Neo-Nazis attempted to disrupt the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Velvet Revolution in Prague Nov. 17, and clashed with police who tried to keep them from marching on the main parade. Some 300 right-wing extremists, many wearing masks, threw stones and bottles at the police, while chanting "Communists!" and "police state!" They also reportedly attacked three random people. There were 48 arrests. (Romea, Prague, Nov. 18)

Giant swastikas appeared on the walls of the synagogue in Dresden, Germany, on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht Nov. 8. Unidentified perpetrators painted the graffiti, covering approximately six meters of brickwork. Heinz-Joachim Aris, chair of the State Union of Jewish Communities in Saxony, said he was disgusted and frightened by the crime. He also said he does not understand how it could have happened, as the synagogue is usually guarded. The case is being investigated by the Special Commission on Right-wing Extremism.

The neo-Nazi organization White Justice has been preparing terrorist attacks and abductions of police officers and "highly positioned Jews" in the Czech Republic, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) reported Nov. 6. At four "fight camps" inside the country, their members have been training in paramilitary tactics and setting cars on fire. MfD reports its sources for the information are a secret neo-Nazi website and the testimonies of the founding members of White Justice, Filip Stránský and Lukáš Sedláček.

Noam Chomsky will speak at Queen's University in Belfast tonight as this year's guest for the annual Amnesty International lecture. In comments to students ahead of his lecture, Chomsky warned of the dangers of resurgent right-wing extremism in the wake of Obama's election: "The far-right is providing answers that are completely crazy: that rich liberals are giving their hard-earned money away to illegal immigrants and the shiftless poor. A common reaction in elite educated circles and much of the left is to ridicule the right-wing protesters, but that is a serious error... If the protesters are getting crazy answers from the hard-line right-wing extreme, the proper reaction is to provide the right answers..." (Belfast Telegraph, Oct. 30)

The neo-Nazis arrested last week on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack in the Czech Republic were trained by a member of the Czech armed forces, authorities say. Czech national police commander Oldrich Martinu made the announcement on Czech TV Oct. 25. Military training of the far-right militants was also mentioned by Robert Slachta, head of the Organized Crime Detection Unit (ÚOOZ), after evaluating film footage of the training. In the footage masked men taught the neo-Nazis how to disable an opponent armed with a knife or gun.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a resolution Oct. 23 in the case of Karmelo Landa, a Basque nationalist arrested by Spanish earlier this year in Bilbao on charges of "collaboration" with the outlawed political party Batasuna. The resolution found that "the only accusation against Mr. Landa (possible membership in Batasuna's national executive) without expressly identifying any kind of role promoting criminal or terrorist activities, means that his arrest and imprisonment is based only in being a member of an illegal party. This is not a crime, but exercise of a human right recognized both by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art. 19, 20, 21) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 18, 19, 22)." The resolution called on Spain to immediately "remedy the situation." (Euskal Herria News, Gara, Bilbao, Oct. 23)

Detectives from the Czech Republic's Organized Crime Detection Unit (ÚOOZ) charged 18 with the criminal offense of promoting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights following house raids Oct. 21 in Dobříš, Prague, Kladno and Tábor, in which a total of 24 were arrested. ÚOOZ head Robert Šlachta said those arrested belong to the organizations White Justice and National Resistance, and are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack. Among those charged is Patrik Vondrák, leader of the right-wing Workers' Party in Prague. All but two were released on their own recognizance. (Romea, Prague, Oct. 23)

Tens of thousands demonstrated in the center of Rome Oct. 17 against the Italian government's immigration policy—and especially a new law introduced by the Berlusconi cabinet which creates the specific criminal offense of "illegal immigration." Protesters carried signs reading "No to Racism and the Criminalization of Immigration," "No Expulsion of Immigrants" and "Berlusconi, Leave!" The event, which commemorated the 20th anniversary of the first pro-immigrants' rights demonstration in Italy, was organized by trade unions and leftist political parties. "After 20 years, racism has not yet been defeated. It still creates victims and is fuelled by the policies of the Berlusconi government," the official call read. (Romea, Oct. 19)