On Friday May 26th, a man on Portland public transit was reported to have yelled Islamophobic hate speech at two women, one in a hijab. He was confronted by other passengers, and now two of these people are dead, and another is in the hospital. White supremacist Jeremy Christian was arrested for the attack. Christian is well-known to anti-fascist activists in Portland, because he was recently seen at one of Joey Gibson’s free speech rallies.
The event organizers would like to make a clear statement on the strategy and tactics of the June 4th event.
We believe that a broad coalition response is necessary to combat this particular extreme right alliance. The composition of this grouping, with explicit white nationalists embedded in a larger sphere of various crypto-fascist and far-right parties, makes this trickier to address than a simple “white power” march. We would like to focus on highlighting the overt white supremacists in attendance.
Stand United Against Fascism Rally, June 4, 12pm, Chapman Square.
On Sunday, June 4th, Warriors for Freedom LLC, a for-profit, far-right group centered in Vancouver, WA, is holding a rally in Terry Schrunk Plaza. The rally is being billed as a “Free Speech Rally,” but prior incarnations of these rallies have included acts of harassment, white supremacist proselytization, and created a climate of fear among our most vulnerable communities, while providing opportunities for racists to network and normalize their genocidal world view.
While we hate saying “we told you so” when it comes to White Supremacist organizing, Rose City Antifa and other community groups warned that White Supremacists were using the 4⁄29 “Free Speech” rally organized by Joey Gibson as a cover to organize in public, and they did.
Before April 29th, activists warned that the Hell Shaking Street Preachers, a group of local violent bigots that travel the country attempting to kick in the heads of protesters, including members Pucket Allen, Arcadio Pena, Blake Sheely, and Quincy Anatello would be there.
Earlier this week, a Facebook page called the Portland Maoist Group published a flyer purporting to be about Pacific Northwest White Supremacist groups, and listed Rose City Antifa’s email as a contact. While we appreciate the widespread enthusiasm for organizing against White Supremacy in our community, this flyer contained inaccurate information about “White Supremacist Hangouts.” Rose City Antifa was not involved with making this flyer, nor were we consulted about our name and contact info being used on the flyer.
Social and traditional media has been foaming at the mouth since the announcement that the 82nd Avenue of the Roses Parade was canceled, at the behest of its organizing group, The 82nd Avenue of Roses Business Association. But in the midst of the controversy, Rose City Antifa would like to make some facts clear:
One anonymous and absurd email making unclear threats of disruption, disavowed by the primary activist group planning to protest a group participating the parade, was the only source of the “threat of violence” cited as reason for cancelling the entire parade.
On March 4th, supporters of Trump’s proto-fascist presidency took to the streets nationwide in a variety of rallies and marches. In response, counter protesters organized in a number of different ways to shut down these events, with varying degrees of success. While, between local and alternative media, much has already been written about the events that took place in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Beyond the overt pro-Trump agenda though that the marchers were supporting, the Oregon “March4Trump” served as a vehicle for the more insidious agenda of white nationalist and militia movement groups.
We are pleased to announce Rose City Antifa joined the TORCH Network, a national solidarity network of anti-fascist groups founded in 2013. For those unfamiliar with the history of our organization, Rose City Antifa (RCA) was created in 2007 and the same year joined the Anti-Racist Action (ARA) Network which was founded in 1988. When ARA was dissolved in 2013 and reformed as TORCH. RCA decided to go autonomous. However with the Trump election and a massive upsurge in fascist violence, we feel it is vital to once again coordinate antifascist resistance through a national network.
{{ UPDATE: After the phone jam began PSU called to let us know the event was cancelled.}}
Trump fanboy Milo Yiannopoulos, a far right ideologue and mouthpiece of the Alternative Right, is bringing his hate-filled speaking tour to Portland State University on January 18th, 2017. In light of the resurgence of racist and fascist activity on campus, the university's decision to provide a platform for such unbridled bigotry is one we at Rose City Antifa cannot ignore.
Over recent years, a host of new organizations and projects have surfaced in the US, attempting to rebrand fascism for new audiences. For several decades fascist organizing has been associated with the hijacking of “skinhead” fashion and culture, but increasingly the fascist Right moves in other scenes as well. Fascist organizers intend to build countercultural visibility and appeal to disaffected working class whites, who may already be active in a subculture of some form.
