More video and music from Saturday's confrontation with the NSM

Many folks from Az have probably seen this video but I thought I'd repost it here for our many readers from out of state. It was shot by local videographer Dennis Gilman who was right in the thick of the action. He got some good footage. I still haven't seen any footage of the Nazis choking when that smoke bomb exploded right in the middle of them. I'd sure like to see some responsibly edited footage of that.

Below Gilman's video you'll find the latest local anti-Nazi jam burning up the charts like a cop on fire. I love the increasing creation of music around anarchist actions in town. Keep it coming, the more ways we build our oppositional culture and celebrate and spread the stories of our resistance, the stronger and more broadly understood our resistance will become.

A Sneak Preview: The Inglourious Basterds Bloc returns this November 13!

Let's be honest, most sequels suck. With the obvious exception of a Terminator 2, or Empire Strikes Back, sequels rarely reach the creative apex of the source material, just ask anyone who sat through the follow ups to the Matrix. Still, I'd sit through another atrocious Ace Ventura before ever wanting to see one of those nazi goons from the National Socialist Movement (NSM) march in my town again.

Exactly a year ago, we at PCWC put out our first call for a demonstration, The Inglourious Basterds bloc, a tip of the hat to Tarantino's fantastic alt-history film about a group of Nazi hunters who take out Hitler and massacre the leadership of the Third Reich! We like the idea of creating our own mythology around our movement's successful struggles and actions, naturally we were quite taken by incorporating the mythology of the Basterds' victory into our anti-nazi bloc. Yeah, it was a bit meta, but it worked and it lent a good deal of enthusiasm to mobilizing a few hundred people to confront a white supremacist march, and shut it down an hour before their city march permit ended.

The NSM will be back in town to continue their "reclaim the southwest tour", a recruitment effort of theirs in which NSM activists from Texas to California amass in major cities in the southwest for NSM anti-immigrant rallies. They've been counting on their inflated numbers (fifty to seventy people) to give them the look of a growing fascist working class movement that has an actual base of support, so that when the mainstream media uncritically covers a white supremacist anti-immigrant rally, they neglect to mention that the majority of those attending the rally are racist agitators from outside of Arizona. It's in the spirit of last year's Inglourious Basterds Bloc, that we once again invite anti-racists and anti-authoritarians from across the state to converge in Phoenix in a mere two weeks to run these nazis back outta town!

Most movie sequels are just an excuse for studios to tap into the a successful concept and to milk it for every last dollar, and so in calling for a second mobilization against the NSM we were uneasy going "back to the well," to conceptualize the next manifestation of resistance to these damn racists. It got me to thinking, like any good sequel aren't there some "plot threads" left unresolved from the last year that beg for some resolution this time around?

Will the liberal and leftist organizers, who denounced the successful counter protest last year as a bunch of "crazies", come protest the NSM this time, or will they denounce us again? Can we provide the NSM a more disastrous exit this time than their car accident last year while fleeing the anti-nazi mob? Will we once again be standing alongside libertarians, constitutionalists, and veterans, who broke with the rightwing last year to oppose a fascist anti-immigrant rally? Can we bring out more people from across the state this time around and shut down this nazi shindig before it even kicks off?

There will also be a change in venue this time around, last year the NSM rallied at the state capitol, this time around they'll be rallying in support of the anti-immigrant law SB 1070 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District court building in downtown Phoenix. The exact details are below.

The anti-nazi contingent will be gathering at Noon on Saturday, November 13 at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. District court building located at 401 W. Washington St. in downtown Phoenix. According to their own web page, the NSM plan on marching at 1 PM, arriving at the courthouse by 2 PM for an hour of permitted speeches, before they leave at 3 PM, so plan on spending a few hours in downtown that Saturday.

Spread the word far and wide!

Against all borders, against white supremacy! See you in the streets!

And check out this trailer our comrades made!

PCWC announces the Inglourious Basterds Bloc against the National Socialist Movement anti-immigrant rally November 7th.

The Phoenix Class War Council is pleased to announce the formation of the Inglourious Basterds Bloc, a temporary anti-racist, anti-authoritarian convergence for the purpose of confronting the National Socialist Movement at the November 7th anti-immigration rally.

Some have said that ignoring the Nazis is the best tactic to take. They point out that the NSM only wants publicity and if we confront them, it will give them exactly what they want. We at PCWC, however, take the exact opposite position. We think that, for once, the NSM ought to get some publicity. Why is this?

For a variety of reasons -- not least of all the weak position taken by the established pro-migrant organizations in town -- the so-called "nativist" camp has succeeded in normalizing an extremely reactionary argument on immigration. In Arizona, the debate and policies have lurched so far to the right that outright racist arguments don't stand out as starkly as they otherwise would. This has had tangible and unmistakable effects, from the massive numbers deported (or, "self-deported" out of fear) to the incarceration, profiling and round ups of hundreds of thousands.

It is this climate that has attracted the NSM here and it has not gone unnoticed that various clownish, though frequently armed, Nazis have begun showing up at pro-migrant marches, sieg heiling their little hearts out. Because of the congruence between the mainstream nativist camp (it pains us to acknowledge such a thing exists) and the positions of the NSM, we think it is useful to point out the cozy nature of their arguments. Ever faithful to their reputation as stooges and government dupes (how many Feds are in the group, we wonder), the NSM is doing the work for us.

If Americans can be counted on for anything, it's for hating Nazis, and images of brownshirted fascists in full historical reenactment regalia (or, alternately, dressing like SWAT team wannabes) spouting their anti-immigrant nonsense will highlight the extreme nature of what passes for the mainstream discussion in Arizona, and to show that there is strong resistance to it. The NSM's traveling circus affords us the opportunity to twist their spectacle to our ends.

We at PCWC also want to extend a particular invitation to our friends in the Libertarian movement. Because of your vigorous protests at Obama's recent speech, you have been painted as racist. We know that you feel this is unfair. You see yourselves as protesting this country's turn towards fascism. We sympathize with this argument and are ourselves no fans of the Obama administration. However, we want to point out that unlike some of your past protests, the NSM rally offers you the perfect opportunity to make known your opposition to fascism in an unambiguous way. We hope you come to the event.

We are not here to preach tactics nor to lecture anyone on the law. People can think for themselves. Similarly, we are an autonomous working class force, and we are beholden to no politician or self-appointed movement leader. We speak for ourselves and no one else and we claim no monopoly on good ideas for confronting these Nazi thugs. We hope a variety of creative and interesting tactics are employed by as broad a collection of people as possible. Remember, the NSM wants a show, so we encourage all participants, regardless of their level of militancy, to treat the event as a stage. Further, it should be pointed out that militancy does not necessarily have to manifest itself in the obvious ways. Think imaginatively and we're sure that many opportunities to show up these Nazi buffoons will present themselves.

Likewise, to those in the anarchist and anti-authoritarian milieu who think that taking on Nazis misses the overall context of the broader system of white supremacy, we encourage you to investigate the political situation in Arizona. As we have already pointed out, the dialog here has swung so far to the extreme right that, sadly, fertile ground exists for these boneheads. Saying we shouldn't focus on Nazis is like saying that folks shouldn't have gone after the Klan in the 50's and 60's. Our politics focus on the revolutionary importance of attacking the system of white supremacy, and that does not preclude going after the militant manifestation of white working class reaction. We recognize your criticisms and we invite you to join us on November 7th regardless.

We are working class and we reject the backwards anti-liberatory positions of the National Socialist Movement. True liberation for the working class can only come about by destroying capitalism and the state, and in the United States this means attacking white supremacy, the cross-class alliance that holds the Empire together and keeps the capitalists sitting pretty in their mansions and private jets. It's the pathetic, reactionary alliance of white supremacy that undermines our class war against the rich and transforms it into an inter-class civil war, benefiting only the ruling class. The retrograde racism of the NSM is a step backwards for working class people. PCWC rejects it unequivocally and instead we demand free movement for free people.

Against all borders! See you in the streets!

UPDATE:

For a fuller understanding of where we're coming from, read this piece:
The NSM offers nothing for the white working class but more exploitation and misery.