So on Saturday there was a brief clash between a left bloc and members of the American Guard and Proud Boys in Rhode Island. American Guard are like heavyset biker types, and sprang out of a neo-Nazi club called the Vinlanders (themselves an offshoot of the Outlaw Hammerskins). There have been a series of these rallies in Boston and Providence by a group calling themselves "Resist Marxism" which is largely a front for white-power, neo-Nazi Zig Forums types.
Anyways it seemed like the right got the worst of it, and I thought leftypol would appreciate the guy with the Korean Workers Party symbol. The trend in the U.S. towards more disciplined ML formations is interesting to note.
So wait not antifa? If then what are these guys, just some random leftists?
Lincoln Evans
Antifa is just a generic term and doesn't really mean anything.
Thomas Hughes
But aren't they supposed to be at least some like loosely organized group? (antifa). Correct me if I'm wrong though.
Carson Perry
To be honest, I thought that the right would be hyped as hell about this and be able to channel their optimism in order to beat antifa. Trump's approval rating got a big boost, but I never really see a lot of the right out, as they are almost always outnumbered. Why is this the case? Is it just because Trump's base is mostly fat white old guys?
Bentley Morales
Antifa isn't an organization, it's a specific kind of praxis. You might get loosely affiliated groups in certain towns or cities but there isn't a network of Antifas, the far-right is particularly fond of maintaining fake Antifa social media pages not aware of this, which is quite funny.
David James
Not every Trump voter is a Blackshirt, most of them are just Right Liberals or fall under the lexicon of Special Interest groups affiliated with Republicans. Even the majority of people who go around spouting MAGA shit and go to rallies and stuff aren't really involved in any kind of Fascist or Paramilitary organizing, that's a very specific thing.
Wyatt Rivera
Then why aren't they protesting though? Wouldn't it be in their best interests to attempt to out number the more left leaning protesters?
Jackson Foster
Shame that you didn't have a better photo, North Korean propaganda loves to show international Juche followers outside of Korea. Could have sent it to them.
Dylan Robinson
More groups are comfortable allying themselves against Fascists than being seen directly supporting Fascists?
Bentley Carter
A lot of Trump’s voters are too far from a major city to go to protests. And no one cares if the protest in Newfreedomevill, Kansas population 400.
Isaiah Nguyen
Rhode Islander and Providence resident here. The first time Resist Marxism showed up they got their tents torn down and sound equipment ruined in the pouring rain that day. This second round I couldn't attend but from what I'm reading in the papers and online is that RM was outnumbered again but the riot police separated the two groups after some words and light fighting with no arrests.
I'll be writing something in the letters to the editor section of The Providence Journal this week about it, what memes or references do you guys want be to drop?
Jaxson Stewart
I think user is correct. Most people on the right are liberals like they said who are satisfied with the direction the United States is heading in so they don't have much reason to mobilize. The right-wing groups that showed up to Providence are a mix of actual fascists and their motivations are different.
They also might simply flat-out not have the numbers. It looked like a decent number of the (already small) showing in Providence traveled there from other states. From what I can tell of the American Guard they look like they sprouted from the Midwest. I imagine the left got some additional numbers from nearby cities. I also wouldn't underestimate D*SA and other groups like it which, although not militant, is often able to mobilize a decent number of people quickly in most major cities for these things. So you have a bloc but then you also have a D*SA there which adds numbers and mass, which is good.
I saw that and it was hilarious. My peeps were facing off with fash later the same day elsewhere and that gave us motivation. Red salute. "Enhance the fighting capacity of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards by intensifying their drills as the anti-Japanese guerrillas did in Mt. Paektu!"
Oh wait, you mean something they might actually publish? Let me think…
Sebastian Edwards
No, "antifa" is a term, not a group. Therefore it isn't something organised, not even loosely. Local groups using the term around the globe organise antifascist action as the term implies, but they don't share an ideology more strictly defined than fighting fascism, nor do they interact, really. It's a catchy, very old term, the media grabbed their chance to demonise around 2016. Little else.
Ian Morris
Where else did they show up? I thought that it was over after we followed them back to their vans in the street by the state house, unless they had a lesser-known rally somewhere else.
Camden Nelson
There were several fash rallies in different cities that day. Seattle, Austin, etc. The Providence one was early in the day so the video of their equipment getting wrecked had already circulated by the time we were marching.
One thing I've learned is that the fash who show up at these spend a lot of time traveling to different cities for them and they all mostly know each other. Like in Providence today there was this crew from the PNW and they make their living from donations I'm assuming. The same crew travels to Austin. I don't know why they decided to have multiple rallies that day and divided their numbers like that.
Carson Harris
So the right wing protesters are essentially astroturf then?
Michael Butler
Unironically yes. This is yet another example of America's decline. The elite went from financing the Tea Party to the Proud Boys. They are scared. Things aren't working as well as they had hoped.
The main organizer for these things in Texas also seems to work for the GOP in some capacity. Her rallies regularly bring in these guys in Fred Perry polos and thugged-out militia types. (See pics.)
You can also see this in how they think the left is always astroturfed. That's how they think about street politics, and they overspend on everything from equipment to travel and lodging. They'll bring in speaker systems and get drowned out by left-wing crowds with drums and noisemakers bought cheaply and in bulk.
(me) A lot of them are, I can't comment on the specifics of US groups, I'm from the UK but I can give you an example.
You might have heard of a guy called Tommy Robinson, he's a Grifter and Criminal who founded a Far-Right group in the UK called the EDL and he's been politically agitating on and off for many years. He was originally just involved with Gangs and Drug Dealers and his Racism is entirely spawned from rivalries with Pakistani Organized Crime in Luton but that's not relevant, he's moved on to essentially becoming a spook.
Recently there was a big controversy with him getting arrested and sentenced for attempting to interfere with the Trials of the Rotherham rape scandal, publically broadcasting and trying to break into court, that kind of stuff. This was turned into a massive uproar to attempt to mobilize support for Far-Right politics, although it's kind of petered out. There were protests, and it turns out all the protestors were hired by an Organization called the Middle Eastern Forum (they also paid his legal fees), which is a Zionist Thinktank ran by an American called Daniel Pipes, who has ties to the MIC & Intelligence agencies, and is a rabid Zionist & Neocon.
And these aren't the only ties that Robinson has , being an open Zionist himself; he's also worked for Rebel Media in the past. Robinson is a bit of a larger scale case here but given the history of the EDL as essentially starting out as a borderline Paramilitary Football Hooligan group and the far-right splinter groups it's created since it's dissolution, it's pretty comparable to a lot of these orgs in the US, and is probably more extensive there.
Camden Wood
Rebel Media is also connected to Proud Boys as Gavin McInnes (the Proud Boys founder) worked for them. Do you think Ezra Levant is tied up in any spookery? Makes me wonder though he is pretty buffoonish and sent McInnes and Faith Goldy – a raging anti-Semite and a fascist – to Israel to promote that country; not one of the greatest examples of intelligence tradecraft if so but the history of that is full of similar stupid stories.
Yeah I reckon Ezra is definitely tied up in spookery, but I'd have to do some real research on that. Robinson actually got in trouble for broadcasting under the Rebel Media name at those trials. The Fascism & Israel connection shouldn't really be surprising to you, Fascists absolutely love Israel despite their rampant Anti-Semitism because it's an Ethnostate and a model that they themselves would love to emulate; it provides a ready made avenue for their Blut und Boden ethnic cleansing horseshit not only as an ideal to aspire to but as a country that would gladly accept Jews if they were expelled. The spectre of Fascism also is very convinient for Zionists because they can use the Anti-Semitism as a cover whilst covertly funding Fascists to do work for them but it also gives them something to point the finger at as not only worse than their Genocidal Ideology but can also eternally play the victim. Zionism & Anti-Semitism go hand in hand, and it's pretty easy to understand once you realise why the Bourgeoisie rolls out the red carpet for Fascism.
By the way, it looks like one of the Proud Boys got his nose broken. This was after this big fella named Tiny Toese who reps the Sons of Samoa (a West Coast street gang) and associates – bizarrely, I guess – with these fash, started punching on some of the smaller lefties and women, and then stepped back while the Proud Boys with him got pummeled. Not as interesting as the McGregor vs. Khabib fight but there you go. It seems like the antifas on the internet were pleased by this in any case, as one of the bigger and more well-known Proud Boys got a really good shot in on a leftist in Portland a few months ago, which was circulated around Zig Forums as propaganda.
(me) And when I say this Tiny fellow hits smaller guys and women, I am not exaggerating, and there are a lot of videos of this chuddy Samoan at rallies punching girls and then literally running and hiding behind lines of riot cops. It would be infuriating if it wasn't so pathetic. But the guy has a lengthy record, and no known source of employment, and was arrested a few weeks ago in Washington state for a host of charges including unlawful weapons possession and resisting arrest, and has previous arrests for assault, and yet still has the money and freedom to travel around the country attending these things.
Hmm… I wonder why? What possible reason could there be for that?
This Toese individual is a key member of Patriot Prayer, described as "The Right Hand man" of the Leader Joey Gibson. PP are based in Oregon yet this guy is in Rhode Island lmao. Really makes me think…
This guy is super into this bullshit as well, calling himself "antifa removal". I wonder who fund Patriot Prayer, shouldn't be too hard to find out.
Dylan Butler
w2c this?
Elijah Rodriguez
Seems as if he's officially joined the Proud Boys since then, so he's bankrolled by the same Zionists, Thinktanks & Porkies as the rest of them
Seems that Proud Boys are directly involved in attacking Palestinian & Anti-Israel advocates & activitsts, which is funny since Daniel Pipes from MEF is historically OBSESSED with BDS in particular, and even founded a website called Campuswatch, whose purpose is to snitch on people in Colleges who might be involved in anti-israel protests or activism.
Owen Davis
The antifa news sites I read said that the Proud Boys had these guys brought in as "muscle," so to see them get beaten anyway and to have one of them get their nose broken on top of it is just too good.
