Jun 6, 17

Against Alt-Right and Anti-Muslim Terror: June 10th

Filed under: Anarchist Movement, Announcement, Anti-fascist, Event, Featured, Publication, US, White Supremacy

On Saturday, June 10th, across the US, Trump supporters along with members of the far-Right and Alt-Right, will converge in various cities to take part in ‘anti-Sharia Law’ demonstrations.

The group calling for the protests, ACT for America, has a long history as an anti-Muslim group with clear links to the Alt-Right and the far-Right. Militias and racist groups such as the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and the III%ers are also doing security at many of these events, and will in turn work closely with law enforcement. Members of the Alt-Right want to use these events to recruit, and ACT for America specifically wants to use the threat of radical Islam to promote their own version of a more entrenched system of authoritarian Christianity. We must reject all of this, especially the racist scapegoating of immigrants, refugees, and all Muslim people.

These demonstrations are also happening against a backdrop of both a rise in attacks, killings, and acts of terror by the Alt-Right, as well as continued acts of terror abroad carried out by ISIS. As anarchists, we see the ideological parallels of both of these groups, as they both represent an authoritarian form of social, economic, and political organization. As anarchists, we are part of a movement that is fighting and at times dying in solidarity with our comrades in Rojava and Syria against ISIS, a fight that involves many Muslims who are also in struggle to rid the Islamic State from their lands. This perspective allows us to see anti-Muslim attacks and Islamophobia for what they are: an attempt to create an internal enemy to bolster the ranks of the far-Right and play off fears nurtured by the elites.

Western governments are also using continued ISIS attacks to push for the ramping up of surveillance and repression at home, while relying on various authoritarian regimes in the Middle East to bring stability to US economic and political interests. If the “War on Terror” has shown us anything, it’s that continued repression at home and wars abroad won’t make us safer – but they can get us killed. Meanwhile, the ongoing proxy wars and occupation of the Middle East by Western powers leads to the growth of groups like ISIS, creating a continuous cycle of terror, occupation, imperialism, and repression that benefits no one but corporations and governments, be they the Islamic or United States.

Caught in the middle of all of this are hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing wars backed by the US and the murder squads of ISIS, as well as the people already in the United States who face ongoing racist attacks and harassment for their skin color, ethnicity, and religion. In the last several months, we have seen wave after wave of far-Right murders, arson attacks, and acts of terror. In the face of this violence, we stand in solidarity with those targeted and against the authoritarian monsters of the world; be they Alt-Right killers on the streets of America, drone strikes carried out by the US government, or the death squads of the Islamic State.