Monday, January 31, 2022

Indigenous Prisoner in Struggle Marcelino Ruíz Gómez Demands Freedom for Yaqui Political Prisoner Fidencio Aldama

Communique from Indigenous Tzotzil prisoner in struggle Marcelino Ruíz Gómez showing solidarity with Yaqui political prisoner Fidencio Aldama

To the Zapatista Army of National Liberation

To the Human Rights Defenders

To the National and International Sixth

To the National Indigenous Congress

To the Indigenous Governing Council

To the Media

To the Believers

To the Organized Civil Society

To the People of Mexico and the World

As Tzotzil prisoners in struggle, and as sisters, brothers, compañeros and compañeras of the same heart and feelings, we express our solidarity with the compañero Fidencio Aldama and we demand his freedom. We know how difficult these five years have been for him, separated from his family, deprived of his freedom, and paying for a prefabricated crime.

We know how difficult it has been for you, Fidencio, and your family, but remember that with our hearts, we will always accompany you. We know that your dignified struggle is for justice and for the life of our Indigenous peoples and communities.

We want you know that your struggle is our struggle and that you are not alone. We share your feelings, your resistance, your rebellion, and your thirst for justice. We are with you compañero Fidencio, from behind these four prison walls, we send you a combative salute.

With our voice, we invite the independent organizations and collectives to continue weaving ties of justice, and continue sowing seeds of dignified rebellion against this corrupt and oppressive system.

Free all political prisoners!

Justice for Samir!

Justice for Simón Pedro!

Free Fidencio Aldama!

Justice for all of the oppressed!

Marcelino Ruíz Gómez

Organization Vineketik en Resistencia

CERSS No. 10

Comitán, Chiapas

 

 


by Anonymous Contributor via It's Going Down
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Let’s Back Up A Sec And Ask Why Free Speech Actually Matters

Listen to a reading of this article:

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The Joe Rogan/Spotify controversy is still going on and has only gotten more vitriolic and intense. Claims that Spotify must walk away from its $200 million contract with the world’s most popular podcaster for promoting vaccine misinformation have sparked a lot of debates about freedom of speech, online censorship, what exactly those terms mean, and whether they can be correctly applied to the practice of Silicon Valley deplatforming.

When confronted with accusations of quashing free speech and promoting censorship, those who support online deplatforming in this or that situation will often respond with lines like “It’s not censorship, it’s just a private company enforcing its terms of service,” or “Nobody is obligated to give you a platform,” or “Freedom of speech isn’t freedom of reach,” or by posting the famous XKCD comic which says “If you’re yelled at, boycotted, have your show cancelled, or get banned from an internet community, your free speech rights aren’t being violated. It’s just that the people listening think you’re an asshole, and they’re showing you the door.”

And of course it’s true that nobody is legally guaranteed the right to speak on an independent online platform. But even if we ignore the fact that this censorship behavior is not being driven solely by the wishes of independent corporations and is in fact happening in increasingly close coordination with the US government whose officials openly threaten Silicon Valley platforms with repercussions if they don’t regulate speech, the fact that it is technically legal for those companies to silence voices they don’t like is not a sound argument. It doesn’t prove that censorship isn’t happening or that the deplatforming is okay, it just proves that it is technically legal for those giant monopolistic platforms to do those things. A casual glance at history shows that plenty of terrible things have been done which were perfectly legal at the time.

To really answer the question of whether the increasingly widespread practice of Silicon Valley censorship via algorithm and deplatforming is a major problem and whether an increase in speech restriction is desirable, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves why free speech even matters in the first place. Why is it something that’s written into constitutions and upheld as sacrosanct in so many nations? Why is it a value we’re told has supreme importance all our lives?

Any debate over online censorship will necessarily remain superficial until you can address this question at a fundamental level, because otherwise you’re just bleating noises at each other about “free speech” without being clear about what exactly you’re talking about and why it matters. This is why those debates tend to stagnate.

The American Civil Liberties Union takes a solid stab at answering this question by offering “Three Reasons Why Freedom Of Expression Is Essential To A Free Society“. Firstly, that “The right to express one’s thoughts and to communicate freely with others affirms the dignity and worth of each and every member of society, and allows each individual to realize his or her full human potential.” Secondly, that free expression is “vital to the attainment and advancement of knowledge, and the search for the truth.” Third, that it is “necessary to our system of self-government and gives the American people a ‘checking function’ against government excess and corruption.”

Virtually all debate about online censorship revolves solely around the first reason listed, which is essentially that people should have free speech because freedom is nice to have. This is unfortunate, because it’s easily the least compelling of the three. If your entire argument boils down to “I should be free to say whatever I want on this online platform because muh freedom,” it’s basically just you laying out a narrative about what you think you should get to do which holds no more inherent weight than anyone else’s narrative about what you should get to do. “You can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater” gets stretched into “Your freedom to say whatever you want about vaccines on this social media platform is less important than the need to convince everyone to get vaccinated,” and the conversation stalls out there.

That changes when we consider the ACLU’s second and third reasons why free expression is important. Suddenly we’re no longer talking about how Johnny Facebook would prefer to be allowed to post QAnon conspiracy theories because it makes him feel nice inside, we’re talking about the good of society as a whole. If the case is strong enough, then it really doesn’t matter if an app isn’t technically part of the government because it’s still a part of society, and arguments about the needs of the collective trumping the rights of the individual crumble because this is all about protecting the needs of the collective.

So how strong is that case? Well, let’s take it apart and have a look.

The argument is essentially the same in both the second and third reasons for free expression put forward by the ACLU: that allowing people to freely share ideas and information leads to positive change. In the case of the second it’s talking about positive change in society, and in the case of the third it’s about positive change in government. But in both the idea is essentially the same: the free flow of speech lets the collective sort out truth from falsehood and conduct itself accordingly.

In short, free speech matters because it’s how the status quo gets changed. It’s how society collectively figures out that racism is undesirable, that women are equal to men, that science is superior to superstition, and that the world perhaps does not work the way we once thought it did. It’s also how society figures out that a government has become inundated with “excess and corruption,” that status quo systems aren’t working, and that new systems are required.

Now here’s the kicker: if free speech matters because it’s what allows the collective to change the status quo, then it is exactly those voices who oppose the status quo whose speech must be adamantly protected. The speech of those who support the mainstream orthodoxies of the political/media class is vastly less important than those who dissent from those orthodoxies, because only the latter is pushing for change.

What we have now is just the opposite: if you adhere to the mainstream orthodoxies of America’s Dempublican uniparty there is an approximately zero percent chance that you will ever be subjected to online censorship, but if you oppose any of those orthodoxies you will see yourself algorithmically de-boosted, suspended, and shoved further and further away from any position of possible influence.

This is on top of the fact that all traditional media are already 100 percent locked down in support of the status quo. You will never see serious opponents of imperialism, militarism, capitalism and oligarchy elevated to positions of influence in the mainstream news media or in Hollywood; every single one of those positions are consistently occupied by people who have proven themselves to be at least politically mute if not virulently supportive of status quo politics.

For this reason we can accurately say that free speech is already missing from our society in every way that counts, regardless of what our nation’s laws might say.

Free speech matters because dissent from the status quo is how the status quo gets changed. If voices which oppose the status quo are consistently denied access to mainstream platforms and are aggressively suppressed online, they’re unable to change the status quo. They don’t have free speech in any meaningful sense, because they’re actively obstructed from using free speech to do what free speech is supposed to do: challenge existing consensus, norms, systems, and power structures.

If the only way to get your voice into a position of influence is to support the status quo, then with regard to the actual reasons free speech matters it’s functionally the same as having no speech at all. It’s like saying “You have free speech; you can say anything you want into this hole in the ground!”

It doesn’t matter what you’re free to say if nobody hears you say it. If those who support the status quo are loudly amplified on all media while those who oppose it are denied access to mainstream audiences and algorithmically censored, dissenting views have no effect. They might as well not exist. An environment where everyone has “free speech” but only those who support the status quo get heard is functionally indistinguishable from an environment where no one has free speech and only authorized state propaganda gets heard.

Which is of course the idea. A tremendous amount of effort goes into keeping the public from awakening to and freeing themselves from the injustices of status quo systems while still giving them the illusion of freedom. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world.

And some might argue “Sure, okay, allowing dissident voices to be heard is important, but that doesn’t need to include anti-vaxxers and QAnoners!” Or “doesn’t need to include Russian propagandists!” Or “doesn’t need to include CCP shills!” Or whatever your personal bias happens to be.

But how would that work, exactly? How would it be decided who counts as a worthy dissident voice and who doesn’t? Who do we imagine would be making that call? Would we be leaving the question of who qualifies as a legitimate critic of the status quo to institutions who have a vested interest in that status quo, like billionaire megacorporations? Or plutocrat-owned mainstream media “fact-checkers”? Or the government? Or do you imagine that Silicon Valley executives will be shooting you a DM to get your personal okay on whether or not to censor someone?

If you really think about this it quickly becomes apparent that there exists no institution that can be entrusted with the power to determine who is qualified to criticize the status quo, because they’re all inseparably intertwined with it. Even if you had an independent board of rank-and-file citizenry deciding when online censorship is appropriate, its members would all be subjected to the same status quo propaganda systems as everyone else in our society and thus still wildly biased toward the preferences of ruling power structures.

Another problem is that nobody is qualified to serve as an official arbiter of absolute reality. What’s true today may be untrue tomorrow, as we’ve seen time and time again with the official lines about Covid-19 since the outbreak. It could turn out in the future that there are in fact problems with mRNA technology and that some of the concerns being voiced today were entirely well-founded. We simply do not know for certain, because we are not the omniscient demigods that our egos are often tempted to pretend we are.

Protecting our ability to collectively course-correct is more important than preventing people from saying things that aren’t currently considered true. So important that it outweighs even the worst consequences of some people potentially making poor health decisions as a result.

So it becomes clear that the only thing to do is let everyone speak, on the platforms that people have come to rely on for sharing ideas and information with the largest possible number of people. A great many of them will be wrong, and a great many of them will be stupid. But the alternative is shutting down the possibility of healthy change ever occurring in a status quo that is killing our ecosystem, pushing us toward confrontations between nuclear-armed nations, and becoming increasingly despotic.

____________________

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

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source https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/01/31/lets-back-up-a-sec-and-ask-why-free-speech-actually-matters/
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Canadian Tire Fire #27: The Far-Right Politics Driving the ‘Freedom’ Convoy, Land Defense Legal Updates

photo: @MarkGerretsen

This week, we report on the anti-mandate, far-Right truck convoy that been heading toward Ottawa, and the key far-Right members behind its fundraising and organization. We also share a small roundup of updates on land defenders facing charges across so-called Canada, and some actions taken over the past two weeks in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping an eye on the Save Old Growth campaign mentioned in CTF #26, as protesters have maintained their regular blockading of Trans Canada highway access ramps and other main streets in Vancouver and Victoria. They maintain that they will continue blocking traffic multiple times per week until the BC government stops all old growth logging.

Finally, this week brought the devastating news that 93 potential burial sites have been identified at a former residential school near T’exelcemc (Williams Lake First Nation). The residential school, St. Joseph’s Mission School, opened in 1891 and operated until 1981. As in many preceding cases, the indenification of these burial sites only serves to confirm what community members have long known, living with the daily realities and reminders of the genocidal Canadian settler state.

Land Defense Legal News

A few legal cases involving land defenders across so-called Canada saw updates in the past two weeks.

Two Tiny House Warriors were acquitted on January 19th of mischief charges. Kanahaus Manuel and Isha Jules were facing charges following their arrest at Moonbeam bridge, the site of a Tiny House Warriors camp on Secwepemc territory, in 2019. The charges were dropped because their identities could not be proven.

In Gitxsan territory, participants in a rail blockade established in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en struggles got some mixed news earlier this month. CN announced they would not be pursuing contempt charges against twelve people who were arrested for participating in a rail blockade in February 2020, at the height of the Shut Down Canada movement.

According to the CBC, last year, the BC Prosecution Service declined to approve criminal charges for the violation of an injunction covering the stretch of CN rail through Gitxsan territory. This left the decision with CN rail as to whether to pursue civil or criminal contempt of court charges. This week, a laywer representing CN stated that they would not be doing so.

However, in a video published January 20th, Gitxsan Hereditary Chief Spookw clarifies that this narrative is inaccurate. He said that CN’s lawyer indicated, in an email, that CN would not be pursuing the charges “at this time,” but may still do so in the future. He was also informed by email that the 12 land defenders would be added to an existing charge of breach of civil injunction, and the main lawsuit launched by CN, which currently only lists “John and Jane Doe.” This suit claims $135 million of revenue lost for each day of the blockade. Clearly, it is convenient for CN to have the current narrative carried by mainstream media. However, it will be important to pay attention to the voices coming from Gitxsan territory as they continue to fight against their criminalization.

Finally, Indigenous land defender Vanessa Gray had her first virtual court appearance on January 26th for charges stemming from a Wet’suwet’en solidarity rail blockade in Toronto in November 2021. Following the demonstration, she was arrested at her home and charged with mischief, interference with property, causing disturbance, loitering, unlawful assembly, trespassing, and failure to give way. The targeted arrest of Vanessa, an Anishinaabe person known for her advocacy around environmental justice, falls into a clear pattern of the escalated criminalization of Indigenous land defenders.

According to the National Observer, court support efforts during the virtual hearing were stifled, with supporters being told they would need to confirm their identities to the judge (many had appeared under the name “Drop the Charges”). The hearing resulted in a removal of certain bail conditions, including one barring her from CP Rail property. Her next court date is set for February 9th.

Wet’suwet’en Solidarity Actions

In Toronto, a group of people dressed as construction workers redecorated the homes of TC Energy Chair Siim Vanaselja, and RBC Executive Doug Guzman. Setting up the front of the homes like construction sites, they sent a personal message to those profiting off the destruction of Wet’suwet’en land. They also postered both mens’ streets.

A press release read in part:

Today supporters took action to bring the message home to Siim Vanaselja and Doug Guzman, two men leading companies that are orchestrating, funding, and profiting off of the violent colonial invasion of unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. The decisions they make are directly linked to the militarized violence that the RCMP has carried out on Wet’suwet’en people over the past several months to shove through the Coastal Gaslink pipeline at gunpoint.

Also in Toronto, a group, organized by XR Toronto, blocked rush hour traffic onto the Gardiner Expressway on January 18. They held banners and distributed information to drivers on the unfolding situation on Wet’suwet’en territory. They plan to repeat the action on February 4.

Inside the Far-Right Politics Driving the Ottawa Truck Convoy

This weekend, thousands shut down the streets of Ottawa, as part of a far-Right backed convoy, in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates. According to Yahoo News!:

The demonstration has grown beyond a call to end the cross-border mandate to a push to an end to all vaccine mandates nationwide, and some demonstrators have pledged to continue their protests until they are removed.

The protest made headlines, after some demonstrators flew flags with “Swastikas and other symbols of hate,” pushing many on the far-Right to predictably blame ‘ANTIFA’ or government organized ‘false-flag’ plants in the crowd.

But where did these protests come from and who is supporting them? On January 22nd, 2022 the Canadian far-Right started up another misinformation and recruitment convoy headed to Ottawa. This time, their justification was the recent federal border rules requiring proof of vaccination to cross the border in either direction for non-citizens. As with the “united we roll” convoy many years back, the new face has fooled several corporate media outlets into giving them news stories with minimal background research.

This convoy has also succeeded in getting people to squander a huge sum of money on misplaced analysis, hope, and trust. A GoFundMe was set up by Tamara Lich, the secretary of the the Maverick Party, a small separatist political party. A second organizer, B.J. Ditcher was added to the page more recently.

From an article in News Hub:

The so-called “Freedom Convoy” was formed in response to a vaccine mandate requiring truckers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to cross the land border between Canada and the United States.

But during the past week, observers and experts have pointed out that some organisers of the event, as well as some of its most vocal backers, have espoused anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and racist views – and authorities have cautioned that the rally on Parliament Hill could turn violent.

“The ‘Freedom Convoy’ is nothing but a vehicle for the far-right,” according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, a non-profit that monitors hate groups. “They say it is about truckers … but if you look at its organizers and promoters, you’ll find Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and incitements to violence.”

The Canadian Anti-Hate Network reported that Lich was “an organizer for Yellow Vests Canada, a regional coordinator for the separatist Western Exit or ‘Wexit’ movement in Alberta, and now as the secretary for the Maverick Party – another separatist movement and fringe political party”.

Lich has posted “conspiracies about the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ operating in Canada”, the network said, while it pointed out that Dichter also has made Islamophobic comments. In 2019, at a national convention for the far-right People’s Party of Canada (PPC), Dichter said, “Despite what our corporate media and political leaders want to admit, Islamist entryism and the adaptation of political Islam is rotting away at our society like syphilis.”

Patrick King, listed as a contact for the North Alberta group participating in the convoy, has regularly espoused anti-Semitic views on social media. “He’s publicly distorted established facts about the Holocaust … then invoked the antisemitic conspiracy theory that the Jewish people are secretly in control of world governance, media, and finances”, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network said.

Pat King, a fascist and anti-Semite who has been covered on It’s Going Down before, has been a very vocal proponent of the convoy and has been collecting funds personally. The GoFundMe set up by Lich has brought in an astounding 6 million but was eventually frozen. The funds were not frozen because of a fear of furthering misinformation or further recruitment in the growing fascist movement, however. They were frozen due to skepticism of how the funds would be dispersed – right-wing grifters being well known for – grifting, it would seem. After hearing the funds were frozen, one such grifter started asking American truckers to block the doors at GoFundMe’s head office until the funds were released. While there is no evidence to suggest anyone attempted to carry out these wishes, on January 27th it was reported that GoFundMe has released $1 million of the funds, so far.

 

As with the Yellow Vest convoy, the organizers are trying to downplay their links to fascist beliefs and conspiracies. This has gone as far as claiming Pat King is not officially involved in the convoy, despite his being listed as the northern Alberta contact for some time.

Both the organizers from the GoFundMe page have been connected to the Yellow Vest and anti-Islam movements for quite some time. A couple pretty open fascists have also backed the convoy and have stated their intention to participate in the protests. Derrick Harrison of the “plaid army” stated he wanted this to be a “Canadian January 6th,” referring to Trump supporters’ attempted fascist takeover of the DC Capitol building during the election ratification.

Tyler Russel, of Canada First, suggested participants dream big and “install” Maxime Bernier or Randy Hillier as “King of Canada.” He briefly caught his fascist language slip and then stated it should be done “democratically.”

Sadly, we have seen little in the way of resistance to this, aside from attempts to shut down the fundraising and exposing the fascist roots of the convoy. The total number of vehicles involved in the convoy from east and west of Ottawa seem to be under 2,000, but the number of anti-maskers in Ottawa seems quite large. On Saturday, they had already started harassing retail workers and entered Rideau Centre, causing it to close. The convoy claims it will be in Ottawa for a few days and participants still have the drive home to make with others stating they will be out until vaccine mandates are rescinded and/or Trudeau resigns. So we shall keep a look out as the story unfolds.

In the meantime, this article by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network digs even further into the far-Right origins of the convoy’s organizing.

Follow Canadian Tire Fire for updates.


by Canadian Tire Fire via It's Going Down
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Sunday, January 30, 2022

This Week in Fascism #126: Down in the Dumps with Patriot Front; Boise Stands Tall Against far-Right; Trolls Lie About Dartmouth Bomb Scare

Welcome fellow antifascists!

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for Patriot Front. First, journalists at Unicorn Riot leaked mass amounts of photos, video, and chat messages they hoped no one would ever see, then antifascists showed how they ruined their photo-op in DC late last year, and now, members of the group are being doxxed, fired, and exposed left and right.

But this is only one of the stories we’re bringing you in this installment of This Week in Fascism – and with so much action, news, doxxes and updates to throw at you – let’s dive right in!

Action

While antifascists were busy combing through the recent Patriot Front leaks from Unicorn Riot, others were busy pulling down Patriot Front banners and flyering the neighborhood of PF leader, Thomas Rousseau.

In Harvest, Alabama, antifascists also flyered the neighborhood of Patriot Front member, Ian Elliot, alerting the community to the presence of an active neo-Nazi.

Several antifascists held a humorous protest, complete with show tunes and a giant milkshake sign, outside of a talk at Dartmouth university by far-Right grifters Andy Ngo and Gabriel Nadales, both known to work closely with (or for) GOP aligned foundations, funded by corporate and billionaire donors. Since 2014, Nadales has worked for Turning Point USA, the Campus Reform publication which targets university professors for harassment, and the aligned Leadership Institute.

Starting in 2019, Nadales branded himself as an “ex-Antifa” activist, using his position at the Leadership Institute to gain access to speaking events and outlets like Fox News, claiming that in high school he was a left-wing activist for several months before becoming a conservative towards his graduation. During this time, Nadales claims he went to a small protest against a neo-Nazi group and also protested “outside the home of a CEO.” In an interview in 2016, he stated that he used to be a “progressive Leftist activist” – seems his story is always changing depending on whatever grift his handlers have in mind for him at the time.

Both far-Right trolls would later claim that the Dartmouth event was shut down due to “threats” from antifascists, however local college newspaper The Dartmouth reported that the campus moved the event to an online forum due to poor planning by the local sponsoring group of college Republicans. A tweet from Ngo about “bomb sniffing dogs,” allowed other far-Right trolls to push the lie that “bomb threats” forced the event to shut down. Ngo doubled down on this lie in the New York Post, writing:

To be sure, the threats against myself, Nadales and prospective attendees were concerning. Local law enforcement had to clear Moore Hall with a bomb squad and dogs before I arrived.

However, according to Dartmouth college spokesperson Diana Lawrence in The Dartmouth:

According to a tweet after the event from Ngo, there were “bomb-sniffing dogs brought in.” Lawrence wrote in her statement there were “no bomb threats,” but that the Hanover and state police conducted a routine sweep of the venue prior to the speakers’ arrival. She did not clarify the presence of “dogs” at the event. “This is standard procedure and is not initiated because of specific information,” she wrote.

This is only the latest attempt by Andy Ngo to paint himself as a victim in an attempt to push disinformation and lies within the wider right-wing media echo-chamber. Ironically, according to The Dartmouth, at its peak, Ngo’s online event only got 94 viewers – many of whom were antifascists, who asked Ngo to comment on his far-Right associations, which he refused.

In Boise, Idaho, responding to threats from far-Right groups, a large crowd mobilized in defense of an ongoing tent-city protest at the state capitol, which is protesting for more low-income housing and an end to police harassment of the local houseless community. Since the tent-city popped up, members of the Idaho Liberty Dogs, a militia like group with ties to Bundy’s People’s Rights, the local GOP, and groups like the Proud Boys, have been threatening the encampment. Several days ago, those threats escalated, with the group calling for an armed anti-houseless demonstration. Online, supporters of the group made reference to violence and bringing out high powered assault weapons, in an effort to drive out protesters.

The night before the protest, It’s Going Down documented that stink bombs were thrown into the tent city, however the next day, the far-Right crowd was vastly out-numbered and eventually left in defeat, while the larger community in support of their houseless neighbors stood strong.

Finally in Orlando, Florida, supporters of the neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Movement (NSM) attacked members of the public at a busy intersection during yet another “White Lives Matter” demonstration which in the past has attracted various far-Right and white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.

News

While They Marched in DC, 400 GB of Patriot Front Chats Get Leaked to Unicorn Riot and DDoSecrets

Journalists at Unicorn Riot have released a massive data leak of over 400 GBs of Patriot Front chats. The leak includes messages, video and photos of PF activity, plans for actions, PF membership documents, financial information, identities of members, and all the racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and hate that we have come to expect from this neo-Nazi group.

Some of the highlights include member crossover and collaboration with other fascist formations like the Proud Boys, the extent to which antifascists have disrupted PF’s organizing, the tactics used by PF leader, Thomas Rousseau, to ensure physical protection from law enforcement as they march in formation in various cities across the country, and direct coordination of hate crimes and targeted racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ vandalism between members and leadership. Also evident is the fear of being doxxed and the consequences of being outed as a member of a neo-Nazi group.

Since the release of the data, many, many, many members have been identified by antifascist crews across the country. Several of these doxxes are highlighted below in our ‘Doxxes’ section so check that out! For your own research, the data can be accessed on Unicorn Riot’s site, you can get it via DDoSecrets substack, or you can check out the Patriot Front Gallery put together in a major collaboration from antifascist crews from around the country including Utah, Washington, Atlanta, NYC, Ashville, Seven Hills, Colorado, Corvallis, Bay Area, Portland and Chicago.

Happy hunting. 😉

Alex Jones Store Made $165 Million in Three Years

Reactionary, anti-vax/anti-mask agenda-pushing, far-Right conspiracy theorist, propagandist and media personality Alex Jones makes a regular plea to his viewers for financial support. Using language that indicates he and his platform are on the brink of financial collapse, Jones appeals to his viewers and followers to continue supporting him by shopping his products in his Infowars online store. Financial records obtained by the Huffington Post that were originally submitted as discovery in a case against Jones by the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting (a case that Jones lost) indicate that from 2015 – 2018, Infowars online store raked in around $165 million. Peddling conspiracy theories and pro-MAGA propaganda has been extremely lucrative for Jones.

From the article:

The gamble of backing Trump appeared to pay off. Of the more than three years of data reviewed by HuffPost, Infowars’ most profitable days happened around the 2016 presidential election. The day of the election, Nov. 8, the Infowars store more than doubled its sales from the previous day, making a total of over $660,000. The next day, after Trump won, more than 8,700 orders were placed on the Infowars website totaling nearly $850,000 in sales.

Check out the full story for more details, including financial documents.

Justice Department Rolls Out New Taskforce to Combat Domestic Terrorism

The newest example of “state-sponsored repression” comes to us in the form of a brand new Anti-Terrorism taskforce designed to combat domestic terrorism. The New York Times reports:

The move is in keeping with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland’s vow to prioritize combating domestic extremism. It comes as the Justice Department investigates the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, an assault that underscores the resurgence of domestic extremism driven in part by the baseless perception that the 2020 election was marred by election fraud.

Last year, the Biden administration unveiled a national strategy to tackle domestic extremism, which called for preventing recruitment by extremist groups and bolstering information sharing across law enforcement.

In its budget proposal this spring, the Justice Department requested an additional $101 million to address domestic terrorism, including $45 million for the F.B.I. and $40 million that federal prosecutors can use to manage their increasing domestic terrorism caseloads. But Congress has not yet passed its annual appropriations bill, so no agency funding requests have been granted.

Though the data shows that far-Right violence is on the rise in the so-called United States, there are serious concerns that this anti-terrorism unit will inevitably be used against Native, Black liberation, anti-racist and anarchist activists under the umbrella of “anti-government extremism.”

Atomwaffen Leader Sentenced for Plot Targeting Journalists

Former leader of neo-Nazi terrorist group Atomwaffen Division, Kaleb Cole, was sentenced to 84 months in prison on January 11th for his involvement in threats to journalists and activists. The Department of Justice’ Office of Public Affairs said in a press release:

Kaleb Cole, 25, a leader of the Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington of one count of interfering with a federally protected activity because of religion, three counts of mailing threatening communications, and one count of conspiring with other Atomwaffen members to commit three offenses against the United States – interference with federally-protected activities because of religion, mailing threatening communications, and cyberstalking…

At trial, the victims described how receiving the posters impacted them. Some moved from their homes for a time or installed security systems. One purchased a firearm and took a firearms safety class. Another started opening her mailbox with a stick due to fear of what might be inside. One left her job as a journalist.

Cole, along with three others (Cameron Shea, Johnny Roman Garza, and Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe) led an inter-state plot of intimidation with a targeted focus of Jewish people and people of color. Atomwaffen Division was a stochastic terrorist organization that formed out of Iron March. Their main influences are William Pierce who wrote The Turner Diaries and neo-Nazi James Mason who authored the collection of newsletters known as Siege, and who was directly involved in AWD organizing for a time. A handful of AWD members have since rebranded as neo-Nazi accelerationist group, the National Socialist Order.

Texas GOP Candidate Won’t Fire White Nationalist Staffer

The Huffington Post reports that Don Huffines, Republican candidate for governor, says that he will not be participating in “cancel culture” by removing a staffer with deep ties to anti-Semitic and white nationalist organizing. According to the Huffington Post, Jake Lloyd Colglazier has a documented history of being a leading voice in the groyper movement, having once declared that the white “race is dying.”

From the article:

On Friday, the social justice think tank Political Research Associates published a report detailing how Colglazier became a leading voice in the white nationalist America First, or “groyper,” movement. Prior to that, he was a host at the far-right conspiracist website InfoWars.

Colglazier, 24, was listed as “deputy communications director” for Huffines on the website of the True Texas Project, a right-wing activist group closely aligned with Huffines’ campaign, last week. (That description has since been removed.) Colglazier’s Twitter bio includes a link to Huffines’ campaign website. And on Friday, Ben Lorber, a research analyst at PRA, says a Huffines staffer confirmed over the phone that Colglazier was deputy communications director for the campaign.

Apparently Huffines tried to trivialize Colglazier’s involvement in far-Right spaces, but this would be a wild mischaracterization, as Colglazier served as a prominent voice on massive white nationalist platforms. The fight against the mainstreaming of white nationalism continues. Check out the article for the full story.

House Committee Investigating J6 Subpoenas White Nationalist Figures

The House Committee tasked with investigating the January 6th storming of the capitol have issued subpoenas for white nationalists Patrick Casey and Nick Fuentes, leading members of the so-called “groyper” movement. Growing out of the Alt-Right, the groypers have embraced a form of entryism into the Republican party in an effort to push the GOP into embracing explicit white nationalism. Fuentes has used his platform to promote lies about the election being rigged, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, praised fascist leaders like Mussolini, defended Holocaust denial, and encouraged his supporters to take part in “Stop the Steal” events across the US and in DC on January 6th.

Patrick Casey is the former leader of the now inoperative neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa which played a key role in organizing the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA in 2017 that resulted in the murder of anti-racist activist Heather Heyer. Following Unite the Right, IE then rebranded into American Identity Movement (AmIM) and began to heavily align with Nick Fuentes and his own formation, American First, before then dissolving into the larger groyper current.

The New York Times reports:

The subpoenas demonstrated the committee’s intensifying focus on the rallies that led up to the mob violence and how those with extremist views were drawn to former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.

The panel instructed the men to turn over documents related to their activities and submit to interviews in February.

“The Select Committee is seeking facts about the planning, coordination, and funding of events that preceded the violent attack on our democracy,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee. “We believe the individuals we have subpoenaed today have information relevant to those questions, and we expect them to cooperate with the committee.”

The committee said the two men had participated in a series of events leading up to last Jan. 6, in which they promoted false claims about the election, including in Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, and at two rallies in Washington where they called for the destruction of the Republican Party for failing to overturn the election.

SPLC recently released a report detailing how Fuentes uses crypto currency to accept donations to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. His notoriety as a virulent neo-Nazi has gotten him booted from platform after platform and in April 2021, the federal government seized the assets in one of his bank accounts. Hatewatch explains:

Fuentes has persisted in making public appearances following Jan. 6, but his rhetoric and style have taken on a more paranoid, religious air in recent months. Hatewatch attended a Fuentes-led event outside Staten Island University Hospital in New York on Nov. 10 and found the white nationalist speaking out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates to a crowd of around fifty fans, while wearing a bulletproof vest and pointing to a large crucifix in the crowd.

“That man on that cross,” Fuentes said, his voice rising to a shout. “That is more real than your job! That is more real than your friends!”

He has also become more explicit in expressing solidarity with white supremacists. In his livestream responding to the Jan. 6 subpoena on Wednesday night, he repeatedly compared himself to Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.

“I’m trying to get out a very important message about white genocide and the destruction of our people,” he explained about his own activism.

Fuentes has also sharpened his tone when speaking about law enforcement and the federal government in the year that followed Jan. 6. He has formed a habit of warning his fans against speaking to federal law enforcement under any circumstance. The committee’s press release claims that the FBI has scrutinized Fuentes’ funds.

Given the fact that Fuentes and white nationalism in general has planted it’s feet firmly within the GOP, it will be interesting to see how this shakes out, what impact it will have on far-Right organizing, specifically in the groyper/America First current, and what it means for allies inside the GOP like Representative Paul Gosar who spoke at Fuentes’ AFPAC conference last year.

Baked Alaska Gets 30 Days in Jail for Assaulting Bar Employee

Neo-Nazi troll “Baked Alaska” aka Tim Gionet, has secured himself 30 days in jail for pepper-spraying a bar employee in Arizona in December 2020. According to the Anchorage Daily News:

Gionet, who also faces unrelated charges over his presence in the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, was previously convicted of assault, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing in the December 2020 incident in Scottsdale.

Police say Gionet made customers uncomfortable when he and friends were inside the bar livestreaming video, refused to leave when asked to do so and got into an argument with an employee who pushed him out of the door, leading Gionet to shoot pepper spray twice.

Gionet faces a handful of other charges, including several that stem from the January 6 White Riot in DC and separate charges for vandalizing a Hanukkah display in December 2020.

Proud Boy Tusitala “Tiny” Toese Jailed For 8/22 Attack

According to the Portland Mercury, Proud Boy Tusitala “Tiny” Toese has been arrested for charges stemming from an August 22nd, 2021 protest in Portland. He’s facing a total of eleven criminal charges. From the article:

Toese was one of many members of the Proud Boys and other far-right organizations who showed up in Northeast Portland on Sunday, August 22 with paintball guns and bear mace, looking for a confrontation with antifascist Portlanders. The so-called “Summer of Love” rally marked the one-year anniversary of a similar right-wing demonstration in downtown Portland, which was defined by its lack of police response. The 2021 event, held in an abandoned Kmart parking lot in the Parkrose neighborhood, was no different. Right-wing activists violently clashed with antifascists that afternoon in a haze of smoke bombs and white paint with no police intervention. Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said that officers were monitoring the situation from afar and would make arrests at a later date…

Toese has been charged with three counts of assault in the second degree, two counts of assault in the third degree, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of riot, and two counts of criminal mischief.

Toese has a documented history of violence in addition to his continued membership of the fascist street gang, the Proud Boys. His first hearing hasn’t been scheduled. Check the article for more details.

Kyle Chapman Gets Arrested in Boise for “Battery” Against a Worker at Trauma Center

White nationalist and Proud Boy leader Kyle Chapman, best known as “Based Stickman,” who once led the “military wing” of the Proud Boys, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, has once again been arrested in yet another violent assault.

According to the Idaho Statesman:

Chapman, 46, was arrested Tuesday by the U.S. Marshall’s Greater Idaho Fugitive Task Force without incident for battery against health care workers, a felony, Boise Police spokesperson Haley Williams said. He was being held Wednesday on a $100,000 bail at the Ada County Jail. In addition, Ada County Judge Joanne Kibodeaux signed a no-contact order, at the request of the prosecutor, restricting Chapman from coming within 500 feet of the alleged victim or Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

Oath Keepers Charged with “Seditious Conspiracy”

Conspiracy peddler and Oath Keepers leader Steward Rhodes, along with another ten members of his group, have now been hit with “seditious conspiracy” charges in relation to the attempted storming of the DC capitol on January 6th.

As the Associated Press wrote:

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, and 10 other members or associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, authorities said Thursday.

Despite hundreds of charges already brought in the year since pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, these were the first seditious conspiracy charges levied in connection with the attack on Jan. 6, 2021.

It marked a serious escalation in the largest investigation in the Justice Department’s history – more than 700 people have been arrested and charged with federal crimes – and highlighted the work that has gone into piecing together the most complicated cases. The charges rebut, in part, the growing chorus of Republican lawmakers who have publicly challenged the seriousness of the insurrection, arguing that since no one had been charged yet with sedition or treason, it could not have been so violent.

Portland Police Manual Used Proud Boy Meme Promoting Violence Against Left-Wing Protesters

Portland police and officials are once again in hot water after it was made public that police covered up their use a far-Right meme associated with the fascist group the Proud Boys that advocated violence against left-wing demonstrators in a training manual. This speaks volumes not only to the continued crossover of the far-Right into law enforcement, but also the degree in which want to hide these associations.

As Rolling Stone wrote about the incident:

[T]he feds formally rebuked the Portland Police Bureau for covering up its use of a Proud Boys meme in training materials. A slide from a crowd-control PowerPoint developed for Portland police featured the “Prayer of the Alt Knight” — a meme showing a riot cop bashing a long-haired citizen, with an overlay of text that reads, in part:  “Woe be unto you, dirty hippy… I shall send among you, My humble servants with hat, and with bat; That they may christen your heads with hickory, And anoint your faces with pepper spray.”

“Alt-Knights” refers to the military wing of the Proud Boys led by white nationalist, Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman. Members of group marched in Charlottesville and disbanded following the murder of Heather Heyer and subsequent legal fallout.

Was Chicago Cop with Tied to Proud Boys Fired?

Two years after a police officer was outed for having connections to white nationalism and the Proud Boys, the city of Chicago still won’t say if they are still on the force. According to Block Club Chicago:

A group of civil rights attorneys are demanding answers from the city as to what, if any, discipline a Chicago cop has faced since his ties to the Proud Boys were discovered nearly two years ago and police launched investigations into separate sexual abuse claims.

The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights sent a letter Tuesday to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, alderpeople and Supt. David Brown, asking for updates on Officer Robert Bakker. Bakker was identified as an officer who was active on a Proud Boys group chat on Telegram in a story published by Vice in May 2020.

Bakker helped organize Proud Boys meetups in Lincoln Square and Andersonville and bragged about his access to “high police” in screen captures of the chats made public by Chicago Antifascist Action.

The police opened four internal investigations into Bakker in 2020, including one focused on accusations of sex abuse, the Sun-Times reported last year. The department handed Bakker a five-day suspension — which was then deferred due to an Office of the Inspector General investigation, according to the Sun-Times.

It is unclear if Bakker served the suspension or what resulted from the sexual abuse allegations, which date back to before he joined the department.

Spokespeople from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and Office of the Inspector General told Block Club investigations into Bakker were referred to the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs.

The Police Department did not respond to questions about its investigation into Bakker or his suspension. City records show Bakker is still employed full time as a police officer with an annual salary of $80,016.

Seattle Police Office Involved in Proud Boys Hoax Has been Rehired

The police officer behind spreading targeted disinformation about threats from the Proud Boys against protesters in Seattle has been rehired. According to the Seattle Times:

One of the Seattle Police Department officers involved in coordinating lying during a crucial moment amid 2020’s racial justice protests subsequently left the department but was rehired last month, the department disclosed Wednesday.

The rehired officer took a prominent role on June 8, 2020, in transmitting fake radio chatter about a group of menacing right-wing extremists heading to confront protesters on Capitol Hill, according to an Office of Police Accountability investigation report released last week.

Meanwhile, an email has surfaced from earlier the same day that references a warning to non-police employees at the city about possible Proud Boys activity.

First reported by Omari Salisbury of Converge Media and by the South Seattle Emerald, the email between Seattle Public Utilities employees on June 8, 2020, mentions “intelligence” about Proud Boys. Some activists have described the radio chatter as part of a wider effort at the time by the Police Department to spread false information and undermine the protests. Officials Wednesday neither confirmed nor refuted a link between the email and the radio hoax.

Doxxes

Kevin M. McNamara, Proud American Patriots Network (PAPN) of Allentown, Pennsylvania

CROH Lehigh Valley comrades have identified Kevin McNamara, a member of the Proud American Patriots Network militia. The PAPN militia are closely affiliated with the Three Percent militia. McNamara lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania and was identified because his name was in the Epik leaks dataset, which led antifascist researchers to connect him with TJ & Brittany Kosin, founders PAPN. His social media is full of photos of McNamara posing with confederate flags and skull masks, a popular part of the uniform of neo-Nazis. Check the thread for more details.

Justin Laks, Neo-Nazi Jiu-Jitsu Instructor of Vancouver, Washington

Corvallis Antifa have unmasked neo-Nazi Jiu-Jitsu instructor Justin Laks of Vancouver, Washington. Laks’ runs JT’s Jiu-Jitsu, a martial arts training company where he trains children and teens. He’s been running this mobile martial arts company since he was released from prison. In 1996, Laks pled guilty to brutally murdering an unarmed security guard. The logo for his company includes a sonnenrad, or Black sun, used exclusively by neo-Nazis as a symbol of hate and a dogwhistle. Through martial arts, Laks associates with members of the Asatru Folk Assembly, “a White Nationalist pagan religious group with deep ties to Nazi skinheads.” He also has connections with members of another hate group, the PNW Wolfpack with ties to neo-Nazi skinhead prison gangs.

Corvallis Antifa reports:

In addition to his Jiu Jitsu business, Justin is the current president of the Clark College re-entry club, a club that helps former prison inmates enter society. The neo-Nazi groups Justin is connected to work closely with prison gangs, and often provide members support when they leave jail. We think it is highly probably Justin is using this club as a means to get former prison Nazis jobs. While we do believe that nobody should be in prison, and that re-entry club is a positive thing, we are concerned that Justin will use his position to bring more people into White Supremacist spaces, and get more of them jobs in our communities.

Check the blog for calls to action.

Paul Michael Gancarz, Patriot Front Network Director from Virginia Beach, Virginia

Antifa Seven Hills in collaboration with NYC Antifa bring us the identity of Patriot Front Network Director Paul Michael Gancarz of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Gancarz, who goes by “DeltaGanz” has a decorated history of working with white nationalist and neo-Nazi organzing. In 2017, he attended the deadly Unite the Right rally as a uniform-wearing member of the Proud Boys. He has also helped distribute propaganda for neo-Nazi Robert Rundo’s group “Rise Above Movement (RAM)” and “Will2Rise.”

The blog states:

Paul Michael Gancarz is a fascist and Patriot Front’s Network Director for the region covering Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware. He currently lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but is originally from New York City where he has strong ties to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Forest Hills, Queens. As a member of Patriot Front, Gancarz is very active in the group’s propaganda campaigns in both New York and Virginia where he is responsible for much of the Patriot Front stickers, posters, and stencils reported in these areas. In his role as a Patriot Front Network Director, Paul would have been directly involved or consulted on high-profile vandalism in his network, such as the defacement of the Arthur Ashe mural in Richmond, Virginia. As the host for Patriot Front marches in Washington DC on January 29th, 2021 and more recently on December 4th, 2021, he would have had a large role in the organizing and staging of these fascist spectacles (and any U-haul mishaps that may have occurred).

Head to Torch Antifa’s blog for calls to action.

Pastor Blake Louis Kilbourne, Neo-Nazi from Dickinson, North Dakota

Our friends over at Anonymous Comrades Collective have brought to us the identity of neo-Nazi podcaster and Lutheran Pastor Blake Louis Kilbourne of Dickinson, North Dakota. Kilbourne, under the alias “SuperLutheran” is a regular fixture of the far-right media collective “The Right Stuff” run by Mike “Enoch” Peinovich, and his podcast “The Godcast” has produced 191 episodes full of racism, anti-Semitism, and queerphobia.

Outside of his podcaster role, Kilbourne previously served as Pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church in Bremerton, Washington but currenly serves as Pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Dickinson, North Dakota.

Check the blog for all the details including calls to action. It should also be noted, that after being exposed by antifascists, Killbourne has been placed on administrative leave while the church conducts an investigation.

Logan Plank, Patriot Front Neo-Nazi of Wood River, Illinois

Chicago AFA have identified Patriot Front member “Clark IL” as Logan Plank of Wood River, Illinois. Plank is the son of Bathalto teacher Tiffany Plank and Wood River town councilmember Jeremy Plank. Plank was identified after he dropped his resume into the PF chat while communicating with his PF Network Director, Carter MO. Carter MO counseled Plank on how to navigate and hide his white supremacist beliefs from his family, particularly his father. His social media accounts indicate his journey through the Donald Trump to neo-Nazi pipeline, which makes sense given his mother’s pro-Trump, disinformation believer Tiffany Perry. CAFA reports:

All of these adults in Logan’s life looked away from or even possibly tacitly encouraged Logan’s hatred of non-whites as well as his desire to build a whites-only ethnostate. In addition to Logan, these enablers should also face social consequences for their ignorance or potential encouragement of white nationalism.

Check the blog for details and calls to action.

Patriot Front Members Karter Brown of Marietta, Georgia and Christian Foshee of Milledgeville, Georgia

Atlanta Antifa bring us not one but two banger Patriot Front doxxes. Following the giant leak of Patriot Front chats presented to us by Unicorn Riot, our Georgia comrades have identified Karter Brown of Marietta, GA and Christian Foshee of Milledgeville, GA. Both men attended the December 4th, 2021 DC rally that ended in utter disaster.

According to the chats, Foshee organized PF training before the December 4th DC rally. He also uses social media, primarily a handful of Telegram channels he’s a part of, to post white power and antisemitic propaganda. Brown shows up in training footage from Tallahassee and rented a van for the December 4th trip for the group.

Dustin Sargent, Patriot Front Neo-Nazi of Kunkletown, Pennsylvania

Our comrades from Philly Antifa have identified Dustin Sargent of Kunkletown, PA. Sargent is a member of Patriot Front, goes by the alias “Alan PA,” and owns Sargent and Sons Masonry. Sargent drove to DC to attend the December 4th rally. According to Philly Antifa researchers:

His Facebook has videos of British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley (a favorite among Patriot Front members) as well as an anti-Semitic video pushing the conspiracy theory of a Jewish cabal trying to destroy western civilization.

It appears Sargent also trained with the group in early October. Check the blog for the full dox.

Colton Michael Brown, Patriot Front Network Director of Ravensdale, Washington

Washington Nazi Watch comrades have unmasked Patriot Front Network Director Colton Michael Brown of Ravensdale, Washinton. Operating under the alias “John WA,” Brown holds a leadership role, helping to recruit and organize for Patriot Front. WA Nazi Watch reports:

As a Network Director, the highest leadership role you can obtain under national leader Thomas Rousseau, Brown enforces and contributes to Patriot Front’s white supremacist culture and hatred. Brown’s area of responsibility includes the officially-designated “Network 8” (often stylized “NW8” or “Network VIII”) in western Washington state, plus the less-developed “clusters” in Oregon and Eastern Washington/Idaho.

Brown has organized several hate crimes in the Pacific Northwest, with the approval and frequent supervision of Rousseau. Brown targeted a mural of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Portland in July 2021, and participated in the vandalism of the “Respect and Love Olympia” mural in October 2021, among others.

The report is full of important details and calls to action so check it out.

Drop the Charges Against Antifascists in San Diego!

A petition to drop trumped up charges against antifascists in San Diego has been launched.

From the page:

We demand that all charges against local activists from San Diego and Los Angeles defending our community from violent far-right extremists be dropped! We denounce the unprecedented conspiracy charges and the unreasonably high bail against transgender activists.

On January 9, 2021, violent far-right extremists went to Pacific Beach to disrupt and terrorize the local community – but local activists counter-demonstrated to show that hate is not welcome in our communities. In response, not only did SDPD use force solely against the counter-demonstrators, but now almost a year later is going after local activists alleging criminal conspiracy based largely on allegations of wearing black and liking social media posts. This is obscene and tyrannical overreach, and if it succeeds, it will set a deadly precedent for people opposing hate all across the country!

Local San Diego and Los Angeles community organizations say NO to these charges, and NO to the repression of local activists. We demand the charges be dropped!

We encourage community members to support the defendants in the coming months, prioritizing their leadership in this struggle, donating to their support funds, and speaking out against the repression of local activists for defending our communities!

Sign here and find ways to donate.

Support Our Prisoners

  • Support those arrested during the ongoing rebellion! Check the In Contempt column on It’s Going Down for a list of prisoners.
  • Support Gage Halupowski! Currently serving a six year sentence. More info here.
  • Support Dan Baker! Currently facing federal charges for posts online in response to armed far-Right rally at the capitol building in Florida. More info here.
  • Support Eric King! Anarchist and antifascist prisoner who has been targeted by the State and neo-Nazi inmates. More info here. Donate here.
  • Support San Diego antifascists facing heavy charges! Go here to sign petition and donate.

by This Week in Fascism via It's Going Down
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