Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
The white supremacists did not
blink at violently plowing right through clergy, all of us dressed in
full clerical garb. White supremacy is violence. I didn’t see any
racial justice protesters with weapons; as for antifa, anything they
brought I would only categorize as community defense tools and nothing
more. Pretty much everyone I talk to agrees—including most clergy. My
strong stance is that the weapon is and was white supremacy, and the
white supremacists intentionally brought weapons to instigate violence.... What the counter-protesters Trump despises were actually doing in Charlottesville last weekend.
The yin/yang re: Antifa goes on. Here is a positive view.
Left/liberals are calling for MLK type peaceful protests. Given the armed right wing militants and the fact that police and military are mostly sympathetic to the right, the left has little room to roam. I'm still not taking sides - yet.
Yes, What About the “Alt-Left”?
What the counter-protesters Trump despises were actually doing in Charlottesville last weekend.
What took place in Charlottesville, like what took place in February when antifa and Black Bloc protesters thwarted UC Berkeley’s attempt
to host the crypto-fascist Milo Yiannopoulos, was political theater. It
was about giving self-styled radicals a stage. It was about elevating
their self-image. It was about appearing heroic. It was about replacing
personal alienation with comradeship and solidarity. Most important, it
was about the ability to project fear. This newfound power is exciting
and intoxicating. It is also very dangerous.... Chris Hedges
Criticism of Antifa from progressives on the left mounts. This is different from the liberal ACLU "free speech even for Nazis" critiques. Self-declared anarchists are not the most loved on the left --- after all, they often disparage the essential beliefs of many leftists. Who is to say that Hedges is protested at some point for disagreeing with Antifa? I am not comfortable with people making certain decisions as to who is kosher and who is not.
Hedges makes some important points:
Street clashes do not distress the ruling elites. These clashes
divide the underclass. They divert activists from threatening the actual
structures of power. They give the corporate state the ammunition to
impose harsher forms of control and expand the powers of internal
security. When antifa assumes the right to curtail free speech it
becomes a weapon in the hands of its enemies to take that freedom away
from everyone, especially the anti-capitalists. The focus on street violence diverts activists from the far less
glamorous building of relationships and alternative institutions and
community organizing that alone will make effective resistance possible.
We continue our series dealing with elements of Antifa - which is not an organized block. It might make sense to some to support beating up Nazi sympathizers but I worry when it extends to whatever some people choose to define as "hate" speech. What if being critical of Antifa methods gets classified that way and suddenly leftists who are critical find themselves under attack as "liberal" free speechers?
Peter Farruggio, my old colleague (1969-70 at PS 16K and in the first caucus I was part of, Another View in District 14) feels Nazis need to be challenged and sent this email:
Peter Farruggio: I reject the argument that such "violence" from the left only makes the nazis look sympathetic, or is bad publicity. Let the mainstream presstitutes babble on about the "extremist left." Their audiences are not the important target. It's everyday people who are in danger of fascist violence and police state terror who need to see how to confront these punks. And of course, the punks themselves must see their fellow bullies getting defeated and demoralized. I'll stand with Woody Allen on how to deal with nazis:
Dealing with nazis, according to Woody Allen (Manhattan)
Woody Allen: Has anybody read that Nazis are gonna march in New Jersey? Ya know? I read it in the newspaper. We should go down there, get some guys together, ya know, get some bricks and baseball bats, and really explain things to 'em.
Victor Truro: There was this devastating satirical piece on that on the op-ed page of the Times – devastating.
Allen: Well, a satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point of it.
Helen Hanft: Oh, but really biting satire is always better than physical force.
Allen: No, physical force is always better with Nazis.
Here's the clip:
There's also a story floating around about Jewish gangster Meir Lansky having a crew show up with baseball bats to disrupt a Nazi bund rallies in the late 1930s.
Peter continues:
OK,
so it was a bad day for the extremist right in the Bay Area
this weekend. The fascists punked out and canceled their
planned "rally" yesterday in SF, in the face of massive
anti-nazi demos. Today, a handful of them showed up in
Berkeley and got their butts kicked. Too bad it had to be the
adventurist anarchists who did the butt kicking, instead of
the organized working class; but at least they sent the
message "Don't come back here, cowards!" (It's the anarchists'
stupid window-breaking that brings bad publicity, and that's
probably the work of police state provocateurs)
So, I am ambivalent and an showing my libertarian tendencies.
I don't totally disagree with the liberal "presstitutes" in the New Yorker, with which I also have some sympathy.
the images out of Berkeley—outnumbered right-wing protesters being pepper-sprayed by counter-demonstrators, one person lying on the ground while a black-clad group punched his face and torso—will be held up by many on the right as evidence that Trump was correct about the blame falling on “many sides.”... the clear dictate of common sense is that no one should be in the business of providing this President with matches.... The New Yorker, The Antifa Protests Are Helping Donald Trump
Below is the full piece which claims the right is being handed a loaded gun.
The Antifa Protests Are Helping Donald Trump | The New Yorker
The Trump administration and right-wing pundits want to use Antifa to
paint with a broad brush an image of the American “left” as committed
to militancy, extremism, and violence. Such depictions serve their
political goals of marginalizing the left, while propping up the
reactionary right. Trump’s attacks on left militants will make it
easier to suppress mass non-violent protests, considering reporters’
long-established practice of framing left protesters as violent
agitators, and taking at face value police departments’ claims that they
merely protect the public and order, rather than violently suppress
constitutionally protected speech and assembly. American law
enforcement has never been shy about using violence to suppress minority
communities, so it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that the
American right – which has long been set on labeling Black Lives Matter
as a “terrorist organization” – is chomping at the bit to justify
violent state attacks on people of color.... Counterpunch, Aug. 28, 2017 -
I've been posting some goodies dug up by Michael Fiorillo, the most recent being:
Here's another find from Michael with an emphasis on Antifa. I've been posting articles and flipping back and forth with a leaning against.
Fiorillo intros the article with:
Worthwhile piece on the political dead-end that is Antifa.... A good argument, even if it neglects the long history of these groups being infiltrated by police provocateurs...
Before getting to the article, let me tell you a story about police provocateurs who purposely incite violence. A friend who used to be left but has turned right over the years. But during the Bush years, whom she supported, she was fed up with the war and decided to attend an anti-war rally -- I guess over 10 years ago. She witnessed some contact between the police and protestors, noting one particularly active guy who was taunting the cops. They grabbed him and a few others. About an hour later, she was marching at some other location and noticed the very same guy hanging out with the cops. An agent provocateur.
I am still ambivalent about Antifa and will be posting links to the numerous articles that contrast them to the alt-right. But I bet Steve Bannon loves Antifa. My major problem is that through some process they decide what speech is hate and act to stop it. Which means any less radical speech than theirs can be subject to attack. I've seen in local orgs here how people feel they cannot express their views when they don't agree with aspects of black lives matter or how to view police are lectured and put in an ideological corner with a dunce hat.
As for physical confrontation, Chomsky says we always know who loses --- think - police, military mostly side with the right.
Now note --- this is the Washington Examiner -- with an agenda.
Noam Chomsky: Antifa is a 'major gift to the Right' by
Steven Nelson
|
At a rally
at Madison Square Garden in New York on 20 February 1939, a crowd of
20,000 listened to Kuhn attacking President Franklin D Roosevelt,
referring to him as “Frank D Rosenfeld” and calling his New Deal a “Jew
Deal”.
The gathering ended in violent clashes between protesters and
participants. Similar riots took place on the west coast.
Obsessed with fantasies about a Jewish-Communist world conspiracy and
fears about an African American corruption of American culture, its
followers promoted racism, extreme nationalism, violence and the ideal
of an aggressive masculinity. They competed against various other
militant fringe groups, from the Khaki Shirt movement, which aimed to
build a paramilitary force of army veterans to stage a coup, to the
paramilitary Black Legion, feared for its assassinations, bombings and
acts of arson.... America in the 1930s
It has never been more important to acknowledge the history of fascism and neo-fascism in America
Through the lens of history is how I look at all current - and future events - which we can predict to some extent by studying past tendencies - ie - look at the root of WWI - not just from the political maelstrom - but from the view of how the populace was manipulated into nationalism. Once we got in the repression was intense for those who opposed it.
Now, if you look at the 30s in this country we can see how much support Hitler had in this country and especially in England - which was why Churchill was so hated until is was almost too late.
Check out the video of the over 20,000 Hitler supporter in Madison Square Garden here in good old NYC in 1939.
If you missed the recently rebroadcast of The Roosevelts on PBS, go check it out to see what went on. Message to Jews nowadays who disparage Roosevelt as an anti-semite because he didn't sanction Jewish refugees. In that environment it was impossible.
The antifa of those days were involved in battling the fascists.
Note the links to things like - 1947 anti-fascist video made by US military to teach citizens how to avoid falling for people like Trump is relevant again.
