RELEASE: CAUSA Joins Area Groups in Denouncing Local Hammerskin Nation Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2007

Contact:
Erik Sorensen, Communications, CAUSA (503) 789-8213
Aeryca Steinbauer, Coordinator, CAUSA (503) 984-6816

CAUSA Joins Area Groups in Denouncing Local Hammerskin Nation Event
Salem, OR - Starting today going through Sunday, The Hammerskin Nation, a neo-Nazi skinhead organization will be holding it's 20th anniversary celebration in the greater Portland Area. The group is hoping to attract hundreds of hard-core racists to Oregon for it's three day event it calls "Hammerfest 2007". With local anti-immigrant websites, organizations and conservative talk radio hosts continuously fanning the anti-immigrant flames along with the recent racial charged beating of two Latino immigrants in the Clackamas County, Portland appears to be a perfect location for racist groups like the Hammerskins to hold their event.

According to the Anti-defamation League (ADL), The Hammerskin Nation is the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States. A number of its members have been convicted of harassing, beating or murdering minorities. Many popular racist rock bands are affiliated with the Hammerskin Nation, and the group regularly sponsors concerts. Though internal dissension and a civil lawsuit currently threaten its continued strength, the Hammerskin Nation remains active and dangerous.

The upcoming Hammerskin Nation event in Oregon was planned in conjunction with Volksfront, a Portland-led white supremacist group with links to Kenneth Mieske and Kyle Brewster, two of the killers of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw in a 1988 racially charged crime. The October Hammerskin Nation gathering is currently being openly advertised on Hitler-admiring and outward racist websites.

CAUSA, Oregon's Immigrant Rights Coalition, joins with Portlanders and other organizations in denouncing The Hammerskin Nation, their members and the three day hate-based event they intend to hold in Portland this weekend.

In response to the Hammerskin event, a community gathering and rally will take place Saturday, October 6 at 1 p.m. in Lents Park, on the corner of SE 92nd and Holgate. The rally intends to expose white supremacist groups in the Pacific Northwest, as well as to bring diverse communities together in a stand against fascist organizing, violence and hatred.

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