…in Olathe, Kansas. He spots two off-duty engineers sitting quietly at their table. Both men are 32 years old. Both men are from India. He begins loudly insulting them, yelling at them to “get out of my country!” He pulls out a pistol and starts shooting at them, killing one and wounding the other.

As soon as the racist terrorist fires his first shots, another patron in the bar tries to intervene.  “It wasn’t right, and I didn’t want the gentleman to potentially go after somebody else,” he’ll say from his hospital bed, after he, too, is shot by the racist.

Crowdfunding campaigns sprout up to help the victims of this racist terrorist act.  One for the dead man’s family; one for his injured friend; and one for the Good Samaritan that was also injured.  Donations flood in and all three crowdfunders greatly exceed their initial targets.

And there is where The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund comes in;  we were asked to make a contribution to each of the crowdfunding campaigns for each of the victims.  We discussed this for about a week, could not come to a consensus about what to do, and then took another week to vote on the various options that had come out of our discussion.

The difficulty we had boiled down to two key questions:

1) Should the Defence Fund support the victims of fascism and racism or limit itself to supporting those that actively fight fascism and racism?

2) If there is a situation that warrants the Defence Fund’s support but more-than-enough support has already been provided, should the Defence Fund still kick in money, even as a token gesture of solidarity?

In the end, the vote was to not make a contribution to any of the crowdfunding campaigns that came out of this horrifying, tragic act of racist terrorism.  While we absolutely sympathize and stand in solidarity with the victims of racist violence, the Defence Fund is just too small to be effective at providing relief to those victims and must concentrate instead on supporting active anti-fascists and anti-racists.

While we see the man that tried to stop the racist terrorist from murdering people in the bar as engaging in anti-fascist/anti-racist work of the upmost importance and while we salute his courage, we also think it’s our responsibility to use the donations the Defence Fund  receives as effectively as possible.  If an anti-fascist/anti-racist is being more-than-adequately supported by their community, then it would be better for the Defence Fund to save its funds to be used to support another anti-fascist/anti-racist who isn’t fortunate enough to have that level of support instead of making a donation that would amount to a token gesture.  That was the case here, so in the end the Defence Fund decided to applaud his heroic actions but hold on to our funds to help someone else who frankly will need the help more.

We probably will have to spend that money shortly, as the Defence Fund’s “Decisions Crew” (the 380+ people around the world that discuss and ultimately decide what to do when we receive requests for support) is currently looking at three other requests for help.  When you add those to the 24 other anti-fascists we’ve been asked to back up in the last month alone, the importance of the Defence Fund is clearer than ever.  We need you to help us back up our friends around the world who aren’t afraid to stand up to bigotry.  Please make a donation to the Defence Fund today!

 

 

 

 

Luke is a long-time, well-known, and widely-respected anti-fascist from Oregon.  In 2010, Luke was the victim of a targeted shooting, ambushed by neo-nazi filth.  He survived the shooting but was paralyzed as a result and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

A mere mortal might let a situation like this get him down or use it as a reasonable excuse to wind down his political activities.  But not Luke!  He remains an intregral part of the antifa scene in the Pacific North West.

Luke has now learned of doctors in Germany that may be able to alleviate his current medical condition to a large extent, but of course needs to come up with $20,000 for the surgery + travel & accommodation costs.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was honored to be able to lend support to such a long-standard, stalwart anti-fascist and we want to do everything we can to make sure he gets the medical care he needs.  You can help us by donating directly to Luke’s crowdfunding campaign.  You can also help make sure we’re ready & able to help when people like Luke ask for our help by making a donation to The Defence Fund as well.

Luke – we hope the doctors are near Millerntor-Stadion and you can bring some Timbers flavor to a St. Pauli match while you’re there!

 

(above: Worcester Anti Fascist Action supporter taken down and arrested by stormtroopers cops for – “blocking the street?”)

America used to be a place where people had the right to public protest.  Americans viewed countries reacted to peaceful protests with heavily-armed goon squads and trumped-up (pun intended) as loathsome dictatorships.

Now all of a sudden in 2017 it is America itself that appears to be turning into the loathsome dictatorship, as supporters of Worcester Anti Fascist Action found out when they attempted a public protest the day before Trump’s inauguration and were brutally arrested.  Their crime?  Unclear at this point although in one observer’s video the cops clearly state that “everybody is subject to arrest” because “they were all in the street.”  What would normally be a citation for jaywalking has become cause for violent arrest by a platoon of cops.  Seven antifascists were hauled away for things like  “disturbing the peace” and “disorderly conduct.”

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was established to defend anti-fascists and anti-racists when they face scenarios like this as a result of their stand against bigotry and hatred.  We were more than happy to make a donation to their legal defence fund and strongly encourage our fellow antifa to do the same.

As always, the only reason the Defence Fund was able to offer any assistance to our seven friends in Worcester was because of donations from anti-fascists and anti-racists around the world that make our work possible.  If you believe that solidarity with other antifa is the best weapon, help us continue to provide this much-needed support by making a donation to the Defence Fund today!

(above: early entry for 2017’s “Punch of the Year”)

We knew when Donald Trump was elected that things were going to heat up.  But we didn’t know how hot it was going to get.

People are finally realizing that the fight against fascism & racism is not one that they can sit out of.  Agreeing with antifa is no longer good enough; people have to stand with antifa and become antifa themselves, because the cost of not doing so is simply too great.

Suddenly (and after “the punch heard ’round the world!“), whether or not it’s acceptable to physically oppose people publicly advocating and organizing for genocide is now a mainstream topic of discussion (spoiler alert: it is acceptable!).  This has translated to more antifa actions on the streets and more crews getting organized than ever before.  This has also meant the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is being called on for help like never before.

Since the beginning of December, the Defence Fund has provided support to eighteen anti-fascists and anti-racists in three different countries at a cost of nearly $5000U.S. – more than 2.5 times what we provided in the previous quarter and more than half of what we’ve provided antifa since our existence.   As always, we blogged about each case so you can read up on all of them.

As of this writing, the Defence Fund‘s Decisions Crew (all 350+ of them in over a dozen countries!) is currently discussing not one, not two, but four outstanding requests for support, so the need to back up our brothers and sisters who are out there doing what needs to be done does not seem to be going away any time soon.

Happily, donations to the Defence Fund were up noticeably over the last quarter.  At one point shortly after Trump’s inauguration, we were receiving a new donation every three minutes!  The thousands of dollars we raised have certainly come in handy.  But tbh the money is going out to antifa in desperate need just as quickly as it was coming in.  Right now, the need to help is rapidly outpacing the rate that donations are being received.

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.  Finally, we’re the only defence fund endorsed by three different anti-fascist networks in three countries.

If you’re going to give anything towards helping your fellow anti-fascists & anti-racists out of a tight spot, donating to the Defence Fund is the best way to do that!

 

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…”