liberty and ethnic pluralism with the Catholic tradition. It sees continuities with its parent, Judaism, and commonalities rather than differences with other religions like Islam. It's time to put our inclusive Catholic Americanism to work."

Catholic University professor of history, Julia Young, noted that between the 1880s and the 1920s immigration policies became increasingly restrictive in the United States. (Read her recent Commonweal article on the topic here.) As a church of immigrants, Catholic leaders responded by creating an immigration bureau in 1919an office of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, a precursor to today's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "There was a movement by the Catholic Church, the bishops, to advocate for and speak out for immigrants being targeted," Young said. "The role of the Catholic Church was so important, and I hope that's the direction the church will take today." She acknowledged that bishops have opposed Trump's executive orders on refugees and immigration, but Young reminded the audience that plenty of Catholicsmany of whom helped elect Trumpaccept the new nativism directed at Muslim-Americans and people of color.

Panelist Jordan Denari Duffner, a researcher at The Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University, has found disturbing evidence that Catholics are exposed to a range of anti-Muslim views that are central to the alt-right ideology in various Catholic media outlets, blogs, and bookstores. The Bridge Initiative's detailed report, "Danger & Dialogue: American Catholic Public Opinion and Portrayals of Islam, even found that Catholics who read, watch, or listen to Catholic media have more unfavorable views of Muslims than those who do not. Duffner specifically named Robert Spencer (not to be confused with alt-right leader Richard Spencer), who runs a website called Jihad Watch that was designated an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Spencer is Catholic. He has been cited, according to Duffner, in a number of Catholic news outlets. His books are sold at the Catholic Information Center and the bookstore of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. His speeches have aired on EWTN, the global Catholic media network.

Duffner also underscored how Breitbart News, formerly led by Donald Trump's advisor Steve Bannon, provides a potent platform for the alt-right's demonization of Muslims by perpetuating the idea that Islam is inherently violent and a political ideology rather than a diverse and complex global religion of a billion people. Christopher Hale, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, argued that along with denouncing the extremism and bigotry central to white nationalism and the alt-right there should also be an effort to engage with people drawn to this movement. "We need to understand better as Catholics how did Steve Bannon and the alt-right come to be?" he said.

But keynote speaker Michael Sean Winters, a fellow at Catholic University's Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies, highlighted the challenges of that approach. "The main difficulty in engaging the alt-right as if it were just another political movement is found precisely in its anti-democratic stance," said Winters, also a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter. "Normally, when we as Catholics engage those with whom we disagree, both sides accept democratic norms to shape that engagement. The alt-right derides democracy and openly states its desire to undermine democracy." Winters added:

Engage, but do so warily, and only when repeatedly noting the fact that the positions the alt-right espouses are not just wrong, but contemptuous of the means by which a liberal democracy sorts out the complexities of public policy, means that we value and celebrate, and which we accord to these provocateurs even if they wish not to accord them to anyone else.

Winters pointed to the church's intellectual and moral traditions as resources to contest the resurgence of white nationalism. "It is often joked that Catholic social doctrine is the best kept secret in the Catholic church," he said. "Let it be secret no more. The most sophisticated response to both these alt-right haters, and to the ever-present difficulties of democracy, is found in that doctrine. I often say and shall say again: There is no problem facing the political life of this country that is not leavened by an encounter with Catholic social doctrine."

There is no panacea to eradicate the diseases of white nationalism and Islamophobia. The church's manifold capacitiestheological, pastoral and propheticwill be required at different places and times. Catholics don't all need to speak with the same voice or use the same tone. But the message should be unambiguous and urgent. The alt-right movement is built on an edifice of racism, social sin, and exclusion that must never be tolerated.

See the rest here:
Catholics Stand against Alt-Right Wrongs - Commonweal (blog)