Reportback on the 9/29 Disruption of the Virginia Tech State of the University Address

On September 29th students, faculty, and community members took a stand against the tacit support provided by the Virginia Tech administration for their self professed white supremacist employee Mark Daniel Neuhoff. [Editor’s Note: See link to the left, Neuhoff makes numerous posts advocating violence and genocide, that he identifies as a white supremacist, and supports neo-Nazism.] Neuhoff oversees the academic performance of students who he thinks are biologically inferior and worthy of being liquidated. This Nazi’s politics have been known by the university administration for some time now.

The community has witnessed in the past several months a steady increase in fascist action and agitation on Virginia Tech, from the distribution of Nazi fliers at the Jewish student center, to the postering of Identity Europa propaganda. Students and faculty who have to work beside or be taught by Neuhoff have pursued every angle possible provided by the university administration to get rid of this Nazi. Nothing but endless meetings where no action other than affirming [and protecting] Neuhoff’s right to express his views, and even proposing a “mediation” between antifascist students and faculty with Neuhoff.

If there ever was an indicator as to how liberalism protects fascism this is it. This idea that somehow there can be a reconciliation or a “coming to a shared understanding” between those who profess genocide and racial and gender supremacy versus those who seek to defend themselves and oppressed peoples is grotesque. This is not just the view of the university administration, but by proxy the local power structure in Blacksburg itself, from the cops to the town council and the local Democratic Party committee that retains political leadership here.

In the end of the day the rise of political polarization where the people veer further left and right is bad for business and these liberal opportunists want to ensure “peace” for the sake of continued realization of profit off the backs of students, their families, and the local working class. Unrest and disruption in the midst of this polarization, between the forces of progress and the forces of reaction, is a natural consequence of the sustained crisis of capitalism. The college bureaucrats’ response to these developments is to appropriate the mass sentiments of disgruntlement and give the appearance of “acknowledging and understanding the concerns” of students, faculty, and local workers. Their corporate multiculturalism is nothing more than pandering to those who see the real threat of reactionary violence, having become more commonplace in the Trump era. It is also a means of disarming people from forming an autonomous response of defense and counter-attack outside the purview of the state.

We hope that our disruption dampened the mood of these college bureaucrats and their self-aggrandizing event where they lauded themselves for creating a “diverse” yet overpriced college which blocks the masses from education, and only re-enforces the imperialist, white supremacist, patriarchal state and its social division of labor.