The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 16 Oct 2000 -- 4:84 (#477)

[Paul Kneisel <tallpaul@xxxxxxxx>]

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           The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 16 October 2000
                         Vol. 4, Number 84 (#477)
__________________________________________________________________________

Rightwing Web Sites of Interest:
   The History-Making Irving Trial
   The American Guardian: An Educational Resource on Homosexual Behavior
Obituary:
   Gus Hall, longtime head of Communist Party USA
Ongoing Stories On School Prayer
   AANews, "Supreme Court Vacates School Prayer Ruling: Another Step In
      Ending Bogus "Student Led" Prayer?," 3 Oct 00
   AANews, "Another Decision On 'Student Led' Prayer As Circuit Court Backs
      Restrictions: Is 'Nonsectarian' Invocation Truly Possible?," 6 Oct 00
   Americans United For Separation of Church and State, "U.S. Supreme Court
      Takes Case About Religious Groups' Access to Public Schools: 'Schools
      have every right to protect children from outside groups,' says AU's
      Lynn," 10 Oct 00
Real Political Correctness:
   AANews, "Firefighters Ordered to Attend Church Services?," 7 Oct 00
What's Worth Checking: 5 stories

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RIGHTWING WEB SITES OF INTEREST:

The History-Making Irving Trial
<http://www.nationaljournal.org/irvtrial/110700evestand.htm>

The American Guardian: An Educational Resource on Homosexual Behavior
<http://members.yoderanium.com/tag/>

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OBITUARY:

U.S. Communist Gus Hall Dies at 90
Karen Matthews (AP)
16 Oct 00

NEW YORK -- Gus Hall, the Communist Party-USA boss who steadfastly stuck to
his beliefs through years in prison and the collapse of communist regimes
around the world, has died. He was 90.

Hall died Friday in Manhattan of complications relating to diabetes, Scott
Marshall, a Communist Party official, said.

A communist activist since 1926, Hall never repudiated his ideas, even
after the dissolution of Communist societies in eastern Europe and the
dismantling of the Soviet Union, events he bitterly lamented.

Hall saw the communist movement worldwide go through a variety ideological
twists and turns, many of them dictated by the Comintern, the Moscow body
that told foreign parties what to do and how to position themselves.

The U.S. version of the party was especially hard hit in the 1950s. It was
shaken at home by fierce anti-communist attacks from Sen. Joseph McCarthy,
while abroad, the denunciation of dictator Josef Stalin by his successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, called into question the very fundamentals of the party
in its home country.

Hall was in jail during much of that time. When he assumed leadership of
the party in the U.S. it was much diminished, although still used by Moscow
as a propaganda tool.

"Gus Hall will be greatly missed by the progressive movements and our
Party. Through all the turmoil of McCarthyism, the Reagan-Bush years of
attacks on labor, and the setbacks to socialism, Hall helped our party
maintained a clear, stable focus in the working class, and the people's
movements for peace, social justice and socialism," said Sam Webb,
Communist Party National Chairman. His comments were contained in a Hall
obituary on the Communist Party USA Web site.

Hall called former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and former Russian
President Boris Yeltsin "a wrecking crew."

"I did what I believe in. I believe socialism is inevitable," he said in an
interview in April 1992. "Life cannot go on forever without that step
(socialism), and setbacks don't change it."

Hall was convicted in 1949 for conspiring to teach the violent overthrow of
the federal government. He jumped bail after his arrest and fled to Mexico,
where he was arrested and sent back and was jailed for 81/2 years.

Hall, whose name became synonymous with the American communist movement,
said harassment at home ranged from FBI (news - web sites) surveillance of
the party's Manhattan headquarters to his inability to get a credit card
for many years.

He said such persecution was responsible for the decline in party
membership, from about 100,000 in the 1930s to about 15,000 in the 1990s.

In the party, Hall was known for his joviality. He ran for president four
times and never garnered even 1 percent of the vote. He blamed that on
election law requirements, which kept him off the ballot in half the states
when he last ran in 1984, polling 36,386 votes.

He wrote several books on the evils of market economics, including
"Fighting Racism," "The Crisis of U.S. Capitalism and the Fight Back" and
"Ecology: Can We Survive Capitalism?"

Hall was born Arvo Kusta Halberg in Virginia, Minn., in 1910. He was one of
10 children of Finnish immigrants. His father, often jobless because of
union activity, headed the local chapter of the Communist Party.

Hall worked as a lumberjack and a steelworker and joined the party at 16.
He studied at the Lenin Institute in Moscow from 1931-1933.

He later organized worker protests in Ohio and Minnesota, and was
frequently arrested on charges such as inciting riots.

He served in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific from 1942 to 1946.

In 1959, he was elected Communist Party chairman after his release from
prison, and he received the Order of Lenin, the highest medal in the Soviet
Union.

Before the demise of the Soviet Union, Hall traveled there about once a
year, appearing in Soviet media as an American spokesman for the poor and
disenfranchised.

In 1987, Hall received $2 million from the Soviet government for his
party's expenses, according to formerly top secret documents quoted in 1992
by The Washington Post. Payments to client parties ceased in 1990, after
anti-communist revolutions swept across eastern Europe.

More recently, his schedule was heavy with speeches at universities and
appearances on radio talk shows.

He lived in suburban Yonkers with his wife, Elizabeth, and was accepted by
neighbors.

Hall is survived by his wife; their two children, Barbara and Arvo; and
three grandchildren.

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ONGOING STORIES ON SCHOOL PRAYER

Supreme Court Vacates School Prayer Ruling: Another Step In Ending Bogus
   "Student Led" Prayer?
AANews
3 Oct 00

The U.S.  Supreme Court yesterday moved closer to a final resolution over a
controversial form of school prayer, and vacated a decision by the U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit which had allowed the
practice at high school graduation ceremonies.

The court cited its own ruling from last June in the SANTA FE INDEPENDENT
SCHOOL DISTRICT v.  DOE which struck down a similar form of orchestrated
prayer at Texas high school athletic events.  The order leave in place a
district court ruling which had upheld the prayer, but the Circuit Court
must now rehear an appeal in the case of ADLER v.  DUVAL COUNTY SCHOOL
BOARD, and use the standard in the Texas case as a guide.

Both cases involved a process whereby schools instituted policies
permitting students to choose one of their own to deliver a "message" --
usually a Christian prayer -- at a high school event.  The strategy of
having students vote on the message and its content presumably minimized
the involvement of the school system (and hence the government) in the
process, thus immunizing the activity from judicial scrutiny.  Defenders of
this practice insist that the prayer is a form of student-initiated speech
protected by the First Amendment; but critics charge that it is a
disingenuous end-run around the Establishment Clause which prohibits
government from becoming involved in promoting a religious activity.  They
also point to the coercive nature of the student-led prayer, which takes
place in settings where youngsters are usually a "captive audience."

In the controversial SANTA FE decision, the 6-3 court majority noted that
despite the veneer of student participation, it was the school that
actually facilitated and organized the event thus rendering it
unconstitutional.  Justice John Paul Stevens noted:

"The delivery of such a message -- over the school's public address system
by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school
faculty and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly
encourages public prayer -- is not properly characterized as private
speech."

That ruling overturned only one element of lower court decisions, though,
which dealt with prayers at both graduation ceremonies and athletic events.
In March, the 11th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 10-2 that a school
board policy of permitting student led prayer at graduation ceremonies did
not violate the separation of church and state.

The SANTA FE decision marked the first major foray by the high court into
the contentious area of school prayer since the 1992 LEE v. WEISMAN case
that invalidated clergy-led prayer at graduation ceremonies.  In striking
down the practice, Justice Antonin Scalia --not usually a strict
separationist -- noted the "fair and real" compulsory nature of high school
graduation rituals, and observed that in allowing the prayer government
"psychologically coerced" students to participate in a religious activity.

The Florida case began when following the LEE v.  WEISMAN ruling, the Duval
County School Board adopted a policy allowing students to deliver prayers
and other messages at commencement ceremonies.  This came after a call for
a "moment of silence" during school activities was rejected by the board in
a 4-3 vote.  There was not even the requirement that the prayers attempt to
be non-proselytizing or nonsectarian in their content.  Suit was filed by
the Florida ACLU on behalf of several students and parents on May 15, 1998
charging that the policy violated the establishment clause.  They pointed
to one commencement prayer which declared:

"Help us to understand that we must help the one who plunders in some agony
or strife, for we know it must be our Christian duty to pay heed to every
pride, and deny no soul the kindness of some need we can supply.  Lord help
us to realize that you made us all to matter to you, our maker, as well as
to each other.  These and other blessings we ask in the Lord Jesus' name.
Amen."

On March 15, 2000 the 10-2 majority of the U.S.  11th Circuit Court upheld
the school policy, saying that it rejected "the notion that the religious
content of any speech at a graduation ceremony is attributable to the
school merely because of the school's sponsorship of the event or its
control over the gradation's schedule, timing, decorum, or sequence of
events..."  The student prayer-leader was compared to a Homecoming Queen,
who, while elected by the students "cannot be characterized as a state
actor, or a representative of the state, merely because she holds a
'public' position and sits atop the Homecoming float."  This reasoning
might be challenged, though, since a Homecoming Queen who engaged in
certain forms of disreputable activity might loose her crown for bringing
disparagement or shame on the school, being a "symbol" or "representative"
of that institution.

In dissent, Senior Circuit Judge Kravitch, joined by Judge Barkett, held
that "Invoking the ideals of free student expression and referencing the
public forum doctrine do not cleanse the Duval County policy of its
constitutional defects."  They added that the policy did not "promote free
expression or render the graduation ceremony equally available for any sort
of speech -- not when it allows for only one speaker, and a speaker chosen
by majority vote at that."

End Of The Line For "Student Led" Prayer? Election Is A Factor

The decision by the U.S.  Supreme Court to vacate (overturn) the 11th
Circuit ruling suggests that the court may well want to see its reasoning
in SANTA FE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v.  DOE applied to the ADLER case,
thus ending the squabble over student-led prayer sans a direct high court
ruling.  Court watchers predicted that the Texas case could emerge as the
definitive standard regarding this form of orchestrated religious activity.

The 11th Circuit could still rule in favor of the Duval School District
though, thus possibly forcing the high court to again consider taking up
the matter at some future date.  The Supreme Court receives about 8,000
appeals a year and agrees to hear about 90; it has shown a strong interest,
though, in cases having to do with religion in public schools.

A ruling against student led prayer in the DUVAL case, however, will likely
not be the end of the matter.  Resistance to the policy could continue in
individual school districts, and school boards may attempt to "tweak" their
own regulations concerning such a policy by stipulating that the prayer
would have to be non-proselytizing and nonsectarian.

There is also the matter of the November presidential election.  The winner
of that contest is likely to be in a position of naming three, and perhaps
four justices to the U.S.  Supreme Court during his term. Texas Gov.
George W.  Bush has already proposed that any nominees from his
administration would reflect his religious conservative ideology on matters
like abortion and, likely, prayer in the public schools.

- - - - -

Another Decision On 'Student Led' Prayer As Circuit Court Backs
    Restrictions: Is 'Nonsectarian' Invocation Truly Possible?
AANews
6 Oct 00

For the second time this month, a federal court has weighed in on the
contentious issue of student-led prayer at official school events.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday
upheld a California school district which did not permit two students --
Ferrin Cole and Chris Niemeyer -- to deliver prayer recitations at their
high school graduation ceremony in 1998.  The pair sued the Oroville Union
High School District, charging that their freedom of speech had been
violated.  Mr. Niemeyer had wished to present what the court described as a
"sectarian proselytizing valedictory speech," while Cole had proposed a
"sectarian invocation."

For over fifteen years, the school district has followed a policy which
allows the graduating class to select students to deliver a "spiritual
invocation" and various speeches.  "Under the District policy..."  noted
the Ninth Circuit panel, "all student speeches and invocations for
graduation are reviewed by the principal, who has the final say regarding
their content."  The court opinion stated that the proposed prayer and
other student talks were vetted "to ensure they were not offensive or
denominational."

Both Cole and Niemeyer were repeatedly told by faculty advisors who were
helping to plan the 1998 graduation ceremony that their deliveries must be
"nondenominational" and "inclusive of all beliefs."  Both students were
also urged by the principal's office to "tone down the proselytizing and
sectarian religious references," and to "change their presentations to make
them nondenominational."  According to the court, Niemeyer submitted a
second draft of his speech which still included the original proselytizing
references to Jesus.

Despite this, the principal again met with both students "to try to
persuade them to delete the sectarian references from their proposed
presentations by making them aware the graduation was a District-sponsored
event for which the District was ultimately responsible."  The students
refused to agree to any compromise, though, and on June 4, 1998 filed suit
in district court asking for a temporary restraining order against the
school district.  The motion was denied; the court cited lack of time in
being able to render a thoughtful decision.  The following evening, June 5,
the students attended the graduation ceremony, and Niemeyer attempted to
deliver his original talk.  "Niemeyer's final proposed speech included a
statement that he was going to refer to God and Jesus repeatedly, and if
anyone was offended, they could leave the graduation."

The invocation declared, "We are all God's children, through Jesus Christ
(sic) death, when we accept his free love and saving grace in our lives..."
Other references included, "God created us," and that man's plans "will not
fully succeed unless we pattern our lives after Jesus' example."

In June, 1999, Federal District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled in favor of
the school district, and noted "The Free Exercise Clause (of the First
Amendment) does not require defendants to afford plaintiff a podium so that
he can testify to his faith in God before a captive audience."  The three
judge federal panel agreed earlier this week, writing: "Even assuming the
Oroville graduation ceremony was a public or limited public forum, the
District's refusal to allow the students to deliver a sectarian speech or
prayer as part of the graduation ceremony was necessary to avoid violating
the Establishment Clause under the principles applied in Santa Fe
Independent School District v.  Doe."

A Stronger Test On Religious Proselytizing?

Since the early 1960s, when a series of Supreme Court decisions in ENGEL v.
VITALE, ABINGTON v.  SCHEMPP, MURRAY v.  CURLETT and other cases ended
unison prayer and Bible verse recitation in public schools, the legal issue
of "student led" prayer has become a formidable challenge.  Various cases
have grappled with the problematic balance between religious expression in
schools and legitimate free speech.

* LEE v.  WEISMAN (1992).  Graduation prayer delivered by clergy was found
impermissible.

* JAGER v. DOUGLAS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (1992).  Football game
invocations ruled unconstitutional, Eleventh Circuit

* WALLACE v.  JAFFREE (1985).  A form of silent classroom prayer
disallowed.

In the 1992 case JONES v.  CLEAR CREEK SCHOOL DISTRICT, though, the Fifth
U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that graduation invocations would pass
constitutional muster if they were delivered by students, and the prayer
was "nonsectarian and nonproselytizing."

In Texas, a series of cases examined "student led" prayer at high school
graduation ceremonies and football games.  The U.S.  Supreme Court, in its
June, 2000 decision in SANTA FE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT v.  DOE ruled
on the athletic contest devotionals, finding the activity to be
unconstitutional.  On Monday, the high court vacated the ADLER v.  DUVAL
COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD case from the Eleventh U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals,
which dealt with student initiated prayer at graduation ceremonies.  The
Supreme Court told the Circuit judges to rehear the case (originally
upholding the constitutionality of the graduation invocation) using the
guidelines from the SANTA FE decision.  This could suggest that the court
might be amenable to a closer scrutiny of student-led prayer, even if it is
nonsectarian and nondenominational.

"Vanilla" Prayer, Invocations

Few seem satisfied, though, with the requirement that even student-led
prayers must be "nondenominational and nonproselytizing."  In ENGEL v.
VITALE (1962), the Supreme Court examined a practice in New York States
where a panel of self-appointed experts attempted to devise a prayer
sufficiently nondenominational and nonsectarian so as to offend no one
religious faith, while still managing to attract the attention of any
presumed deity or deities.  The court emphasized the role of the government
in this prayer-making enterprise; but it remains highly problematic that
nondenominational and nonproselytizing supplications can have any meaning,
even for the faithful.  Any prayer also offends Atheists and others who
might have serious doubts about religious creeds, or even religious people
who wish to follow the advice found in Matthew 6:5-6 which orders
Christians to avoid public displays of prayer, and instead "enter into thy
closet" and "shut the door" when praying.

- - - - -

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Case About Religious Groups' Access to Public
   Schools: 'Schools have every right to protect children from outside
   groups,' says AU's Lynn
Americans United For Separation of Church and State
10 Oct 00

The United States Supreme Court announced this morning that it will hear a
New York case regarding a Christian evangelism group that was denied
permission to use a public elementary school after classes.

The controversy began in 1996 when the Good News Club sought permission to
hold meetings at Milford Central School in Milford, N.Y., immediately after
school hours. The adult-run club, which is sponsored by a fundamentalist
church, planned to use the facility for religious lessons and worship. Club
sponsors divide young children into groups of "saved" and "unsaved," and
all  lessons encourage students' conversion to Christianity.

The school rejected the request, insisting that its policy allowing
community  use of its facility for "social, civic and recreational"
meetings does not  extend to this club.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said that the policy at
issue in Good News Club v. Milford Central School is a clear example of
school officials working to provide safeguards for young children.

"Public schools have every right to limit the use of their facilities to
protect children from outside groups," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn,
executive  director of Americans United. "This case deals with a religious
group that  targets children for evangelism. We believe the group does not
have a  constitutional right to evangelize on elementary school grounds
right after  classes end, and we hope the Supreme Court agrees."

The Good News Club's lawsuit was rejected twice in federal courts. While
the  justices have issued rulings in the past on questions about groups'
access to  school facilities, this is the first case to consider adults on
elementary  school campuses.

"It's important to note that this case deals with a narrow question and
does  not reopen the question of school-sponsored prayer," Lynn concluded.
"This is  rather a question of an outside group of adults having access to
elementary  schools."

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000 members and allied
houses of worship in all 50 states.

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REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:
It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been

Firefighters Ordered to Attend Church Services?
AANews
7 Oct 00

A lawsuit filed in U.S.  District Court charges that six firefighters in
Parma Heights, Ohio were ordered by their chief to attend a religious
service at a local Baptist Church even when they were off duty.  Municipal
Fire Chief Bryan Sloan allegedly threatened the city employees with
disciplinary action for insubordination if they did not attend a Civic
Appreciation Day ceremony at the church.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, several police officers
planned to attend the function off-duty, and receive awards from the
congregation for their public service.  No firefighters volunteered to go
on their own time though, and Shift Commander Brian Higginbotham then was
instructed the pass the word that participation was required.

"This sort of thing is just out of line," said Raymond Vasvari, legal
director of the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union.  "This is simply and
utterly against the law."  He described the religious bullying as "a
textbook violation of the First Amendment."

"The government can no more order its employees to attend church than it
can tell you or me where and when we should pray," he added.  "The decision
of whether and how to worship is intensely private, and in America no
government official, including the Fire Chief, has any business telling
anyone which church to attend."

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                        WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
   stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story7/>

Jody K. Biehl (San Francisco Chronicle), "Germany's Rampant Racism: Despite
efforts to escape the past, intolerance persists," 2 Oct 00, "Even though
Volkan Erkurt is a native Berliner, a patch of red scar tissue on the back
of his head is a constant reminder that he may never belong to German
society. Last year, four men chased Erkurt, who is of Turkish descent, from
an East Berlin disco and trampled him with steel-tipped boots before
carving a two-inch swastika and the word 'Death' across his scalp with a
pocket knife."  <1886.txt>

AP, "Activists gather at firebombed synagogue to protest suspected fascist
crime," 4 Oct 00, "Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Dusseldorf on
Tuesday to protest the Monday night firebombing of a synagogue on the eve
of celebrations marking 10 years of German unity. Police were investigating
whether the arsonists were motivated by right-wing views. No one was being
held in connection with the attack." <1887.txt>

AP, "Conference discusses return of Jewish art stolen by Nazis," 4 Oct 00,
"Lithuania's parliament voted to turn over 370 torahs to Jewish groups in a
gesture that coincided with the start of a global conference seeking the
return of Jewish artwork looted by the Nazis. The parliament voted Tuesday
to hand over the Jewish scrolls, which are now kept in a state library, to
Jewish groups and synagogues within the country." <1888.txt>

Mike Lafferty (New Jersey Dispatch), "[Skinhead] Teen charged in slaying
knew victim: Tip led police to body of 13-year-old girl in Newark park," 29
Sep 00, "Jeremy Lee Nelson and Jennifer Lucas weren't close friends, but
the two teen-agers occasionally talked on the phone and walked together
around Jennifer's north side neighborhood. During the past few days,
however, their relationship turned serious, and now Beth Lucas wants to
know why her 13-year-old daughter is dead, and why Nelson, 16, is charged
with murder." <1889.txt>

Roger Cohen (New York Times), "Signs of German nationalism are starting to
be seen: East still lags west as the nation marks the 10th anniversary of
its unification," 3 Oct 00,  "With its rediscovered national symbols, its
gracious statuary and grim wastelands, its crumbling communist-era
apartment blocks and chic cafes, this city on the Elbe provides a fitting
emblem of the ambiguities of Germany on the 10th anniversary of its
unification. The renowned Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) soars skyward,
already close to 100 feet high, after lying flattened by Allied bombs for
almost 50 years. The restoration of the Baroque wonder, to be completed by
2006, will cost $110 million. For the respected daily Frankfurter
Allgemeine, it expresses "a longing to put right the barbarity of the
past." While Dresden is a universal symbol of the horror of civilian
bombardment, the frankness of this reference to Allied "barbarity" is
indicative of a Germany more ready to speak its mind. It is a country that
talks of "national interests" and "patriotism" -- and is ready to rebuild a
church expressive of wounded German pride." <1890>

                           * * * * *

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.

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                               FASCISM:
   We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
      (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)

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