Quote:Di Canio is a self-proclaimed Fascist. In 2005, he characterised his political views by declaring that he was "a fascist, not a racist".[28]
His use of the Roman salute toward Lazio supporters, a gesture adopted by Italian fascists in the 20th century, has created controversy. Documented uses of the salute include in matches against arch-rivals A.S. Roma and A.S. Livorno Calcio, a club inclined to left-wing politics.[29] Di Canio received a one-match ban after the second event and was fined €7,000.[30] He was later quoted as saying: "I will always salute as I did because it gives me a sense of belonging to my people ... I saluted my people with what for me is a sign of belonging to a group that holds true values, values of civility against the standardisation that this society imposes upon us."[31] His salute has been featured on unofficial merchandise sold outside Stadio Olimpico after the ban.[29]
He has also expressed admiration for the fascist leader Benito Mussolini. In his autobiography, he praised Mussolini as "basically a very principled, ethical individual" who was "deeply misunderstood".[32][33][34]
29 a b Kassimeris, Christos (2008). European football in black and white: tackling racism in football. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 70. ISBN 0-7391-1960-5, 9780739119600.
30 Bar-On, Tamir (2007). Where have all the fascists gone?. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.,. p. 1. ISBN 0-7546-7154-2, 9780754671541.
31 Nursey, James (19 Dec 2005). "Football: ll Di Canio new salute row". The Daily Mirror; London (UK),. Retrieved 28 February 2010.[dead link]
32 a b "Paolo Di Canio: 'My life speaks for me'". The Independent. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
33 Duff, Mark (9 January 2005). "Footballer's 'fascist salute' row". BBC News. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
34 Fenton, Ben (24 Dec 2005). "I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
Di Canio's line has always been to proclaim his fascism and deny he is a racist.
Quote:I'm a fascist, not a racist, says Paolo di Canio
An Italian footballer defended himself yesterday against a growing chorus of condemnation over his use of a straight-arm salute to a Right-wing crowd by saying "I am a fascist, not a racist".
Paolo di Canio, 37, faces the full wrath of Fifa, the world game's governing body, after the third occasion in the past year in which he has raised his right arm, palm-downwards, to the fans of his team, SS Lazio, of Rome.
Last week, the Italian football authorities banned him for one game and fined him almost £7,000 for the latest instance of the salute, but Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, has suggested that a lifetime ban might be a more appropriate sanction.
Di Canio, who once played in Britain for West Ham and Celtic, is an unusual case and Lazio an unusual club.
Football hooliganism and Right-wing extremism have historically made easy bedfellows, but this is no ordinary case.
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Fascist: origins in ancient Rome
24 Dec 2005
As a boy, di Canio was initiated as an "ultra", or extreme supporter, of SS Lazio (the initials stand for Societá Sportiva), a team founded by Italian army officers in 1900 and the preferred club of Benito Mussolini, "Il Duce", one of the founders of fascism.
The player has, in his autobiography, praised Mussolini as "basically a very principled, ethical individual" who was "deeply misunderstood".
He has the word "Dux", the Latin equivalent of "Duce", tattooed on his arm.
Lazio's connection with fascists has not waned over the years. When di Canio gave his first salute, in a game against the city's other major club, Lazio's hated rivals AS Roma, last January, the crowd included Il Duce's granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini.
"What a delightful Roman salute!" she exclaimed afterwards.
"I was deeply moved.
"I will write him a thank you note."
There is still no black player in the Lazio squad and only a few years have passed since the Curva Nord, the stand where the ultras congregate for home matches, displayed a banner "Team of Blacks, Crowd of Jews" to taunt their counterparts at Roma, who are traditionally extremely Left-wing in leaning.
Di Canio, who has also played for Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton Athletic, maintains that he cannot see what the fuss is about.
He told the Italian news agency Ansa yesterday: "I am a fascist, not a racist.
"I give the straight arm salute because it is a salute from a 'camerata' to 'camerati'," he said, carefully using the Italian words for members of Mussolini's fascist movement.
"The salute is aimed at my people. With the straight arm I don't want to incite violence and certainly not racial hatred," he said.
But, as in Germany, encouraging fascism is a crime in Italy.
Whether di Canio is charged by anyone other than the footballing authorities remains to be seen.
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is on his side, saying that Di Canio is "an exhibitionist but a good lad" and his salute "did not have any significance".
If Di Canio escapes heavy censure, he would not be the first footballer to do so for a similar offence.
In 1996, Mark Bosnich, the Aston Villa goalkeeper, gave a fascist salute to the fans of Tottenham Hotspur, a team with a strong following among London's Jewish community.
He said afterwards he was not aware of that fact at the time he raised his arm. Bosnich was fined £1,000.
On a visit to Berlin in 1938, the FA ordered all of England's footballers to give the fascist salute to their German hosts even though Adolf Hitler was not present.
Lazio has notoriously racist fans, who recently carved up some Spurs supporters in Rome.
Di Canio is not a stupid man.
His statements are either disingenous or a lie.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Perhaps we should show the pics of former Conservative Minister Neil Hamilton too - just to show similarities between football and politics. That is to say, both are a lot of balls.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
New Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio refused to answer questions about whether he holds fascist beliefs in his first news conference as boss.
The Italian described the controversy surrounding his appointment as "ridiculous and pathetic" after taking over from Martin O'Neill.
Ex-Foreign Secretary David Miliband resigned from the board because of Di Canio's "past political statements".
"I don't have to answer this question any more," said Di Canio.
Di Canio's managerial record
Games: 95
Wins: 54
Draws: 18
Losses: 23
Win %: 57
He said the club had already issued "a very good statement" containing "very, very clear words" from himself.
Di Canio added: "I don't want to talk about politics. I'm not in the Houses of Parliament, I'm not a political person, I will only talk about football."
However the campaign group Kick It Out, which wants to eradicate racism from football, said it believed the club and Di Canio could go further.
It said in a statement: "It is not part of Kick It Out's remit to sanction the selection of staff of football clubs. However, football clubs have a responsibility to ensure that their employees demonstrate a commitment to anti-discrimination and equality of opportunity.
"It may be in the interest of both the club and Mr Di Canio to acknowledge a full and frank commitment to these policies."
The Durham Miners' Association, a powerful workers' organisation in the north-east, is unhappy with Di Canio's appointment and has called for Sunderland to return the symbolic Wearmouth Miners' Banner, which is on permanent display in the Stadium of Light.
"I, like many thousands of miners, have supported Sunderland from infancy and are passionate about football," said DMA general secretary Dave Hopper. "But there are principles which are much more important."
Di Canio, 44, who quit Swindon - his only previous managerial post - on 18 February, has talked in the past of his fascist views.
He is reported to have said in an interview with Italian news agency Ansa in 2005 that his straight arm salute when playing for Lazio was aimed at "my people", who he defines as members of Benito Mussolini's fascist movement and was not intended to incite racial hatred.
In his autobiography, he admitted being "fascinated by Mussolini", who was Italy's leader during the Second World War.
Sunderland insist claims Di Canio has racist or fascist sympathies are insulting to both the "integrity of the club" and their new manager.
During Tuesday's news conference, BBC Sport's Dan Roan twice asked the Italian to clarify his political views.
But Di Canio said: "I only want to talk about football, otherwise we will give time to the other reporters to ask me something about this club, my new club."
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Yeah, I know, that heading will raise some hackles and invite an avalanche of scorn, but I'm struggling to find it in me to join the bandwagon of anti Di Canio hatred here, it seems a bit confected to me. (I mean, where were all these people when di Canio was manager of Swindon?)
If he admitted to being a racist I would have no difficulty disapproving. If he claimed to be a Nazi, or a white supremacist, or a member of the KKK, I would equally have no difficulty. If he advocated beating up immigrants, I would despise him. But has he done any of that? What actually is Fascism? It's such a broad church in terms of definitions that Fascist becomes almost meaningless as a term. If you are nationalistic, authoritarian, right wing, bigoted, and like marching and flags but don't approve of political violence are you are fascist? You are certainly a pillock but are you evil?
I agree that historically people who behave like that have also tended to burn synagogues and start wars, but are those things intrinsic to the definition of Fascism, or are they optional extras like gulags are to communism?
A lot of the passion about this seems to come from those who fought Fascism in the 1940s. Fair enough, but really it seems to me they were fighting the concrete evils of war, invasion, burning villages and medical experiments on children. It strikes me as dishonest and slightly silly to turn a fool like di Canio into a cipher for that.
Sorry if I'm saying the unsayable, I'm not an apologist for Fascism, but the past ten years studying 9/11 Truth has taught me to be a bit wary of the herd.
Yes it is. Fascism is the herd. It is the total dominance of one class over all others and a full scale assault on all except the self chosen. It is racism, it is hate, it is slavery. It is death. No they are not optional extras. They are integral to the philosophy.
Not knowing the ins and outs of football culture I had no idea he was also involved in Swindon FC. I would also not support that.
I hate to find myself supporting Miliband.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
I would add that we are approaching times when the ugliness of fascists and neo-nazi's is gaining popularity at an alarming rate. The obvious test bed for this is Greece where under 25 year old unemployment is nearly 50% - and where New Dawn has just gone global. Hitler and his ilk rose from the depression of the 1930's when unemployment was also extremely high.
For me there can't be enough dire warnings made.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Malcolm Pryce Wrote:Yeah, I know, that heading will raise some hackles and invite an avalanche of scorn, but I'm struggling to find it in me to join the bandwagon of anti Di Canio hatred here, it seems a bit confected to me. (I mean, where were all these people when di Canio was manager of Swindon?)
If he admitted to being a racist I would have no difficulty disapproving. If he claimed to be a Nazi, or a white supremacist, or a member of the KKK, I would equally have no difficulty. If he advocated beating up immigrants, I would despise him. But has he done any of that? What actually is Fascism? It's such a broad church in terms of definitions that Fascist becomes almost meaningless as a term. If you are nationalistic, authoritarian, right wing, bigoted, and like marching and flags but don't approve of political violence are you are fascist? You are certainly a pillock but are you evil?
I agree that historically people who behave like that have also tended to burn synagogues and start wars, but are those things intrinsic to the definition of Fascism, or are they optional extras like gulags are to communism?
A lot of the passion about this seems to come from those who fought Fascism in the 1940s. Fair enough, but really it seems to me they were fighting the concrete evils of war, invasion, burning villages and medical experiments on children. It strikes me as dishonest and slightly silly to turn a fool like di Canio into a cipher for that.
Sorry if I'm saying the unsayable, I'm not an apologist for Fascism, but the past ten years studying 9/11 Truth has taught me to be a bit wary of the herd.
Just saying.
Hello, Malcolm,
The classic definition of fascism is that of Mussolini's. He called it the "corporate state", the merger of business corporations with the government. The economy remains as capitalism, i.e., private ownership of the means of production, as in the Krupp industries in Nazi Germany, and the use of enslaved labor, with all the excesses of capitalism, many nicely outlined by Magda after your post.
03-04-2013, 12:26 PM (This post was last modified: 06-04-2013, 06:03 AM by Jim Hackett II.)
Corporate Governance or mass herd group think dictation of mores and such, it is all fascism. All vile.
Mussolini may have defined fascism as corporate governance, history defined fascism as more evil than most governments. Other systems have killed as many Untermenschen as the Nazi criminal Empire and more ....
I have problems with the fact that today's youth seemingly got no education as to the real nature and real history of what the Reich was.
If 15 million victims mean nothing to the youth, If the 25 million lives beyond those victims expended to STOP the Nazi Criminal Empire mean nothing, If that is the case millions today are being uneducated or LIED to about history.
I am mightily offended by some dumbass tattooing SS lightning bolts on their body.
Or swastika from the Aryan Brotherhood to secure protection in prison but not removed on release.
Any folks bothered to watch "American History X"?
What's so bad about Fascism? LOL..... SADLY I have to laugh at the lunacy of ignorance.
Before anyone ever claims even the appearance of legitimacy for Fascists and in particular the Nazis or their culture in my presence I write them off as STUPID and IGNORANT BY CHOICE.
F##K NAZISM in 1945 and NOW even more. I still remember from my G.I. Uncles how they hated the Nazis and what they SAW and reported to me.
TO LIVE FASCISM MUST KILL!
TO LIVE FASCISM MUST KILL ALL BUT ITSELF.
The same attitude I express to all totalitarians from the Communists that take over the means of production to the Nazis that didn't.
All the same to me. Just plain BULLSHIT I cannot tolerate.
Neither Mussolini nor Stalin nor Hitler deserve ANY RESPECT from human beings. P*ss on them and their memory.
Read not to contradict and confute;
nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse;
but to weigh and consider.
FRANCIS BACON
Quote:Fascism (pron.: /ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism[1][2] that came to prominence in mid-20th century Europe. Fascists seek to unify their nation through a totalitarian state that seeks the mass mobilization of the national community,[3][4] relying on a vanguard party to initiate a revolution to organize the nation on fascist principles.[5] Hostile to liberal democracy, socialism, and communism, fascist movements share certain common features, including the veneration of the state, a devotion to a strong leader, and an emphasis on ultranationalism, ethnocentrism, and militarism. Fascism views political violence, war, and imperialism as a means to achieve national rejuvenation[3][6][7][8] and asserts that "superior" nations and races should attain living space by displacing weak and inferior ones.[9]
Fascist ideology consistently invoked the primacy of the state. Leaders such as Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany embodied the state and claimed indisputable power. Fascism borrowed theories and terminology from socialism but applied them to what it saw as the more significant conflict between nations and races rather than to class conflict, and focused on ending the divisions between classes within the nation.[10] It advocates a mixed economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky to secure national self-sufficiency and independence through protectionist and interventionist economic policies.[11] Fascism opposed socialist and communist ideology but was also critical of some aspects of capitalism, arguing for what is sometimes called a Third Position between capitalism and Marxist socialism.[12] Fascist movements emphasized a belligerent, virulent form of nationalism (chauvinism) and a fear of foreign people (xenophobia), which they frequently linked to an exaggerated ethnocentrism. The typical fascist state also embraced militarism, a belief in the rigors and virtues of military life as an individual and national ideal, meaning much of public life is organized along military lines and an emphasis is put on uniforms, parades, and monumental architecture.
There's hardly a word of that which is not vile and completely unacceptable.
As for the admiration of Di Canio and Berlusconi for Mussolini, here's an outline of the racial views of Il Duce & Italian fascism:
In a 1921 speech in Bologna, Mussolini stated that "Fascism was born... out of a profound, perennial need of this our Aryan and Mediterranean race".[38][39] In this speech Mussolini was referring to Italians as being the Mediterranean branch of the Aryan Race, Aryan in the meaning of people of an Indo-European language and culture.[40] Italian Fascism emphasized that race was bound by spiritual and cultural foundations, and identified a racial hierarchy based on spiritual and cultural factors.[40] While Italian Fascism based its conception of race on spiritual and cultural factors, Mussolini explicitly rejected notions that biologically "pure" races were still considered a relevant factor in racial classification.[41] He claimed that Italianita had assimilatory capacity.[41] It used spiritual and cultural conceptions of race to make land claims on Dalmatia and to justify an Italian sphere of influence in the Balkans based on then-present and historical Italian cultural influence in the Balkans.[42] It also justified colonialism in Africa by claiming that the spiritual and cultural superiority of Italians as part of the white race, justified the right for Italy and other powers of the white race to rule over the black race, while asserting that racial segregation of whites and blacks in its colonies.[43] It claimed that Fascism's colonial goals were to civilize the inferior races and defend the purity of Western civilization from racial miscegenation that it claimed would harm the intellectual qualities of the white race.[43]
Italian Fascism strongly rejected the common Nordicist conception of the Aryan Race that idealized "pure" Aryans as having certain physical traits that were defined as Nordic such as blond hair and blue eyes.[44] The antipathy by Mussolini and other Italian Fascists to Nordicism was over the existence of what they viewed as the Mediterranean inferiority complex that they claimed had been instilled into Mediterraneans by the propagation of such theories by German and Anglo-Saxon Nordicists who viewed Mediterranean peoples as racially degenerate and thus in their view inferior.[44] However traditional Nordicist claims of Mediterraneans being degenerate due to having a darker colour of skin than Nordics had long been rebuked in anthropology through the depigmentation theory that claimed that lighter skinned peoples had been dipigmented from a darker skin, this theory has since become a widely accepted view in anthropology.[45] Anthropologist Carleton S. Coon in his work The races of Europe (1939) subscribed to depigmentation theory that claimed that Nordic race's light-coloured skin was the result of depigmentation from their ancestors of the Mediterranean race.[46] Mussolini refused to allow Italy to return again to this inferiority complex, initially rejecting Nordicism.[44]
In the early 1930s, with the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany with Führer Adolf Hitler's emphasis on a Nordicist conception of the Aryan Race, strong tensions arose between the Fascists and the Nazis over racial issues. In 1934, in the aftermath of Austrian Nazis killing Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, an ally of Italy, Mussolini became enraged and responded by angrily denouncing Nazism. Mussolini rebuked Nazism's Nordicism, claiming that the Nazis' emphasizing of a common Nordic "Germanic race" was absurd, saying "a Germanic race does not exist. ... We repeat. Does not exist. Scientists say so. Hitler says so."[47] The fact that Germans were not purely Nordic was indeed acknowledged by prominent Nazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther in his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) ("Racial Science of the German People"), where Günther recognized Germans as being composed of five Aryan subtype races: Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine, and East Baltic while asserting that the Nordics were the highest in a racial hierarchy of the five subtypes.[48]
By 1936, the tensions between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany reduced and relations became more amicable. In 1936, Mussolini decided to launch a racial program in Italy, and was interested in the racial studies being conducted by Giulio Cogni.[49] Cogni was a Nordicist but did not equate Nordic identity with Germanic identity as was commonly done by German Nordicists.[50] Cogni had travelled to Germany where he had become impressed by Nazi racial theory and sought to create his own version of racial theory.[51] On 11 September 1936, Cogni sent Mussolini a copy of his newly published book Il Razzismo (1936).[49] Cogni declared the racial affinity of the Mediterranean and Nordic racial subtypes of the Aryan race and claimed that the intermixing of Nordic Aryans and Mediterranean Aryans in Italy produced a superior synthesis of Aryan Italians.[50] Cogni addressed the issue of racial differences between northern and southern Italians, declaring southern Italians were mixed between Aryan and non-Aryan races, that he claimed was most likely due to infiltration by Asiatic peoples in Roman times and later Arab invasions.[49] As such, Cogni viewed Southern Italian Mediterraneans as being polluted with orientalizing tendencies.[49] Initially Mussolini was not impressed with Cogni's work, however Cogni's ideas later entered into the official Fascist racial policy several years later.[49]
In 1938 Mussolini was concerned that if Italian Fascism did not recognize Nordic heritage within Italians, that the Mediterranean inferiority complex would return to Italian society.[44] Therefore in summer 1938, the Fascist government officially recognized Italians as having Nordic heritage and being of Nordic-Mediterranean descent and in a meeting with PNF members, and in June 1938 in a meeting with PNF members, Mussolini identified himself as Nordic and declared that previous policy of focus on Mediterraneanism was to be replaced by a focus on Aryanism.[44]
The Fascist regime began publication of the racialist magazine La Difesa della Raza in 1938.[52] The Nordicist racial theorist Guido Landra took a major role in the early work of La Difesa, and published the Manifesto of Racial Scientists in the magazine in 1938.[53] The Manifesto received substantial criticism, including its assertion of Italians being a "pure race", as it was viewed as absurd.[53] La Difesa published other theories that described long-term Nordic Aryan amongst Italians, such as the theory that in the Eneolithic age Nordic Aryans arrived to Italy.[54] Many of the writers took up the traditional Nordicist claim that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was due to the arrival of Semitic immigrants.[54] La Difesa's writers were divided on their claims that described how Italians extricated themselves from Semitic influence.[53]
The Nordicist direction of Fascist racial policy was challenged in 1938 by a resurgence of the Mediterraneanist faction in the PNF.[55] By 1939, the Mediterraneanists advocated a nativist racial theory which rejected ascribing the achievements of the Italian people to Nordic peoples.[55] This nativist racial policy was prominently promoted by Ugo Rellini.[55] Rellini rejected the notion of large scale invasions of Italy by Nordic Aryans in the Eneolithic age, and claimed that Italians were an indigenous people descended from the Cro-Magnons.[56] Rellini claimed that Mediterranean and later Nordic peoples arrived and peacefully intermixed in small numbers with the indigenous Italian population.[56]
In 1941 the PNF's Mediterraneanists through the influence of Giacomo Acerbo put forward a comprehensive definition of the Italian race.[57] However these efforts were challenged by Mussolini's endorsement of Nordicist figures with the appointment of staunch spiritual Nordicist Alberto Luchini as head of Italy's Racial Office in May 1941, as well as with Mussolini becoming interested with Julius Evola's spiritual Nordicism in late 1941.[57] Acerbo and the Mediterraneanists in his High Council on Demography and Race sought to bring the regime back to supporting Mediterraneanism by thoroughly denouncing the pro-Nordicist Manifesto of the Racial Scientists.[57] The Council recognized Aryans as being a linguistic-based group, and condemned the Manifesto for denying the influence of pre-Aryan civilization on modern Italy, saying that the Manifesto "constitutes an unjustifiable and undemonstrable negation of the anthropological, ethnological, and archaeological discoveries that have occurred and are occurring in our country".[57] Furthermore the Council denounced the Manifesto for "implicitly" crediting Germanic invaders of Italy in the guise of the Lombards for having a "a formative influence on the Italian race in a disproportional degree to the number of invaders and to their biological predominance".[57] The Council claimed that the obvious superiority of the ancient Greeks and Romans in comparison with the ancient Germanic tribes made it inconceivable that Italian culture owed a debt to ancient Aryan Germans.[57] The Council denounced the Manifesto's Nordicist attitude towards Mediterraneans that it claimed was "considering them as slaves" and was "a repudiation of the entire Italian civilization".[57]
What do we see?
Fundamentally, an attempt to create a master race where none existed, either in Italy or Germany.
Where do theories of racial superiority lead?
We all know.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
