[Marxism] Virtual warfare kicks fascists out of the island of Porcupine

["Jeffrey Thomas Piercy, El Pato Comunista" <mqduck@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is beyond surreal.

There's this virtual world sort-of game thing called "Second Life." I 
never really paid any attention to it, but it allows you to create 
characters and, if you sign up for a subscription, you can buy land and 
build buildings on it. It has its own currency that is actually 
convertible to US dollars and people make and sell things in-game. 
Whatever you create is legally your property (copyright or something), 
in the real world. That's about as much about it as I know.

The fascist National Front that's growing in France set up a building in 
this world. Follow the link for pictures.

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2007/01/stronger_than_h.html



FIGHTING THE FRONT

I'm pretty sure I know what Dr. King would think of a protest against an 
anti-immigrant political party, but if you asked me what he'd say after 
the thing devolved into a virtual conflagaration of mini-guns, cursing 
Frenchmen, and exploding pigs, well, there I'm somewhat at a loss.

The first night I arrived at the protest against the Second Life 
headquarters of Front National, the far right French political party of 
Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was ringed on all sides by protesters with signs 
to wave and statements to distribute.  By the second night I came (this 
was late last week), the conflict had become more literal, for many 
Residents had armed themselves.  Multi-colored explosions and constant 
gunfire shredded the air of Porcupine, a shopping island which FN had 
inexplicably picked for the site of their virtual world HQ, in December.

The server lag from so many people throwing up so much gunfire slows the 
battle to a slow motion firefight, but I manage to wade up to 
TonTonCarton Yue, who is strafing the FN building with a chaingun 
usually associated with an AC-130 gunship, than a political protest.

"Can I ask," I begin, "why are you shooting?"
"Because I hate Front National," Yue tells me simply.
"If you use violence, doesn't that reduce you to their level?"
"I don't know," Yue answers, after awhile.  "I don't care.  FN equals 
violence."

And having offered that axiom, he returns his aim to the enemy, and 
unleashes another barrage.

It didn't begin like this.  After Front National took root, at least two 
groups, antiFN and SL Left Unity, rose to oppose them.  They had 
placards and T-shirts, and billboards on the land of sympathetic 
neighbors, all making plain that FN's arrival in Second Life was 
distinctly unwelcome.  For their part, Front National members-- mostly 
muscular young men dressed in white T-shirts with the FN logo-- stood 
inside their headquarters, impassively watching the outrage build outside.

"This nationalist idea that Front National is advocating is something 
that has spread all over Europa like a virus," Ichi Jaehun tells me. 
"It's [as if] the history of the 20th century has already been 
forgotten.  It is time to say enough!"

Her concern is not alarmist.  On a US spectrum, Front National is 
perhaps one or two notches to the right of Pat Buchanan, but unlike 
Buchanan (who garnered just half of one percent in the 2000 Presidential 
election), Le Pen's political base is far more substantial.

In France's 2002 election, Le Pen forced a runoff against President 
Jacques Chirac, and with his belligerent nationalism and calls to 
forcibly exile non-European immigrants from the country, garnered a 
popular vote of 18%.  (An 18%, it's worth noting, who were evidently 
unconcerned or agreeable to Le Pen's grotesque dismissal of Nazi gas 
chambers as a mere "detail of history".)

Another Presidential election looms this June, and the fear is recent 
immigrant riots in Paris and other woes will bring more French to the 
flame-shaped banner of Front National.  When they arrived in-world, an 
official press release boasted that FN was "the first political party in 
France and in Europe to open an official and permanent representation in 
Second Life"-- an evident move to position themselves as a 
technologically savvy, forward-thinking party of a new Europe.  (Their 
version of Europe, that is.)

But the SL Left Unity group had press releases of their own.  "We have 
acquired land next to the FN office," one announced, "and will be 
manning a protest there until FN go or are ejected. Wherever fascists 
are we will ensure they get no peace to corrupt and lie to decent people."

The announcement went on: "The whole idea of a 'race hate' group is in 
direct violation of Linden Lab's own Terms of Service, and if the rules 
are being read to say they arenât in violation, then Lindens need to 
look at the rules again."  (This is an apparent reference, by the way, 
not to the TOS, but Linden's Community Standards, which forbid "use of 
derogatory or demeaning language or images in reference to another 
Resident's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation". 
But while Front National may have run counter to those standards in the 
real world, it's uncertain if their SL chapter ever has.)

Besides such organized oppostion, at least some resistance was impromptu.

"I find the FN in type 'francais' in the Search mode and I was revolting 
by this," a French Resident named Zok Greene tells me in fractured but 
eager English, explaining why he'd joined the protest.  "And more 
because it's the presidential election in France in Juin and Le Pen was 
'presentÃ'... and why?!! You can't try to get vote like this, it's a game!"

It's unclear when the shooting started, or who fired the first shot 
(several witnesses claim FN security forces assaulted them with "push 
guns", weapons capable of flinging a Resident across the island like a 
ragdoll), but in the final days of last week, at least, the assault 
raged from both sides.  It's also unclear if the anti-FN protest groups 
were involved in the escalating violence-- Officers with both antiFn and 
SLLU haven't replied to my Instant Message-- though by personal 
observation, at least a few members seemed to be.  Since Porcupine is 
not a damage-enabled area, weapons there have about as much stopping 
power as pointing one's finger at the computer screen and saying Bang 
Bang.  But get enough projectiles flying, and server lag is bound to 
ground anyone's use of the area to a halt.  (Or in my case, cause the 
Second Life viewer to crash.)

And so it raged, a ponderous and dreamlike conflict of machine guns, 
sirens, police cars, "rez cages" (which can trap an unsuspecting 
avatar), explosions, and flickering holograms of marijuana leaves and 
kids' TV characters, and more.  By California time, the battles often 
culminated at 2am, 3am, and even later into the small hours of the 
American clock, when Residents in Europe are most active.  So amid the 
exchange of salvos, the chat log was choked over with pro and anti-Le 
Pen curses, most in French.  And when the lag was not too overwhelming 
to stream audio, the whole fracas was accompanied by bursts of European 
techno.

One enterprising insurrectionist created a pig grenade, fixed it to a 
flying saucer, and sent several whirling into Front National 
headquarters, where they'd explode in a starburst of porcine shrapnel. A 
few native English speakers joined the fray, though at least one missed 
the point in either direction, unhelpfully shouting "The French stink! 
Get out of Second Life!" and the like amid the conflict.

And so, while America slept, the battle against extremism raged on thus 
in Europe.

By last weekend, whole sections of the FN office were gone, apparently 
lost to lag or sabotage, their banners and posters floating in mid-air. 
 And FN members seemed notably absent, too.  Frenchman Zok Greene 
pronounced himself satisfied with that turn of events.

"Would it have been better to debate their ideas or even just ignore 
them?" I ask him.  "Now they can claim they were 'suppressed' and their 
free speech was infringed."

"No," Zok insists.  "With this persons we can't debate or ignored.  We 
can't because it's not acceptable."

By today, the headquarters of Front National has entirely disappeared 
from Porcupine; in its place, a tiny casino has sprung up overnight, and 
is already receiving customers.

In honor of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., a special sun is made 
to arc across the grid of Second Life today.  If you look close enough, 
you'll see it's inset with the face of the man who was so untimely cut 
down, when far too much of his work remained.  In his country, the world 
beyond, and, perhaps, in worlds he never could have imagined.

And in this way, Dr. King literally shines down on an empty field, where 
once the forces of division made a bid to establish themselves.  But I 
wonder what he'd make of the subsequent reaction, from high-minded words 
and protest, to decidedly violent uncivil disobedience.  (Like 
intolerance, most physical attacks are also prohibited by Second Life's 
Community Standards.)

As for Front National, though they're gone from the land of Porcupine, 
they claim to be unphased.

"They're a bunch of losers," FN Officer Wolfram Hayek tells me grinning, 
when I ask about the protesters.  "We're gonna tighten security and come 
back."

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