PFLP condemns Jo Cox assassination
PFLP condemns the assassination of British MP Jo Cox and calls to confront racism and fascism Jun17 2016
jo-cox-pal The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemned the assassination of the British Labour MP Jo Cox at the hands of a British racist extremist, emphasizing the need to address the racist discourse of colonial powers, and to confront the growing threat of fascism and the extreme right in Europe and around the world.
The PFLP considers that the attack on MP Jo Cox, a supporter of Palestinian rights, and other progressive voices, as well as repeated attacks on refugee centers in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, are not isolated incidents or mere security concerns, but rather reflect an intensified state of extreme right ideology and sharp polarization in the industrialized Western societies. The Front urges Palestinian and Arab communities to build broad alliances to confront these crimes and defend the people against attack.
The Front declared that the world capitalist system, led by the United States as the center of imperialism, is responsible for the rising manifestations of fascism in Europe. Capitalism and imperialism destroy communities, peoples and countries, and create millions of refugees and migrants from among the displaced popular classes, and then these same systems encourage a racist offensive and represses those who defend their human and natural rights.
The PFLP said that there is no difference between the racist criminal who killed MP Jo Cox and the Zionist criminal who ran over and killed the struggling American martyr for Palestine, Rachel Corrie, in Gaza in March 2003.
Jo Cox suspect had ties to pro-apartheid and neo-Nazi groups
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| MP Jo Cox |
Thomas Mair’s earliest apparent connections to the far right date back to a time when there were still parts of the world ruled by white supremacists.
In the mid-1980s, the man who is now suspected of fatally shooting and stabbing the Labour MP Jo Cox, was subscriber number 1,201 to SA Patriot, a magazine published by supporters of apartheid in South Africa.
Alan Harvey, SA Patriot’s editor now living in “exile” in the UK, wrote recently on an online newsletter that Londoners had “brought shame and humiliation” on Britain by “electing a non-white Muslim”, Sadiq Khan, as mayor.
He told the Financial Times on Friday that SA Patriot was “neo-imperialist” rather than “neo-Nazi”. “We were not rightwing enough for a lot of people,” he said. Mr Mair took only eight or nine issues before letting his subscription lapse.
By 1999, Mr Mair’s leanings appear to have shifted still further to the right. That year, his name appeared on invoices from the National Alliance, a US neo-Nazi group.
Among the texts Mr Mair ordered to be sent to his Yorkshire address were a book on improvised munitions and a copy of a Nazi Party pamphlet with a section written by Joseph Goebbels.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the US civil rights group that published the invoices on Friday, said its database indicated Mr Mair had sent $620 to the National Alliance in total.
There seems little to indicate whether Mr Mair had any links to the far-right in the years that followed. He lived in a nondescript semi-detached house on the Fieldhead estate in Birstall. He appears to have suffered mental ill-health. According to a 2010 local press report, he was referred from a centre for adults with mental health problems to tend a country park as a volunteer.
Duane St Louis, Mr Mair’s half brother, told reporters he had mental problems, which he believed to be obsessive compulsive disorder. Scott Mair, his brother, said Mr Mair was a peaceful man without strong political views. “My brother is not a violent man,” he was quoted as saying. “We don’t even know who he votes for.”
Two police officers remained on guard outside Mr Mair’s semi-detached house on the Fieldhead estate in Birstall. He lived in the red brick home on his own. The gardens are neatly maintained with topiary bushes and there are net curtains in the windows. There is a drive to the side with a row of garages. It backs on to an industrial estate.
Labour politician who was born and slain in the Yorkshire town she represented
Fieldhead was built after the second world war and is home to several hundred families. There is a row of shops and a primary school. The local housing association still owns many properties but some have been sold privately. An older three bedroom home costs around £90,000.
There are also newer homes. In 2011 a charity secured government funding to demolish 150 flats that were hard to let and had been plagued by antisocial behaviour. Kirklees Community Association replaced them with 77 family homes. Housebuilder Keepmoat built a further 62 homes for private sale.
According to unconfirmed witness accounts, Ms Cox’s assailant shouted “Britain first” or “put Britain first” during the attack. The far-right Britain First group said it was “obviously … not involved and would never encourage behaviour of this sort”.
Nothing suggesting Mr Mair was actively involved with a particular group has emerged.
Another Yorkshireman, a British National Party member and former soldier called Terence Gavan, was jailed for six years in 2010 over a homemade arsenal of explosives and firearms, including nail bombs and a booby-trapped cigarette, that could have been used to attack Muslims.
Gavan wrote in one notebook discovered by police: “The patriot must always be ready to defend his country against enemies and their governments.’’
The North Kirklees area, home to both Gavan and Mr Mair, was described as the “jewel in the crown” of BNP support in the mid-2000s by former leader Nick Griffin. It had three councillors there and captured 3,685 votes — 7.1 per cent — in Batley and Spen in the general election 2010.
However, the local BNP branch folded in 2013. David Exley, a former BNP councillor who lives in Birstall, told the FT that many activists quit because of Mr Griffin’s leadership. “He was just in it for himself,” he said. He said the killing of Ms Cox was “terrible”. “She was democratically elected and she should be allowed to do her job.”
Some BNP activists left for the English Democrats, he said, while others supported the UK Independence party. The BNP did not contest Batley and Spen, Ms Cox’s constituency, in 2015.
Source:FT
Suspected killer of British MP Jo Cox had ties to neo-Nazis in US
By Reuters and VICE News
June 17, 2016 | 3:20 pm
The man arrested over the shooting and stabbing murder of British parliamentarian Jo Cox had ties to a neo-Nazi group in the United States, and had bought guides on assembling homemade guns and explosives, according to a US-based civil rights watchdog that tracks hate groups.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published records showing that Thomas Mair, 52, who allegedly shot and stabbed Cox multiple times Thursday, was a "longtime supporter of the National Alliance" (NA), once known as the US's premier neo-Nazi organization.
Mair reportedly spent more than $620 on books and literature from NA, including guides titled "Improvised Munitions Handbook," "Chemistry of Powder & Explosives," and "Incendiaries," according to receipts published by SPLC.
The receipts also showed Mair purchased a copy of Ich Kampfe — German for "I do battle" or "I struggle," and an obvious reference to Adolf Hilter's Mein Kampf —a handbook issued to new enrollees in the Nazi party in the early 1940s.
Mair also subscribed to S. A. Patriot, a South African magazine published by pro-apartheid group White Rhino Club, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Cox, a 41-year-old lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and a vocal advocate of Britain's European Union membership, died of her injuries on Thursday afternoon. She was attacked while preparing to meet constituents in Birstall near Leeds in northern England.
Media reports, citing witnesses, said the attacker had shouted out "Britain first", which is the name of a right-wing nationalist group that describes itself on its website as "a patriotic political party and street defence organisation".
Police said a 77-year-old man was also assaulted in the incident and suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
Cox's death has caused deep shock across Britain and the suspension of campaigning for next week's referendum on the country's EU membership. The deputy leader of Britain First, Jayda Fransen, distanced the group from the attack, which she described as "absolutely disgusting". Leader Paul Golding also promptly condemned the attack.
One witness said a man pulled an old or makeshift gun from a bag and fired twice. "I saw a lady on the floor like on the beach with her arms straight and her knees up and blood all over the face," Hichem Ben-Abdallah told reporters. "She wasn't making any noise, but clearly she was in agony."
The lawmaker's husband Brendan said: "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now: one, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her."
The rival referendum campaign groups, Remain and Leave, said they were suspending activities on Friday. Prime Minister David Cameron said he would pull out of a planned rally in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern coast of Spain.
Cameron said the killing of the mother-of-two, who had worked on US President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, was a tragedy.
"We have lost a great star," the Conservative prime minister said. "She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart. It is dreadful, dreadful news."
It was not immediately clear what the impact would be on the June 23 referendum, which has polarized the nation into pro- and anti-EU camps.
But some analysts speculated it could boost the pro-EU "Remain" campaign, which in recent days has fallen behind the "Leave" camp in opinion polls.
Gun ownership is highly restricted in Britain, and attacks of any nature on public figures are rare. The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded under his car at his home in southern England in 1990.
