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Jun 10, 19

This Week in Fascism #13: Far-Right Rebrands with ‘Straight Pride’

Welcome, fellow antifascists! This week, we’ve got the white nationalist connections of the upcoming Straight Pride Parade in Boston; more doxxes, deplatforms, and antifascist actions; plus, how you can help throw the Straight Pride Parade a curve ball! Without further ado, let’s jump in!

Explainer: The Far-Right Racist Trolls Behind the ‘Straight Pride Parade’

Tuesday afternoon, someone in our intel affinity group mentioned that Resist Marxism’s Mark Sahady and friends were planning to hold a “Straight Pride” parade in Boston.

When we get a piece of information, we fact-check it. Then we ask if there’s an immediate danger that needs to be pointed out, or a tactical advantage to be gained by sharing the information.

Then another member of our group told us that actually, they’d been following this topic for some time, and that this was simply an attempt by Sahady to re-brand after many failed rally attempts. So yes, it was true that they were trying to hold a “Straight Pride” event.

Was there an immediate danger? No, not that we could tell. The event was still months away. Although by announcing their intentions right at the start of LGBTQIA Pride month, it was pretty obvious what the ploy was.

Was there anything to be gained or lost from sharing the information immediately?  Here’s the thing: if some far-right brawler group’s half-assed plan manages to gain any momentum, it can take on a life of its own and enjoy a manifestation much wilder than its creator could have imagined.

Every time we mention a group or a person, we’re doing free advertising for them. So being good and smart antifascists, we decided to keep this information to ourselves for now.

However, apparently the editorial staff of the New York Times has no such code of ethics.

News of the Straight Pride Parade went viral when it was tweeted without context by Carolyn Ryan, Assistant Managing Editor of the New York Times, to her 30,000 followers.

From there, the news took on a life of its own.

It quickly became clear that the cat was already out of the bag.

Then everybody started clowning on the idea, and became a trending topic. All that was left, was for a careless mainstream media to write articles about “Straight Pride” without digging into its creators’ history of street fighting and overt fascism.

And right on cue, they delivered. The rebrand had worked, and now the new front group, called Super Happy Fun America, got its message broadcast internationally, were defended and promoted by Fox News, and got interviewed and talked about, all for free.  As if “Straight Pride” were even a legitimate idea, and not the product of some neo-Nazis incels’ late-night scheming.

From Ryan’s contextless tweet, Sahady’s original Facebook post went from a handful of engagements to over 3,000 reacts and 1.3k shares. When far-Right events are shared by members of the mainstream media, they are given a platform, and attract supporters. This is exactly why antifascists favor no-platforming fascist events, except to warn the community about the dangers they pose.

So in their breathless quest to remark on the goofy gratitude and ignore all the neo-Nazi ties, what’d the media miss about the Straight Pride Parade?

It’s being organized by a Boston resident named Mark Sahady, who spent the last year and a half being the sidekick of Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, doing the legwork for an organization called Resist Marxism that was founded in the fall of 2017.

The organization was meant to be the east coast version of Patriot Prayer – a large umbrella organization without a codified membership that could act as a gathering point for disparate parts of the far-Right.

And like Patriot Prayer, the group quickly attracted violent hate groups like the Proud Boys and the American Guard, which acted as the muscle for Resist Marxism’s rallies.

Gabriel Brown of Resist Marxism stands next to Chris “Crying Nazi” Cantwell, one of the speakers of Unite the Right in Charlottesville. Brown also attended the neo-Nazi rally. He is seen here holding up a shirt for Anti-Communist Action, a neo-Nazi group which fought in Charlottesville and was shown in Discord leaks to be sharing information on how to make explosives to attack various government buildings.

In May 2018, a set of private chats were leaked, which exposed Resist Marxism’s ties to the local group of Patriot Front, a neo-Nazi group who marched in Charlottesville and is tied to the person who murdered Heather Heyer. The chats also showed numerous individuals making antisemitic, homophobic, and transphobic comments.

On October 6th, 2018, a group of Proud Boys at a Resist Marxism event were allowed to cross a police barricade, where they attacked protesters. One of them was Maxwell Hare, a Proud Boy currently facing felony charges for leading the attacking on antifascist protesters outside the Metropolitan GOP Club on October 12, 2018.

In December 2018, Resist Marxism held a “debate” on immigration, for which they booked neo-Nazi group Patriot Front to provide security. Those same Patriot Front members are currently facing charges of weapons possession and assaulting and officer stemming from them posting racist flyers in February 2019.

In January 2019, Resist Marxism crashed the Boston Women’s March, where they were taped attacking march attendees by videographer Mike Gamms.

And recently, the planning chats for a Resist Marxism event in Providence, Rhode Island, were leaked to Huffington Post reporter Andy Campbell. In the chats, members of the Proud Boys shared pictures of which leftist activists they planned to attack at the event, as well as photos of weapons they planned to carry on the day.

Yet in early mainstream coverage of the Straight Pride Parade, none of this was mentioned. Buzzfeed ignored it, as did the Washington Post. And despite a clear pattern of organizing violent events, the New York Times only noted that Sahady “has at times appeared to celebrate the idea of violence against opponents on the left.”

Even after the neo-Nazi connections of the Straight Pride organizers were exposed, Fox News host Tomi Lahren continued to ignore them and defend the event, and the Fox News website featured an article noting that Milo Yiannopoulos has been named Grand Marshal without mentioning the far-Right ties of either the parade organizers, or Milo Yiannopoulos.

The journalists who did manage to cover the far-Right ties of the Straight Pride Parade were Casey Quinlan at ThinkProgress, Jason Wilson at The Guardian, Colin Drury at The Independent, Caroline Burke at Heavy.com, David Neiwart at the Daily Kos, and Will Sommer at the Daily Beast.

Meanwhile, people are being assaulted every day for being lesbian, bisexual, gay, trans, intersex, and asexual.

https://twitter.com/havenosecrets/status/1137826453716910082

On Saturday, actual Nazis from the Nationalist Socialist Movement marched into the Detroit Pride Parade to protest, armed with weapons and protected on all sides by cops.

While the police and the mainstream media collaborate with the far-Right, promoting their events and providing them protection while they disrupt Gay Pride celebrations, antifascists are hard at work not only tracking the networks of the far-Right, but working to disrupt their organizing.

On Sunday night, antifascist researcher AntiFash Gordon released the employment information of Resist Marxism Spokesman Michael Moura, an associate at Kohl’s, tweeting, “You want to have a Straight Pride Parade to threaten LGBTQIA people? And use it as a cover to recruit people into white nationalism? Fine. You’re all getting exposed. FIRINGS. START. NOW.”

Far-Right organizers claim that the march will take place on August 31st and will march the same out as the PRIDE parade.

Doxxes

Monday, June 3, 2019

https://twitter.com/chicagoafa/status/1135605643564519424

Chicago Antifa exposed Dustin Baker, of Dixon, Illinois, as a supporter of white nationalist Richard Spencer and white nationalist group Identity Evropa, recently rebranded as the American Identity Movement. Baker attended Spencer’s March 2018 talk at Michigan State University, where he made contact with members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front.

Tuesday June 4, 2019

Atlanta Antifascists provided an update on Matthew Thomas Mayo, an EMT in Chatham County, Georgia. Mayo, a religious leader of racist heathen group the Asatru Folk Assembly and the online community the White Nationalist Alliance, was placed on leave last month, pending an investigation, after his far-Right ties were exposed by Atlanta Antifascists.

However, this week, Atlanta Antifascists revealed that Chatham Emergency Services had been made aware of Mayo’s ties in December 2018, via an email to Human Resources Director Tiffany Stewart and cc’d to Deputy Chief of EMS Bengie Cowart, including the accusation that Mayo routinely discussed his belief in white nationalism and referred to a Black co-worker as a “hood n*****.”

This underscores the importance of public revelations like the articles by Atlanta Antifascists. Despite being warned of Mayo’s associations and racist behavior at work, Chatham Emergency Services chose to keep him on the job until there was a public pressure campaign.

Wednesday, June 6, 2019

https://twitter.com/chicagoafa/status/1136431809800167430

Chicago Antifa released an article on Sean Dolan, an Anti-Antifa Chicago member in Illinois.

The “Anti-Antifa” movement can be seen as a continuation of movements like the 1970s/80s Rock Against Communism, which sought to provide ideological cover for fascist groups and paint them as merely opposed to leftwing extremism, rather than a front group for neo-Nazi recruiting.

Dolan works at Johnny’s Beef & Gyros in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. If you would like to inform them of Dolan’s far-Right ties, their phone number is 773-697-8885 and their Facebook page is here.

Austin Autonomedia exposed Austin, Texas, resident Cole Dreyer as a member of the Proud Boys, an anti-trans, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant hate group.

Dreyer claims to work in IT for Oracle. If you would like to contact their Austin campuses, the Waterfront campus can be reached at 737-867-1000, and the Riata Park Campus is 512-401-1000.

Friday, June 7, 2019

CV Antifa released an article on white nationalist Bart Degeneffe, a resident of Corvallis, Oregon. Degeneffe is a white nationalist and antisemite who spends his time trying to insinuate his views into local conservative groups, as well militia movements like the Three Percenters.

Degeneffe is currently a night stocker at the Philomath Boulevard Safeway, in Corvallis. If you would like to inform them about their employee’s far-Right views, and the danger he poses to the community, their phone number is (541) 738-2100.

Saturday, June 9, 2019

Rose City Antifa exposed another member of Identity Evropa, San Diego, California resident Alex Loupe. In the Discord chats, Loupe used the handle DeusVolk, where he complained about feminism and swapped antisemitic canards about “globalists” with his fellow IE members.

Shortly after Loupe was exposed, the San Diego Schools Twitter account issued a statement: “An individual with the same name is a part-time custodian with the district. He is not scheduled to perform any work before the end of the current school year on Tuesday. The district will complete an investigation of these allegations before start of the next school year in Aug.”

Saturday, June 8, 2019

The Screwston Antifascist Committee exposed Paul Preston, of Houston, Texas, as the organizer of the Houston Goylers, a white nationalist group. In addition to leading a local white nationalist group, Preston attended the first Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

AntiFash Gordon released the employment information of Resist Marxism Spokesman Michael Moura. Moura is an associate at Kohl’s. You can tweet them @Kohls, or call their corporate HR department from 9-5 Eastern Standard Time, Monday to Friday, at 844-564-5747. Or contact their Customer Service line at 855-564-5705.

Actions

On Thursday, Christopher Ritchie of Texas Nomads SAR/Soldiers of Odin Midguard woke up to find that heroes had painted the words “GET THE FUCK OUT” along with a hammer and sickle symbol outside of his room at the Motel 6.  Ritchie has participated in violent racist rallies in Charlottesville, Portland, and in Austin where he lives.

Deplatforms

A GoFundMe meant to raise money for a legal defense for Patriot Prayer associates who attacked a May Day celebration at Portland’s Cider Riot was taken down after a pressure campaign from antifascist activists.

A pressure campaign from activists cancelled an appearance of Ewa Kurek, a Holocaust distorter who insists that Polish Jews collaborated with the Nazis.

Call to Action

Help us cancel the permit for the Straight Pride Parade in Boston! Tweet @Marty_Walsh or call the Mayor’s office at 617-635-5400 and ask them not to grant a permit (meaning paid police protection) for a violent, far-Right event. The fascists want the State to protect them with our tax dollars so they can engage in physical and verbal attacks against the public like always. Enough is enough!

Sample Script:

Hello, my name is Jane Smith. I’m calling to request the city revoke the permit for Straight Pride on August 31st. The proposed “Straight Pride” rally is not simply a matter of free speech. The organizers have a history of partaking in violent far-right demonstrations. This is a matter of public safety.

Organizer Mark Sahady participated in the June 30, 2018, Proud Boys riot in Portland, OR, as well as Proud Boy violence in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 2018, and was part of the group that attacked the Boston Women’s March in January 2019.

Most recently, he planned a violent rally for Providence, Rhode Island. Leaked chats show that members of the Proud Boys— designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center— were planning on attacking specific protesters, and even posted pictures of the weapons they planned to bring.

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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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