Re: Aptitude test for you today:
1.Why Belgians are crying wolf against Haider?
Belgium's froggie bourgeoisie is so vocal in vituperating about Austria's new political mix because of its likely disastrous aftereffects on Belgium's stability. The FPO's rise to power has already energized fellow neofascist parties throughout Europe, and specially in Germanic/Nordic Europe.
However, the problem with Belgium is that neofascist Vlaams Blok is exclusively a Flemish issue. The reasons for such a political imbalance are historical as well as socioeconomic: an increasingly larger section of Flemish public opinion views Flanders's unrestrained autonomy as an ineluctable process; meanwhile, the procrastinations of French-speaking Walloons in coping with Flanders's assertiveness look more and more pathetic by the day.... Of course, the tone has changed: the new federal coalition, dubbed "rainbow coalition", claims that petty linguistic squabbles are no longer on the agenda --at least, neither Walloon nor Flemish extremists stir them up. Somehow, the prospect of the crown prince's wedding on 4 December 1999 and the successive Joyeuses Entr‚es have been skillfully used as a political repellant against overt secessionism. Yet, with the coming municipal elections scheduled for October 2000, such a linguistic complaisance between Flanders and Wallonia might be on a bumpy road....
In short, what's at stake for Belgium's Francophile bourgeoisie is nothing less than Belgium's perpetuity as a unified state --Haider never called for splitting up Austria or for the secession of Carinthia, but Vlaams Blok's rallying cry is Belgie barst!, (Down with Belgium!).
Hence the anxious scrambling by the Belgian bourgeoisie for the containment of the Austrian "model": the sorry prospect of Wallonia ending up as a stray wasteland to be eventually annexed by France is a powerful spur.... Below is an abridged casting of Flanders's far-right:
PROFILES
DOUWE VAN DEN BOS
A former military man, van den Bos left the army in 1984-85 and is currently a property dealer. A prominent right-winger, he was involved in the launch of the Dutch fascist party CP '86 and is a board member of the Vlaams Blok, another nazi outfit. A fanatical nazi, he is Voorpost's Dutch organiser.
He is the central figure in the Dutch Croatian Works Committee, a front organisation for support for the Croatian war effort, which he has used to send mercenaries and right wing extremists to Croatia. He himself has been to the war zone, falsely obtaining UNPROFOR documentation.
He hoped to use his Croatian experience to establish a right-wing terror group in The Netherlands to deal with the nazis' increasingly militant and effective political opponents. One of two former Foreign Legionnaires who were to organise this was Deuster.
ROGER SPINNEWIJN AND SONS
Spinnewijn, a former pub landlord and the father of this family of violence, is a veteran of the radical right in Flanders, the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium. In 1960 he founded the Bruges section of the extreme nazi Vlaamse Militanten Organisatie. On its demise in 1971, he became the right-hand man to Bert Eriksson in the Vlaamse Militanten Orde (VMO). The VMO became an extremely violent private militia, perpetrating acts of terror from arsons to assaults.
One of Spinnewijn's most disreputable actions was Operation Breviers in 1973, when he and Eriksson stole the corpse of the Belgian Second World War Nazi collaborator, Cyriel Verschaeve, from Austria and smuggled it into Flanders.
Spinnewijn organised much of the VMO's paramilitary action, even coming to Britain at the request of Column 88 in 1980 to teach nazi activists how to use explosives. Column 88, an underground nazi paramilitary and intelligence gathering organisation, was later exposed by Searchlight as a state honeytrap. Spinnewijn also participated in a paramilitary training camp of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in Northern Ireland in the same year, urging them to bomb Jewish targets on the mainland.
But Spinnewijn wanted to be more than just a militant. He became the international liaison man of the VMO and in 1976 the VMO co-founded the Anti Kommunistisch Front (AKF) as the Belgian section of the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The AKF shared Spinnewijn's address.
He used WACL to establish international contacts, organising an international neo-nazi ‚lite presence at the annual nazi "Iron Pilgrimage" in Diksmuide in August 1980, including Michael Khnen (from the West German VSBD), Mike Griffin and Jim Burrows (British League of St George), Mark Fr‚driksen (French FANE), Arndt Heinz Marx (right-hand man in the German terrorist Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann).
In 1981 Spinnewijn and 100 militants of the VMO were convicted for belonging to a private militia, but even a prison sentence was not to stop him. In May 1982 the German neo-nazi Paul Leroy, a member of the terrorist Wehrsportgruppe Hoffmann, was arrested at Spinnewijn's home on charges of kidnapping and torture. More recently, Spinnewijn has been an active member of the Vlaams Blok (VB), co-founded by his son John.
Spinnewijn's four sons grew up in the neo-nazi VMO environment and followed in their father's footsteps. As youngsters John, Jim and Willy joined the Vlaams Nationale Jeugd (VNJ) and the VMO. The young John was even allowed to help his father in Operation Brevier, receiving a six-month jail sentence for his pains. Since then he has swapped his paramilitary activities for a political career, co-founding the VB in 1978. Now 42, he is a VB senator in the Belgian parliament. But political success did not spell the end of his violent activities, and he received a six-month sentence for attacking several progressive caf‚s in his home town, Bruges.
One of his main interests is helping Croatia, a country whose nazi past makes it an interesting area for the radical right. John helped form a group called "Help Committee Croatia, People in Need", in which Luc Vermeulen, leader of Voorpost's action force, is also involved.
The youngest son, Patrick, is the enfant terrible of the family. He and Filip Dewinter, now fhrer of the VB, joined the Nationalistische Jong Studentenverbond (NJSV) in the 1970s. In 1984 Patrick and two other NJSV militants attacked a progressive pub in his home town Bruges. The trio, who were trained as para-commandos in the Belgian army, were arrested the same evening. Weapons, ammunition and German contact addresses were seized.
VOORPOST: Stormtroopers of the radical right in Flanders
The radical right in Flanders has always had its own ‚lite force. Until the early 1980s this was represented by the Vlaamse Militanten Orde (VMO). When the VMO was banned for being a paramilitary private militia, Voorpost (Outpost) picked up the torch and became the violent direct action force of the neo-fascists in Flanders.
Voorpost was founded in March 1976 by Luc Vermeulen, a former militant of the VMO. Until then Vermeulen had been leader of the Action Group of Were Di, a radical Flemish think tank. He was joined by Roeland Raes, ideologist and former vice-president of Were Di, who became president of the new militant organisation, while Vermeulen became the treasurer.
Voorpost immediately earned a violent and racist reputation, organising paramilitary training camps in the woods of southern Belgium or in Germany, together with the Junge National Demokraten, the youth section of the German neo-nazi NPD. Since 1985 Voorpost has had its own Flemish National Sport school in the Flemish municipality of Borsbeek. Top of the list of sports offered is combat techniques. The purpose of the training is clear. Voorpost has organised violent demonstrations against migrants, is pro-apartheid and in favour of an amnesty for nazi collaborators. It held innumerable commando raids in municipalities near the border between Flanders and Wallonia protesting against the unified Belgian state.
Officially the Vlaams Blok (VB) and Voorpost are separate organisations. But since the formation of the VB in 1978, Voorpost has increasingly become the action and propaganda arm of the party. Several leading Voorpost activists have been elected VB representatives and Raes became its vice-president. Even the VB's leader, the MEP Filip Dewinter, has been associated with Voorpost.
In addition to joint activities and members, KOSMOS, the secret intelligence service of the VB and Augiasstal, that of Voorpost, share the same post office box. Nevertheless Voorpost continues to insist it is independent.
Voorpost has set up several sections and a book service. It produces radical right propaganda material and publishes the monthly news magazine Voorpost and the quarterly Revolte. It even has several radio transmitters to transmit propaganda across Flanders. However, this structure seems to suggest a bigger organisation than it actually is. Its members number only 100, although it can call on considerably more supporters.
In recent years, Voorpost has made an effort to spread its wings internationally, with links in The Netherlands (the Centrumdemocraten, CP '86, Nederlandse Voorpost, Nederlandse Volksunie, Vikingjeugd, etc), France (Front National), Italy (MSI), Germany (NPD, DVU-Liste D), South Africa and Croatia. [and Austria?]
Excerpted from the following 1997 report:
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