It turns out that the Defence Fund does not approve of all requests we receive.  Recently, we had a request to help defend anti-fascists in Belgium.  Unfortunately, the details we received about their situation were both sparse and vague.  We didn’t know who these Belgium anti-fascists were, what they had been accused of, or what exactly they needed help with.  It wasn’t clear if they were in trouble for specifically anti-fascist activity or for activity related to issues that could only be defined as anti-fascist in the absolute broadest sense of the term, if at all.

We attempted to get more information about the situation a number of ways, including contacting the group calling for support directly, but in the end were unable to come up with additional information that would’ve given us a clearer picture.  Without that extra information, we made our decision via majority vote and the majority voted against supporting this particular request.

It’s rare that we refuse a request for help but it’s important to us to maintain the integrity of the Defence Fund and that means vetting requests properly.  It would be irresponsible of us to send the money that hundreds of antifa have donated to the Fund without adequate information to do this vetting.

An example of a case we were able to vet was this week’s decision to send money to help defend the Austin Antifa 3 – three Austin antifascists facing legal trouble for allegedly cleaning up white supremacist graffiti on the University of Texas campus & also for allegedly shutting down a racist “bake sale.”  Having received sufficient details from a number of sources, we were able to reach a full-consensus decision to send them some support.  You can follow our example and send them support too by clicking here.

As always, we rely 100% on donations to the Defence Fund to support anti-fascists and anti-racists all over the world when they need our help the most.  We really think that you should help us and make a donation today.  SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!