    White Nationalists - a possible ally?

    By Joh Domingo

    Today we talk about things unthinkable a few years ago. Tomorrow we will
    do things unthinkable today. Struggle is theatre, and the Palestinian
    struggle has become the Broadway of the liberation movement. This
    struggle has moved from the seedy halls to become a smash hit because
    they have the benefit of the greatest publicity machine of all time, the
    Jewish dominated Mass Media of the United States. All that remains is
    the final act, with its incredible finale.

    Common wisdom has it that Israel was conceived as a response to Racism,
    and has morphed into the Racist monster we see today. For many liberals,
    to oppose Zionism is to oppose Racism; is to oppose anti-Semitism. But
    they fail to see the intricate relationship between Nationalism and
    Racism. While Nationalism can be both a positive and negative natural
    force, Racism is a totally negative construct feeding on negative
    ethnocentric sentiments and involves acts of dispossession and the
    subjugation of others. Racism is a denial of the valid opposing claims
    of others and requires the absence of a nationalist consciousness in
    opposition to it. It can survive for centuries, providing those
    oppressed by Racism accept the frame of reference provided by the
    Racist. Absent this condition, Racism falters against the resistance
    provided by a countervailing nationalist consciousness. For this reason;
    true Racist always has to ensure that the distinction between Racism and
    Nationalism is obscured. An individual asserting that he as good as any
    is piddling compared to a homogeneous group asserting their PRIDE in
    their cultural heritage. Asserting your pride in your cultural heritage
    does not carry with it a need that others be ashamed of theirs.

    Antisemitism can mean many things: from acute hatred of Jews, to
    objection to Jewish cultural domination, to mild mockery of Jewish
    values. But what is nationalism, if not the mocking of those that mock
    you, thereby building up the antibodies to protect you from the scourge
    of Racism? Examined in this light, the cry of "antisemitism" can be seen
    to be the ultimate racist tool, designed to ensure the domination of a
    racist discourse.

    Because of the deliberate skewing of the discourse as cover for Racist
    domination, we are led to believe that someone championing the virtues
    of his ethnic background is the same as someone promoting the idea of
    the racial domination of others. Hence, anyone providing context that
    presents his race in a positive light, as opposed to a competing
    culture, is equated with the worst Racist Supremacist doctrines of the
    Apartheid and Nazi regimes. At the same time, a Racist Oppressor can be
    presented as an enlightened humanist if he hides his nationalism while
    denouncing the thoughts of competing nationalists. Yitzhak Rabin, a
    racist supremacist if there ever was one, who presided over the deaths
    and torture of tens of thousands, is presented as a saint next to David
    Duke, the ex-Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who struggles to maintain
    his livelihood and culture in his own land. While it is true that the
    KKK are rogues, and have proven that they are capable of sliding into
    Racist atrocities of a Rabin given the opportunity; a comparison fails
    the equivalency test. Rabin is lauded and presented as champion of
    enlightenment, while the ex-Grand Wizard struggles to even find voice
    amongst his own kind and is completely marginalized in his own country.

    Even the worse Racist in South Africa never tried to squeeze the life
    out of African Society. Apartheid was monstrous, but it was never
    Ethnocide. It is a triumph of Zionist propaganda that they have managed
    to convince us that they are merely as bad as Jim Crows America. It is a
    triumph that they have managed to limit us to comparing Zionism with
    Apartheid. Such a comparison is an insult - to Apartheid. I don't make
    this statement lightly, Desmond Tutu and Mandela; Alistair Sparks and
    Ronnie Kasrils have said similar things.

    The dominant Racist Supremacists always speak of "self-determination"
    and "preserving the culture" of their opponents. They speak of "peace"
    and "living side by side in harmony", but their multiculturalism is
    nothing but cover for the suppression of a competing force.
    Subconsciously accepting that their own nationalism was a powerful force
    in subjugating their opponents, they seek to deprive them of the same
    weapon by appealing to the outrage of the oppressed. They champion the
    rights of the oppressed in words, while remaining ever vigilant against
    the expression of a competing nationalism. Such expressions of
    opposition, is "bad" nationalism, while their openly Racist supremacy is
    considered "accidental", "inevitable" and "self-preservation". Always,
    the dominant supremacist maintains that his nationalism is a product of
    historical circumstance while the nationalism of the dominated is the
    product of wrong thinking and evidence of their backwardness, bigotry
    and hatred.

    Such is the dialectic enforced by the strong. Having achieved their
    position by virtue of their nationalism, they relegate it to its basest
    level and deny access to it to their opponents. Having misused it to
    their own ends, they now denounce their strongest converts, and proclaim
    it an evil, to be opposed by all right thinking people, and especially
    to be denied its utilization by their opponents.

    But resistance is at its core the application of pressure. We know that
    when the bleating gets loudest, the pressure is being applied correctly.
    Nationalism has time and time again proven itself to be a particularly
    effective form of pressure on a dominant Racist Regime.

    Zionism is dispossession; dispossession is an integral part of Racism.
    Nationalism without dispossession is a legitimate countervailing force
    against other competing nationalism. Antisemitism of White Nationalists
    (called White Supremacy by their adversaries) is a reaction to Jewish
    racist assertion in White societies. As such, it is a mild form of
    nationalism. From a White-Nationalist point of view, it can be seen to
    be a moral imperative and necessary to combat the Jewish war against
    their values and heritage. They do, after all, compete to occupy the
    same space.

    Let me tell you how frustrating it was dealing with White liberals in
    South Africa who championed racial equality but denied their own racism.
    In the end, it was better to ignore white liberals altogether and adopt
    racist attitudes toward them. Only then was the struggle able to
    escalate, proving clearly that they had been a ballast all along. White
    Afrikaner supremacists were indispensable allies once they decided to
    cross over. They had no qualms about smuggling weapons, stealing weapons
    from Military armory's and generally engaging in sabotage. Today, these
    Afrikaners still live in South Africa and support a vibrant opposition
    party. In the end, the liberals left South Africa once privilege ended,
    the Afrikaners remained. As a Black Man who has resisted White Supremacy
    for most of my life, I am now sympathetic to White Nationalists. It was
    a White Nationalist who in the end handed Mandela the keys to the
    Presidential suite, without conditions.

    It is valid for Palestine, too. It is not necessary that the Palestinian
    struggle be conducted on a lily-white sheet. David Duke was the grand
    Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. They hanged black people from tree trunks.
    What they did was however small change compared to what the Ku Klux
    Knesset does on a daily basis. Today the White Nationalists are
    downtrodden and discriminated-against people in America. Yet, their
    ideas have a resonance with many Americans, especially on the Palestine
    issue. Don't underestimate the ideological pull of these hillbillies
    with library cards. The can make a big difference where it counts the
    most - with the average WASP. From what I remember, WASP's are still a
    majority in the States.

    What does not have a place in the Palestinian struggle, is an
    ideological agenda. Zionists are not particular about who supports them,
    so why should Palestinians be reliant on a bogus ideological
    cleanliness? It makes little difference whether the Palestinians enjoy
    the support of ADL-affected communities. These communities provide
    nothing of value to the Palestinian struggle. In fact they provide
    material assistance to the enemy. Yet the friends of Palestine pretend
    to cringe at the mere thought of occupying political space with deluded
    nationalists. They may be even supremacists, but they provide another
    avenue by which the enemy can be engaged. Engaging the enemy on every
    conceivable front is what struggle is all about. Ideology is secondary.

    The White groups on the right are not all the same, and they not all
    subscribe to the same philosophies. I am convinced that the brush is
    applied far too widely and liberally. I have corresponded with a few,
    and I find them to be courteous and intelligent. Quite the opposite of
    the rabid racist bigot. They always concede a point well made and are
    content to rest on genuine differences of opinion. Joe Sobran is a great
    guy and always takes the time and effort to respond comprehensively and
    interestingly. I also find some of their prose about the Middle East and
    Palestine, to be the most passionate around. Most genuinely admire the
    Palestinians for doing what they failed to do - resist, adapt and
    survive against a vile and vicious hate campaign. There is a genuine
    solidarity with the Palestinians amongst disaffected white people. As
    genuine as yours or mine is. It does not serve any purpose to question
    their motives, they are quite clear about them: they support the
    Palestinians because the Palestinians are engaged in direct action
    against a common enemy. The fact that you or I are opposed to White
    Supremacy is quite irrelevant. It is not White Racist Supremacist
    oppressing Palestinians. If I were a Palestinian, the White Nationalists
    would be my legitimate ally. After all, those White Nationalists write
    great prose and have the ability to influence far more people where it
    counts.

    On the other hand, I have found anti-Zionist Jewish people (with some
    notable exclusions) on my correspondence list to be extremely annoying
    because of their penchant to obscure obvious circumstances while
    compiling dirges in a vain attempt to throw people off the scent.
    Instead of acknowledging patent realities regarding Jewish individuals
    at the heart of influence in the US administration, and then putting
    your views regarding it, a ridiculous attempt is made to smear the
    content of an article like that of Mr. Shamir's as latent Nazism.
    Whether we are incorrect and flirt with an anti-Semite canard is a tenth
    order issue for both Israeli Jews and Palestinians. I have taken the
    trouble to read Shamir's body of work and can vouch that they are
    inspirational. He is an extremely talented writer and uses words to
    great effect. His vision of a future Palestine/Israel is a refreshing
    departure from the rutted, stilted and ideologically driven drivel that
    passes for discourse on this issue. I would even go so far as to defend
    his use of anti-Semitic imagery, it is a valid posture-buster and
    certainly more effective than an AK47. Like all of us, his ideas can be
    considerably cleansed of incorrect thoughts. But that is his greatest
    gift - his ability to communicate at every level and bust through -
    despite incorrect thoughts. Cleansing is not always desirable and would
    place his writing beyond the reach of all but the most pure amongst us.
    Purists always fail when they ultimately discover what Shamir
    instinctively knows, that none of us are pure. But we can at least be
    honest with ourselves. You cannot help the Palestinians until you can
    free Israeli Jews from the stultifying Boot of Diaspora Jewry. You
    cannot lead from behind. Shamir might just be the vanguard of an Israeli
    liberation movement, its liberation from racist Jewry.

    All people have strange and wonderful traditions. It is the therapy of
    the times to subsume oneself and experience a diversity of cultural
    traditions. Nationalism, properly defined, is the celebration of one's
    own kind and the mocking of another. It is a common human characteristic
    and is hardwired to our DNA. One does not acquire nationalism, it comes
    with the package and it was vital to the early survival of human
    communities. We would not have been here if it were not for nationalism.
    In some situations, it still has a valid and vital function.

    However it is chemically triggered, it is clear that its occurrence is
    proportional to the level of threat to our own culture and identity.
    Remove that threat and over time the ethnocentric trigger is deactivated
    and replaced by other "in-group" triggers. Any historical analysis of
    Jewish nationalism, whatever slant one wished to put on it, reveals a
    steady flow of the activation of triggers and counter-triggers as Jewish
    communities wrestled with the twin demons of Supremacy and antisemitism.
    That one feeds off the other has been the observation of many
    historians. If Jews think that they were superior, chosen by God, many
    people also think that they are superior. For many, the only defence to
    such an attitude is to mock those that think this way, and to celebrate
    their own superiority. It is primordial; it is instinctive; and it
    works.

    In organized political terms, it is called Group Consciousness. Stokely
    Carmichael was one of the first proponents of this approach. He
    developed it as a result of observing the sorry state Black people had
    been reduced to by centuries of slavery, dispossession and ridicule. It
    came to be known as "Black Consciousness" and was a culmination and
    synthesis of the ideas of many earlier Black thinkers in Africa, the
    United States and The West Indies. It was given an expression by Malcolm X
    who, in an earlier trip to Africa, began to urge that the Black
    struggle be conducted using any means necessary. The most practical
    demonstration of its effectiveness was in the early 1970's when a young
    Black Medical Student called Steven Biko, then a black representative on
    the executive of the mostly White National Union of South African
    Students, unreservedly adopted its principles. In a sudden turnaround,
    he led the Black Student caucus in a walkout of NUSAS to found the South
    African Students Organization (SASO) and the corresponding Black Peoples
    Convention (BPC). He unilaterally cut off ALL political contact with
    White South Africans from the Liberation Struggle, arguing that White
    activists carried too much political baggage and were hindering, rather
    than advancing, the liberation of the Black People in South Africa. By
    holding up positive white cultural attributes as a desirable yardstick
    for Black People to emulate, they were in fact emasculating legitimate
    Black anti-Racist expression. He began to mock White people generally
    and agitate for a defiant Black anti-Racist discourse. The results were
    astonishing. Within 14 months, (after 90 years of failing to achieve any
    significant uprising by the Black indigenous population), South Africa
    was in flames and ungovernable. By 1976, Biko was dead, murdered by the
    South African Regime, but South Africa was never to be the same again.
    There were no "ISMS" in his campaign. It was pure affirmation. The goal
    was to make it possible to decide the future, not to create a utopian
    society. Dark was no longer "evil", and white "good". In fact, the
    opposite was the case. White people were devils.

    Naturally, Steve did not really believe this, but it is what he taught.
    There were no complicated speeches given and philosophical treatise
    written. The medium of communication was song, and dance, and poetry. It
    electrified the people. They sang the songs on the trains, at work,
    everywhere. The white man did not understand the words that said "watch
    out, I am going to kill you." The "Toyi Toyi" (the enduring image of
    Black South African protest marches) terrified the young White
    conscripts and they wet their pants. It was a national joke. They
    laughed even amidst the tragedy of slain friends and comrades. Young
    White friends were asked to leave public meetings. It was pure
    nationalism. Black Activists were roundly condemned for their Racism,
    even by other Blacks: "is this the way to fight Racism" it was asked;
    "by being racist yourself?"

    But it was not Racism; it was nationalism. The most effective weapon
    there is against Racism; which is the dispossession of your property,
    your liberty and your identity. When Apartheid crumbled, the trigger
    lapsed as suddenly as it had appeared. The need to destroy another's
    identity to regain yours vanished. You already had it.

    There is definitely a problem when you can celebrate your cultural
    particularity only in the absence of other cultural identities. When
    affirmation can only come at the expense of forcing another to disavow
    theirs or the parts you take offence to. Mocking another culture is the
    essence of Nationalism. Cultural hegemony is the essence of colonialism.
    Calling an Individual a "Nazi" for his instinctive reaction to a
    nationalist trigger is ignorance about the true nature of Racism, and
    the cure for it, which is cultural affirmation, "consciousness" or
    "nationalism".

    Joh Domingo is a South African born Muslim with roots in the full
    spectrum of the varied racial mix that makes up the South African
    milieu. His background traverses the divide between his traditional
    African tribal kin and the rich cultural influences of colonial East
    Asia. His maternal grandfather was the sibling of a Methodist Scottish
    priest, and was a Methodist priest himself. His paternal grandfather was
    an indentured Indian sugar cane worker from Madras, India who provides
    him his religious background. He married a South African born
    Chinese/African Christian and has two adult Daughters and a teenaged
    son.

    Joh cut his political teeth during the upheaval of 1970's South African
    revolution. He was the inaugural President of the Black Students Society
    at the University of the Witwatersrand, in 1974 and held that post until
    1977. During this period he also served as editor in chief of the
    society's magazine "By Ministerial Consent" (a reference to the
    Government permission required for a Black Person to attend a White
    University in Apartheid South Africa.). He was a member of both the
    South African Students Organisation and the Black Peoples Convention.
    His studies were cut short in 1977 after his consent to attend
    university and his Scholarship were withdrawn. In 1980 he married his
    childhood sweetheart and in 1985 they left South Africa after being
    granted permission to migrate to Australia. Joh is a Building Contractor
    in Brisbane, Australia. He still believes that the "Black Consciousness"
    Soweto Uprising of 1976 was the defining moment in the demise of the
    Apartheid System, paving the way for the broader based African National
    Congress, which had been rendered moribund by ideological battles, to
    re-energize itself and exert its more experienced political leadership.
    There is little doubt in his mind that political change begins at the
    grassroots level. His email johd7894@hotmail.com