Pacifica Forum

The Pacifica Forum is a controversial discussion group in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was listed in 2009 as a white nationalist^[2] hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). It was hosted by retired University of Oregon (UO) professor Orval Etter.^[1] Although structured as an open public forum and never as a fixed group, the Pacifica Forum is currently the only ostensible "group" in Oregon that is listed as white nationalist by the SPLC.^[2]

Purpose, Structure, and Evolution

According to the group's founder, Orval Etter, the Pacifica Forum's purpose is to "provide information and points of view" on "war and peace, militarism and pacifism, violence and non-violence." Etter originally established Pacifica Forum in 1952 while working for the U C Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. It was subsequently re-established in Eugene in 1994 following Etters’ retirement from the University of Oregon.

When re-established in Eugene, the Pacifica Forum had a strongly "liberal" orientation. The PF format was a weekly presentation followed by discussion, open to the public. Membership, according to Etter, was "whoever shows up." Topics were diverse and were presented both by guest speakers and forum participants. Here are some of the forum’s program topics from 2005 through mid-2007:

• PTSD originating in combat or childhood trauma, its causes, manifestations, irreversibly transformative effects, and its mythic analogue as descent into the underworld.

• The immediate and long-term effects of depleted uranium used in both US invasions of Iraq, including increased rates of cancer and often hideous birth defects.

• The deceptions used to justify the Iraq War.

• Documentary film, “People and the Land” about the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

• Documentary film, “Jenin, Jenin” about the 2002 Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank during the 2nd Intifada, interviewing eyewitness survivors and showing footage of massive destruction. Humanitarian organizations were prohibited entry for four days after the fighting stopped and the casualty count was disputed, but Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported prima facie evidence of war crimes committed by Israel. Showing this film evoked complaints that it “endangered the safety of Jews in Eugene.”

• The vastly disproportionate deaths of Palestinians compared with Israelis documented by reliable Middle East sources and the gross media under-reporting of these in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the Oregonian, reported by Alison Weir.

• The natural human revulsion toward killing and methods used by our military to overcome this revulsion.

• The psychology of racism.

• Cross-cultural research on the psychological differences between self-identified liberals and conservatives.

• The wide reach of our military-industrial-congressional-university complex into every major US legislative district to maintain national economic dependency on the weapons industry and war - both covert, overt and proxy.

• The long and near-continuous history of US military aggression.

• The neoconservative movement, its connection to Israel, and its key role in fomenting the Iraq War, especially through the Office of Special Plans.

• The 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the October 1948 UN report titled “Timeline of Zionist Terror”.

• The 1967 attack by Israel on the USS liberty and its cover-up by the US government.

• The power of the Israel lobby documented by two independent surveys of Congress, and discussion led by Bay Area Jewish-American journalist Jeffrey Blankfort who won a settlement from the ADL for spying.

• Protection of Israel from international sanctions by over 40 US vetoes in the UN Security Council since 1972.

• Film on Israeli control and disproportionate use of West Bank water, and deliberate pollution of water allocated to Palestinians.

• Several presentations on impeachment of Bush administration leaders following exposure of the “Downing Street Memo” in 2005, including a panel discussion including a former congressman and a PowerPoint presentation identifying 12 impeachable offenses.

• Report by a veteran on the court-martial proceedings against Lt. Ehren Watada at Ft. Lewis, WA for refusing deployment to Iraq on the grounds that it was an illegal war, that under the Nuremberg Principle within the Uniform Code of Military Justice he had a duty to refuse deployment, and that by complying he would have led soldiers into the commission of war crimes.

• Report on 10-day anti-war booth interactions with the public at the Oregon State Fair.

However, in mid-2007 the forum began scheduling speakers politically incompatible with some of its previous presenters and attendees. Two regular presenters disassociated themselves from the forum at this time when it changed character, announcing this in a Register Guard guest opinion titled, “Leaving the Pacifica Forum but not its Original Goals.” They wrote, “Founded by pacifist Orval Etter, the forum was devoted to the goals of peace and justice. We valued the forum as a community peace organization that went conceptually beyond signs and bumper stickers and was uniquely attentive to deeper forces behind world events. Quite importantly, it has been the only local organization willing to touch the third rail of American liberal politics - Israel’s land seizures and subjugation of the Palestinians.

"A small group of attendees with a ‘white separatist’ preoccupation were attracted to the forum and started attending regularly. While never part of forum sessions, emailed views about ‘race-mixing,’ ‘blood consciousness,’ ‘miscegenation that tears down civilization and pollutes good races,’ and ‘the genocidal war against our own race’ began to proliferate.” They were reportedly explicit that they cared only about their own “race” and had no interest in Palestine.

One of the departing presenters explained further in a letter-to-the-editor, “Unfortunately, groups that assert Palestinian human rights and criticize Israel often attract and can be co-opted by people holding anti-Semitic and other racist viewpoints. This fate befell the forum when its venerable founder and continuing chairman failed to safeguard the quality of programming.”

Upon ending their association with the forum, these two former presenters provided an “exit program” exposing these viewpoints, which they viewed as deplorable and ruinous to the forum. Their program was filmed and broadcast on community TV. They were subsequently contacted by the Southern Poverty Law Center and contributed to the SPLC report.

This SPLC report came about following the forum's abrupt change in direction, when it hosted two speakers who have been stigmatized - rightly or wrongly - as Holocaust deniers. It was consequently listed as a hate group by the SPLC.^[3] Its continuing regular attendees have responded that the forum is not a membership organization, and does not hold any positions as a group or organization. It offers a platform to all political views, including Zionism and anti-fascism.

Jay Knott, the author of almost all content on the current Pacifica Forum website, did not attend the forum during the period described through late 2007.

Orval Etter

Pacifica Forum founder Orval Etter was an emeritus professor of planning, public policy, and management at the University of Oregon, where he had published extensively on municipal home rule and taught classes on municipal government and violence/non-violence. Also a classical cellist, he formed the Emerald Chamber Players which led to the founding of the Eugene Symphony in 1965. He was a well-known and respected figure in the Eugene community.

Etter was a law school graduate from the University of Oregon in 1939, a pacifist and conscientious objector during World War II.^[3] Etter died in 2013 following a convalescence of several years.^[4]

University of Oregon

Other than its meeting place and having a retired professor as its founder, the forum is not affiliated with the university.^[5]

The forum previously met for several years in university classrooms and later in a room at the Erb Memorial Union at the University of Oregon.^[5] In January 2010, it was moved by UO to the less centrally located Agate Hall at the edge of campus.^[6] In March 2010, the group was moved to the Baker Downtown Center, still part of the UO campus but located in downtown Eugene, with UO citing "declining attendance" as the reason for the move.^[7]

Controversies

Valdas Anelauskas, a Lithuanian immigrant who describes himself as a white separatist, hosted a series of Pacifica Forum talks in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Another speaker, Jimmy Marr, described Martin Luther King, Jr. as a "moral leper and communist dupe", and that the American Civil Rights Movement was funded by Jewish communists and the USSR in an attempt to incite violence. Orval Etter and many other attendees strongly reject this perspective.^[2][3][8][9]

The group hosted right-wing intellectual Tomislav Sunic, former Croatian diplomat and author of Homo Americanus: Child Of The Post-Modern Age as a speaker in June 2008. David Irving was also a featured speaker during the same month, speaking on his imprisonment in Austria for Holocaust denial.^[10]

In November 2007, Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review, appeared at an event organized by the Pacifica Forum. Weber was billed by the group as "America's most prominent revisionist historian". The Weber event was promoted using a flyer that depicts a snake curled in the shape of a Star of David and the headline: "Free Speech versus Zionist power". The meeting was attended by an estimated 60 people.^[10]

Orval Etter attended both the Irving and Weber talks, and states that both men are legitimate historians. The SPLC claims he stated "I admit that there were some bad things done to Jews during World War II, but I don't believe that everything they claim is truthful."^[3] Etter and other regular attendees say the same of the SPLC, and gave a series of talks during 2009, based on the research of John Tanton, who criticizes the organization for inaccuracy.^[11]

The former president of the UO, David B. Frohnmayer, criticized the Pacifica Forum and stated that its views do not represent those of the university. The forum is the only group Frohnmayer has singled out in this way. It has also drawn criticism from the University of Oregon Hillel, a Jewish student group.^[3] The forum has access to campus facilities, despite attempts by local anti-hate campaigners to evict it, due to a university policy allowing retired professors to host meetings on campus.^[1][10]

In December 2009, speaker Jimmy Marr gave a presentation entitled: "National Socialist Movement: An Insider's View of America's Radical Right." During the presentation, Marr invited all those in attendance to join him in giving the Sieg Heil salute. Marr also showed video footage from a National Socialist Movement demonstration in Phoenix, Arizona. According to a report in the Eugene Weekly, the video shows one of the speakers pointing at a protester and shouting: "YOU are a Jew! A traitor Jew!".^[12]

On January 8, 2010, Pacifica Forum held a meeting entitled "Everything You Wanted to Know About Pacifica Forum but Were Afraid to Ask".^[5] Of the seventy-five people in attendance, about half were protesting the forum.^[5] The protest was organized in reaction to Marr's December speech.^[5] The forum's supporters responded that the group champions free speech and has nothing to do with Neo-Nazism.^[5] One angry and tearful UO student spoke to Valdas Anelauskas, saying that statements he had made in the past had made her feel unsafe.^[5] At that point ASUO student body president Emma Kallaway asked the Pacifica Forum members to leave the building.^[5]

In early 2010, a swastika was found spray-painted into the carpet of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer Alliance, in the basement of the Erb Memorial Union.^[13] A computer was also vandalized with black paint.^[13] It was speculated to be related to a recent discussion by the Pacifica Forum held about the meaning of the swastika.^[13]

Response

According to the SPLC, Orval Etter responded to accusations of antisemitism by stating: "If you rub a substantial number of Jews the wrong way, you're anti-Semitic... In that sense, I have to admit that the Forum and I, in particular, are anti-Semitic."^[3] Etter and the forum's regular attendees contest this and most of what the SPLC has written about them, arguing that the forum is not pro- or anti- anyone, but an open discussion group that holds no positions. A report in the Oregon Daily Emerald stated that Etter did not consider himself antisemitic.^[14]

References