Syracuse, NY: New York AntiFa Alliance’s Statement on the so-called “March Against Sharia”

We, the undersigned, represent a coalition of anti-fascists from across the State of New York. We have chosen to assemble in Syracuse on June 10 to take action in defense of people in this community who have been targeted for violence by attendees of the so-called “March Against Sharia”. (https://itsgoingdown.org/nationwide-day-action-muslims-june-10th-need-stop/) As in many cities throughout the United States, today a collection of right wing groups and provocateurs will once again use “free speech” as a smokescreen in an attempt to gain a foothold for groups that use broad anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric to advance programs of racial exclusion and expulsion. Due to Syracuse’s central location within New York State, this provocation is being taken as aimed at the whole of Upstate itself, and along with our comrades in Syracuse, Upstate is responding.

We refuse to allow fascists a platform to organize and incite racial violence. In so doing, we are not suppressing “free speech.” In these current matters of “free speech,” we are not dealing with opinions that have withstood the scrutiny necessary to place them on par with those which provide meaning and purpose to a just and fair society. Instead, we have emotions dressed up in the language of a victim, paraded and bleated from soapboxes in such a manner as to play to the sympathies many would otherwise reserve for the oppressed and vulnerable. Right now, other groups aligned with these alleged crusaders for the first amendment are threatening speakers and harassing students on university lecture and book tours. (https://itsgoingdown.org/richard-spencer-gets-not-warm-welcome-auburn-university-alabama-april-18-2017/)

The overstated threat of “Sharia law” is a dogwhistle to the anti-Muslim sentiment that has crept through communities across the country, especially since 9/11. Religious law is not only unconstitutional, but Muslims comprise just 0.9 percent of the religious makeup of the United States. This overstated fear of the minority has, for years, translated into calls for mass deportations, the erosion of civil liberties, and flat out violence against Muslims. There is nothing original to the script of ACT for America in their crusade against depictions of Sharia law. This is the same script used by the Nazis in their genocide against Jewish people in the 1930s and 1940s.

We affirm the rights of the people of Syracuse to resist bigotry in whatever capacity they find appropriate. We embrace a diversity of tactics in the struggle against fascism, and we respect the right of other counterdemonstrators to assemble. As such, we do not plan to interrupt other counterdemonstrations. We urge all attendees to refrain from acts that would compromise the stated intent of this counterdemonstration, to respect the boundaries and safety of one another, and to be cognizant of public perception. The fringes of the right have grown increasingly violent, even when faced with nonviolence. As such, we would also like to address the tense situation in the city of Portland, Oregon after the brutal attack on three men coming to the aid of young women who were being verbally abused by a white nationalist who presumed them to be Muslims (https://itsgoingdown.org/antifascism-community-self-defense-fight-revolution/). We stand with Portland at this time as they cope with loss, increasing threats, and the task ahead of rooting out fascism from their community. We, the groups assembled, are prepared to undertake this burden in New York State if need be. We send our love and solidarity to Portland. You are not alone.

We also wish to clearly convey that our purpose for gathering in Syracuse is not to incite violence or destroy property. We will be there to represent organized resistance to fascism in our communities. While we do not plan to commit acts of offensive violence, we cannot say the same for the groups who have assembled to “march against sharia.” We cannot fully anticipate the reaction of the groups assembled with ACT for America, like the Syracuse Proud Boys, affiliated motorcycle clubs or patriot militias. Any escalation into violence will be at the hands of the previously mentioned groups and/or the Syracuse Police Department. We will not stand by idly if these groups incite or organize violence. We will defend our communities and ourselves by any means necessary.

 

Signed,

 

NEW YORK ANTIFA ALLIANCE

 

Buffalo Red and Black/Roja y Negra, Capital Region Anti-Fascist Action, Central NY AntiFa, Great Lakes AntiFa, Hudson Valley Anti-Fascist Network, North Country Redneck Revolt, Syracuse Antifa, Utica IWW, Western New York AntiFa, Anti-Fascist News

Richard Spencer Gets Banned on SoundCloud

The podcast created the Alt Right.

The conversational nature of the podcasts have allowed them to take the canon of white supremacist philosophy, from the Conservative Revolution to the French New Right to “Race Realism,” and make it easily understood.  Richard Spencer, the founder of the Alt Right and the person behind the National Policy Institute and the Radix Journal, was on the front line of this with his original podcast Vanguard Radio.  He had on guests like Jared Taylor and even Pat Buchanan, and starting at AlternativeRight.com he has churned out hundreds of episodes on everything from immigration scandals to film analysis.  He ported his original Vanguard Radio podcast over to the Radix Journal in the form of the Radix Journal Podcast, then merging with other media projects to form AltRight.com.

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His ability to do this, however, has been halted as his hosting, SoundCloud, has finally booted him.  After a “tweetstorm” from Alternet contributor Alex Kotch, SoundCloud responded and took down his podcast library.  This is an important and useful tactic for antifascists as going after their media communication is critical for severing their ability to recruit and organize.  We have gone after many Alt Right podcasts in the past, helping to get podcasts like The Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation removed from SoundCloud.  Spencer has already had his podcast removed from iTunes due to pressure, and so has most of the Alt Right podcasts (Counter Currents Radio archive is still available on iTunes, however.).

As it stands, the Radix Journal is basically a ghost town.  It has been all but formally abandoned, and now with their podcast feed severed there is even less reason for people to visit there.  This is an incredible turn of events as the most popular Alt Right media outlets are being destroyed.  This method of community pressure needs to be continued for other podcasts held by SoundCloud and distrubited by places like Stitcher.  Right now, Kulture Kampf and others are still on SoundCloud, and the Red Ice Radio feed is still available on Stitcher.  The advantage we have is the Terms of Service of these platforms preclude this type of content, so we can easily push them to remove them through mass community comments.

This is how it can work: First, figure out the podcast in question. Then single it out and promote the SoundCloud or other platform’s customer service lines, whether by phone, email, or social media.  Then do mass contact asking it to be taken down, and give examples of the offensive content (which is incredibly easy to find).  This can take them down one at a time, and will easily sever their most popular platforms.

Spencer will likely find some type of hosting that will be free from pressure and where he will continue to be able to keep his podcasts running.  What that lacks, though, is a mass audience social networking component that he gets by using well known services.  This is what has allowed the Alt Right to gain an audience quickly, because they use the same platforms as some of the biggest media names in the U.S.  Once that is gone they will only be able to reach their core audience, and their ability to recruit will be destroyed.

Let’s keep this trend going.

Letter to the Patriot Militias: The Alt Right Murders Veterans

By Portland Antifascists

The alt-right is closer to power than ever, yet they have never been further from reality. The media portrays them as everywhere at once—from the beleaguered White House to your neighborhood street corner, wheat pasting fascist literature about “European identity.” Yet for all their online presence and in-real-life media attention, their assortment of “Kekistan Flags” and “Pepe” memes expose a dying culture of hatred. Using their memes to maintain an ironic distance from one another, as well as reality, they hope to supplant the modern world with their own jaded vision—one which we are sure you support just as little as we do. We ask that, when you see a Kekistan Flag flying, when you identify the ironic subcultures of Reddit and 4chan that bubble up to the surface of everyday life through the alt-right’s manifestations, that you refuse to look the other way. Oppose them as we do, because they seek your undoing as much as they do yours.

For the newbies who don’t know what the alt-right is, it is a white supremacist movement that came out of different libertarian and far right trends in the 2010s. Its leader, Richard Spencer, advocates violence against political enemies who believe in freedom and equality. The other key alt-right personalities like Mike Enoch, Andrew Anglin, and Matt Heimbach advocate various forms of neo-Nazism.  Their ideas are not new, they have floated up over the years, blaming immigrants for crime, Jews for “subverting Western culture,” and destroying any unity working people have had. Although the alt-right supported the Trump campaign, they have since moved to a more autonomous political position.  While the alt-right hopes to portray themselves just as “not PC” or simple Trump supporters, their rhetoric, friendships, and plans reveal them to be the same white supremacists that have terrorized this country for years.

Because their neo-Nazi ideas remain unpopular in the US, alt-right leaders use the general rejection of their white identity politics as a rallying point to defend their “free speech.” Laden with bitter anti-Semitism, racism, and conspiracy theories, these “free speech” rallies quickly became lightning rods for the revival of neo-Nazism in the US.  Free speech was, itself, a lie, since they have been open about how they would dispose of democracy and the free exchange of ideas if they were to ever take power.  Instead, they saw it as an opportunity to recruit for their ideas, and they could use the banner of free speech to argue for racial separatism without interruption.  The rally in Berkeley held by the alt-right drew a crowd of hundreds with the impetus of attacking left-wing counter-demonstrators, leading to bloody confrontations. Similar rallies in Boston and Portland deliberately antagonized local communities, as outsiders affiliated with Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman and other militant, violent alt-right groups descended on cities looking for a fight.  The communities, in response, turned further against them and their followers.

Such rallies have fostered an atmosphere of hatred against antifascists and Muslims, directly contributing to the double murder on Friday, May 26, of innocent people attempting to defend Muslim teenage girls from hatefully harassment on public transit. The two men were killed for behaving out of heroic bravery. Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche was a peaceful 23 year old who had just graduated from a local college and was trying to get his life started. Rick Best was a 23-year veteran of the US military with a wife and kids—the youngest of whom is a 12 year old daughter.

Disgraceful as ever, supporters of the alt-right descended on the pages of mourning community members to question the attitudes of the culprit, calling him a “Bernie-bro,” a leftist, and a supporter of antifa. From research that we have done, including speaking to former associates in the local metal scene, there is more to the story than that. According to their accounts, before the Trump campaign, Jeremy Christian was a troubled and damaged man but he was not a killer. He did support the Sanders Campaign and spend time reading comic books and going to rock concerts. However, when Sanders lost, his ire against Hillary Clinton developed into support for Donald Trump. Soon, it appears, his anger began to fester and grow into conspiracy theories about Jews and Muslims.

Christian was increasingly obsessed with the same conspiracy theories that the alt-right cultivate in order to expand the gap between reality and fiction.  While many on the alt-right disbelieve conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate,” they continue to promote them to gain followers and manipulate a distrust in the surrounding community and media. When the alt-right began holding “free speech” rallies, Christian’s rhetoric became increasingly violent toward those targeted by the alt-right. Joey Gibson’s local Portland Prayer group, also known as the “Warriors for Freedom,” helped Christian locate a material outlet for his hatred. When he arrived at one of Gibson’s “free speech rallies,” Christian immediately attempted to attack counter-protestors with a baseball bat unprovoked. After police confiscated his bat, Gibson continued to scream at antifascists, even throwing up a Nazi salute and racial slurs, but was welcomed within the rally.

Police had thwarted his desire to engage in physical violence against counter-protestors, and despite finding an outlet for his rage, Christian continued to fume. Amid Gibson’s renewed calls for another “free speech rally”—this time in the heart of Portland—Christian could not control himself. On a well-trafficked light rail MAX line in the relatively docile neighborhood of Hollywood, Christian verbally assaulted Muslim women, one of whom wore a hijab. Three white men stood up for the women, and an enraged Christian stabbed them in the throat, killing two and critically injuring the other. These were not incidental killings due to the kind of indiscriminate collateral damage of a knife fight; they were clear and precise throat strikes with the intention of severing the carotid artery and jugular vein. The surviving victim is alive because, although the knife struck the jugular, it barely nicked the carotid.  He will carry the scars of this attack the rest of his life, a reminder of the time he sacrificed everything to defend someone in need.

Think of the distance between the heroic act of defending a vulnerable teenager from a stranger’s aggressive harassment, on one hand, and the cowardice evidenced by alt-right members on the web following the attacks. Some alt-right members called the murderer “/ourguy/” and others called him “based knifeman.” Harold Covington, the murderous white supremacist who took part in the murder of labor activists by KKK members in the 1970s, claimed Christian as one of his own.  Although Richard Spencer has distanced himself from Christian, his followers have already built up a kind of cult for him as a logical and reasonable representative of their cause—an extension of Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman. And that’s exactly correct.

Jeremy Christian is the alt-right today. He represents the kind of mob violence that happens when you combine the mob violence mobilized by Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman with the lone wolf violence promoted through alt-right forums from 4chan to Andrew Anglin’s Daily Stormer website. The response to such a violent movement that slaughters law abiding citizens for no other reason than acting on the defense of civil rights must be unified opposition.  This has always been how white supremacist groups operate, mobilizing those who feel powerless to feed on their bigoted rage and to enact putrid acts of violence while the leaders stay comfortable in their plush Montana homes.

The “based knifeman” alt-right double murder, it should be noted, came on the one-month anniversary of another alt-right attack—this one carried out on a university campus in Kentucky by a young man brandishing a machete. It came less than a week after a cowardly member of the alt-right stabbed and killed Richard Collins III, a second lieutenant in the US Army, while waiting for an Uber ride at the University of Maryland. It came one week after police discovered the gruesome murder of two people by a member of the alt-right who, like Jeremy Christian, idealized Timothy McVeigh, and was apparently building a dirty bomb.

Jeremy “based knifeman” Christian is not someone outside of the realm of the alt-right. He is, as their community members have claimed, a part of the increased pressure the alt-right has placed on college campuses and left-leaning liberal hubs throughout the US. No self-respecting human being in the US should participate in the atrocious deterioration of humanity manifested by the alt-right and its persistent attacks against the innocent and vulnerable in society. Ask yourself, if you are an Oath Keeper, a militia member, or if you are just a right-wing member of society—would you support the slaughter of innocent civilians at war? If the alt-right is doing that today under the auspices of a self-declared war against a society that wants nothing to do with them, why support them in that effort? Why wrap villainy in the flag and give it that protection, rather than identify the movement for what it is?

The alt-right no more believes in the American flag than it does the Kekistan flag or the memes of Pepe the frog. They are using you to gain ground, and once it came to your turn, they would turn against you as mercilessly as if you were a teenage Muslim girl or those attempting to protect her. In supporting Joey Gibson, “Based Stickman,” and the alt-right’s mobilizations, you are encouraging the murder of innocent people in defiance of your own stated ideals. We can all see where this hypocrisy leads. We ask you humbly to step away from it before it destroys you and us.

In loving memory of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche and Rick Best.

In solidarity against fascism and the alt-right. 

Click here to donate to the surviving person attacked by Jeremy Christian.

Donate to the Muslim Women Who Were Assaulted in Portland by the Alt Right Murderer

The story of what happened in Portland, Oregon on Friday, May 26th has gone viral.  An Alt Right person on a train began assaulting two young Muslim women for wearing Hijabs.  Three men stood up to intervene and they were brutally attacked with a knife, two of them were killed and one of them left in serious condition in the hospital.

We are trying to post the fundraisers for everyone who were involved, and we just posted the fundraiser for the survivor of the attack who is currently in the hospital.  We are now sharing the fundraiser for the two women who were targeted by the white supremacist and had to endure one of the most traumatizing experiences imaginable.  The money is intended to support them in their recovery, from treatment to transportation, and the funds will be critical to allowing them the time and space needed.

We need to support each other not just with words, but with actions.  Donating some money is a great start, but it cannot end there.  We need to get involved in a material basis, organizing in our communities and confronting these fascist movements as they grow and confront.  We stand with a “no platform” mentality, where we disallow people like this to actually recruit and organize.  Jeremy Christian, the Alt Right murderer on public transportation that day, was a part of the Alt Right “free speech” rallies that were happening in Portland.  On June 4th, Kyle Chapman, the “based stickman,” is holding another rally in Portland, one where Christian was likely to be.  For those in the area, Rose City Antifa, the Pacific Northwest Anti-Fascist Workers Collective, the Torch Network, and a number of supporters, including the Black Rose Anarchist Federation, are organizing to stand up to the Alt Right.  They will not let something like this happen again in their town.

Donate Here to the Women Targeted by the Alt Right Murderer

Donate to the Survivor of the Portland Alt Right Murderer

The brutal violence that erupted on a Portland MAX streetcar on Friday, May 26th was a shocking reminder that the Alt Right is a movement centered on genocide, terrorism, and violent revolution.  This may seem hyperbolic when applied to a largely Internet phenomenon built on the Chans and /Pol/, but they are the latest in a lineage of white nationalist organizations that, in their failure to build meaningful political movements, inspire the fringes to engage in some of the most disgusting bouts of mass violence imaginable.  From the Brotherhood to Timothy McVeigh to the shootings at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and various Jewish community centers, this is the result of white nationalist politics, and the Alt Right is no different as we have seen in recent months.

In Portland, a man named Jeremy Christian was known for frequenting Alt Right affiliated “Free Speech” rallies, complete with an American flag cape and chain around the neck, engaged in one of the most shocking acts of public violence in recent memory.  He was photographed Seig Heiling, yelling racial slurs and Alt Right jokes, and even shaking hands with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, all while focusing his hate on its primary focus: Muslims.

On Friday, Christian got on the train at rush hour and began accosting two women wearing Hijabs, telling them they were criminals and “didn’t pay taxes.”  Three men got up to intervene and Christian stabbed all three, killing two with wounds to the throat and leaving one in the hospital.  One of the men killed was a father an an Army veteran who was attempting to stand up against Islamophobia in one of the real-world situations that have become so prevalent in Trump’s America.

We are sharing the GoFundMe for the third victim, the 21-year-old Micha David-Cole Fletcher of Southeast Portland.  While he was hospitalized for his stab wounds he is in stable condition and will survive, but still has a long recovery and a heap of hospital bills ahead of him.  Hopefully, his bravery will be supported by a community that is coming together to say no to Islamophobia and the Alt Right.

This is the Alt Right’s fault, plain and simple.  The blame for this rests on the shoulders of people like Mike Enoch, Richard Spencer, and Jared Taylor, who have stoked the flames of violent hatred until it exploded.  This will unfortunately not be the last time that this type of brutality will surface, which is why it is critical to create community support/defense networks to keep us safe from attacks.  The coming appearance of Kyle Chapman (Based Stickman) on June 4th in Portland is being counter-organized by a coalition of anti-fascists, and will only swell to massive proportions now that the consequences of Chapman’s ideas and model can be seen.

As fundraisers for the families of the two people who died in the attack become available, and in support of the women who were targeted, we will share those as well.

Donate to Micha David-Cole’s Recovery Fund

Como os fascistas têm cortejado a Pós-Esquerda

Note: We are proud to publish Portuguese translation of Alexander Reid Ross’s essay “The Left-Overs: How Fascists Court the Post-Left.  This has been translated by the website Anarkomidia, and we are honored to have them take the time to translate.  We would appreciate and publish any translation of articles we have published, and would fully support the reposting of any of our content in different languages.

Alguns meses atrás, a publicação radical Fifth Estate solicitou um artigo meu discutindo a ascenção do fascismo em anos recentes. Após a decisão deles de retirar o texto, aceitei o convite da Anti-Fascist News para publicar uma versão expandida aqui, com algumas mudanças, diante da insistência de amigos e colegas escritores.

Em Solidariedade, AAR

Capítulo 1: A composição inicial do Fascismo Individualista

Um editor amigo meu recentemente me disse por e-mail, “se anti-capitalismo e pró-liberdades individuais são claramente declaradas em livros e artigos, elas não serão usadas pelos direitistas”. Se isso fosse verdade, fascismo simplesmente sumiria da Terra. Fascismo vem de uma mistura de posições de esquerda e direita e alguns esquerdistas buscam aspectos de coletivismo, sindicalismo, ecologia e autoritarismo que cruzam com esforços fascistas. Parcialmente em resposta a tendências da esquerda autoritária, um movimento antifascista distinto emergiu na década de 1970 para criar o que veio a ser conhecido como o pensamento de “pós-esquerda”. Imaginando que o anti-capitalismo e a “liberdade individual” mantêm pureza ideológica, radicais como meu querido editor tendem a ignorar convergências e vulnerabilidades para com a ideologia fascista.

A pós-esquerda se desenvolveu largamente de uma tendência de favorecer liberdade individual autonomamente em relação a política ideológica da esquerda e da direita enquanto manteve alguns elementos do esquerdismo. Embora seja um meio rico com várias posições contrastantes, pós-esquerdistas em geral traçam suas raízes ao individualista Max Stirner, cujas crenças na supremacia do indivíduo europeu sobre e contra a nação, classe e credo foram muito influenciadas pelo filósofo G.W.F. Hegel. Após a morte de Stirner em 1856, a popularidade do coletivismo e o neo-kantianismo obscureceram sua filosofia individualista até Friedrich Nietzsche o trouxe novamente em evidência na parte posterior do século. Influenciado por Stirner, Nitzsche defendeu a superação do socialismo e o “mundo moderno” pela iconoclastia, e a figura filosófica e aristocrática conhecida como “superhomem” ou “ûbermensch”.

Durante o final do séc. XIX, stirneristas fundiram o “superhomem” com a suposta responsabilidade das mulheres em parir uma raça europeia superior — um “novo homem” a produzir e a ser produzido por uma “nova era”. Similarmente, aristocratas de direita que odiavam noções de liberdade e igualdade viraram-se para Nietzsche e Stirner para alicerçar seu senso de elitismo e ódio ao populismo de esquerda e civilização baseada nas massas. Alguns anarquistas e individualistas influenciados por Stirner e Nietzsche se inspiraram em figuras de direita, como o autor russo Fyodor Dostoevsky, que desenvolveu a ideia de “revolução conservadora” que deveria derrubar a crise espiritual do mundo moderno e da era das massas. Nas palavras do anarquista Victor Serge, “Dostoevsky: o melhor e o pior, inseparavelmente. Ele realmente busca a verdade e teme encontrá-la; ele geralmente a encontra assim mesmo e então fica apavorado… um pobre grande homem…”

O “grande homem” ou “novo homem” da história não era nem de esquerda nem de direita; ele esforçou-se para destruir o mundo moderno e substituí-lo por sua própria imagem cada vez aprimorada — mas que forma tal imagem tomaria? Na Itália, reacionários associados com o movimento futurista e várias vertentes nacionalistas românticas expressaram afinidade com a corrente individualista identificada com Nietzsche e Stirner. Antecipando tremendas catástrofes que poriam o mundo moderno de joelhos e instaurariam a nova era do novo homem, os futuristas buscaram fundir o “gestro destrutivo dos anarquistas” com o bombástico do império.

Uma figura imensamente popular entre essas tendências do individualismo e da “revolução conservadora”, o esteta italiano Gabriele D’annunzio conjurou 2600 soldados num ousado ataque em 1919 à cidade portuária de Fiume para reclamá-la para a Itália após a Primeira Guerra Mundial. Durante dua empreitada, as forças ocupantes hastearam a bandeira negra estampada por crânio e ossos cruzados e cantou canções de unidade nacional. Itália recusou a ocupação imperial, levando a cidade-estado nas mãos de sua liderança nacionalista romântica. Uma constituição, escrita pelo sindicalista nacionalista Alceste De Ambris, proveu a base para a solidariedade nacional em torno da economia corporativa mediada por sindicatos colaboradores. D’Annunzio foi profético e escatológico, recitando poesia durante convocações à varanda. Ele era masculino. Era imperial e majestoso, porém radical e radicado no afeto fraternal. Ele conclamou sacrifício e amor à nação.

Quando ele retornou à Itália após os militares arrancarem sua enclave de Fiume, ultranacionalistas, futuristas, artistas e intelectuais saudaram D’Annunzio como lider do crescente movimento fascista. As cerimônias estéticas e a violência radical contribuíram para a sacralização das políticas invocadas pelo espírito do fascismo. Embora Mussolini provavelmente ter visto a si mesmo como competidor de D’Annunzio pelo papel de supremo líder, ele não podia negar o estilo e a atmosfera, o grande apelo estético que alcançou a tantos através da desaventura em Fiume. O fascismo, Mussolini insistia, era um anti-partido, um movimento. Os Camisas Pretas fascistas, ou squadristi, adotaram o estilo de D’Annunzio, os uniformer negros, a caveira e os ossos, a adaga na cintura, a atitude de “ligar o foda-se” expressa pelo hino “Me ne frego”, ou “Não me importo”. Alguns dos participantes da empreitada de Fiume abandonaram D’Annunzio quando este se juntou ao movimento fascista, juntando-se ao Arditi del Popolo para lutar contra a ameaça fascista. Outros se juntariam às fileiras dos Camisas Pretas.

Originalmente um homem da esquerda, Mussolini não teve dificuldades em juntar o simbolismo da revolução com o renascimento do ultranacionalismo. “Abaixo o estado de toda espécie e encarnação”, declarou num discurso em 1920. “O estado de ontem, de hoje, de amanhã. O estado burguês e o socialista. Para aqueles de nós, a morte do individualismo, através das trevas do presente e da melancolia do amanhã, tudo que sobra é a hoje absurda, mas sempre consoladora, religião da anarquia!” Em outra declaração, perguntou, “por que Stirner não deveria ter um retorno?”

O conceito de Mussolini da anarquia era crítico, pois ele via anarquismo prefigurando o fascismo. “Se autores anarquistas descobriram a importância do mítico a partir de uma oposição à autoridade e unidade,” declarou o jurista nazista Carl Schmitt, referindo-se ao conceito de Mussolini de mito, “então eles colaboraram também em estabelecer o fundamento de outra autoridade, conquanto contra sua vontade, uma autoridade baseada no sentimento de ordem, disciplina e hierarquia.” A dialética do fascismo aqui é dual: apenas a destruição anarquista do mundo moderno em todo âmbito abriria o potencial para o fascismo, mas a mítica sociedade sem estado do anarquismo, para Mussolini, poderia emergir apenas, paradoxalmente, de um estado autodisciplinar de ordem total.

Antifascistas anarquistas individualistas e niilistas como Renzo Novatore representaram para Mussolini o tipo de “niilismo passivo” que Nietzsche entendeu como a decadência e a fraqueza da modernidade. Os veteranos que lutariam por Mussolini rejeitaram a supressão do individualismo sob os bolcheviques e favoreceram “um anti-partido de lutadores”, de acordo com o historiador Emílio Gentile. Fascismo exploraria a misoginia rampante de homens como Novatore enquanto se voltava ao “niilismo passivo” de sua visão de total colapso em direção ao “niilismo ativo” através do renascimento da Nova Era nas mãos do Novo Homem.

A guinada ao fascismo que aconteceu através da Europa durante os anos 1920 e 1930 não se restringiu à esquerda coletivista de ex-comunistas, sindicalistas e socialistas; também incluiu os políticos mais ambíguos das elites intelectuais e de vanguarda da Europa. Na França, figuras literárias como Georges Bataille e Antonin Artaud começaram a experimentar da estética fascista da crueldade, do irracionalismo e do elitismo. Em 1934, Bataille declarou sua esperança em conduzir “espaço para grandes sociedades fascistas”, as quais acreditou habitar o mundo das “formas mais altivas” e “faz um apelo a sentimentos tradicionalmente definidos como exaltados e nobres.” A admiração de Bataille por Stirner não o preveniu de desenvolver o que ele descreveu em décadas posteriores como uma “tendência paradoxal fascista”. Outras celebridades libertárias como Louis-Ferdinand Céline e Maurice Blanchot também abraçaram temas fascistas — particularmente um anti-semitismo virulento.

Como Blanchot, o poeta expressionista e apoiador do nazismo Gottfried Benn, apelou a uma linguagem anti-humanista de sofrimento e niilismo que voltava o olhar para o interior, encontrando apenas impulsos e necessidades animais. Filósofo existencialista e membro do Partido Nazista, Martin Heidegger, usou de temas nietzschianos sobre niilismo e estética em sua fenomenologia, pondo a angústia no cerne da vida moderna e buscando libertação existencial através do processo destrutivo que vi como implícito na produção de obras de arte autênticas. Figura literária Ernst Jünger, que comemorou a ascensão de Hitler, conjurou a força do “niilismo ativo”, buscando o colapso da civilização através do “zero mágico” que traria uma Nova Era de atores ultra-individualistas que mais tarde chamaria de “anarcos”. A influência de Stirner estava presente em Jünger e nos primeiros anos fascistas de Mussolini e passou para outros membros do movimento fascista como Carl Schmitt e Julius Evola.

Evola foi talvez o mais importante desses que buscavam o colapso da civilização e o despertar espiritual da Nova Era do “indivíduo universal”, dedicação sacrificial e supremacia masculina. Um dedicado fascista e individualista, Evola devotou-se à pureza da sagrada violência, racismo, anti-semitismo e o oculto. Defendendo a doutrina do “soldado político”, Evola viu a violência como necessária em estabelecer um tipo de hierarquia natural que promoveria o indivíduo supremo sobre as multidões. Prática ocultista destilava-se numa aristocracia total do espírito, conforme Evola acreditava, que poderia apenas encontrar expressão através de sacrifício e um código de honra como o dos samurais. Evola compartilhava esses ideais de conquista, elitismo e prazer sacrificial com a SS, que convidou o esotérico italiano para Vienna saciar sua sede por conhecimento. Após a 2ª Guerra Mundial, o fascismo espiritual de Evola encontrou paralelos nos escritos de Savitri Devi, um esotérico francês de ascendência grega que desenvolveu uma prática anti-humanista de adoração de natureza nazista não muito diferente da Deep Ecology de hoje em dia. Na sua rejeição por direitos humanos, Devi insistiu que o mundo manifesta a totalidade das forças vitais entrelaçadas, nenhuma das quais goza de uma prerrogativa moral particular sobre a outra.

Capítulo 2: A criação da Pós-Esquerda

Foi mostrado por ora que o fascismo, no seu período entre guerras, atraiu numerosos anti-capitalistas e individualistas, majoritariamente através do elitismo, da estetização da política e do desejo niilista de destruição do mundo moderno. Após a queda do Reich, fascistas tentaram reacender as cinzas de seu movimento apelando tanto ao estado como os movimentos sociais. Tornou-se popular entre fascistas rejeitar Hitler em algum grau e reivindicar um retorno às ideias do “sindicalismo nacional” original misturadas com o elitismo do “Novo Homem” e a destruição da civilização. Fascistas reivindicaram “libertação nacional” para etnias europeias contra a OTAN e o liberalismo multicultural, enquanto o ocultismo de Evola e Devi começou a fundir com Satanismo para formar novos híbridos fascistas. Com a ecologia e o anti-autoritarismo, tal sacralização da oposição política através do oculto se provaria a mais intrigante conduíte para a insinuação fascistas a subculturas no pós guerra.

Nos anos 1960, grupos comunistas como Socialisme ou Barbarie, Pouvoir ouvrier e os Situacionistas se reuniam em locais como a livraria/editora La Vieille Taupe (A Velha Toupeira), criticando o cotidiano na civilização industrial através de arte e práticas transformativas. De acordo com Gilles Dauvé, um dos participantes nest movimento, “o pequeno grupo em torno da livraria La Vieille Taupe” desenvolveu a ideia de “comunização” ou transformação revolucionária de todas as relações sociais. Este novo movimento de “ultra-esquerdistas” ajudou a inspirar a estética de uma jovem e intelectual rebelião que culminou nos grandes levantes de estudantes e trabalhadores em Paris durante maio de 1968.

A forte corrente anti-autoritária da ultra-esquerda e o mais abrangente levante de maio de 68 contribuíram para movimentos similares por toda Europa, como o movimento italiano Autonomia, que espalhou-se a partir de uma greve selvagem contra a montadora de carros Fiat, para uma revolta generalizada envolvendo greve de aluguel, ocupações de prédios e manifestações de massa nas ruas. Enquanto a maior parte do Autonomia continuava na esquerda, seus participantes foram intensamente críticos à esquerda estabelecida e os autonomistas frequentemente rejeitavam a estratégia menos elaborada das guerrilhas urbanas. Em 1977, o anarquista individualista Alfredo Bonanno escreveu um texto, “Alegria Armada”, exortando esquerdistas italianos a largar pretensões patriarcais à guerrilha e juntar-se à luta insurrecional popular. A conversão do teorista marxista Jacques Camatte em rejeição pessimista da esquerda e adesão a uma vida mais simples ligada à natureza aumentaram as contradições dentro da esquerda italiana.

Com o anti-autoritatismo, críticas de orientação ecológicas da civilização emergiram dos anos 1960 e 70 como vertentes de uma nova identidade que rejeitava tanto a esquerda como a direita. Adaptando-se a tais correntes dos movimentos sociais populares e explorando linhas ideológicas turvadas entre esquerda e direita, ideólogos fascistas desenvolveram o quadro do “etno-pluralismo”. Apoiando sua retórica no “direito à diferença” (separatismo étnico), fascistas se mascararam com rótulos como a “Nova Direita Europeia”, “revolucionários nacionalistas” e “tradicionalistas revolucionários”. A “Nova Direita Europeia” pegou a rejeição do mundo moderno advogada pela ultra-esquerda como uma proclamação do indigenísmo dos europeus e suas raízes pagãs no território. Fascistas produziram mais ideias espirituais derivadas do sentido de enraizamento do sujeito na sua terra nativa, invocando a velha ecologia de “sangue e solo” do movimento völkische alemão e o partido nazista.

Na Itália, esse movimento produziu o “Acampamento Hobbit”, um eco-festival organizado pelo membro da Nova Direita Europeia Marco Tarchi e direcionado à juventude desiludida através de pôsteres e filipetas no estilo dos Situacionistas. Quando o “revolucionário nacionalista” italiano Roberto Fiore escapou de acusações de ter participado num bombardeio massivo de uma estação de trem em Bolonha, ele encontrou abrigo no apartamento do colega de Tarchi na Nova Direita Europeia Michael Walker. Esse novo local se provaria transformador, pois Fiore, Walker e um grupo de militantes fascistas criaram uma facção política chamada Official National Front em 1980. Esse grupo ajudaria a promover e se beneficiaria de uma estética fascista mais avant-garde, trazendo neo-folk, noise e outros gêneros de música experimental.

Enquanto fascistas entraram no movimento verde e exploraram aberturas na esquerda anti-autoritária, o Situacionismo começou a se transformar. No início dos anos 1970, o Pós-Situacionismo emergiu através de coletivos nos EUA que combinavam egoismo stirnerista com o pensamento coletivista. Em 1974, o grupo For Ourselves (Para Nós Mesmos) publicou O Direito de Ser Ganancioso, protestando contra o altruísmo enquanto ligava a ganância egoista à síntese da identidade social e do bem-estar — em resumo, ao excedente. O texto foi reimpresso em 1983 pelo grupo libertário Lompanics Unlimited, com prefácio de um autor pouco conhecido chamado Bob Black.

Enquanto pós-Situacionismo voltou-se para o individualismo, um número de ultra-esquerdistas europeus foram para a direita. Em Paris, La Vieille Taupe partiu de defesas controversas da rejeição da necessidade de antifascismo especializado para apresentar o holocausto como uma mentira necessária para manter a ordem capitalista. Em 1980, La Vielle Taupe publicou a notória Mémoire em Défense centre ceux qui m’accusent de falsifier l’histoire, de autoria do negador do holocausto, Robert Faurisson. Apesar de La Vielle Taupe e seu fundador Pierre Guillaume receberem condenação internacional, eles conseguiram a defesa controversa do professor de esquerda Noam Chomsky. Mesmo que tenham majoritariamente rejeitado Guillaume e sua comitiva, a rejeição dos ultra-esquerdistas ao antifacismo especializado continuou de alguma forma popular – particularmente conforme explicado por Dauvé, que insistiu no início dos anos 1980 que “o fascismo como movimento específico desapareceu”.

A ideia de que o fascismo se tornou um artefato histórico apenas ajudou a manter sua persistência indetectada, enquanto Faurisson e Guillaume se tornaram celebridades na extrema-direita. Conforme a reviravolta em direção à negação do holocausto sugeriria, a teoria de ultra-esquerda não foi imune a um translado para termos étnicos – uma realidade que formaria a base do trabalho do dirigente da Official National Front, Troy Southgate. Apesar de influenciado pelos Situacionistas, juntamente com uma mistura de outras figuras de esquerda e direita, Southgate focava particularmente na vertente ecológical da política radical associada com o jornal de orientação punk Green Anarchist, que demandava um retorno a um sustento “primitivo” e a destruição da civilização modera. Em 1991, editores do Green Anarchist expulsaram seu co-editor, Richard Hunt, por seu patriotismo militarista e a nova publicação de Hunt, Green Alternative, logo se associou a Southgate. Dois anos depois, Southgate se juntaria a aliados fascistas como Jean-François Thiriart e Christian Bouchet na criação do Liaison Committe for Revolutionary Nationalism.

Nos EUA, a tendência “anarco-primitivista” ou do “anarquismo verde” foi tomada por um ex-membro da ultra-esquerda John Zerzan. Identificando civilização como inimiga da terra, Zerzan reivindicou um retorno a uma sustentabilidade que rejeitava a modernidade. Zerzan rejeitou o racismo mas se apoiou em larga medida no pensamento de Martin Heidegger, buscando um retorno a autênticas relações entre humanos e o mundo sem a mediação do pensamento simbólico. Esse retorno desejado, alguns apontaram, requereria um colapso civilizatório tão profundo que milhões, senão bilhões, provavelmente pereceriam. Mesmo Zerzan parece ambíguo com relação à mortandade em potencial, a despeito de seu apoio ao Unabomber, Ted Kaczynsky.

Juntando-se a Zerzan para confrontar o autoritarismo e retornar a uma organização social mais tribal de caçadores-coletores, um ocultista chamado Hakim Bey desenvolveu a ideia de “Zonas Autônomas Temporárias” (TAZ na sigla em inglês). Para Bey, uma TAZ de fato liberaria um espaço erótico de poiesis orgiástica e revolucionária. Ainda no seu texto de 1991, Zona Autônoma Temporária, Bey incluiu louvor extenso pela ocupação proto-fascista de D’Annunzio em Fiume, revelando tendências históricas perturbadoras de tentar transcender direita e esquerda.

Junto com Zerzan e Bey, Bob Black se provaria instrumental à fundamentação da ideia hoje chamada de “pós-esquerda”. Em seu texto de 1997, Anarquia após o esquerdismo, Black respondeu ao anarquista de esquerda Murray Bookchin, que acusara individualistas de “anarquismo de estilo de vida”. Puxando da crítica de Zerzan à civilização assim como Stirner e Nietzsche, Black apresentou sua rejeição ao trabalho como uma panaceia para tendências autoritárias de esquerda que ele identificava em Bookchin (aparentemente o atacando por ser judeu no processo).[1]

Assim, a pós-esquerda começou a se desenvolver através dos escritos de ultra-esquerdistas, anarquistas verdes, espiritualistas e egoístas publicados em zines, livros e jornais como Anarchy: Journal of Desire Armed e Fifth Estate. Apesar destes pensadores e publicações diferirem de muitas formas, princípios chaves da pós-esquerda incluíram uma antecipação escatológica do colapso da civilização acompanhada por uma síntese do individualismo e do coletivismo que rejeitava esquerda, direita e centro em favor de uma conexão profunda com a terra e comunidades mais orgânicas e tribais ao contrário do humanismo, tradição iluminista e democracia. Que textos da pós-esquerda incluem copiosas referências a Stirner, Nietzsche, Jünger, Heidegger, Artaud e Bataille sugere que eles formam uma tendência intelectual sincrética que une esquerda e direita, individualismo e “revolução conservadora”. Como veremos, a situação proveu amplo espaço para facistas ressurgirem rastejando.

Capítulo 3: O rastejar fascista

Durante a década de 1990, a rede “revolucionária nacionalista” de Southgate, Thiriart e Bouchet, mais tarde renomeada de European Liberation Front, ligada à American Front, um grupo skinhead de San Francisco explorando conexões entre contracultura e avant-garde. Como esforços anteriores para desenvolver um Nazismo Satânico, o líder da American Front, Bob Heick, apoiou uma mistura de satanismo, ocultismo e paganismo, se tornando amigo do músico fascista Boyd Rice. Um músico de noise e avant-garde, Rice desenvolveu um “think tank fascista” chamado Abraxas Foundation, que ecoa a fusão do culto de ideias de Charles Manson, fascismo e satanismo realizada pelo militante fascista dos anos 1970 James Mason. O protegido de Rice e colega membro da Abraxas, Michael Moynihan, juntou-se à editora radical Feral House, que publica textos na linha da Abraxas, cobrindo uma gama de temas de Charles Manson, Black Metal escandinavo e islamismo militante até livros sobre Evola, James Mason, Bob Black e John Zerzan.

Em esforços similares, o aliado francês de Southgate, Christian Bouchet, gerou redes de distribuição e revistas dedicadas ao apoio a uma indústria miniatura crescendo ao redor de neo-folk e a nova cena de black metal escandinavo “anárquica”. Além disso, anarquistas nacionalistas tentaram montar e/ou infiltrar-se em e-grupos devotados ao anarquismo verde. Conforme a rede de Southgate e Bouchet se espalhou até a Rússia, o notório fascista russo, Aleksandr Dugin, emergiu como mais um proeminente ideólogo que admirava o trabalho de Zerzan.

Os pós-esquerdistas tinham algum conhecimento sobre tais desenvolvimentos. Num post-script de 1999 a um dos trabalhos de Bob Black, co-editor da Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, Lawence Jarach, alertou contra a ascensão do “nacional-anarquismo”. Em 2005, o jornal de Zerzan, Green Anarchy, publicou uma maior crítica ao “nacional-anarquismo” de Southgate. Esses avisou foram significativos, considerando que vieram num contexto de movimentos ativos de ação direta e grupos como a Earth Liberation Front (ELF), um grupo anarquista verde dedicado a atos em larga escala de sabotagem e destruição de propriedade com a intenção de levar ao colapso final da civilização industrializada.

Enquanto seu grupo da ELF executava incêndios durante o final dos anos 1990 e no início dos 2000, um ex-membro da ELF me relatou que dois de seus camaradas, Nathan “Exile” Block e Joyanna “Sadie” Zacher, compartilhavam de um inusitado amor por black metal escandinavo, faziam referências perturbadoras a Charles Manson e promoviam uma mentalidade elitista e anti-esquerdista. Enquanto suas referências obscuras evocavam Abraxas, Feral House e as redes de distribuição de Bouchet, sua política não podia ser reconhecida até então como parte do universo fascista. Porém suas ideias gerais se tornaram mais claras, o ex-membro da ELF me contou, quando pesquisadores antifascistas descobriram mais tarde que uma conta de Tumblr administrada por Block continha numerosas referências ao ocultismo fascista, incluindo simbologia nacional-anarquista, suásticas e citações a Evola e Jünger. Esses foram apenas dois membros de um grupo maior, mas sua presença dá o que pensar sobre a relação a importantes pontos de convergência radical e como abordá-los.

Isto é, as decisões de John Zerzan e Bob Black de publicar livros através da Feral House parece peculiar – especialmente à luz do fato de que dois dos quatro livros que Zerzan publicou por lá saíram em 2005, o mesmo ano dos notáveis alertas contra o nacional-anarquismo pela Green Anarchy. Aparentemente, apesar de ciente, em alguns casos, dos cruzamentos subculturais entre fascismo e a pós-esquerda, os pós-esquerdistas, em várias ocasiões, mantiveram relações colaborativas.

Conforme a Green Anarchy alertava contra o entrismo e Zerzan simultaneamente publicava pela Feral House, controvérsia chegou a um fórum online conhecido como Anti-Politics Board (fórum anti-política). Nascido da publicação insurrecionalista Killing King Abacus, o Anti-Politics Board foi usado por mais de 1000 membros registrados e teve dúzias de contribuidores regulares. A plataforma online apresentava um site florescente de debates para pós-esquerdistas, porém discussões sobre insurrecionalismo, comunização, anarquismo verde e egoismo geralmente produziam uma iconoclastia estranhamente competitiva. Tentativas de produzir o ponto de vista mais “irado” geralmente levavam à popularização de tópicos como “ ‘anti-sexismo’ como moralismo coletivista” e “crítica do anti-fascismo autonomo”. Ataques à moralidade e moralismo tendiam a encorajar radicais a abandonar “políticas de identidade” e “culpa branca” comumente associadas com o anti-racismo de esquerda.

Em meio a tais discussões, um jovem radical chamado Andrew Yeoman começou a postar posições nacional-anarquistas. Quando pedido repetidamente para remover Yeoman do fórum, um administrador do site recusou, insistindo que remover o nacionalista branco significaria comportar-se como os esquerdistas. Eles precisavam tentar outra coisa. O que quiser que tentassem, porém, não funcionava, e Yeoman mais tarde tornou-se notório por formar um grupo chamado Bay Area National Anarchists, aparecendo em eventos anarquistas como feiras de livros e promovendo colaboração anarquista com os Minutemen e a American Front.

Um aspecto importante da Anti-Politics Board era a articulação de teorias niilistas e insurrecionalistas, ambas das quais ganharam popularidade após a crise financeira de 2008. Num artigo intitulado “O novo niilismo”, Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) apontou que essa ascendente onda de niilismo que emergia durante o fim dos anos 2000 e continuou à segunda década não poderia imediatamente ser distinguida da extrema-direita devido a uma miríade de pontos de convergência. Realmente, Stormfront (fórum nazista na internet) está cheio de usuários como “TAZriot” e “whitepunx” que promovem os princípios básicos individualistas do pós-esquerdismo da postura original e racista do Stirnerismo. Rejeitando o “politicamente correto” e a “culpa branca”, tais racistas da pós-esquerda desejam espaços radicais separados e zonas autônomas para brancos.

Através de perseverante pesquisa, Rose City Antifa em Portland, Oregon, descobriu a identidade de whitepunx: “Trigger Tom Christensen, um membro da cena punk local. “Nunca fui um anti [anti-fascista] mas sempre andei com alguns deles”, escreveu Christensen no Stormfron. “Eu costumava ser um grande punk rocker na cena musical e havia alguns antis que percorriam a mesma cena. Fui amigo de alguns deles. Não tentavam me recrutar nem ninguém na verdade. Eles não sabiam, porém, que eu era um nacionalista branco. Eu mantinha minhas crenças para mim mesmo e refutava qualquer opiniões que eles expressassem que demonstrassem buracos. Foi bem útil conhecer algumas dessas pessoas. Eu sei quem são os caras principais nas cenas anti e SHARP [Skinheads Contra o Preconceito Racial, na sigla em inglês].”

Por um tempo, Christensen disse que andava com pós-esquerdistas e debatia como Yeoman fizera. Menos de um ano depois, porém, Christensen continuou com uma postagem assustadora entitulada “Vocês acham que seria aceitável ser um infiltrado se for contra nossos inimigos?”. Ele escreveu, “Tive um pensamento interessante outro dia e queria opiniões. Se vocês fossem solicitados pela polícia a prover ou encontrar evidências que incriminassem pessoas que fossem inimigas do movimento, por exemplo, esquerdistas, vermelhos, anarquistas. Vocês fariam? Vocês se infiltrariam na esquerda?” Vinte e uma respostas vieram dos recessos do mundo nacionalista branco. Enquanto alguns encorajaram Christensen a dar uma de X9, outros insistiram que ele mantivessem lealdade à gangue. É incerto se ele foi ou não à polícia, mas a descoberta em maio de 2013 de sua atividade no Stormfront aconteceu pouco antes que um grande juri intimasse quatro anarquistas que foram subsequentemente presos por desacato ao juri.

Em outro perturbador exemplo de convergência entre pós-esquerdistas e fascistas, radicais associados com um grupo niilista Ultra duramente criticaram a Rose City Antifa de Portland, Oregon, por exporem Jack Donovan. Um conhecido membro de um violento grupo nacionalista branco Wolves of Vinland, Donovan também administra uma academia chamada Kabuki Strength Lab, que produz vídeos para a “manosphere” [redes masculinistas]. Conforme novembro de 2016, quando a exposição foi publicada, um membro do Ultra era também membro da Kabuki Strength Lab. Apesar de Donovan ser dono de um estúdio de tatuagem do lado de fora da academia e ter feito no fascista do Partido Libertário Augustus Sol Invictus uma tatuagem da fasces lictoris, um colega de academia disse, “Obviamente Jack tem crenças controversas e práticas das quais a maioria discorda; mas acredito que isso não afeta seu comportamento na academia”. Donovan, que tem papagaiado publicamente estatistas “realistas raciais” em reuniões de nacionalistas brancos como o National Policy Institute e o podcast Pressure Project, também abraça o bioregionalismo e a antecipação do colapso da civilização que levara a uma reversão das estruturas tribais identitariamente ligadas em guerra umas com as outras e dependentes das hierarquias naturais – uma ideologia que ressoa com o Ultra e alguns membros do espectro mais amplo da pós-esquerda.

É lógico que defender fascistas e colaborar com eles não é a mesma coisa e ambos são diferentes de ter pontos ideológicos incidentalmente cruzados. Porém os pontos de convergência, se houver vista grossa, frequentemente indicam uma tendência a ignorar, defender ou colaborar. Defesa e colaboração podem convergir e de fato o fazem. Por exemplo, também em Portland, Oregon, o fundador de um grupo britânico dissidente da ultra-esquerda chamado Wildcat começou a participar de um grupo de leitura envolvendo pós-esquerdistas proeminentes antes de deslizar para o antissemitismo. Logo ele passou a fazer parte do previamente esquerdista, mas convertido em fascista, Pacifica Forum em Eugene, Oregon, e a defender o líder antissemita Tim Calvert. Ele foi visto pela última vez por antifas dando as caras num evento para o negador do holocausto, David Irving.

Talvez o exemplo mais perturbador de colaboração, ou melhor, síntese, do niilismo pós-esquerdista e a extrema-direita acontece agora na alt-right. Donovan é considerado um membro da alt-right, enquanto o último post visível de Christensen vem do grupo misógino Proud Boys. Tais grupos e indivíduos ligados à alt-right são ditos terem tomado a “pílula vermelha”, um termo tirado do filme The Matrix, no qual o protagonista acorda para uma realidade distópica após escolher tomar a pílula vermelha. Para a alt-right, tomar a “pílula vermelha” significa acordar para a “realidade” oferecida por teorias conspiratórias antissemitas, misoginia e nacionalismo branco — geralmente através de fóruns online onde a iconoclastia competitiva dos “edge-lords” transmuta em antissemitismo irônico e ódio. Dentre as formas mais extremas deste fenômeno que ocorre em anos recentes é o chamado “tomar a pílula preta”— usuários da pílula vermelha que se voltaram à celebração de violência indiscriminada através das mesmas tendências do individualismo e do niilismo esboçados anteriormente.

Aqueles que “tomam a pílula preta” afirmam ter abandonado inteiramente seus apegos à todas as teorias. Tal tendência evoca a atitude de grupo militante anti-civilização Individuals Tending to the Wild, que é popular entre alguns grupos pós-esquerdistas que advogam violência indiscriminada contra qualquer alvo que manifeste o mundo moderno. Outra influência sobre os “pílulas negras” é Adam Lanza, o infame atirador em massa que telefonou John Zerzan um ano antes assassinar sua mãe, vinte crianças e seis funcionários no jardim de infância Sandy Hook em Newtown, Connecticut. Zerzan condenou o Individuals Tending Toward the Wild e, meses após as terríveis ações de Lanza, escreveu um texto implorando para niilistas de pós-esquerda encontrarem esperança: “Egoismo e niilismo está evidentemente em voga entre anarquistas e espero que aqueles que se identifiquem como tal não tenham perdido toda a esperança. Sem ilusões, mas com esperança.” Infelizmente, Zerzan expandiu seu curto comunicado em um livro publicado pela Feral House em 10 de novembro de 2015 — o dia em que a Feral House publicou The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement, de co-autoria de Eddie Stampton, um skinhead nazista.

Conclusão

À luz destas convergências, muitos anarquistas individualistas, pós-esquerdistas e niilistas tendem a não negar que partilham de redes nodais com fascistas. Em muitos casos, eles procuram lutar contra eles para reclamar seu movimento. Porém tende a haver um outro senso permissivo de que anarquistas não são responsáveis por distinguirem a si mesmos dos fascistas. Se há numerosos pontos em que o espectro radical se torna um borrão de fascistas, anarquistas e românticos, alguns afirmam que criticar em tais associações apenas propaga ideias falaciosas como “culpar por associação”.

Porem, lembrando da informação neste ensaio, devemos notar que convergências complexas parecem incluir, em particular, aspectos de egoismo e teoria verde radical. Derivado do stirnerismo e da filosofia nietzschiana, egoismo pode reificar a alienação social sentida por um indivíduo, conduzindo a um senso elitismo de empoderamento e delírios de grandeza. Quando misturados ao insurrecionalismo e pensamento verde radical, egoismo pode traduzir-se num elitismo do tipo “caçador contra a caça” ou “lobo contra ovelhas”, no qual compaixão pelos outros é rejeitada como moralismo. Tal tipo de elitismo alienado pode também desenvolver uma estética de isolacionismo e posturas afetivas ligadas à crueldade, a vingança e o ódio.

Emergindo da rejeição do humanismo e do modernismo urbano, a forma particular de teoria verde radical geralmente abraçada pela pós-esquerda pode relativizar as perdas humanas ao olhar as grandes ondas de extinção em massa. Dessa forma, radicais verdes antecipam o colapso que eliminaria os indesejáveis ou causaria uma mortandade humana em massa de milhões senão bilhões através do mundo. Tal aspecto da teoria radical verde chega bem perto, e às vezes se entrelaça com ideias sobre superpopulação compiladas e produzidas por nacionalistas brancos e ativistas anti-immigração ligados ao infame Tanton Network. Alguns egoístas verdes radicais (ou niilistas) insistem que seu papel deveria ser provocar tal colapso através de ataques anti–moralistas contra a civilização.

Como exemplos como as TAZ e a celebração da desaventura em Fiume por Hakim Bey, Zerzan e Black publicando na Feral House e a Ultra defendendo Donovan indicam, a relação da pós-esquerda com o nacionalismo branco é por vezes ambígua e ocasionalmente até colaborativa. Outros exemplos, como os de Yeoman e Christensen, indicam que a tolerância para com ideias fascistas na pós-esquerda podem resultar em aceitação inadvertida delas, proporcionando uma plataforma para o nacionalismo branco e aumentando a vulnerabilidade ao entrismo. Ideias específicas que são às vezes toleradas sob a guisa de “crítica à esquerda” incluem a aprovação de “hierarquias naturais”, ultranacionalismo entendido como elos espirituais e etno-biológicos com a terra natal e a ancestralidade, rejeição do feminismo e do anti-fascismo e a fetichização da violência e da crueldade.

É mais importante hoje do que nunca reconhecer como movimentos radicais desenvolvem interseções com fascistas se quisermos descobrir como expor o fascismo que rasteja e desenvolve redes mais fortes e diretas. Anarquistas devem abandonar os equívocos que convidam o rastejar do fascismo e reclamar a anarquia como luta integral pela liberdade e igualdade. Polêmicas sectaristas são resultado de extenso processo de aprendizado, mas são menos importantes que se engajar em solidariedade para lutar contra o fascismo em todas as suas formas e sob seus vários disfarces.

———

Alexander Reid Ross é um ex-co-editor do Earth First! Journal e autor de Against the Fascist Creep. Ele ensina no Departamento de Geografia da Universidade do Estado de Portland e pode ser contatado em aross@pdx.edu.

[1] Black escreve, “Bakunin considerava Marx ‘o erudito alemão em sua tripla capacidade como um hegeliano, um judem e um alemão’, um ‘estatista incorrigível’. Um hegeliano, um judeu, um meio que erudito, um marxista, um incorrigível estatista (da pólis) – soa familiar a alguém?” Texto completo em inglês na Libcom em https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-anarchy-after-leftism.

There Is a Nationwide Day of Action Against Muslims on June 10th, and We Need to Stop It

Donald Trump and the Alt Right pigeoned their growth on the nativist fear in many sectors of the U.S., and one of their most targeted points of racial antagonisms have been around Muslim immigrants.  The recent travel bans, the “dogwhistle” language about “radical Islam,” and the willingness to attack Muslim areas has all been the kind of cultural signal to stoke anti-Muslim bigotry and violence in the U.S.

Fascism depends not solely on the state, but the complicity of its people. The violence that was perpetrated in interwar fascist countries included the “unsanctioned” violence of a community who has given in to reactionary violent impulses.  The anti-Muslim rhetoric continues to increase across the country, and is leading to a growing targeting of Muslims and those from Middle Eastern countries.  As is often the case, it is presented as “not Muslims as such, just some Muslims,” in this case the supposed threat of Sharia Law.  Though there is no realistic threat of Sharia or any other type of conservative clerical law being imposed in the U.S., this is an easy talking point for the far-right to use to try and pull non-political people into their movement by building on fear and misconceptions about nations with large Islamic constituents.

This effort is culminating on June 10th as the “National March Against Sharia” is being promoted, drawing on the same anti-Muslim populist sentiment that pushed PEGIDA and the European Defense League in Europe.  Promoted by the Proud Boys and other white nationalist/Alt Right organizations, as well as the prime organizers Act for America, the march is going to be a way to target Muslim communities, Mosques, and cultural centers, building a large base for this anti-Muslim extremism.

The resistance to fascism is built around community self-defense, and this is an important moment to stand up in the face of increasing reactionary violence.  This is one of the moments that many were worried about when Trump was elected, but it started long before that and will continue forward if it is not shut down.

Below are all the cities and times for the anti-Muslim marches on the 10th, and we will continue to follow this and post more specific details so that counter-demonstrations can take place to stop these marches from targeting marginalized groups.

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The Asatru Folk Assembly Gets Banned on Facebook

After months of making inroads with white nationalist organizations like Identity Europa and posting racially charged posts on social media, the Asatru Folk Assembly has now been officially banned for offensive behavior on Facebook.  The AFA is one of the best known “folkish Heathen” groups in the U.S., which takes a racialized interpretation of Nordic paganism.  This is based on an earlier Jungian notion that the archetypes that make up the Nordic gods, such as Odin or Thor, were set into the psyches of Northern European people exclusively.  The founder of the original AFA, Stephen McNallen, uses these pseudo-scientific arguments on race to argue that Asatru, the modern revival of a magickal Heathenry, is the native spirituality of Northern European people and one that white should return to.

While the AFA often tries to present itself as “apolitical,” it has consistently sided with white nationalists.  McNallen was known for being a core part of the Alt Right since 2008, appearing on the AlternativeRight.com podcast, Vanguard Radio, several times to speak with Richard Spencer.  He has also attended the white nationalist conference the National Policy Institute and pals around with various racialist projects.

Most recently, the AFA hit new leadership has taken it in an even more explicitly racist and patriarchal direction.  Below is a screenshot of a recent post of theirs, and because of it they were denounced by almost every Heathen organization in the country.

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As they have continued to increase their racialist profile, including participating in the Alt Right rally at Berkeley, they have seen resistance form.  They have now been banned from Facebook and will continue to see their profile shrink as few are willing to accept their white supremacist version of paganism.

Note: The vast majority of Heathens are anti-racist, and those who take the “folkish” perspective are a loud and racist minority in the religion.

When the Riot Cops Attack: Repression and Solidarity in Portland’s May Day

By Black Rose – Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation – Portland

Events like May Day are a temperature check for the collective hive mind of the left reflecting on the year behind them.  Because it is a tradition that skates back more than a hundred years, it rarely stands out as the most pressing of days, mainly because it is part of a regular organizing cycle.  Good years or bad losses, May Day comes on the same day.

In Portland, Oregon, it was the obvious confluences of forces, the ongoing revolt happening in Trump’s America, that helped to ignite the substantial growth around its activities.  How the Portland May Day Coalition planned for this year’s event was largely based around the practical work of the groups involved, how it tied into the ongoing projects of the component organizations.  The Portland Committee for the Human Rights in the Philippines (PCHRP) held an earlier event in the day along with the Brown Berets and Gabriella outlining the JustPeacePH project, supporting the peace talks currently happening between the Government Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the People’s Democratic Government of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).  They were then leading the anti-imperialist contingent in the following march, linking together the struggles against colonialism in the Global South and the increased victimization of Latinx immigrants from the Southern U.S. border and the long-standing history of workplace organizing that May Day signifies.

The Burgerville Workers Union was celebrating the anniversary of its break-out campaign, one that went public in multiple shops a year ago, bringing with it one of the most dynamic and persistent struggles seen from a direct union shop in the Pacific Northwest.  The showing from organized labor was large, as it usually is, and there was a clear openness to the growing linkages between social movements as the possibility of nationwide Right-to-Work and the further erosion of state programs lends urgency to an already dire attack on working people.

You wouldn’t hear about any of this, however, because what came next was a full-frontal assault on the long-planned event, its organizers, and their neighbors.

From the march of almost a thousand people through the streets of the Southwest Downtown district came the militarized invasion of hundreds of police, letting loose with explosive weaponry and laying siege on a crowd comprised of families, people with disabilities, and many raising their voices for the first time.  From many photos from that afternoon it is hard to see what happened, a haze that filled the gap between skyscrapers from the canisters of “tear gas” that were fired with only seconds in between.  When the police forcefully rushed the crowd, which had already formally dispersed, they began a frightful chase through the streets of the commercial and financial territories.  It would be obtuse to point out that the narrative that the police offered, which began even before the actual force was felt as they took to Twitter to premeditate the media stories, was dishonest.  Instead, it showed a clear set of priorities, ones that double back on several decades of crowd control, ones that had evolved to avoid the kind of escalation that was doubled down on here.

 

The Cop in Our Heads

In Mike King’s recent treatise on the repression of Occupy Oakland, When Riot Cops Are Not Enough: The Policing and Repression of Occupy Oakland (Rutgers University Press, 2017), he reflects on the way the repressive police measures evolved nationally to the more complex web they have today.  During the wave of confrontations starting the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and the urban uprisings that rocked urban areas in the 1960s, police used heavy handed dispersal tactics that were aggressive to forcefully put down that unrest.  While some would argue they are tame by today’s standards, they were an outgrowth of the institutionalized white supremacy that was holding on for dear life.  Starting in the 1970s, police entered a new phase acknowledging that the “brute force” strategy they were employing was only escalating and mobilizing increased opposition, and it began radicalizing a generation of those injured in street fights.  They began systems of negotiation and compromise with protest movements, offering up permits for demonstrations.  This concept relied on the negotiating power of the state, and a large majority of American social movements have been brought in on these agreements, usually accepting some limitations in exchange for less direct police repression.  A permit is much easier than going through a mass crackdown on a simple street march, so why not?

The effect of this change was, by and large, for the police to transfer their authority of containment from the station to the protesters themselves, turning the organizations and leadership themselves into the acting agents of the state’s boundaries.  If protesters were given legal leeway, they would then police themselves, and it could even hold a few people in leadership roles accountable for the actions of participants.  This can and does have the effect of turning many in a project against other elements, where those engaging in certain tactics are necessarily blamed for putting others at risk, all outlined in the structures of the permitting system.  This created a structure that, when mixed with a moderated police presence, would both contain the social movements and make sure that the effective repression came without social backlash.  As the years went on and the war on drugs, gangs, and poor people broadly took shape, the structure of police engagements increased volatility across the board, until now the police that surround broad-based political rallies look liked they are armed to “liberate” Fallujah.

Since centrist Democrat Ted Wheeler took the reigns of the Portland Mayor’s office, he has made the decisive move to crack down on the growing discontent in the city.  The election of Trump, the organized resistance to gentrification and displacement from housing organizations, and the reaction to ongoing police killings of black and brown “suspects” has led to a climate of resistance that is growing exponentially.  This hit a fever pitch in the days after the election where thousands flooded the streets, blocking every major highway and shutting down businesses.  The direct action taken by some protesters, amounting to broken windows and other property destruction, was not out of bounds for the city’s history, nor was it maliciously interpersonal as the police department persisted.  Nonetheless, the police, under oversight from the mayor’s office, went after suspects aggressively, charging some with compounded multiple felonies in stacked cases that shocked even the most jaded activists.  In one case, a protester is facing upwards of thirty-months in prison for some broken car and bank windows, using riot charges to compound the offense and turn it into a veritable “anarchist scare.”  In another, they tried to charge different broken windows as separate offenses so as to make the case eligible for a state statute that allows excessive sentencing if the acts of property destruction are seen as separate incidents.

Wheeler’s actual approach seems to be done within an amnesia of institutional memory, the lack of a known history.  “Little Beirut,” as Portland was named in the 1990s by George H.W. Bush, has always had a long history of militant street protests and projects, from the Earth First! and ELF campaigns of the 1990s to the more recent Black Lives Matter insurgencies.  For Wheeler to lean on the side of aggressive policing, especially in situations where the police appear as the clear instigators, he is acting without a clear understanding of the role of police in the escalation of confrontation.  The police were not there to quell unrest, they were the foundations of that unrest, and their presence, violent victimization of protesters, and unwillingness to even own up to their own “let them police themselves” idea has ended the specter of the police as an institution of “public safety.”

What they destroyed with their flash grenades was the police in the protester’s head, not the willingness of protest movements to take the streets.

 

So what happened?

Twenty minutes into the march on its negotiated route,  as they went down 2nd Ave, the police summarily announced that the “permit for this march has now been revoked.”  This mid-march revocation is a new concept for the city, one more step in the extra normality the events took.  This decision was allegedly because a window at the Federal Courthouse had been cracked and some in the Black Bloc had thrown Pepsis at the riot cops that were encroaching on the route, a reference to the disastrous recent Pepsi ad with Caitlin Jenner and the “peace” brought by handing the police soda.  Apparently, that doesn’t work in real life.

While some will see even that as an escalation, it comes after the police honed in on the rally park beforehand, confiscating mundane objects like flag poles and surrounding march attendants, often destroying materials.  The conception of the permitted march as one that would be free of police intervention seemed dashed quickly, so the impetus to follow the narrowing constraints was compromised.

Within a few minutes of the first notifications an order of dispersal came that, because of their position at the back of the march, only a few people could hear.  Many of the families, younger children, people with disabilities and special needs, and others were towards the front.  The first they heard of this dispersal was when flash grenades started indiscriminately flying into the crowd.  Dozens flowed in violent bursts in the next few minutes as protest goers frantically tried to figure out just what was happening.  Security volunteers were ushering people to safety, yet there seemed to be no safe spot as flash grenades were going off in every corner and there was literally no sidewalk area that people could crowd into in compliance.  Legal observers from the ACLU tried to document this in flurried rushes, but as full tear gas canisters began flowing into the streets, there was mass confusion, especially as people were collapsing, struggling to breathe in the chemical cloud.

The response from the Black Bloc came in kind, with debris being lit on fire in the area between the cops and the protesters, the windows being busted out at a Target location, and a police SUV vandalized.  The police chased protesters around the city, bum rushing crowds with dozens of officers in formation, attacking those that appeared the most vulnerable.  Many noticed riot police prioritizing a houseless woman in the area, while others saw that anyone in marked attire, whether or not they were a part of the Black Bloc, was suspect.  By the time many arrived back at the park where the opening rally was the police were in tow behind, declaring that this was “now officially a riot,” and promising the use of projectile weaponry.

 

Unity Through Struggle

While there are often disagreements over tactics and strategy, the May Day Coalition immediately placed the blame on the police, both for instigating violence and propping up false allegations on their social media and PR outlets.

Today the Portland police chose to violently escalate a peaceful march. The people asserted their (lawful) right to be in the street and express solidarity with immigrants, with workers, with Indigenous sovereignty, and against capitalism. The Portland Police Bureau responded by

1) Forcibly removing the accessibility vehicle, which was present to allow those with mobility issues to participate and raise their voices

2) Fabricating stories about “Molotov cocktails” being thrown at them, which thousands of eyewitness reports will refute

3) Trying at every step of the way to force themselves into a crowd that very clearly did not want them there

4) Arbitrarily revoking the march permit and informing only the rear of the march, while the elderly, youth, and folks with mobility issues were at the front

There will be a lot of articles about “the march turning violent” but make no mistake, the PPB attacked a permitted march whose only goal was to keep moving along its planned route because some noisemakers and name-calling were enough of an excuse for them to use their large surplus of explosives and chemical weapons against those who had committed to rise, resist, and unite, against fascism and capitalism.

In general, the local media parroted the police as well as they could.  There was minor vandalism of the KOIN news truck while KGW did their best to turn the event into a veritable “car chase,” complete with their helicopter live-streaming the protest locations. The Portland Mercury, which leans a little to the left of the rest of the regional outlets, did a large spread of photos and videos, indicating that the police charged after very minor vandalism and even went after a press photographer.  Even in their photos you can see protesters flung to the ground as twenty-five were arrested, reporters being screamed at to walk away from their posts.

After the arrests were made and the streets cleared, mayor Wheeler eventually made a public statement echoing the kind of liberal non-committal signaling that many “progressive” Oregon politicians are known for.

In Portland we respect peaceful protest, but we do not and cannot support acts of violence and vandalism.  That’s not political speech. That’s crime… Last night was another chapter in a story that has become all too familiar in Portland: Protests that began peacefully but devolve quickly due to the actions of those whose only desire is to damage people and property.

This “tough on crime” rhetoric seems perfectly in line with the language of Trump’s administration, and it could be simply that Wheeler does not want to deal with what will likely be several years of escalating conflict as the austerity and white supremacist machinations of the political state unfold. He thinks that by demonizing protesters, using extreme acts of violence, and shifting the narrative, he will be able to create a ghost of fear in the collective left, and turn them in the direction of moderate parades like the Women’s March instead of the more militant formations.  The police have followed up with broad requests for information on protesters, and will likely do what they have done in the past: post pictures of people they are suspecting for different activities to try and get the community to turn them in.

This is not, however, the historical legacy of the city, nor the pattern that the growing revolutionary spirit has had over the past decade.  Instead, the truth is that this will not actually stop the organizations from participating in growing demonstrations, but instead show them that the middle ground provided by state actors offer little comfort.  Long-term movement building and organizing is what will actually create a force capable of resisting the mission of Trump and the profiteers in Portland, and even these kind of momentary showings of force from the police are not going to scare off those who have committed to confronting this terror.  As Trump attempts to rename this as Loyalty Day, and the Alt Right and white nationalists acted as the strong-arm of the police in many cities, the flung Pepsi cans seem to fade in importance.

On May 2nd, the organizers in PCHRP, the AAPRP, the Burgerville Workers Union, and all the other organizations and projects continued their work.  No matter how the police and mayor’s office intend on reframing this work, the projects themselves have a life that goes far beyond one repressed event.  The question is if the state will make it a priority to put down these social movements as the administration continue to speed to the right, and how we will respond.  This highlights why the movement against police violence is at the critical intersection of all other struggles, but also why we need to make this a collective fight with our arms firmly linked together.  The revolutionaries of the city are more unified than they were before the event, the realities of repression has a way of firming up alliances in defiance.  The opinions about the efficacy of the Black Bloc are diverse(and principled), but an understanding was forged clearly, and the sight of the Black Bloc defending protesters and acting with conscious unity has bridged a divide that, at times, seemed unresolvable.  Many in the Bloc brought in large Black Widow props, owing to the defensive actions that the spiders take in mutual aid and lending to the language of direct action.

When the grenades landed, we were seen as one large mass, all dangerous (though people of color and other marginalized identities took on a special focus from state actors).  Our fate is firmly in the hands of each other since, as has been the record, the only way we are to continue is if we find solidarity even in these moments of repression. If the state wants to instigate violence, then they will see our numbers grow, our resistance mount, and our spirit firm up into the vocalized rage.  The next time will be larger, permit or no permit.

The Alt Right Has Taken the Public Step Towards Violence

For the Alt Right, branding has been everything.  The mission of people like Richard Spencer or groups like Identity Europa is to rebrand white nationalism as just another intellectual movement about identity, disconnected from the long and relevant history of violent white supremacist attacks.  With expensive conferences, snarky advertising, and coded language, they want to avoid the linkage with violence.

This is obviously a mirage since they have always been tied to the violent wing of the white nationalist movement since they are birthed right out of it, the same people in a new generation.  The Council of Conservative Citizens, while allying with Alt Right figures and talking points, has also been a meeting point for KKK members and inspired the violence of Dylan Roof.  American Renaissance is regularly attended by the Stormfront crowd and Aryan Nations members, and even inspired the Arizona shooting that left many dead and a congresswoman with a critical head wound.  In every one of these Alt Right organizations you will find a history of white supremacist violence, from Identity Europa’s Nathan Damigo’s conviction of a racially motivated assault to the neo-Nazis that make up much of Matthew Heimbach’s Traditionalist Workers Party.

As we saw on April 15th, the Alt Right has now shifted towards open assault and attacks on leftist protesters, uniting with militia movement members and more volatile parts of Trump’s base to create stirring confrontations in the streets.  Led in part by “Based Stickman” Kyle Chapman, they are forming corps of volunteers to being attacking opposition in public ways.

As the SPLC reported:

Kyle Chapman, a California activist arrested earlier this month in a clash in Berkeley between anti-fascist protesters and pro-Trump demonstrators, announced this week he is forming the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights (cleverly called “FOAK).

Chapman, who uses the Internet meme “Based Stick Man,” says his new militant, highly-masculine group will be the “tactical defensive arm” of the Proud Boys, another group that shows up at pro-Trump rallies looking to rumble with counter-protesters.

“We don’t fear the fight. We are the fight,” Chapman said in a recent social media post announcing FOAK’s formation.

“I’m proud to announce that my newly created Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights will be partnering with Proud Boys,” Chapman said, with the “full-approval” of its founder, Gavin McInnes.

McInnes is a co-founder of Vice (although he and the magazine severed ties 10 years ago) and more recently has been a frequent guest on FOX News and a contributor for the racist site VDARE where he denigrated Muslims and called Asian Americans “slopes” and “riceballs.”

Now described as a “neo-masculine reactionary,” McInnes calls his Proud Boys a “pro-West fraternal organization.”

Others describe it as the military arm of the Alt-Right.

And now there’s “FOAK,” which Chapman proudly describes as a “fraternal organization,” a Proud Boys affiliate chapter, “with its own bylaws, constitution, rituals and vetting processes.”

Although there initially aren’t any overt racist themes, the new Alt-Right group of street fighters sounds quite similar to a neo-Nazi “fight club” called the “DIY Division.”  Members of that white supremacist group showed up last month in Huntington Beach, California, mingling with an estimated 2,000 Trump supporters.

The Proud Boys reportedly have a four-step initiation process. It starts with a prospect declaring himself a “Proud Boy,” suiting up in Fred Perry polo shirts with yellow stripes—similar to those worn by skinheads.

The second degree is a “cereal beat-in” during which the new member is punched and beaten by current members until the plebe can rattle off the names of five cereals (you know, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Cheerios!)

The third degree reported involves “adhering to the masturbation regimen and getting a tattoo,” blogger Will Sommer wrote in a recent post.

Since then, a fourth-degree has been added to the initiation ritual – brawling with antifascists at public rallies.

Chapman said his Proud Boys’ affiliate, Alt-Knights, are ready to take it to the streets.

“Our emphasis will be on street activism, preparation, defense and confrontation,” he said. “We will protect and defend our right wing brethren when the police and government fail to do so.”

Chapman says his organization “is for those that possess the Warrior Spirit.  The weak or timid need not apply.”

The willingness towards this violence was seen especially in Nathan Damigo’s brazen assault of a protester on camera on April 15th, one that has been used as a snapshot of the movement’s turn towards excessive violence.

Spencer himself has been calling for right-wing “defense squads” since he cannot go out in public without opposition, yet this seems to be a code for far-right violence.  This is something for the anti-fascist movement to consider, and especially when it comes to the necessity of community self-defense movements.  The reality of their violence is becoming explicit, and this could result in seemingly random acts of violence as they become increasingly desperate.

Taking on Fascism and Racism from the Ground Up.