of the Political Affairs Website has run into this. I recently went
into K-Mart and saw that they have set up a free internet cafe in the
store near me and in others(not all, since I checked out a few others,
and found that some had such free internet access centers and others
didn't). When I tried to get on the Political Affairs website, I was
blocked and told that this website was deemed "inappropriate" for users,
and the keyword fascist or fascism, was cited. I was told that I could
challenge this with an email and I did, sending an email to the
blockers that Political Affairs was in no way a "fascist" publication
and was deeply anti-fascist. I wrote a couple of such emails but
nothing was changed.
It was suggested that someone had labeled PA online as a "hate" website,
which is outrageous to see the very least, and may be responsible for this.
Besides urging anyone who has found this at either K Mart or in other
public internet access cites(I have never found it in public libraries
where I have used the internet) to both respond by email and demand that
this censorship based on completely false premises end, I would also
ask anyone to comment on the blog about similar experiences in order to
find out how widespread this is. It is the sort of thing that would
make J. Edgar Hoover quite happy, although J. Edgar probably wouldn't be
caught dead shopping at K-Mart.
As a postscript, K-Mart is currently in bankruptcy, having been
overwhelmed by Wal-Mart as it once overwhelmed many small shopkeepers.
Political Affairs, the Peoples Weekly World, and like minded
publications are militant opponents of Wal-Mart's domestic and global
anti-labor policies, regularly exposing Wal-Mart's abuses. If K-Mart
had more sense, they would realize that Political Affairs is the sort of
publication that they would want their customers to consult, if only for
its criticisms of their major competitor. They even even learn of Karl
Marx's old dictum: one capitalist kills many.
Norman Markowitz
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