Nazi Skinhead Concert To Be Held at Black Bear Bar in Brooklyn

May 28, 2016 antifascistfront 22 Comments

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A crowd of skinheads and Nazi punks are feeling so emboldened in Brooklyn that they are having another party in Williamsburg tonight. Today is Oi!Fest, a Rock Against Communism show that neo-Nazi skinheads attempt to have annually. RAC is the alternative to the more left-leaning working class street punks and Oi! Scene, where RAC is an explicitly “white power” contingent that birthed the “white noise” movement. While the Nazi skinhead culture has waxed and waned, white noise music has been one of the best recruitment tools for the most extreme edge of the violent white nationalist movement.

OiFest! 2016 had been organized in relative secret as most of the skinheads at its reigns know it would be shut down if their venue is revealed too soon. Yesterday they had a large pre-party that brought out their crews and supporters at the Red Star bar in Greenpoint, a well known sports-bar in the area.

Tonight they are going to be having the first of two shows for Oi!Fest 2016 at Black Bear on North 6^th avenue in Williamsburg. Black Bear has already caused controversy by hosting the Project Equinox tour from Heathen Harvest, with a line-up of well-known Neofolk bands with nationalist leanings. It is unsure whether or not Black Bear is the venue for tomorrow’s show as well. The bands for Oi!Fest include well-known skinhead fare like OxBlood, Close Shave, Offensive Weapon, and Battle Zone.

Below we are listing all of the information for Black Bear, their social media, yelp, and contact information. Call in and let them known what you think about their choice to host a violent neo-Nazi show. This is an organizing tool that has real consequences and these events have a track record of being center points for violent racist attacks.

Black Bear Twitter:@BlackBearBKL

Blackbearbk.com

Phone: 917.538.8399

Black Bear Instagram

Black Bear Facebook

Address:

70 N 6th St

Brooklyn, NY

Uncategorized

Battle for Sacramento: Antifa Sacramento to Confront Traditionalist Workers Party on June 26th

May 22, 2016 antifascistfront 15 Comments

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Sacramento is the site of a sort of Nazi “mega-rally” that is bringing together disparate elements of the extreme right in an attempt to flex the muscles of organized white supremacy. Anti-Fascist Action Sacramento has taken on this challenge and is rallying the community to show the insurrectionary white supremacists that Sacramento is not going to tolerate their swastikas and threats of violence.

On June 26th, The Traditionalist Workers Party, the political wing of Matthew Heimbach’s Traditionalist Youth Network, has called for a public action. Starting in the Alt Right, the TYN/TWP has quickly moved towards more street racist organizations and is affiliating, to some degree, with The Sacto Skins, Golden State Skinheads, National Socialist Movement, California Skinheads (CAS), Blood & Honor and the Ku Klux Klan.

Matthew Heimbach was recently fired from his attempt to work as a family case manager for Indiana social services when his nationalism was discovered. This was easy since he violently attacked and removed an African American protester at a Donald Trump rally, as well as continuing his far-right street activism in opposition to things like immigration, same-sex marriage, and Black Lives Matter. He gained notoriety earlier in his life for forming the White Student Union at the Towson University Campus, and later was connected with the Aryan Terror Brigade, the American Freedom Party, and the League of the South.

Heimbach and TYN/TWP is holding a rally on the steps of the California capitol building in Sacramento, at 1315 10th St, Sacramento, California(95814). The event is somewhat of a wildcard in terms of attendance, yet it will likely include all of the open racists from the surrounding area. For those in California, this will not come as a surprise since skinhead gangs and KKK locals have been there for years, and now the Donald Trump campaign has made them feel emboldened.

According to Sacramento Antifa:

Anti-Fascist Action Sacramento does not believe in allowing hate to have a platform and we are calling upon the community to shut down their rally. Fighting fascism is a moral duty, not a political one. We believe most people are good and are willing to stand up against racial hatred. Our objective is to force the nazis off our streets and to send a strong message that they are not welcome in society and especially Sacramento.

Antifa Sacramento believes in non-sectarian defense of other anti-fascists and a multi-faceted approach to fighting racism. This means that individual people have their own methods of combating hate and we do not criticize others tactics. Our objective is never violence. We believe that hate should not have a platform in our community and we are determined to shut them down. Ignoring them DOES NOT make them go away and will only perpetuate the problem we already have.

On June 26th, they are asking people to arrive by 9am and it runs until 3pm. You can RSVP at the Facebook event, which is a good idea since the guest list is actually private. Sacramento Antifa has also provided a great deal of background information on that page, so you can learn even more about the major players in the far-right who are putting this event together.

Academic Racism, Alternative Right

Fash the Campus: Identity Europa, Millenial Recruitment, and the Berkeley Alt Right Safe Space

May 8, 2016 antifascistfront 11 Comments

What was the purpose of having an Alt Right ‘Safe Space,’ other than to mock the idea that people need safe spaces sometimes?

When the idea was announced only a few days ago it seemed like an insulting media stunt, and it was, but it was also a strategic point for the growing Alt Right and its attempts to market racism and bigotry to Millenials. Richard Spencer of the Radix Journal and the National Policy Institute put together a video and a plan, to promote an outdoor meeting at the historic Sproul Plaza on the University of California and Berkeley campus. This was a place where 60s radicals joined together to confront the Vietnam War, and to build the Berkeley Free Speech movement. The point they were trying to make is that Berkeley is no longer a bastion of free speech because of the Political Correctness that has run rampant. Though this seems like the embarrassing overreach of angry children who are stomping their feet about no longer being able to say the N-word in public, what they are tapping into is a feeling in much of middle America of not understanding the new developments that have come in confronting interpersonal oppression.

The event was put together and manned primarily by Richard Spencer along with Nathan Damigo and Johnny Monoxide. Damigo is running the organization Identity Europa, whose name seems intended to conjure up the French organization Generation Identity that the American Alt Right often fawns over. That organization is built as a more radical alternative to the fascist Front National political party run by Marine Le Pen, which they think is too reformist and populist. Generation Identity has been pushing the “Identitarian” identification, which brings them somewhat in line with the fascist philosophy of the Nouvelle Droite movement and people like Alain de Benoit and Guillaume Faye.

Identity Europa began as the National Youth Front, but after a Christian group of the same name threatened to sue, Damigo changed it. That organization went into disarray when Nathan’s co-founder,Angelo John Gage, left the organization in October. When it was still the National Youth Front it had a back and forth relationship with the fascist and populist American Freedom Party, where they automatically registered NYF members with the AFP when they turned 35. NYF hit more hurdles when their fundraising efforts were canceled by both GoFundMe and IndieGoGo for violating the terms of service, which comes from the fact that you can only strategically phrase things so much before the open racism becomes obvious. The only real press that the NYF got on campuses was for trying to target professors at Arizona State University and Boston University for being “anti-white.”

Nathan is an example of the kind of middle ground that the Alt Right has always been on. Good looking, well spoken, dresses and combs his hair like a hip Banana Republic model; he is a good advertisement as he looks far from a Klansman (looks a lot like Richard, to be exact). He is an Iraq war veteran, but he is also a felon for a hate crime. Several years ago, after he returned from Iraq, he brutally attacked a Muslim man on the street, and robbed him. He went to prison for this, and, to be fair, is generally publicly apologetic for his behavior, but it actually reveals a driving set of perspectives that lie under his fashy hair. He has hoped that by being open about his conviction he would be spared of ridicule, but it is actually just provides more background about who he is and what has inspired his organizing program.

Though Identity Europa seems to be little more than his brainchild and attempt to coordinate with young people, they seem to attempt to be largely the same project that Youth for Western Civilization, the Traditionalist Youth Network/Workers Party, and the various White Student Unions are. They wish to make whiteness an identity battle, and present white advocacy as the same as Black and Latino rights organizations, including reaching out to communities of color to find “allies of color” who think that whites are being discriminated against on college campuses.

Johnny Monoxide is another level of racism piled on, which may be a testament to the way that the Alt Right has been mainstreamed by gutter podcasts like the Daily Shoah. In fact, Richard Spencer had moved on from even using the term Alt Right and was simply referring to himself as an Identitarian in the French model, but after places like The Right Stuff started popularizing the phrase he returned to it. Monoxide is best known for hosting the short-lived podcast on the Right Stuff/Daily Shoah podcast network, The Current Year Tonight. This is a joke from the Daily Shoah lexicon referring to how liberals will respond to racism on social media by saying something like “racism, its 2016,” so now they will just respond by saying “it’s the current year.” Monoxide matches the angry racialism of Mike Enoch and Seventh Son, yet, unlike them, he shows his face in videos quite often. In a recent set of videos at the Burlingame, California Donald Trump appearance, he made a series of videos where he mocked protesters, using racial slurs and “calling the Jew ‘the Jew.’” He was interviewed and filmed heavily by Infowars, the conspiracy website that has taken a hard right turn and now spends most of their time mocking women and leftists.

Richard Spencer talking into the camera to the Red Ice Creations hosts.

The entire event was live streamed by Red Ice Radio, the white nationalist podcast network that has become one of the largest in their movement. From a semi-professional studio built in their living room, married team Lana and Henrik provided stunted commentary as Johnny Monoxide live streamed from what appeared to be his phone and was able to hear them in an earpiece. Monoxide doesn’t seem too worried about being found out in the world for his behavior because he is a union electrician in the Bay Area. This doesn’t stop consequences from a counter-movement, but he is right that unions vessels of protecting their membership.

The event went as many expected it to go, including the organizers. Generally it was Spencer, Monoxide, and Damigo, and a couple of simple student protesters holding broad Alt Right sloganed signs as people came up and tried to argue with them. It was often an attempt to slip the group up on some kind of rhetoric, and a few Trump supporters, including students of color, came through to defend the group of racists. At one point, a loud man came through who obviously knew this was in progress and what it was. He identified Spencer as a “suit and tie Nazi” and called out Monoxide for being a union electrician. Spencer yelled back for the man to stop “whitesplaining” to the mostly non-white crowd, a move that he will likely be bringing up in speeches and podcasts for months with a self-congratulating smile.

While there were dozens of people that came through the square, none of them were necessarily set to argue the point because, as with most people, they were not trained to argue with a fascist whose entire purpose there is to bait you into an argument. Jack Donovan, a white nationalist allied male tribalist who rolls in these Alt Right circles, has a new book out calling Becoming a Barbarian. It is generally masculanist nonsense, yet one section has something that we thought was interesting to folks looking to confront fascism. Arguments, he says, are only between friends. There is no point in arguing with enemies since you have no stake in changing their mind. Let them have their ideas, and save disagreements between people that you really do want to find unity with.

We will never find political or social unity with Damigo and Spencer, and the arguments themselves end up being relatively politically useless. They want to get you to engage with them so they can hopefully have a chance to pontificate more rhetoric and then use very well planned verbal prose to try and sow doubt. Most people have not sat there and trained themselves to make arguments about race and IQ, to know the latest archeological evidence about pre-colonial Africa, to understand the nuance in race and crime statistics. Spencer knows this, and so he can use the very small amount of evidence he has to support his wild ideas and most people are not ready to combat it. In this case, he knows that getting people into the argument is a win. Most of the people in the square that day were strong voices that advocated for inclusivity and diversity. A conversation still should be had about what anti-fascists call the “no platform” approach, and why we should leave our arguments between comrades and those who are not open racists. While those people argued with them, Lana and Henrik mocked them on air, using racial language and laughing at each impassioned plea against racism.

Spencer and Damigo intended to use the Berkeley Alt Right Safe Space experiment to see if they were going to do this on other college campuses. Given the way that they discussed, promoted, and reflected on it, they likely will do this again.

This is not the last time that they will show up on campus, but a college anti-fascist movement can be equipped to handle their push when it returns.

Alternative Right, Uncategorized

Alt Right Writer Milo Yiannopoulos Speaking at University of Oregon

May 7, 2016 antifascistfront 5 Comments

The Alt Right’s new renaissance is being facilitated by crossover points into the semi-mainstream that it needs to survive. Infowars connects it to conspiracy theory and militia movements. Donald Trump mainstreams their narratives about nationalism and immigration. Breitbart, and its hip younger correspondents, are helping to bridge their fascist perspectives with the fashionable right-wing side of Conservative America.

As we covered at length in an early article on Breitbart’s portrayal of the Alt Right, Milo Yiannopoulos has become the primary vessel for that Breitbart crossover. Milo’s primary goal seems to be insulting and offensive to what he derides as the “PC culture” of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and micro aggressions. Since he describes himself as a libertarian, his language choices are often intended to make him simply sound like a brash, iconoclastic attention-seeker. It is the fact that he openly admires and identifies with the Alt Right and that he uses a fascist lining in his rhetoric that is making him of interest to anti-fascists.

In Eugene, Oregon, which recently saw a visit by Donald Trump and has been seeing threats on students of color from KKK affiliates, the University of Oregon chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) is bringing Milo to campus for an evening of “trigger warnings.” YAL has been around since the 2008 failed candidacy of Ron Paul, and generally brings together the right-wing cultural side of the Paul campaign that has always bridged paleolibertarianism with white nationalist influences. Their Visualize the Debt campaign was their largest effort, which was a relatively generic national debt alarmist approach to force in aggressive austerity cuts to social services. They have done general rabble-rousing things like handing out cigarettes at “no smoking” college campuses and making issues about GoProud’s invitation at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

In a more real way, they are filling the space that was earlier occupied by Youth for Western Civilization (YWC). That organization, founded by right-wing activist Kevin DeAnna who is now a member of the Wolves of Vinland, was an edge organization that used conservative cover for nationalist goals. Hosting people like anti-immigration extremist politician Tom Tancredo and Pat Buchanan’s offensive sister, Bay Buchanan, they flirted openly with people like American Renaissance’s Jared Taylor. Members of YWC went on to form White Student Unions as well as the Traditionalist Youth Network, while somehow Kevin DeAnna has maintained his connections to the broader Beltway conservative movement through a staff position at the Leadership Institute and World Net Daily.

The campus activism of YAL does seem to be slightly more libertarian focused in terms of economics, but its social space is intended to be exactly what Milo represents. Thomas Tullis, the YAL organizer bringing Milo, says that they don’t agree with everything he says, but it is sort of a litmus test for Free Speech. Milo’s version of the Alt Right is one where by certain pieces of the ideology are pulled out of context, while others are softened. He does acknowledge the racial identity and anti-egalitarianism of the Alt Right, which he seems to share, but he says that much of the more blatant white nationalism, racism, and anti-Semitism are really just offensive jokes meant to attack progressive PC culture. It is this false characterization that has gotten him critics on the Alt Right, most loudly Andrew Anglin of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer.

Milo’s general point of view has been one that flirts with the open racial politics under the cover of offensive double-speak, and his queer identity is one that has often shielded him from critics. The fact that his “homosexual” identification is a non-issue for groups like YAL is a further testament that homophobia is on the chopping block for the fascist Alt Right, who would rather have masculine queer men that stand against race mixing and feminism.

This can be seen especially clearly with his relationship with Jack Donovan, a queer tribalist author who is also a member of the Wolves of Vinland and speaks at National Policy Institute and American Renaissance conferences. When Milo publishes his feature article on the Alt Right, Donovan commended him for it, which noted that they were Facebook friends. Donovan recently went on Milo’s own podcast, where they further celebrated Donovan’s new book, “Becoming a Barbarian.”

Milo is coming to the University of Oregon on May 10^th, where he will be speaking in Columbia Hall, room 150, at 7:00pm. In their advertisement for the event he threatens that anyone who attempts to challenge him will be on video from “50 cameras,” and it has been his general career path to try and single out people for harassment and threats. Milo’s official title is Technology Editor at Breitbart, but he is more and more becoming a professional personality for the offensive Internet far right who has made trolling and hate speech its bread and butter. Somehow he is still allowed into major political press events, including White House press briefings.

What Milo presents is an opening for anti-fascists to confront the crossover points that fascist commentary has had into the broader right-wing. Breitbart and other publications should be pressured to single out and cut ties with people like Milo for their racialist perspective and the way they use their professional resources to embolden white nationalists.

This can start by confronting Milo at this event, coordinating with student and anti-fascist organizations, and making campuses a hostile place both for him and the organizations that support him.

Alternative Right, Uncategorized

Alt Right ‘Safe Space’ Public Meeting Happening at UC Berkeley on Friday, May 6th

May 6, 2016 antifascistfront Leave a comment

Something strange is happening this afternoon at the University of California at Berkeley.

Recently, Richard Spencer of Radix Journal and the National Policy Institute put up one of his myopic videos where he stands in front of a digitally placed background and talks at the camera. Here he brought up the “rich history of free speech” that Berkeley has had, referencing the 1960s SDS culture that was allied with the “free speech” and anti-war movements.

He then said that Berkeley fails to live up to those standards because of “political correctness,” the notion that many on the Alt Right attempt to peddle meaning that the disallowal of open racism, heterosexism, and transphobia means an attack on open discourse and marginalized voices. The Alt Right has seen a near renaissance over the last year because of a couple of factors. First, the term, which was coined by Spencer to indicate a “big tent” that included all those far-right ideological people who rejected modernity, has broadened even past its original core and now indicates a neo-fascist hipster culture that centers itself on social media and web boards. Over the last year it has used these tools to edge into mainstream discourse, dropping memes like #Cuckservative into the right-wing edge of GOP talk radio. The second factor is Donald Trump, who has largely mainstreamed a lot of their narratives about Islam, women, and immigration, and who they have jumped behind universally in an effort to ride media coattails. This has largely been successful for them as their numbers have swelled, and they have created a subculture with its own heroes, philosophers, jargon, and meeting points.

They want to make Berkeley another one of these meeting points today at 3:00pm. In Spencer’s video they have declared that they will make an “Alt Right safe space” at the Sproul Plaza on the Berkeley campus. This play on words comes from the idea, again, that the white male is the new persecuted class, one that should be protected like all others. They attempt to mock the “safe space” concept, which they do not acknowledge comes from the fact that many who have experienced serious assault and trauma often need spaces where certain behaviors are avoided so they can contribute to activist work on an (somewhat)even playing field. If pressed, they will likely accept the realities of sexual assault and PTSD, yet they still like to undermine concepts like “safe spaces” in an effort to delegitimize the suffering of people they do not want to see gain power.

The gathering, which has been generally ill defined, seems to promise to have Spencer himself present, yet is likely to be targeted at youth contingents behind things like the vacant White Student Unions. Millenials seem to be the Alt Right’s bread and butter, and Spencer, who exceeds their age, has made them his prime target by lowering NPI’s conference cost and bending his own elitist mindset to Twitter hashtags and “fashy memes.”

Those associated with the Alt Right have already been using this Safe Space language, mentioning it doing their weird Boycott Racist Sam’s Club campaign.

Whatever the population actually consists of, whether it is young fascists or older pseudo-intellectuals trying to hide their ideas falsely behind youth faces, Alt Righters promise to be coming out at the Sproul Plaza at Berkeley at 3:00pm TODAY!

They hope to talk about Alt Right ideas like race, Trump, and immigration in their safe space, and this may be the first step for white nationalist students in the area to begin organizing on campus.

We are putting the information below if you want to join them and show them that their “Alt Right safe space” has no safety at Berkeley.

Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump, Uncategorized

Trump Campaign Cancels Vancouver Event Amidst Massive Counter-Protests

May 6, 2016 antifascistfront 3 Comments

For almost two weeks, both the hard right and the anti-fascist left of the Pacific Northwest have been preparing for Donald Trump’s campaign visit. Even after his opposition dropped out, the Trump campaign continued to hedge towards his visit to Vancouver, Washington. Vancouver is a suburb of the larger Portland metro area, known for its strong left-wing protest element. As the Trump campaign began looking for a venue, a coalition began forming that included unions from throughout Oregon and Washington, Latino and progressive organizations, and the Stop Trump PDX coalition of almost twenty radical and revolutionary organizations that were dedicated to shutting it down.

It looks like that pressure, mixed with practical concerns, has finally pushed the Trump campaign to cancel their Vancouver event. The Saturday, May 7^th appearance in Southern Washington has now been officially canceled as no venue would have them. The coalitions calling for the confrontation of Trump were growing so massive at this point that they could have vastly outnumbered the Trump supporters coming to rally, which could lead to a repeat of the Chicago shut-down.

Many of the different coalitions are now moving to continue the battle against Trump, with the Washington progressive organizations focusing on the now set Saturday event in Spokane Washington. This will happen at the Spokane Convention Center at 12:00pm.

For those in Portland looking to continue the work that the coalition began, organizers are jumping behind the already massive counter-demonstration in Eugene. This “non-violent” demonstration is showing hundreds on social media, and is organizing the general protest contingent as well as the Families Against Fascism event that is going to be all-ages and child friendly.

Many counter-protesters would like to get inside to the Trump event, and there are only two tickets allowed per person ordering them. They are free, but a person will need them to get in, and if they want to get into the venue they will have to arrive several hours before it begins at 7:00pm. Since they have been kicking out people at random, and hundreds of people may be getting tickets to go in and protest, those who get in will have to dress conservatively and blend into the crowd.

This is likely the last time he will come to the Pacific Northwest as these are not swing states and he will have almost no chance of success there in the general election.

For a country that just elected a fascist politician on a major ticket, this will be just the beginning of a mass-action oriented anti-fascist movement to confront the growing white nationalist forces that he is emboldening.

Get Tickets to the Eugene Trump Event

Facebook RSVP to the Eugene Anti-Trump Action

Donald Trump, Militia Movement, Uncategorized

Donald Trump is Coming to Vancouver, WA, Coalition Forms to Confront Him

May 4, 2016 antifascistfront 8 Comments

The Trump train is going to be coming to the Pacific Northwest as a sort of end of the GOP hate-bus. Donald Trump is now battling for the 1,237-delegate number so that he can win the Republican Presidential nomination without contest, something that Ted Cruz and John Kasich came together to try and stop. Even though Cruz and Kasich have officially dropped out of the race, there could still be a certain amount of fear hanging over the Trump campaign about what is going to happen in Cleveland if they do not skate in above the cap. This means more stops than normal, even though it is clear that, by standard delegate counting, no Republican politician could possibly beat him at this point. Even companies like Microsoft how now dumped their support of the RNC so as not to be associated with Trump, showing that even the GOP is being dismantled by a fascist coup on their already existing right-wing ideology.

Besides normal stops in places like Seattle, Trump is planning on coming to Vancouver on May 7th. This stop puts him in earshot of Portland, as Vancouver is one of its suburbs, just across the Columbia River. Though people thought he would make regular Oregon stops since Trump campaign offices opened up in both Eugene and Tigard, Oregon, given that this appearance is just ten days away from the Oregon primary, this may be the only stop in the Portland metro area. He then announced that he will be coming to both Eugene and Medford on quick stops the day before, Friday, May 6th.

Oregon and Washington left and radical organizations have come together in a united front to confront this event, hoping to replicate the opposition that shut down the Chicago event or blockaded roads in the Southwest. A rally has been planned by a coalition of groups including a range from OneAmerica Votes, UFCW and SEIU locals, Bernie coalition supporters, and a range of groups that are taking a radical contingent, including Hella 503, the Portland Solidarity Network, and the Black Rose Anarchist Federation.

This effort has only been bolstered by recent confrontations with the Portland State Students for Trump, who brought in militia supporters from the conspiracy-depot Infowars to bait, harass, and intimidate counter-protesters from the Portland State University Student Union. Their founder, Vladimir Kolychef, is an open nationalist who is regularly posting “race realist” content on his Facebook, sharing quotes from National Alliance leader William Pierce, and using in-jokes from white nationalist websites like the Right Stuff and the Daily Shoah. The Trump campaign has continued to network them besides this information being known, and Vlad continues to publicly state that people have color have a lower IQ than whites and that he prefers a state close to that of Pinochet’s Chile.

It is unsure whether or not their will be open fascist or racialist participants, but the American Front does have a foundation in Vancouver, Washington. The militia movement seems like it will be the largest racist contingent, coming after the Malheur standoff and the recent call from Infowars to stand with Trump supporters against leftist protesters.

The rally is planned outside the venue on Saturday, May 7th, where speakers will be highlighting Latino voices that are being targeted by the Trump campaign and its racist supporters.

Organizers and anti-fascists are calling for all those that oppose Trump’s fascist program to come out and confront him and his supporters directly, and show that they are not welcome in this area of the country, period.

Come to the event and join the anti-fascist and anti-capitalist contingent, which shows that we support the broad anti-Trump coalition and that we make up a more militant base that will do what it takes to shut down Donald Trump!

Right now the exact time and location is not available, and will likely not be released until the day before. We will share that information right as soon as it is available, and update this article. Below is the Facebook event for the counter-action organized by the coalition, and before that is a Google form that one of their organizations is using to get phone numbers to send last minute text announcements to.

RSVP on the Facebook Event

Sign the Pledge to Confront Donald Trump in Vancouver

Anarchism, National Anarchism

Why is a Fascist Publishing House Releasing Books by Goldman, Berkman, and Kropotkin?

April 27, 2016 antifascistfront Leave a comment

For anyone that has been looking at the problem of creeping fascism in the U.S. and Europe, National-Anarchism has become an entryist tool for the far right to move into otherwise far-left anarchist movements. National-Anarchism, a term coined by nationalist activist Troy Southgate, sees a form of “anarchism” where autonomous communities are created on the basis of things like race, ideology, or sexual orientation. Generally, they mix deep ecology and some post-left and anti-state politics with ultra-conservative social views, racial separatism, and a violent anti-Semitism. They attempt to appropriate anarchist symbols, organizing styles, and social structures, and you’ll often see them attempt to join in the black block at protests. There have been incidents over the years in the United States with National-Anarchist organizations attempting to gain entry into anarchist projects. The National Anarchist Tribal Alliance(NATA) of New York has made a fuss after being kicked out of the New York Anarchist Bookfair, as well as the now-defunct Bay Area National Anarchist(BANA) being booted out of San Francisco based events and attacked at actions. BANA tried to make a name for itself protesting the movie Machete, saying that it was anti-white, as well as protesting immigration and doing talks on the importance of “tribe.” Several National-Anarchists have joined things like the Traditionalist Youth Network and the Traditionalist Workers Party in California, joining together with classic Christian racists like Matthew Heimbach and Matt Parrot to develop a violent anti-immigrant movement.

Much of the rhetorical center of National-Anarchism in the U.S. is around Attack the System, a website we have covered extensively in the past. The site, run by former anarchist Keith Preston, advocates what it calls Pan-Secession, an idea that different ideological groups should revolt against the “Empire” and sort of go their own way. Their conception of anarchism is “left, right, and center,” where they believe that everything that people call anarchism should be a part of the broad anarchist project. They often work with anarcho-capitalist and libertarian types, as well as many of the newer far-right variants like Tribal Anarchists, Anarcho-Monarchists, Agorists, and National Anarchists.

Keith Preston knows his way around the anarchist movement, coming out of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Workers Solidarity Alliance in the past(all of which abhor his recent views and behavior). He attempts to persist that he is, in fact, still an anarchist, yet he spends most of his time speaking at white nationalist conferences and supporting nationalist movements.

For those who continue to read many books considered anarchist “classics,” they may have found a volume that raised some concerns. When looking at Keith Preston’s small repertoire of strange books one stands out, Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman. The book, which takes essays by Goldman that are in the public domain, has an introduction by Keith Preston. This, on its face, is problematic, and when the publisher is seen to be Black House Publishing Ltd, it only becomes more blatant.

Black House Publishing is one of the most prolific neo-fascist publishers coming out of Europe, yet attempts to say that it really just publishes books on politics. The top masthead lists “Anarchism, “Capitalism,” “Socialism,” “National Socialism,” and “Fascism,” which is intended to lend to the notion that it is non-partisan and instead just surveying the left-right spectrum. When you browse through their titles, the reality of their perspective becomes bare.

On the front page, besides the most recent book by Preston, there are two volumes on the English interwar founder of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley, one his autobiography (which, ironically, has the same name as Leon Trotsky’s biography), as well as as an “authorized” history of Mosley and the British union. There are two books on Jews, one that claims to simply be about “Zionism, Islam, and the West” by controversial far-right author Kerry Bolton, as well as a book on “central banking” that resurrects anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Their books on Fascism and National Socialism are extensive, republishing public domain Nazi books like The Programme of the NSDAP and False Gods: The Jerusalem Memoirs by Adolf Eichmann. For those who might suggest that this is just an attempt by a publisher to republish historical works for profit, their books include a swathe of manuscripts that buck this trend with almost a dozen books published by Mosley and a whole library of more recent books by reactionary authors.

The books on anarchism that it holds show a further difficulty as they have the singular book Attack the System by Preston, the book by Goldman introduced by Preston, as well as Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman and The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin. Both of these books are also published by Black House, where they take the public domain texts and publish them for a National-Anarchist audience. This may seem like a glaring contradiction for those who know the historical opposition to fascism that anarchists have had, but in the world of Third Positionist neo-fascism, they live in these contradictions. These classic books are often used by National-Anarchists to endorse some of their broad-based fascism since they can be picked through to find vague passages that they can use to ally with the more simplistic elements of their anti-authoritarian program. The fact that Goldman, Berkman, and Kropotkin would not ally with capitalists, nationalists, or related movements is one that is lost on this swathe of their movement, and a reality they hope to obscure by publishing their books.

This is not the first time that fascist organizations have attempted to appropriate older anarchist thought, but this is an ongoing profit center for Black House publishing and one that can actually confuse anarchists who are attempting to find affordable volumes of these classic texts. Right now they are selling each of these books for slightly more than you will pay from other publishers (AK Press included) when you find them on Amazon, but they are cheaper on the Black House website. Conquest of Bread and Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist were released this month, which is part of why they have gone under the radar, but Anarchism and Other Essays has been out since December of 2012.

It is hard to confront this misappropriation since these texts are in the public domain and that is something we want to continue since it allows for open republishing of these books and we do not want to encourage strict intellectual property. Instead, this presents a challenge for how to undermine the distribution of these books, which are problematic for coherent anarchist politics and provides a clean entry point for far-right ideas.

First, this could mean confronting retailers and making sure to challenge their placement of these books, and all the works put out by Black House. These are particularly pernicious, and therefore the language could be used that they are deceiving the readership as to the book in question. Amazon has never been the most responsive to public pressure, but they did bring down all Confederate Flag merchandise during the recent controversy, so this does provide an avenue. While sending emails to customer service people is fine, it needs a coordinated, large-scale campaign to be effective in any way. It will also be useful to indicate in reviews and comments on the products exactly what the book is as, you will notice, on these large retail situations, most of the purchasers have no idea exactly what they are buying.

The most concerted way to confront this type of entryism is to create a very visceral anti-fascist kernel to anarchist organizing projects, to educate and agitate around issues like racism and nationalism, and to continue to confront and disallow far-right entryism. These books are a clear instance of this, but we can continue to close doors to them by giving our movements a foundation in anti-fascist struggle.

Anti-Fascism, Militia Movement, Neo-Nazi, Neo-Paganism

Soldiers of Odin Plan Meet-Up in Lodi Lake, CA on April 30th

April 21, 2016 antifascistfront 11 Comments

A big thanks comes to Heathens United Against Racism, who did a large amount of research for this article.

The reframing of Syrian refugee migration into Europe and the United States is critical to the messaging of the racist right-wing. Instead of seeing these as rightful refugees of an incredibly violent, war-torn region, they are instead painted as “invading hordes.” The dehumanization of these immigrants of color is obvious, but it is also an effort by Alt Right voices to reframe the discussion in terms of their own interpretation of pre-modern tribal norms. The term “hordes” inspires the listener to immediately apply “barbarian” to it, which inclines them to think in an “us and them” mentality. The idea here is to begin thinking of people of European ancestry, specifically Northern Europe, as a distinct “tribe” with its own interests. This is opposed to the universal morality that sees actions within the same moral framework whether they happen to someone of a similar ethnic background or someone from a distant country with different customs and religious practices. To see the refugees as “invaders” is to then see the need to protect the “tribe” from the immigrant populations that you are absolved of the responsibility to care about.

This shift in perspective plays directly in the new Soldiers of Odin phenomenon, a group of people who are trying to “defend” European nations and the U.S. from these refugees. Playing on fallacious notion that the refugees are responsible for increased rates of crime and sexual violence, they have created an impetus that street vigilante action against non-white people is necessary. The “Odinic” reference is also key as Odinism/Asatru, as a resurrection of the ancient Nordic pagan religion, is often interpreted racially, using the pseudoscientific concept of “meta-genetics” to say that the Nordic Gods are literally a part of the psyche of people deriving from Northern Europe.

The Soldiers of Odin were created in Kemi, Finland in October of 2015, towards the beginning of what is now phrased as the “refugee crisis.” This was created to be a street gang that would patrol areas with asylum seekers, often appearing as a motorcycle gang or mirroring white tribalist groups like the Wolves of Vinland. The founder of the movement, Mike Ranta, was close to the nationalist Finnish Resistant Movement, as well having a 2005 conviction for a racist attack that injured two victims.

The group’s dynamics of racial violence seem obvious, but they have grown over the last five months, creating locals all over Europe and moving into several places in the United States. The process began by creating multiple Facebook groups, all with lax security protocols, that have open racialist understandings of who the “invaders” are. Even with this white nationalist slant, the growth of these groups has been incredible and the numbers of people unaffiliated with the racialist movement at large has been striking. Large numbers have been coming directly from the Odinist/Asatru movement, even beyond the explicitly racialist forms.

Among these new groups is one for Colorado, with members running the gamut. This includes the Gothi, or clergy, of the Eagles of Yggdrasil, a folksih heathen kindred.

Canadian locals have popped up with common membership, indicating that there is likely less local organizing happening as much as a few enthusiastic metal-head racists who are creating these groups for different regions in the hopes that it will spark some growth. The blog Anti-Racist Canada has reported on this growth, noting that the nativist Canadians United 4 Canada have begun to ally with neo-Nazis in the Soldiers of Odin project. Charlene O’Farrell, who started that group on Facebook, has posted long diatribes in support of the Soldiers of Odin to start “protecting Canada and us(sic) women, children and even men who can’t defend themselves from being attacked or rapped(sic) if this should happen here in Canada.”

Dave FightingBack, a Facebook name, has also been a high profile member organizing in Canada, known for neo-Nazi connections, has sent back the kind words to O’Farrell. Anti-Racist Canada further exposed several of the SOO organizers who were sporting neo-Nazi tattoos and images, Confederate battle flags, and “seig heiling” in various social media posts. Several of them are members of known skinhead gangs, affiliated with Blood and Honor “white noise” music networks, and sporting Rock Against Communism and Totenkopf t-shirt images. This includes one SOO organizer, Kory Knowles, who, among being friends with O’Farrell, is also friends with open Creativity Movement followers. It would appear that, at least in Canada, the SOO movement is almost entirely run by neo-Nazi skinheads looking for a political crossover, and the crossover between them and Canadians United 4 Canada has led many open neo-Nazis to now be made admins of the Canadians United 4 Canada Facebook group.

Now the Soldiers of Odin have organized a “meet-up” event for those interested in their racist organizing project, one that is not a public event and instead a private gathering dedicated towards furthering organizing projects. In California, a meet-up is planned for April 30^th at Lodi Lake Park, in Lodi, CA. Topher Justis, one of the U.S. Soldiers of Odin organizer who has been active online, seems to be one of the key organizers of this.

In an effort to call attention to the racial violence that is embedded in the Soldiers of Odin project, as well as to demoralize their plans, this would be a great event to have an anti-fascist contingent attempt to attend and counter-protest. If you would like to go under the radar, you could also attend and send in a report back that could further aid anti-fascist counter organizers to give inside information on plans, specific organizers, and hard information.

Donald Trump, Militia Movement, Right Wing Politics, Videos, White Nationalism

Protesters Confront Portland State Students for Trump [VIDEO]

April 18, 2016 antifascistfront 2 Comments

On Saturday, April 17^th a group of anti-racist and anti-fascist organizers in Portland, Oregon congregated at the Urban Plaza at Portland State University. The plan was to head across campus and over to the Park Blocks to confront the Portland State Students for Trump, the aggressive student campaign in support of the Donald Trump GOP candidacy. The group was formed by the same students behind the PSU White Student Union, and has made the organization a front group for thinly veiled Alt Right racialist language.

The founding member and clear leader is Vladimir Kolychef, a small boy from Ukraine who first came to people’s attention when posting in anarchist groups on Facebook saying that he was an “anarcho-capitalist” and “race realist.” The latter term indicates that he believes in differences in racial capacity for intelligence, believing that African descended peoples to have a lower innate IQ than whites and to be more prone to criminality. A quick look at his Facebook reveals a block of white nationalist talking points and jokes, often dog whistle lingo from openly racist websites like The Right Stuff and the Daily Shoah(like calling black people ‘dindus’).

The group had recently been shut down during a meeting by the Portland State University Student Union and other allies, who overwhelmed them almost 20:1. This garnered quite a bit of media attention, all of which negated the fact that Kolychef was an open far-right nationalist with growing ties to American white nationalist organizations. Infowars, the reactionary conspiracy theory website from Alex Jones, picked up on the story quickly, interviewing Kolychef and another founding member.

This is what drew out their support on Saturday, where their crowd swelled to almost a hundred supporters, almost all from Patriot organizations and Infowars directly. They marched over to confront the counter-protesters, leading to an extended confrontation in the plaza where Trump supporters were shut down by a small army of noisemakers and loudspeaker sirens. Here the Infowars group tried to bait protesters by using openly racist and homophobic language, shoving cameras in their faces, and attempting to intimidate women of color. On their videos later, Infowars dropped all pretense and posted titles that called protesters “Trannies,” “SJWs, and “the REAL racists.” Infowars is known for being the sillier side of the Internet, yet when looking at recent articles they have allied with nationalism explicitly and are parroting the more offensive side of recent transphobic exclusionary movements. They have gone so far as to even use jokes from violently racialist website like The Right Stuff and the Daily Stormer. They have gladly become what Breitbart is to a large degree: a crossover point for nationalists into the mainstream of conservatism.

At a certain point the Trump supporters went back to the Park Blocks, marched around town, and made their way to the City Center park, Pioneer Courthouse Square. They were consistently overrun by noise from counter-protesters, but they continued to use vitriolic hate language to try and intimidate the crowd. When African descended protesters put their hands up, referencing “hands up, don’t shoot” to raise attention to the proliferation racist violence, the white protesters mocked and imitated them. They eventually tackled and held down a passerby who threw water on them, a “citizen’s arrest” that is in line with their embarrassing notion that they are the real core of America. The admiration for Vlad was open, yet in videos where many of them are questioned about Vlad’s politics, or that of the PSU Trump group broad, most people are completely lost to their open associations and racial nationalism.

Below is a video collage that shows a bit of how the action went, as well as being an antidote to the bizarre Infowars perspective.

Anti-Fascist News