Last June the good people of Sacramento rose up to defend their community against a white supremacist rally at the state capitol.  They were able to run the bigots off, but not without casualties on our side.  The bad news, however, is that the neo-nazis weren’t above stabbing people en masse and sent nine antifascists to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

If this sounds familiar, it could be because we already donated money to help our injured friends back in July.  So why are we bringing this up again?  It’s because one of our friends was hurt far badly than the other eight and as a result, had a longer stay in hospital, more medical interventions done to save their life, and as a result of all of that, has incurred much higher medical expenses than originally anticipated.

This is why we made another donation more recently to help pay for those medical expenses.  No one who literally puts their life on the line to shut down neo-nazis should be left on the hook for subsequent medical expenses.

If you feel the same way we do, you can contribute directly to our friend’s medical costs here or you can make a donation to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund so that we’re able to help out in a significant way the next time an anti-fascist or anti-racist is hurt because they stood up to hate.

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

What do you do if you’re a high school teacher that has offered a letter of recommendation to one of your students for his college applications, only to find out later that he’s been brandishing swastikas and racially-abusing his classmates?

For U.S. high school teacher Hillary, she had to rescind her recommendation upon learning this.  Which any reasonable person would see makes complete sense.  If a student’s behavior and judgement is that faulty, it would be wrong to continue to endorse them as a good candidate for other schools.

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished and because she rescinded her letter of recommendation, Hillary’s employer bizarrely suspended her without pay for twenty days.  Did they want her to knowingly recommend a kid acting like a neo-nazi instead?

We’re hoping this all gets worked out in Hillary’s favour in the very near future and we were happy to make a contribution to the crowdfunding page supporting her, so she doesn’t have to worry about paying rent or her bills or feeding her family because she stood up on principle against a racist little asshat that happens to go to the school she teaches at.

It may seem odd at first glance that a fund dedicated to defending & supporting anti-fascists would send financial support to help in the legal defence of squatters in Scheveningen, Netherlands who were convicted of various “crimes” for resisting the eviction of their squat.  What do a group of squatters have to do with anti-fascism?

As AFA Den Haag put it “Any successful antifascist movement needs a reliable infrastructure to support it, preferably one as autonomous and far away from the prying eyes of repression as possible.

During the 13 years of its existence the “De Vloek” squat has been a place antifa always could count on to raise much-needed funds, host meetings and mobilization events and a no questions asked space to launch actions from or retreat too if needed.

In other words, De Vloek was a valuable resource for anti-fascists for 13 years.  De Vloek always had our backs; it was time to have their backs in return.  So we were honoured to be able to contribute to their legal defence fund and we call on all anti-fascists to do the same.

It’s been a busy month here at The International Defence Fund.  For one, donations to the Defence Fund spiked noticeably right around the time of the inauguration or a certain political leader.  Maybe it was coincidence or maybe it was a huge number of people waking up to an awful political reality and wanted to make sure the people that will be on the front lines have the support and protection they deserve.  Hard to say which.

This also meant that the Decisions Crew (who discuss and make all decisions regarding the Defence Fund) doubled in size and we now have well over 300 Decisions Crew members in fifteen different countries working together to call the shots.

Finally,  we recently had to discuss and decide on not one, not two, but three requests for help simultaneously!  Two were fairly straightforward:

(V., at the opening of his trial last week)

V. is an antifascist and FC Partyzan supporter in Belarus currently on trial for allegedly attacking a group of racist hoodlums in his town.  It was a no-brainer for us to send him some money to help pay his legal fees.

(as Michael Dewitz found out, when you show up at a university to seig heil Jewish students and parade around with your felt-marker swastika armband, you’re going to get surrounded by hundreds of angry antifa students for three hours.  Then you might need to go shopping for a new jacket, after you get out of the hospital.)

Then there was the matter of two concerned citizens in Gainseville.  After hearing that 34-year-old local neo-nazi dipshit Michael Dewitz’s three-hour harassment of Jewish university students was coming to an end, they allegedly relieved Dewitz of his swastika-armband-adorned jacket – possibly out of concern that he would suffer from heat exhaustion, having just been surrounded by hundreds of angry students in the hot Florida sun for three hours.  You’d think the two gentlemen would be praised for their quick thinking and concern for Dewitz’s health but no!  Instead, the authorities charged them with assault and theft.

In this case, there was a crowdfunding page established to help with the legal fees incurred by these two Good Samaritans but we couldn’t confirm any link to the two individuals and failed to make contact with the crowdfunding organizers.  We did, however, get in touch with the defense lawyers for our two Florida friends and so paid a chunk of their legal bills directly.

Finally, the request for help that appeared to be the most cut-and-dry turned out to be the most complicated:

(NEVER LET THEM HAVE THE CAMPUS: antifa confronting Milo @ UW in Seattle in January)

When alt right bigot, misogynist, and transphobe Milo Yiannopoulus spoke at the UW campus in Seattle in January, lots of people on-and-off-campus took issue with his brand of fascist harassment campaigns being provided a platform.  In the ensuing confrontation, a well-respected IWW member of the General Defense Committee was shot in the stomach by a radicalized right-wing extremist.  Of course, the police believed the extremist’s claim of self-defence and did not investigate or charge him with anything.  Meanwhile, our Wobbly friend remains in hospital, after nearly succumbing to his bullet wound.

Now clearly, help to pay the medical expenses in such a scenario is exactly why the Defence Fund was created.  But what we didn’t count on was the success of our friend’s fellow Wobs in raising money for him themselves.  Within 24 hours, $20,000USD had been donated; as of this writing, they’ve raised $60,000USD to help with his medical bills.

While this was undeniably wonderful, it left us debating whether he really needed the pittance we could provide him or whether it would be better to save our resources to help other antifa who do not have quite as many generous friends to back them up.

In the end, we donated $100USD – a token amount to be sure, but one that we hope expresses the spirit of support and solidarity we made it in, while allowing us to hold back resources that will probably be needed to help other antifa that are not as fortunate as our Wobbly friend.

 

 

 

 

Above: anti-fascist partizans in liberated Minsk, 1944.

Last month, the Defence Fund heard about an antifascist in Belarus who was charged for assaulting an infamous neo-nazi there.  For security reasons we are unable to provide a lot more information regarding this, except that we were happy to send our friend some money to help pay for his legal defence and court-related costs.  We hope that he is exonerated of the absurd charges laid against him.

FIGHTING HATE IS NOT A CRIME!
ANTI-FASCISM = SELF-DEFENCE!SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

Juuust wanted to let everyone know that Artem, the Ukranian anti-fascist recovering from a near-fatal stabbing by neo-nazis, is now out of the hospital and recuperating at home.  He has asked us to thank all of his supporters (if you’ve ever donated money to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund, that includes you!) who have had his back and are helping him pay off his medical bills.

And maybe also Jaffa?

Not sure…

“He drinks a Jaffa drink/he drinks a Jaffa drink…”

Ukrainian anti-fascists are, well, very tough.  Kharkiv’s Artem is a prime example.  Artem was attacked by a gang of at least ten neo-nazi shits, who stabbed him in the back several times in a clear attempt to murder him.

Most of us would probably be dead after that.  But Artem has rebounded wonderfully and is on his way to a full recovery.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is happy to send some money his way to help him with his medical and rehab bills.  Pretty soon, he’s going to be back on the streets like nothing happened.  That’s Kharkiv hardcore!

Although things were (happily!) a bit slower this quarter compared to this past summer, The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was still kept quite busy.  Since the beginning of September, the Fund has provided support to nine anti-fascists and anti-racists in five different countries at a cost of nearly $2000U.S.  Of course, we blogged about each case so you can read up on all of them.

With the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., a lot of anti-fascists feel that things are extremely bleak.  But the flip side to that is that people recognize how real the struggle is and are stepping up like never before to support and defend anti-fascists and anti-racists.  Since the U.S. election, donations to the Defence Fund have been the highest since we started up over two years ago!  This is important because as the forces of hate become more emboldened, standing up and shutting them down becomes more important and more high-stakes than ever, which means our Defence Fund and its mission becomes even more essential.

We are the only defence fund set up exclusively to defend and support anti-fascists and anti-racists the world over.  We make all our decisions via consensus whenever possible and by majority voting when consensus is not possible.  We report on all our activities on our blog, to keep the Defence Fund as transparent as possible.

To do this work, we rely completely on donations from people like you.  If you haven’t made a donation to the Defence Fund already, now would be a great time to do that.  Here’s how.

It’s not obligatory for anti-fascists to thank us for having their backs when they run into trouble, but it’s always nice to hear that our efforts + the efforts of everyone supporting them are appreciated!  So we were well-pleased to wake up to this message from our friend in the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism, whose absurd court fine we helped pay off last week:

“As many other activists know, it is not easy to confront the far right and fascists on the streets.

The threat of violence from them, their supporters, and often from the police as well, is always present.

You keep going because you know from history that you need to directly stop these fascist groups from organising when they are small.

If they manage to grow, their ability to use violence will also increase, with devastating effects on all of us.

You keep going because of the solidarity and comradeship with your fellow sisters and brothers who attend the meetings, go out in public to advocate and publicise, and who stand shoulder to shoulder with you on the streets confronting the fascists.

You keep going because you know that if you get hurt, if you get targeted, if you get arrested, if you get fined, there are people out there who recognise and respect your efforts and sacrifices. They will pick you up, support and stand in solidarity when you need it.

This is why I keep going.

I deeply appreciate and thank all the people who showed support for the fight and donated money.

In solidarity and struggle to all anti fascists around the world.”

Well put, mate; we could not agree more!

If you’ve made a donation to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund then you helped pay off our friend’s fine and undo the injustice done to them, so pat yourself on the back!  If you haven’t made a donation to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund, isn’t it time you did?

No one asked us, but we think that anyone courageous enough to do whatever is necessary to protect anti-fascists confronting a march of bigots and Islamophobes should be showered with praise.  Instead, the Australian courts fined our friend from the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism $550!

We weren’t having any of it, and neither were the other people that donated to the crowdfunding campaign to pay off the fine on his behalf.  We which managed to do, in full, in just one week!

Australian legal system, get it through your heads: anti-fascism isn’t a crime; it’s self-defence!