Newsgroups: alt.skinheads,alt.politics.white-power,alt.politics.nationalism.white,soc.culture.belgium
Subject: ADL: Skinhead International: Belgium  
Summary: The ADL's "Skinhead International: A Worldwide Survey
         of Neo-Nazi Skinheads"
Followup-To: alt.skinheads

Archive/File: pub/orgs/american/adl/skinhead-international/skins-belgium
Last-Modified: 1995/08/16

                           Belgium

A small neo-Nazi Skinhead scene exists in Belgium, centered around
Antwerp, the city with the largest following of the far-right
political party Vlaams Blok (VB), or Flemish Bloc.

Neo-Nazi Skinheads in Antwerp congregate in cafes in the area of the
Vrijdagmarkt, a well-known square. Their favorite haunt is
reportedly a cafe called Gilby's, when Skins from Belgium, Holland,
Germany and elsewhere mix with members of far-right Belgian groups
including the Vlaams Blok, the Nationalistisch Studenten Verbond
(Nationalist Student Association), Voorpost (Outpost) and Were Di
(Protect Yourself). After a Hitler's birthday celebration at Gilby's
in April 1993, some 20 Skinheads went to another cafe where they
wrecked the interior and beat up two patrons.

Skinheads were at the center of an episode of rioting in the town of
Sint-Niklaas in September 1993, in which an immigrant and a police
officer suffered injuries. The incident occurred after a concert by
a group called the Mushrooms. The police apprehended 41 Skinheads
whom they later released and escorted out of town; none were from
Sint-Niklaas, according the the police.

                          Vlaams Blok

In the political arena, Skinheads in Belgium are naturally drawn to
the Vlaams Blok, the country's most significant far-right party. The
VB, whose program is Flemish nationalist and anti-immigrant, won
more than 10 percent of the Flemish vote - inlcuding over 25 percent
in Antwerp - in the November 1991 parliamentary elections. The party
received 28 percent of the Antwerp vote in the 1994 local elections,
making it the largest party in the city.

Other far-right organizations with links to the Belgian Skinheads
have included the Jonge Wacht (Youth Guard), based in Antwerp and
Ghent, and the francophone froup L'Assaut (Attack), which dissolved
in September 1993. Its leader, Herve Van Laethem, attended a March
1993 gathering in Paris of more than 120 neo-Nazi Skinheads from
across Europe. L'Assaut produced an eponymous monthly publication;
following dissolution of the group, Van Laethem and others from
L'Assaut began publishing a neo-Nazi sheet called _Devenir_, named
for the French SS organ during World War II. Van Laethem died in
1994.

The British Skinhead organization Blood and Honour, which produces
concerts and publishes a skinzine of the same name, has a Belgian
division. At least two Belgian skinzines have appeared: _Blind
Justice_, in Liege, and _Pure Impact_, in Brussels. _Pure Impact_
has also offered tapes of Skinhead music for sale.

The British skinzine _Last Chance_ reported in early 1994 that two
British bands, Squadron and Celtic Warriors, had a recent gig in
Belgium abruptly halted halfway through the first band's set,
possibly due to outbreaks of fighting. In August 1992, local
authorities canceled a performance by the British Skinhead band
Skrewdriver that had been scheduled for a Flemish nationalist event.

A number of Belgian Skinheads reportedly follow "Odinism," the
worship of the Norse god Odin, a doctrin said to have a sizable
number of adherents in the Vlaams Blok as well.

                          Ax Attack

Two Belgian Skinheads, Steve Frank Anthony Cirock and Clivo Bruno,
and a Florida Ku Klux Klansman were involved in an October 1992
attack on a black man in northern Florida. The Belgians, who had
come to the United States to attend a KKK gathering in North
Carolina, joined their Florida host, Klansman Jack Bullock, in
chasing the car of Benjamin Ross, whom they accused of stealing a
pack of cigarettes from a convenience store. After ramming Ross's
car with his pick-up truck, Bullock began shooting at him. The chase
and the shooting continued on foot, while Cirock attacked Ross's car
with an ax. Bullock was convicted of aggravated assault with a
firearm and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Cirock, who returned with Bruno to Belgium, was charged with
criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, which authorities deemed
insufficient to warrant his extradition. (Anti-Defamation League,
15-16)


                          Work Cited

Anti-Defamation League. The Skinhead International: A Worldwide
Survey of Neo-Nazi Skinheads. New York: Anti-Defamation League,
1995. Anti-Defamation League, 823 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY
10017.

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