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Apr 15, 21

This Week in Fascism #104: ‘White Lives Matter’ Claims It Will Ride Again, Neo-Nazis to Rally in Phoenix, TWIF Turns 2!

Welcome fellow antifascists!

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First up, we report that far-Right and white supremacist trolls were largely pushed off the streets in defeat last week in their attempts to hold “White Lives Matter” rallies, however they say they are coming back for more on May 8th. Meanwhile in Phoenix, the National Socialist Movement says that they are rallying on April 16th – 17th, as we also report on Proud Boys running for office, Proud Boys losing court battles, Trump coup plotters caught trying to buy explosives, and much, much more!

Here’s to the death of fascism, patriarchy and white supremacy and hopefully – the end of this column!

News

Poor Turnout at White Lives Matter Rallies Thanks to Antifascist Organizing

As reported earlier on It’s Going Down, in most cities across the country where White Lives Matter rallies were planned, fascists found themselves drastically outnumbered by antifascist protesters. In Boise, St. Paul, and Fort Worth, for example, small gatherings of racists were met by much larger counter-demonstrations. In some areas, such as Denver, CO, the fascists were no-shows.

Two neo-Nazis appeared at the New York City event, and were escorted away by police after throwing up some Roman salutes. So much for optics!

A week prior to the White Lives Matter demonstration in Huntington Beach, CA, KKK propaganda flyers were distribute throughout Orange County. Unfortunately, Huntington Beach had much larger turnout of far-Right protesters than most other cities, however, even they were outnumbered by antifascists. William Hagen, Orange, CA resident and “Grand Dragon” of the CA Klan, was spotted at the rally and likely organized it. If Hagen looks familiar, you probably recognize him as one of the KKK members who got their clocks cleaned by antifascists in Anaheim all the way back in 2016.

Footage from the Huntington Beach rally shows a neo-Nazi with a swastika tattoo on one arm and a totenkopf on the other arm attacking an Asian man who peacefully confronted him. The attacker was later arrested according to Newsweek, but the cops initially appeared to side with the white supremacist, escorting him safely away from the crowd.

Sunday’s events were a clear win for antifascists and anti-racists, thanks to researchers who infiltrated the While Lives Matter movement and set up Telegram channels as honeypots. Corvallis Against Fascism have leaked the “ADMINS OF WLM ZONE” Telegram chats, where organizers coordinated and planned their cities’ marches. Check out their NoBlogs post for more details on neo-Nazis and Proud Boys behind the marches. Chicago Antifascist Action also leaked the planning chat for their city, and the full details can be read here.

It seems however that the defeat the first time around wasn’t enough, and Corvallis Against Fascism is reporting that White Lives Matter online admins are pushing for another attempt at rallying, this time on May 8th; branding their demonstrations as “against communism.” Follow this column and Corvallis Against Fascism on Twitter for future updates.

National Socialist Movement to Rally in Phoenix on April 16th and 17th

The National Socialist Movement (NSM), which traces its linage all the way back to the American Nazi Party (ANP), is one of the oldest neo-Nazi formations in the United States. Several years ago it attempted to rebrand itself; leaving the swastikas, racial slurs, and Hitler salutes behind (but not really), as part of the Nationalist Front, alongside League of the South and the Traditionalist Workers Party. But, ever since the former leader of the NSM, Jeff Schoep, left the organization following the failure of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, it has reverted back to its “former glory.” The last public NSM event was several years ago in Arkansas and it failed to bring together more than 75 people. Now, under the Biden administration and a new leader, the NSM is hoping to capitalize on continued far-Right anger and recruit other white nationalists and neo-Nazis to their own banner.

In past years, the NSM has rallied in Phoenix on the capitol steps or in the downtown outside of City Hall. Their rally (likely followed by a social event on private property) will likely take place in one of these places and police will most likely put up barricades around the area before hand. There are calls for a counter-demonstration, however details remain up in the air because the NSM has not announced their exact plans. Check It’s Going Down on Twitter for more information as it comes in.

As It’s Going Down wrote about the NSM in the lead up to Charlottesville:

The National Socialist Movement (NSM) grows out of a series of splits from the American Nazi Party (ANP). The NSM, like the ANP, decided that instead of trying to hide their affinity for Adolf Hitler and Nazism, they instead should embrace it. The established goals of the NSM were also straightforwardly exterminationist and embraced a strategy of taking over the United States and removing (by any means) anyone that is not a non-Jewish, white, heterosexual aligned with the regime.

NSM members also have a long history of violence and murder. This includes J.T. Ready, who murdered his half Latino girlfriend and three others before killing himself, Jeff Hall who allegedly abused his family and wife and was eventually killed by his own son, and several [others].

Members of the NSM, including [former] leader Jeff Schoep were depicted in the documentary, Welcome to Leith, which detailed a group of neo-Nazis that attempt to take over a small town of about 15 people in North Dakota.

The documentary shows how by using threats of violence and intimidation, the NSM members attempted to bully their way into leadership positions in the town, which was made up largely of working-class white people. After the NSM members began threatening people in the town with firearms, the town rallied together and drove out the neo-Nazis, even burning down what remained of the buildings that they had owned.

The “Oath Enforcers” Presence Growing on Telegram

According to The Guardian, a far-Right group called the Oath Enforcers has emerged on social media in recent months. The group’s name appears to be inspired by the milita group the “Oath Keepers,” and they are based on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where they plan violent confrontations against the government, law enforcement, and their enemies on the left.

The leader of the Oath Enforcers is Vince Edwards, a sovereign citizen living off the grid in Costilla County, CO. Edwards was involved in a violent clash with the Costilla County sheriff in 2016, and participated in the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Soon after J6, he began distributing flyers encouraging the formation of “oath enforcement teams” in every county in the U.S. Now there are 31,000 Oath Enforcers across 50 statewide Telegram channels, and one larger national channel. Chester Doles, a neo-Nazi, Klansman, and Unite the Right attendee is a member of the group, as is Patriot Prayer’s Tiny Toese.

The article notes that white supremacists and militia members in the group have been successful in recruiting and radicalizing more “moderate” Republicans and Trump supporters in recent years. The Oath Enforcers Telegram channels feature COVID denial and anti-mask propaganda and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election having been stolen from Trump, alongside even more extreme content influenced by the sovereign doctrine.

Cameron Shea of Atomwaffen Division Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy, Hate Crime Charges

25-year-old Cameron Shea, a leader of the accelerrationist neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, plead guilty to federal hate crime and conspiracy charges on Wednesday. Shea was involved in a plot to intimidate Jewish and POC journalists by placing threatening fascist propaganda posters at their homes. Co-defendants Johnny Roman Garza and Ashley Parker Dipeppe previously plead guilty and were sentenced. Kaleb Cole, the fourth defendant in the case, has plead not guilty and will go to trial in September. Shea faces a maximum of ten years in prison.

Capitol Coup Plotters Planned to Use C4 Explosives to Blow Up Amazon Web Services Building

A Texas man named Seth Aaron Pendley who clashed with police at the January 6th coup attempt is being charged for plotting an attack on data centers in Virginia in order to destroy 70% of the internet. The FBI was tipped off to disturbing posts on MyMilitia.com alluding to the plot, where a user named “Dionysus” was later identified as Pendley. He informed an undercover federal agent that he intended to destroy Amazon servers that “he believed provided service to the FBI, CIA, and other federal agencies,” with the goal of bringing down the “oligarchy” that runs the country. In one post on MyMilitia.com, Pendley stated that “death” was a desired outcome of the plot. He was arrested on April 8th while picking up explosive devices from an undercover agent, which turned out to be inert.​​​​​​​ Pendley faces 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Far-Right Groups Raised Millions on Religious Charity Site GiveSendGo

Far-right groups have used the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo to raise millions of dollar, according to reporting by The Guardian. A data breach of the site by Distributed Denial of Secrets has revealed that the site has permitted right-wing groups to raise money for their causes, even those who have been banned from other platforms.

Following Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio’s January 4th arrest, a legal defense fund on GiveSendGo raised $113,000 in days. One Florida-based millionaire named Gerardo G. Gonzalez, a former pharmacist who owns six properties, donated $1,000 to Tarrio. The Guardian writes that Gonzalez denied the existence of systemic racism and used racist slurs against Latinx people in a phone conversation. Gabe Carrera, a lawyer, and Paul C. Gill, a former pilot, also donated $1,000 each to the fund. Ou Yin Lu, a California businesss woman, donated $5,000 to a fundraiser called “Medical Assistance to DC Proud Boy victims.” In the aftermath of the January 6th coup attempt, many fundraisers appeared on the site in support of rioters. One for Proud Boy Ethan Nordean, raised nearly $6,500 in one day.

The Guardian explains:

Candyce Kelshall, the president of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies-Vancouver, who at at Simon Fraser University researches violent transnational social movements, said that far-right crowdfunding on GiveSendGo was just “the tip of the iceberg”, and similar efforts were happening across up to 54 other crowdfunding sites that her research had revealed.

She said, however, that GiveSendGo was “particularly insidious” due to its presentation of such crowdfunding in the guise of religion-based charity.

Proud Boys Lose by Default in Lawsuit by Black Church

The Proud Boys have lost a lawsuit by the historically Black church vandalized by the hate group at the December 12th pro-Trump rally in Washington D.C. Metropolitan AME Church brought the suit against Proud Boys International LLC for “conspiracy, defacement of private property, trespass, and destruction of religious property,” after members of the hate group jumped the gate outside of the church to tear down a Black Lives Matter banner and burn in. Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio refused to respond to the lawsuit, claiming that the Proud Boys are not a legal entity, leading to a default victory for the church.

Tarrio told VICE, “The Proud Boys is not a legal entity, so I don’t know what money they’d go after. If they try to go after mine, I’d be happy to drag my balls across their face in court.” However, according to legal experts, the church’s legal team may be able to search for assets among the many LLCs, crowdfunding efforts, and online stores owned by prominent figures within the hate group.

Proud Boy Running for Office in Topeka

A man who claims he is a former Proud Boys is running for a city council seat. According to one report:

Joel Campbell, a candidate for Topeka City Council, posted a since-removed video to YouTube in which he tried to tie Gov. Laura Kelly to “Pizzagate,” a debunked conspiracy theory that says celebrities or government officials are trafficking children out of pizza parlors.

According to another:

Topekan Joel Campbell has a tattoo indicating his allegiance to the Proud Boys. He still owns his Fred Perry black-with-yellow-stripes shirt, and references to the Proud Boys can be found scattered throughout his Facebook page. In an interview Thursday with The Topeka Capital-Journal, he repeatedly said “we” and “our” when discussing the right-wing organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Campbell, however, said he no longer associates with the Proud Boys. Campbell was asked why he still refers to the group in the present tense.

“A lot of the values I still support. I still hang out with some of the guys that used to be in it,” Campbell said. “We still hang out. We don’t really have a club or a group, we just go out for drinks.” Symbols of the Proud Boys include tattoos for 3rd Degree members and Fred Perry polo shirts in black and yellow.

Doxxes

Brian Pritchard, Proud Boy of Rio Rancho, NM

ABQ161 has identified Brian Pritchard, a violent New Mexico Proud Boy who sent threatening messages to an organizer in Albuquerque in March. The messages contained racist and homophobic slurs and a threat of lynching. In a separate incident, Pritchard harassed another activist with unwanted messages, mockingly inviting them to the Proud Boys “White Lives Matter” rally scheduled for this Sunday. Pritchard stated that some Rio Rancho PBs still needed their fourth degree, a ranking earned by attacking antifascists. In addition to his fascist organizing, he has been arrested twice for domestic violence. Please share ABQ161’s Twitter thread and send them any tips and information you may have.

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A weekly roundup of the latest and greatest happenings in the anti-fascist world. Each column features a roundup of news, actions, doxxes and current calls to action.

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