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Year-End Progress Report
IHR Ad in San Francisco Transit Stations
Generates Broad Media Attention
A New Effort to Shut Down Our Credit Card Processing
An Update From Mark Weber
Director, Institute for Historical Review
December 2018
While this past year has been another busy and productive one, we’ve also had to deal with more vicious media smears and new efforts to shut us down.
IHR Ad in San Francisco Transit Stations
An IHR digital display billboard went up in September at two major transit stations in the heart of San Francisco. This bold public service ad generated considerable media coverage, including reports by several California daily newspapers, local television stations, Fox News, Jewish community outlets, and other US based media, as well as by The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Independent in Britain.
Most of these reports were predictably hostile, often citing the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) or the Zionist Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to portray the IHR as a “hate group.”
This IHR public service ad, which appeared during the month of September in two transit stations in San Francisco, generated wide media attention.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority (BART) accepted the ad after some drawn-out negotiation. Although the agency came under criticism for accepting the billboard, it explained that the IHR ad complies with its guidelines, and therefore BART had no legal basis for rejecting it. The electronic display board, which proclaims “History Matters!,” was up throughout the month at the city’s downtown Powell Street and Montgomery Street stations.
The Anti-Defamation League “raised concerns” with BART about the allegedly “offensive” billboard. The ADL and the Jewish Community Relations Council, a local Jewish community paper also reported, will “keep up pressure on BART” over the ad.
The stridently hostile nature of much of the media coverage of the IHR, and the readiness of journalists to accept without question the views of clearly biased groups such as the SPLC and the ADL, highlight a pervasive bias in the mainstream media, as well as the laziness of many journalists.
David Cole, a southern California author and columnist, took aim at this media bias in an essay on the IHR ad and its impact. In his Taki mag column, “Black BART and the Freedom Riders,” he also called the IHR billboard a “small victory for free speech.”
Absurd Pretext Cited to Shut Down IHR Credit Card Processing
On August 28 the company that had been processing our credit card payments, abruptly cancelled its account with us.
When the Stripe company cancelled its service – after nine months without problems or complaints – it told us that it was doing so because the IHR “engages in, encourages, promotes or celebrates unlawful violence toward any group based on race, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other immutable characteristic.” For anyone familiar with our work, this claim is patently absurd. The Stripe company predictably provided no evidence for its charge.
It took a some time and effort, but after a few weeks we were once again able to handle credit card orders and donations. This recent cancellation of service is actually the third time we’ve been targeted in this way. Our credit card processing was also cancelled in December 2013 and again in August 2017.
Hundreds of IHR Writings Posted on `Unz Review’ Site
More than 800 articles, essays and reviews of the Institute for Historical Review, totaling more than three million words, were recently re-posted on The Unz Review, an influential, information-packed website. This was done by arrangement with Ron Unz, the former financial services software industry businessman who runs the site. For several years he was also the publisher of The American Conservative magazine.
While this is probably the most extensive uploading of IHR writings onto a single website at one time, such re-posting is not at all unique. Over the years, many IHR articles, reviews and essays have been widely distributed by others, or re-posted on websites around the world, many in translation in a range of languages.
For example, a French translation of a lengthy piece I wrote on the economy of Third Reich Germany in the pre-war years, has been posted on at least three French sites, and has been issued as a hard-copy French-language booklet.
YouTube Censors ‘Restrict’ IHR Videos
In line with a recent crackdown policy, YouTube has “restricted” a number of independently produced videos of IHR talks and presentations. (Some of these can be found on the “Video” web page of our main website.)
To watch a “restricted” video, the viewer must first click through a warning screen that announces: “The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.” Also, comments on the video are not allowed, and the number of views is not given. Even worse, YouTube will never “suggest” a “restricted” video to viewers, which is how many people find our videos. (“Restriction” is not outright deletion. YouTube bans outright videos it claims contain “hate speech or content that promotes or incites violence.”)
While YouTube claims that its “restriction” policy is aimed at videos with “inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” applying it to the IHR is absurd. Any open-minded person can easily determine for himself that our videos contain no such content.
The YouTube policy is clearly biased. For example, it doesn’t “restrict” videos that defend Israel and its routinely discriminatory and oppressive policies, which are certainly “offensive” to millions of people. YouTube restricts our voice — not because we have violated any objective standards, or because we have done anything wrong or illegal — but because it doesn’t like what we say.
IHR Meetings
The startling rise of populist-nationalist parties in Europe, and what that portends for the future, was the topic at our IHR meeting on April 14.
Adrian Davies, a well-informed specialist of populist-nationalist politics in Europe, was the featured speaker at this event, titled “A New Dawn for Europe and the West?” The visiting English attorney, who was addressing an IHR gathering for the fifth time, spoke with authority based on a years of experience and seasoned observation of the British and continental European scene.
Millions of Europeans, along with millions of European-Americans in the US — I emphasized in my own address at this meeting — are profoundly unhappy with major cultural, demographic and social trends of recent years, including massive non-European immigration, a systematic assault against Western identity and traditions, and accelerating “third-worldization.”
Widespread distrust of “mainstream” political leadership, and apprehension about the future — I also said — have been fueling support for populist and “far right” political parties in Europe, Britain’s “Brexit” vote to take the UK out of the European Union, and the surprising presidential election victory of Donald Trump in the US.
These developments – Davies and I agreed — are so far largely reactive expressions of discontent. Time will tell if they signal a healthy, productive awakening of Europe and the West.
An upbeat Christmas get-together rounded out the year. This Dec. 15 event – our ninth annual Christmas/Yule gathering– was a friendly, festive occasion of good fellowship, food and drink. I reviewed our work and accomplishments over the past year, and expressed appreciation to colleagues and friends who helped make it another successful one.
Two guest speakers did much to make this an informative and enjoyable occasion for everyone:
Alexander Azadgan, a professor and expert on international relations, provided well-informed perspective on the US-Iran conflict, and what it means for Americans and the world. The multi-lingual speaker, who was born in Iran and educated in the US, also spoke about developments in the Middle East in recent years, and US policy in the region.
Herman Schmidt, a German-born engineer and import-export businessman who has lived most of his adult life in California, gave a memorable and moving talk in which he recounted highlights of his remarkable life. He spoke of the hardships he endured and the challenges he overcame as a young man during the difficult years just after the end of World War II, including concentration camp internment and other harrowing travails, as well as his new start in Serbia and education in Soviet Ukraine, and later migration to the US.
Outreach and Interviews
Throughout this past year, large IHR display ads have been appearing regularly in the American Free Press, a bold, independent bi-weekly newspaper. These ads have been generating a steady stream of orders and inquiries.
Display ads like that have been appearing regularly over the past year in the American Free Press, a hard-hitting independent newspaper.
Over the past year I’ve conducted numerous broadcast interviews with US and overseas media, appearing as a guest on radio and television broadcasts to talk about topical and historical issues. Many of these have been with global television broadcasters that reach many viewers.
Of course, we’ve also carried on our routine work — including compiling and distributing our “IHR News and Comment” e-mail bulletins, and handling sales and distribution of books, discs and flyers.
As we have for years, in 2018 we also kept up regular updating of our website’s home page – www.ihr.org — with selected news and comment items, and periodic reports on the Institute’s work and impact. The site is also a gateway to our immense library and archive, which serves as a great learning center, globally informing and educating people.