(Taras)

Another week at The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund = another round of tough decisions for our 380+ member Decisions Crew to make.  You’ve already read about us pitching in to help out our friends in Berkeley; now we’re reporting on the two other requests for help we reached decisions about this week.

No – while we whole-heartedly support Black Lives Matter activist Muhiyidin’s amazing leap & snatch maneuver when confronted by two racist trolls and their oversized confederate flag,  we decided to not contribute to his legal defence fund for the sole reason that his crowdfunding page had maxed out while we were discussing the request.  In the end, we felt like it was more important to save the money that’s been donated to the Defence Fund to help other anti-fascists that don’t have the kind of support that Muhiyidin clearly has.  Which segues nicely into…

Yes –  Taras is a well-known anarchist and anti-fascist in Kiev, Ukraine.  In a situation eerily-reminiscent of what happened to Jock Palfreeman in Bulgaria, Taras encountered a mob of racist Right Sector/Azov Battalion goons harassing and threatening a group of foreign tourists.  After intervening to protect the foreigners, Taras was attacked and badly injured, nearly losing one of his fingers.  Literally adding insult to injury, the Kiev cops wound up charging only Taras, for allegedly stabbing one of the 20-30 boneheads that attacked him.

While there are both American and European crowdfunding pages up for Taras, neither had come anywhere near to reaching their goals when we stepped in to contribute to helping him.  Forza, Taras – we stand with you!

If you’re keeping track, you’ll note that in just the last six weeks the Defence Fund has donated more than $7000USD to anti-fascists and anti-racists in four different countries because they needed our help.  If our support continues to be needed at the same rate, we’ll be broke and unable to help anyone before June.  Please, if you’re considering making a donation to the Defence Fund, your help is needed now more than ever!  Show that international anti-fascist solidarity means something – donate today!

It’s getting pretty real out there in Berkeley.  On March 4th at a so-called Trump support rally, fascists rolled up with body armor, shields, baseball bats, 2x4s, bear mace, bricks, and knives and from the jump started wading into the counterprotest to target women, racialized people, trans people, etc. for physical attacks.

Berkeley antifa were not having it!  They did what they had to do to defend themselves and their community from a series of rapidly-escalating assaults by well-armed thugs.  Of course the police, who did sweet FA to prevent people from being assaulted, were quick to arrest seven antifa.  Now we are being asked to help our brothers and sisters with the legal costs related to these arrests via this crowdfunding page.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was happy to heed the call – will you?

…in Olathe, Kansas. He spots two off-duty engineers sitting quietly at their table. Both men are 32 years old. Both men are from India. He begins loudly insulting them, yelling at them to “get out of my country!” He pulls out a pistol and starts shooting at them, killing one and wounding the other.

As soon as the racist terrorist fires his first shots, another patron in the bar tries to intervene.  “It wasn’t right, and I didn’t want the gentleman to potentially go after somebody else,” he’ll say from his hospital bed, after he, too, is shot by the racist.

Crowdfunding campaigns sprout up to help the victims of this racist terrorist act.  One for the dead man’s family; one for his injured friend; and one for the Good Samaritan that was also injured.  Donations flood in and all three crowdfunders greatly exceed their initial targets.

And there is where The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund comes in;  we were asked to make a contribution to each of the crowdfunding campaigns for each of the victims.  We discussed this for about a week, could not come to a consensus about what to do, and then took another week to vote on the various options that had come out of our discussion.

The difficulty we had boiled down to two key questions:

1) Should the Defence Fund support the victims of fascism and racism or limit itself to supporting those that actively fight fascism and racism?

2) If there is a situation that warrants the Defence Fund’s support but more-than-enough support has already been provided, should the Defence Fund still kick in money, even as a token gesture of solidarity?

In the end, the vote was to not make a contribution to any of the crowdfunding campaigns that came out of this horrifying, tragic act of racist terrorism.  While we absolutely sympathize and stand in solidarity with the victims of racist violence, the Defence Fund is just too small to be effective at providing relief to those victims and must concentrate instead on supporting active anti-fascists and anti-racists.

While we see the man that tried to stop the racist terrorist from murdering people in the bar as engaging in anti-fascist/anti-racist work of the upmost importance and while we salute his courage, we also think it’s our responsibility to use the donations the Defence Fund  receives as effectively as possible.  If an anti-fascist/anti-racist is being more-than-adequately supported by their community, then it would be better for the Defence Fund to save its funds to be used to support another anti-fascist/anti-racist who isn’t fortunate enough to have that level of support instead of making a donation that would amount to a token gesture.  That was the case here, so in the end the Defence Fund decided to applaud his heroic actions but hold on to our funds to help someone else who frankly will need the help more.

We probably will have to spend that money shortly, as the Defence Fund’s “Decisions Crew” (the 380+ people around the world that discuss and ultimately decide what to do when we receive requests for support) is currently looking at three other requests for help.  When you add those to the 24 other anti-fascists we’ve been asked to back up in the last month alone, the importance of the Defence Fund is clearer than ever.  We need you to help us back up our friends around the world who aren’t afraid to stand up to bigotry.  Please make a donation to the Defence Fund today!

Luke is a long-time, well-known, and widely-respected anti-fascist from Oregon.  In 2010, Luke was the victim of a targeted shooting, ambushed by neo-nazi filth.  He survived the shooting but was paralyzed as a result and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

A mere mortal might let a situation like this get him down or use it as a reasonable excuse to wind down his political activities.  But not Luke!  He remains an intregral part of the antifa scene in the Pacific North West.

Luke has now learned of doctors in Germany that may be able to alleviate his current medical condition to a large extent, but of course needs to come up with $20,000 for the surgery + travel & accommodation costs.  The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was honored to be able to lend support to such a long-standard, stalwart anti-fascist and we want to do everything we can to make sure he gets the medical care he needs.  You can help us by donating directly to Luke’s crowdfunding campaign.  You can also help make sure we’re ready & able to help when people like Luke ask for our help by making a donation to The Defence Fund as well.

Luke – we hope the doctors are near Millerntor-Stadion and you can bring some Timbers flavor to a St. Pauli match while you’re there!

(above: Worcester Anti Fascist Action supporter taken down and arrested by stormtroopers cops for – “blocking the street?”)

America used to be a place where people had the right to public protest.  Americans viewed countries reacted to peaceful protests with heavily-armed goon squads and trumped-up (pun intended) as loathsome dictatorships.

Now all of a sudden in 2017 it is America itself that appears to be turning into the loathsome dictatorship, as supporters of Worcester Anti Fascist Action found out when they attempted a public protest the day before Trump’s inauguration and were brutally arrested.  Their crime?  Unclear at this point although in one observer’s video the cops clearly state that “everybody is subject to arrest” because “they were all in the street.”  What would normally be a citation for jaywalking has become cause for violent arrest by a platoon of cops.  Seven antifascists were hauled away for things like  “disturbing the peace” and “disorderly conduct.”

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was established to defend anti-fascists and anti-racists when they face scenarios like this as a result of their stand against bigotry and hatred.  We were more than happy to make a donation to their legal defence fund and strongly encourage our fellow antifa to do the same.

As always, the only reason the Defence Fund was able to offer any assistance to our seven friends in Worcester was because of donations from anti-fascists and anti-racists around the world that make our work possible.  If you believe that solidarity with other antifa is the best weapon, help us continue to provide this much-needed support by making a donation to the Defence Fund today!

(above: early entry for 2017’s “Punch of the Year”)

We knew when Donald Trump was elected that things were going to heat up.  But we didn’t know how hot it was going to get.

People are finally realizing that the fight against fascism & racism is not one that they can sit out of.  Agreeing with antifa is no longer good enough; people have to stand with antifa and become antifa themselves, because the cost of not doing so is simply too great.

Suddenly (and after “the punch heard ’round the world!“), whether or not it’s acceptable to physically oppose people publicly advocating and organizing for genocide is now a mainstream topic of discussion (spoiler alert: it is acceptable!).  This has translated to more antifa actions on the streets and more crews getting organized than ever before.  This has also meant the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund is being called on for help like never before.

Since the beginning of December, the Defence Fund has provided support to eighteen anti-fascists and anti-racists in three different countries at a cost of nearly $5000U.S. – more than 2.5 times what we provided in the previous quarter and more than half of what we’ve provided antifa since our existence.   As always, we blogged about each case so you can read up on all of them.

As of this writing, the Defence Fund‘s Decisions Crew (all 350+ of them in over a dozen countries!) is currently discussing not one, not two, but four outstanding requests for support, so the need to back up our brothers and sisters who are out there doing what needs to be done does not seem to be going away any time soon.

Happily, donations to the Defence Fund were up noticeably over the last quarter.  At one point shortly after Trump’s inauguration, we were receiving a new donation every three minutes!  The thousands of dollars we raised have certainly come in handy.  But tbh the money is going out to antifa in desperate need just as quickly as it was coming in.  Right now, the need to help is rapidly outpacing the rate that donations are being received.

We are the only defence fund set up exclusively to defend and support anti-fascists and anti-racists the world over.  We make all our decisions via consensus whenever possible and by majority voting when consensus is not possible.  We report on all our activities on our blog, to keep the Defence Fund as transparent as possible.  Finally, we’re the only defence fund endorsed by three different anti-fascist networks in three countries.

If you’re going to give anything towards helping your fellow anti-fascists & anti-racists out of a tight spot, donating to the Defence Fund is the best way to do that!