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Jun 26, 24
Filed under: Announcement, Anti-fascist, Publication
Announcing a new zine collection from 1312 Press on the mass antifascist mobilization in Sacramento in the summer of 2016.
Download and Print Zine HERE
This was originally published on the 7th anniversary of the anti-fascist mobilization in Sacramento last year to commemorate the struggle and literal blood lost on that day. It was printed for the Seattle Anarchist Bookfair of 2023, handed out personally to comrades new and old. Now, eight years later, we bring to digital life, in an attempt to further weaponizing our memories of struggle. The pamphlet collects several communiques and reports from the demonstration and updates from the months following, regarding national solidarity and repression. The introduction, newly written for the pamphlet, is below:
June 26th, 2016, has come to live in the memories of militant anti-fascists in the United States as both a day of victory and solemn recollection. Neo-Nazis from across the country had called for a rally on the steps of the California state capitol building in Sacramento, and in the context of heightening white supremacist violence under the Trump presidency, hundreds of anti-fascists converged on the capitol to stop them from gathering. Yet just over 7 years later, at the time of writing this introduction, the event feels so far away. The immediate aftermath of the successful anti-fascist mobilization, detailed in this zine, involved several anti-fascists clinging for life from stab wounds in hospitals. The state mobilized a repressive dragnet to identify participants in the counter-demonstration, and Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Worker’s Party bragged about the attempts on anti-fascists lives while he was at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio the following August. 2017 saw a general ramping up of white supremacist violence, including the killing of Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Ricky Best in Portland, Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, and too many other incidents to list here.
June 26th in Sacramento marked a distinct turning point in fascist street-level violence, and as well served as a massive learning opportunity for the militant anti-fascists who had converged to fight the neo-Nazis. Participants brought back to their communities stories of community defense, what it’s like to stop someone from bleeding out from a stab wound with cops trying to push you away, and what it was like to face off with Nazi boneheads carrying knives. In the months that followed, a week of solidarity was declared in support of the anti-fascists still recovering in the hospital and facing state repression. In Seattle, WA, graffiti appeared facing the Interstate-5 highway reading “FCK NZS, FCK CPS” declaring that the struggle was not only against the violence of the fascists, but the police as well.
This zine is mostly a collection of statements and reportbacks that were published in the days immediately following the bloody clash at the state capital on June 26th, 2016. The official statement from Antifa Sacramento as well as Blood in the Valley summarize the event, as well as the political context and attempts by the mainstream left and media to villainize anti-fascists. The article “Medics in the Fray” contains reflections and suggestions for lessons learned by street medics that undoubtedly saved several lives that day with their preparedness and eagerness to jump into action when the moment called. The two statements from Antifa Sacramento regarding the California Highway Patrol’s investigation into the anti-Nazi shutdown serve as a reminder of imminent state repression following anti-fascist street victories as well as a toolbox for preserving privacy and security for the days and conflicts to come. The NoCARA article Looking Back: Anti-Fascism in Northern California 2016-2017 provides a timeline and analysis of fascist activity in California from February 2016 to December 2017. This article illustrates the context of white supremacist activity and anti-fascist organizing in the months before and years after June 26th, 2016. As well, this broader history reminds us that the militant street movements against white supremacy that struck the U.S. in 2020, from tearing down statues, burning up cop cars, to murderous violence at the hands of non-state white supremacists, was not a hiccup but rather a boiling point of long-simmering tensions. Sprinkled throughout the the zine are responses to a call for solidarity with Sacramento by anti-fascists up and down the West Coast, including a rooftop graffiti excursion as well as reclaiming the streets from neo-Nazi propaganda. The last article by Antifa Sacramento details the closing of the court case against three anti-fascists related to CHP’s investigation into the counter-protest, evidencing that through solidarity we can beat both the fascists and the state.
Our successes in the streets pushed them into the realms of courtrooms and legal activism. Just weeks before publishing this pamphlet, the white supremacist organization Patriot Front issued a lawsuit against an anti-fascist activist who had infiltrated their ranks and releasing private information about their membership. The Proud Boys, the Traditionalist Workers’ Party, and other various fascist organizations have fallen apart through infighting and state repression. Now, new waves and iterations of these same ideologies are organizing themselves to attack Pride events across the country, disrupt Drag shows, and bully school-boards into passing repressive initiatives designed to drastically alter public education. This is a logical step for the U.S. white supremacist movement, as our militant anti-fascist street movement made it too costly, socially and materially, to operate otherwise. As one good friend reminded me, we are simply living through the consequences of the successes and failures of the U.S. anti-fascist movement before and through the 2020 uprisings. We changed the landscape as we acted in it, and the Right’s response to the increasing cost of 2016-2020 white supremacist activism is focusing on securing one of its main pillars, hetero-patriarchy. What felt like the political extreme of the far-right has become the center, as many states across the United States have outlawed abortion, eliminated rights to gender-affirming healthcare, and banned books from libraries and public school districts discussing racism. The current move toward mainstream politics by fascists and the far-right is not solely due to our successes in the streets, but also because of their relationship to power, police and the state. Fascism is an inherently hierarchical ideology, so their use of power is not a contradiction but rather a strategic impulse.
This pamphlet aims to illustrate that the struggles we face today as militant anti-fascists have long been in motion. The specific trends we struggle with now are deeply connected to the political momentum that was in full swing in the lead up to Trump’s election, and continue even more brutally under a different president, regardless of political persuasion. The police have long been the facilitators of fascist, white supremacist violence, and they will continue to provide a platform for violence against oppressed communities and their accomplices. Further, our communities of agitators, race traitors, fugitives and militants have learned many lessons from years of street-level anti-fascism. These words are devoted to every person who has donned the black mask and fought against the fascists in the streets. Let our words turn to actions, and let our actions honor the lives of those we’ve lost in the struggle.
