On July 31, 2014, join with your friendly neighborhood antifascists by participating in the annual July 31st Day Of Action Against Fascism! We realize that this is just under a week after the
July 25th solidarity with Jock Palefreeman, but we encourage those participating in that event to use July 31st as another day to support Jock or simply the struggle against fascism and racism in general.
Fascism Abroad And At Home
Fascist and far right activity has been a recent topic of conversation for many radicals. In Europe, groups like Golden Dawn in Greece and Svoboda in Ukraine have gained ground on the streets, and at times have secured representation in the parliament and national offices. These electoral and legalistic maneuvers have been accompanied by organized attacks against immigrants, LGBT people, union organizers, ethnic minorities, and leftists and radicals. The murder of Clement Meric, an 18-year-old French antifascist, in June 2013 by fascists is a prime example, as is the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) participation in the burning of the Trade Unions House in Odessa, Ukraine that resulted in the deaths of 42 people.
The presence of fascism and the far right can be felt in North America, too. Neo-nazi and anti-Semite Frazier Glenn Miller murdered three people in April 2014 at a Jewish community center and retirement home on the eve of Passover. Michael Wade Smith, associated with both the Hammerskins and the now-defunct Volksfront, murdered six at a Sikh temple in a Milwaukee suburb in August 2012, presumably because he mistakenly believed them to be Muslim. Ex-National Socialist Movement member and border vigilante J.T. Ready turned his armed violence against his own family in May 2012. All three of these attacks were committed by men with explicit connections to white supremacist organizations and used their military training to gun down unarmed individuals, and their actions received praise from the white supremacist community for their actions.
Beyond individual acts of violence, white supremacists have also taken part in organized efforts to spread their message in other ways. Craig Cobb has attempted to organize white supremacists to move to the small town of Lieth, North Dakota, in an apparent manifestation of the Pioneer Little Europe (PLE) concept of creating all-white rural enclaves. Cobb's time in Lieth resulted in negative press attention, trouble with locals, protests by local indigenous people and anti-racists, and eventually legal trouble.
Antifa Take To The Streets
Antifascists haven't been sitting on their laurels. Militant antifascists have made headlines several times in recent years for publicly opposing fascist gatherings. One of these was the successful disruption of a white supremacist gathering in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park in May 2012, which resulted in a brawl that ended in arrests and hospital visits. The antifa that were arrested that day, known as the Tinley Park 5, eventually took a non-cooperating plea and have been the subject of a prisoner support campaign that has received attention around the world. Antifascists also came out for the National Socialist Movement's conference in 2011, surprising white supremacists by showing up uninvited to their private conference (which, unlike their planned rally the next day, didn't have the police around to protect them from an angry mob).
Although these sensational events are what make in into the headlines, this is just a small part of what antifascist organizing really looks like. From gathering intelligence, to flyer drops and knocking on doors, to tabling shows and events, the background work ensures that antifa have a greater street presence than the fascists. Many antifascists are involved in weeding out white supremacist bands and labels in music scenes, driving a wedge between nazis and potential recruits in skinhead, punk, metal, industrial, and other scenes. Other antifa other involved in prisoner support, organizing benefits and staying in contact with incarcerated comrades or sending literature to radicalized prisoners. Antifascists have been particularly active in working to shut down public events that promote fascist perspectives, like pseudo-historian and holocaust-denier David Irving, and bands that tout white supremacist messages and fascist imagery, like Boyd Rice and Death In June. Whatever their specific politics, antifascists usually collaborate with others to build a strong counter to white supremacist activity and build a strong show of force. Groups like the Black Autonomy Network built large scale counter-rallies that easily outnumbered the KKK group they were protesting, who were only able to continue their rally due to being escorted by riot police.
The July 31st Day Of Action Against Fascism began in 2010 in response to a fascist attack on an anti-racist skinhead in Portland, Oregon. Since then, we've seen actions every year on July 31st aimed at clearing white supremacist activity from the streets and building a culture of resistance to fascist organizing. Some example of past actions include public outings of a neo-nazi's home and workplace, benefit shows and letter-writing parties for incarcerated antifa, organized call-in campaigns to get fascists evicted from their homes and fired from their jobs, intel drops, documentary and movie nights, and many more.
Why Militance?
When neo-nazi and former KKK leader Frazier Glenn Miller's anti-Semitic shooting spree targeted a Jewish community center and retirement home in a Kansas City suburb, it left three dead and shocked many throughout the US. However, this wasn't Miller's first tangle with either racist violence or law enforcement.
Miller's background as a Klansmen and neo-nazi leader with direct participation in paramilitary activity should be viewed alongside his willingness to collaborate with the state. He testified against other white supremacists in the Fort Smith sedition trial, and received reduced sentencing for his cooperation. Miller later became an FBI informant, received a new name (Frazier Glenn Cross), and was relocated throughout the midwest. His collaboration as an informant earned him the designation as a rat within white supremacist circles, a controversial figure to say the least.
Prior to the Kansas shooting, Miller had been arrested on numerous incidents for his participation in paramilitary activity and stockpiling weaponry. Previously, he had participated in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre, where Klansmen and neo-nazis planned a join assault on an anti-KKK rally organized by local communist organizers, leaving five dead and eleven others injured. The six white supremacists brought to trial were acquitted, and it was later revealed that one of the Klansmen involved was a police informant and that the ATF had also infiltrated the group and was aware of a planned confrontation. Miller claimed that the protestors fired the first shot, although no white supremacists were killed.
What should we take from this story? While Miller's past history of violence is important to take note of, we also highlight the role of the state in this process. Both punishing and protecting Miller at various points, the state was unable to prevent the extreme acts of violence that Miller was involved in. This meant that Miller was successfully able to wait out judicial punishments, and in some cases resumed his activities even while under agreement to discontinue. At best, the state was able to slow down Miller, and at worst it protected him from his former colleagues after he turned informant. The state's strategy of collecting information for counter-intelligence programs (COINTELPRO) and future prosecutions did nothing to make these communities safe.
To counter the potential of fascist violence, we propose action. By highlighting the actual dangers of white supremacist organizing (and not laughing them off as jokes or clowns), we hope to draw the lessons of previous struggles and apply them to today's. In disrupting their organizing, we prevent organized fascist groups from gaining new recruits. We target their attempts to spread racist propaganda because we see that this is how they gain followers, and we refuse to willingly let them have a seat at our table. The judicial system, the favored approach of the state, has failed to prevent white supremacist violence, and is itself a form of racist violence in the mass incarceration of People of Color. The state is content with allowing continued white supremacist organizing as long as it falls within the boundaries of legalism, and as we learned from the Tinley Park 5 and other similar court cases, will heavily punish opposition to its monopoly on violence.
This July 31st, show the fascists just how unwelcome they are in our communities.
Never give an inch! Our scenes, our streets!
ARA and other antifascist groupings have existed in Chicago since the late 1980's. For the most part, the organized antifascist presence has continued to exist and have typically been amongst the more active and successful antifascist groupings in the US. The most recent incarnation, South Side Chicago Anti- Racist Action (now of the TORCH network), are celebrating the end of our 5th year of antifascist activity. Starting back in 2009 we set out with extreme dedication, to destroy organized fascists in our state, eventually expanding outward and doing serious work in the midwest and elsewhere. When we first started, the group to beat was the Illinois National Socialist Front (INSF), descendants of Bill Whites ANSWP, led by Phillip Anderson. At this time, there was also a huge call out by the ARA network to shut down David Irving's US tour. This year saw not only some very successful confrontations between south side ARA and the INSF, but Irving's speaking event held at the Edelweiss restaurant in Chicago was immediately shut down when a violent melee ensued between antifascists and neo nazis in attendance. Shortly after, in 2010 the INSF was scheduled to march in downtown Chicago, a bold move and an obvious challenge to Chicago antifascists. After tons of pressure from our side, the
INSF had a pathetic turnout of 4 unprotected nazis who were quickly attacked leading not only to the end of the march, but the arrest of two of the attending neo nazis. These 2 major victories, along with several other smaller successful battles, and an impressive ability to expose white supremacists, strengthened our resolve, and solidified our reputation as an antifascist force to be reckoned with.
Over the next 4 years, we would face many internal and external hardships, always coming out stronger and more intelligent than before. We managed for the most part, to keep our excitement and dedication and went on to have several more noteworthy successes. A few of these successes include the eventual end of the INSF, the shutting down of the local NSM unit before they even began, the forming of the TORCH network, the hosting of 2 national antifa conferences, the shut down of the White Man march in Centralia, IL, the infiltration and exposing of the local ANP, successful clashes with the Trad Youth Network, continuous pressure on David Irving across the midwest, antifascist benefits and prisoner support for several people including the Tinley Park 5, the publishing of 5 annual antifascist zines, home demos, and several street confrontations and disruptions of neo nazi individuals, groups, and events in Illinois and across the country. With any action we have been part of we have always tried to critique ourselves and be honest about our successes and failures. This being said we genuinely believe that our presence in Illinois has helped to create a fear and paranoia amongst the fascists that we hope will last for years to come. A fear that has led the once seemingly hopeful neo nazi activist community into a state of disarray and inactivity. To say that their own failures and the role of the state hasn't also helped to create this disfunction would be a lie. We also realize that repercussions are always a possibility and more importantly that white supremacy and reactionary tendencies are festering and live beyond the confines of flag waving organizations.
