This Week in Fascism #139: Communities Hit Back Against Neo-Nazis As Trump Comes to Power; Thousands Protest Against ICE & in Solidarity with Trans People

Welcome back fellow antifascists!

As always, we have a lot to cover in this column, from important analysis to roundups of antifascist action. With so much to address, let’s dive right in!

Trump and the Tech-Right Take Power

The second Trump administration has officially begun and less than a month in, we are already in a constitutional crisis. As the Trumpian state embraces the threat of ignoring court orders, it also risks pushing the US into an all out techno-dictatorship. But as the line between the State and the far-Right becomes increasingly blurred – the question must be asked, what does the antifascist struggle mean when an oligarch like Trump is in power? We don’t have any easy answers, but antifascists have a lot of skills that we can bring to the table: both in terms of analysis, understanding the players in the unfolding terrain, and skills that we can share with people.

More importantly, we have movement memory of battles fought and lessons learned: from the working-class kids who formed the backbone of Anti-Racist Action (ARA) and took on the KKK and neo-Nazi skinheads, to the fight against the Alt-Right during Trump’s first term, which saw tens of thousands of people hitting the streets against white supremacists. These past struggles can inspire and inform what is happening today.

And there’s a lot to do. With the pardoning of the January 6th rioters, Trump has signaled that far-Right loyalists will receive a pass from the State to engage in violence against enemies of the regime. This is a reality that only amplifies what we saw during the first Trump administration, when Chad Wolf’s DHS pushed for antifascists to be targeted by law enforcement and for the state to downplay the threat from the far-Right. This move lead to federal forces descending on Portland, OR during the George Floyd uprising, and the outright assassination of Micheal Reinoehl. The more we can build public opposition to this new reality and encourage widespread resistance to Trump’s policies, the safer we all will be.

In many ways, this makes the need for continued antifascist organizing even more dire, as Trump may again call on his supporters to hit the streets and attack left-wing protesters and impacted communities, especially as Trump demands escalated roundups of working-class immigrants and various far-Right and white nationalist operators are officially being brought into the Trumpian fold.

Moreover, as we saw this past month, neo-Nazis and other fascists are already testing the waters of this post-inauguration terrain, while far-Right acts of terror and mass shootings only are continuing to take place. This is no time to throw in the towel, but instead – bring in new people, share our skills, and sharpen our grasp of the changing political reality.

With this in mind, we must work to understand the new forces at play among the Tech-Right. While adjacent and influenced by white nationalists and the Alt-Right, this emerging elitist force has its own thinkers and set of actors; we must map it’s contradictions and understand it’s contours if we are to resist it. Like the Alt-Right, the techno-fascists have an ideology that is extremely odious to the vast majority of the population, and despite their awkward attempts at populism, they truly hate most working-class people and fear rising anti-capitalist sentiment. The mass revulsion of many people to Musk and his Nazi salute during Trump’s inauguration as well as the unmasking of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) minions as white supremacist and far-Right trolls, only illustrates this reality. Many workers also fundamentally understand the direct threat that the tech billionaires pose to us all; both in the form of automation and autocracy.

It’s Going Down has already produced a new text, Good Night, Tech Right, but more work needs to be done understanding the major players involved in the push towards techno-fascism, and their role within the larger Trump coalition. Let’s put in the work needed to understand these freaks and push towards finding their fault-lines. With growing anti-Musk sentiment and calls for protests outside of Tesla dealerships this Saturday, the opportunities for intervention are only increasing.

This is also a moment where we need to return to basics: skillshares, workshops, stickering, putting up posters, holding educational events, sharing info on digital security, informing our communities about the threat posed by the far-Right and how we can organize to fight back. There’s a lot of work to do, let’s not let the moment when so many are activated and ready to get involved pass us by.

Resources:

• Good Night, Tech Right zine
• 40 Ways to Fight Fascism zine
• Antifascist and Activist Guides and Resources
• Behind the Bastards on Curtis Yarvin
• 1312 Press antifascist zine collection
• CrimethInc stickers
• Municipal Adhesives stickers
• Antifascist posters for putting up here and here.
• Anti-ICE posters here, here, and here.

Action

Thousands Hit the Streets Against ICE

I’m at Leetsdale and Oneida at the Cedar Run Apt complex ICE has raided this morning. Activists are out here on bullhorns saying majority of CO stand with their immigrant neighbors as federal agents pace the neighborhood @denverpost.com

— Elizabeth Hernandez (@lizzy-hernandez.bsky.social) 2025-02-05T16:06:00.006Z

Thousands of people are taking to the streets against ICE, organizing walkouts of their schools, and also working on a grassroots level to throw sand in the gears of the deportation machine. In cities like Chicago, which were first targeted by Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, organizers hit the ground running, forming Rapid Response Networks and holding Know Your Rights trainings. In Aurora, CO, organizers mobilized to support tenants facing down ICE raids from highly militarized agents, and were able to drastically undercut the extent of the state’s reach. In response to this organizing, Trump has fired some of ICE’s top brass, as the administration calls for a return to its policy of deporting entire families in an effort to boost the number of deportations, and has also started to imprison migrants at Guantanamo Bay. For a list of things you can do to stop ICE, check out this new print-out from CrimethInc. and get involved in local efforts to push back against the deportation machine.

Communities Continue to Mobilize Against Turning Point USA and Gender Fascists

In New Haven, CT, as Idavox reported:

Antifascists learned that the Atlantic National Club (ANaC) was in New Haven and likely targeting an event at a local leftist bookstore. With short notice, activists alerted the bookstore and rallied multiple antifascists from around the state, as well as dozens of community members, to come to the aid of the bookstore…But, even on incredibly short notice, the community quickly rallied to ensure everyone was safe from these deadbeats.

But the most recent and spectacular display of community defense took place in Lincoln Heights, OH last weekend, after over 100 people mobilized to shut down and push through a line of police who were protecting a group of armed neo-Nazis holding banners on top of a freeway overpass and screaming racial slurs in the historic Black neighborhood. Demonstrators were able to scare the neo-Nazis into piling back into their box truck and fleeing the scene, as angry residents burned their flags, destroyed one of their vehicles, and left behind bullets at the scene spelling out “LH,” for Lincoln Heights.

Police tried to protect a small group of armed neo-Nazis from angry community members today on a freeway overpass in #Ohio, people managed to push through police as the Nazis escaped in a box truck. Young people then set fire to a stolen Nazi flag.

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2025-02-07T21:37:03.185Z

As Idavox reported:

Anthony Altick of St. Louis, Missouri formed Hate Club late last year. Altick works with both Blood Tribe and the Goyim Defense League attending their rallies and producing propaganda videos for them. On Thursday, the city of Springfield, Ohio filed a lawsuit against Blood Tribe, its leaders leaders Christopher Pohlhaus and Drake Berentz and seven unnamed followers in federal court, accusing them of campaign of racial harassment and intimidation against the city’s Haitian community after the Presidential Donald Trump targeted them during a debate in a racist anti-immigration where he accused them of eating dogs and cats of their neighbors, which was untrue.

In 2015, he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and assault after a shooting, at his St. Louis Hills apartment, left Darryl T. Simms, a Black man, dead and two others injured. Altick ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years in jail. At the time, he was on probation for burglary and theft offenses.

Hate Club was last seen in November in Columbus, Ohio when they staged a flash mob style rally there. They were at one point during that march they detained by police which information about its members to be obtained.

As WSWS wrote:

The Nazis specifically chose to hold their demonstration in Lincoln Heights because of its large African American population and history of resistance…Lincoln Heights was established in the early 1920s as an enclave for black people who were barred from owning property in the suburbs of Cincinnati due to racist redlining laws.

In an interview following the Nazi provocation with the local ABC affiliate, WCPO, Lincoln Heights resident Charlene Evans stated defiantly, “In this neighborhood, we do stand for something. This here turf is golden soil, and it won’t be tarnished with things like that.” Syretha Brown, another resident of Lincoln Heights, noted the role of the police in protecting the Nazis, saying, “Nobody is coming to save us.” Referring to the cops, she said, “They are allowing the Nazis in here.”

Unsurprisingly, despite the fact that it appears this is the same group that assaulted residents in Columbus last November, police refused to arrest a single Nazi for threatening residents while brandishing firearms. Nor did the police cite the Nazis for using a U-Haul to illegally transport themselves.

Videos posted to social media also showed heavily armed community members defending their neighborhood from further possible intrusion by the neo-Nazis.

Thousands Rally in Defense of Trans People

An injury to one, is an injury to all.

— It's Going Down (@igd.bsky.social) 2025-02-09T08:16:39.536Z

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in various cities, holding demonstrations against attacks on gender-affirming care outside of hospitals, in the wake of Trump’s recent executive orders. In New York, Seattle, DC, Charlottesville, Chicago, and Los Angeles. As Erin in the Morning wrote:

In response to children’s hospitals across the country complying with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning gender-affirming care for individuals under 19, transgender rights advocates staged protests outside several of these institutions. The demonstrations, drawing hundreds of participants, shut down bustling city streets and made an unmistakable impact on local communities. Notable protests took place outside the University of Virginia Health in Charlottesville, Washington D.C.’s Children’s National Hospital, and New York University-Langone in New York City, each serving as a direct rebuke of the hospitals’ decisions to preemptively follow an order with no clear enforcement mechanism.

These protests are part of a rapidly expanding, interconnected movement aimed at fostering solidarity among marginalized communities as the Trump administration escalates attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, Black and Indigenous people of color, and immigrants. Even among more privileged groups, there is a growing recognition that Trump’s policies threaten broad swaths of the American public. The surge in protests nationwide underscores this increasing unity, as communities come together in collective resistance.

The protection of marginalized communities will not come solely from elected officials or bureaucratic processes—it will come from sustained, organized resistance. History shows that real power lies not in centralized institutions but in the collective action of those who refuse to be divided. Authoritarian governments rely on fragmentation, banking on the idea that the public will see themselves as isolated rather than interconnected. As protests grow and solidarity strengthens across movements, the coming months may test just how powerful a unified public can be.

Read the full report here.

Get Fucked Musk

Sell your Teslas, dump your stock, join the picket lines. Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk, and stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy. The stakes couldn't be higher and no one is coming to fix this- not our politicians and not our media. It's up to collective effort.

— Alex Winter (@alexwinter.com) 2025-02-10T15:07:41.385Z

Last up, people have been on the offensive against Musk! From reports of vandalism against Telsa, to a string of protests and a call for #TeslaTakeover demonstrations against Musk on Saturday, February 15th, resentment is growing.

Antifascists in Trouble

• Alex Stokes, an antifascist and journalist in New York who was slapped with 20 years in prison for defending himself and his friends from violent Proud Boys on January 6th at the New York capitol, had his appeal recently denied. The fight isn’t over, so be sure to send Alex a letter and let him know he isn’t forgotten. Follow Free Alex Stokes on Instagram, here. For information on how to write to Alex, go here:

Alexander Contompasis 22B5028
Upstate Correctional Facility
PO Box 2001
Malone, NY 12953

• Charges against Alissa Azar, an independent antifascist journalist covering a Palestine solidarity encampment in Portland, OR, has had their charges now dropped. You can read some of Alissa’s thoughts on the experience here. A statement posted by the National Writers Union can be read here.
• Peppy and Krystal’s support crew have published an update and joint statement from the defendants. Peppy has been sentenced to 60 months in the federal system, of which 18 months have been served already, so he hopes to be able to reach a halfway house around March 2026, while Krystal was given three years of supervised release. They have also been ordered to pay over $50,000, so donations are urgently needed. Peppy and Krystal’s support team also are encouraging people to order stickers here. Both Peppy and Krystal were facing charges stemming from protests in Pittsburgh, PA, against a far-Right gender fascist speaker.
• Chris “Big Tex,” is making another call for legal support, as they continue to face off against legal threats from billionaire backed neo-fascist groups. Support their legal defense here.
• In South Bend, IN, community organizer Tonna Robinson is fighting assault charges connected to her alleged role in defending a drag show. She’s currently fundraising for legal fees.
• Donate and support the international antifascist defense fund here!