Patryk

Long-time readers will recall the case of Patryk, a Polish anti-fascist convicted of crimes that were entirely fabricated by neo-nazis in a successful attempt to neutralize his opposition to their genocidal presence.  Rather than serve the three years in prison, Patryk fled to the UK, where he fought extradition back to Poland.

Bad news compounds upon bad news, as Patryk lost his extradition case and has been forced to leave his 10-year-old son behind in the UK while he serves out his sentence in Poland for a crime that he not only did not commit, but one that happened solely in the collective imaginations of Polish boneheads and their friends in the prosecutor’s office.

ABC Brighton wants to make sure that Patryk’s son is well looked-after while separated from his dad and are raising funds to ensure that happens.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was pleased to be in a position to help out with that by contributing to the cause.  We highly recommend other anti-fascists follow suit.

Greetings from Berkeley!

It’s been a crazy, crazy summer, hasn’t it?  Antifa went from being an obscure movement of people willing to actually stand up and defend their communities from white supremacist terrorists to being the “it” topic of the summer.  This was largely because of the unprecedented wave of violence and killings committed by racist extremists this year.

Incredibly, “moderates” and the mainstream media reacted to this not by condemning the wave of racist terror unleashed, but by condemning those courageously opposing it!  Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting surveyed the coverage of this after the white supremacist terrorism in Charlottesville and found that the media was slightly more-likely to condemn “antifa” as it was the fascists that murdered nine people this summer.  Whether this was due to their own tendencies to rely on the logical fallacy of false equivalence or whether it is the influence of the Russian false news & disinformation apparatus that contributed to Trump’s election victory now turning its sights on antifa, much of the mainstream media are now parroting the talking points of neo-nazis and racist extremists – right down to referring to them by their preferred euphamism of “white nationalists.”

The police, who liberals tell us to rely on to stop this, openly collaborated with the bigots in Portland and stood aside and did nothing as KKK leaders shot at racialized people in Charlottesville.  More than ever, it’s become clear that we can’t expect liberals or their institutions to back us up as armed racist extremists literally march through our streets.

So that was the context antifa found themselves in this summer.  Counted on to defend their communities and literally save people’s lives more than ever, but expected to do that on their own and face condemnation and police repression for doing so.

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is one of the only means of support and solidarity that anti-fascists and anti-racists can count on to have their back when they put themselves on the line against hate and have to deal with the consequences.  So while antifa had to ramp things up this summer, so did the Defence Fund.  Over the last three months the Defence Fund donated over $6000USD to more than a dozen anti-fascists and anti-racists – more than the Defence Fund gave out in its first two  years combined!  The money went to bail, legal fees, medical bills and, in one tragic case, to support the surviving daughter of a committed anti-fascist that was murdered by Daesh (aka ISIS).

If things continue at the pace of this past summer, the Defence Fund will have been called on to support twice the number of anti-fascists and anti-racists that we helped out in 2016.  It would also mean that the Defence Fund will be completely tapped out before the end of this coming winter.

You might not be the kind of person that is going to stand face-to-face with armed bigots marching through your town to try to shut them down.  You might not be the kind of person willing to publicly condemn hate when it rears its ugly head and threatens you, your family, your friends, and/or your neighbors.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t support the people who are that courageous.  Donating to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is probably the most effective way to do that.  SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

Antifa in Portland, August 6, 2017

One of us recently got into an argument with a liberal that has lots of negative shit to say about the “macho dudes in their 20s who are in antifa because they love violence.”  We know those dudes in their 20s; hell, some of us are those dudes in our 20s!  So we are in positions of authority on this subject and can say with an extremely high degree of confidence that none of us love violent confrontations with murderous fascists.

We’d love to be like the liberals and pretend that a non-violent, pacifist position when dealing with the violent racist extremists that have so far murdered at least 28 people this year  is a superior moral position to take.  But we know that it really is a position of privilege.  If you don’t look like the sort of person that bigots would shoot while attending your place or worship  or stab to death while walking down the street or get beat unconscious while out walking your dog or intentionally drive a truck over, then you can afford to choose whatever moral high horse you want to ride into your ineffectual “resistance” of fascist violence.

But some of us don’t have that kind of privilege.  Bigots have been targeting people like us or like our friends and families and neighbors from the jump.  And some of us that do have that kind of privilege have voluntarily set it aside to put our bodies on the line to defend the people that fascists intend to victimize.  As Logan Rimel said in his essay about his experiences in Charlottesville, “You want to be nonviolent? That is good and noble…But I want you to understand what you’re asking of the people who take this necessary stance against white supremacy, the people who go to look evil in the face. You’re asking them to be beaten with brass knuckles, with bats, with fists. To be pounded into the ground, stomped on, and smashed. You’re asking them to bleed on the pavement and the grass. Some of them are going to die.” 

So it was in Portland a week before the racist terrorism of Charlottesville.  Only a handful of weeks after a self-proclaimed “free speech activist” and frequently attendee of alt right rallies stabbed two men to death on a Portland train and nearly killed a third, fascists held yet another rally in Portland.  And they came equipped with their usual weapons.  And like every other time before, some antifa stood up to them and put themselves directly in the line of fire.  So other people wouldn’t be in that line of fire.

This selfless act of community self-defense earned our side some lumps.  The Pacific Northwest Anti-Fascist Workers’ Collective logged multiple concussions, facial fractures, lacerations, contusions, and one dislocated knee among the community defenders.  Which in turn resulted in medical bills.  Which the Defence Fund was honored to help pay for.

If antifa weren’t willing to stand between armed genocidal racists and the rest of us, what do you think would happen?  If you’re not willing to stand with them, you should at least be willing to help them deal with the consequences that come with that level of courage.

Taking care of some white supremacist trash at the AmRen “conference” in July.

Increasingly, white supremacists and fascists like to get all dressed-up and cosplay normal people at “conferences,” where they agree with each other about their own superiority and listen to people like violent ex-con/disgraced former Marine Nathan Damigo and (of course!) alt-right human punching bag and privilege poster boy Richard Spencer.

Artist’s rendering of typical AmRen “conference” attendee.

But it doesn’t take much for these goons to show their true colors.  At the white racist “American Renaissance” (AmRen) conference in Burns, TN this past July, all it took was a large gathering of loud but entirely peaceful antifa for the wheels to come off of the Fash Respectabilitymobile.

Ohio neo-nazi William Markley, perhaps feeling a need to assert his dominance to distract from his other, glaring shortcomings, took it upon himself to charge at and attack one of the protestors.  Of course, not head-on; witnesses report Markley decided to “come running from behind swinging his arms.”

Unfortunately for Markley, he chose well-known anarchist thinker and area activist J.C. as the target for his violence.  J.C. knows how to handle himself.

Via eyewitness reports from It’sGoingDown:

“‘J. just threw down…Next thing I know, dude is sliding down the hill into the lake and the cops are running in. It was like the guy did a huge pile of cocaine and decided to fight all the antifa.’ J.C.’s act of self defense resulted in a few minor abrasions and an arrest for disorderly conduct. Markley on the other hand, had to be taken by helicopter to a Nashville hospital for a CT scan, and was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct as well.”

William Markley, post-helicopter ride

“Although Alt-Right trolls have frequently targeted antifascists online, promising a Pinochet-inspired helicopter ride, none have had the capacity to take it to the meatspace and deliver. How bittersweet it must be for those righteous keyboard warriors to know that an antifascist provided one of their own with a ‘helicopter ride.’ To add insult to injury, antifascists collectivized a white nationalist flag which was used for a late-night fire. Let it be known: if racists come to Tennessee to stir shit, it will be expensive, y’all.”

J.C.’s clear-cut act of self-defense is turning out to be expensive for him as well, as he was subsequently charged with a misdemeanor that prosecutors soon threatened to blow up into aggravated assault charges.  Unlike the KKK members that literally stabbed anti-fascists in Anaheim, California last year or the neo-nazis who stabbed nine people in Sacramento a few months later or the alt-right clown that shot an antifa & IWW member at an anti-Milo event in Seattle this past January. Apparently, violence at clashes between racist extremists and the communities they terrorize is only criminal when people defend themselves against armed bigots.

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was pleased to help such a well-respected activist with the legal costs he’s facing defending himself in the courts after defending himself in the streets.