Fascist mayor terrorizes Rome
As of May, the new mayor of Rome pledges to incite the “immediate expulsion” of illegal immigrants in Rome. Many of these immigrants are the thousands of Roma (Gypsies) residing in 85 different settlements and camps.
Weeks after Mayor Gianni Alemanno took office, having taken in 54 percent of the vote, Roma camps were burned with flaming Molotov cocktails, destroyed by the Naples-based Camorra organized crime gang with approval of locals and the police. Government officials razed Roma settlements and 400 arrests have occurred nationwide. As if turning a blind eye to the racial violence, the Italian government plans to create a “decree law” which will make illegal immigration a criminal offense, specifically aimed toward the Roma people.
Mayor Alemanno began the Italian progression toward the right. The self-proclaimed “firebrand neo-fascist” mayor of Rome walked into city hall last week, cheered by straight-arm salutes, flags and cries of “Duce! Duce!” or “leader,” reminiscent of the previous Italian duce, Benito Mussolini, whose title was inspired by Adolf Hitler’s “Fuhrer.”
As with the numerous other ethnic purges in the past, Alemanno uses the Roma people as scapegoats for the troubles in Italian society, including crime, rape and kidnapping.
The Italian government plans to use violence, weaponry and all other traditional means of fascism to threaten, infiltrate and control the Roma settlements. Umberto Bossi, leader of the anti-immigration Northern League with whom Prime Minister Berlusconi plans to form a governmental pact, says, “We have no fear of taking things to the piazzas. We have 300,000 martyrs ready to come down from the mountains. Our rifles are always smoking.”
Ashley Waldron
Vancouver WA
Help correct injustice
In June 1981, Mark A. Clements was only 16 years old. He was taken to Area Three Violent Crimes Unit, and charges that he was tortured by Chicago Police Detective John McCann.
Clements, an African American, has been locked up for 27 years. That confession which he was forced to make and sign makes no common sense as he was beaten and tortured until he signed that false confession told to him by the detective.
No youth detective was assigned to him. Nor did they call or let him call his parents at the time. He was not allowed.
Clements is an inmate at the Pontiac Correctional Center, number N-23123, P.O. Box 99 in Pontiac, Illinois 61764.
His next court date is June 4 at 9 a.m. with Judge Jorge Alonzo at 2600 S. California Ave., Chicago, courtroom 207. For more information go to www.naarpr.org. Please, please join us, to correct injustice.
L.B. Kearney
Benton IL
Israel’s nukes
Hot on the heels of George Bush’s empty-handed tour through the Middle East, including his bathetic performance in Israel, comes Speaker Nancy Pelosi with an entourage of leading House Democrats not to be outdone with requisite demonstrations of unyielding fealty to the Zionist enterprise.
Primarily, the visiting Dems sought to emphasize their strong opposition to an imaginary Iranian nuclear weapons program with which Israeli leaders are currently obsessed, despite the fact that years of intrusive and comprehensive nuclear inspections have never revealed any shred of credible evidence that one exists.
Of course, Israel’s covert, unsanctioned atomic weapons program is hardly ever mentioned, though Bush and Pelosi claim to be exquisitely concerned about matters of nuclear proliferation. Indeed, Israel refuses to be bound by any international treaties in this connection and denies UN inspectors access to any of its sundry weapons facilities, some buried hundreds of feet underground.
Given the grave concerns so often expressed about nuke proliferation, one wonders just who, in violation of international law, initially transferred nuclear blueprints, dual-use technology and uranium stockpiles to the Israeli government. Concerned friends of Israel ought to at least be informed about these elementary issues before going off on a toot about other nations’ alleged activities in this regard.
Cord MacGuire
Boulder CO
‘Iron Man’ fan
I was glad to see a review of the new “Iron Man” film from a left perspective (PWW print 5/17-23). So far the one thing that has stopped me from going to see it was all of the CGIs (computer-generated images), which (as the reviewer stated) sends films into the world of the unreal. But hearing more about the political aspect may bring it all back to the awful truth.
One point: reviewer Eric Green wrote that the Marvel Comics’ character of Iron Man was created in “the early Reagan period.” He was correct about much of the original Cold War references in the comic, but not about the era. Iron Man was an early 1960s comic character, developed around the same period as the Hulk, the Fantastic 4 and Spider Man. Ironically, it was a time when we had a Democratic president, a student and budding antiwar movement going on and a fiery civil rights movement happening all around. Strange how we can see the connection over the 20-year period.
John Pietaro
Beacon NY
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