On September 16th the good people of Richmond, Virginia descended upon the town statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, rightly demanding that this monument to the defenders of slavery and affront to humanity be taken down.  Naturally, this attracted bigots of all kinds, who attempt to disguise their own racism as an interest in preserving statues to the losing side of the Civil War for “historical” reasons (funny how these people never propose to erect monuments to the victims of slavery for “historical” reasons, but we digress!).

There were some clashes and confrontations throughout the day and the Richmond police, perhaps thinking their role was to re-enact the role of their predecessors as the enforcers of slavery, chose to “keep the peace” by arresting several anti-fascists and supporters of Black Lives Matter.  Now seven people are facing an array of fictitious charges dreamed up by the RPD and need help paying for their legal defence.

The good news is that local organizers were able to obtain pro-bono legal counsel, which significantly reduced the costs involved.  Better news still: The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was able to pony up the cash required to pay for more than half of the remaining legal bill!  Now our friends in Richmond have one less thing to worry about and can concentrate on defending themselves just as they defended their community that Saturday.

Of course, we would not have been able to do what we did without the generous contributions to the Defence Fund made by hundreds and hundreds of people that believe in showing real solidarity with the anti-racists who put themselves on the line.  Please make a donation of any amount to the Defence Fund today, so we can keep backing up anti-fascists and anti-racists wherever and whenever they need backing up.