Antifascism

[bcbm]

If anybody could reccomend some good news articles (or whatever) dealing with current-day antifascism in North America and Western Europe, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Nachie]

The Intelligence Report magazine put out by Southern Poverty Law Center is top-notch reporting and probably the best single resource for info on the extreme right in North America. It's almost like TIME magazine, but all about racist groups.

You just have to watch out because they're very liberal, pro-law enforcement, and have started running articles against the ELF in the past couple years. But in terms of straight up information, they're an excellent publication. They also give free subscriptions if you have a bookstore or nonprofit or something like that willing to receive the issues for you.

[bcbm]

Thanks Nachie. Anything on the extreme left that's fighting them in the streets? That's the primary focus of my report and I don't have a ton of information beyond what I've yanked from a few news articles and Wikipedia (and I can't cite wikipedia).

edit: And of course an awesome interview from Comrade Marcel!

[Lord Testicles]

I dont know if these will help but here they are anyway,
Class war antifa news
Antifa

Originally posted by black banner black gun Posted on May 7 2006@ 06:57 PM
And of course an awesome interview from Comrade Marcel!

Is Comrade Marcel going to let you post that, it might make an interesting read.

[bcbm]

Originally posted by Skinz@May 7 2006, 01:05 PM

Is Comrade Marcel going to let you post that, it might make an interesting read.

I believe he said he would post it. I'll also probably post the finished paper here when I'm done (though it'll be long).

Thanks for the sites, they should help!

[Lord Testicles]

Originally posted by black banner black gun Posted on May 7 2006+ 07:19 PM--> (black banner black gun Posted on May 7 2006 @ 07:19 PM)I believe he said he would post it. I'll also probably post the finished paper here when I'm done (though it'll be long).[/b]

I look forward to reading both posts.

black banner black gun Posted on May 7 2006

@ 07:19 PM
Thanks for the sites, they should help!

No problem im glad they helped.

[Comrade Marcel]

Here is a list of readings I compiled:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/mrodden/study/fascism.htm

And here is the interview...

1. How long have you been involved as an antifa?

First, let me state that any organizations I mention in this interview are not necessarily being represented by me and my view. I have done work with them, but they have many members with various viewpoints and I can't express their views without discussion. That said, I am trying to also take in to consideration what I believe would be the thoughts of my comrades when I speak of collective, rather than my individual, work.

I have been involved with the organized left since about 2002, when I joined a youth group called "Young Left" which was a break off from the Young Communist League of the Communist Party of Canada. They were youth who tried to organize themselves rather then follow the lead of the older communists. I was never a member of the CPC myself. In fact, in 2004 I had decided to support the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (a different CP in Canada) through their electoral party, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada. This is when I got involved with anti-fascist work.

2. What got you involved?

When running as a candidate in the 2004 Canadian Federal election, I had to go door-to-door collecting signatures to be nominated in my riding. During this process myself and another comrade ran in to two individuals who basically threatened us, and told us "commies" to watch our asses and stay off "their" street. These two young males had shaved heads, and one of them was wearing all black. At the time - we remarked to each other that they could be boneheads (neo-nazi skinheads, it's important to note that not all skinheads are nazis or racist) but at the same time we figured they could just be some right-wing white guys that didn't like commies and wanted to fight. We walked away from it at the time, but made a mental note of it.

Later, after sharing the story of the incident with other comrades from around Canada (at that time we were trying to form a multinational - that is First Nations, Quebec and Canada - youth organization called "Rebel Youth Network"), word got around fast, and a comrade that does intelligence work (watching the nazis, talking to them in disguise and gathering information) put two-and-two together. These same two white males had posted their version of the story on a forum that was then called "Western Canada For Us" (it was later taken down and raided for posting hate contrary to law in Canada). At that point we realized that not only were we in fact dealing with racists, but the two Canadian representatives of the Aryan Nations in Southern Ontario.

The Aryan Nations was well known as being a very violent group and was much less powerful then a decade ago, but we still saw this as a major threat. To us this was a big deal; we hadn't seen organized racism in the city of Toronto since the early 1990s. Those days were gone because of the militant activism of Anti-Racist Action in Toronto. But at the time of this event, it seemed that ARA was dead. We contacted as many comrades as we could who had done antifa work in the past, and contacted new comrades who were interested. We formed a temporary organization that we called "Eastern Front" (both in reference to the WW II front and that we were working in the east side of Toronto) for the specific purpose of dealing with the two individuals organizing Aryan Nations.

However, ARA Toronto had never died, it just had not been very active since about 2001. But people were still around, and after we had successfully dealt with the Aryan Nations reps. many of us decided to rebuild ARA, and we put together a pretty decent crew. One of our first focuses was to create opposition to the supporters of Ernst Zundel who had been protesting Zundel's imprisonment at the metro west detention centre in Toronto for some time, but there was no opposition to this nazi presence. This presence was being lead by Paul Fromm, former school teacher and the most prominent neo-nazi leader in Canada as well as former Heritage Front rep. Marc Lemire. Zundel's imprisonment was not something we supported; indeed he was being held on the very fascistic security certificate, but rather the fact that nazis were freely organizing. This was one of the first counter-demos that got ARA in Toronto working again.

3. Is militancy or violence necessary?

Yes, they both are and I think it is important to clarify the difference. Militancy is being willing to march and confront, to occupy and be a presence as well as organize collectively and effectively. Violence is a step further, using force.

It's also important to know that when you do work with a group like ARA, you should be militant and use violence only when confronted. Going out and beating the shit out of boneheads is not a bad thing in my opinion, but it is important to do this as somewhat underground work. Anything that is strongly against the law should not really be done in the name of an organization, for legal not moral reasons.

Why Is it necessary though?

Because being "peaceful" is not enough sometimes. History has shown that if you just lay down and be passive you will get stomped on. This is not always the case and there is a time and place for peaceful activism. Most antifas are dedicated to what I call "non-passive resistance". In our experience, boneheads don't just walk down the street sporting swastikas because they want to look good, but because they want to organize and they want to organize for a political impact. Empirical evidence tells us that nazism, fascism, white nationalism, or whatever brand of white supremacy and organized racism has only ever expressed through violence and hatred. Comrades and myself don't believe that people should have to sit around and wait to be attacked first in order to prove that militancy and/or violence is justified. History has already spoken for us, and we will not let the horrible injustices of fascism's past be repeated.

We also believe that contemporary examples prove our points. We can give the example of Toronto, where ARA had cleared the streets of nazis by the late 1990s. Organized racism is a virtual thing of the past, and a bonehead is a rare site in our streets indeed. This is because these comrades were militant and sometimes even violent. This is not to say that no mistakes were made, but overall the work was excellent and went from the street level, to the community level, to the student body.

Nazis tried to organize in Kitchener after fleeing Toronto, but comrades out there stood up in the same manner. To this day any ugly heads that try to rear themselves there are confronted and quickly liquidated. Recently many boneheads left that city for the west of Canada or London.

In London, the "anti-racist" organizations are liberal, and they try to be educators; though their anti-racist theory is not very critical, far from academic and is more or less soft on white supremacy and systemic racism... they view racism as an individual problem. They wouldn't dare criticize the Canadian state as racist, and they work with the cops who can be just as racist as the boneheads. In fact, I would argue that at this point in time the police are more of a threat to many communities of people of colour than the boneheads are. Part of the reason is that the police are able to exercise more power over these communities than the boneheads and other elements of organized racism.

With this in mind, it's also important to note that London appears to have the most organized racists in Southern Ontario.

4. What victories have antifa activists had at street level?

In Toronto, we were able to dismantle the Aryan Nations at the street level, simply because we exposed them through a method called "outing". This is done by first doing intelligence work and gathering information about who the nazis are. I don't know, honestly, how comrades did it in the past when the internet was young; but these days people talk like preachers on Sunday on e-mail, messengers and message boards; and this is where we gather a lot of information. I don't want to get in to a lot of details about this, because I don't want the enemy to know too much. I can say, that this is done by signing up to their e-mail groups and message boards, etc. and pretending to be another racist/fascist, someone interested in their movement, or even a just a single young womyn. The infamous hacker Kevin Mitnik once said that social engineering was his strongest tactic, and not actual technical hacking. This has been true to us also, though I won't rule other things out as possibilities. With the Aryan nations organizers, we were able to obtain photographs of them, find out their full names and eventually track down their addresses. We even found out the work place of one of them. He was working as a cook at a pub his brother was the manager of - we had a demonstration outside and pasted flyers on telephone polls on the street around the pub - and we were able to get him fired. We also put flyers around both of their areas, and eventually they simply could not organize anymore. They had been exposed to their friends, neighbors and parents, and they couldn't deny it because the picture of them standing in front of a nazi flag in a bomber jacket with the Aryan Nations patch on it said it all!

In this case we were militant, marching through their hood in collectives, spreading flyers in their area and going to their workplace, despite the fact that the police tried to stop us. We didn't have to use violence. Let me just say that violence is self-defense. Not necessarily a "last resort", because I would argue there is no "last resort" when it comes to nazis. As a general rule, I believe nazis are the one entity were the "kick ass and ask questions later" rule really should apply.

However, I think in certain cases, for example young boneheads, we could try to convince them to quit the racist movement without using violence but not necessarily in a friendly way, but a militant way.

But when we collect intelligence about boneheads... for example there was a young gang that took pictures of themselves holding knives and spiked bats, and talked about using them on black people... Violence is simply the only option with an incident like this.

We already know who's side the cops are on, and it is that of the state not the people. The cops use violence when it suits them, so we will use it when it suits us. For those people who would tell us we should simply call the cops on boneheads, I would challenge them to try to work in our shoes and see what the real situation is, and why it is not a good option.

We have also had various victories where we have been able to dismantle gangs before they have fully formed, usually by luring them out and dealing with them before they get big. We hope that our movement will stay strong and grow before the fascist get the chance to grow again. The problem is that many people are either too reactive or ignorant to the realities of the threat posed by organized racists. Some people simply seem to think they just won't come back! They are trying to come back though, and in my opinion the only reason they haven't is because they know we haven't gone away.

5. What sort of support do you receive from the communities you work in?

This is a tough question. As I have said before, the communities of people of colour aren't threatened by organized racism right now, but rather by the white supremacy and systemic racism of the state through apparatuses like immigration and the police, and much of it is economic as much as it is racist.

These communities have their shit together and are strong enough that boneheads know they can't go and walk around and fuck around with them. They would get fucked up. That said, we have made it our duty as anti-fascists to confront organized racists anywhere they go. We would like to get more support from other communities in certain instances, because they are strong and could offer us great assistance. But I'm sure that most comrades would agree with me that it is primarily the responsibility of conscious white people to fight reactionary white people when the people of colour are already fighting systemic white supremacy of the state. The mostly white skin privileged leftists don't really have this problem. Let's face reality, most leftists right now are white and middle to upper working class, students. Though it is important to note that ARA did have a lot of street based support in the early 90s, this is not the case anymore.

We have been criticized by the liberals often as "pissed of white boys and girls fighting pissed off white boys and girls" and this is when they represent us as two sides of the coin; two extremes. We reject this portrayal and we do this by stating our politics. Our politics are scientific; and though not perfect (we are always learning) we feel we have a strong class, race, gender, sexuality, etc. analysis and that we are on the side of the oppressed and fighting for a just and liberated society. We are not just for fighting racism but all forms of oppression and we feel that patriarchy, class, inequities, etc. are the root causes that must be dismantled, and not just a few white people that are juxtaposed as "pissed of individuals" on the "other side" of us.

To answer the question fully, I would have to say that it is us supporting other communities when they call out for support, and not the other way around. For example, when the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty calls out for organizations to support them in their work, such as to raise social assistance rates, we come out. We believe that social assistance rates have a strong effect on communities of people of colour; it's part of Canada's systemic racism. When Jeffery Roedica - a young Philippine man - was shot by Toronto police, we came and supported that communitie's work. When No One Is Illegal is doing solidarity work with immigrants and refugees, we support it. In the long run many people will support us in return, not as a returned favour, but because they will see that the struggles are linked.

6. Any criticism of the antifa movement?

Yes. I would say, that firstly it is important to note that the Anarchists have dominated the antifa movement in recent years. They have done a tremendous job. The criticisms I have are coming from my prospective, so there is lots of room for other opinion. I would also think it is important to mention that there are many comrades who have been doing this for years longer who might have more rooted opinion than mine...

I think the main problem is that things are too reactive, with a few dedicated comrades who never leave. The antifa movement has not been able to keep things really fluid and strong. I would like to see this done, possibly with some centralization. I think ways of using capital more efficiently should be thought up and used. More rigorous training, discussions, planning and actions need to be attempted. Comrades need to learn things like self-defence and train and share knowledge collectively. Drills and simulation, a well as workshops need to be put in place. I'm not saying these things don't happen at all, just not as much and as seriously as I think it should be. They need to be more dsciplined and this can only be done by comrades being disciplined themselves. This involves a renewed attitude towards the work. I'm not meaning to say here that comrades don't take it serious, just not formal, which I think would help sometimes.

I would also like to see more communists take antifa work seriously. Too many communists just jump on the antifa bandwagon when they see something exciting happening. I can't stand organizations that just come to rallies to sell papers, and most of the time these people find out very quickly that shit doesn't fly in antifa work, as you either have to put up or shut up.

Also, I want to make it clear that I don't think people who don't participate in hardcore militancy or violence should be excluded - so long as they at least support it in words when it was clearly justified - and so therefore we have to use planning and organizing to find effective ways for them to play meaningful roles.

Another thing that has to stop is gossip. I have seen on more than one occasion that people let this get in the way of organizing, and/or somehow get this involved in the activities of the organization. In my persynal opinion everyone should read what Mao had to say about this!

7. Have actions you’ve been involved with, or know about, had a noticeable impact on fascists in your area?

As I said, we have dismantled organizations and stopped them before they started. We have consistently shown the fash that wherever they try to organize, we will be there. We have also gathered intel that has hurt them badly and humiliated them in a multitude of ways. The fascists of today have consistently become the fascists of yesterday, and we hope to keep it that way.

8. How effective would you say the antifa are in general?

In my city, they have been at least effective enough to keep things safe in the streets. In other places around North America, things are different but it varies from town-to-town. The thing is, at least with ARA, the de-centralized network has enough solidarity that when shit goes down it's easy to get a few comrades to come out to your town for support. A recent example is Toledo, where antifa were at the forefront of organizing militant opposition to the NSM (National Socialist Movement - American Nazi Party). It is interesting to note that there was three entities calling themselves anti-racist in Toledo and three approaches to confronting the NSM. Well the so called revolutionaries - rather the neo-Trotskyists - of the International Socialists, wanted to try to represent labour but didn't want to be too confrontational, they still wanted to march, make noise, and be in the streets. In other words, they were willing to be somewhat militant, but not at all violent. Then you had the liberal and so-called "community activists and leaders" coming from churches and community centres and such; who took the complete bourgeois approach. Their approach was that of accepting the nazis as free speech and peacefully showing their speech (as if there was anything "peaceful" about nazism and racism at all). They had a rally far away from them, with speeches, pop and pizza. The militant antifa of Toledo and other towns, mostly lead the information and propaganda campaign. Also, at the same time they did not want to "split" from the other opposition to fascism, and did march with the I.S. (on the other side of the street) as well as lend (at least vocal) support to the other "anti-racist" entity. In this instance, the Black community which was threatened by the NSM march saw the absurdity of the lack of militancy of the bourgeois bunch, and took the lead on using violence in self defense when it was in fact the police - who had been racist towards the their community for a long time - who became violent with them in effort to shield the nazis from militant confrontation.

The bourgeois media in Toledo tried to paint the incident as a riot incited by "bad elements of the Black community", but follow up propaganda by the antifas and the fact that they had gained roots through that work gained some support in that community of Toledo to at least a supporting side of anti-fascist work.

Toronto ARA gained support from the many in the Queer community in London, also by refusing to compromise on their principles and techniques; and challenging the bourgeois media's portrayal of that through ours, alternative and their own mediums. We fought against the liberal entity, and in general we won the support of the Queer community there... Neo-nazis had been disrupting London's Pride Parade there for years, and finally they were completely overwhelmed by militant antifa opposition, and the community thanked us for that.

These are small victories and hardly represent "mass support" and even then hardly represent mass membership, but these are steps in the right direction.

9. Where should the antifa movement go from here?

In Ontario, we need to go on the offensive. The main barrier to that step is recruitment, and the barrier to recruitment is the reactive attitude of many comrades who would potentially become antifa. This is a big contradiction, and I'm not sure what the solution is to it at this time.

I think to speak of, "where the movement should go" generally, is really hard because every town, city, etc. has their own situation, and even though I would like to see some more "centralization" I also think that an amount of autonomy and local flavour is very important, especially in this type of work. Antifa work is one of the fronts in which many of the Anarchist means of organizing are very effective. I think that communists could learn a lot from them, but I also think certain aspects of communist structuring in organizations could be applied to antifa work and organizing, such as democratic centralism and more formal titles, positions, responsibility handling and accountability; for example.

10. What do you think should be done in areas such as Russia, where antifa are heavily outnumbered?

I can speak a little bit on Russia, as I have been involved with Canadian Friends of Soviet People (the ex-Canada-USSR Friendship Committee), and have read much of what is happening in the former-USSR. I think it is important for them to fortify themselves and create strongholds in areas, and do a lot of propaganda / educational work. It is also important for every antifa comrade who can to also be involved in other community work. I think sometimes it is important for the community to see you really are on their side and not just out looking for a fight, though I do despise the notion that we should have to prove that in any other way then fighting the fash; their is also other important work that has to be done, and as I said previously the struggles are interlinked. I know for a fact, the state of the left is a shambles in the former-USSR much like it is here, but at least it is bigger. Also, bourgeois political hegemony isn't as strong as it is here, and many working people aren't benefiting from Russian imperialism... they aren't having their lives occupied with cheap goods, in other words they're poor. This means there is a lot of potential. The problem is that many of that potential could go the other way, that is to fascism; or third-positionism: a phenomenon that has recently plagued Russia in the form of "National Bolshevism" or Nazbolism.

Russia is also unique from us because the people of colour are really really minoritized and small, and working class Jews are also very vulnerable. Antifa has to be sure to link themselves up with those communities, and approach the struggle from their needs. As a general rule, those who are immediately the most effected by the fascists will be the strongest ally to antifas, but they will also be the most criticized (i.e. called the "other side of the coin" by the liberals or "enemies of Russia" by the fascists) which is why propaganda and education is so important.

We also need to follow history, from the battle in the streets of Germany before the nazis won, to the Eastern Front of WW II, to Toronto, to Toledo, etc. etc. and apply those lessons to our location and demographics accordingly. We need to carefully evaluate errors and victories and how we can apply tactics and strategies to our struggles.

Most importantly, whether in Canada, Russia or the USA we should never give up and stay strong and confident. These are our streets, our lives and they shall not pass!

-MR

[bcbm]

Originally posted by Comrade Marcel@May 7 2006, 04:50 PM
Here is a list of readings I compiled:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/mrodden/study/fascism.htm

Nice! Thanks. The paper is coming along nicely, once I finish talking about Spain I'll be going into the modern stuff. Its already at 10 pages.

[Comrade Marcel]

Originally posted by black banner black gun+May 8 2006, 01:00 AM--> (black banner black gun @ May 8 2006, 01:00 AM)

Comrade Marcel

@May 7 2006, 04:50 PM
Here is a list of readings I compiled:

http://individual.utoronto.ca/mrodden/study/fascism.htm

Nice! Thanks. The paper is coming along nicely, once I finish talking about Spain I'll be going into the modern stuff. Its already at 10 pages. [/b]

This link might also be helpful:

http://bethuneinstitute.org/

[bcbm]

You're beautiful Marcel! I'm just starting my final section (fucking finally) about modern day antifa resistance, so you're just in time!