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Apr 6, 20

This Week in Fascism #53: Neo-Nazi Couple Caught Attempting to Grift COVID-19 Mutual Aid Groups

Welcome, fellow antifascists! This week, we’ve got Matthew Heimbach claiming he’s reformed, a neo-Nazi couple pretending to be an anarchists in order to grift from mutual aid programs, a Zoom safety guide for organizers, and doxxes of Proud Boys, a podcast fascist, and a conspiracy theorist attacking a hospital ship with a train.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

News

Matthew Heimbach, Former Nationalist Front, Traditionalist Worker Party and National Socialist Movement Leader Says He’s Reformed, But Still Preaches Nazi Ideologies

Matthew Heimbach, former head of the Traditionalist Worker Party and former Community Outreach Director for the National Socialist Movement, was featured in a video this week from Light Upon Light, an organization that purports to de-radicalize political extremists, both religious and on the Left and Right.

However, in the video, Heimbach doesn’t renounce any of his neo-Nazi beliefs, and refers to white people as “my community.” In an accompanying statement, he added that, “Also, for the record: My religious views on social issues are still those of the Church. I’m still anti-Zionist.”

Individuals on the far-Right often use “Zionist” to refer to Jewish people as a whole. The practice was started by Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby in the 1970s, which found that it could avoid accusations of anti-Semitism by replacing “Jews” with “Zionists” in their propaganda materials. The “social issues” to which Heimbach refers are LGBTQIA issues, which Orthodox Christianity hold to be a sin.

This attempt at rebranding comes less than a month after Heimbach was outed as being involved in a support site for white nationalist and neo-Nazi “political prisoners,” many doing time for acts of mass murder, such as Dylann Roof.

In 2018, Heimbach was arrested after beating his wife in front of at least one of their children, following his wife discovering that he was having an affair with her mother. This assault led him to spend a month inside a local jail cell, as the attack violated his probation following his 2016 assault on an African-American woman at a Trump rally in Kentucky.

Light Upon Light also released a video from Acacia Dietz, the girlfriend of former NSM leader and current Light Upon Light representative Jeff Schoep, claiming that she has also left the far-Right movement.

However, recent court filings in Sines v. Kessler reveal that Schoep still maintains contact with NSM leader Burt Colucci, warning him about possible federal informants, and that Dietz still maintains the NSM’s website.

Even more telling is that both Schoep and Heimbach are currently facing court sanctions for refusing to comply with evidentiary demands, purposefully ignoring discovery requests, in Sines v. Kessler, the lawsuit resulting from the violence of the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

Moreover, Schoep and Light Upon Light founder Jesse Morton have current ties to far-Right hate groups. Schoep and Morton have appeared as guests on podcasts from The Clarion Project, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as an anti-Islam hate group. Additionally, last week, far-Right propagandist Andy Ngo appeared on ESC-Hate, the Light Upon Light podcast.

Throughout his career, Heimbach has built extensive relationships with a variety of white nationalist, neo-Nazi, Alt-Right, and neo-Confederate groups – many with extensive histories of violence against the public.

Conspiracy Theorist Attacks Hospital Ship with Train

Eduardo Moreno, a train engineer in San Pedro, California, attempted to drive a train into the USNS Mercy hospital ship.

According to the criminal complaint, Moreno intentionally did not slow down on a curve, attempting to drive the train into the hospital ship, which was docked in the Port of Los Angeles. The train ran off its rails, but stopped a quarter-mile from the ship itself. No one was injured, but the incident required a hazardous materials clean-up crew. A statement from a police officer at the scene reported that he “saw the train smash into a concrete barrier at the end of the track, smash into a steel barrier, smash into a chain-link fence, slide through a parking lot, slide across another lot filled with gravel, and smash into a second chain-link fence.”

The criminal complaint notes that after being detained, Moreno “stated that he wanted to bring attention to the government’s activities regarding COVID-19, and was suspicious of the U.S.N.S. Mercy,” echoing the conspiracy theories of the far-Right.

After being detained by a police officer on the scene, Moreno reportedly offered a motive, saying: “You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching. I had to. People don’t know what’s going on here. Now they will. At night, they turn off the lights and don’t let anyone in. I’m going to expose this to the world.”

Proud Boys Argue About Nazi Proud Boys

Alan Swinney, the Texas Proud Boy responsible for a failed rally that acted as a front for an assault on antifascist protesters in Providence, Rhode Island, asked his Facebook feed, “Is everyone ok with Nazi tattoos on PBs?,” hoping to stir outrage among his followers.

But as it turned out, just about everyone in the Proud Boys is just fine with Nazis.

“You said the n-word and some dude cucked on you and sent it to the Huffington Post,” replied far-right personality Haley Adams. “Should we use that against you? No, because you aren’t racist.”

“Why not?” wrote Christian Bell. “I have lightning bolts and swazzys all over my body, but that doesn’t mean I’m a Nazi extremist. LOL, I just don’t like n*****, haha.”

“I stopped caring when I realized whites aren’t allowed to be racist and that’s an opinion perpetuated by ZOG media,” said Canadian writer John Keillor, referencing the “Zionist Occupied Government” meme pushed by antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“I have a PB tattoo and I’m a Nazi,” wrote Proud Boy Ian Kelly. “Imagine how I feel.”

“Are you serious? That’s a joke, right?” replied Swinney.

“I’m only half-joking,” said Kelly. “I’m a white identitarian.”

Summarizing the situation, independent journalist Left Coast Right Watch tweeted, “Proud Boys are kind of a liminal space group where open white nationalists and people who don’t realize they’re in the same group as white nationalists because they believe most of the same shit get to mingle.”

Jacobin Celebrates Russian Fascist Eduard Limonov, Red Scare Hosts neo-Fascist Steve Bannon

Socialist magazine Jacobin published a sympathetic obituary of Russian Third Positionist Eduard Limonov this week. “Russian provacateur Eduard Limonov was far from being a subtance-free contrarion. He was a ‘problematic’ character, to say the least – but one from whose colorful life and work has much to tell us about the times that created him.”

Limonov was the founder of the National Bolshevik (NazBol) Party, a Russian opposition party that based its principles on the Nazi party, replacing the swastika of the Nazi flag with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle.

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Limonov was filmed in 1992 using a machine gun to fire at an apartment complex in Sarajevo.

After getting severely ratioed on the tweet, Jacobin deleted the tweet, but continued to promote the article, which deliriously claimed that “unlike fascist movements, the Nazbols were never a particularly violent bunch, confining themselves to spectacular actions, stunts, and damaging property — always directed against those ‘above,’ never kicking down. Russian leftists and workers’ organizations had nothing to fear from them — in fact, the Russian Nazbols regarded them as allies. Nor did their nationalism have a racist character: the NBP program was very clear that anyone, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or descent, could be a Russian and a Nazbol — just as long as they were prepared to give “everything” for Russia.”

Relatedly in the Red-Brown crossover, former White House Chief Strategist and current white nationalist Steve Bannon appeared as a guest on the ostensibly leftist podcast Red Scare. When social media users were predictably outraged by a leftist program offering space to a neo-fascist, Chapo Trap House’s Matt Christman tweeted “Who is doing more active damage to the world right now, Bannon or Warren?” He followed it up by adding, “Depends on the meaning of ‘worse. Like, as a metaphysical concept, maybe, but not as actors in the world. Bannon can’t get anyone elected dogcatcher at this point.”

In 2018, Bannon served as an informal advisor to Jair Bolsonaro, helping to elevate the neo-fascist leader to the Presidency of the largest country in South America. In 2019, Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, joined Bannon’s international ultranationalist network The Movement, representing the group in South America.

Proud Boy Associate Spreading COVID-19 Disinformation for Project Veritas, Turning Point USA Blames Lack of Federal Response on Impeachment Vote

The far-Right continued to push conspiracy theories this week, with Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe releasing a six-minute video claiming the CDC numbers of those infected are inflated.

New York City Antifa revealed that Proud Boy affiliate Jake Freijo, who pled guilty to the October 2018 Proud Boys attack on protesters after a Gavin McInnes speech at the Metropolitan GOP Club in Manhattan, is now working for Project Veritas.

Meanwhile, Turning Point USA, an ostensibly conservative organization whose chapter heads and ambassadors keep getting exposed as white nationalists, released a meme blaming the February 6 impeachment vote for the federal government’s lackluster response to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The meme featured a quote from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “If we decided to listen to scientists early… we would have taken precautions much earlier and we would have saved lives,” juxtaposed with TPUSA’s rejoinder, “Yeah, maybe you should have thought about that before pushing a sham impeachment.”

Journalist David Neiwert pointed out that the impeachment vote happened on February 6, with the first reported COVID-19 death in the United States occurring on February 29, establishing that the impeachment vote did not interfere with the federal government’s response to the crisis.

Boston DSA Releases Zoom Safety Guide

To combat the recent phenomenon of Zoombombing – where far-Right trolls find an open Zoom call and proceed to disrupt it by shouting racial slurs and posting pornography in the chat – the Boston DSA released a guide to Zoom Safety for Organizers.

The takeaways include using a URL shortener if you must post the meeting link on social media, since trolls are searching for links with “zoom.com” in them to find open meetings; adding a password to the meeting; and locking the meeting after it begins, in case trolls decide to join late.

Additionally, the guide contains a number of tips to prevent the doxxing of meeting attendees, including using the Zoom web app instead of calling in, since the latter will display your phone number as your meeting ID; using only your first name or a pseudonym as a display name; and joining the meeting with your camera off.

Doxxes

Neo-Nazi Grifters Try to Scam Mutual Aid Projects Across the US, Get Doxxed Instead

Ed Lif and Jamie Rae Henry Nelson, currently adherents of the racist Asatru Folk Assembly and former Denver chapter heads of violent anti-immigrant group the Soldiers of Odin, have been requesting money from mutual aid groups for COVID-19 relief.

In a Venmo message to a Pennsylvania organizer, Lif set his profile picture to the circle-A used by anarchists, and attempted to pass himself off as a fellow leftist needing aid after being laid off due to COVID-19.

Antifascists quickly recognized Lif and his wife, identifying them as longtime white nationalist organizers. In 2016, the couple hosted recruitment potlucks for the Soldiers of Odin, as well the group’s midwestern regional camping trip. The group participated in regular vigilante patrols of downtown Denver, and attempted to intimidate the members of a Colorado mosque, showing up en masse outside the place of worship to claim that the building was harboring Islamic terrorists.

The couple uses the following names on social media. If you receive a request for mutual aid from them, immediately block the sender:

Joseph Berger, aka “GlockDoctor1488,” Host of Alt-Right Armory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Antifascist researchers exposed the real name of “GlockDoctor1488,” the host of the Alt-Right Armory podcast, who has disrupted a number of leftist and liberal events in Pennsylvania over the past year.

Joseph Berger, age 31, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, attended a protest of Drag Queen Story Hour at the Exeter Community Library in Reading, Pennsylvania, in February 2019, where he shouted obscenities at the families who had brought their children for the event, accusing them of being pedophiles.

In April 2019, he attended a show by Horna, a neo-Nazi black metal band.

In August 2019, Berger attended a Philadelphia Public Library talk by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, where he screamed “Fuck you, you anti-white piece of shit! You will not replace us!” before fleeing the building.

Berger also hosts Alt-Right Armory, a podcast on Spreaker, where he disseminates antisemitic conspiracy theories and teaches the far-Right about guns.

Berger worked as a security guard at a water park in northeast Pennsylvania, but is currently laid off.

Christopher Skylar Brooks, Proud Boy and Patriot Front Member in Lawrenceville, Georgia

Atlanta Antifascists doxed Christopher Skyler Brooks, a member of the “Western Chauvinist” Proud Boys and the neo-Nazi Patriot Front.

In May 2019, Brooks placed Patriot Front posters around Lawrenceville, Georgia. He has also been a member of the Proud Boys since at least March 2017, despite the Proud Boys claiming that they are not a racist organization.

Michael J. Moberly, Groyper in Visalia, California

Far-right researcher Antifa Garfield exposed “Metal Groyper” this week, real name Michael J. Moberly, of Visalia, California.

Moberly, 25, runs a Twitter account where he posts white supremacist memes, and lists American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell as an influence.

Any information on Moberly’s job or other whereabouts can be direct-messaged to @AntifaGarfield.

Hollywood Museum of Death Employing Neo-Nazi Musician Antichrist Kramer

Corvallis Antifa revealed that the Museum of Death in Hollywood, California, is employing neo-Nazi musician Antichrist Kramer to create music and merchandise for them.

The museum is currently closed, but Corvallis Antifa has promised to publish more information when they reopen.

Devin Patrick Ferrer, Proud Boy in Peoria, Illinois

Antifa Garfield exposed Devin Patrick Ferrer as a member of the Arizona Proud Boys.

Ferrer works for AAA Arizona as a Service Advisor and spends his time posting fascist Pepe memes celebrating Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s slaughter of leftist activists by dropping them from helicopters.

If you would like to inform his employer of his membership in a hate group, you can call AAA’s Public Relations department at 602-650-2726, or tweet to @AAANews.

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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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