Berkeley, CA: Antifascist Patrols Respond to Alt-Right Organizing

Submitted to It’s Going Down

Throughout this last week, groups of antifascists in Berkeley put up propaganda throughout the city making it known that Berkeley is an antifascist zone, unwelcome and unsafe for white nationalists and racists.

Posters were put up in every area where we have already observed fascist propaganda and beyond, letting the likes of hipster fascists, such as those in Identity Europa and others, know that Berkeley will not be ceded to white supremacists in the wake of Trump’s electoral victory. Additionally, some far right flyers referencing “pizza gate” were removed from the UC Berkeley campus. These, and other planned actions, will be continued as we seek to find each other and create horizontal anti-authoritarian networks to combat fascism in the streets, building a culture of militancy, self-defense and care in our communities.

Berkeley is well-known for being a liberal college town. This reputation masks the underlying racism that is rampant in the city. The Berkeley police routinely harass people of color and the homeless. In 2013 they murdered Kayla Moore, a trans woman of color, in her home.  This systemic oppression and racism produces exactly the racialized, overtly anti-black, and class based social system that fascists in the so-called “alt-right” movement seek to maintain and uphold on campuses like UC Berkeley. Indeed, as we moved through the city leaving behind our new decorations, we observed a group of young white men yelling racial slurs at black students just blocks from the UC campus before speeding away in their car.

As the transition into Trump’s presidency proceeds, we see that fascism is capable of maintaining a presence in Berkeley because it is rooted in the capitalist status quo, such as Berkeley’s racist police force, despite the lies of acceptance and diversity that have made the liberals of the city feel safe.  As antifascists, we want to combat all forms of violence, explicit and implicit, against people of color, LGBT folks, immigrants, women, and people with disabilities.  One part of this fight includes the creation of spaces where oppressive ways of acting and speaking are contested, opening them up to new and liberatory social relationships.  

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