Friday, August 18, 2017

Join Us On Boston Common Saturday August 19th –Built The Anti-Fascist United Front Against Trump’s Alt-Right Troops

Join Us On Boston Common Saturday August 19th –Built The Anti-Fascist United Front Against Trump’s Alt-Right Troops   



Frank Jackman comment:

Recently in commenting on an article from a leftist group about the struggle against the Alt Right, White Nationalists, Nazis, KKK and their assorted hangers-on in high places and low I mentioned that on other occasions I usually have posted political material here that may be of interest to the liberal and radical milieu without comment. And without necessarily agreeing with the content. Occasionally, and given the developments in Charlottesville on Saturday August 12, 2017 when this white trash menaced our people, our brave counter-protestors, and took one of our own I will make additional comment. I do so here in solidarity with the idea that we have to stop this para-military fascistic wing of the right in its tracks now.

A lot of what this site is about is presenting past history, past political history especially. More than once I have mentioned that we need to learn the lessons of history around particular political question. Apparently some people are consciously forgetful. On this question, the question of opposing what I will short-hand as the Alt-Right 1933 in Germany when Hitler and his storm troopers, the guys that the White Nationalists, et. al drool over today, were controlling the streets and ready to take power was too late (essentially unopposed on those streets by the natural forces to oppose them, the socialist and the communists, who had their heads in the sand thinking light-headedly as one Communist Party leader put it at the time-‘after Hitler us”). Over time I will add to the commentary above which I used when I first posted about the situation in Charlottesville (and soon to be elsewhere) in addressing some issues that we should be clear about like the fascists’ right to free speech in a democracy, dependence on police to protect today’s counter-demonstrators, effective ways to stop the White Nationalist cabal in its tracks and other anti-fascist organizing questions. 

The reason I placed the question of the fascists’ so-called right to free speech first was not fortuitous. On the day after the horrible events in Charlottesville, August 13, 2017, I responded to an ad hoc call to attend a rally on Boston Common to express solidarity with the anti-fascist counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville. A few hundred people showed up representing many different liberal to leftist views. (I was somewhat disappointed by the turn-out given the pressing issue involved in spite of the short notice-other situation less grave in the past have drawn many more on short notice.) As usual on such occasions while the speakers were having their say I wound up talking to various participants to get a feel for why they were there and what they were thinking about strategically in order to stop the fascists in their tracks. As part of one conversation with a bright young man, a graduate student at one of the myriad colleges in the Boston, the seemingly inevitable question of the right of the fascist cabal to express their rights to free speech under the terms of the U.S. Constitution came up. While we were discussing the issue this bright young graduate student expressed concern that we, liberals and radicals alike, not trample of the sacred right to free speech. He took a position of absolute right somewhat reminiscent of the American Civil Liberties Union’s positon most notoriously expressed many years ago by their handling of the defense of Skokie Nazi march case. (Skokie, a suburb of Chicago and home to many Jews and, more importantly for the controversy concentration camp survivors.)  He was adamant, stuck to his guns about it, in his defense of that right despite Charlottesville and despite history.            

No, a thousand times no, this whole recent “front” of the combined forces of the White Nationalists, Alt-Right, Nazis and KKK to express their deadly program as merely another in the line of free speech exercises is not at issue. Is not something frankly that we blooming antifascist fighters should lose one minute’s sleep over. The key words just expressed are “deadly program” because that is the nub of the matter. These para-military radical right-wing operations, and their military pose including a show of guns graphically bear this observation out are not some run of the mill odd-ball parliamentary organizations who like the say Democrats and Republicans have policy disputes which no matter how far apart are worked though. In other words although on some days it seems a close thing there is a rational basis with seemingly reasonable rational arguments for their disputes.        

No so the fascists, not by history and not by the real programs of today’s crop. Race war, genocide, ethnic cleansing and the violent atomization and destruction of any political opposition are not something today’s counter-protesters should cover for by calling for, or supporting, the rights of free speech for these bastards. This is no game. This is no debating point among rational if far-part opponents. The fascists in their turn if they become as in Germany a mass movement will respect our rights to free speech right into the concentration camps. They are more than willing to walk on a pile of bones to initiate their bloody programs. Let’s be clear or get ourselves clear on that issue.     

Another question that came up on that August Sunday afternoon in speaking to another participant was our, the counter-protestors, relationship to the police, our assumptions about whether we should depend on them to defend us against the rampages of the Alt-Right. Charlottesville, and before it any number of events, most notoriously in my memory Greensboro in 1979, involving the Alt-Right and its predecessors and counter-protestors, has shown for all to see that while the police (and National Guard if it comes to that) have their own agenda to keep order they may, or may not, defend us. (In Greensboro the police and feds knew what the KKK and their hangers-on were ready to do, had an informer inside, and sat on their hands when the guns came out.)

Although this point is not decisive in my argument the police have many elements much more sympathetic to the Alt-Right than to our side and are as likely to sit on their hands as they did extensively in Charlottesville as defend our right to protest. While I would not argue anything more at this point we should treat the police as a factor, a factor for order I suppose, in any public antifascist protests but organize our own forces to defend our people against any Alt-Right onslaught. There can be many and varied tactically approaches to this question about cooperation with the police but the key point for now is to rely on our own resources.  

As an example of what I mean by the above I will relate a first-hand experience. In the fall of 2011 the Occupy movement set up camp in Dewey Square on one end of the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston near the South Station transportation hub. A few days into the occupation a decision was made by the occupiers (I, and the people I will mention presently, were not occupiers in any formal sense although many supported the Occupy ideas) to extend the campsite another block to accommodate the additional people who wanted to stay during the occupation.      

This ad hoc extension brought things to a head since the Greenway people did not want the camp extension. The Boston Police, headed by the present Police Commissioner, had orders to clear the premises. A call went out for forces to defend the occupiers. An organization, Veterans for Peace, which I support answered the call and set up a defense perimeter between the forming police attack lines and the camp site. We always had on other occasions formally good if not cordial relations with the police. That night though when the deal went down and the order came to close the camp down the police force-marched through our perimeter causing both injuries and arrests to us and others. Remember that little lesson as we go against a much more sinister situation. I know I do. Organize defense teams now!           

We need to stop the White Nationalist, Nazis, KKK, Alt-right and their supporters in the egg. Every worker, every black person, every non-white ethnic minority come to think of it, every Jewish person, every leftist, every one with a non-heterosexual sexual preference or identity needs to incorporate this message now! The slogan of the hour, this hour when the long-standing cold civil war in America is turning hot-Build the Labor, Black, and other oppressed people United Front against the Fascists-Now!!!!       

Join us on Boston Common beginning around 10 AM Saturday August 19, 2017 to stop the White Nationalists and their ilk in their tracks.

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