Build that wall, antifascistes de Lyon!

If there’s one thing bigots like, it’s a wall.  A great big barrier separating people.  Because nothing solves problems like separating people, right?  But it turns out that sometimes antifascists like walls too.  For example, the wall that Lyon antifascistes built overnight in the doorway of a Social Bastion fascist clubhouse in their city.

We’re not even joking.  A small band of antifascistes + some cinder blocks + some mortar and the fash bricks-and-mortar site was shut the fuck down.  Now unfortunately le flic seem to believe that there’s some sort of law against renovations to improve le quartier like that, and some Lyon antifascistes are up on charges as a result.  To make matters worse, the cops seized every single piece of literature or fund-raising materials they could get their hands on.  Both of these actions leave Groupe antifascistes Lyon et Environs in a tight spot.  They’ve set up a crowdfunder to help raise the money needed to cover the replacement costs of the seized materials + to defend the accused antifa and The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was proud to make a contribution to it.

If you’d like to help out the geniuses behind what will likely be the Antifa Action of the Year, please make a donation to their crowdfunder.  If you’d like The IAFDF to be ready the next time antifascistes anywhere get creative, make a contribution to it today!  Meanwhile, let’s enjoy another photo of our friends’ handiwork, shall we?

Bethany “Weed Nazi” Sherman. 

Stop us when this starts sounding like a script for a Cheech & Chong reboot: using  server logs from the Discord chat app they came across, antifascists were able to confirm the identities of several Pacific North West neo-nazis, including one Bethany Sherman.  When they made this information public, Ms. Sherman initially claimed she was being attacked for “having white pride,” but didn’t deny anything.

Then it also came out that Sherman was the owner of OG Analytical – a Eugene, Oregon firm devoted to testing the potency of cannabis.  Apparently, pot users do not like nazis very much and these revelations may have impacted on OG Analytical’s business.

In retaliation, Sherman hired noted white supremacist lawyer William Daniel Johnson to file a civil defamation suit against the former ISP for Eugene Antifa in an attempt to force them to identify members of that particular antifascist crew.

The suit is still before the court, but according to this account of the first day of the hearing, things are not going well for Sherman.  It’s never a good sign when your lawyer won’t appear in court with you and sends another (lawyer?) to represent you over the phone!  Worse still for Sherman is the fact that the good guys have retained competent legal counsel in the form of lawyers from The Civil Liberties Defense Center and The First Amendment Project , who swiftly invoked the defendants’ First Amendment rights and pointed out conflicting statements made by Sherman to the court.

While this is all good, the fact remains that the legal counsel retained by our side needs to have its bills paid, so after receiving their request, The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund made a large-ish contribution to the CLDC, earmarking it to pay for the Eugene antifascists’ legal bills.

If you’d like to help make sure Eugene Antifa isn’t out-of-pocket because they had to defend themselves against a vexatious and frivolous lawsuit conjured up by the Weed Nazi, you can donate to their crowdfunder here.  If you’d like to make sure that the Defence Fund is in a position to help shut down future frivolous and vexatious civil actions against antifascists, you can make a donation right here.

Tim “Sauce” Jones & friends holding the line against white supremacists in Charlottesville – July 2017.

We’re sure you all remember James Alex Fields Jr., the dead-eyed white supremacist that murdered Heather Heyer and injured 19 others in a terrorist attack in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017.  You probably haven’t heard too much about him since his cowardly attack on unarmed anti-fascists because he’s been locked up since then, awaiting trial.

But don’t worry – Fields isn’t unreachable!  He allegedly found that out for himself recently when he allegedly ran into Tim “Sauce” Jones in jail.  Tim has literally stood up to racist bigots like James in Charlottesville in the past.  Tim was also friends with Heather and was with her on the day that Fields murdered her and injured 19 others.  So imagine the scene when Tim (who is currently awaiting trial on some bullshit charges unrelated to anything of note) ran into Fields and let him know very plainly who he was, who Heather was to him, and what he thought of Fields!  Oh, to be a fly on the prison wall that day!

Now the prison authorities are alleging that Tim put hands on Fields and Fields is pressing assault charges!  Imagine that – one of the most notorious terrorists and vile bigots in the US today pressing assault charges against Tim, who he is in prison with!  Guess Fields is trying to win a popularity contest in jail or something.  Dude does not know how to jail.

As a result of all of this, Tim’s friends on the outside have started a crowdfunder to help him deal with the assault charges filed against him by this nazi terrorist/prison snitch.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was super-happy to step up and kick in to that fund, to make sure Tim has the best legal defence team possible.  We bet you’d like to contribute, too.

The Defence Fund is able to help out true antifa like Tim that are ready to step up and do what needs doing only because of donations from thousands of individuals around the world.  If you aren’t already one of those individuals, now is the time to become one.

Do you remember back in June when we vague-posted about an antifa in Oregon that we sent some support to after they were arrested for doing some impromptu air conditioning of a white supremacist business?  Well The Guardian has just run a full piece about them and you can read it right here.

Here’s hoping Laura Rose’s community service is properly recognized when they go to trial – something that could hinge on them having competent legal representation, which we helped out with back in June.  When people are brave enough to take actions like this, the rest of us have an obligation to back them up.  If you think that’s important, today is a good day to make a donation to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund.

We will do our best to keep you posted about the trial and outcome.  Forza Laura Rose!

At this point and with all that’s happened over the last couple of years, there’s pretty much nothing anti-fascists can do publicly without the police trying to fuck it up.  Whether they’re pressing absurdly trumped-up charges against anti-fascists or allowing armed fascist gangs to attack anti-fascist protestors and then arresting the anti-fascists when they try to defend themselves or attacking anyone standing in the way of an illegal march of Islamophobes or pointing assault rifles in the face of unarmed antifa or colluding with neo-nazis in trying to frame anti-fascists on fabricated bullshit or doxxing anti-fascists  or very literally trying to murder anti-fascists, the police have been very clear in their actions about which side they’re with (which is a little weird considering how often extreme right bigots have tried to murder law enforcement, but some people just can’t seem to choose good friends, right?).

Just when we thought there’s nothing else the kkkops could possibly do to the people trying to defend their communities from the bigoted violence the police do sweet FA about, cops in North Carolina set a new low.  A few days after students there successfully toppled the Confederate “Silent Sam” statue that had blighted the campus for over a century, Defend UNC decided to celebrate with a “Nazis Suck Potluck and Food Drive.”  Some neo-confederate asshats showed up in tiny numbers early on the day of the event but quickly scurried away when they saw how badly they were outnumbered & outmatched by Defend UNC.  Not the cops, though.  Police from at least five different agencies showed up dressed like they were deploying to Iraq and, with the threat of a clash now gone and everyone safe, immediately began to confiscate food donated for the food bank drive and throw it away.

You read that right: finding no potential conflict between anti-fascists and bigoted extremists, the cops decided they could best “protect and serve” by confiscating and disposing of food donated for a food drive.

Of course, that’s not enough bullying for five different police agencies, so they escalated the situation by running towards a table of people eating and randomly tackling and arresting eight people, some for the crime of asking why their friends were being arrested or why the police were confiscating food donated to a food bank.

It should be inconceivable that we should be asked to help pay for the legal defence of some people who committed the crime of collecting food to donate to a food bank and having a picnic, but this is the dystopian Bizzaro world of 2018 where those activities are considered crimes if they’re done by anti-fascists.  So we kicked some cash in to help get those charges dropped.  If you’d like to do the same, here’s a crowdfunder you can contribute to.

If you’d like to help us defend anti-fascists arrested for future charitable activities and community work, please make a donation to the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund today!

How was your summer?  Here’s what we got up to:

• We helped a couple of Russian antifascists get settled in a new country after threats from neo-nazis and their police collaborators forced them to flee as refugees;
• We helped pay the court fines for a German anti-fascist convicted of the heinous crime of throwing an egg;
• We helped with the legal defence of an Oregon anti-fascist that is accused of expressing her community’s collective disapproval of the opening of a shop run by a violent white supremacist gang.
• We assisted with the repairs and fortification of a German community center after it was broken into and trashed by a gang of armed neo-nazis;
• We contributed to the legal defence for residents of an Melbourne housing complex who were faced with a rabid mob of Islamophobic goons threatening their existence;
• We ponied up half of a lawyer’s retainer for a NYC antifascist that was arrested after escorting two belligerent bigots away from a protest against ICE after the racists started throwing fists;
• We chipped in to help pay off the fine a Philly antifa received for allegedly “modifying” a mural to the city’s most notoriously racist police chief;
• We sent material aid to support Portland antifascists arrested and/or injured after facing down armed alt right clowns & their kkkop collaborators not once but two times this summer;
• We aided a Georgia anti-fascist who was attacked by police and arrested on bullshit after trying to speak to them in order to de-escalate a situation where they were pointing assault rifles in people’s faces;
• We helped an antifa in Berkeley who came out to defend his community from a fascist march only to have the cops break his collarbone, arrest him, and doxx him;
•   We supported a server who lost her job after Proud Boys fuckjobs crashed a DSA meeting at her bar, then racially and sexually harassed her all night.  When Louisville antifa showed up and had an open and frank discussion with the assholes and police subsequently turned up along with the ambulances, the server refused to snitch and her boss fired her (we got a lovely thank you note from her the next week!).

In other news, the Defence Fund really hit the big time when nazi online toilet paper roll Breitbart singled us out as a target for their followers to attack.  We’re happy to report that the coverage resulted in an immediate bump in donations – enough to make withstanding the resulting litany of anon abuse, doxx attempts, and death threats that worth it.  We were actually happy with the Breitbart thing – it shows that even the neo-nazis recognize the value of what we’re doing if they’re so intent to try to stop us.  We’re much happier with them spending their time & effort to come after us than, say, plotting to murder journalists or beating people to death or stabbing women at a reproductive rights demonstration or stabbing refugee children or bombing a safe house for transgender people or murdering a 13-year-old girl – all of which also happened over the summer.

If what we did over the summer and what we do year-round is something that you would be proud to support, then support us!  Today is the day to do that.

Remember a week ago when the Defence Fund sent some $ to a server in Louisville that lost her job after refusing to snitch on the antifa that handled some Proud Boys dickbags that showed up to her work to disrupt a DSA Louisville meeting and wound up sexually and racially harassing her all night?  Well she sent us a lovely thank you note!  It reads:

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I haven’t been able to find a job as of yet because I had to go out-of-state due to a family medical emergency, which sucks, so I really, REALLY appreciate this so much. I love y’all. Solidarity.

If you’ve donated to the Defence Fund, part of what you gave went to her, so this thanks is for you!

If you haven’t donated to the Defence Fund, don’t you think it’s time you did?

If you’re a member of DSA Louisville: last week we challenged to match our donation.

DSA Louisville wrote back to say that they’re working on it.  But so far from what we can tell, not a dime from the democratic socialists that held an event without adequate security that resulted in a woman losing her job.  It reminds us of a certain time when the DSA collected $200,000 for Charlottesville victims and then never gave anyone any of the money and couldn’t publicly account for what happened to the money, either (but did offer a bullshit apology almost a year later).

Louisville democratic socialists – talk is cheap, this woman needs help, your event ultimately resulted in her losing her job, and your organization already has an appalling track record of fucking over anti-fascists.  Come on now.

A Portland Police Department flash bang grenade embedded in the back of a helmet warn by an antifascist protestor on August 4th.  He nearly died.

If you’ve been following us for the last little while, you may have noticed a disturbing pattern of the police playing an increasingly-active role in trying to do harm to anti-fascists.  Some highlights from the past two years:

• That time when police in Sacramento were mysteriously absent when a gang of armed neo-nazis stabbed nine anti-fascists, and then dropped a pistol as they ran off under the full protection of the police, who miraculously re-appeared just in time to facilitate their escape and arrest the stabbing victims.
• That time in Harrisburg when the police, frustrated that antifa counterprotesting a white supremacist event, weren’t doing anything illegal, started shoving people and knocking them to the ground until one fell backwards into a police horse, which magically became an “assault police officer” charge.
• That time when Russian police collaborated with neo-nazis to threaten the life of an anti-fascist as he recovered in hospital from a vicious attack, forcing him to flee the country and seek asylum elsewhere.
• That time an NYPD kkkop broke the leg of an antifa protestor.
• That time Seattle po-po allowed armed packs of Islamophobic thugs to rush a peaceful counter-protest and assault people repeatedly, but then moved in to arrest counter-protestors when they had the never to try to defend themselves against these assaults.
• That time when police came in on the side of a bigoted lynch mob and arrested the residents of a multiracial housing block in Melbourne for defending their homes and neighbours against the racist goons.
• That time when California cops got caught actively colluding with neo-nazis to frame up anti-fascists on bullshit charges.
• That time the Berkeley Police Department endangering twenty anti-fascists and their families by doxxing them after seriously injuring them and arresting them.

Which brings us to the events in Portland of August 4th.  Not to be confused with events there the month prior, where the police formed a line to protect alt-right bigots from anti-fascist counter-protestors but then fired flash bang grenades & pepper spray at the counter-protests to soften them up prior to letting waves of white supremacist goons run through their lines to attack counter-protestors , then run back to enjoy full police protection.

This time, the police were the instigators of violence, commencing with a volley of flash bangs and tear gas launched without reason or provocation.  In that first volley was a flash bang grenade fired directly at the back of an anti-fascist’s head from close range.  The grenade penetrated the antifa’s helmet and caused a serious head injury.  Had he not been wearing a helmet, he would have been killed instantly.  In the end, the police arrested four anti-fascists and injured at least that many.  Rose City Antifa have established a crowdfunder to help victims of the police violence on August 4th and we were happy to be able to contribute to it.  We would encourage you to do the same, and to also make a donation to the Defence Fund so we can continue to support people willing to risk death at the hands of fascist goons and their police collaborators.

Being a server is tough work.  How tough?  Scientists are calling it the most stressful job in the world!  So for M., it must have been welcome news that the Louisville DSA chapter had booked a meeting at the bar she worked, since one would imagine democratic socialists would at least tip well.

What no one expected was for a pack of white supremacist Proud Boy asshats to also show up to disrupt the meeting and harass poor M. all night.  When they finally left, some Louisville antifascists engaged in a frank and honest discussion with them in the parking lot – a discussion which concluded with some Proud Boys going home in an ambulance.  Cops were called.  Cops asked M. to ID the people that came to deal with the problem.  M. is not a snitch and did not snitch.

Her reward for putting up with racist and sexist harassment all night and then getting pressured by the po-po?  Fired.  The bar canned her.  Now she’s looking for a new gig and has asked for help paying the bills while she’s looking.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was there to stand up for M. just as she stood up for the people that showed up to stand up against entitled, racist Proud Boy douchebags.

AND NOW WE’RE CHALLENGING LOUISVILLE DSA TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND MATCH OUR DONATION!!!  Hey there @dsa_louisville – this worker was fired because of what happened at your event.  How about passing the hat at your next meeting and matching what we put in, shall we?  That would do a lot to improve relations with antifa after your national organization raised $200,000 in donations for the victims of the Charlottesville terrorist attack last year and then refused to release any of the money or account for what happened to it.  Just sayin’.

Seven BerKKKeley’s “finest” surround a solitary, unarmed antifascist.  Your tax dollars at work.

It’s becoming ever-more apparent that the police are serving as the lethally-armed wing of racist extremists in their efforts to arrest, injure, or get anti-fascists killed.  That might sound like hyperbole if you haven’t been paying attention.  From Sacramento to Seattle; from Hannover to NYC; from Newnan to Toronto; from Portland to Berkeley (to name some recent examples), the po-po can’t wait to help white supremacists to frame, assault, injure, and try to murder anti-fascists.

Then there was Berkeley earlier this month.  Police there decided the best thing to do when white supremacists march in the streets was to attack, assault, and arrest as many of the 1000+ antifascists there to counter the march as possible.  And immediately release photos and full names of the antifascists arrested on social media.

It’s not hypothetical to say that releasing the identities of antifascists endangers them.  Just ask people who knew Dan Shersty and Lin “Spit” Newborn, two Las Vegas antifascists that were identified by a local neo-nazi gang that then stalked and murdered them.  This goes beyond making antifascists appear guilty without a trial (as the Guardian notes, much of the fabricated charges police lay against antifa disappear soon after).  This is providing the people responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks with a hit list.  And it’s not just Berkeley cops doing it: the month before, Toronto police arrested five anti-fascists on completely fabricated charges during a counter-protest of yet another Islamophobia rally, with one arresting cop publicly providing the full names of all five arrestees to the Islamophobes, who promptly attempt to dox all five.

The Berkeley police received a ton of criticism for endangering the lives of the people they (falsely) arrested.  But criticism doesn’t get the charges dropped or pay for your legal defence.  It doesn’t help you find a safe place to live after neo-nazis have used your name to track down your address.  And it doesn’t help you pay the bills when you can’t work because the kkkops broke your clavicle arresting you.

That was the situation D. found himself in after the events in Berkeley.  He reached out to us for some help paying his bills while he’s off work with his cop-sustained injury.  We were happy to help him out directly and would recommend that anyone reading this follow suit by kicking in to his crowdfunder.

Until some of the tax money spent on kkkops enabling them to arrest, assault, and endanger anti-fascists starts getting diverted to support anti-fascism (hey, we can dream!), The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is going to need your support to help take care of the people putting themselves in harm’s way to thwart fascism.  Here’s what you can do.