Monday, September 14, 2020
Sunday, September 13, 2020
QAnon is a Nazi Cult, Rebranded
by Gregory Stanton
September 9, 2020
"A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.
Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon.
I have studied and worked to prevent genocide for forty years. Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide, the first international anti-genocide coalition, see such hate-filled conspiracy theories as early warning signs of deadly genocidal violence.
The plot, described above, was the conspiracy “revealed” in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902. It collected myths about a Jewish plot to take over the world that had existed for hundreds of years. Central to its mythology was the Blood Libel, which claimed that Jews kidnapped and slaughtered Christian children and drained their blood to mix in the dough for matzos consumed on Jewish holidays.
The Nazis published a children’s book of the Protocols that they required in the curriculum of every primary school in Germany. The Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer (derived from the German word for “Storm”) spread the Blood Libel. Hitler’s Mein Kampf, his narcissistic autobiography and manifesto for his battle against the Jewish plot to rule the world, copied his conspiracy theories from the Protocols.
The Nazis worshiped Adolf Hitler as the Leader who would rescue the white race from this secret Jewish plot. Nazi “storm troopers” (“storm detachment” – Sturmabteilung) helped bring Hitler to power. Nazi Germany went on to conquer Europe and murder six million Jews and millions of Roma, Slavs, LGBTQ and other people.
America had its own dark side. Henry Ford echoed Nazi hatred of Jews and had 500,000 copies of the Protocols printed and distributed in the U.S. Father Coughlin preached the Protocols on national radio. The Ku Klux Klan combined its white supremacist racism with hatred of Jews.
QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
QAnon purveys the fantasy that a secret Satan-worshiping cabal is taking over the world. Its members kidnap white children, keep them in secret prisons run by pedophiles, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from the essence in their blood. The cabal held the American Presidency under the Clintons and Obama, nearly took power again in 2016, and lurks in a “Deep State” financed by Jews, including George Soros, and in Jews who control the media. They want to disarm citizens and defund the police. They promote abortion, transgender rights, and homosexuality. They want open borders so brown illegal aliens can invade America and mongrelize the white race.
QAnon true believers think Donald Trump will rescue America from this Satanic cabal. At the time of “The Storm,” supporters of the cabal will be rounded up and executed.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has now spread to neo-Nazis in Germany, where over 200,000 German QAnon accounts infest the internet. A faction known as “Reichsbürger,” or citizens of the Reich, orchestrated a brief storming of Parliament on Aug. 29.
Many people are perplexed at how any rational person could fall for such an irrational conspiracy theory. But modern social science shows that people in groups don’t always think rationally. They respond to fear and terror. They blame their misfortunes on scapegoats. They support narcissistic demagogues they hope will rescue them.
In the 1930’s, millions of Europeans were unemployed. Violent battles between Nazis and Communists raged in city streets. Democratic governments were powerless. Fascist dictators ruled Spain and Italy. Hitler took power in Germany and conquered Western Europe. Stalin’s Communists conquered the East. The Hitler-Stalin Pact sealed totalitarian rule over most of Europe. It took World War II and the deaths of millions to defeat the Nazis’ genocidal tyranny, and another fifty years to free the gulags of the Soviet Union.
Today the American people suffer from a Plague. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Angry mobs roam American cities and battle militarized police and heavily armed militias. The American government seems to be paralyzed. Dictators rule Russia and China. Islamic fascists rule Saudi Arabia and the old Ottoman and Persian empires. The American President appeases Russia, scapegoats China for the pandemic, and looks the other way as Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman murder their opponents.
In July, the Texas Republican party unveiled a new slogan, “We Are the Storm.” Over a dozen Republicans running for Congress have signaled support for the QAnon movement. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate from Georgia who has endorsed QAnon’s views, is likely to win a seat in Congress. The President praises her as a “future Republican star.” The Trump campaign welcomes QAnon supporters to his rallies. When asked about QAnon on national television, the President replied, “I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate.”
Some leading Republicans have begun to speak out against QAnon. Rep. Liz Cheney, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, has denounced QAnon as “dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.” Republican leaders such as Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Sen. Ben Sasse have also denounced QAnon. Former Gov. Jeb Bush has said of QAnon, “Nut jobs, racists, haters have no place in either Party.”
The world has seen QAnon before. It was called Nazism. In QAnon, Nazism wants a comeback."
by Gregory Stanton
September 9, 2020
"A secret cabal is taking over the world. They kidnap children, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from their blood. They control high positions in government, banks, international finance, the news media, and the church. They want to disarm the police. They promote homosexuality and pedophilia. They plan to mongrelize the white race so it will lose its essential power.
Does this conspiracy theory sound familiar? It is. The same narrative has been repackaged by QAnon.
I have studied and worked to prevent genocide for forty years. Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide, the first international anti-genocide coalition, see such hate-filled conspiracy theories as early warning signs of deadly genocidal violence.
The plot, described above, was the conspiracy “revealed” in the most influential anti-Jewish pamphlet of all time. It was called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902. It collected myths about a Jewish plot to take over the world that had existed for hundreds of years. Central to its mythology was the Blood Libel, which claimed that Jews kidnapped and slaughtered Christian children and drained their blood to mix in the dough for matzos consumed on Jewish holidays.
The Nazis published a children’s book of the Protocols that they required in the curriculum of every primary school in Germany. The Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer (derived from the German word for “Storm”) spread the Blood Libel. Hitler’s Mein Kampf, his narcissistic autobiography and manifesto for his battle against the Jewish plot to rule the world, copied his conspiracy theories from the Protocols.
The Nazis worshiped Adolf Hitler as the Leader who would rescue the white race from this secret Jewish plot. Nazi “storm troopers” (“storm detachment” – Sturmabteilung) helped bring Hitler to power. Nazi Germany went on to conquer Europe and murder six million Jews and millions of Roma, Slavs, LGBTQ and other people.
America had its own dark side. Henry Ford echoed Nazi hatred of Jews and had 500,000 copies of the Protocols printed and distributed in the U.S. Father Coughlin preached the Protocols on national radio. The Ku Klux Klan combined its white supremacist racism with hatred of Jews.
QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
QAnon purveys the fantasy that a secret Satan-worshiping cabal is taking over the world. Its members kidnap white children, keep them in secret prisons run by pedophiles, slaughter, and eat them to gain power from the essence in their blood. The cabal held the American Presidency under the Clintons and Obama, nearly took power again in 2016, and lurks in a “Deep State” financed by Jews, including George Soros, and in Jews who control the media. They want to disarm citizens and defund the police. They promote abortion, transgender rights, and homosexuality. They want open borders so brown illegal aliens can invade America and mongrelize the white race.
QAnon true believers think Donald Trump will rescue America from this Satanic cabal. At the time of “The Storm,” supporters of the cabal will be rounded up and executed.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has now spread to neo-Nazis in Germany, where over 200,000 German QAnon accounts infest the internet. A faction known as “Reichsbürger,” or citizens of the Reich, orchestrated a brief storming of Parliament on Aug. 29.
Many people are perplexed at how any rational person could fall for such an irrational conspiracy theory. But modern social science shows that people in groups don’t always think rationally. They respond to fear and terror. They blame their misfortunes on scapegoats. They support narcissistic demagogues they hope will rescue them.
In the 1930’s, millions of Europeans were unemployed. Violent battles between Nazis and Communists raged in city streets. Democratic governments were powerless. Fascist dictators ruled Spain and Italy. Hitler took power in Germany and conquered Western Europe. Stalin’s Communists conquered the East. The Hitler-Stalin Pact sealed totalitarian rule over most of Europe. It took World War II and the deaths of millions to defeat the Nazis’ genocidal tyranny, and another fifty years to free the gulags of the Soviet Union.
Today the American people suffer from a Plague. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Angry mobs roam American cities and battle militarized police and heavily armed militias. The American government seems to be paralyzed. Dictators rule Russia and China. Islamic fascists rule Saudi Arabia and the old Ottoman and Persian empires. The American President appeases Russia, scapegoats China for the pandemic, and looks the other way as Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman murder their opponents.
In July, the Texas Republican party unveiled a new slogan, “We Are the Storm.” Over a dozen Republicans running for Congress have signaled support for the QAnon movement. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate from Georgia who has endorsed QAnon’s views, is likely to win a seat in Congress. The President praises her as a “future Republican star.” The Trump campaign welcomes QAnon supporters to his rallies. When asked about QAnon on national television, the President replied, “I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate.”
Some leading Republicans have begun to speak out against QAnon. Rep. Liz Cheney, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, has denounced QAnon as “dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.” Republican leaders such as Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Sen. Ben Sasse have also denounced QAnon. Former Gov. Jeb Bush has said of QAnon, “Nut jobs, racists, haters have no place in either Party.”
The world has seen QAnon before. It was called Nazism. In QAnon, Nazism wants a comeback."
Saturday, September 12, 2020
Okay Humans, What’s the Fucking Point?! Eco-Absurdism: Absurdism as Environmentalism
Before I start this, I would like to conclude. I will conclude this by stating that, rather than a political program, ideology, strategy or theory, eco-absurdism is really just a feeling. What type of feeling? Well, one that can really be best articulated verbally in the question “okay humans, what is the fucking point?”.
I am going to present some arguments, theories and thoughts around this feeling and the question, but as far grasping this conceptual term that I am presenting you with, you don’t need to worry – any more than the sense of worry/or impending doom you already have.
Eco, in the sense I am using here as a prefix, means that squishy, muddy, messy, inhuman, beautiful, mystical, natury space, or world, that those of us who consider ourselves as environmentalists place value in. It is the harsh and inhuman Real that is greater than the human Reality, which Leviathan, civilisation, the state, the system, or whatever word you want to use that basically means totalitarian-anthropocentrism, supposedly saves us, as we identify with humanity, from. Wikipedia’s definition of environmentalism states –
“Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the impact of changes to the environment on humans, animals, plants and non-living matter. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecology combines the ideology of social ecology and environmentalism. Ecology is more commonly used in continental European languages while ‘environmentalism’ is more commonly used in English but the words have slightly different connotations.”
If you were to ask me what environmentalism means to me though, I’d likely say that “I like badgers, I think trees are awesome and I kind of don’t really want what we call the human race to continue it’s suicide bomber mentality, by killing itself and taking out the rest of the world with it, through pollution, habitat destruction and so on”.
We know the situation is pretty fucking dire. I used the F word quite intentionally there, not for shock value, but for emphasis. Environmentalists are often too concerned with being polite over being honest. The idea that the apocalypse is fine, but no one should be rude, is not one I can get behind personally. So I will state again, with no offense intended, but just harsh honesty – the situation is pretty fucking dire, and we know it.
200 species lost every day. The last decade was the hottest ever recorded. Deforestation is worsening habitat loss. The situation is pretty fucking dreadful – again no offense intended.
Now, don’t worry, this is not another of what philosopher Timothy Morton calls “information dumps”, which sadly plague environmentalist discourse, and operate on the same line of reasoning as the dumping of “externalities” that the producers of the world operates on. You are not a garbage site for me to dump a load of factoidal objects on to, for you to clean up, because if you don’t who will. There will be no more terrible bits of environmental information for you to process – I trust that you have arrived here aware and that you have done your own research.
Moving on to the question at hand of “what is the fucking point?”, you will have probably noticed that, rather than being a rational sort of question, there is an emotional quality to it. Despair, anxiety and nihilism often embody this question, which is at the core of existential philosophy – which seeks to explore what are perhaps big and unanswerable questions. Some other similar questions are why are we here; what is the point to all of this; is it possible to have a meaningful existence; why do we live when life involves suffering; how can I know what is morally right or wrong in a universe that appears indifferent to my actions; and if God lets us bring back 1 soul from the dead, do we choose Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobaine? But these kind of all circle back to “what is the fucking point?”, or perhaps spiral downwards, with a gravitational tug back down to the inhuman earthly universe.
Okay, Absurdism – what is it?! Well, some state that it is the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any. It is also a philosophy, with, yes you guessed it, philosophers. The 3 philosophers I intend to focus on here are Camus, Kierkegaard and Shestov and, as this exploration of their absurd ideas navigates the somewhat weird and dark terrain, I (perhaps absurdly) hope that you will find textures and qualities of anarchistic eco-radicalism.
Camus’ 2 most immediately relevant works for this discussion are The Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel. In the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus states that the only real philosophical question is whether or not to commit suicide. Camus considers this question on the backdrop of considering the world as a basically unreasonable place to be. Following from this basic unreasonableness, Camus argues that life is unreasonable and with this that there is no reason to live – oh the absurdity of it all and the horror. With this, Camus argues that, as much as there is no reason to live, there is actually no reason to die – so there is nothing to be gained from suicide. In The Rebel, Camus brings this existential philosophy into the field of politics, by expanding the position to argue that there is no reason to kill – this was largely an attempt to respond to the tyranny the world had seen under the Nazis and was seeing under USSR Marxism during the 1950s.
We might consider questioning why we should kill this planet, that is the soil from which we have all grown, as an act of suicide?! I have not yet found any reason to do so.
Camus’ philosophy holds a position that embraces that there are limits to reasoning, substantial limits. Environmentalists will often turn to scientific reasoning, as a means of justifying arguments, positions and actions. This continually seems to miss the target, as people seem find environmental discourse and non-humanised environments to be a different world to theirs. From an eco-absurdist perspective, this is probably due to the limits to scientific reasoning. If it is not scientific reasoning, environmentalists will often turn to religious/or spiritual type reasoning, as a means of supposedly overcoming certain alienating factors. This comes though with its own limits, which have similar impacts to that of scientific, as Gaia doesn’t always feel right here to the non-pagan.
We might consider, following from Camus’ arguments, what it might be to embrace an eco-absurdist praxis of metaphysical unreasonable rebellion – metaphysical rebellion as a refusal to conform to the human condition, in this context meaning the humanised condition of ecocide and “development”. When I state “unreasonable” here, I mean an eco-rebellion that is not attempting to be logical or rational, in the way we consider reasoning to be, but is born from wild animal desire.
One of Camus’ most famous statements is that – we must consider Sisyphus happy. Camus likens the human condition to that of Sisyphus, who spends all day pushing a rock to the top of a hill, only to see it roll back to the bottom at the end of the day. A great deal of environmental discussion is focused on ideas of self-sacrifice, on us individually giving up stuff – in ways that do not inspire joy and are often off putting. There is a great deal of angst and anxiety that goes with ecological thought, as there is an inhuman phenomenon that we find ourselves immersed within, when we venture into this space.
Sisyphus’s position is similar to that of individualist anarchists, such as Albert Libertad, who wrote of the joy of life. This anarchist philosophy and practice, is drawn from a refusal to renounce the world, as authority has built it, in rebellion; that is, choosing to embrace life, as embracing anarchy, as an act of rebellion. There is an obvious likeness here to environmentalist action and philosophy, as a refusal to renounce the world, in the face of what authorities have built and abused. This becomes more pronounced in the anti-civilisation philosophy of individualist anarchist Feral Faun’s thought on pan-eroticism – an experience of mad love and appreciation for the living wild world that is inhuman. There is also something similar to this in environmentalist author Daniel Quinn’s environmentalism-as-fighting-for-what-you-want-or-desire.
With my personal direct anarchist praxis, one of the aspects of Camus’ thought that resonates most with me, and what I think is perhaps most needed for environmentalist discourse, is that which he expounds in the statement – “integrity has no need for rules”. Here Camus, in many ways, is rejecting what would usually be considered moral limits. Now, he isn’t stating that “anything is permitted”, in the way that people often think amoral philosophy argues. He is actually stating that, if you have an experience of integrity, as a personal commitment to authentic desire, you will not obey the morality of laws and rules that support terrible structures of abuse and tyranny. Following this, from an eco-absurdist perspective, if we have a sense of integrity, environmentalists do not need rules or laws to dictate their choices.
At the core of Camus’s philosophy is rebellion and revolt.
There is one more Camus work I will reference here, due to its relevance regarding Covid-19, which is The Plague. Put simply, the book is about a French Algerian city dealing with a disease. But more than this, it is a work about individuals finding themselves within situations where they are powerless, in the sense of having no ability to control what is happening in the world, while being powerful, in the sense of having the ability to make decisions and being able to affect other living beings. There is a certain inhumanism to the novel that is reminiscent of Robinson Jeffers’ poetry and darker shades of environmentalist discourses, especially for pessimists like myself. What Camus communicates to his reader through this novel, which is of most relevance to eco-absurdism, is this –
“I have no idea what’s awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.“
This offers neither promises and hope, nor the abandoning of courage, self-piteous renunciation or defeatism, with an unapologetic embrace of life that accepts uncertainty.
Kierkegaard’s philosophy follows from this quite fluidly, with it’s main focus being freedom. Kierkegaard rejected the Hegelian dialectic of reconciling contradictions, in favour of embracing the either/or of choice. He noted that we are confronted by situations where we experience both an inability to act and a need to act. This is extremely relevant to the ecological situation, as we obviously have to act, but also are unable to do anything. We cannot, as Kierkegaard would put it, think our way out of these choices; we have to live our choices. Ecological resistance and rebellion is something we live, as we live our absurd lives in this unreasonable world.
The terrible quality to this situation and the freedom we cannot escape, but must live, is of course the source of eco-anxiety, which is prevalent today. Anxiety is central to Kierkegaard’s ideas on freedom. Anxiety includes an awareness of freedom, of our being free, having always been free, and with it the terror of responsibility that freedom includes. So, anarchists, be both joyous and horrified, anarchy is here and there is no being saved from it.
I am now going to move onto Shestov’s absurdist philosophy. Shestov is one of those philosophers who I both wish were more widely read and ideas talked about, and think that it is probably better, in many ways, that he isn’t better known – as better known brilliant philosophers are often subject to bad faith readings, which distort their positions.
At the core of Shestov’s philosophy of despair is an embrace of uncertainty. The ecological situation presents a space of uncertainty, which we are attempting to navigate through. Shestov states this on the matter –
“The obscure streets of life do not offer the conveniences of the central thoroughfares: no electric light, no gas, not even a kerosene lamp-bracket. There are no pavements: the traveller has to fumble his way in the dark. If he needs a light, he must wait for a thunderbolt, or else, primitive-wise, knock a spark out of a stone.”
If we take this line of thought with us, as we explore the uncertainty of the ecological situation, then we are reliant upon primitive methods of exploration and the primordial energies of what Deleuze called dark precursors– events that seemingly come out of nowhere, with untraceable origins, such as a thunderbolt, or even coronavirus. In his thoughts on Dark Ecology, Timothy Morton argues for a similar approach to ecological thinking – where we are exploring the uncanny terrain of the strange yet familiar – that embraces weirdness.
There is also a rebellious quality to Shestov’s absurdist philosophy, which is highly relevant to environmental thought, embodied in his statement that –
“The business of philosophy is to teach man to live in uncertainty – man who is supremely afraid of uncertainty, and who is forever hiding himself behind this or the other dogma. More briefly, the business of philosophy is not to reassure people but to upset them.”
Take a second to feel the texture of that thought for a moment. Explore the dark terrain of the idea on your tongue.
Environmental thinking is not comfortable, nice or reassuring. As environmentalists, regardless of any scientific, spiritual or other form of reasoning, we are bringing a world of massive uncertainty to peoples attention.
There holds in this position of Shestov an intensely anarchistic quality. If we consider philosophy to be an exploration of interpretations of truth with the role of philosopher’s being to upset people by encouraging people to explore uncertainty, with the uncertainty that environmental thought brings, much of what we do as environmentalists is working towards upsetting most people’s dispositions. This fits a discordian chaos magick practice called guerrilla ontology, where practitioners use a variety of rhetoric and psychic nomadic techniques to challenge dogmas, pre-conceived ideas and authoritarian ideologies – this is best known in Robert Anton Wilson’s “operation mind fuck”.
There seems here to me to be a space for environmentalists and anarchists to explore. If environmental thinking includes this quality of exploring the absurdist space of uncertainty, perhaps intensifying uncertainty is our best means of accelerating environmental thinking.
Something else Shestov states, to expand upon this –
“Really, everything we see is mysterious and incomprehensible. A tiny midge and a huge elephant, a caressing breeze and a blizzard, a young tree and a rocky mountain – what are all these? What are they, why are they? We incessantly ask ourselves, but we may not speak out.”
There is a weird, dark and mystical quality to environmental thought, as an aesthetic. Many pagan and magic practices embrace this aesthetic quality of weird incomprehensibility and unreasonable desire. The American mountaineer and explorer Muir stated “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness”– and with this thought, we might remember that the universe isn’t somewhere ordinary and comfortable, full of light and easy to navigate through, with stable unchanging bodies; it is weirdly dark, full of dark matter with no-Things, mysterious, incomprehensive and greater than our human limitations.
But how do we wander through this darkness? What is the point of continuing on through the dark, when there is little to no light anywhere? Is it possible to live through uncertainty?
I have attempted to consider these questions and articulate an absurd – perhaps some-what ridiculous – answer.
I wrote a short story called Mesodma, about one of the mammalian creatures who lived through the mass extinction event that killed off most of the dinosaurs. With the skies blackened from the meteor’s impact, the world would have been intensely dark, both visually and psychically. In my story, the mesodma who is “our friend” wanders through this darkness without anything that could be considered a “reason”, but out of a primal irrational desire for life. They embrace the darkness, become stronger for it, they mate, all with no point to do so. There is no comfortable conclusion to the story, as it just ends with “our friend” dying, after a life of struggle.
This might not seem sensible. This is not stating that there is some point to this experience we call life. It is just stating that we simply do it, regardless of the struggles and suffering that go with being alive.
And there you have it, I hope. If you have received this as I had intended, then you will have a feeling of absurdity. And here we are, ending where we began, as we began at the end. In many ways, we have gone no-where, achieved nothing, the effort was pointless and that is just it. We live out our freedom, as limited creatures, immersed in uncertainty, in the darkness of the world that offers no reason. If we desire life and have an experience of integrity, then we will rebel, because, as Camus stated, I rebel, therefore we exist. And I will finish this with one last Camus quote, this time from an essay by him titled Create Dangerously – “That’s just it and yet that’s not it; the world is nothing and the world is everything – this is the tireless cry of every true artist, the cry that keeps him on his feet with eyes ever open and that, every once in a while, awakens for all in this world asleep the fleeting and insistent image of a reality we recognise without ever having known it.”
40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics For Community Activists
Zine: https://spencersunshine.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/40ways.print_.pdf
40 Ways to Fight Fascists:
Street-Legal Tactics For Community Activists
By Spencer Sunshine in collaboration with PopMob
Originally published: August 2018
Revised edition: August 2020
Thanks to Eberhardt Press for printing and initial design.
CONTENTS
I. GET STARTED
1. Learn about Far Right movements
2. Find collaborators
3. Keep an eye on the local Far Right
II. TAKE ACTION
4. Release your research
5. Remove and replace Far Right propaganda
6. Push public groups to oppose fascism
7. Make it difficult for Far Right groups to meet
8. Refute their lies
9. Use the court system
10. Expose fascists at home and work
11. Deplatform fascism online
12. Prevent the Far Right from crashing progressive events
13. Drive wedges between individuals and groups
14. Find new collaborators
15. Organize anti-racist bar crawls
16. Help fascists become formers
III. BE PROACTIVE
17. Get your message out first
18. Build educational programs
19. Hold memorial events
20. Make a spectacle
21. Organize trainings and resource fairs
22. Form an emergency response team
23. Recruit early and often
24. Fundraise before you need it
IV. COUNTER- DEMONSTRATE
25. Win public opinion
26. Push local officials to do the right thing
27. Organize counter-demonstrations
28. Pressure local business and rental spaces
29. Document their rallies
30. Don’t be outgunned
31. Call out fascists and call in colleagues
BE SUPPORTIVE
32. Support people being threatened
33. Establish a safe house
34. Help the families of victims
35. Aid the injured
36. Support those targeted by the law
37. Support imprisoned activists
38. Warn people who are threatened
39. Publicize threats and attacks
40. Support communities pushing back against fascist recruitment
Bonus Round: Show your larger political vision.
Appendix: Resources
Introduction
In January 2017, Alt Right leader Richard Spencer was punched in the face during a demonstration, and the video of the incident went viral. It led to a heated public discussion over whether it was okay to “Punch A Nazi.” This debate has raged off and on since, prompted by events such as the murder of antiracist protestor Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia by a neo-Nazi in August 2017, and the punching of Far Right provocateur Andy Ngo at a June 2019 event in Portland, Oregon. Later that year, Republican Senator Ted Cruz co-sponsored a bill which sought to label punching Nazis as “domestic terrorism.” In response to the May and June 2020 George Floyd protests, President Trump claimed that those who confronted White Nationalists were, themselves, domestic terrorists.
In reality, the vast majority of the work involved in countering the Far Right is perfectly legal. However, these condemnations have worked to dissuade people from using the many legal, community-based actions available to fight White Nationalists. Regardless of which side of the Nazi punching debate you fall on, this guide will walk you through forty legal, practical grassroots actions that you can take to act against fascism and the Far Right.
These actions—the majority of which are available to people of all backgrounds, identities, and skill levels—will help to contain Far Right organizing, and prevent or mediate the damage it inflicts on our communities. They present a diversity of tactics intended to raise the cost of participation in Far Right politics.
A note of warning, however: Far Right organizers are very aggressive, and you will have to play hardball against them. Do not hesitate to use all the options at your disposal, while also safeguarding yourself and your community. Remember that they are not shy about using violence to achieve their goals.
Terms used in this guide
The first edition of this guide was published in August 2018 as 40 Ways to Fight Nazis: Forty Community-Based Actions You Can Take to Resist White Nationalist Organizing. It noted that the tactics presented were specifically designed to be used against White Nationalists—the most openly bigoted end of the Far Right.
But there are also many other Far Right groups with politics that are similar to, or aligned with, White Nationalists. These other groups stop short of embracing an explicitly racist worldview, instead using coded language to express their bigotry. Many of them allow people of color, Jews, and gay men to join—but usually espouse virulent Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, transphobic, and misogynistic views.
Typically, this is wrapped in ultra-nationalist patriotism and draped over a foundation of authoritarianism.
These other Far Right factions include Patriot movement groups and militias like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters; Alt Right groups like the Proud Boys and the American Guard; Patriot Prayer, which has a foot in both of these two camps; and the patriarchal Men’s Rights Activists. Members of these groups in turn associate with overtly White Nationalist, Christian theocratic, homophobic, transphobic, and antisemitic groups.
When this guide refers to the “Far Right,” it uses it as an umbrella term to refer to both White Nationalists and those other groups, including the Proud Boys and the American Guard. They may not have perfectly aligned ideologies, but they all embrace a worldview that regards human inequality as natural and desirable. And they all rely on demonizing “others”—with a resulting hierarchy that might be based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or political affiliation. Last, these other Far Right groups often embrace tactics associated with fascist movements, including intimidation and violence.
PopMob (Popular Mobilization) distributed the first edition of this guide in Portland, Oregon and found that many of its tactics were also applicable to these other Far Right groups. They have helped update this guide based on their experiences. However, readers should note that some tactics are more effective against certain groups than others. Part of getting to know your opponent includes selecting the tactics that will be most effective for each situation.
Finally, there is the question of danger. Many of these suggestions are completely safe, although others present some level of risk. The most dangerous position is to be an activist who is publicly outspoken about their opposition to the Far Right, and easily identifiable. If this is you, be sure to lock down your digital and real-life security, ensure that family members are not in vulnerable positions, and discuss safety plans with those close to you.
I. GET STARTED
1. Learn about Far Right movements
Get started by learning about the Far Right. Like all political movements, it is composed of individuals and groups who organize around specific issues, spread talking points, form organizations and political networks, fundraise, recruit new members, and try to influence the larger society.
From the outside, the Far Right may seem like a single movement without internal divisions, but its members often disagree with each other and have trouble finding common ground. While they are all part of one large movement, knowing how they differ is important in deciding how to organize against them.
Information on Far Right politics is readily available, and the end of this guide includes further readings. Be sure to look at the propaganda they produce, including articles, books, videos, and social media. This will help you get a feel for how they talk, look, and think.
Because they know their ideas are seen as hateful, the Far Right often uses symbols, phrases, and slang to express bigoted ideas without saying what they really mean— a tactic known as using “code-words” or “dog-whistles.” Learn their language.
2. Find collaborators
While there are national organizations that look at Far Right organizing, they can’t track everything that’s going on in each community. That’s where you come in!
This kind of activism is a lot of work, and it’s best done with like-minded people. Forming affinity groups, organizations, and coalitions will help you get more done. And since there is more than enough work to go around, you will need to coordinate and specialize.
3. Keep an eye on the local Far Right
Once you’ve identified your local Far Right groups, you’ll want to keep track of what they’re up to. Gathering evidence is crucial: document their organizations, projects, social media, websites, print publications, meetings, and events. Be sure to take good notes and screenshot everything, because you never know what will end up being useful later on. The Far Right tends to organize under the radar, so this will require a good bit of sleuthing.
Start with publicly available information, like online forums, websites, and social media accounts. Next, create fake social media accounts, known as “sock puppets,” for infiltration. Your sock puppet may need to interact with fascists to gain admission to closed groups. But don’t say or do anything that could be used to identify you or cause you to lose access.
Collect information like names, pictures, home addresses, jobs, social media accounts, criminal records, organizational affiliations, and political events they have attended. Monitor their presence at rallies and, when possible, identify those who show up. (See #29 for more on this.)
But, in your day-to-day life, keep a low profile and don’t make it known that you are doing this work—even if you eventually plan to go public. (This is true even if you are already publicly known as a progressive activist; don’t reveal your new line of work unless necessary.) Anonymity will enhance your ability to collect information and help protect your safety.
II. TAKE ACTION
4. Release your research
Although White Nationalists are significantly more mainstream than they were just a few years ago—Trump famously declared them “very fine people”—outing fascists still has a direct impact on their lives.
There are a few different ways you can do this. Sometimes it only takes a few strategically placed flyers or a brief phone campaign to cost a fascist their job. Some groups that track the Far Right maintain blogs where they release information, either as it’s collected or after events. Other groups release annual reports of Far Right activity in their area.
Alternately, you can keep your work quiet and release the information directly to local journalists. This keeps your own presence under the radar, and articles in mainstream publications usually have greater impact than information released directly by activists.
5. Remove and replace Far Right propaganda
Don’t let the Far Right have any ground! They often put up flyers and stickers on or near college campuses, residential neighborhoods, religious congregations, and music venues. Always be on the lookout for Far Right propaganda, and immediately remove it—ideally replacing it with your own messaging. This lets the Far Right know the community won’t look the other way, while communicating to targeted groups that allies have their back.
Even in areas where the Far Right has a lot of support, make sure you keep a presence there; remember that no community is politically monolithic. Whenever possible, aid efforts to push back against fascism that originate from inside those communities.
For example, before a fascist rally, flyer those who live and work nearby about the upcoming event. You can also use this as an opportunity to go door-to-door to talk with people. Be as kind, courteous, and genuine as possible.
6. Push public groups to oppose fascism
Identify the institutions, community groups, and professional organizations that the Far Right is targeting for recruitment. Push these groups to speak out against fascism generally, and local groups specifically.
Example: In 2018 the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO union amended their constitution to explicitly exclude fascists. It read: “No individual shall be eligible to serve as an Officer, member of The Executive Board or Committee, or other governing body, or any committee of, or as a delegate from, or as a representative, agent, or employee of this body who is a member of any Fascist or White Supremacist organization. Or who consistently pursues policies and/or activities directed toward the purposes of any Fascist or otherwise White Supremacist Ideology.”
7. Make it difficult for Far Right groups to meet
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government cannot interfere with protected speech. But private citizens have no legal obligation to let fascists use their property. And you also have a First Amendment right to call on conference spaces, concert and lecture halls, galleries, and restaurants and ask them to refuse rentals to bigoted groups.
Sometimes these venues will refuse to nix a booking out of greed. In this case, organize a call-in campaign to push for a cancellation. If necessary, threaten a boycott; be sure to follow through if the space allows the event to be held. After one local venue experiences the fall-out from a large boycott, in the future other venues will be easier to convince.
Offer support to businesses that choose to do the right thing. Public praise is a good place to start, but you can help them in other ways too. If Far Right groups make threats after the event is canceled, offer escorts to cars and at bus stops for the employees who close up. If someone smashes windows or vandalizes the space after the event is canceled, create a fundraiser to help cover cleanup costs. This helps build a community that is resistant to fascism.
Example: In New York City, two venues were closed permanently after they hosted fascist concerts. After this, it became much easier to convince venue owners that it was not in their financial interests to allow these kinds of shows.
8. Refute their lies
Fascists are skilled at introducing slogans and talking points into political debate. These include myths and false information about “white genocide,” black-on-black crime, and Jewish control of the media. Debating them publicly can make their lies look worthy of consideration. But circulating a list of common fascist talking points along with rebuttals gives community members the tools to win personal arguments. So when the people with bigoted views are in a space of doubt and self-questioning, the facts will be ready for them to discover.
9. Use the court system
Both lawyers and governments can hamper fascism. If this is in line with your political views, consider using legal avenues. Legal actions can have outsized impact on fascists, as they have very few sympathetic lawyers who are willing to do free legal work for them. And even if they win in the end, lawsuits can drag on for years and drain financial resources.
Examples: For a period of time, Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute lost its nonprofit status after it failed to file the required paperwork. The Southern Poverty Law Center has successfully sued and bankrupted several major White Nationalist groups, including winning a $14 million lawsuit against neo-Nazi propagandist Andrew Anglin in 2019. And as of June 2020 Sines v Kessler, a major lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, was still awaiting trial. But it has already caused the resignation of Jeff Schoep from the National Socialist Movement, which he had led for a quarter of a century; and the lawsuit has pushed others, including Richard Spencer, into relative silence and ongoing financial difficulty.
10. Expose fascists at home and work
After identifying key Far Right activists—especially organizers and members with violent histories—find out where they work and live. Call their boss and pressure them to fire the fascist in their midst. Notify their neighbors with flyers, letters, and door-knocking campaigns. Ask local businesses to refuse to serve them. You can also hold “home demonstrations”—a tactic that was used against Nazi war criminals living in the United States.
Example: One of Richard Spencer’s collaborators, Jeff Dietz, was outed in November 2019. Activists flyered the block he worked on in Brooklyn and spread the information online; within days his office closed and he was even booted out of his band.
11. Deplatform fascism online
Political movements need financial platforms—such as Stripe, Venmo, and Paypal—to take donations, as well as social media platforms to keep a fanbase. Depriving them of these significantly hinders their ability to spread their message and recruit. Just as with physical spaces, online platforms have no obligation to accept the Far Right as clients, and they can be pressured to do the right thing.
Example: After Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Venmo, Paypal—plus the entire country of Australia—banned Far Right poster child Milo Yiannopoulos, he admitted he could no longer make money off talks, and as of late 2019 was $4 million in debt. The revelation that he had directly coordinated with fascists on his famous Breitbart article popularizing the Alt Right ended up blowing back on billionaire Robert Mercer, who had funded Yiannopoulous. Amid the ensuing scandal, Mercer resigned as co-CEO of his hedge fund.
12. Prevent the Far Right from crashing progressive events
The Far Right will show up at progressive events to disrupt them or spy on attendees. In recent years, anti-oppression trainings, protest planning meetings, women’s marches, and May Day events have been disrupted by the Far Right.
A favorite tactic of theirs is to start fights while filming people, in order to get them arrested, or identify and harass them later. Take this opportunity from them by having a safety team at actions which they might crash. Make sure your team is familiar with known local fascists and are ready to de-escalate tense situations. And when Far Right instigators are filming progressive activists, whimsical barriers, such as hula hoops in bubble-wrap, can ruin their footage.
Make sure that once a Far Right group starts to disrupt local events, the wider community knows. This behavior is a warning sign for future violence.
13. Drive wedges between individuals and groups
When you see the Far Right trying to work with mainstream conservative groups, reach out to them with your concerns. If you offer them concrete evidence, most normal conservatives will disavow those on the Far Right who express clearly bigoted views or engage in violence. And if they don’t, use social media and the press to draw attention to their collaboration.
14. Find new collaborators
If the Far Right is organizing in your community, take this opportunity to make connections outside your usual circles. Because fascists target and threaten so many different kinds of people, you’ll find many potential collaborators. These might include groups representing historically oppressed communities (including communities of color and LGBTQ+ folks), immigrant and refugee rights organizations, religious groups (especially Muslims and Jews), feminists and reproductive rights advocates, labor unions, and organizations that memorialize historical crimes (such as slavery, lynchings, the Holocaust, and Native American genocide).
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Reach out to those who you think would be good collaborators. Be upfront about who you are, what you need, and what you hope to achieve—as well as what you have to offer in return. Spend time getting to understand their concerns and ask what kind of support they need. Trust is built slowly through shared work, but someone has to reach out first.
Example: The Proud Boys, in cahoots with various militia and Patriot movement groups, claimed they would mobilize a thousand Far Right activists from around the country to descend on Portland, Oregon for a “Defeat Antifa Terrorism” rally in August 2019. Despite threats of violence, plus a fearmongering press conference by city officials, nine different organizations came together to hold a huge counter-protest. Religious leaders, the NAACP, Rose City Antifa, Democratic Socialists of America, and the kiki ballroom House of Flora kicked off the event. In the end, three hundred Proud Boys marched for thirty minutes under heavy police escort, returned to their cars, and left town. They said they would be back every month— but haven’t returned since.
15. Organize anti-racist bar crawls
If fascists are drinking in public, host an anti-racist bar crawl which goes to their hangouts. Not only do social events help build relationships, a bar crawl puts fascists on notice that their spots are known—and makes it clear to the bars that they have a problem. Similarly, sometimes people will declare an area a “Nazi Free Zone” and patrol it to make sure it stays that way.
16. Help fascists become formers
The people who make up the Far Right are part of our society. While it is possible to socially isolate them, the only way to actually make them go away completely is to convince them out of their political movement. “Exit programs” help facilitate this.
Organizations like Life After Hate and the Free Radicals Project are run by former members of Far Right groups —known simply as “formers”—to help current members leave the movement. Promote exit programs, and whenever possible encourage and help fascists transition into being formers.
III. BE PROACTIVE
Progressives often lurch from crisis to crisis, with limited planning or infrastructure. When countering fascism it’s important to be proactive. This is both complex work and potentially dangerous—but good planning can help alleviate both challenges.
17. Get your message out first
Make your community’s opposition to racist and bigoted ideas visible through flyers, stickers, posters, and window and yard signs. Far Right organizers are less likely to recruit in a community that has already made their opinion on the matter clear.
Examples: Online, this can take the form of profile frames, catchy hashtags, and gifs. Use hashtags like #EverydayAntifascist and #AUnitedFront, spread memes with your message, and incorporate symbols like the Iron Front into images with the logos of sports teams you support.
18. Build educational programs
Organize public talks, reading groups, and classes. You can discuss what fascism is, what the Far Right looks like at present, and how to resist it. Many experts are willing to give talks, but consider video calls if it’s too difficult to bring speakers to your town in person.
19. Hold memorial events
Almost all communities have histories of fascist, racist, and other bigoted violence. Hold events memorializing the victims and talking about how past events contribute to the present. Examples can include holding processions to the graves of those killed by White Nationalists and memorials at murder sites. You can also organize events to remember racist violence such as lynchings, church bombings, and racial expulsions.
20. Make a spectacle
Artists can help make political action irresistible! Ask for their help in donating art for fundraisers and making beautiful fliers. Recruit musicians and dancers to come to protests. Counter fascist messaging by being more vibrant, more entertaining, and more approachable than them. Make your actions into the party everyone wants to be at—and if you don’t know how to do that, then find a party promoter who can!
21. Organize trainings and resource fairs
You can draw attention to Far Right organizing and offer your community useful resources by organizing trainings and skill shares. This might include first aid, self-defense, weapon skills, personal and digital security, and bystander interventions. These trainings can also function as outreach opportunities and places to find people who are serious about doing concrete work.
22. Form an emergency response team
Violence is central to fascism, so if fascists are organizing in your area—there will be emergencies. You will also get last-minute calls when they hold unannounced events, which became the norm after Charlottesville. Prepare emergency response teams with members who can jump into action at a moment’s notice.
Ideally, they should have skills such as medic training and self-defense. (But remember that emergency response doesn’t necessarily mean direct confrontation.) In addition to in-person security, teams can also organize rides for marginalized people when fascists are having an event in your area.
22. Recruit early and often
There is no one way to oppose fascism. The broader and more skilled the groups and coalitions you can build, the better. Make sure you recruit folks with certain skills ahead of time, rather than scrambling to find them when it’s urgent. There’s always a need for graphic designers, therapists, lawyers, journalists, translators, techies, and licensed security guards.
Many people aren’t able to be on the frontlines but they might give a doxed activist a dramatic haircut or professionally paint a car. (Doxing is making a person’s information public, in an attempt to call attention to them for political or other reasons. This might include their picture, home and work info, social media accounts, organizational affiliations, and other details.) These examples of activism can feel like small contributions, but they can provide critical layers of safety when fascists are looking for them.
24. Fundraise before you need it
All political movements need money. This could be for transportation, art supplies, advertising, lawyers, or bail. And since it’s always better to have the money already in hand when the need arises, be sure to fundraise before it’s required.
Example: Fascist rallies can be turned into pledge drives! Donors can pledge per attendee or per mile walked, thereby turning a bad day into a good one. In coalition with nine other groups, PopMop was able to raise more than $36,000 for Causa Oregon, an immigrants rights organization, during an August 2019 Proud Boys march in Portland, Oregon.
IV. COUNTER-DEMONSTRATE
Direct action gets the goods. While our tactics should evolve and adapt to the situation at hand, one of the most effective avenues for change has always been gathering in the streets.
Large, public events that are explicit about being White Nationalist or fascist are extremely rare. For example in 2017, their most successful year in decades, only three White Nationalist events drew over one hundred attendees. (The largest of these, the Charlottesville rally, even claimed that it was not White Nationalist!)
Counter-demonstrating, within sight and sound distance of their event, can potentially deny them a high-profile public platform, attract support for your cause, and even overshadow the Far Right.
25. Win public opinion
Social media and press outlets have the power to sway large numbers of people, but you have to know how to use them. Use language appropriate to the audience you want to reach. Memes, comics, videos, and short articles in everyday language can give people accessible and fun ways of engaging with the fight against the Far Right.
26. Push local officials to do the right thing
In areas where permits are required, pressure local governments to refuse or revoke permits for Far Right rallies.
Example: After Charlottesville, authorities denied a permit to the Far Right “No to Marxism in America” rally in Berkeley. It was only after pressure was applied did authorities even bother to learn that the application was incomplete and should never have been granted.
27. Organize counter-demonstrations
If fascists are holding a public demonstration, you should be in the streets too. But when organizing a counter-demonstration, remember that the Far Right will likely try to dox the organizers, attendees, and supporters, so take precautions. For example, the guest list for Facebook event pages should be set so attendees aren’t visible.
Large demonstrations are a lot of work, and they require many things that don’t involve going into the street. This can include finding a planning space, getting permits and equipment, drumming up excitement, fundraising (which can be done both before and after), arranging transportation and housing for out-of-towners, setting up legal and communications support, and recruiting street medics.
28. Pressure local business and rental spaces
If there is going to be a Far Right event, encourage local businesses to refuse service to those who are attending. Circulate pictures of known members, as well as symbols they might be sporting. Warn local hotels, restaurants, and bars. Be sure to offer support to businesses that choose to refuse their money! (See #7 for more on this.)
29. Document their rallies
High-quality video and photography of those who attend Far Right events allows people to research individuals later and to document any criminal acts they engage in. But be warned that getting clear images of faces is actually a lot harder than it seems. Years after Charlottesville, those who attended are still being identified, sometimes from grainy or obscured images.
30. Don’t be outgunned
If it is legal in your area and consistent with your beliefs, consider coming to the demonstration with firearms. If the Far Right will be armed, there is an important psychological dimension to your side also bringing weapons.
This should be done in a group. Make sure that all members scrupulously observe the law. It’s a skill to carry firearms in public, so train beforehand. Coming armed can be a contentious tactic, so be sure to communicate your intentions to other counter-demonstration organizers ahead of time so you can work out potential problems.
31. Call out fascists and call in colleagues
In the big picture, everyone who opposes fascism is on the same side. While it’s normal and healthy to debate and disagree, publicly dragging each other helps the Far Right.
Remember that #14—“Drive wedges between individuals and groups”—goes both ways. The Far Right will often publish dirt on each other during personal or tactical disagreements. This behavior shows us their weak spots and makes Far Right unity harder for them to achieve. So don’t let them take advantage of this dynamic when it seeks to play itself out on our side.
Instead of airing conflicts in public, discuss your issues directly. Get to know other activists, form coalitions, and build relationships based on mutual respect and a shared desire for a world free of fascism. But if you can’t, at least try to live and let live. Disagreements are inevitable—drama is not.
V. BE SUPPORTIVE
32. Support people being threatened
Fascists love to threaten people. Real world support for those targeted might include escorting them or their family in public, running errands for them, and guarding their homes in case of an attack. Digitally, this may include helping someone wipe their online presence, adding security tools to accounts, or investigating who is threatening them.
33. Establish a safe house
A safe house can be as simple as someone who is not known to the Far Right and is able to offer a place where folks can stay in an emergency. This person needs to make sure they are available to be contacted at all times.
34. Help the families of victims
Between 2008 to 2019, the U.S. Far Right committed over 360 murders, meaning that thousands of people lost family members. Reach out and offer support to the loved ones of those killed. This may include raising money for funeral expenses, dealing with threats, and helping get their lives back together.
35. Aid the injured
In addition to those killed, thousands have been injured by the Far Right. Reach out to victims and ask how you can be supportive. They may need help with money, legal issues, errands, or just need a shoulder to cry on. If the victim wishes to go to the authorities, and this is consistent with your beliefs, offer to accompany them through the process. If they want to report a hate crime, but don’t want to go through law enforcement, consider organizations like PUAH (Portland United Against Hate) that track hate crimes without reporting to authorities.
36. Support those targeted by the law
It is not uncommon for law enforcement to see the Far Right more favorably than their opponents. Therefore, those working against fascism often become entangled in the legal system. Facing charges, receiving a grand jury subpoena, and going to trial are all stressful—and often expensive—events. As a part of building a strong community, make sure you provide legal support for fellow activists.
37. Support imprisoned activists
Activists who refuse to testify before grand juries or are convicted of criminal offenses may end up in jail or prison, and this is expensive. Prisoners can easily spend thousands of dollars a year on commissary expenses, phone calls, and reading materials—and this does not include legal expenses. Families might require day-to- day help or financial assistance to make prison visits. Make sure prisoners have contact with the outside world through letters, email, phone calls, and visits. In addition to fundraisers, hold letter-writing events for prisoners.
38. Warn people who are threatened
Fascists are exceptionally violent, both in word and action. As you monitor them, you will inevitably discover threats against local groups and individuals. Be sure to warn those targeted about the threats, while, if necessary, making sure your sources remain confidential.
39. Publicize threats and attacks
Mere threats of violence can silence progressive political activists by driving them off social media and limiting their public appearances. And members of historically oppressed groups—including people of color, Jews, Muslims, women, and LGBTQ+ folks—will always get unwanted attention from the Far Right. Make sure you help provide support, as doing so expands your potential coalition and weakens the efforts of the Far Right.
Publicizing threats helps neutralize them. This exposes the violence of the Far Right, creates sympathy for those targeted, and helps drive wedges between the Far Right and those who are sympathetic to their worldview—but recoil at violence.
40. Support communities pushing back against fascist recruitment
The Far Right often tries to enter into existing social groups and either influence them, recruit from inside them, or take them over—a tactic called “entryism.” In recent years, fascists have recruited from soccer supporters clubs; online gamers; music subcultures such as skinheads, neofolk, black metal, and punk; and religious communities, especially Heathens, Satanists, and Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians. In all of these cases, anti-racist members of the targeted communities have pushed back against fascist recruitment. Since this kind of opposition is best done by existing members of these communities, ask them how you can best organize support for their struggle.
Fascists will also target progressive groups. In the recent past, they have engaged in entryism around Palestine solidarity work, opposition to Middle East wars, criticism of Wall Street and international trade agreements, radical environmentalism, and animal rights. Expose them and push them out.
Example: In the Pacific Northwest, eco-fascists have used radical environmentalism to recruit. One group, Operation Werewolf, disguises itself as a workout club for men with radical environmentalist views—but is White Nationalist and anti-feminist. Don’t tolerate the intolerant.
BONUS ROUND!
Show your larger political vision
Countering fascism is a necessary, but not sufficient, part of the larger fight against inequality. It is comparable to leftist lawyers who defend progressive activists. While this is a necessary action with real concrete effects, it will not destroy the pillars of the systemic oppressions that our social and political system is based on.
Your work is part of a larger struggle—not just against white supremacy—but against all forms of oppression. In addition to structural racism in policing, work, and housing, this includes: attacks on immigrants and refugees; Islamophobia and antisemitism; homophobia and transphobia; and misogyny. Collaborate with activists fighting these forms of oppression whenever possible. Make it clear that you are not just “against fascism,” but that your actions are a part of a larger struggle against hierarchy and oppression—and in support of equality and freedom—for everyone in our society.
RESOURCE LIST
Organizations and Websites Which Track and Analyze the Far Right
Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, www.radicalrightanalysis.com
Hope Not Hate, https://hopenothate.com
Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, www.irehr.org
Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, www.malesupremacism.org
It’s Going Down, https://itsgoingdown.org
Idavox (One People’s Project), http://idavox.com
Montana Human Rights Network, https://mhrn.org
Political Research Associates, www.politicalresearch.org
Rose City Antifa, www.rosecityantifa.org
Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org
Western States Center, www.westernstatescenter.org
Books about U.S. Fascism and the Far Right
Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, Right Wing Populism in America (2000)
Kathleen Blee, Understanding Racist Activism (2017)
Shane Burley, Fascism Today (2017)
Matthew Lyons, Ctrl-Alt-Delete (2017) and Insurgent Supremacists (2018)
David Neiwert, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump (2017)
Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (2009)
Alexandra Minna Stern, Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination (2019)
Patrik Hermansson, David Lawrence, Joe Mulhall, and Simon Murdoch, The International Alt-Right: Fascism for the 21st Century? (2020)
Other resources
How to organize against militias and Patriot movement groups in rural areas
Rural Organizing Project, “Organizing for an Oregon Where Everyone Counts,”
Section III of the report Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement,
https://rop.org/up-in-arms
Identifying and dealing with fascists
Kit O’Connell, “Beyond the Concrete Milkshake: Tactics for Defeating Media Trolls & Grifters,”
https://kitoconnell.com/2020/06/22/beyond-the-concrete- milkshake-media-trolls-zine
Mike Isaacson, “You Can’t Punch Every Nazi,”
www.tinyurl.com/ButYouCanTry
Deplatforming project
Sleeping Giants
Twitter: @slpng_giants
Facebook: slpnggiants
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
SPENCER SUNSHINE
Spencer Sunshine, PhD, has researched and counter- organized against the U.S. Far Right for the over fifteen years. He is the lead author of the 2016 report, Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement, published by the Rural Organizing Project. Currently, Sunshine is working on several manuscripts about U.S. fascist movements.
See www.spencersunshine.com for links to his writings, and follow him on Twitter @transform6789. 40 Ways to Fight Fascists was produced with the generous support of Spencer’s patrons at patreon.com/spencersunshine.
POPMOB (POPULAR MOBILIZATION)
Short for Popular Mobilization, PopMob is a group of concerned Portlanders united around a single, common goal: Inspire people to show up and resist the alt-right with whimsy and creativity. We’re activists and organizers from many groups, including labor rights, arts, education, healthcare, and more. We believe that the people of Oregon don’t want what the alt-right is selling and we know we can push back against hate as one strong community. You can follow us @popmobpdx on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
40 Ways to Fight Fascists:
Street-Legal Tactics For Community Activists
By Spencer Sunshine in collaboration with PopMob
Originally published: August 2018
Revised edition: August 2020
Thanks to Eberhardt Press for printing and initial design.
CONTENTS
I. GET STARTED
1. Learn about Far Right movements
2. Find collaborators
3. Keep an eye on the local Far Right
II. TAKE ACTION
4. Release your research
5. Remove and replace Far Right propaganda
6. Push public groups to oppose fascism
7. Make it difficult for Far Right groups to meet
8. Refute their lies
9. Use the court system
10. Expose fascists at home and work
11. Deplatform fascism online
12. Prevent the Far Right from crashing progressive events
13. Drive wedges between individuals and groups
14. Find new collaborators
15. Organize anti-racist bar crawls
16. Help fascists become formers
III. BE PROACTIVE
17. Get your message out first
18. Build educational programs
19. Hold memorial events
20. Make a spectacle
21. Organize trainings and resource fairs
22. Form an emergency response team
23. Recruit early and often
24. Fundraise before you need it
IV. COUNTER- DEMONSTRATE
25. Win public opinion
26. Push local officials to do the right thing
27. Organize counter-demonstrations
28. Pressure local business and rental spaces
29. Document their rallies
30. Don’t be outgunned
31. Call out fascists and call in colleagues
BE SUPPORTIVE
32. Support people being threatened
33. Establish a safe house
34. Help the families of victims
35. Aid the injured
36. Support those targeted by the law
37. Support imprisoned activists
38. Warn people who are threatened
39. Publicize threats and attacks
40. Support communities pushing back against fascist recruitment
Bonus Round: Show your larger political vision.
Appendix: Resources
Introduction
In January 2017, Alt Right leader Richard Spencer was punched in the face during a demonstration, and the video of the incident went viral. It led to a heated public discussion over whether it was okay to “Punch A Nazi.” This debate has raged off and on since, prompted by events such as the murder of antiracist protestor Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia by a neo-Nazi in August 2017, and the punching of Far Right provocateur Andy Ngo at a June 2019 event in Portland, Oregon. Later that year, Republican Senator Ted Cruz co-sponsored a bill which sought to label punching Nazis as “domestic terrorism.” In response to the May and June 2020 George Floyd protests, President Trump claimed that those who confronted White Nationalists were, themselves, domestic terrorists.
In reality, the vast majority of the work involved in countering the Far Right is perfectly legal. However, these condemnations have worked to dissuade people from using the many legal, community-based actions available to fight White Nationalists. Regardless of which side of the Nazi punching debate you fall on, this guide will walk you through forty legal, practical grassroots actions that you can take to act against fascism and the Far Right.
These actions—the majority of which are available to people of all backgrounds, identities, and skill levels—will help to contain Far Right organizing, and prevent or mediate the damage it inflicts on our communities. They present a diversity of tactics intended to raise the cost of participation in Far Right politics.
A note of warning, however: Far Right organizers are very aggressive, and you will have to play hardball against them. Do not hesitate to use all the options at your disposal, while also safeguarding yourself and your community. Remember that they are not shy about using violence to achieve their goals.
Terms used in this guide
The first edition of this guide was published in August 2018 as 40 Ways to Fight Nazis: Forty Community-Based Actions You Can Take to Resist White Nationalist Organizing. It noted that the tactics presented were specifically designed to be used against White Nationalists—the most openly bigoted end of the Far Right.
But there are also many other Far Right groups with politics that are similar to, or aligned with, White Nationalists. These other groups stop short of embracing an explicitly racist worldview, instead using coded language to express their bigotry. Many of them allow people of color, Jews, and gay men to join—but usually espouse virulent Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, transphobic, and misogynistic views.
Typically, this is wrapped in ultra-nationalist patriotism and draped over a foundation of authoritarianism.
These other Far Right factions include Patriot movement groups and militias like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters; Alt Right groups like the Proud Boys and the American Guard; Patriot Prayer, which has a foot in both of these two camps; and the patriarchal Men’s Rights Activists. Members of these groups in turn associate with overtly White Nationalist, Christian theocratic, homophobic, transphobic, and antisemitic groups.
When this guide refers to the “Far Right,” it uses it as an umbrella term to refer to both White Nationalists and those other groups, including the Proud Boys and the American Guard. They may not have perfectly aligned ideologies, but they all embrace a worldview that regards human inequality as natural and desirable. And they all rely on demonizing “others”—with a resulting hierarchy that might be based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or political affiliation. Last, these other Far Right groups often embrace tactics associated with fascist movements, including intimidation and violence.
PopMob (Popular Mobilization) distributed the first edition of this guide in Portland, Oregon and found that many of its tactics were also applicable to these other Far Right groups. They have helped update this guide based on their experiences. However, readers should note that some tactics are more effective against certain groups than others. Part of getting to know your opponent includes selecting the tactics that will be most effective for each situation.
Finally, there is the question of danger. Many of these suggestions are completely safe, although others present some level of risk. The most dangerous position is to be an activist who is publicly outspoken about their opposition to the Far Right, and easily identifiable. If this is you, be sure to lock down your digital and real-life security, ensure that family members are not in vulnerable positions, and discuss safety plans with those close to you.
I. GET STARTED
1. Learn about Far Right movements
Get started by learning about the Far Right. Like all political movements, it is composed of individuals and groups who organize around specific issues, spread talking points, form organizations and political networks, fundraise, recruit new members, and try to influence the larger society.
From the outside, the Far Right may seem like a single movement without internal divisions, but its members often disagree with each other and have trouble finding common ground. While they are all part of one large movement, knowing how they differ is important in deciding how to organize against them.
Information on Far Right politics is readily available, and the end of this guide includes further readings. Be sure to look at the propaganda they produce, including articles, books, videos, and social media. This will help you get a feel for how they talk, look, and think.
Because they know their ideas are seen as hateful, the Far Right often uses symbols, phrases, and slang to express bigoted ideas without saying what they really mean— a tactic known as using “code-words” or “dog-whistles.” Learn their language.
2. Find collaborators
While there are national organizations that look at Far Right organizing, they can’t track everything that’s going on in each community. That’s where you come in!
This kind of activism is a lot of work, and it’s best done with like-minded people. Forming affinity groups, organizations, and coalitions will help you get more done. And since there is more than enough work to go around, you will need to coordinate and specialize.
3. Keep an eye on the local Far Right
Once you’ve identified your local Far Right groups, you’ll want to keep track of what they’re up to. Gathering evidence is crucial: document their organizations, projects, social media, websites, print publications, meetings, and events. Be sure to take good notes and screenshot everything, because you never know what will end up being useful later on. The Far Right tends to organize under the radar, so this will require a good bit of sleuthing.
Start with publicly available information, like online forums, websites, and social media accounts. Next, create fake social media accounts, known as “sock puppets,” for infiltration. Your sock puppet may need to interact with fascists to gain admission to closed groups. But don’t say or do anything that could be used to identify you or cause you to lose access.
Collect information like names, pictures, home addresses, jobs, social media accounts, criminal records, organizational affiliations, and political events they have attended. Monitor their presence at rallies and, when possible, identify those who show up. (See #29 for more on this.)
But, in your day-to-day life, keep a low profile and don’t make it known that you are doing this work—even if you eventually plan to go public. (This is true even if you are already publicly known as a progressive activist; don’t reveal your new line of work unless necessary.) Anonymity will enhance your ability to collect information and help protect your safety.
II. TAKE ACTION
4. Release your research
Although White Nationalists are significantly more mainstream than they were just a few years ago—Trump famously declared them “very fine people”—outing fascists still has a direct impact on their lives.
There are a few different ways you can do this. Sometimes it only takes a few strategically placed flyers or a brief phone campaign to cost a fascist their job. Some groups that track the Far Right maintain blogs where they release information, either as it’s collected or after events. Other groups release annual reports of Far Right activity in their area.
Alternately, you can keep your work quiet and release the information directly to local journalists. This keeps your own presence under the radar, and articles in mainstream publications usually have greater impact than information released directly by activists.
5. Remove and replace Far Right propaganda
Don’t let the Far Right have any ground! They often put up flyers and stickers on or near college campuses, residential neighborhoods, religious congregations, and music venues. Always be on the lookout for Far Right propaganda, and immediately remove it—ideally replacing it with your own messaging. This lets the Far Right know the community won’t look the other way, while communicating to targeted groups that allies have their back.
Even in areas where the Far Right has a lot of support, make sure you keep a presence there; remember that no community is politically monolithic. Whenever possible, aid efforts to push back against fascism that originate from inside those communities.
For example, before a fascist rally, flyer those who live and work nearby about the upcoming event. You can also use this as an opportunity to go door-to-door to talk with people. Be as kind, courteous, and genuine as possible.
6. Push public groups to oppose fascism
Identify the institutions, community groups, and professional organizations that the Far Right is targeting for recruitment. Push these groups to speak out against fascism generally, and local groups specifically.
Example: In 2018 the Sioux Falls AFL-CIO union amended their constitution to explicitly exclude fascists. It read: “No individual shall be eligible to serve as an Officer, member of The Executive Board or Committee, or other governing body, or any committee of, or as a delegate from, or as a representative, agent, or employee of this body who is a member of any Fascist or White Supremacist organization. Or who consistently pursues policies and/or activities directed toward the purposes of any Fascist or otherwise White Supremacist Ideology.”
7. Make it difficult for Far Right groups to meet
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government cannot interfere with protected speech. But private citizens have no legal obligation to let fascists use their property. And you also have a First Amendment right to call on conference spaces, concert and lecture halls, galleries, and restaurants and ask them to refuse rentals to bigoted groups.
Sometimes these venues will refuse to nix a booking out of greed. In this case, organize a call-in campaign to push for a cancellation. If necessary, threaten a boycott; be sure to follow through if the space allows the event to be held. After one local venue experiences the fall-out from a large boycott, in the future other venues will be easier to convince.
Offer support to businesses that choose to do the right thing. Public praise is a good place to start, but you can help them in other ways too. If Far Right groups make threats after the event is canceled, offer escorts to cars and at bus stops for the employees who close up. If someone smashes windows or vandalizes the space after the event is canceled, create a fundraiser to help cover cleanup costs. This helps build a community that is resistant to fascism.
Example: In New York City, two venues were closed permanently after they hosted fascist concerts. After this, it became much easier to convince venue owners that it was not in their financial interests to allow these kinds of shows.
8. Refute their lies
Fascists are skilled at introducing slogans and talking points into political debate. These include myths and false information about “white genocide,” black-on-black crime, and Jewish control of the media. Debating them publicly can make their lies look worthy of consideration. But circulating a list of common fascist talking points along with rebuttals gives community members the tools to win personal arguments. So when the people with bigoted views are in a space of doubt and self-questioning, the facts will be ready for them to discover.
9. Use the court system
Both lawyers and governments can hamper fascism. If this is in line with your political views, consider using legal avenues. Legal actions can have outsized impact on fascists, as they have very few sympathetic lawyers who are willing to do free legal work for them. And even if they win in the end, lawsuits can drag on for years and drain financial resources.
Examples: For a period of time, Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute lost its nonprofit status after it failed to file the required paperwork. The Southern Poverty Law Center has successfully sued and bankrupted several major White Nationalist groups, including winning a $14 million lawsuit against neo-Nazi propagandist Andrew Anglin in 2019. And as of June 2020 Sines v Kessler, a major lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, was still awaiting trial. But it has already caused the resignation of Jeff Schoep from the National Socialist Movement, which he had led for a quarter of a century; and the lawsuit has pushed others, including Richard Spencer, into relative silence and ongoing financial difficulty.
10. Expose fascists at home and work
After identifying key Far Right activists—especially organizers and members with violent histories—find out where they work and live. Call their boss and pressure them to fire the fascist in their midst. Notify their neighbors with flyers, letters, and door-knocking campaigns. Ask local businesses to refuse to serve them. You can also hold “home demonstrations”—a tactic that was used against Nazi war criminals living in the United States.
Example: One of Richard Spencer’s collaborators, Jeff Dietz, was outed in November 2019. Activists flyered the block he worked on in Brooklyn and spread the information online; within days his office closed and he was even booted out of his band.
11. Deplatform fascism online
Political movements need financial platforms—such as Stripe, Venmo, and Paypal—to take donations, as well as social media platforms to keep a fanbase. Depriving them of these significantly hinders their ability to spread their message and recruit. Just as with physical spaces, online platforms have no obligation to accept the Far Right as clients, and they can be pressured to do the right thing.
Example: After Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Venmo, Paypal—plus the entire country of Australia—banned Far Right poster child Milo Yiannopoulos, he admitted he could no longer make money off talks, and as of late 2019 was $4 million in debt. The revelation that he had directly coordinated with fascists on his famous Breitbart article popularizing the Alt Right ended up blowing back on billionaire Robert Mercer, who had funded Yiannopoulous. Amid the ensuing scandal, Mercer resigned as co-CEO of his hedge fund.
12. Prevent the Far Right from crashing progressive events
The Far Right will show up at progressive events to disrupt them or spy on attendees. In recent years, anti-oppression trainings, protest planning meetings, women’s marches, and May Day events have been disrupted by the Far Right.
A favorite tactic of theirs is to start fights while filming people, in order to get them arrested, or identify and harass them later. Take this opportunity from them by having a safety team at actions which they might crash. Make sure your team is familiar with known local fascists and are ready to de-escalate tense situations. And when Far Right instigators are filming progressive activists, whimsical barriers, such as hula hoops in bubble-wrap, can ruin their footage.
Make sure that once a Far Right group starts to disrupt local events, the wider community knows. This behavior is a warning sign for future violence.
13. Drive wedges between individuals and groups
When you see the Far Right trying to work with mainstream conservative groups, reach out to them with your concerns. If you offer them concrete evidence, most normal conservatives will disavow those on the Far Right who express clearly bigoted views or engage in violence. And if they don’t, use social media and the press to draw attention to their collaboration.
14. Find new collaborators
If the Far Right is organizing in your community, take this opportunity to make connections outside your usual circles. Because fascists target and threaten so many different kinds of people, you’ll find many potential collaborators. These might include groups representing historically oppressed communities (including communities of color and LGBTQ+ folks), immigrant and refugee rights organizations, religious groups (especially Muslims and Jews), feminists and reproductive rights advocates, labor unions, and organizations that memorialize historical crimes (such as slavery, lynchings, the Holocaust, and Native American genocide).
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Reach out to those who you think would be good collaborators. Be upfront about who you are, what you need, and what you hope to achieve—as well as what you have to offer in return. Spend time getting to understand their concerns and ask what kind of support they need. Trust is built slowly through shared work, but someone has to reach out first.
Example: The Proud Boys, in cahoots with various militia and Patriot movement groups, claimed they would mobilize a thousand Far Right activists from around the country to descend on Portland, Oregon for a “Defeat Antifa Terrorism” rally in August 2019. Despite threats of violence, plus a fearmongering press conference by city officials, nine different organizations came together to hold a huge counter-protest. Religious leaders, the NAACP, Rose City Antifa, Democratic Socialists of America, and the kiki ballroom House of Flora kicked off the event. In the end, three hundred Proud Boys marched for thirty minutes under heavy police escort, returned to their cars, and left town. They said they would be back every month— but haven’t returned since.
15. Organize anti-racist bar crawls
If fascists are drinking in public, host an anti-racist bar crawl which goes to their hangouts. Not only do social events help build relationships, a bar crawl puts fascists on notice that their spots are known—and makes it clear to the bars that they have a problem. Similarly, sometimes people will declare an area a “Nazi Free Zone” and patrol it to make sure it stays that way.
16. Help fascists become formers
The people who make up the Far Right are part of our society. While it is possible to socially isolate them, the only way to actually make them go away completely is to convince them out of their political movement. “Exit programs” help facilitate this.
Organizations like Life After Hate and the Free Radicals Project are run by former members of Far Right groups —known simply as “formers”—to help current members leave the movement. Promote exit programs, and whenever possible encourage and help fascists transition into being formers.
III. BE PROACTIVE
Progressives often lurch from crisis to crisis, with limited planning or infrastructure. When countering fascism it’s important to be proactive. This is both complex work and potentially dangerous—but good planning can help alleviate both challenges.
17. Get your message out first
Make your community’s opposition to racist and bigoted ideas visible through flyers, stickers, posters, and window and yard signs. Far Right organizers are less likely to recruit in a community that has already made their opinion on the matter clear.
Examples: Online, this can take the form of profile frames, catchy hashtags, and gifs. Use hashtags like #EverydayAntifascist and #AUnitedFront, spread memes with your message, and incorporate symbols like the Iron Front into images with the logos of sports teams you support.
18. Build educational programs
Organize public talks, reading groups, and classes. You can discuss what fascism is, what the Far Right looks like at present, and how to resist it. Many experts are willing to give talks, but consider video calls if it’s too difficult to bring speakers to your town in person.
19. Hold memorial events
Almost all communities have histories of fascist, racist, and other bigoted violence. Hold events memorializing the victims and talking about how past events contribute to the present. Examples can include holding processions to the graves of those killed by White Nationalists and memorials at murder sites. You can also organize events to remember racist violence such as lynchings, church bombings, and racial expulsions.
20. Make a spectacle
Artists can help make political action irresistible! Ask for their help in donating art for fundraisers and making beautiful fliers. Recruit musicians and dancers to come to protests. Counter fascist messaging by being more vibrant, more entertaining, and more approachable than them. Make your actions into the party everyone wants to be at—and if you don’t know how to do that, then find a party promoter who can!
21. Organize trainings and resource fairs
You can draw attention to Far Right organizing and offer your community useful resources by organizing trainings and skill shares. This might include first aid, self-defense, weapon skills, personal and digital security, and bystander interventions. These trainings can also function as outreach opportunities and places to find people who are serious about doing concrete work.
22. Form an emergency response team
Violence is central to fascism, so if fascists are organizing in your area—there will be emergencies. You will also get last-minute calls when they hold unannounced events, which became the norm after Charlottesville. Prepare emergency response teams with members who can jump into action at a moment’s notice.
Ideally, they should have skills such as medic training and self-defense. (But remember that emergency response doesn’t necessarily mean direct confrontation.) In addition to in-person security, teams can also organize rides for marginalized people when fascists are having an event in your area.
22. Recruit early and often
There is no one way to oppose fascism. The broader and more skilled the groups and coalitions you can build, the better. Make sure you recruit folks with certain skills ahead of time, rather than scrambling to find them when it’s urgent. There’s always a need for graphic designers, therapists, lawyers, journalists, translators, techies, and licensed security guards.
Many people aren’t able to be on the frontlines but they might give a doxed activist a dramatic haircut or professionally paint a car. (Doxing is making a person’s information public, in an attempt to call attention to them for political or other reasons. This might include their picture, home and work info, social media accounts, organizational affiliations, and other details.) These examples of activism can feel like small contributions, but they can provide critical layers of safety when fascists are looking for them.
24. Fundraise before you need it
All political movements need money. This could be for transportation, art supplies, advertising, lawyers, or bail. And since it’s always better to have the money already in hand when the need arises, be sure to fundraise before it’s required.
Example: Fascist rallies can be turned into pledge drives! Donors can pledge per attendee or per mile walked, thereby turning a bad day into a good one. In coalition with nine other groups, PopMop was able to raise more than $36,000 for Causa Oregon, an immigrants rights organization, during an August 2019 Proud Boys march in Portland, Oregon.
IV. COUNTER-DEMONSTRATE
Direct action gets the goods. While our tactics should evolve and adapt to the situation at hand, one of the most effective avenues for change has always been gathering in the streets.
Large, public events that are explicit about being White Nationalist or fascist are extremely rare. For example in 2017, their most successful year in decades, only three White Nationalist events drew over one hundred attendees. (The largest of these, the Charlottesville rally, even claimed that it was not White Nationalist!)
Counter-demonstrating, within sight and sound distance of their event, can potentially deny them a high-profile public platform, attract support for your cause, and even overshadow the Far Right.
25. Win public opinion
Social media and press outlets have the power to sway large numbers of people, but you have to know how to use them. Use language appropriate to the audience you want to reach. Memes, comics, videos, and short articles in everyday language can give people accessible and fun ways of engaging with the fight against the Far Right.
26. Push local officials to do the right thing
In areas where permits are required, pressure local governments to refuse or revoke permits for Far Right rallies.
Example: After Charlottesville, authorities denied a permit to the Far Right “No to Marxism in America” rally in Berkeley. It was only after pressure was applied did authorities even bother to learn that the application was incomplete and should never have been granted.
27. Organize counter-demonstrations
If fascists are holding a public demonstration, you should be in the streets too. But when organizing a counter-demonstration, remember that the Far Right will likely try to dox the organizers, attendees, and supporters, so take precautions. For example, the guest list for Facebook event pages should be set so attendees aren’t visible.
Large demonstrations are a lot of work, and they require many things that don’t involve going into the street. This can include finding a planning space, getting permits and equipment, drumming up excitement, fundraising (which can be done both before and after), arranging transportation and housing for out-of-towners, setting up legal and communications support, and recruiting street medics.
28. Pressure local business and rental spaces
If there is going to be a Far Right event, encourage local businesses to refuse service to those who are attending. Circulate pictures of known members, as well as symbols they might be sporting. Warn local hotels, restaurants, and bars. Be sure to offer support to businesses that choose to refuse their money! (See #7 for more on this.)
29. Document their rallies
High-quality video and photography of those who attend Far Right events allows people to research individuals later and to document any criminal acts they engage in. But be warned that getting clear images of faces is actually a lot harder than it seems. Years after Charlottesville, those who attended are still being identified, sometimes from grainy or obscured images.
30. Don’t be outgunned
If it is legal in your area and consistent with your beliefs, consider coming to the demonstration with firearms. If the Far Right will be armed, there is an important psychological dimension to your side also bringing weapons.
This should be done in a group. Make sure that all members scrupulously observe the law. It’s a skill to carry firearms in public, so train beforehand. Coming armed can be a contentious tactic, so be sure to communicate your intentions to other counter-demonstration organizers ahead of time so you can work out potential problems.
31. Call out fascists and call in colleagues
In the big picture, everyone who opposes fascism is on the same side. While it’s normal and healthy to debate and disagree, publicly dragging each other helps the Far Right.
Remember that #14—“Drive wedges between individuals and groups”—goes both ways. The Far Right will often publish dirt on each other during personal or tactical disagreements. This behavior shows us their weak spots and makes Far Right unity harder for them to achieve. So don’t let them take advantage of this dynamic when it seeks to play itself out on our side.
Instead of airing conflicts in public, discuss your issues directly. Get to know other activists, form coalitions, and build relationships based on mutual respect and a shared desire for a world free of fascism. But if you can’t, at least try to live and let live. Disagreements are inevitable—drama is not.
V. BE SUPPORTIVE
32. Support people being threatened
Fascists love to threaten people. Real world support for those targeted might include escorting them or their family in public, running errands for them, and guarding their homes in case of an attack. Digitally, this may include helping someone wipe their online presence, adding security tools to accounts, or investigating who is threatening them.
33. Establish a safe house
A safe house can be as simple as someone who is not known to the Far Right and is able to offer a place where folks can stay in an emergency. This person needs to make sure they are available to be contacted at all times.
34. Help the families of victims
Between 2008 to 2019, the U.S. Far Right committed over 360 murders, meaning that thousands of people lost family members. Reach out and offer support to the loved ones of those killed. This may include raising money for funeral expenses, dealing with threats, and helping get their lives back together.
35. Aid the injured
In addition to those killed, thousands have been injured by the Far Right. Reach out to victims and ask how you can be supportive. They may need help with money, legal issues, errands, or just need a shoulder to cry on. If the victim wishes to go to the authorities, and this is consistent with your beliefs, offer to accompany them through the process. If they want to report a hate crime, but don’t want to go through law enforcement, consider organizations like PUAH (Portland United Against Hate) that track hate crimes without reporting to authorities.
36. Support those targeted by the law
It is not uncommon for law enforcement to see the Far Right more favorably than their opponents. Therefore, those working against fascism often become entangled in the legal system. Facing charges, receiving a grand jury subpoena, and going to trial are all stressful—and often expensive—events. As a part of building a strong community, make sure you provide legal support for fellow activists.
37. Support imprisoned activists
Activists who refuse to testify before grand juries or are convicted of criminal offenses may end up in jail or prison, and this is expensive. Prisoners can easily spend thousands of dollars a year on commissary expenses, phone calls, and reading materials—and this does not include legal expenses. Families might require day-to- day help or financial assistance to make prison visits. Make sure prisoners have contact with the outside world through letters, email, phone calls, and visits. In addition to fundraisers, hold letter-writing events for prisoners.
38. Warn people who are threatened
Fascists are exceptionally violent, both in word and action. As you monitor them, you will inevitably discover threats against local groups and individuals. Be sure to warn those targeted about the threats, while, if necessary, making sure your sources remain confidential.
39. Publicize threats and attacks
Mere threats of violence can silence progressive political activists by driving them off social media and limiting their public appearances. And members of historically oppressed groups—including people of color, Jews, Muslims, women, and LGBTQ+ folks—will always get unwanted attention from the Far Right. Make sure you help provide support, as doing so expands your potential coalition and weakens the efforts of the Far Right.
Publicizing threats helps neutralize them. This exposes the violence of the Far Right, creates sympathy for those targeted, and helps drive wedges between the Far Right and those who are sympathetic to their worldview—but recoil at violence.
40. Support communities pushing back against fascist recruitment
The Far Right often tries to enter into existing social groups and either influence them, recruit from inside them, or take them over—a tactic called “entryism.” In recent years, fascists have recruited from soccer supporters clubs; online gamers; music subcultures such as skinheads, neofolk, black metal, and punk; and religious communities, especially Heathens, Satanists, and Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians. In all of these cases, anti-racist members of the targeted communities have pushed back against fascist recruitment. Since this kind of opposition is best done by existing members of these communities, ask them how you can best organize support for their struggle.
Fascists will also target progressive groups. In the recent past, they have engaged in entryism around Palestine solidarity work, opposition to Middle East wars, criticism of Wall Street and international trade agreements, radical environmentalism, and animal rights. Expose them and push them out.
Example: In the Pacific Northwest, eco-fascists have used radical environmentalism to recruit. One group, Operation Werewolf, disguises itself as a workout club for men with radical environmentalist views—but is White Nationalist and anti-feminist. Don’t tolerate the intolerant.
BONUS ROUND!
Show your larger political vision
Countering fascism is a necessary, but not sufficient, part of the larger fight against inequality. It is comparable to leftist lawyers who defend progressive activists. While this is a necessary action with real concrete effects, it will not destroy the pillars of the systemic oppressions that our social and political system is based on.
Your work is part of a larger struggle—not just against white supremacy—but against all forms of oppression. In addition to structural racism in policing, work, and housing, this includes: attacks on immigrants and refugees; Islamophobia and antisemitism; homophobia and transphobia; and misogyny. Collaborate with activists fighting these forms of oppression whenever possible. Make it clear that you are not just “against fascism,” but that your actions are a part of a larger struggle against hierarchy and oppression—and in support of equality and freedom—for everyone in our society.
RESOURCE LIST
Organizations and Websites Which Track and Analyze the Far Right
Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, www.radicalrightanalysis.com
Hope Not Hate, https://hopenothate.com
Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, www.irehr.org
Institute for Research on Male Supremacism, www.malesupremacism.org
It’s Going Down, https://itsgoingdown.org
Idavox (One People’s Project), http://idavox.com
Montana Human Rights Network, https://mhrn.org
Political Research Associates, www.politicalresearch.org
Rose City Antifa, www.rosecityantifa.org
Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org
Western States Center, www.westernstatescenter.org
Books about U.S. Fascism and the Far Right
Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, Right Wing Populism in America (2000)
Kathleen Blee, Understanding Racist Activism (2017)
Shane Burley, Fascism Today (2017)
Matthew Lyons, Ctrl-Alt-Delete (2017) and Insurgent Supremacists (2018)
David Neiwert, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump (2017)
Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (2009)
Alexandra Minna Stern, Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Is Warping the American Imagination (2019)
Patrik Hermansson, David Lawrence, Joe Mulhall, and Simon Murdoch, The International Alt-Right: Fascism for the 21st Century? (2020)
Other resources
How to organize against militias and Patriot movement groups in rural areas
Rural Organizing Project, “Organizing for an Oregon Where Everyone Counts,”
Section III of the report Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement,
https://rop.org/up-in-arms
Identifying and dealing with fascists
Kit O’Connell, “Beyond the Concrete Milkshake: Tactics for Defeating Media Trolls & Grifters,”
https://kitoconnell.com/2020/06/22/beyond-the-concrete- milkshake-media-trolls-zine
Mike Isaacson, “You Can’t Punch Every Nazi,”
www.tinyurl.com/ButYouCanTry
Deplatforming project
Sleeping Giants
Twitter: @slpng_giants
Facebook: slpnggiants
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
SPENCER SUNSHINE
Spencer Sunshine, PhD, has researched and counter- organized against the U.S. Far Right for the over fifteen years. He is the lead author of the 2016 report, Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement, published by the Rural Organizing Project. Currently, Sunshine is working on several manuscripts about U.S. fascist movements.
See www.spencersunshine.com for links to his writings, and follow him on Twitter @transform6789. 40 Ways to Fight Fascists was produced with the generous support of Spencer’s patrons at patreon.com/spencersunshine.
POPMOB (POPULAR MOBILIZATION)
Short for Popular Mobilization, PopMob is a group of concerned Portlanders united around a single, common goal: Inspire people to show up and resist the alt-right with whimsy and creativity. We’re activists and organizers from many groups, including labor rights, arts, education, healthcare, and more. We believe that the people of Oregon don’t want what the alt-right is selling and we know we can push back against hate as one strong community. You can follow us @popmobpdx on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Thursday, September 10, 2020
BTW... (the inexorable march of time)
This sign no longer exists, along with practically my whole youth.
There is no more Patrick-Henry Village (US Army housing)
There is no more Taukkunen Barracks (US Army post, Worms)
My high school in Mannheim is gone.
My college at Heidelberg University has closed.
There is no more Patrick-Henry Village (US Army housing)
There is no more Taukkunen Barracks (US Army post, Worms)
My high school in Mannheim is gone.
My college at Heidelberg University has closed.
And, most importantly, the STAR Disco at the Bauhaus in Worms is was torn out to make a gym. (the jocks, our sworn enemy, have won)
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