NP "What is Fascism?"

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:36 PM
Subject: Re: NP "What is Fascism?"
>
> I agree that the bans are
> repressive and encroach on basic human rights (freedom of expression,
> freedom of religion etc), and I'm surprised to see many pseudo-socialists
> cheerfully supporting such an obviously right-wing initiative as this one.
> Next thing you know they'll be applauding the sending "home" of all those
> Dutch and German "guest workers".
>
> best
>

1. According to German law you have no freedom of expression in a German
school. German pupils are under a "special power relationship" (besonderes
Gewaltverhältnis) -- like prisoners and soldiers. They are not free to leave
school and their freedom of speech is limited.

2. What socialists are supporting is the freedom of every Muslim girl *not*
to be forced to wear a head-scarf or a veil in public, not to be forced to
marry old men because the family wants it. Neither head-scarf nor veil are
religious symbols but political symbols of suppression and I see no reason
why these repressive symbols should be allowed to enter our schools.

3. The freedom of religion isn't touched at all by the new French law, but
the school isn't the appropriate place to express it -- that's the church,
the mosque or the synagogue.

4. The 26,000 Dutch "guest workers" you're alluding to aren't guest workers
but people who came as refugees but haven't been accepted as asylum seekers
according to the EU-laws. You shouldn't mess up the terminology.

"Political opposition has come from the green-left GroenLinks, the Socialist
Party and the small Christian party Christen Unie, which called for more
asylum-seekers be given an amnesty."
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=492410

The Netherlands have a very high population density (477 per km²), so I can
at least understand the decision from this point of view. Compare this to
Germany: 230 per km², or Australia: 2,5 per km².

5. Germany will not send home any "guest workers" at all -- all those
Turkish families who have come here legally in the 60's and 70's will stay
if they want. And as soon as Turkey becomes a member of the EU all other
Turks will be free to choose any place in any European country they like.
That's what EU means. And I will be free to live in the Netherlands or Spain
as an old-age pensioner. Good thing!

None of the Vietnamese guest-workers from the former DDR has been forced to
leave Germany after the re-unification. Same with the so-called boat-people
who have fled communist Vietnam.

Otto