Tea Party Activism Tied to Extremists

www.peoplesworld.org October 29, 2010

Tea party activism tied to extremists

By Joel Wendland

he tea party and its Republican Party the Southwest and South, from Mesa, Arizona, to handlers are on the defensive this week Miami, Florida. According to the report, Robert- after an Institute for Research and Edu- son’s extremist, anti-immigrant views have been T cation on Human Rights report linked well-publicized. several prominent tea party leaders to extremist In 2009 “Robertson attended a tea party and openly racist organizations. event in Houston with a sign reading ‘Congress = To cite some examples, the IREHR report Slaveowner, Taxpayer = N*ggar.’” He has circu- revealed that Karen Pack, a leader of the Wood lated racist e-mails depicting President Obama as County Texas tea party in Texas, has been linked a pimp and has a record of promoting anti-Semitic to the KKK. According to the report, Pack, who is speakers on his radio program. a self-described “Christian, tea party member, a Constitutionalist and a Patriot,” has been listed as T H I S W E E K : an official supporter by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a subscriber to a periodical published by • Tea party activism tied to extremists a so-called “white patriot” organization. • Editorial: There they go again Another leader of the tea party movement is • Cook County sheriff refuses to foreclose Roan Garcia-Quintana of Mauldin, South Caro- • Entrevista a Eliseo Medina lina, who was identified as “advisor and media spokesperson” for the 2010 Tax Day tea party rally • Latino congressmen confront racism in Greenville, South Carolina. As the IREHR re- READ MORE NEWS AND OPINION DAILY AT WWW.PEOPLESWORLD.ORG port notes, Garcia-Quintana serves also as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the “direct descendant of the white Citizens Councils Head of design, marketing, and advertising that fought to defend Jim Crow segregation dur- for the Council of Conservative Citizens newslet- ing the 1950s and 1960s.” ter in Florida is Peter Gemma, who also belongs to Dale Robertson helped found, and serves as the ResistNet tea party. He is joined in that group the president of, 1776 Tea Party, which has an on- by Tucson, Arizona, native Clay Douglas, who uses line membership located in several cities across their website to promote his anti-Semitic blather-

Page 1 ings on his Free American website and radio pro- Morning Sun, one supporter of the Republican gram. Douglas is known to have blamed Jews for who had been used in campaign commercials post- the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Another ed a string of anti-Semitic comments on a news ResistNet tea party activist is Arkansas native website. Another incident in Arizona revealed fur- Billy Joe Roper, founder of a group called “White ther how vicious and violent tea party activists can Revolution.” Roper’s group favors racial segrega- get to further their cause. Rep. Raul Grijalva was tion and regularly denounces civil rights laws. forced to close a congressional office in Tucson, These groups and Virginia tea party activist, Larry Pratt was Arizona, this week after a staffer opened a let- individuals are a leading figure in the anti-government mili- ter covered with swastikas and containing what out there, and we tia movements in the 1990s, has participated in seems to have been toxic white power. ignore them at our the KKK, Aryan Nations, and so-called Christian “These groups and individuals are out there, own peril, said Identity groups, which preach, along with white and we ignore them at our own peril,” said NAACP NAACP President supremacy, that Jews are Satanic and people of President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a press Benjamin Todd color are “mud people.” statement. “They are speaking at tea party events, Jealous. Recent events not discussed in the report re- recruiting at rallies and in some cases remain in veal how far tea party supporters of Republican the tea party leadership itself. The danger is not candidates are willing to go in this election. For that the majority of tea party members share their example, the race for Michigan Attorney Gener- views, but that left unchecked, these extremists al turned ugly this week when supporters of the might indirectly influence the direction of the tea Republican candidate’s campaign lobbed anti- party and therefore the direction of our country: Semitic attacks on David Leyton, the Democratic moving it backward and not forward.” candidate. According to a story in the central Michigan Joel Wendland writes for the People’s World.

There they go again

By PW Editorial Board

ere we go again. Just like they did stroy the institution of marriage; when President Barack Obama was • the electorate concludes doctors who per- running for the White House, the Re- form legal abortions are baby killers; H publicans, now with their tea party • workers are led to feel immigrants are the allies, are throwing the kitchen sink again at their cause of high unemployment; opposition. This November they are after winning • people believe that the stimulus did not cre- The GOP is not for a majority in Congress, and then, they hope, to ate any jobs; an honest debate grab the White House in 2012. • voters draw the conclusion that because the on the issues. The GOP is not for an honest debate on the unemployed are receiving compensation, they will issues. They believe there’s a better chance of win- lack the initiative to look for a job. ning if the debate gets down and dirty. Republi- The GOP is betting on that if they get enough cans strategists believe they can win if: people to push the panic button on deficit spend- • the focus is on personal attacks and slander ing they will succeed. Indeed, with some of these instead of principal and policies; “tea baggers” any help from the federal govern- • they can confuse enough working-and-mid- ment to working people is “socialism” and there- dle-class voters with bigotry, homophobia, rac- fore should be feared and rejected. ism, religious intolerance and anti-communism; They are called “deficit hawks” but in the past • they can convince people to vote against they have run up the largest deficits ever. Even their own interests; their solution to deficits is more deficits. • people believe that Obama is against white To those who don’t see any thing worth fight- people and only favors black people; ing for in this election, but claim to be committed • they convince Americans that all Muslims to a better and more democratic society, we urge are terrorists; you to rethink your conclusions. • voters believe same sex marriage will de-

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Cook County sheriff refuses to foreclose

By Joe Sims

n a dramatic expression of public anger at the growing foreclosure crisis Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart yesterday refused to I enforce foreclosures issued by big banks. Earlier in the week, the Bank of America and GMAC mortgage announced a resumption of pro- ceedings against homeowners in 23 states. “I can’t possibly be expected to evict people from their homes when the banks themselves can’t say for sure everything was done properly,” Dart said in the statement according to CNBC. In the recession of the 1980s, sheriffs like James Trafficant of Youngstown, Ohio, made national news when refusing to foreclose on unemployed steel workers, recognition that gained him leading Democrats in the House lent their names a seat in Congress and later a federal jail cell for to the call. Officials however, took pains to indi- racketeering. cate support for holding those responsible for pos- Big banks, in a rush to foreclose on as many sible financial fraud accountable. The New York Federal and state homes as possible, urged mid-level bank officials Times writes, “Robert Gibbs, the White House investigators are to employ “robo-signing,” which means putting press secretary, said that the administration was now looking into signatures on hundreds of thousands of docu- ‘strongly supporting the investigation by the state filing criminal ments without bothering to read them. attorneys general’ while noting that the Federal charges against Driven by the demand for maximum profits, Housing Administration and Financial Fraud En- the banks for banks, says the Washington Post, “penalized pro- forcement Task Force have undertaken their own fraud. cessors if they foreclosed too slowly. The firms investigation.” that worked the quickest received bonuses from Institutional Risk Analytic’s Chris Whalen, the banks that employed them and higher marks warned of growing systemic risk. “The U.S. bank- from credit-rating agencies. According to court ing industry is entering a new period of crisis papers filed in the many cases brought against the where operating costs are rising dramatically due banks and the processors, some processing firms to foreclosures and defaults.” hired people essentially off the street to come in Growing public pressure to hold the banks ac- and sign documents.” countable and rescue homeowners on one hand, Federal and state investigators are now look- and finance capital’s need to maximize profits to ing into filing criminal charges against the banks maintain stability on the other, underlie the cur- for fraud as a movement grows for maintaining a rent contest of political wills. national moratorium on foreclosures. Meanwhile the banks’ managers will receive a The White House, treading carefully, declined four percent pay raise this year, totaling a whop- to support the moratorium demand after several ping $144 billion.

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LOCAL NEWS LOCAL CONTACT

[email protected] Entrevista a Eliseo Medina

Por Pepe Lozano Latino congressmen eople’s World y Mundo y que lo continuarán haciendo. Los confront racism Popular entrevistó a Eliseo trabajadores quieren hacer oír su voz, Medina, el destacado orga- para hacer saber que lo que hacen P nizador y defensor de los tiene valor, que son respetados por su derechos de los inmigrantes, y aquí diario trabajo. By Vivian Weinstein sus impresiones. Medina reciente- “Las cosas para la gente traba- mente ha sido elegido el primer Sec- jadora están malas”, dice él. “Ahora retario-Tesorero latino de la poderosa hay más millonarios que nunca y poca U.S. congressman told a group of organización sindical Service Em- gente es parte de la clase media. La students here that tea party pro- ployees International Union (SEIU). mayor parte de la gente está vivien- testers in Washington, D.C., had Medina nació en Zacatecas- do debajo de la línea de la pobreza, urged he and a colleague to “go A México, vino legalmente a Estados mientras vivimos en la era de maximi- back to Mexico.” Unidos con sus padres que se aco- zar las ganancias a cualquier costo”. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa gave a talk at the gieron al programa Braceros para Se requiere una coalición popu- University of Texas-Pan American on Octo- trabajar en los campos del Valle San lar más grande, el movimiento obrero ber 18, when he brought the story to light. Joaquín, California. A los 19 años de no puede hacer este trabajo solo, dice A reporter from the Rio Grande Guardian edad Medina, un recogedor de uvas, Medina. Y agrega: “Tenemos que aso- picked up the story. The Texas AFL-CIO sent tomó parte en la famosa huelga de ciarnos con otros sindicatos, con la it out to all the state’s union activists. los trabajadores granjeros unidos de comunidad, con grupos civiles o re- Hinojosa said, as he and Rep. Silvestre 1965, que dirigió César Chávez. ligiosos, así como con organizaciones Reyes made their way to the House of Repre- En 1986 Medina se afilio al SEIU, de los derechos de las mujeres, orga- sentatives, there was a tea party rally against y ayudó a revivir el sindicato local lo- nizaciones defensoras del medio am- major health and higher education legisla- grando aumentar su membrecía de biente que participan de una visión de tion. Five tea party members stopped them 1.700 a 10.000 en cinco años. una mejor sociedad.” and asked if they were congressmen. When Hoy Medina está dirigiendo al Medina está convencido que el they replied “yes” and that they were from sindicato SEIU y al movimiento sindi- Presidente Obama cree en lo que dice. Texas, the five white men shouted, “Why cal en general en tres aéreas: la lucha “Después de todo el fue elegido presi- don’t you go back to Mexico?” para organizar trabajadores, la lucha dente y no rey”. Y la agenda presiden- The Rio Grande Guardian reporter por conseguir trabajo para todos y la cial tiene que tener el visto bueno, no wrote, “The audience gasped!” after hearing lucha por una reforma inmigratoria solo de los republicanos en el Con- the story. completa. greso, sino de las mayores corpora- It was widely reported in March that tea Durante esta entrevista tele- ciones y de Wall Street, todo lo cual party protesters accosted congressmen with fónica, Medina indicó que se siente es una fuerza difícil de vencer, dice racist and anti-gay epithets as the House extremadamente homenajeado y hu- Medina.“Tarde o temprano vamos a convened to vote. milde que sus colegas le hayan escogi- ganar y el cambio va a suceder aun House Majority Whip James Clyburn of do para esta nueva misión. Medina después de las elecciones”, él dice. South Carolina told the Huffington Post that indica que los latinos están jugando “Porque yo creo que cada generación the tea party abuse “was absolutely shocking un mayor rol en el movimiento obrero tiene que luchar por su libertad”. to me.” The anti-Latino, anti-immigrant ha- rassment came at the same time. Hinojosa told the story to explain the challenges confronting Latino, Black and NATIONAL CONTACT women elected officials to get Republicans to support legislation that addresses needs Editorial: (773) 446-9920 Business: (212) 924-2523 for these constituents. Email: [email protected]