By Alexander Reid Ross (April 17, 2017)
It is indeed disappointing that Trump’s fascist supporters eventually got to take over a couple major intersections in Berkeley, CA—but don’t feel dispirited.
The alt-right and Oath Keepers streamed in from places as far flung as Colorado. They made a point of forcing their way through Berkeley *because* they’re so unpopular. The cops protected them against antifas, which is typical.
The fact that they were able to hold a rally in Berkeley isn’t a defeat, in itself—it’s just the state doing what it does. We stopped JT Ready in the streets in Phoenix in 2010, but the cops made sure they could still eventually make their way to their destination and rattle off boring speeches.
The antifascists who went toe to toe with the indiscriminate violence of misogynistic racists are courageous as fuck. They stood up for their communities, because they know that this is how pogroms begin. Fascists running riot through the streets is only a taste of what would happen were they are not opposed.
This was not Cable Street in ’36 but it also was not Rostock in ’92. The long-term struggle demands recalibration and forward thinking, making communities bastions against fascism, and maintaining broad-based solidarity. Claim no easy victories, as Cabral once wrote, but don’t concede defeat to a pathetic group of fascists desperately striking out at an entire metropolitan center.
Let them revel in their supposed “victory.” Their president’s approval rating is lower now (39%) than it was before he bombed Syrian air fields. The Oath Keepers have no further recourse to the rhetoric “freedom” having thrown in their lot with the fascist alt-right. The struggle against fascism and empire is clarifying in the minds of people around the world. The movement for collective liberation grows stronger and more powerful every day.
Oh who are you kidding. Let’s lay the whole thing down here.
The First Amendment supporters went to MLK park to bait the Antifa out and prove a point. And they did just that. They knew exactly which buttons to hit with the thin skinned youngsters and frame the battlefield to their advantage. They didn’t rush the police barriers. They didn’t sit back and toss stones, trash and fucking bagels at people. They realize what children the Antifa are and played them like a fiddle.
Anita are brave little fighters when they outnumber their victims, as the videos prove. Time after time, brave Antifa warriors grab a person, drag them into a crowd and 6-8 of them beat and kick the person and then run away. Once the F/A folks had had enough and started to fight back, the Antifa ran away (some would characterize is as “submissive urination”) clearly looking for police protection, the same police they battled several times over the past few years. For some reason, the Berkeley PD didn’t feel inclined to jump in to save the Antfi’s collective bacon. So much for being Anti-Government radicals when you try to hide behind what you hate the most.
Take this for what its worth. Some of the F/A folks are combat veterans. Some are retired law enforcement. Some are former Intel people. Almost all swore oaths to the Constitution and aren’t going to go quietly into the night because a bunch of petulant children demand they leave. We know duty. We know honor. We know brotherhood. We’ve seen far more dangerous people than the Antifa before and persevered.
And remember the old motto: Blood makes the grass greener.