Denver, CO: Solidarity with Charlottesville

Comrades, on the 13th of August, Denver recently hosted a several hundred strong march in solidarity with our fallen comrade, Heather Heyer, who fell in Charlottesville. Or at least, that what the the intent was. Instead, it was another liberal circle jerk.

The march was spontaneously declared, but that didn’t stop the local liberals from taking control and giving orders. Since was Heather was a radical anti-capitalist and anti-fascist, we felt that the solidarity march should take on a more radical tone. The organizers had been stopping at every intersection along the way, waiting for Denver PD to clear the intersection, even after assuming the radical chant of “Whose Streets? our Streets!” The hypocrisy of the liberals was too much, and we attempted to move to the front and move the march on, but the liberals halted the march and told us to keep going, insisting that “They were the ones who organized this!” It was obvious that the second we broke from the main march, the police were going to round us up, so we refused and headed back to our area behind them in the marching order. We weren’t getting arrested just so some liberal can lick the cops boots.

Later, when the march reached the capital, the speakers gave the stereotypical liberal speeches, using the same tired peace loving non-violent crap that I have expected from them. They did not have a single radical speak, and neither did they even mention Heather’s support for anti-capitalism and anti-fascism. This was before our comrades at the IWW had confirmed that Heather was not on their rolls, so many of us were under the impression she was a member and frustrated that they didn’t ask a wobbly or any other leftist organization to at least say a few words about the cause Heather died for.

I heard from a comrade a few days later that that a member of ISO was originally going to speak, but was not allowed to for some reason. Our comrades in the IWW group left about 30 minutes into the speakers, after spending most of the time not listening to the bullshit Resistance (TM). After they left, most of our comrades began making our frustration known to anyone who would listen. The response of the liberal “organizers” to our simple demands to have radical representation to show solidarity with a radical comrade who died in the fight against fascism is proof enough that liberals can never be the ally of the revolution.

The whole time, most of the white liberals took offense at our anti-police anti-state stance, including our refusal to sing “This Land is Our Land.” After a native comrade explained that the song is an example of native erasure, we decided to take a stand with our comrade and not participate, even though the song expresses many socialist and anarchist ideals. Nasty looks and angry words were often exchanged between radicals and centralists. DPD bike cops of course, took the opportunity to harass comrades in the bloc; the excuse for today being that they wanted us out of the center turning lane, even though it was blocked off by a rolling police unit. We later looked back down the line and saw that anyone besides members of the bloc were allowed in this central line, and they were just using this arbitrary line as an excuse for harassment of comrades.

Besides the IWW and ISO, Denver DSA and Local Antifa were out in the usual manner to show solidarity with our fallen and injured comrades in Charlottesville. I am going to take a guess that at least ⅕ of the marchers were radical in one way or another, and it was good to see comrades united against the fascist threat.

Overall, the event was both inspiring and frustrating. I thank our comrades both in Denver and around the world for there consistant shows of solidarity and support for Heather and the battle against fascism at Charlottesville.

The only thing stronger than our sorrow is our rage. #BashTheFash #BurnTheRich #NaziPunksFuckOff