academiccompositionab
Empowerment Equalizer
SSaragian
Antony Sammeroff
Ann Sterzinger
Rodney
RJ
busterjames
cainusmaxus
Craig FitzGerald
David Heleniak
Caity & Dan Greene
keirmartland
Keith Preston
Bill the Butcher
ljp711
MRDA
Jack Donovan
Rachel Haywire
comrade hermit
Michael
Vince
robertstark2014
Noonan
S E Pearson
Rachel Haywire
Nexus X HumectressNazis versus Antifa in Trenton, New Jersey. A tag team match between the two most useless factions in dissident politics.
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Because of the draconian police presence there was very little possibility that the ARA would be able to directly engaged the NSM in downtown Trenton. The best possible use of the ARA protestors that day would have been to spread out throughout the downtown area in small groups. This lack of consolidation would’ve destabilized the intense concentrations of police possibly allowing for possible confrontation situations with NSM members. But more importantly spread out the mobile ARA activists would have been able to trail the NSM’s police escort out of town and possibly locate their parking/meeting point. Unfortunately this type of organization, communication and tactical, almost combat oriented, thinking is beyond the scope of American anarchists.
Attack the System
Categories: Uncategorized
It’s hilarious how irrelevant the whole nazi vs. anti fa bullshit is to American racial politics.
They’re basically a political version of the Bloods and Crips. But at least the Bloods and Crips have the excuse of being people who come from dire circumstances in many instances. The antifa are mostly privileged white kids engaged in pretentious moral masturbation as a cover for their aggressive violence. And the Nazis are usually sociopaths who are drawn to it precisely because of its freakish, absurd, predatory nature.
So anti-racist action is useless but Food Not Bombs isn’t? This website is ridiculously hypocritical and schizophrenic. I mean I am not surprised that a site would post links to the notoriously racist/pseudo nazi BANA while simultaneously bashing antifa activity. Anarcho-monarchism? You have to be joking, or a fed. That makes about as much sense as anarcho-capitalism.
And Keith, you must have missed the communique about the action a few days before which stated: “Many of us at the melee were people of color, working class, immigrants, women, queer, transgendered, and/or people on parole or probation.” (http://antiracistaction.org/april-15-2011-melee-NJ). Thus the mythology of the bored rich white kid needs to be critically reflected upon.
“So anti-racist action is useless but Food Not Bombs isn’t?”
Food Not Bombs provides a service to people in need. ARA is a thug group that wastes time fighting with other irrelevant thug groups.
“This website is ridiculously hypocritical and schizophrenic.”
By whose standards? Yours?
“I mean I am not surprised that a site would post links to the notoriously racist/pseudo nazi BANA while simultaneously bashing antifa activity.”
While not in agreement with every action BANA has ever taken, BANA recognizes that it is the System that is the enemy and not tiny, powerless, freakish, Hitlerian cults. Further, BANA recognizes the right of contending value systems to exist, something to which the commitment of ARA is highly suspect. Likewise, BANA has been attacked by Nazis for, well, not being Nazis.
“Anarcho-monarchism? You have to be joking,”
Ever heard of the Icelandic Commonwealth?
“That makes about as much sense as anarcho-capitalism.”
Ever heard of Murray Rothbard and Karl Hess?
“And Keith, you must have missed the communique about the action a few days before”
Geez, how could I have missed such an earth-shattering announcement of such monumental importance? I checked out the site of your “communique.” I see nothing there having anything to do with any kind of anarchism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-statism, or anti-capitalism worthy of the name. That site is a site for hoodlums, thugs, and aspiring political totalitarians. And what the hell does abortion have to do with “anti-racism”? I’m sure you are aware there are plenty of people of color who don’t share your views on that.
Sectarian, thuggish, pseudo-Stalinists like ARA are one of the forces that’s holding the anti-state movement back. That’s why some of us are working to develop an alternative anarchist movement leaves this kind of baggage behind. Away with you.
““Many of us at the melee were people of color, working class, immigrants, women, queer, transgendered, and/or people on parole or probation.”
Don’t flatter yourself. The anarcho-leftoids are about as white as Antarctica.
There is just as high a proportion of people from the traditional outgroups who participate in our projects as I ever saw among the anarcho-leftoids.
Even if antifa action is “diverse,” I have never heard at any meeting with majority African Americans of any type of serious political action to counter act against some thug skinheads. Why? Because thug skinheads operate no real power over communities “of color (I really hate that term, but whatever) All they are a bunch of losers who want to waive nazi flags. You ARA nutheads are fighting an enemy that poses no threat, whatsoever, to the Black community.
I’m so sick and tired of this ridiculously dogmatic anarchist arguments. It’s not hard to understand.
“Because thug skinheads operate no real power over communities “of color (I really hate that term, but whatever)”
I always thought that term was a bit odd as well. I use it sometimes because it seems to be en vogue, and some political groups I respect like APOC embrace it. But, technically, everyone has “color.” After all, Crayola boxes will include white crayons as well! 🙂
At their worst, skinhead types are just another set of violent criminals, no different than the much larger group of less exotic types of criminals we have in our society, no small number of cops, and not a few “anti-fascists” themselves. If the antifa want to help protect communities against criminal violence, I’d suggest doing something constructive like setting up a joint neighborhood watch/cop watch project.
Exactly. I’m not like some dogmatic nationalists, I have no problem working with idealistic Whites. (I’m middle class myself) Cincinnati CopWatch was put on by some Berkeley kids after the 2001 unrest and it was successful. Hamliton County sheriff department are still assholes, but there’s definitely been a decrease on the overall police abuses from Cincy Police.
I’ve been all over the country, including the deep south and the rural northwest, and I think that I’m yet to actually encounter a neo-nazi, skinhead or KKK member.
“I’ve been all over the country, including the deep south and the rural northwest, and I think that I’m yet to actually encounter a neo-nazi, skinhead or KKK member.”
I’ve met many but I’ve never had one claim a portion of my income, seize any of my guns or steal any of my drugs.
The problem with these antifa groups is not simply that they waste time protesting against Nazi cults. That may be a silly activity to spend so much energy on but it’s basically harmless. Much more serious are their efforts to silence free speech with threats of violence, unprovoked physical assaults, threatening to bomb hotels and murder hotel employees, engaging in kidnapping and assaults of people whose ideas they disagree with, and so forth. And they don’t just use these tactics against “right-wingers” either. Case in point: I know a former CPUSA member who was physically attacked by antifa for daring to question some of their tactics. The Antifa are simply a quasi-Stalinist cult that is every bit as fascistic as any of their opponents. They are the kinds of people who would make up the secret police in a future totalitarian leftist regime.
Raven Warrior, I dunno about you but I’ve had encounters with neo-nazis, nazi skinheads and one KKK member, and none of them were pleasant.
Brian, I broke ties from Yeoman and BANA long ago for being a nut-zi. I suppose I could support BANA at arms length, but doing things like burning the Koran was the last straw as far as I’m concerned…
I think that the right way to look at this is to simply recognize that crime is crime is crime. It doesn’t matter whether acts of predatory aggression are committed by racists, by more conventional kinds of criminals, by inner-city gangbangers, or by the cops or other government agents. It seems to me that the cop problem and the ordinary crime problem are much more prevalent than crimes committed by marginal groups like the skinheads, but the same kind of solution would be applicable. For instance, the Pink Pistols were a gay security force that formed in response to crimes targeting gay communities, businesses, etc. The Black Panthers formed originally as a response to police brutality. The militia movement arose as a response to the massacres at Ruby Ridge and Waco. At one point there was a Green Panther group whose stated aimed was resistance to the war on drugs. And neighborhood watch groups comprised of people with more mainstream political views are everywhere.
But the Antifa seems to be less of a genuine defensive group and more like “Nazis of the Left” with a totalitarian political agenda. That may not be true of everyone who participates or sympathizes with those groups, but there is a general pattern of aggressive violence by Antifa that is consistent enough to make them a force to be guarded against.
“I suppose I could support BANA at arms length, but doing things like burning the Koran was the last straw as far as I’m concerned…”
That seems to me to be the best way to handle these kinds of differences. My presumption has always been that as networks of anti-system groups grow, there will always be sharp differences in terms of ideology, tactics, personalities, priorities, and so forth. I would like to eventually have Attack the System groups for all kinds of regions, identities or single-issues, and I assume there would be strong disagreement among different ATS affiliates over these kinds of questions. For instance, some groups might be pro-life and others might be pro-choice. Some with a more leftward orientation might participate in the immigrants rights movement and others might participate in the anti-immigration movement. But the broader goal would be to build a network of local groups that agree on the big questions that affect everyone like foreign policy, the plutocratic economy, the ever growing police state, etc. with wider ideological differences and controversial single issues being matters for local groups to decide for themselves.
The same principle would be true when dealing with allied or overlapping groups. For instance, I consider both BANA and NA-M to be ATS allies, even though there was a recent split between them. I see that as a dispute I just don’t need to be involved in. I don’t agree with the Koran-burning, but I view it as a local issue for BANA and at most an internal issue among the NAs. I consider the Alternative Right and the Youth for Western Civilization organization to be allies given our common opposition to liberal imperialism, the neocons, PC totalitarianism, etc even though most of them are obviously motivated more by rightism than by libertarianism, much less anarchism. I cant’ really consider the crowd around Counterpunch to be “allies” because we don’t really have a relationship with them, but they could certainly be allies given the high level of overlap between them and ARV/ATS.
I imagine if and when I encounter one of them it won’t be pleasant, to say the least. I was merely commenting that in my experience i don’t just run into them on the street.
Well such people are not so visible now, maybe because they’re not allowed in too many places anymore (particularly the boneheads who usually have ugly tattoos on their faces and everywhere else…) But back in the 80s and 90s they tried to infiltrate the hardcore-punk and metal scenes in my town, and they were much more visible then.
That explains it then, because if they tried to infiltrate anything in the places *I’m* from they probably would have gotten a beat down 🙂
“But back in the 80s and 90s they tried to infiltrate the hardcore-punk and metal scenes in my town, and they were much more visible then.”
Yes. I used to encounter them in the D.C. area back then. They liked to travel in fairly large packs, because by themselves they were usually worthless in a fight. My friends and I used to call them “The Chemo Kids” because we always thought they looked like a groups of chemotherapy patients (that probably not PC***). I remember one night they stabbed somebody outside a club I used to hang out at in D.C.
There were groups of them in Richmond, some of whom were enemies/rivals with each other. When I was the local organizer for the IWW (god, that was a long time ago), there was one local skinhead who always sending me copies of Tom Metzger’s “WAR” newspaper in the mail (not exactly the way to make a good impression). There was another one who started making threats against me for being an anarchist/commie/race traitor/hippie/whatever he thought I was (like the Antifa do now, ironically). I had some friends who were SHARP skins and we paid him a visit and let him know what was up.
Of course the way things were was that you couldn’t wear a Thor’s Hammer without being called a ‘poseur’ or ‘phony’ by the boneheads, and now you can’t wear one without being labeled a ‘nazi’ by Antifa. You just can’t win, it seems, and I haven’t even worn a Thor’s Hammer in years and pretty much moved away from the Asatru belief to begin with although I still practice runes when I’m desperate. (lol…)
I think what killed it for the boneheads in Western New York was the bands were sick of them more than that there was an organized resistance by Antifa, SHARP or other groups. They remain an unpopular bunch with just about everyone for good reason…