It’s been almost two and a half years since the Nazi rally by the Golden State Skinheads under the banner of the Traditionalist Worker Party on June 26th, 2016 at the Sacramento state capital was defeated by anti-racists and anti-fascists. Despite the Nazis receiving full support and police protection from the State, anti-fascists successfully prevented the rally from taking place through a large mobilization that took over the capital grounds. This victory however came at a heavy price as GSS members attacked and seriously injured the crowd with knives, shields, and other weapons during clashes with a relatively smaller number of anti-fascists that had run up to confront them. While the fighting lasted only a short time, GSS Nazis managed to stab 6 anti-fascists, and had their retreat protected by the police as they ran away holding the bloody knives used in the potentially lethal attacks in their hands. The retreating Nazis still suffered heavy beatings and damage to their cars culminating in a Nazi brandishing a pistol as they fled with another handgun being found on the ground next to the epicenter of the fighting.
In the time since, anti-fascists from all over Northern California have worked to identify and expose the Nazi individuals responsible for these attacks. Earlier reports by Antifa Sacramento, It’s Going Down, NoCARA, and others have detailed and mapped out large parts of the GSS network, and their affiliations to other neo-Nazi formations such as Rise Above Movement, the Hammerskin Nation, and the now defunct Traditionalist Worker Party. While GSS and their connections in the neo-Nazi white nationalist political world was elaborated on to a degree, less is known about the direct connections and affiliations of GSS to the broader northern California far-right activists that includes a confluence of Trump supporters, Proud Boys, militia members, conspiracy media consumers, and other authoritarians and racists. Continue reading