Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pro-Köln: Too Hot for the Post Office

Do you remember last year when the Swedish Post office refused to deliver the party newspaper of Sverigedemokraterna, Sweden’s right-wing “racist” (i.e. anti-immigration) political party?

Well, the same thing seems to be happening in Germany. The German postal carrier, Deutsche Post, has refused to deliver mail to the anti-Islamization group Pro-Köln.

And it’s not just the post office: the ban on Pro-Köln cuts across a number of institutions in both the private and public sectors. KGS at Tundra Tabloids has translated a Finnish-language news report:

According to a YLE radio broadcast, I have yet to find a link to it online, the Finnish state TV and Radio YLE reports:

YLE: “The German postal carrier has refused to deliver the mail of what is considered to be a nationalist far right-wing group. The incident has awakened debate about the borders for the freedom of expression and the postal department’s choice to deliver based on the content of the sender’s mail.

“Their hotel reservations and convention halls are canceled, restaurants refuse to wait on them, taxis drive on by and right now the German postal service refuse to deliver their magazines. There is no end to what the Germans think about the far Right-wing party and those who are known who run it. The latest round was achieved in Köln, when the post refused to deliver Pro-Köln magazines to five elected members of the city hall.
- - - - - - - - -
“The reason given was that the contents of the mail were, according to Deutsche Post, anti-Islamic and insulting of the mayor of Köln. Pro-Köln, which is labeled as ‘far Right-wing’ are well known to be sharply against the building of the Great Mosque in Köln, and the Christian Democrat mayor as a great supporter of it.

“The incident has created a lively discussion of the right of the Postal service to deliver or not to deliver according to the political content. Many are asking about the ramifications, such as whether telecommunications will cut off the phone service if the conversations do not conform to their view of the world. There have been many different kinds of boycotts taken against far Right-wing groups in Germany.”

Read the rest at Tundra Tabloids.

11 comments:

spackle said...

I wish I was a good artist. I think a good political cartoon would be of two pro-koln members sitting in a bare room with just a candle with the caption.

What do we do when the candlemaker comes?

James Higham said...

They're not going to stand up and be counted, are they?

Proud Infidel said...

Yet another graphic example of how free speech and freedom of thought are dying if not already dead in Europe. If this doesn't represent the brave new world of multiculturalism I don't know what does.

And I bet many brainwashed Europeans think this is just fine and dandy. Can we expect this kind of repressive crap here in the States if Comrade Obama wins? Be afraid, be very afraid.

Henrik R Clausen said...

We had a somewhat similar situation in Denmark with our Society for Danish Culture. We put our flyer about EU, featuring the EU-burka on the front, in the mail to our prime minister and foreign minister.

Some leftist extremist in the postal services balked, and refused to deliver our flyer. His boss evaluated the situation, looked at the material, and told him in plain language to shut up and get to work distributing them.

Which he did, adding his own handwritten notes about how evil our EU-critical flyer was. He got reprimanded for that, too.

That gave us some extra awareness in the press, which wasn't bad.

Henrik R Clausen said...

To be precise, we mailed it not only to the ministers, but to some 20.000 persons in their district. That wasn't exactly cheap...

Czechmade said...

Just returned from a Prague pub fighting an Obama US believer/voter.

No success however. Our mutual understanding focussed more on South India...my anti-Obama speech was dismissed as one of the "conspiration theories". "You know, he has so much experience outside America, which MacCain does not have". She was totally surprized I would never back Obama...

...probably my last attempt. Next night I can try with my 2 US friends...too integrated in our society to fight back in the US.
Sorry, my one-man lobby did not help.

Henrik R Clausen said...

While private institutions and business can discriminate anyone they goddamn want (Not? Oh, well), Deutsche Post is in a radically different position. They have now given up their role as 'Common Carrier', the neutral citizen-to-citizen delivery agent, and instead have assumed responsibility for the content of what they distribute. That's a radical change.

This, in turn, means they can (in principle) be held responsible for anti-Jewish or racist material from, well, a particular religion, should it be sent in the mail.

That might be an interesting experiment to conduct.

X said...

That's a good point, I was just thinking something similar. Once they take responsibility for what they deliver they have to take responsibility for all of it.

To do otherwise would be hypocritical.

What gets me is, there are people who will say that there's no harm done because, after all, Pro Köln are "racists" and should be censored because they're bad people. They never seem to understand the old adage of "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" - if an organisation or institution is used to censor one political view, that same regulation will sooner or later be used against political views held by the people "okay" with that first censorship.

spackle said...

Czechmade-

You are a lucky man. You are in my favorite European city at my favorite time of the year. I would give my left arm to have a beer in Prague right now and stroll across the St. Charles bridge. Sigh.

Unknown said...

This makes me so angry!!!!!!!

Why do I, an emigrant of mixed racial background, my wife of central asian muslim background, my friend of Srilankan background, have to fight for western culture and civilisation, when the average white native looks at you in a funny kind of way (as if you some crazy self hating, confused idiot) whenever you start talking about the threat to their own culture.

One example, I was travelling in Australia couple of months ago, I met a dutch fellow, young about 20. Started talking to him about the situation in holand, so his views are as follows:
- he doesnt like muslims (it was a good start to a conversation); but then
- he really is confused, he is sooo liberal. The idea that a parent has the right to physicly punish his kids is completely alien to him,
- he somehow believes that united europe is a good thing, and an alternative to US hegemony, as if
- his views of Russia are from totally liberal perspective,

I can go on and on about this guy, and many other young europeans but the following are my conclusions about the state of young white european:

-Doesnt like muslims,
-Very liberal,
-Doesnt like Russia
-Doesnt like America
-Doesnt like China
-Loves Palestinians
-Hates Israel
-Loves ibn Barak bin Husein

Basicly completely confused, and I really dont see how things can change. I think the current western civilisation is over, Possibly another will rise on the wave of the coming cataclysms, but that will be a different civilisation all together.

Unknown said...

Why do I, an emigrant of mixed racial background, my wife of central asian muslim background, my friend of Srilankan background, have to fight for western culture and civilisation, when the average white native looks at you in a funny kind of way (as if you some crazy self hating, confused idiot) whenever you start talking about the threat to their own culture.

Obviously you don't have to in the sense of some external coercion on your person. But once it becomes clear that Western culture and civillisation are worth defending then an internal compulsion takes over and you know it would be wrong to pretend to not care.