City officials throughout the Bay Area have declared November 11-18 to be a “United Against Hate” week. As Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin states, “Berkeley and many other Alameda County cities will convene rallies, film screenings, art projects, etc. to learn ways we can effectively stand up to hate groups and make sure hate finds no home in the Bay Area. The goal is to give communities an opportunity to learn from one another, address specific hate crime incidents and above all, seek ways to stop hateful rhetoric from spreading.” (1) The organizing for the events are being done by a group called “Not in Our Town” (NIOT), a non-profit organization that is composed of a variety of ex-law enforcement officers, activist techies, and the reformed white supremacist founder of the Hammerskins, Arno Michaelis.(2) Reducing the issue of power and oppression to an emotional response (hate) or to isolated attacks obscures the institutionalized racism that the state requires for its functioning. This watered-down rhetoric about combating “hate” and singular attacks of prejudice is an attempt by the state and civil society to regain control of a situation that has become increasingly uncontrollable. Continue reading
Category Archives: Analysis
Transatlantic Failure: Fascists Lose Steam in San Francisco
On Friday, July 6, a report was published detailing a handful of rallies being planned by the Bay Area far-Right in the next several weeks. The first of these events was to be a rally outside of the British Consulate in San Francisco on Saturday, July 7. Organizers chose this location because they intended to show support for Tommy Robinson, the founder of the militant and racist English Defence League (and once a member of the white nationalist and fascist British National Party) who is currently jailed in the UK.
The day did not start off well for the Right, who showed up late to their own event. Despite almost 200 people marked as “going” or “interested” on the Facebook event page, the rally peaked at less than 25 people. Continue reading
Looking Back: Anti-Fascism in Northern California 2016-2017
Anti-fascist mobilization against fascist convergence in Berkeley on August 27, 2017. Banner reads, “Avenge Charlottesville. Defend your communities.”
As mainstream media coverage of the anti-fascist struggle has skyrocketed over the last year, we’ve noticed that questions surrounding it have largely been confined to concern over a narrowly defined free speech. This has been accompanied by numerous, sometimes deliberate, misrepresentations. While narratives of violence have tended to be over-represented in accounts of anti-fascist and anti-racist organizing, reporting on the alt-right has been the opposite, downplaying the violence inherent to the recently re-energized white nationalist movement. Because clashes in Northern California between anti-fascists and white supremacists have captured so much media attention over the last year, we feel it necessary to place these incidents within their proper context. Continue reading
How the Biggest Racist Alt-Right Rally of 2017 is Happening…in Berkeley
Visual ‘Who’s Who Guide’ Of the Racist Right Coming to Berkeley Here
White nationalists, far-Right militias, pro-Trump bikers, members of the Alt-Right, and neo-Nazis are not only coming to the Berkeley Trump rally on Saturday, April 15th – they are speaking and organizing it. As we will show, full blown white nationalists connected to Richard Spencer and other leading neo-Nazis will address Trump supporters on Saturday, despite the claims of rally organizers that they have no connection to white supremacists or the Alt-Right. Continue reading
Piss, Kilts, and Sticks: How Violent Trump Supporters Are Merging with the Alt-Right
Approximately 75 people showed up to the ‘March on Berkeley,’ on March 4th, 2017, an event organized by Richard Black of Southern California, to support the Presidency of Donald Trump. The march was to coincide with a national day of action planned in support of Trump, who faces a crisis of legitimacy and drastically dropping support in polls. In Berkeley however, the Right originally intended for this event to be a kind of follow up or revenge for what happened at UC Berkeley on February 1st, 2017, when the community shut down Milo Yiannopoulos from giving a speech, (the event was also organized by the Berkeley College Republicans who have ties to neo-Nazis), before it even began. However as we got closer to March 4th, and as Milo’s career tanked in the wake of anti-consent and pro-pedophilia comments, plans changed and the theme of the event shifted from “free speech” to supporting Donald Trump.
Identity Evropa Tries To Make Waves With ‘No Sanction’, Bellyflops Instead
This Saturday, notorious fascist news outlet Red Ice Radio announced that Identity Evropa (IE), a white-supremacist propaganda group, had planned an anti-immigrant demonstration in San Francisco for the following Monday. IE would be protesting San Francisco’s status as a ‘sanctuary city’ with Red Ice live streaming the event, further solidifying the known ties between the two organizations. Word quickly spread, and on Sunday Rad-Left news source Its Going Down dropped an article detailing the event, its organizers, and their distasteful history. Other sources picked up the story, which blew up overnight and was shared online hundreds of times. Antifascists and enraged SF residents alike answered the call, despite the rally only being publicized two days in advance, and despite the yet-to-be-announced location. Continue reading
Supporting Each Other and Resisting State Repression
CAIR’s notorious anti-FBI poster. We love it.
It has now been three months since the events that unfolded on June 26th. Given the gravity of the situation, we must assume that the investigation is fully underway and prepare for repression accordingly. It is abundantly clear that during this aftermath period, we can expect to see law enforcement take its usual route of targeting and isolating individuals in an attempt to gain information to be used both to prosecute and for ongoing surveillance purposes.
Keep yourself and your friends safe – don’t talk! Continue reading
Getting Involved in the Fight Against Racism and Fascism
Print off these (8.5×11 & 11×15) posters and post them up wherever you see white nationalists encroaching. Put them up anywhere else you see fit to demonstrate that there is a growing movement opposing the fascist threat. While we think it is crucial for you to take part and please distribute these posters with us, we also encourage you to take precaution, go postering with a buddy, and look out for one another. Making a plan and committing to safe practices are important while we move forward and work to end fascism. Continue reading
