I'm not a member of Antifa (or any group). I wrote a community college article on the protests at UC Berkeley in 2016. The article was not allowed to be published in the college paper. I published the article on a T Party social media site, with a picture of Bernie Sanders and a BLM flag. (I have phone numbers, email addresses, texts, and video to prove everything I write. The names have been changed for your and my safety.)
Names of people I interviewed:
*D.D.
*Shane
*Joe Hanes
ARTICLE:
Antifa is not an organization, it is a political stance. There is no hierarchy in Antifa, the movement is completely horizontal.
“You don’t have to align with a certain political ideology to be Antifa. You don’t have to be an Anarchist or Communist to be Antifa. You can be a Republican, or a Democrat, or green party to be Antifa.”
Antifa is anyone who considers fascism bad and wants to keep the community safe. Antifa’s role is to protect the community against fascism by any means necessary. This includes promoting the community, outreach, education, and confronting fascists.
One way of to confront fascism is to educate yourself on “dog whistle terms” that are used by white supremacists. They attempt to hide racist speech from the community using these terms or gestures. “Antifa’s goal is to shut down this type of speech.”
During the most recent Anti-Fascist Protest at UC Berkeley Joe Hanes a SRJC student went to Jail for wearing a mask and resisting arrest. Under Police Penal Code 185 it is illegal to wear a mask for the purpose of evading arrest. He was participating in a black bloc protest.
“Black Bloc is a tactic. It’s not Antifa. Black Bloc always knows who they are looking for.” ”Black Bloc was asked to be in Berkeley by the city under certain terms and it was successful.”
JJoe was in jail for two days and the police refused to give him his basic needs as a prisoner.
A very intelligent young man, Joe shared with me many things about the group Antifa, which included the origins of Antifa.
Prodo Antifa started in Germany during the German revolution. This was prior to World War One. It went by the name “The Spartacus League.” The Spartacus League is German Political Organization.
During world war One 1914 - 1918 pamphlets called the “Spartacus Letters” were distributed illegally among German citizens. They were dormant from WWII until they could reemerged again.
The Spartacus League later transformed into “Social Democratic Party” or simply SPD. Founded in 1875 SPD is Germany's oldest political party. It traditionally represents the interests of the working class. The funding for the SPD comes from citizens of mainly large cities who are Christians in northern Germany. Most of these people were in the coal-mining and steel producing industry.
The new front runner for SPD is Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and he has plans to decommission all German nuclear power stations by 2020. This coincides with the US presidential elections in 2020.
The main focus of SPD is to regain the majority vote and recruit young people, accumulating a constituency of fresh middle class voters.
The group had some influence in America during the civil right movement and has been consistent in the 80’s punk scene up to now. Antifa has had a big come back in the 80’s and late 90’s. Antifa became officially active in the US in 1992. Antifa had its first US conference is 1994. Currently Antifa not only includes the punk rockers, Antifa includes the following groups: The ROMA people, The Hebrew people, The LGBT community, and Social Democrats.
Angela Davis of the Black Panthers recently stated; “We might have arrived at a much better healthcare plan if those of us who believe healthcare is a human right were out on the streets, as opposed to the Tea Party.”
The first public figure to represent Anti-Fascist Action or the AFA is Mic Crenshaw. The AFA (Antifaschistische Aktion) is not exactly the same as Antifa. The AFA are the people who promote civil disobedience opposed to traditional Antifa peaceful protest measures.
“Antifa is not some violent group that just attacks people.” “Antifa is not violent at all. We all stand in solidarity.” “It’s self-defense, but not traditional self-defense. The people are defenders of their community against genocidal ideology.”
Recently in the new the US and European Antifa has contributed to supporting Anti-Fascist Action in the Middle East against ISIS.
The International Freedom Battalion or IFB in Rojava are an armed group made up of foreign contractors. These mercenaries are fighting alongside the People’s Protection Units in the Syrian Civil War, whose main focuses are installing a foundational government that’s fairly balanced. Working together with YPG international and arming women and non-military types in support of the Rojava Revolution and against the Islamic State and the Levant. The YPG is involved with people’s revolution of Rojava, in Kurdistan and in a democratic Syria. Allied with Antifa “The International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF) is a militant armed self-organized and horizontal collective working to defend social revolutions around the world.” Providing safety against bombings, thugs, revolutionary militants, and resistant civilians. Yet, certain domestic Antifa allied groups may or may not agree with working with the imperialist United States military. These collective groups are making a huge difference in the promotion of a democratic Syria.
I will leave you with a poem by Martin Niemöller:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
REFERENCES:
PC CODE 185
Section One Hundred and Eighty-five. It shall be unlawful for any person to wear any mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise (whether complete or partial) for the purpose of:
One—Evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of any public offense.
Two—Concealment, flight, or escape, when charged with, arrested for, or convicted of, any public offense. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
RESEARCH!!!
Statement:
“There are no credentials to be Antifa. Raise your fist and join. We are everyday people just like you. We are not separate. We are the working class. If you do not fight now, it will be too late.”
“Antifa is community members trying to protect our neighbors and ourselves.”
“You don’t have to align with a certain political ideology to be Antifa. You don’t have to be an Anarchist or Communist to be Antifa. You can be a Republican, or a Democrat, or green party to be Antifa.”
Interviews:
Another Antifa gun club is the ASR or the Anarchist Socialist Rifle Association. (S.H. has helped start/contributes to in Sanoma County.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-charlottesville-witnesses-20170815-story.html
Redneck Revolt at Charlottesville (They were there just in case.) “Redneck Revolt, an armed leftist group that brought rifles to Justice Park, one of the spots where anti-racist groups had gathered.”
Joe Hanes went to Jail for “wearing a mask and resisting arrest.”
As of the evening prior to the protest a city ordinance was passed where it was illegal to wear a mask in the particular place the protest was being held.
PC CODE 185
PENAL CODE - PEN
PART 1. OF CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS [25 - 680] ( Part 1 enacted 1872. )
TITLE 7. OF CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE [92 - 186.34] ( Title 7 enacted 1872. )
CHAPTER 8. Conspiracy [182 - [185.]] ( Chapter 8 enacted 1872. )
[185.]
Section One Hundred and Eighty-five. It shall be unlawful for any person to wear any mask, false whiskers, or any personal disguise (whether complete or partial) for the purpose of:
One—Evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification in the commission of any public offense.
Two—Concealment, flight, or escape, when charged with, arrested for, or convicted of, any public offense. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
(Amended by Code Amendments 1873-74, Ch. 614.)
Joe was in jail for two days. While in jail Joe was not granted access to his medication.
He could have suffered seizures due to the withdrawal from the medication. (Gabapentin – leave out. Will make Antifa look bad. Like Joe is crazy.) They refused to give him his basic needs as a prisoner.
QUOTES:
Antifa is not an organization it is a movement (political orientation) (political stance).
My biggest fear is that we will be living in a neo-fascist state. We are already under martial law. Agreed. It’s not we think (of as traditional martial law) it’s a new wave.
There is no hierarchy in Antifa. It is completely horizontal.
Antifa does condone the use of firearms and weapons.
They have been escorted by the John Brown Gun Club in open carry states. This was to protect protesters from fascists. They are a group that do carry weapons. They are Autonomous.
Antifa is from all walks of life. Its people who see what’s going on with the country and realize we need to look for solutions outside the system.
Any interaction with police will make me homeless. It’s just as violent as them raiding a house or going to prison. It’s inherent that it’s the same as a threat of a natural disaster.
“There are more houses then homeless people.”
“A system that charges poor people for being poor is not worthy of reform.” [AGREED]
There needs to be a revolution dues to environmental issues alone. It is necessary and it is going to happen.
This all is not unique to the US its happening all over the world.
We are in a constant state of martial law. A comfortable version.
How the US effects the world, just reforming it will not be enough.
The Trump administration is a symptom of the problem, he is not the problem. America is the problem. [AGREED] White supremacy and capitalism is the problem.
We are watching the fall of the American Empire right now. I would like to have some say on where it lands. [AGREED]
Supremacists are going after soft targets. Churches and good people.
Soft target Definitions:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/28/the-soft-logic-of-soft-targets-france-train-attack-security/
“These are places where people congregate and are potentially vulnerable, but are not subject to airport-style security procedures.”
A civilian-centric place. Not typically “fortified”. Vulnerable, unprotected, undefended. Privately owned. Possibly resource constrained. Security not a primary mission. Maybe co-located or near a hard target.
If you are against fascism, you are against fascism.
Marketed as fascism.
Antifa:
Purpose: To confront the alt-right (white nationalists) in the United States of America.
Antifa (Anarchy) is the opposite of Fascism.
• Fascism needs to be stopped from rising to power.
• Antifa’s role is to protect the community against fascism. ALL 3 AGREED!!! By any means necessary. This includes promoting the community, outreach, education, and confronting fascists.
Antifa is anyone who considers fascism bad.
Antifa is keeping the community safe. D.D. has a garden that provides food for people who need it.
History of Antifa: (D.D. didn’t know about the European history of Antifa.)
• Prodo Antifa started in Germany during the German revolution.
It went by the name “The Spartacus League.”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/12/14.htm
“Millions of able workers, the finest and strongest sons of the working class, slaughtered. Awaiting the survivors’ return stands the leering misery of unemployment. Famine and disease threaten to sap the strength of the people at its root.”
Spartacus League is German Political Organization. In German the name is Spartakusbund.
1914 to the end of 1918 illegally distributed pamphlets Spartakusbriefen (Spartacus Letters). The league developed as an offshoot of the Social Democratic Party called for a socialist revolution.
The Spartacus League was transformed into the Communist Party of Germany
“We do not say that in Germany all power is now effectively in the hands of the working people, that the proletarian revolution has already gained a complete victory.”
“It can only struggle and, conquer by calling upon the solidarity of the workers of the whole world.”
It went by the name “The Social Democratic Party.”
SPD
“The center-left Social Democratic Party is rooted in the 19th century labor movement and is Germany's oldest political party, founded in 1875. It traditionally represents the interests of the working class. Much of its support comes from the large cities of traditionally protestant northern Germany and the former coal-mining and steel producing Ruhr region.
It has lost its status as Germany's largest party to the CDU, which has some 530,000 members, compared with the SPD's 513,000. The SPD has also been hit by the formation of the Left Party in 2007, which has lured away many left-wing voters.
In a bid to win them back, the SPD under its candidate for chancellor, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is pledging to introduce a minimum wage. It has also vowed to stick to plans to decommission all German nuclear power stations by 2020.”
It was also in Italy under the name “Arditi del Popolo.”
“Either they can choose to languish as they die slowly of starvation and exhaustion, littering their own streets with a few corpses each day – until as the weeks, months and years pass, a mountain of bodies accumulates.”
The black shirts.
•Antifa was in Europe during World War Two. They have been dormant from WWII till 2010. Where they reemerged again.
Antifa came to the United States in 2017.
• Antifa was active during the civil right movement.
• During the 80’s punk scene and now.
• Antifa includes the following groups:
The ROMA people
The Hebrew people
The LGBT community
The Social Democrats
Anti-Fascist Action AFA (Antifaschistische Aktion) is not exactly the same as Antifa.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Antifascist_Action
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifaschistische_Aktion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Fascist_Action
Mic Crenshaw (A Black man) and 6 other people started an Anti-Fascist Action group in Minneapolis Minnesota. The others where a native man and the rest were working class white kids.
http://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/website/anti-racist-action-and-the-struggle-against-fascism
In the late 90’s with the WTO and the IMF. Antifa was active in the US in 1992. Antifa had it’s first conference is 1994.
Antifa had a big come back in the 80’s and late 90’s. Antifa has been here ever since, but just haven’t made the news. There hadn’t been a need for a huge presence. They are not seen when there isn’t a need for it.
Antifa’s current information:
Rose City (Portland) Antifa and the IWW connection.
Don’t promote Rojava. Rojava Anarchists are doing well at beginning to install a blanced government. Yet, the Antifa allied groups in Rojava are working with the imperialist United States military. Promote ROJAVA! Rojava is happening.
International Freedom (Battalion) Brigades; IFB
War against ISIS/Daesh: Declaration of the International Freedom Battalion of Rojava about the terrorist attack in Nice (France)
“The International Freedom Battalion is an armed group consisting of leftist foreign fighters fighting alongside the People’s Protection Units in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Rojava Revolution and against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.”
At the heart of the Middle-East, peoples of Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) have risen up against reactionary forces oppressing the region since decades. After setting free Rojava from Daesh, the Rojava inhabitants and the many foreign revolutionaries who came to support them are worrying the American imperialists and NATO as well as the reactionary and fascist regimes from the Middle-East : Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The enemies of the people have great difficulty ending the struggle for liberation that peoples of Rojava started to set, even by using their usual weapons : deadly bombings, shelling civilians, mass detentions of revolutionary militants, permanent attacks against the people’s guerrillas and capitalist hagglings.
YPG Website.
https://www.ypgrojava.org/english
The YPG is involved with people’s revolution of Rojava, in Kurdistan and in a democratic Syria.
“YPG strives for a democratic, ecologic, and anti-patriarchal system of self-organisation; it takes its power from the people and fight for the people.”
“The KDP as the representative of primitive-nationalist and petty-bourgeois line in the Middle Eastern political spectrum cooperates with Turkish state.”
Anarchist groups: International revolutionary people’s guerrilla force.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revolution-volunteers-form-anarchist-brigade-ypg-1459563614
The Role of the IRPGF
“The International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces (IRPGF) is a militant armed self-organized and horizontal collective working to defend social revolutions around the world.”
All of these groups fight alongside each other in solidarity to a similar cause.
Look-up The Communist party of the Philippines new leader is Paolo Duterte. People fight with rocks.
http://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/08/16/17/philippines-communist-rebellion-a-new-generation
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/07/07/1717327/year-fighting-and-talking-part-1
FACTS AND QUOTES:
“Antifa is not some violent group that just attacks people.” ALL 3 AGREED!!! Antifa is not violent at all. We all stand in solidarity. It’s self-defense, but not traditional self-defense. The people are defenders of their community against genocidal ideology.
Black Bloc is a tactic. It’s not Antifa. [AGREED] Black Bloc always knows who they are looking for. Black Bloc was asked to be there (Berkeley) (by the city) under certain terms and it was successful.
“Antifa is not funded by George Soros.” This is a Conspiracy.
ADITTIONAL INFORMATION:
More proof of climate change. Not many people know about the flooding in whitefish Montana.
http://www.whitefishpilot.com/news/article_a4484cee-fe75-11e4-a671-63308e33dc33.html
http://nearsay.com/n/10743/5503/mt/flathead/whitefish/flood-disaster-recovery
CIA CONTRACTORS TO TRAIN ISIS IN THE 90’s:
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/1996/dci_speech_090596.html
• Martin Niemöller – “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
• Milo Yiannopoulos was shutdown at Berkeley. He actively outed Trans and undocumented students. He and his actions are an active treat to our friends and families.
• Angela Davis “We might have arrived at a much better healthcare plan if those of us who believe healthcare is a human right were out on the streets, as opposed to the Tea Party.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HnDONDvJVE
Dog whistle terms are used by white supremacists. They hide it from the community. Antifa’s goal is to shut down this type of speech. Some examples: The okay sign. (Tomi Lahren a journalist uses these symbols on air.) Meaning WP or white power. Liberal media. Meaning is Zionist media. Power level. Meaning how high ranking they are in white supremacy.
• Adolf Hitler - “Only one thing could have stopped our movement – if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.”
Websites about Antifa News:
https://www.unicornriot.ninja/
Asked not to use: (Because of direct political affiliation.)
BAMN started in Detroit and have a Bay area and Oakland chapter. (Shane said it’s okay to use.)
WSA Group workers solidarity alliance. DSA Democratic Socialists Alliance (of America.) (Shane and D.D. said it’s okay to use.)
IWW (Industrial) International Workers of the World. (Shane said it’s okay to use.)