Filed under: This Week in Fascism
Welcome, fellow anti-fascists! This week marks the start of our journey into fascism abroad, with an Explainer covering anti-Roma protests from CasaPound and Forza Nuova, plus the continuation of the #IdentifyEvropa doxxes, and more information on how you can continue to wreck the US tour of neo-Nazi metal band Horna. Let’s begin!
Explainer: Why was that Italian Teenager Yelling at Fascists?
Note: This week’s Explainer comes courtesy of This Week in Fascism’s European Correspondent, @ThatWeltschmerz, who will be reporting for us all summer on fascist trends across the continent, and noting their links with other fascist movements across the globe.
"They must die of hunger"
~300 fascist of CasaPound, Forza Nuova & allies commit arson in Rome to prevent 33 children, 22 women & 15 men entry to shelter for vulnerable; destroyed their food, because they're Roma.
City council capitulated to the Fascists.https://t.co/vpNhA4kOFL pic.twitter.com/aYm6G3Z6ez— b9AcE ? (@b9AcE) April 3, 2019
You may have seen the viral video of an Italian teenager schooling a local fascist that blew up this week. The context was a spontaneous demonstration by several hundred members of Italian fascist organizations CasaPound and Forza Nuova against a municipal government’s decision to temporarily house 70 Romani people in a suburb of Rome. The fascists burned cars and garbage cans and destroyed food that was intended for the families. One video caught someone shouting, “They must die of hunger!” The Romani families were ultimately moved to another site, marking a victory for racist terror.
Fascists are notoriously short on imagination, and CasaPound is no different. It is a nationwide organization of far-Right social centers in Italy based on a model developed by leftist squatters since the 1970s. They have formed neighborhood vigilante patrols and organized food distribution and other ostensibly socialist, community-minded programs—for Italians only. And like fascists everywhere, they attack scapegoats while proclaiming their own victimhood.
Forza Nuova is a straight up neo-fascist political party with more direct roots going back to the “years of lead” in the 1970s. Founder and current leader Robert Fiore is a self-identified fascist who was an international fugitive for 20 years and received a prison sentence in absentia for his involvement in a fascist terrorist organization that killed 85 people in a 1980 bombing.
It all makes that teenager in the video seem that much more courageous.
MAGA Sword Attack Update
Following up on last week’s Explainer: Leor Bergland, age 30, was arrested Wednesday on charges of attempted murder, mayhem, and two counts of brandishing and assault with a deadly weapon. Police matched Bergland’s fingerprints from a beer bottle found at the scene of the attack, and also the sword was found wrapped in a vest in a dumpster nine blocks away. Berglund is being held on one million dollars bond.
Doxxes
Monday, April 1, 2019
Let's welcome Matthew Robert Warner to #IDENTIFYevropa!! Thanks to the @UR_Ninja IE Discord leaks, we identified Matt as the Chief of Staff of Identity Evropa. Matt is from Virginia & lives in the DC area. He went by "Matthias" in Discord.https://t.co/Elc6OmTSJG pic.twitter.com/pM4E0dh9PS
— New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) April 1, 2019
- NYC Antifa started the week with a dox of Matthew Robert Warner, Chief of Staff of Identity Evropa, which recently rebranded as the American Identity Movement.
- Oklahoma activists posted a thread explaining the work that went into last week’s dox of Judson Blevins, Oklahoma State Coordinator for Identity Evropa.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
This morning Eugene Antifa identifies Stephen William Arnquist as a member of Identity Evropa. Stephen is a Japanese teacher at Skyline High School in Dallas, Texas. https://t.co/uoQsWYmf1S @Skyline_Raiders @PrincipalSky #IdentifyEvropa pic.twitter.com/84KSksIZCt
— IdentifyEvropa (@Identify_Evropa) April 4, 2019
- Eugene Antifa doxxed Stephen William Arnquist, a teacher at Skyline High School in Dallas, Texas, as being a member of Identity Evropa. Arnquist has been “put on leave, pending the outcome of an investigation” from Skyline, where more than 90% of students are people of color, according to a statement school officials provided to the Fort Worth-Star Telegram.
- Anonymous Comrade threaded on Lacey Lynn, real name Lacey Lauren Clark, a tradwife YouTuber and member of Identity Evropa. In 2017, Lynn attended the Eagle Forum Council, a leadership training seminar hosted by the conservative organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly.
Friday, April 5, 2019
NEW STORY: "John Lee Clemmer: Racist Propagandist, Identity Evropa member, and IBM Consulting Manager"https://t.co/sDQ6KTaIV8
Clemmer is "Why Tea" on the chat logs for the white nationalist org Identity Evropa (now "American Identity Movement")#IdentifyEvropa pic.twitter.com/j4NZEMFaCP
— Atlanta Antifascists (@afainatl) April 5, 2019
- Atlanta Antifascists exposed John Lee Clemmer, a Smyrna, Georgia resident and IBM Consulting Manager, as a member of Identity Evropa. Clemmer used the name Why Tea in the recently leaked Discord chats, which also revealed that he funded the group’s 2017 flash protest at Georgia Tech. You can contact IBM via their online contact form or via Twitter @IBM.
Deplatforms
being a Nazi doesn't pay, folks pic.twitter.com/mJvdPbvzCa
— AntiFash Gordon (@AntiFashGordon) April 6, 2019
- Neo-Nazi podcaster Daniel Kenneth Jeffreys, aka “Grandpa Lampshade,” took to begging on Gab this week, saying that he’d been fired after being doxxed, denying him the raise he was promised.
https://twitter.com/FaithGoldy/status/1113909504343724035
- White nationalist Faith Goldy was banned from Airbnb this week. A subsequent Gizmodo investigation found little or no proactive measures from Airbnb to prevent white nationalists from using its service, but noted that “when [Airbnb] is made aware of hate group events—as in Charlottesville or with American Renaissance—it does act quickly and decisively.”
UPDATE: The owner of the store responded to our review and has claimed they will be removing the band's content from their store. We will check up and see if this is the case soon, for now take a look at his response. @NYCAntifa @AntiFashGordon @LBCAFA @LAJBGC @LA_SocialistRA pic.twitter.com/F9hhoZAshO
— Angry Socialist (@AngrySocialists) April 7, 2019
- A campaign by Twitter user @AngrySocialists to remove merchandise from fascist neofolk act Death in June from Santa Clarita’s Voodoo Vinyl Records was successful this week, with the store owner removing the Totenkopf-covered merchandise and apologizing for any harm caused. (And for those in doubt– including Voodoo Vinyl’s owner– yes, Death in June is a fascist band.)
Calls to Action
Horna Tour Update
Your calls and emails have been working, and so many venues have responded by cancelling their bookings with Nationalist Socialist Black Metal band Horna, that it’s been hard for fans and foes alike to keep track of where, or when, or whether their shows would take place at all.
Horna be deplatformed so many times their dumbass fans are annoyed with them. Lmao. pic.twitter.com/hElzIOrvot
— New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) April 8, 2019
Still, capitalism has once again prevailed, and promoters have found other venues willing to risk their reputations by hosting the band. Judging from social media, the new venues have given the tour a very underground, DIY kind of vibe. From playing a sports bar in Bend, Oregon, to a home recording studio in suburban Chicago, to a parking lot in Queens, Horna has gotten a great taste of what it’s like trying to make it as an unpopular band in everyday America.
What band hasn’t played a backyard show that looks like this before?
But just because they’ve become a joke, doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. Atomwaffen leader John Cameron Denton aka “Rape” and a friend were photographed giving a Sieg Heil salute at the Austin show.
ALERT: Atomwaffen Division members including its leader John Cameron Denton aka "Rape" were seen doing the Nazi salute at the Horna show tonight at The Hellcat Cafe in Houston. Atomwaffen Division is a network of Satanic Nazi terror cells linked to at least 5 murders in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/FWTJ3B3SZP
— Molotov Milkshake by Heresy Labs ????✨ ✨ ✨ (@heresysquad) April 4, 2019
Horna only have two remaining dates on their last-ever North American Tour, let’s try to get that down to zero by making a quick phone call and leaving a review:
Tuesday, April 9th
The Chop Shop Pub & Grub
Seabrook, NH
*67 (603) 760-7706
https://www.facebook.com/chopshoppub/
https://twitter.com/chopshopNH
For more information on the Seabrook, NH, Horna gig, see this post by North Shore Antifa.
Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
— Three Arrows Down (@ArrowsDown161) April 5, 2019
Jabber Jaws Bar and Grille
Allentown, PA
*67 (484) 426-9380
*67 (610) 432-6524
https://www.facebook.com/JabberJawsBarAndGrille/