NEWSPAPER OF THE JOHN BROWN ANTI-KLAN COMMITTEE P.O. Box 406 Peter Stuyvesont Station, New York, N.Y. 10009 JUNE. 1985 NO. 5 A 1> » VJhat's Behind The . 'if-• White American Dramatic, coast-to-coast arrests of doz• ens of KKK and neo-nazi "warriors" have focused national awareness on the exist• ence of a fascist underground inside the US. From every corner of the country, an image of this secret army, called the Silent Brotherhood, the Order, or the White American Bastion is emerging. It is a pic• ture of a heavily armed and well-financed paramilitary movement whose goal is the violent creation of an all-white Aryan country in America. Moving beyond rhe• toric into action, its members have already left a bloody trail that stretches from the ^IhebrscstfMlke MM off-duty cops protest the manslaughter indictment of Stephen Sullivan, Pacific northwest to the Mexico border k snmbnotber. states and deep south. In April, 1985, a federal RICO (racke• teering) indictment against 23 members of the White American Bastion (WAB) charged them with, among other things: • the machine gun execution of Alan I • a series of commando robberies of Brink!s trucks and-banks on the west nation's largest faafe a jril Slack people. And among white people, Three days before Christmas, on the coast which netted over $4 million <eTif«: of murders A^h'scft -tUMTeniote the demonstrations, pickets and the bombii^' heels of the Bumpurs slaying, came Bern- • shootouts with FBI and police agents !^4>l^^k:ial racism: of the PBA"(Patrohnen's Benevolent As• hard Goetz—the "Death Wish Vigilante." • bombing a Boise, Idaho, synagogue ;a«ned«hite men rally in the sociation) have put the fight against killer From the outs^, the facts of this case were • a counterfeiting operation streets demanding the right to-kill Black cops back on the agenda for all progressive ignored as Goetz was hero-worshipped by • the murder of an informer people with impunity, people. the press, the Mayor and numerous celeb• • stockpiling large amounts of automatic Four young -Black men shot down in a Two Years of Outrage rities, His shooting of the four Black teen• weapons, grenades, and explosives. "-modern day lynching and millions of The present situation began in Sep• agers he^ claimed were trying to rob him continued on page 6 people across the country shout their tember, 1983, with the murder of Michael of $5.00 was presented to all as a spon• approval. Stewart. Stewart, a 25 year old Black artist taneous act of individual courage. Widespread police use of electric cattle was arrested by Transit police at a subway The truth of the situation—that Goetz prods (stun guns) tatorture Third World station and beaten to death while in their was an active right-winger who had talked prisoners, custody. The Medical Examiner, Eliot about getting rid of the "s— and n—" in • A pattern of collusion and cover-up of Gross, lied about the cause of his death. building co-op meetings—was downplayed ...... V i police murder by city officials is exposed The cops stonewalled, the D.A. granted or buried in the press. Leaked grand jury on the front pages of the daily press. immunity to most of the cops involved, testimony revealed eyewitness reports that If you think this is a revival of the pro- and the indictments were dropped against the youths he shot had been rowdy, but Klan movie. Birth of a Nation, or a scene the others on a technicality. As the Stewart had not threatened anyone. We now know from the pre-civil rights South, look again. family pressed on demanding justice for that Goetz entered an uncrowded car and It is New York City in 1985. their murdered son, Michael Stewart be• sat down right next to the youths. He The armed demonstrators were off duty came a symbol to the Black community of later publically stated that he had prepared cops. They massed in what one eyewitness the hundreds of Black and Puerto Rican himself by making mental notes of a pos• described as "a chilling show of force; as youth murdered by "New York's Finest." sible shooting pattern that could take close to fascism as anything I've ever seen." Demonstrations were held throughout the down all four youths. At the point when They were protesting the manslaughter city, lawsuits were filed, and in spite of iall Goetz claimed the teenagers menacingly indictment of Stephen Sullivan, the cop the efforts of the establishment to sweep asked for $5, he put his plan into action. who killed Eleanor Bumpurs, a 67-year- the case under the rug, it simply would After shooting all four, two of them in the old Black woman, while evicting her from not go away. back, he stalked one and shot him again her apartment. Then in November, 1984, came an inci• saying, "You don't look so bad, here's The lynching was done with a gun in• dent of police terror which shocked even another." Goetz later boasted that he stead of a rope, and by one man, Bemhard the most callous. Emergency Service cops wished he'd gouged their eyes out with his Goetz, instead of a mob. (the elite tactical force used to attack keys. The Black community is mobilizing demonstrations) were called in to help The incident was used by the press and against racist terror; and the Mayor is evict a 67 year old Black woman, Eleanor the police to portray the entire Black scrambling to defuse the issue. Into the Bumpurs, who was a few months behind community as criminals and legitimize already overflowing reservoir of Black in her rent. She was 300 pounds, arthritic, terror and repression. It is the police who "Pastor" Richard Butler, head of Aryan anger against police violence has come a diabetic, and could hardly get around. are the real beneficiaries of "Goetzmania" Nations combination of events which are splitting Eleven police broke down her door and for it justifies and popularizes their current New \ferrk right down the middle. when she resisted—they claim she came rampant violence. at them with a kitchen knife—she was "Goetz" has become a code word for Continuing to ignore the facts, the local Jn This Issue... racism and there is virtually no one with• shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun and and national media whipped up the racist out an opinion. While these events have klMed^nsiahtly. Then her nu<krbody was fears of the white community to near hys• helped consolidate the police and a racist left on the sidewalk until the ambulance teria. Story after story focused on "crime The Black Nation in Struggle base of support for them, they have also came. in the streets" and the need for more police ~ Black people and anti-racist white New York's new Black police commis• to "deter crime." The cops took up collec• International: pie to take action. sioner, Benjamin Ward, did what he was tions for Goetz's defense and a sticker Lebanon & Azania In contrast to the racist mobilization, hired to do and said the police had done appeared in the precincts: "a mugger de• John Brown at Harper's Ferry past year has also seen a heightening nothing wrong; but the Black community serves what he Goetz." Guardian Angels political activity in the Black movement was outraged. There were marches, com• leader Curtis Sliwa sent his (mostly Black Know Your Enemy identifies the police as the enemy of munity meetings, angry calls for justice. continued on page 2 RSVP RSVPTOTHEFBI [On being subpoenaed to give information, to a Federal Grand Jury investigating revolutionarv movements inside the USA) Thank you for handing me this invitation to talk to you But I am otherwise engaged. Thank you for offering me this opportunity to have a heart to heart with the murderers of Martin Luther King and Fred Hampton, not to mention Crazy Horse Michael Stewart and Eleanor Bumpurs and the nameless nnillions who do have and will have names But I am otherwise engaged. Thank you for inviting me New Afrikan People's Organization leads first demonstration to sit down with the brothers of the somocistas at Goetz court appearance. (as you describe yourselves) their long knives eager KillOr Cops, from page 1 for the blood of teachers ' ' ' • and Puerto Rican) gang into the subways the blood of nuns collecting funds for Goetz. Sliwa, a master the blood of Sandino of publicity, then threw $5 in change on which is right now running the hospital bed of Darrell Cabey, one of bright like a river in the veins of young ' the youths shot by Goetz who lay para• Nicaragua lyzed and in a coma. Joan Rivers an• But I am otherwise engaged. nounced that Goetz had joined Jerry Thank you for giving me this opportunity Falwell in her list of heroes. And San to spit on the graves of Sacco and Varcetti Francisco supervisor Carol Ruth Silver to dishonor the memory of the Rosenbergs stated that Goetz exemplified the right of or of my ex father in law the working class to self-defense. who spent 10 years not being an actor rather than 10 minutes being a collaborator The extent of the campaign in support of Goetz became apparent when Time, But I am otherwise engaged. Newsweek, the Wall St. Journal, Der Thank you for inviting me to run with the Spiegel and the London Times all rallied hounds to his defense. Within weeks Goetz had howling through the ruined cities trying to hunt down the become an international symbol of the fear FALN, theBLA and hatred white society directs toward Bernhard Goetz Phil Caniso, president of PEA, Stephen Sul• the ten or the hundred most wanted the oppressed Third World populations livan (white shirt, dark tie) and Emergency most ready and willing and able .