Dallas, TX: Report Back from Mobilizaiton Against White Supremacy

Occupied Indigenous Land, so called Dallas, TX – In the wake of the events in Charlottesville a rally was called in solidarity with those who took the streets in Virginia and against white supremacy with demands to remove the confederate memorials. Spearheaded by mostly white liberal activists, what had started as a rally at the memorial was quickly moved to the more manageable terrain of city hall as the organizers declared the pigs “allies.” Scores of Black and Brown bodies have been been murdered and brutalized by police and other racists for centuries but that didn’t seem to enter their analysis of white supremacy. Perhaps they were moved by the reality that they too could also become victims of this violence but the call to “unity” and “love” rang hollow for those of us that this violence has been a lived reality since birth. While these “hug a nazi/cop” love fests are sickening it was likely that everyone in attendance wouldn’t be on that dumb shit. Various anti-racist crews decided to attend in order to offer an alternative to this shit show.

Arriving on the scene it was clear the police were trying to intimidate as they deployed three helicopters, an estimated three hundred units made up of patrol, riot, SWAT snipers, horse mounted swine and barricades. Cops lined the streets and some were deployed on multiple levels of floors in the buildings above the crowd. Cameras, video cameras, phones, and fixed security cameras were everywhere. When attending an event: have a plan ahead of time, know the lay out, know where you will park (bring money), leave your ID’s/phones in the car, and have a rally point. With all this you can make a smooth ingress and make an immediate decision on what your capabilities are once you see the pig presence. If things get rowdy anonymity is key, and it is impossible without covering up. Bring face coverings and put them on when the time is right.

The liberal chants could be heard reverberating off the skyscrapers. The air was too hot. The mood was set in the anti-racists favor since no cops were inside the the protest zone. The crew started roaming around talking to peeps who looked bored, angry or just tired of all this “peace” & “love” shit.

White protest marshals arrived and tried to educate the PoC crews about how to dismantle white supremacy. What a fucking joke. Their bullshit arguments were torn apart for all to see and hear. The crowd was feeling it. They began laying down the business; cops enforce white supremacy through the policing and killing of Black and Brown bodies; white supremacists have been defended by the pigs and liberals under the bullshit guise of  “free speech”; we can only destroy white supremacy and defend ourselves by acting outside of the channels the state allows.

As they worked their way through the crowd their numbers grew. The sun was setting but it was only getting hotter. The crowd began to march off the permitted area as it became conscious of its own size. They locked arms and began chanting and marching in train formation toward the statue one block away. The helicopters immediately locked on to the crowd. The light from the helicopter passed through the trees in a sweeping motion that was as beautiful as it was disorienting only adding to the energy and anger the crowd felt. In a shocking turn, a lot of liberals broke off from the original protest and found themselves in the new crowd. Some were even seen chanting “Cops and Klan go hand in hand” “Fuck the Police” and “A-anti-antifascista!” What had started off as a small group had grown to 300+ strong.

As the crowd arrived at the statue there was a group of armed militia, twenty or so “brave” neo-confederates (a handful of them immediately left) and roughly eighty racists dressed in blue. Roughly a dozen horse mounted cops reinforced a fence line they had constructed in front of the monument. A concrete wall hemmed the crowd on the right, a staircase that descended to a garage on the left and to the rear was a large, dark open area. No cops had been positioned to the rear, the schematics were laid for us to throw down and react accordingly.

One of the older reactionaries was sitting on a headstone and was having a hard time with the stress or the heat or something. Someone offered them their water and told them they needed to leave and he took the opportunity to do so. Now a large portion of the crowd was masked up, drenched in sweat and feeling pretty hyped.

The crowd mobbed up the red hat wearing, neo-confederate boys and the armed militia. They looked shocked, face-to-face with the “antifa” they assuredly swore to kill on their social media accounts and here they were powerless to do anything but shake and stare blankly at each other. The crowd started pushing forward and backing them up against the fence. The goal was to force them out and get to the monument despite the police standing only feet away.

Insults were traded, spots of debate on tactics, the crowd pulsed, hats were taken, flags were torn, and water bottles were thrown back and forth. This was headed the right way. More reactionaries ran. The crowd rushed forward, suddenly a shriek came from the crowd as pepper balls and pepper spray filled the air and mounted police barged into the crowd protecting the racists. The crowd retreated  and reconsolidated as the pigs pulled the last racists to safety. The crowd began chanting “cops and klan go hand-in-hand” as they had just experienced it firsthand. Some peeps decided to check out the linear danger areas. Cops intervening means the crowd had crossed a time or event threshold and they were possibly prepping for the next phase. There was no one in the open area to our left and rear. The front was apparent. Peeps ran over to the wall on the right and sure enough twenty feet below riot cops were putting on equipment. They were called out and the crowd shifted right to calls of “roll right” to make it harder for cops to come up that staircase. Chants of “Oink oink! Bang bang!” “Make Racists Afraid Again” rang out.

At this point some impassioned talks were given by PoC. One young black woman gave a stirring speech about white supremacy and capitalism to loud cheers of “fuck the police!” “fuck the bourgeoisie!” Another person of color addressed the crowd telling them that “running the racists off was just the 1st step. Now we gotta tear those ugly ass statues down!” The crowd whooped in support. This is where the internal contradictions of the crowd started to become apparent.

Two middle class black men started berating the young black woman in a disgusting display of patriarchal bullshit. Some in the crowd were not having it and descended on them. A black man and the black woman answered back to these traitors, “get your uncle tom ass to the back.” As they got there another black man showed up saying, “No one is tearing these statutes down” and began a verbal exchange with the black women that was very aggressive and disrespectful. People from the crowd stepped in and a face off insued. The crowd started chanting “He’s a cop!” Whether this man was an agent or simply some idiot he played the role assigned to him. The statue defender then threatened to follow and assault a member of the crowd and stepped nose to nose with that person. He then made an aggressive move which caused a bullhorn to spontaneously hug his face. A scuffle broke out and riot cops pushed in and yelled the assembly was over and a large portion of the crowd scattered.

The racist and right wing media has taken this as a chance to frame it as “Antifa vs BLM”  which is fucking laughable since there is a huge overlap of people involved in both movements. The statue defender was able to follow one of the groups out of the park and attacked with a brick striking a woman in the back. He was chased off with pepper spray and flashlight blows.

This action was relatively unimpeded by the cops in comparison to some other protests across the nation and there were not that many reactionaries. So we apply lessons learned and practice for the day the field is less in our favor. Walk to your cars in groups. There were reactionaries looking for stragglers and cops turning their heads to it. Use Signal. Make sure all your comrades made it out. Leave no one behind ever.

Ultimately, some of the potential was left on the field as the statues still stood. We freaked out the cops and upset the liberals (from their Facebook posts it seems like they were upset the didn’t get enough air time) by breaking from the group. We stalemated their efforts in maneuvering and the racists did not feel safe. The mayor of Dallas has now come out saying the statues will be removed by December. This isn’t soon enough and now the Dallas Police Department and Pig Union are arguing about overtime. They’re spread thin and the field for subversive activity may be ripe.