Ação Antifascista São Paulo, Fevereiro de 2019

It’s been a brutal winter, hasn’t it?  But neither rain nor sleet nor snow no subzero temperatures nor deadly windchill could keep antifascists from their appointed rounds of keeping the streets nazi-free, which means that some of our antifa friends got into a bit of a jam as a result.  Here’s how  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was put to good use over the last three months:

• We ensured that nine anti-fascists in Ottawa, Canada had the money they need to defend themselves against fabricated charges after they confronted a gang of Islamophobes & their taxpayer-funded police bodyguards.
• We also defended four antifa – three of them transwomen – that tried to have a frank discussion with “Genocide Jimmy” Marr about his mobile anti-semitic billboard and were assaulted for their efforts.  We’re happy to report in this case all charges against the anti-fascists were dropped!
• We provided legal support to a London antifascist arrested by the Met after successfully thwarting an Islamophobic march through the city.
• We helped legendary DC antifascist Louise Thundercloud get the dental surgery she needed after getting her teeth smashed out (courtesy of the Philly police!) while opposing the Proud Boys in Philadelphia.
• We helped OG Portland antifa Luke pay for much-needed physical therapy to help him restore movement in his legs after he was targeted by nazis and gunned down in the streets, leaving him paralyzed.  Happy to report that he’s making huge progress thanks to the therapy he’s now getting!
• We help Oleg, a Russian antifascist forced to seek asylum in Finland, reunite with his family & keep them safe from continued death threats from Russian nazis, facilitated by their friends in the police.

We think that’s a pretty good three-month record of accomplishments – helping anti-fascists fight bullshit charges, repair injuries, reunite with the families, and even walk again!  None of that would happen without the generous support and donations from anti-fascists all around the world.  The Defence Fund relies 100% on donations from people just like you to do what we do.  Ensure that we’ll always be there to back up anti-fascists no matter where they are by making a donation to the Defence Fund today!

Luke and Oleg.

The thing about fascist violence is that the consequences don’t just end after the event itself.  The ramifications can continue for years and years.  Such has been the case for two anti-fascists The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has supported in the past – one in Portland, OR. and another in Helsinki, Finland.

Luke is a well-respected OG antifa in Portland that is hated by area neo-nazis.  So much so that they ambushed him on the streets in 2010 and shot him, leaving him partially paralyzed.  Luke has been fighting since then to literally get back on his feet.  In 2017, we made a contribution to his crowdfunder to help him access alternative therapies that were otherwise unavailable to him.  We were ecstatic to hear that his condition has improved dramatically since then and in a recent blog post on his crowdfunder Luke seems confident he’ll make even further strides with the right physical therapy.   Unfortunately, physical therapy isn’t cheap so Luke reached out to see if he could get some more help with that.  He could and we did!  We want Luke focused on getting stronger and healthier and not on how he’s going to pay to do that.

Meanwhile, 5000 miles away from Portland: Oleg is a Russian anti-fascist living in Helsinki, Finland.  Like Luke, Oleg was an active and well-known antifascist in his home town and was brutally attacked by the fascists in 2004, leaving him with a permanent brain injury.  That injury requires some very expensive medication to mitigate the symptoms of and in 2016 we helped Oleg take care of that bill.

Despite the attack and his injury, Oleg continued to speak out against neo-nazis and they, in turn, never stopped targeting him.  When it became increasingly apparent that his enemies were collaborating with the police to come after him and his family, Oleg wisely decided to flee Russia entirely and has claimed asylum in Finland – again with our support.  Two years later, when he needed more assistance paying for his medical needs, we covered them.  This week, we’ve also helped cover the costs of sponsoring his family to reunite with him in Finland.  We hope nothing but the best for all of them.

If you’d like to support Luke’s recovery, you can contribute to his crowdfunder here.
If you’d like to help Oleg reunite with his family and settle in their new home, please contact us and we can tell you how best to do that.
If you understand that supporting other anti-fascists means doing whatever we can to make sure they’re okay, no matter how long it takes them to recover from being attack by neo-nazi thugs, then you should make a contribution to the Defence Fund today.

Louise Thundercloud.

If you were a mixed-race indigenous woman in her senior years experiencing homelessness, you of all people should get a free pass from having to confront entitled white supremacist goons in your spare time.  No one’s going to think bad thoughts if you don’t turn up to shut down a Proud Boys event in another city, because you probably have enough to deal with in your life already.

But then you wouldn’t be Louise Thundercloud.

Despite the fact that most of us would succumb to a wheezing panic attack if we had to contend with even 10% of what Louise’s daily life must look like, there she was in Philly in November, out with an army of antifa & Gritty cosplayers to shut down a Proud Boys event.  Which they did successfully, but not without costs.  For Louise, the price came when Philly kkkops attempted to kettle her & her comrades and exact some revenge for stopping the white supremacists from gathering.  As she made her escape, Louise took a really bad fall and smashed her head pretty badly, leaving her with a concussion, broken teeth, and a dislocated wrist among other injuries.

Louise has been in near-constant pain ever since and required some pricey medical and dental intervention, so her friends set up a crowdfunder to help raise the money she needed to get better.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was honoured to be able to top it off and get them to their initial fundraising goal.  We look forward to seeing Louise’s smiling face back in the frontlines of the fight very soon!

It’s 2019.  We’re all quite aware of what happens when you let violent bigots march in the street to demonize religious minorities without opposition.  Luckily, hundreds of thousands of us are willing to stand in the streets against them and demonstrate exaclty what no pasarán means.  London knows this more than just about anywhere in the world, from the Battle of Cable Street to present day.

So when Islamophobic charlatan/multi-millionaire/convicted scam artist/former leader of a grooming gang Tommy Robinson Stephen Yaxley-Lennon declared that he & his slavering followers would march against Muslims there on December 9th, Londoners rose up to make sure this wasn’t going to go off as the bigots had planned.  Led by an anti-fascist feminist coalition, the Islamophobes were outnumbered and outwitted all day long.  Unfortunately, the Met could not let this opposition succeed without attacking the anti-fascists and in the end three of our own were arrested.

One of the three is a proud member of Brigata Ultrá Clapton – supporters of London antifa football club Clapton CFC – and reached out to us for assistance with his legal costs, which we were happy to help with.  You can do the same by donating to their crowdfunder right here.

Neo-nazi/Anti-Semite/snappy dresser “Genocide Jimmy” Marr

Imagine living in a small community in Oregon that counted among its townspeople colourful characters like “Genocide Jimmy” Marr – a man that has gained international notoriety not for us fashion-forward tendency to wear wrinkled earth-tone clothing several sizes too large and held up by massive grandpa suspenders, but rather for driving around the state with the most racist signs imaginable on his pickup truck.  You probably could not be able to just let this go without have a frank discussion with the man, now could you?

Such was the case for four Corvallis, OR. anti-fascists who chanced upon Genocide Jimmy and his mobile hate crime of a truck in a parking lot and attempted to engage in him a frank & earnest discussion about his problematic beliefs.  Fascists like Genocide Jimmy, not having a lick of logic or reason to back up their bullshit, don’t usually fare very well in such situations and predictably Mr. Marr made the encounter into a physical assault pretty quickly, and injured three of the four people confronting him (all of whom happened to be trans women).  But Genocide Jimmy himself did not come out of it unscathed and last we heard was still in the hospital due to an undisclosed medical concern that arose around the time this encounter took place.

Of course the police became involved, and when they saw that one side was their good ol’ pal “Genocide Jimmy,” who they also know from his staunch endorsement of the racist front group Blue Lives Matter, they decided to arrest the four people Mr. Marr assaulted instead of the other way around.

Cops & the Klan literally go hand-in-hand.  “Genocide Jimmy” Marr gets a handshake from local law enforcement for his “Blue Lives Matter/Jew Lies Matter” signs in June 2016.

A crowdfunder has been established to help our four friends defend themselves against the charges they’re facing as a result of confronting this fucking kkklown and the Defence Fund was happy to kick in to help them out.  If you can’t imagine seeing this truck around your town without doing or saying anything about it, then you’d do well to make a donation yourself.  If you think backing up people like our four friends in Corvallis is important & necessary work, then you should make a donation to the Defence Fund today!

Like moths to a flame, Canadian fascists can’t seem to resist holding rallies at the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa.  Maybe it’s the proximity to beaver tails or maybe it’s the overarching willingness of different levels of police there to act as the personal armed thugs of white supremacist soldier cosplayers who want Canada to ban immigrants.  If you’ve been following our activities over the last couple of years it won’t come as any suprise that the kkkops went ham on the anti-fascist protestors, turning a blind eye to anything their white supremacist boot-licking pals were doing in favor of shooting rubber bullets and pepper spray at the anti-fascists before assaulting them.

In the end, the pigs arrested at least nine anti-fascists on various bullshit and IWW Local 6 took the lead in getting their legal defence in order.  This of course included raising money for their defence – something that The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was happy to contribute to.  Although they’ve now reached their initial goal, you have to expect more costs in the near future, so please feel free in joining us by making a contribution yourself!

Well, it’s been an eventful fall for anti-fascists, hasn’t it?  Millionaire creep Gavin McInnes quit the white supremacist gang he founded & led after the FBI put them on an extremist watch list; former child grooming gang leader Tommy Robinson got run out of Luton Town when he tried to infiltrate the terraces; the leader of the ever-so-scary National Action nazi terror group was found by cops hiding in a cupboard; and Philadelphia gave our movement the mascot we need!

Meanwhile, here’s what The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund did over the last three months:

• We helped to defend anti-fascists in North Carolina who were arrested after police there decided to smash up their picnic potluck & food bank drive;
• We put money together to help Tim “Sauce” Jones defend himself against the assault charges put on him by white supremacist terrorist James Alex Fields Jr. after the two of them had an open & frank jailhouse discussion about Fields’ beliefs and actions.
• We covered part of the legal costs for defending Eugene, OR. antifascists against a frivolous and vexatious lawsuit brought against them by Bethany “Weed Nazi” Sherman after she was publicly outed as a neo-nazi;
• We assisted in the legal defence of antifascistes in Lyon, France who were arrested for doing some creative building improvement at the doorway of a fascist clubhouse.

We were able to do all of this only because of the donations and support we receive from anti-fascists around the world.  If you believe that anti-fascism = self-defence and that our greatest weapon is solidarity, show us you mean it by making a donation to the Defence Fund today!

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.