Antifa culture war against "heteronormativity, patriarchy, nationalism,
transphobia, class rule"
Newsletter published on July 7, 2020
(1) Blue (progressive) America doomed like late Imperial Rome - Joel Kotkin
(2) Amazon TV series depicts an America in which blacks enslave whites
(3) Nancy Pelosi open to taking down statues of Washington and Jefferson
(4) Israel Shamir defends China's Cultural Revolution
(5) Jennifer Zeng presents a Falun Going view of China's Cultural
Revolution - Eric Walberg
(6) Farrakhan: Fauci, Gates Foundation 'Want to Depopulate the Earth',
using Vaccines
(7) Theodore Roosevelt invited (black) Booker T. Washington to dine with
him in the White House
(8) Defund the Thought Police
(9) Antifa derives from communist & anarchist groups of 1920s & 30s Europe
(10) Antifa culture war against "heteronormativity, patriarchy,
nationalism, transphobia, class rule"
(1) Blue (progressive) America doomed like late Imperial Rome - Joel Kotkin
Urban Blues
The fashionable radicalism now popular in progressive cities will
ultimately fail and, in the process, hurt working people and minorities
the most
By Joel Kotkin
July 06, 2020
On the surface, progressive "Blue America" has never appeared stronger.
President Donald Trump’s leadership failures exposed by the pandemic and
the recent disorders, is sinking him in the polls. His rival, Joe Biden,
seems likely to concede his traditionally moderate stances to placate
the Democrats’ youthful activist and identitarian wings. Radical
"transformation" of the United States seems to some just months away.
Yet even as their political power waxes, the woke progressives are
engaged in a process of blue-icide, undermining their own urban base of
disadvantaged citizens and their own credibility. Such self-destructive
tendencies existed even before COVID-19 and the George Floyd upheavals,
in the form of crushingly high taxes, regulatory burdens, and
dysfunctional schools. The failures of Trump may help progressives in
2020, but their emerging policy agenda seems destined to benefit the red
states, conservatives, and, sadly, the far right, later in this decade.
Over the past several years New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have lost
population and San Francisco seems likely soon to join them. Meanwhile
the suburbs, exurbs, and sprawling cities of the interior have continued
to grow. Politically, almost all the major blue states—New York, New
Jersey, Illinois, and even California—are expected to lose seats in the
House in the next congressional elections, while the big Sunbelt states,
notably Texas, Florida, and Arizona, will gain.
The departure of the urban middle class, with even millennials now
joining the exodus, has left cities such as New York increasingly
divided between a predominately white and Asian, overclass and a large,
and often struggling, predominantly minority population. Without the
restraints that traditionally come from a politically engaged
middle-class constituency pushing for moderate and necessary reform,
urban politics have evolved in directions unlikely to attract
desperately needed investment and higher wage jobs in the inner city.
These demographic changes have left the fate of our bluest cities in the
hands of radicals such as the increasingly potent Black Lives Matter
movement. The blue state political and media establishment, and their
allies in the corporate elite, have conceded enormous credibility to a
group whose stance is explicitly radical.
Thoroughgoing police reform, the key reason for the Black Lives Matter
movement’s growth, is clearly needed. But BLM’s politics go beyond even
support for such widely unpopular measures as defunding, or even
abolishing, the police and the prison system, and endorsing reparations.
The group generally favors radical socialist economics to battle what
its founders see as "racial capitalism." Besides favoring federal
favoritism for Black institutions, it embraces single payer health care,
huge tax increases, and other leftist positions that might not appeal to
blue state oligarchs. It also condemns Israel as "genocidal."
Blue state leaders have been slow to recognize—or perhaps slow to
acknowledge—that BLM politics are more akin to the Black Panther Party
of the 1960s than the Southern Christian Leadership Council. Academic
Melina Abdullah, a prominent BLM spokesperson and co-founder of the Los
Angeles chapter, is an open admirer of the Nation of Islam and Louis
Farrakhan. She describes the protests not as a cry for reform but an
"uprising" or "rebellion." In late May, Abdullah explained: "We’ve been
very deliberate in saying that the violence and pain and hurt that’s
experienced on a daily basis by Black folks at the hands of a repressive
system should also be visited upon, to a degree, to those who think that
they can just retreat to white affluence." Among the areas where rioters
visited pain was LA’s traditionally Jewish Fairfax district, where
stores were destroyed and synagogues were vandalized and spray-painted
with slogans like "Fuck Israel." A BLM leader in New York has endorsed
the armed takeover of neighborhoods, something that has already
occurred, with deadly results, in painfully white and hip Seattle.
The outrage after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in
Minneapolis grew not just out of generations of mistreatment by law
enforcement, but also a worsening economic situation for working class
minorities in big cities. The bluest, densest urban cores were already
reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation worsened both by both
White House incompetence and that of top elected local officials. But
the impact has, for the most part, been more intense in densely
populated blue urban areas, particularly those dependent on public transit.
Density is both an inevitable fact of city life and an urban planning
goal supported by blue state progressives, but it also increases the
chances of pandemic spread, a pattern that has been clear since at least
the Roman Empire. Historian Kyle Harper, in his brilliant The Fate of
Rome, notes that the "precociously urbanized" empire created cities that
were "victims of the urban graveyard effect." The rise of global trade
and mass immigration in Rome, as today in our great cities, boosted the
capacity to transmit and incubate pathogens.
Even as the country has witnessed a resurgence in recent weeks of
COVID-19 cases concentrated in red states like Texas and Arizona, the
preponderance of infections and fatalities have taken place in dense,
often heavily minority cities. The highest rates of fatalities have
occurred in the New York area, locale for roughly one-third of all
deaths. But other predominantly Black cities such as Washington, D.C.,
Trenton, New Orleans, and Detroit also account for a disproportionate
share. Even with the recent surge, fatality rates in Sunbelt states like
Texas, Arizona, and California are generally about one-eighth of those
in New York and New Jersey.
The pandemic risks represented by density, concentrated poverty, and
transit use, can explain the generally harsher blue state lockdown
policies. But, whatever their motives, the economic consequences could
be profound. No one seems to know how or whether high-rise offices,
subways and elevators can work efficiently when people have to be 6 feet
apart.
Even before the coronavirus, most new jobs were being created in
suburbia; the urban core accounted for only 9.9% of all job growth
between 2010 and 2017. This percentage is likely to shrink as
information and finance firms shift to online work. Many workers are
adapting to the shift from the 60th floor to the kitchen table and a
large proportion seem to prefer it to commuting to the office.
The trend is likely to encourage migration to less expensive regions or,
for the better paid, a search for houses in the bucolic surrounding
suburbs of cities like New York or San Francisco. The real estate firm
Redfin has found that up to half of all new post-pandemic telecommuters
want to continue to work from home, and, after interviewing potential
and present homeowners, predicts a steady movement of skilled workers to
smaller cities and outer suburbs. Overall, less dense areas are now
growing much faster than denser ones.
Big city diehards insist that "talent" will return in large numbers to
the metropolitan cores. But in reality, even in fields like professional
business services and technology, employment had already been drifting
away from places like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to less
crowded, more dispersed regions like Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, Austin,
Charlotte, and Orlando. This is now likely to break down the
concentrations of knowledge workers even in marquee locations like
Silicon Valley. As many as 2 in 3 tech workers in the Bay Area tell
surveyors they plan to leave in the near future.
Tech company employees and white-collar urban professionals may be able
to pick up and leave big cities, but what about the service workers,
many of them immigrants and minorities, who keep the cities running?
They are more vulnerable in every sense: more vulnerable to infection,
and to the bad economy—roughly half of all job losses in April were in
such low-paying fields as restaurants, hotels, and amusement parks.
Almost 40% of those Americans making under $40,000 a year have lost
their jobs as the wage gains made during the first two years of the
Trump administration have largely evaporated.
In the longer run, the progressive policy agenda is likely to accelerate
urban feudalism, driving out middle-class families and businesses from
the big cities and coasts to the country’s interior and periphery and
leaving behind only the lords and peasants.
Most blue city politicians profess fealty to "social justice" but
inequality has become much more pronounced in bigger cities than smaller
ones or suburban areas. As the middle class has largely departed, the
gap between the affluent urban elites and the marginalized masses has
grown. Tensions between the two have been boiling over for decades,
sometimes erupting in violent protests against gentrification,
precursors to the current unrest.
Caught between their poor constituents and a declining middle class,
progressive politicians like Minneapolis’ Jacob Frey, Seattle’s Jenny
Durkan, and New York’s Bill de Blasio, have looked the other way as
their cities are trashed, sometimes refusing to arrest or jail vandals.
Massachusetts District Attorney Maura Healey went so far as to excuse
looting as a legitimate, even revered form of protest. Elite journalists
compare the ransacking of Target and Apple stores to the protests to the
Boston Tea Party.
This rapid reprise of what Fred Siegel labeled "the riot
ideology"—unleashing violence and disorder as an intimidation tactic to
achieve progressive policy goals and extract economic concessions from
government agencies who just want a way to make the violence stop—has no
chance of actually improving conditions in the lives of people on whose
behalf, supposedly, it is carried out. The rioting of the late 1960s
weakened urban economies and led to devastating losses for minority
property owners and businesses. Years of protests, including several
riots—most of which were also spun as "uprisings" by prominent
defenders—didn’t redress the causes of the protests or slow the spread
of poverty: High-poverty urban areas doubled in population between 1980
and 2018.
The return of the riot ideology in Los Angeles is unlikely to improve
the lives of the inner city residents who will have to live through its
aftermath—on the other hand, it could help some activists’ bankrolls to
get a bit fatter. Overall Black-owned business and property owners have
tended to be hit most profoundly in the wake of these disturbances.
South Central Los Angeles, site of two of the worst riots in American
history, has experienced a growing gap with the surrounding area in
terms of homeownership, income and educational attainment.
Politically, "the riot ideology" today will likely again also prove a
loser. As is the case with peaceful protests now, there was strong
support among most Americans for the early Civil Rights Movement. But as
the protests became more violent, particularly in the late ’60s and
early ’70s, public support receded. This helped secure victories for
right-wing candidates like Ronald Reagan, elected the year after the
1965 Watts riots and, three years later, contributed to Richard Nixon
winning the presidency.
Looting is not widely popular even today. In Minneapolis, we may just be
seeing the first fruits of police withdrawals and a new hands-off policy
toward violence and disorder. Already one factory owner, whose facility
was torched, has announced plans to leave. A friend, whose medical
equipment company warehouse was also burned down, also plans to shift
the facility, and over 100 jobs, to another state. And that is not to
mention all the ordinary people whose ability to go about their lives in
peace depends on government officials and law enforcement being willing
to actually enforce the law.
The emergence of chaotic, radical-controlled police-free zones in
Seattle demanding the abolition of prisons, free college, rent control
and funding for arts certainly won’t encourage serious business
investment. This week a major investment firm that handles billions of
dollars, announced its departure from Seattle and plans to move into a
new office in Phoenix. Even more tragically, On June 29, two teenagers
were shot inside the lawless zone—the fourth shooting in a span of 10
days. One of the victims, who was 16 years old, later died in the hospital.
Not surprisingly, businesses in the Seattle occupied zone have already
been forced to hire private security. Nationally, truck drivers have
announced their intention not to deliver to cities without organized
police protection. Local police outside Seattle also claim that their
cities are being targeted by organized criminal gangs who use the
protests as cover for their activities.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot worries about large retailers not
rebuilding their looted stores, saying it will take a "herculean effort"
to keep them in the city. Major corporations like Target can close down
their Minneapolis stores but still function in thousands of other
locales, notably in the suburbs and exurbs. But it’s the locally owned
stores that were already more vulnerable to the pandemic and often lack
the resources to cope with long lockdowns or street violence, that may
be hardest to keep.
Minority owned and small businesses had already absorbed the biggest
hits from the pandemic. Even before the protests and rioting, the
coronavirus lockdowns were hitting Black-owned business far harder than
any other large ethnic group. As many as 20% or 30% of California’s
restaurants, suggests the California Restaurant Association, may never
reopen. Some 60%, according to the organization, are owned by people of
color.
The current triumph of woke ideology on campuses, in the mainstream
media, Hollywood, and in the corporate suite may smell like sweet
success to progressives. But in the longer run, the progressive policy
agenda—draconian climate change laws, strict rent control, reductions in
public safety, banning single family zoning, and the like—is likely to
accelerate urban feudalism, driving out middle-class families and
businesses from the big cities and coasts to the country’s interior and
periphery and leaving behind only the lords and peasants.
Defunding police will not improve life on the ground in big cities. At a
time when cities like Los Angeles and even crime-ridden Baltimore and
Chicago adopt "tough" policies about enforcing lockdowns and arresting
violators, they have also returned a generation of criminals to the
streets sometimes by suspending bail. Crime is up in many cities,
including, San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis, all cities that
have emptied jails and reduced enforcement.
The biggest impact of the assault on the legitimacy of law enforcement
is felt in minority communities. Diverting funds away from the police
may have been seen as politically expedient,but it has not helped
Baltimore—a city with a long history of police abuse—curb its astronomic
murder rate. Nor is there any reason to expect that fashionable
"defunding" efforts would bring down Chicago’s persistently high
homicide rate, curb the rising crime rate tied to the growing homeless
population in Los Angeles, or slow San Francisco’s slide toward a
lawless dystopia.
The return to "riot ideology" may appeal to partisan journalists,
academics, athletes, and entertainers, but it will not restore the
viability of blue cities, particularly their minority neighborhoods.
What’s truly needed in America’s big cities is not just a return to
order, but a government determined to foster the cultivation of
employable skills and the better paying jobs that go with them.
Certainly it is not promising that in California, post-coronavirus
recovery efforts are being led by woke tech oligarchs like Apple’s Tim
Cook, who has placed most of his manufacturing in China, and extreme
climate activists like billionaire Tom Steyer, who will seek to double
down on the draconian climate agenda helping turn the Golden State into
an increasingly neofeudal society. Nor do efforts in New York to have
powerful oligarchs like Bill Gates and former Google Chairman Eric
Schmidt steer their future, bode well for grassroots organizations and
communities already pummeled by COVID-19, the digital assault on small
business and now by rioting.
To succeed, cities need to be aspirational, safe and healthy. No city
thrives under contagion or the constant threat of violence or infectious
disease; what humbled late Imperial Rome can also be visited on New
York. Against such threats, the nonstop righteous anger, and
ever-expanding demands, and the relentless "virtue signaling" by the
urban elites will serve only to further alienate the middle class and
the political center necessary to achieve compromise and reform.
Of course, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles will continue to appeal to
a subset of our vast population, including highly educated young, mostly
childless people. The bright lights and charmed districts will survive
and even thrive. But most Americans, particularly as they age and seek
to start families, may no longer look at these disordered places with
admiration or even envy. Blue America may not be quite as doomed as late
Imperial Rome, but unless its policy agenda moderates and starts to
prioritize measures that will materially improve the lives of ordinary
people, it will be following a similar path, albeit one paved with the
most self-righteous intentions.
Joel Kotkin is the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman
University and executive director of the Urban Reform Institute. His new
book, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, is now out from Encounter. You can
follow him on Twitter @joelkotkin.
(2) Amazon TV series depicts an America in which blacks enslave whites
SATURDAY JUNE, 27TH 2020
Amazon TV Series Stuns Audiences With Extreme Anti-White Violence
NEWS June 24, 2020 Joseph Curl
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is set to unveil a new series called "Cracka," which
envisions an America in which white people were enslaved by black people.
Director Dale Resteghini released the trailer for the series on Friday,
saying it would be available for purchase on Amazon Prime and elsewhere
later in 2020. The trailer shows a white man with Nazi tattoos being
transported to an alternate universe in which he is made a slave by
black people.
The title cards read: "You took our breath away, what if we took yours?
You raped our daughters, what if we raped yours? You stole our freedom,
now we steal yours."
Other title cards read: "A dangerous new beginning," and "Welcome to
your new world." During the trailer, a song plays in the background with
the words, "n***erland, n***erland."
"Where I come from, this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be," the main
character says as the camera cuts to a "Trump 2020" bumper sticker.
In the series, the white neo-Nazi "protagonist" confronts some black
people in a car, but is somehow swept away to another world. When he
awakens, the tables are turned, and he is brutalized by black
slaveholders. White women are seen being raped by black "slaveowners,"
and white men are seen being lynched by their black overlords.
A synopsis explains the premise. "In a world where white privilege,
systematic oppression, and minority protest in order to break the chains
of bondage runs regular, white supremacist Michael Stone is doing
everything he can to maintain his privilege by exercising every
opportunity to ensure the America he knows and loves continues to remain
pure and more importantly, remain white!"
The lead role of white supremacist Stone is played by Lorenzo Antonucci,
who had an uncredited role in HBO’s "Game of Thrones." Other cast
members include Hakeen Kae-Kazim (Hotel Rwanda), rapper Saigon, Kathryn
Kates, and James Darnell.
"The world isn’t ready for this one !!!!" wrote Saigon in an Instagram
post about the upcoming show.
"What if it were your ancestors?" he wrote. "I could never be racist
because I treat people how I want to be treated… When U see things
through the eyes of other people, sometimes the message resonates."
Some questioned whether Resteghini wants to spur violence by the series.
"Although some people claim that the new series doesn’t glorify violence
against whites the show’s creator, Dale Restighini, has emphasised that
he wants his fans to cheer when the show’s antihero, a white Neo-Nazi,
is brutalised by a gang of black slave owners," Sausage Roll wrote.
The trailer was met with disdain on YouTube. "Repulsive and hateful.
What next, revenge movies set in the modern day? Seriously, how long
until an entire generation of actual racists is created? Sometimes I
think that’s what they want," one viewer wrote. "Hmm yes, because this
will really help to ease racial tensions, won’t it? Smart move… Not!"
wrote another.
(3) Nancy Pelosi open to taking down statues of Washington and Jefferson
JUNE 25, 2020
Nancy Pelosi 'all for' holding a 'review' on taking down statues of
Washington and Jefferson
During an interview Thursday with Washington Post Live, host Robert
Costa asked Pelosi for her response to activists who believe "there
needs to be a reckoning of some sort" for America's slave-owning
Founding Fathers.
Speaker Pelosi said that while she feels any monuments to Confederates
should be removed without question—albeit safely—she is also in favor of
talks over whether statues depicting the nation's first and third
presidents should also be taken down.
"I'm concerned about slavery in our country. I think it's a sin," the
Speaker told Costa. "I also am concerned about what happened to Native
Americans in our country, so we have a list of grievances that are part
of the early years of our country and we do not want that to be
continued by glorifying any of the people who perpetrated those injustices."
Pelosi then suggested, "Rather than tearing down and defacing
(monuments), why don't we just have a review."
"I'm all for it. Let's review this," she reiterated. "Why are we
glorifying the sins of the past? That doesn't mean because Thomas
Jefferson or George Washington or others were slaveowners that we should
undermine what they did for our country."
The Democrat said when it comes to Confederates, "that's a different
story," then added, "But you know what, subject everything to scrutiny
and make a decision."
You can watch the entire interview below. The discussion on monuments
honoring the Founding Fathers begins at the 07:00 mark:
The speaker's comments come as the Trump administration has called up
the National Guard to assist in protecting monuments in Washington,
D.C., and told U.S. marshals to prepare to defend monuments nationwide
from destruction following weeks of riots that have left statues toppled
across America.
Confederate tributes were largely the target of activists during the
initial weeks of protests, but statues of Founding Fathers, other U.S.
presidents, and even abolitionists have been torn down by mobs in recent
days.
(4) Israel Shamir defends China's Cultural Revolution
From: israel shamir <israel.shamir@gmail.com>
Subject: Re:China's 'Cultural Revolution' cf the U.S. one
Again a violent anti-Communist Chinese freak, Jennifer Zeng. A Christian
name and a Chinese surname is usually a hallmark of these pro-Western
guerillas in China, like these HongKongers. And Epoch Times is their
outlet, obsessing with anti-Communism. Her explanations of Chinese
Cultural Revolution are all wrong, historically and factually. The
Soviets disliked it, but with hindsight, the Cultural Revolution had
saved Chinese Communism. Otherwise China would follow the USSR into
disintegration.
(5) Jennifer Zeng presents a Falun Going view of China's Cultural
Revolution - Eric Walberg
From: Eric Walberg <walberg2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re:China's 'Cultural Revolution' cf the U.S. one
peter, this is falung gong! very shallow. an anti-communist diatribe.
> Chinese friend of mine is doing a series of TV programs
> called "Walking out of cultural death". For many intellectuals, Chinese
> culture has already died; and China has already died in the cultural
sense.
program in PRC? that would be a good sign.
we still don't know: was the cultural rev all mao orchestrated?
there was nothing comparable in SU. i still don't understand it.
mo yan is much more insightful. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out,
Arcade, 2006.
(6) Farrakhan: Fauci, Gates Foundation 'Want to Depopulate the Earth',
using Vaccines
Farrakhan: Fauci, Gates Foundation 'Want to Depopulate the Earth'
By Eric Mack | Sunday, 05 July 2020 11:07 AM
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill and Melinda Gates are seeking to "depopulate
the Earth" by pushing potential vaccines to end the global coronavirus
pandemic, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said Saturday in a
video that went viral online.
"They're making money now, plotting to give seven billion, five-hundred
million people a vaccination," Farrakhan, 87, said in a July 4 speech.
"Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda — you want to depopulate the Earth.
What the hell gives you that right? Who are you to sit down with your
billions and talk about who can live, and who should die?"
At the Nation of Islam in Chicago, Farrakhan issued anti-vaxxer
messaging, saying the only way to stop the virus is to repent your sins.
"I say to the African presidents: Do not take their medications," he said.
He is calling on his followers to come together – virologists,
epidemiologists and students of biology and chemistry – for a meeting to
investigate the well-funded medicine initiatives, which "vaccinate you
with their history of treachery."
"I say to my brothers and sisters in Africa, if they come up with a
vaccine, be careful," he said. "Don't let them vaccinate you with their
history of treachery through vaccines, through medication."
(7) Theodore Roosevelt invited (black) Booker T. Washington to dine with
him in the White House
EDITORIAL
Removing Theodore Roosevelt statue is a step too far
by | June 24, 2020 12:44 AM
The decision to remove a statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood
outside the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History for over
80 years is an inflection point in the battle over public monuments.
To be sure, there are certain nuances to the statue’s removal that
distinguish it from other, more ridiculous recent cases. Importantly,
the decision to remove the statue was not done by an angry mob, such as
the outrageous toppling of statues of George Washington and Ulysses S.
Grant. Instead, it was proposed by the museum and accepted by the New
York City government, which owns the building. One of those supporting
the statue’s removal was Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the
president, who serves as a trustee of the museum.
What’s especially complicated here is that the objection isn’t to
Roosevelt himself. The statue, which has been controversial for decades,
features Roosevelt mounted on a horse with an American Indian on one
side and an African tribesman on the other. Roosevelt is not being
canceled — in fact, when the statue is removed, the museum will rename a
wing after him.
All of this having been said, we believe that it is a mistake to remove
the statue.
Roosevelt’s prominent place in front of the museum is no accident. His
father founded the museum, and he spent his life as a passionate
naturalist and writer about natural history. As president, he led
conservation efforts as president.
Opponents of the particular statue have complained that having Roosevelt
towering over the African and American Indian figures is evocative of
subjugation of other races. They also point to his own jarring
statements about American Indians and race.
However, like many figures in history, Roosevelt is complicated. For
instance, he took a lot of heat when he invited friend Booker T.
Washington to dine with him in the White House — the first time such a
thing had ever happened.
"African-Americans were invited to meet in offices," explained Deborah
Davis, author of a book on the famous dinner. "They built the White
House. They worked for the various presidents. But they were never, ever
invited to sit down at the president's table. And when that happened,
the outrage was just unbelievable."
Like its subject, the history of the statue itself, which is stunning as
a sheer work of art, was also complex. In a video produced by the museum
about the statue controversy, Harriet F. Senie, director of art museum
studies at the City College of New York, explained that sculptor James
Earle Fraser did not intend for the statue to portray subjugation of
supposedly inferior races.
"The entire group, not just Roosevelt, was intended to be heroic," Senie
said. "The allegorical figures — and these are Fraser’s words — may
stand for ‘Roosevelt’s friendliness to all races.’ The figures represent
the continents on which he hunted, as either gun-bearers or guides or both."
Even if one were to argue that the effect of the statue is different
today than when it was first commissioned in 1925 and unveiled in 1940,
that’s how history works. We study the past, and we try to understand
both the heroic aspects and grapple with the rougher edges and earn
insight into how attitudes have changed over time. There is even a
"woke" argument against removing the statue because doing so erases and
sanitizes uncomfortable parts of our past rather than forcing us to
confront them.
It's one thing to discuss the removal of Confederate statues that were
intended to honor those who betrayed the United States to preserve and
expand slavery. But taking down Roosevelt as the city also debates
removing a Thomas Jefferson statue means that there is no conceivable
endpoint in the campaign to erase the past.
(8) Defund the Thought Police
By Charles Lipson - RCP Contributor
June 24, 2020
Due process is not the strong suit of mobs. Neither is nuance, open
discussion, or disagreement. These inherent defects should be painfully
obvious as mobs pull down statues, seize sections of cities, and demand
the public approach them on bended knee, literally. Anyone who dares
push back, perhaps with a mild tweet saying "All lives matter," faces
immediate censure. If the mob is successful, any offenders will lose
their jobs. Feckless employers are all too eager to appease the mob and
hope it turns on another target.
In this perilous environment, the most frenzied voices do more than
dominate the public square. They monopolize it by silencing dissent.
They have received full-throated support from the tech giants that
control electronic discussion and the media giants determined to shape
the narrative rather than report the news. Twitter and NBC are the
poster children for this assault on free and open discussion. Their
suppression in the name of "social justice" betrays the idea, best
articulated in John Stuart Mill’s "On Liberty," that competing,
divergent views lead to greater understanding and better decisions.
The idea of an open forum, so basic to democracies, already lies
a-moldering in the grave of academia, at least in the humanities and
social sciences. Imagine applying for a job in Gender Studies and saying
you oppose abortions after, say, Week 38. The term for such a person is
"unemployed." Imagine merely calling for a discussion on the pros and
cons of affirmative action, taking the negative side, and hoping to win
tenure in political science, sociology, anthropology, or history. Bad
career move. There is more robust political debate at the Academy Awards.
University administrations are equally rigid. Rejecting affirmative
action, questioning the implementation of Title 9, or opposing Black
Lives Matter would end your chances of being hired by the admissions
office or dean of students at nearly every American university. Yet all
of them proudly tout, with no sense of irony, their "office of diversity
and inclusion," fully staffed and generously funded. For them, of
course, diversity never includes diverse viewpoints. It’s all about DNA
and gender identity. Modern universities are now well-oiled machines to
stamp out dissenting views. That’s been true for decades. What’s new,
and disturbing, is seeing this orthodoxy spread to K-12 education,
corporate HR departments, mainline churches, and newsrooms. The "thought
police" are on patrol and ever-vigilant, twirling the twin batons of
guilt and moral superiority.
Dissent from their approved views is not just considered an error, much
less an innocent one. It is considered immoral, illegitimate, and
unworthy of a public hearing. Although both left and right have moved
steadily toward this abyss, the worst excesses today come from the left,
just as they came from the right in the 1950s. Opponents are seen in
religious terms, as dangerous apostates who deserve to be burned at the
stake, at least symbolically. You never expect the Spanish Inquisition.
Yet here it is. That is the powerful iconography behind torching police
cars and neighborhood stores. [...]
Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science
Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on
International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at
(9) Antifa derives from communist & anarchist groups of 1920s & 30s Europe
A Brief History of Antifa: Part I
by Soeren Kern
June 12, 2020 at 5:00 am
Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly
networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat
organizational structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local groups.
Antifa's stated long-term objective, both in America and abroad, is to
establish a communist world order. In the United States, Antifa's
immediate aim is to bring about the demise of the Trump administration.
A common tactic used by Antifa in the United States and Europe is to
employ extreme violence and destruction of public and private property
to goad the police into a reaction, which then "proves" Antifa's claim
that the government is "fascist."
Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the German
government to fight the far right. — Bettina Röhl, German journalist,
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, June 2, 2020.
"Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names
secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against
politicians and police officers. It promotes senseless damage to
property amounting to vast sums." — Bettina Röhl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung,
June 2, 2020.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has blamed Antifa — a militant
"anti-fascist" movement — for the violence that has erupted at George
Floyd protests across the United States. "The violence instigated and
carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the
rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly," he said.
Barr also said that the federal government has evidence that Antifa
"hijacked" legitimate protests around the country to "engage in
lawlessness, violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public
property assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and
even the murder of a federal agent." Earlier, U.S. President Donald J.
Trump had instructed the U.S. Justice Department to designate Antifa as
a terrorist organization.
Academics and media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have argued that the
group cannot be classified as a terrorist organization because, they
claim, it is a vaguely-defined protest movement that lacks a centralized
structure. Mark Bray, a vocal apologist for Antifa in America and author
of the book "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook," asserts that Antifa "is
not an overarching organization with a chain of command."
Empirical and anecdotal evidence shows that Antifa is, in fact, highly
networked, well-funded and has a global presence. It has a flat
organizational structure with dozens and possibly hundreds of local
groups. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of Justice is currently
investigating individuals linked to Antifa as a step to unmasking the
broader organization.
In the United States, Antifa's ideology, tactics and goals, far from
being novel, are borrowed almost entirely from Antifa groups in Europe,
where so-called anti-fascist groups, in one form or another, have been
active, almost without interruption, for a century. [...]
The ideological origins of Antifa can be traced back to the Soviet Union
roughly a century ago. In 1921 and 1922, the Communist International
(Comintern) developed the so-called united front tactic to "unify the
working masses through agitation and organization" ... "at the
international level and in each individual country" against "capitalism"
and "fascism" — two terms that often were used interchangeably.
The world's first anti-fascist group, Arditi del Popolo (People's
Courageous Militia), was founded in Italy in June 1921 to resist the
rise of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, which itself was
established to prevent the possibility of a Bolshevik revolution on the
Italian Peninsula. Many of the group's 20,000 members, consisting of
communists and anarchists, later joined the International Brigades
during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).
In Germany, the Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary
group Roter Frontkämpferbund (Red Front Fighters League) in July 1924.
The group was banned due to its extreme violence. Many of its 130,000
members continued their activities underground or in local successor
organizations such as the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus
(Fighting-Alliance Against Fascism).
In Slovenia, the militant anti-fascist movement TIGR was established in
1927 to oppose the Italianization of Slovene ethnic areas after the
collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The group, which was disbanded
in 1941, specialized in assassinating Italian police and military personnel.
In Spain, the Communist Party established the Milicias Antifascistas
Obreras y Campesinas (Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias), which
were active in the 1930s.
The modern Antifa movement derives its name from a group called
Antifaschistische Aktion, founded in May 1932 by Stalinist leaders of
the Communist Party of Germany. The group was established to fight
fascists, a term the party used to describe all of the other
pro-capitalist political parties in Germany. The primary objective of
Antifaschistische Aktion was to abolish capitalism, according to a
detailed history of the group. The group, which had more than 1,500
founding members, went underground after Nazis seized power in 1933.
A German-language pamphlet — "80 Years of Anti-Fascist Actions" (80
Jahre Antifaschistische Aktion)" — describes in minute detail the
continuous historical thread of the Antifa movement from its ideological
origins in the 1920s to the present day. The document states:
"Antifascism has always fundamentally been an anti-capitalist strategy.
This is why the symbol of the Antifaschistische Aktion has never lost
its inspirational power.... Anti-fascism is more of a strategy than an
ideology."
During the post-war period, Germany's Antifa movement reappeared in
various manifestations, including the radical student protest movement
of the 1960s, and the leftist insurgency groups that were active
throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
The Red Army Faction (RAF), also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was a
Marxist urban guerrilla group that carried out assassinations, bombings
and kidnappings aimed at bringing revolution to West Germany, which the
group characterized as a fascist holdover of the Nazi era. Over the
course of three decades, the RAF murdered more than 30 people and
injured over 200.
After the collapse of the communist government in East Germany in
1989-90, it was discovered that the RAF had been given training,
shelter, and supplies by the Stasi, the secret police of the former
communist regime.
John Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor
University, described the group's tactics, which are similar to those
used by Antifa today:
"The goal of their terrorist campaign was to trigger an aggressive
response from the government, which group members believed would spark a
broader revolutionary movement."
RAF founder Ulrike Meinhof explained the relationship between violent
left-wing extremism and the police: "The guy in uniform is a pig, not a
human being. That means we don't have to talk to him and it is wrong to
talk to these people at all. And of course, you can shoot."
Bettina Röhl, a German journalist and daughter of Meinhof, argues that
the modern Antifa movement is a continuation of the Red Army Faction.
The main difference is that, unlike the RAF, Antifa's members are afraid
to reveal their identities. In a June 2020 essay published by the Swiss
newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Röhl also drew attention to the fact
that Antifa is not only officially tolerated, but is being paid by the
German government to fight the far right:
"The RAF idolized the communist dictatorships in China, North Korea,
North Vietnam, in Cuba, which were transfigured by the New Left as
better countries on the right path to the best communism....
"The flourishing left-wing radicalism in the West, which brutally
strikes at the opening of the European Central Bank headquarters in
Frankfurt, at every G-20 summit or every year on May 1 in Berlin, has
achieved the highest level of establishment in the state, not least
thanks to the support by quite a few MPs from political parties,
journalists and relevant experts.
"Compared to the RAF, the militant Antifa only lacks prominent faces.
Out of cowardice, its members cover their faces and keep their names
secret. Antifa constantly threatens violence and attacks against
politicians and police officers. It promotes senseless damage to
property amounting to vast sums. Nevertheless, MP Renate Künast (Greens)
recently complained in the Bundestag that Antifa groups had not been
adequately funded by the state in recent decades. She was concerned that
'NGOs and Antifa groups do not always have to struggle to raise money
and can only conclude short-term employment contracts from year to
year.' There was applause for this from Alliance 90 / The Greens, from
the left and from SPD deputies.
"One may ask the question of whether Antifa is something like an
official RAF, a terrorist group with money from the state under the
guise of 'fighting against the right.'"
Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency explains Antifa's
glorification of violence:
"For left-wing extremists, 'Capitalism' is interpreted as triggering
wars, racism, ecological disasters, social inequality and
gentrification. 'Capitalism' is therefore more than just a mere economic
order. In left-wing extremist discourse, it determines the social and
political form as well as the vision of a radical social and political
reorganization. Whether anarchist or communist: Parliamentary democracy
as a so-called bourgeois form of rule should be 'overcome' in any case.
"For this reason, left-wing extremists usually ignore or legitimize
human rights violations in socialist or communist dictatorships or in
states that they allegedly see threatened by the 'West.' To this day,
both orthodox communists and autonomous activists justify, praise and
celebrate the left-wing terrorist Red Army Faction or foreign left-wing
terrorists as alleged 'liberation movements' or even 'resistance fighters.'"
Meanwhile, in Britain, Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), a militant
anti-fascist group founded in 1985, gave birth to the Antifa movement in
the United States. In Germany, the Antifaschistische Aktion-Bundesweite
Organisation (AABO) was founded in 1992 to combine the efforts of
smaller Antifa groups scattered around the country.
In Sweden, Antifascistisk Aktion (AFA), a militant Antifa group founded
in 1993, established a three-decade track record for using extreme
violence against its opponents. In France, the Antifa group L'Action
antifasciste, is known for its fierce opposition to the State of Israel.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of communism
in 1990, the Antifa movement opened a new front against neoliberal
globalization.
Attac, established in France in 1989 to promote a global tax on
financial transactions, now leads the so-called alter-globalization
movement, which, like the Global Justice Movement, is opposed to
capitalism. In 1999, Attac was present in Seattle during violent
demonstrations that led to the failure of WTO negotiations. Attac also
participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations against the G7, the G20,
the WTO, and the war in Iraq. Today, the association is active in 40
countries, with more than a thousand local groups and hundreds of
organizations supporting the network. Attac's decentralized and
non-hierarchical organizational structure appears to be the model being
used by Antifa.
In February 2016, the International Committee of the Fourth
International advanced the political foundations of the global anti-war
movement, which, like Antifa, blames capitalism and neoliberal globalism
for the existence of military conflict:
"The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since
there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end
the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the
fundamental cause of militarism and war."
In July 2017, more than 100,000 anti-globalization and Antifa protesters
converged on the German city of Hamburg to protest the G20 summit.
Leftist mobs laid waste to the city center. An Antifa group called "G20
Welcome to Hell" bragged about how it was able to mobilize Antifa groups
from across the world:
"The summit mobilizations have been precious moments of meeting and
co-operation of left-wing and anti-capitalist groups and networks from
all over Europe and world-wide. We have been sharing experiences and
fighting together, attending international meetings, being attacked by
cops supported by the military, re-organizing our forces and fighting
back. Anti-globalization movement has changed, but our networks endure.
We are active locally in our regions, cities, villages and forests. But
we are also fighting trans-nationally."
Germany's domestic security service, in an annual report, added:
"Left-wing extremist structures tried to shift the public debate about
the violent G20 summit protests in their favor. With the distribution of
photos and reports of allegedly disproportionate police measures during
the summit protests, they promoted an image of a state that denounced
legitimate protests and put them down with police violence. Against such
a state, they said, 'militant resistance' is not only legitimate, but
also necessary."
Part II of this series will examine the activities of Antifa in Germany
and the United States.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
(10) Antifa culture war against "heteronormativity, patriarchy,
nationalism, transphobia, class rule"
A Brief History of Antifa: Part II Antifa in the United States
by Soeren Kern
June 23, 2020 at 5:00 am
"The only long-term solution to the fascist menace is to undermine its
pillars of strength in society grounded not only in white supremacy but
also in ableism, heteronormativity, patriarchy, nationalism,
transphobia, class rule, and many others." — Mark Bray, "Antifa: The
Anti-Fascist Handbook," 2017.
"They're coming from other cities. That cost money. They didn't do this
on their own. Somebody's paying for this.... What Antifa is doing is
they're basically hijacking the black community as their army. They
instigate, they antagonize, they get these young black men and women to
go out there and do stupid things, and then they disappear off into the
sunset." — Bernard Kerik, former commissioner of the New York City
Police Department.
The coordinated violence raises questions about how Antifa is financed.
The Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) is an organizing group that
serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous radical left-wing initiatives,
according to Influence Watch, a research group that collects data on
advocacy organizations, foundations and donors.... The Open Society
Foundations, Tides Foundation, Arca Foundation, Surdna Foundation,
Public Welfare Foundation, and the Brightwater Fund have all made
contributions to AFGJ, according to Influence Watch.
One of the groups funded by AFGJ is called Refuse Fascism ... an
offshoot of the Radical Communist Party (RCP).... The group's slogan
states: "This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!"
Antifa in the United States is highly networked, well-funded and has a
clear ideological agenda: to subvert, often with extreme violence, the
American political system, with the ultimate aim of replacing capitalism
with communism. Pictured: An Antifa demonstration on November 16, 2019
in New York City. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced that the American
government would designate Antifa — a militant "anti-fascist" movement —
as a terrorist organization due to the violence that erupted at George
Floyd protests across the United States.
The Code of Federal Regulations (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85) defines
terrorism as "the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or
property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population,
or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
American media outlets sympathetic to Antifa have jumped to its defense.
They argue that the group cannot be classified as a terrorist
organization because, they claim, it is a vaguely-defined protest
movement that lacks a centralized structure.
As the following report shows, Antifa is, in fact, highly networked,
well-funded and has a clear ideological agenda: to subvert, often with
extreme violence, the American political system, with the ultimate aim
of replacing capitalism with communism. In the United States, Antifa's
immediate aim is to remove President Trump from office.
Gatestone Institute has identified Antifa groups in all 50 U.S. states,
with the possible exception of West Virginia. Some states, including
California, Texas and Washington, appear to have dozens of sub-regional
Antifa organizations.
It is difficult precisely to determine the size of the Antifa movement
in the United States. The so-called "Anti-Fascists of Reddit," the
"premier anti-fascist community" on the social media platform Reddit,
has approximately 60,000 members. The oldest Antifa group in America,
the Portland, Oregon-based "Rose City Antifa," has more than 30,000
Twitter followers and 20,000 Facebook followers, not all of whom are
necessarily supporters. "It's Going Down," a media platform for
anarchists, anti-fascists and autonomous anti-capitalists, has 85,000
Twitter followers and 30,000 Facebook followers.
Germany, which has roughly one-quarter of the population of the United
States, is home to 33,000 extreme leftists, of whom 9,000 are believed
to be extremely dangerous, according to the domestic intelligence agency
(Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV). Violent left-wing agitators are
predominantly male, between 21 and 24 years of age, usually unemployed,
and, according to BfV, 92% still live with their parents. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that most Antifa members in the United States have a
similar socio-economic profile.
In America, national Antifa groups, including "Torch Antifa Network,"
"Refuse Fascism" and "World Can't Wait" are being financed — often
generously, as shown below — by individual donors as well as by large
philanthropic organizations, including the Open Society Foundations
founded by George Soros.
To evade detection by law enforcement, Antifa groups in the United
States often use encrypted social media platforms, such as Signal and
Telegram Messenger, to communicate and coordinate their activities,
sometimes across state lines. Not surprisingly, the U.S. Department of
Justice is currently investigating individuals linked to Antifa as a
step to unmasking the broader organization.
Historical Origins of American Antifa
In the United States, Antifa's ideology, tactics and goals, far from
being novel, are borrowed almost entirely from Antifa groups in Europe,
where so-called anti-fascist groups, in one form or another, have been
active, almost without interruption, for a century.
As in Europe, the aims and objectives of the American Antifa movement
can be traced back to a single, overarching century-long ideological war
against the "fascist ideals" of capitalism and Christianity, which the
Antifa movement wants to replace with a "revolutionary socialist
alternative."
The first so-called anti-fascist group in the United States was the
American League Against War and Fascism, established in 1933 by the
Communist Party USA. The League, which claimed to oppose fascism in
Europe, was actually dedicated to subverting and overthrowing the U.S.
government.
In testimony to the U.S. Congress in 1953, CPUSA leader Manning Johnson
revealed that the American party had been instructed by the Communist
International in the 1930s to set up the American League Against War and
Fascism:
"as a cover to attack our government, our social system, our leaders...
used as a cover to attack our law-enforcement agencies and to build up
mass hate against them... used as a cover to undermine national
security... used as a cover to defend Communists, the sworn enemies of
our great heritage... used as a cover for preparing millions of people
ideologically and organizationally for the overthrow of the United
States Government."
A precursor to the modern Antifa movement was the Black Panthers, a
revolutionary political organization established in October 1966 by
Marxist college students in Oakland, California. The group advocated the
use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government.
Historian Robyn C. Spencer noted that Black Panther leaders were deeply
influenced by "The United Front of the Working Class Against Fascism," a
report by Georgi Dimitroff delivered at the Seventh World Congress of
the Communist International in July and August 1935:
"By 1969, the Panthers began to use fascism as a theoretical framework
to critique the U.S. political economy. They defined fascism as 'the
power of finance capital' which 'manifests itself not only as banks,
trusts and monopolies but also as the human property of FINANCE CAPITAL
— the avaricious businessman, the demagogic politician, and the racist
pig cop.'"
In July 1969, the Black Panthers organized an "anti-fascist" conference
called "United Front Against Fascism," attended by nearly 5,000 activists:
"The Panthers hoped to create a 'national force' with a 'common
revolutionary ideology and political program which answers the basic
desires and needs of all people in fascist, capitalist, racist America.'"
The last day of the conference was devoted to a detailed plan by the
Black Panthers to decentralize police forces nationwide. Spencer wrote:
"They proposed amending city charters to establish autonomous
community-based police departments for every city which would be
accountable to local neighborhood police control councils comprised of
15 elected community members. They launched the National Committees to
Combat Fascism (NCCF), a multiracial nationwide network, to organize for
community control of the police."
In 1970, members of the Black Panthers created a terrorist group called
the Black Liberation Army, whose stated goal was to "weaken the enemy
capitalist state."
BLA member Assata Shakur described the group's organizational structure,
which is similar to the one used by today's Antifa movement:
"The Black Liberation Army was not a centralized, organized group with a
common leadership and chain of command. Instead there were various
organizations and collectives working together out of various cities,
and in some larger cities there were often several groups working
independently of each other."
Other ideological anchors of the modern Antifa movement in the United
States include a left-wing terrorist group known as the Weather
Underground Organization, the American equivalent to Germany's Red Army
Faction. The Weather Underground, responsible for bombings and riots
throughout the 1970s, sought to achieve "the destruction of U.S.
imperialism and form a classless communist world."
Former FBI Counterterrorism Director Terry Turchie has noted the
similarities between Black Lives Matter today and the Black Panther
Party and Weather Underground groups of the 1960s and 1970s:
"The Black Panther Party was a Marxist Maoist Leninist organization and
that came from Huey Newton, one of the co-founders, who said we're
standing for nothing more than the total transformation of the United
States government.
"He went on to explain that they wanted to take the tension that already
existed in black communities and exacerbate it where they can. To take
those situations where there is a tinderbox and light the country on fire.
"Today we're seeing the third revolution and they think they can make
this happen. The only thing that is different are the names of the groups."
American Antifa
The roots of the modern Antifa movement in the United States can be
traced back to the 1980s, with the establishment of Anti-Racist Action,
a network of anarchist punk rock aficionados dedicated to fist-fighting
neo-Nazi skinheads.
Mark Bray, author of "The Antifa Handbook," explained:
"In many cases, the North American modern Antifa movement grew up as a
way to defend the punk scene from the neo-Nazi skinhead movement, and
the founders of the original Anti-Racist Action network in North America
were anti-racist skinheads. The fascist/anti-fascist struggle was
essentially a fight for control of the punk scene during the 1980s, and
that was true across of much of north America and in parts of Europe in
this era.
"There's a huge overlap between radical left politics and the punk
scene, and there's a stereotype about dirty anarchists and punks, which
is an oversimplification but grounded in a certain amount of truth."
Anti-Racist Action was inspired by Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), a militant
anti-fascist group founded in Britain in the late 1970s. The American
group shared the British group's penchant for violently attacking
political opponents. ARA was eventually renamed the Torch Network, which
currently brings together nine militant Antifa groups.
In November 1999, mobs of masked anarchists, predecessors to today's
Antifa movement, laid waste to downtown Seattle, Washington, during
violent demonstrations that disrupted a ministerial conference of the
World Trade Organization. The Seattle WTO protests birthed the
anti-globalization movement.
In April 2001, an estimated 50,000 anti-capitalists gathered in Quebec
to oppose the Third Summit of the Americas, a meeting of North and South
American leaders who were negotiating a deal to create a free trade area
that would encompass the Western Hemisphere.
In February 2003, hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters
demonstrated against the Iraq War. After the war went ahead anyway, some
parts of the so-called progressive movement became more radicalized and
birthed the current Antifa movement.
The Rose City Antifa (RCA), founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007, is the
oldest American group to use "Antifa" in its name. Antifa is derived
from a group called Antifaschistische Aktion, founded in May 1932 by
Stalinist leaders of the Communist Party of Germany. Antifa's logo, with
two flags representing anarchism (black flag) and communism (red flag),
are derived from the German Antifa movement.
The American Antifa movement gained momentum in 2016, after Vermont
Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Socialist, lost the Democratic
Party's nomination to Hillary Clinton. Grassroots supporters of Sanders
vowed to continue his "political revolution" to establish socialism in
America.
Meanwhile, immigration became a new flashpoint in American politics
after Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to reduce illegal migration.
In June 2016, protestors violently attacked supporters of Donald Trump
outside a rally in San Jose, California. In January 2017, hundreds of
Antifa rioters tried to disrupt President Trump's inauguration ceremony
in Washington, DC.
In February 2017, Antifa rioters employing so-called black bloc tactics
— they wear black clothing, masks or other face-concealing items so that
they cannot be identified by police — shut down a speech by Milos
Yiannopoulos, a far-right activist who was slated to speak at the
University of California at Berkeley, the birthplace of the 1964 Free
Speech Movement. Antifa radicals claimed that Yiannopoulos was planning
to "out" undocumented students at Berkeley for the purpose of having
them arrested. Masked Antifa vandals armed with Molotov cocktails,
bricks and a host of other makeshift weapons fought police and caused
more than $100,000 in property damage.
In June 2018, Republican Representative Dan Donovan of New York
introduced Bill HR 6054 — "Unmasking Antifa Act of 2018" — that calls
for prison sentences of up to 15 years for anyone who, while wearing a
mask or disguise, "injures, oppresses, threatens, or intimidates"
someone else who is exercising any right or privilege guaranteed under
the U.S. Constitution. The bill remains stalled in the House of
Representatives.
In July 2019, Antifa radical Willem Van Spronsen attempted to firebomb
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in
Tacoma, Washington. He was killed in a confrontation with police.
That same month, U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and Bill Cassidy introduced a
resolution that would label Antifa a "domestic terrorist organization."
The resolution stated:
"Whereas members of Antifa, because they believe that free speech is
equivalent to violence, have used threats of violence in the pursuit of
suppressing opposing political ideologies; Whereas Antifa represents
opposition to the democratic ideals of peaceful assembly and free speech
for all; Whereas members of Antifa have physically assaulted journalists
and other individuals during protests and riots in Berkeley, California;
"Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the Senate ... calls for the
groups and organizations across the country who act under the banner of
Antifa to be designated as domestic terrorist organizations."
"Antifa are terrorists, violent masked bullies who 'fight fascism' with
actual fascism, protected by Liberal privilege," said Cassidy. "Bullies
get their way until someone says no. Elected officials must have
courage, not cowardice, to prevent terror."
Antifa Exploits Death of George Floyd
Antifa radicals increasingly are using incendiary events such as the
death of George Floyd in Minnesota as springboards to achieve their
broader aims, one of which includes removing President Trump from office.
Veteran national security correspondent Bill Gertz recently reported
that the Antifa movement began planning to foment a nationwide
anti-government insurgency as early as November 2019, when the U.S.
presidential campaign season kicked off in earnest. Former National
Security Council staff member Rich Higgins said:
"Antifa's actions represent a hard break with the long tradition of a
peaceful political process in the United States. Their Marxist ideology
seeks not only to influence elections in the short term but to destroy
the use of elections as the determining factor in political legitimacy.
"Antifa's goal is nothing less than fomenting revolution, civil war and
silencing America's anti-communists. Their labeling of Trump supporters
and patriots as Nazis and racists is standard fare for left-wing
communist groups.
"Antifa is currently functioning as the command and control of the
riots, which are themselves the overt utilization of targeted violence
against targets such as stores — capitalism; monuments — history; and
churches — God."
Joe Myers, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and
counterinsurgency expert, added:
"President Trump's election and revitalization of America are a threat
to Antifa's nihilist goals. They are fomenting this violence to create
havoc, despair and to target the Trump campaign for defeat in 2020. It
is employing organized violence for political ends: destruction of the
constitutional order."
New York's top terrorism officer, Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence
and Counterterrorism John Miller, explained why the George Floyd
protests in New York City became so violent and destructive:
"No. 1, before the protests began, organizers of certain anarchist
groups set out to raise bail money and people who would be responsible
to be raising bail money, they set out to recruit medics and medical
teams with gear to deploy in anticipation of violent interactions with
police.
"They prepared to commit property damage and directed people who were
following them that this should be done selectively and only in
wealthier areas or at high-end stores run by corporate entities.
"And they developed a complex network of bicycle scouts to move ahead of
demonstrators in different directions of where police were and where
police were not for purposes of being able to direct groups from the
larger group to places where they could commit acts of vandalism
including the torching of police vehicles and Molotov cocktails where
they thought officers would not be.
"We believe that a significant amount of people who came here from out
of the area, who have come here as well as the advance preparation,
having advance scouts, the use of encrypted information, having resupply
routes for things such as gasoline and accelerants as well as rocks and
bottles, the raising of bail, the placing of medics. Taken together,
this is a strong indicator that they planned to act with disorder,
property damage, violence, and violent encounters with police before the
first demonstration and/or before the first arrest."
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Bernard B. Kerik, former police
commissioner of the New York City Police Department, said that Antifa
"100 percent exploited" the George Floyd protests:
"It's in 40 different states and 60 cities; it would be impossible for
somebody outside of Antifa to fund this. It's a radical, leftist,
socialist attempt at revolution.
"They're coming from other cities. That cost money. They didn't do this
on their own. Somebody's paying for this.
"What Antifa is doing is they're basically hijacking the black community
as their army. They instigate, they antagonize, they get these young
black men and women to go out there and do stupid things, and then they
disappear off into the sunset."
After photos appeared to show protesters with military-grade
communications radios and earpieces, Kerik noted: "They have to be
talking to somebody at a central command center with a repeater. Where
do those radios go to?"
Across the country, in Bellevue, Washington, which was also hit by
looting and violence, Police Chief Steve Mylett confirmed that the
people responsible were organized, from out of town, and being paid:
"There are groups paying these looters money to come in and they're
getting paid by the broken window. This is something totally different
we are dealing with that we have never seen as a profession before. We
did have officers that were in different areas that were chasing these
groups. When we make contact, they just disperse."
Antifa Financing
The coordinated violence raises questions about how Antifa is financed.
The Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) is an organizing group that
serves as a fiscal sponsor to numerous radical left-wing initiatives,
according to Influence Watch, a research group that collects data on
advocacy organizations, foundations and donors.
AFGJ, which describes itself as "anti-capitalist" and opposed to the
principles of liberal democracy, provides "fiscal sponsorship" to groups
advocating numerous foreign and domestic far-left and extreme-left
causes, including eliminating the State of Israel.
The Tucson, Arizona-based AFGJ, and people associated with it, have
advocated for socialist and communist authoritarian regimes, including
in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In the 2000s, AFGJ was involved in
anti-globalization demonstrations. In the 2010s, AFGJ was a financial
sponsor of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
AFGJ has received substantial funding from organizations often claiming
to be the mainstream of the center-left. The Open Society Foundations,
Tides Foundation, Arca Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Public Welfare
Foundation, the Ben & Jerry Foundation and the Brightwater Fund have all
made contributions to AFGJ, according to Influence Watch.
One of the groups funded by AFGJ is called Refuse Fascism, a radical
left-wing organization devoted to promoting nationwide action to remove
from office President Donald Trump, and all officials associated with
his administration, on the grounds that they constitute a "fascist
regime." The group has been present at many Antifa radical-left
demonstrations, also according to Influence Watch. The group is an
offshoot of the Radical Communist Party (RCP).
In July 2017, the RCP bragged that it took part in violent riots against
the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The RCP has argued that capitalism
is synonymous with fascism and that the election of President Trump
would lead the U.S. government to "bludgeon and eliminate whole groups
of people."
In June 2020, Refuse Fascism took advantage of the death of George Floyd
to raise money for a "National Revolution Tour" evidently aimed at
subverting the U.S. government. The group's slogan states: "This System
Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!"
Antifa's "Utopia"
Meanwhile, in Seattle, Washington, Antifa radicals, protesters from
Black Lives Matter, and members of the anti-capitalist John Brown Gun
Club seized control of the East Precinct neighborhood and established a
six-square-block "autonomous zone" called the Capitol Hill Autonomous
Zone, "CHAZ," recently renamed "CHOP," the Capitol Hill Organized (or
Occupied) Protest. A cardboard sign at the barricades declares: "You are
now leaving the USA." The group issued a list of 30 demands, including
the "abolition" of the Seattle Police Department and court system.
"Rapes, robberies and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in
the area and we're not able to get to them," said Seattle Police Chief
Carmen Best. Several people have been wounded or killed.
Christopher F. Rufo, a contributing editor of City Journal, observed:
"The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone has set a dangerous precedent: armed
left-wing activists have asserted their dominance of the streets and
established an alternative political authority over a large section of a
neighborhood. They have claimed de facto police power over thousands of
residents and dozens of businesses — completely outside of the
democratic process. In a matter of days, Antifa-affiliated
paramilitaries have created a hardened border, established a rudimentary
form of government based on principles of intersectional representation,
and forcibly removed unfriendly media from the territory.
"The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is an occupation and taking of
hostages: none of the neighborhood's residents voted for Antifa as their
representative government. Rather than enforce the law, Seattle's
progressive political class capitulated to the mob and will likely make
massive concessions over the next few months. This will embolden the
Antifa coalition — and further undermine the rule of law in American
cities."
Antifa in its Own Words
The American Antifa movement's long-term objectives are identical to
those of the Antifa movement in Europe: replacing capitalism with a
communist utopia. Mark Bray, one of the most vocal apologists for Antifa
in the United States and author of "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,"
explained:
"The only long-term solution to the fascist menace is to undermine its
pillars of strength in society grounded not only in white supremacy but
also in ableism, heteronormativity, patriarchy, nationalism,
transphobia, class rule, and many others. This long-term goal points to
the tensions that exist in defining anti-fascism, because at a certain
point destroying fascism is really about promoting a revolutionary
socialist alternative."
Nikkita Oliver, former mayoral candidate of Seattle, Washington, added:
"We need to align ourselves with the global struggle that acknowledges
that the United States plays a role in racialized capitalism. Racialized
capitalism is built upon patriarchy, white supremacy, and classism." [...]
