Italy is currently experiencing a constitutionalncrisis brought on by mountingndissatisfaction with the partitocrazia,nand none of the major parties is willingnto tackle the immigration question. Sonfar the most creative solution has beenna bribe given to the Albanian governmentnin the belief that it is cheaper tongive welfare to Albanians before theyngo to Italy.nImmigration is also a touchy politicalnproblem in Germany, one that is complicatednby reunification. With a freshnsupply of cheap east German labor,nGerman businesses no. longer have sonpressing a need for Yugoslav and Turkishnworkers. The Turks, predictably,nare insistent in demanding their rights,nand the tension is building all over thencountry. In the east, where there arenfewer economic opportunities fornworking-class youth, the conflicts arenovert.nAccording to a July story in thenSildeutsche Zeitung (reprinted in Englishnin The German Tribune), neo-nNazi youth groups in Dresden arencapitalizing on the immigrant issue. Innone “housing area” of 45,000, then”faschos” parade openly, speaking derisivelynof the foreign “dregs” andnexpressing their hope for a clean nationnof pure Germans. There have beennnumerous skinhead attacks againstnVietnamese and Africans, but the localnsympathies are mostly with the youthngroups. One restauranteur told thenreporter, “If it weren’t for the Hitlern:sn—-•i^hBEaiwsiiSs..ni<^nsalute and the swastika . . . the boysnwould be all right.”nMeanwhile, the political debatenrages over how many political refugeesnought to be allowed to take asylum innGermany. If stricter limits are notnimposed, it is all too easy to predict thenconsequences: a newly militant extremenright that will not shrink fromnrepeating the mistakes of the past.nRecent events in Yugoslavia and thenSoviet Union are the clearest evidencenthat national and tribal loyalties havennot disappeared from the Europeannscene. As this century draws to an end,nEurope — East and West—appears tonbe playing itself backward. By the yearn2000, the arrangements of Versaillesnand Yalta may all be a dead letter.n— Thomas FlemingnLANGUAGE DIFFERENCESnfigured prominently in rioting lastnspring in two largely Hispanic areas ofnthe nation’s capital, Mount Pleasantnand Adams Morgan. The violence innearly May began after a city policenwoman arrested a Hispanic man. Thenofficer spoke English; the man spokenSpanish. The police officer said thenman brandished a knife; she fired hernrevolver, wounding him. Two nights ofnrioting and looting followed, causingnhundreds of thousands of dollars inndamage.nObviously, the inability to speaknEnglish makes it difficult for immigrantsnto function in our society. Compoundingnthe problem is the fact thatnmany immigrants are duped by ambitiousnpoliticians into believing they cannsucceed in America without learningnEnglish. U.S. ENGLISH, with over anhalf million members, has been at thenforefront of the Common LanguagenMovement with its promotion of opportunitiesnfor non-English speakers tonlearn the language. Since January,nU.S. ENGLISH has given $30,000 inngrants to five community-based Englishnprograms in the Washington,nD.C., area, four in Mount Pleasantnand Adams Morgan.nOpponents of the Common LanguagenMovement recognize that Hispanicsnand other language minoritiesnare learning English at a rapid rate. Yetntheir response to the integration ofnimmigrants into our society is to encouragenan active official bilingualnmovement. For example, though residentsnof Mount Pleasant have identifiednEnglish proficiency as the mostnimportant key to their success, demandsnmade by local ethnic politiciansnwere for short-term solutions like morenSpanish-speaking police officers and an24-hour Spanish hotline to the mayor’snoffice. Bills supporting multilingualismnin government have been introducednin at least 12 states and passed innthree — Oregon, Washington, andnNew Mexico. Some Hispanic activistsnin our country have even demandednthat government activities be conductednin Spanish. The Hispanic IssuesnConference has suggested a full bilingualnapproach in public affairs, includingnSpanish-speaking poll workers atnelections and translators at city governmentnmeetings.nNor have these opponents limitednnntheir attacks to the legislative realm.nLast March, after being incited bynremarks from the podium at the CalifornianDemocratic Party in Oakland,napproximately 25 hostile demonstratorsnsurrounded the U.S. ENGLISHnbooth, threw literature to the floor,npushed a table into a female staffer,nand shouted such things as: “You arenthe intruder. Spanish should be thenofficial language. You are a white Caucasiannfrom Western Europe. Californianshould be given back to Mexico.”nU.S. ENGLISH filed a 15.2 millionndollar lawsuit against the CalifornianDemocratic Party for violation of U.S.nENGLISH’S civil rights, for breach ofncontract, and assault and battery.n”Threats, intimidation and violencenare not part of the American politicalnprocess,” said Stanley Diamond, boardnchairman of U.S. ENGLISH.nAdvocates of bilingualism andnmultilingualism are working in thencourts, in the halls of government, andnin the schools, pushing an agenda thatnattempts to chip away at the unity ourncountry enjoys through our commonnlanguage. In the courts, however, mostnof their efforts have failed. The SupremenCourt ruled last June in HernandeznV. New York that a prosecutorndoes not necessarily violate the Constitutionnby removing people fluent innSpanish from a jury in a case against anHispanic defendant. In other words,nthe Supreme Court refused to equatenlanguage with national origin, handingna major victory to the Common LanguagenMovement, which considers thenimmutable characteristics of race, nationalnorigin, and sex distinct fromnlearned traits like language. “The SupremenCourt declined to make a blanketnequation that said anytime younmake a distinction on the basis ofnlanguage, you are discriminating onnthe basis of national origin,” Diamondnsaid. “The Court said each case mustnbe examined individually to determinenwhether language was used as a pretextnfor a nation-origin discrimination.”nLeaders of the Common LanguagenMovement believe that attempts tonerode our common language will continuenuntil English is established as ournnation’s official language of government.nEighteen states have enactednlaws designating English as their officialnlanguage, and two measures are innCongress: the English LanguagenOCTOBER 1991/7n