Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-06 Thread Jeffrey Masko via Marxism
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If I misread, my apologies because there is no argument about Labor's
shameful position in all of this while at least some members (I know) are
supportive and some are going out into the streets.
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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-06 Thread Jeffrey Masko via Marxism
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What you describe is disgusting and should be called out at every
opportunity, but it sounds like Germany and Europe. The subculture here is
so dominated by far left politics that even a whiff of anit-Palestinian
sentiment is grounds for becoming persona non-gratia. Not on the west
coast, east coast, or appalachia where many comrades of mine are organizing
among the most hard core Trump folks. It sucks that what you've experience
rears its head in what is called an antifa space, but in the U.S., we are
lucky that is not tolerated.

Problematic for U.S. incarnations is thinly disguised masculinity that has
crowded out femme folks and in places where not many POC are involved,
there is of course levels of internalized racism that just don't disappear
because someone knows how to black bloc successfully. I would like to
stress that on the west coast, the demographic is increasingly more and
more POC that do not allow white folks to dictate their actions in spite of
what the MSM is reporting. Anticap activists and organizers have many
issues where, but antipathy for the Palestinian cause is one I've never had
to experience.
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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread A.R. G via Marxism
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"But the idea that the last - Israel
supporters - is in any way a significant percentage is simply false "

It is more subtle. There are, of course, outright supporters of Israel
involved in Antifa and Autonomen groups, especially in Germany. They are
disgusting freaks but have no problem using their shared Islamophobia to
collaborate with the German state and the far-right, for example, in their
recent bid to close pro-Palestine DJs out of a popular Autonomist-aligned
club or their racist attacks on Rasmea Odeh.

In practice it is, however, more like feigned support for Palestine mixed
with bogus anti-Semitism witch-hunts, as outright attacks on Palestine
liberation are no longer acceptable among other left formations. Those
attitudes have been quite common in my experience, and they tail the
politics of Jewish liberal NGOs that have similarly contradictory positions
(IfNotNow, JFREJ, etc.). So they may not be flying the Israeli flag (as in
Germany) but they are still Zionists and have been pretty instrumental in
making Palestine liberation an exception in Left coalitions.

I'd add it's a problem that's not unique to Antifa but it's one place I've
seen it treated as acceptable. I'd also emphasize I am not saying everyone
involved in Antifa has Zionist or Zionist-apologetic politics, but enough
do and in my experience it wasn't discrediting or grounds for
exclusion/expulsion. Naturally I can't cite something more authoritative
than what I've witnessed personally, so I'll just leave it at that!

Amith R. Gupta


On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 10:24 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> On 6/5/20 12:36 PM, Jeffrey Masko wrote:
> > Folks I know personally do not sneer at peaceful protests and work to
> > separate their actions so the old tired out narrative of peaceful
> > protest hijacked is provable to be false, along with the idea violence
> > is used that somehow soils the other peaceful protest when the fact is
> > that those who often put their bodies on the line protecting POC are
> > vilified and lumped in with looters (god forbid anyone loot) and
> > property destruction/vandalism.
>
> I am not even sure what it means to protect POC just as long it doesn't
> involve torching a post office or a library. When the Migizi American
> Indian community center burned down, someone excused it because it was
> an accident. It was collateral damage of the targeted building, the
> fucking post office. Who in their right mind would want to torch the
> post office that is paid for by our tax dollars and that Donald Trump
> also wants to destroy? Besides the post office, a library got torched.
>
> In any case, this business about "riots" has wound down, except kept
> alive by Trump and his minions. Almost everybody is involved in
> traditional protests, number one, and, number two, does so without
> needing to be defended. There will still be cop attacks as took place
> near the White House but it is simply beyond the scope of any antifa
> activists to serve as a defense guard when there are 480 cities that
> have seen protests, including tiny upstate NY towns that I have reported
> on. In both Walkill and Monroe, everything happened without any cop
> attacks. I suspect that is true in nearly all cases. This is not Egypt
> in 2011, even though Trump would like to be able to make it so.
>
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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread John Reimann via Marxism
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Jeffry Masko writes (in reference to what I wrote): "You assume that
baristas, hair stylists, carpenters aren't putting their bodies on the line
and normally a lot wouldn't be because they are at work." I never even
implied any such thing. All I said was that the unions (and please note:
there are a lot more unions than simply blue collar construction unions)
are missing in action. Sure, there are workers out there (including
baristas and hair dressers, who are also part of the working class, despite
what some seem to think). What's not out there is any serious union
presence. Comrades can debate whether this is necessary. But I don't see
how they can claim it's untrue.

John

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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread Jeffrey Masko via Marxism
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Just for clarification when confronting police lines or when police lines
mobilize, it's not uncommon to put "white bodies" between the riot cops and
POC with the idea that they will get less of a beating. Sometimes it works
that way, other times not so much. In any case, the call is from POC
leaders of the action, whether it be blac blocking or just shielding folks
who are trying to hold a "symbolic space". Not saying I agree with all of
these techniques (they are not tactics), but that's what happens more times
than not in these "riots".
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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 6/5/20 12:36 PM, Jeffrey Masko wrote:
Folks I know personally do not sneer at peaceful protests and work to 
separate their actions so the old tired out narrative of peaceful 
protest hijacked is provable to be false, along with the idea violence 
is used that somehow soils the other peaceful protest when the fact is 
that those who often put their bodies on the line protecting POC are 
vilified and lumped in with looters (god forbid anyone loot) and 
property destruction/vandalism.


I am not even sure what it means to protect POC just as long it doesn't 
involve torching a post office or a library. When the Migizi American 
Indian community center burned down, someone excused it because it was 
an accident. It was collateral damage of the targeted building, the 
fucking post office. Who in their right mind would want to torch the 
post office that is paid for by our tax dollars and that Donald Trump 
also wants to destroy? Besides the post office, a library got torched.


In any case, this business about "riots" has wound down, except kept 
alive by Trump and his minions. Almost everybody is involved in 
traditional protests, number one, and, number two, does so without 
needing to be defended. There will still be cop attacks as took place 
near the White House but it is simply beyond the scope of any antifa 
activists to serve as a defense guard when there are 480 cities that 
have seen protests, including tiny upstate NY towns that I have reported 
on. In both Walkill and Monroe, everything happened without any cop 
attacks. I suspect that is true in nearly all cases. This is not Egypt 
in 2011, even though Trump would like to be able to make it so.


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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 6/5/20 12:15 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

I never mentioned anything about carpenters or any other sector of the
working class.


Just do me a favor and don't put peaceful in scare quotes again. Mass 
actions are meant to be peaceful. My only difference with some who 
organize them is the need to resort to self-defense when necessary.


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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread Jeffrey Masko via Marxism
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You assume that baristas, hair stylists, carpenters aren't putting their
bodies on the line and normally a lot wouldn't be because they are at work.
This time, they are. In fact, I personally know of a barista (from
Starbucks) and a carpenter (won't say from where) who regularly go out in
the same affinity group. Without a doubt there are hair stylists in
SF/Oakland doing the same thing.

If you aren't active in these groups, you won't get a notice for you to
show up so if you don't know about them that doesn't mean they are not
happening and two, you aren't going to really know they're demographics as
they are not homogeneous. Folks I know personally do not sneer at peaceful
protests and work to separate their actions so the old tired out narrative
of peaceful protest hijacked is provable to be false, along with the idea
violence is used that somehow soils the other peaceful protest when the
fact is that those who often put their bodies on the line protecting POC
are vilified and lumped in with looters (god forbid anyone loot) and
property destruction/vandalism. And the assumption that all of these
"instigators" are white kids with universal privilege is simply not what I
see in the bay area.
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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread John Reimann via Marxism
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Louis writes: "Why is peaceful in scare quotes? What are people who work as
baristas or
hair stylists supposed to do? Wait until your carpenters put their
bodies on the line? I ordinarily don't pay attention to your workerism
but in this instance it is galling."

I never mentioned anything about carpenters or any other sector of the
working class. Nor have I ever mentioned anything about any particular
sector of the working class. Maybe Louis doesn't see hair stylists or
baristas as part of the working class, but I do. Louis may find it galling
that I see the working class as the only force that can transform society,
but I hardly think that view is "workerism".

John

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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 6/5/20 9:41 AM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote:

The main point is this, though: If you denounce antifa without an
explanation of why they have become so prominent and what is the
alternative, then what is left is simply the implication that we should
return to the nice, safe, "peaceful" marches -- the same approach that has
accomplished nothing.


Why is peaceful in scare quotes? What are people who work as baristas or 
hair stylists supposed to do? Wait until your carpenters put their 
bodies on the line? I ordinarily don't pay attention to your workerism 
but in this instance it is galling.


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Re: [Marxism] antifa

2020-06-05 Thread John Reimann via Marxism
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Of course unfocused property destruction does not advance the movement. But
the ritual denunciations of Antifa don't help clarify things either.
Especially in such a group of anarchists which is not really an
organization, there can be all types - woman beaters, racists, and
supporters of Israel included. But the idea that the last - Israel
supporters - is in any way a significant percentage is simply false. It
just doesn't stand to reason, nor does it meet with my personal experience
here in the SF Bay Area.

The main point is this, though: If you denounce antifa without an
explanation of why they have become so prominent and what is the
alternative, then what is left is simply the implication that we should
return to the nice, safe, "peaceful" marches -- the same approach that has
accomplished nothing. Antifa has become so prominent because of the absence
of a large sector of the working class, specifically because of the absence
of the unions. If the union leadership were organizing and mobilizing its
membership, it would be shutting down the country and creating a real
massive working class movement. The presence of a mass or organized workers
would also tend to lead to a serious discussion on both program and tactics.

So, if you want to denounce something, start by denouncing the union
leadership.

John Reimann

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Re: [Marxism] Antifa

2018-07-12 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 7/12/18 4:25 PM, Michael Meeropol wrote:
This discussion of ANTIFA reminds me of what happened during the "Days 
of Rage' in 1969.


That makes sense since the black bloc was a conscious attempt to 
replicate the Days of Rage.


https://louisproyect.org/2011/11/11/black-bloc-inspired-by-weathermen/
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Re: [Marxism] Antifa

2018-07-12 Thread Michael Meeropol via Marxism
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This discussion of ANTIFA reminds me of what happened during the "Days of
Rage' in 1969.   During the course of one of the demonstrations (which
involved "trashing" of department store windows) a Chicago Asst. DA
(Richard Elrod) tried to tackle of weatherman demonstrator named Brian
Flanagan --- the DA broke his neck diving at Flanagan and FLanagan was
arrested with a MAJOR FELONY hanging over him ---

Luckily he was acquitted because Elrod had brought the injury on himself --
so "our side" escaped that danger.

Nevertheless, the Weatherman faction of SDS and later the Weather
Underground played a major role in the disintegration of the movement after
1970 ---

I don't want to minimize the role of agent provacateurs and FBI repression
(including the murder of Black Panthers) but the explosion in the Town
House in 1971 which killed three Weather-people actually short-circuited
what would have been a horrible act of terrorism (exploding nail bombs at
FOrt Dix)  and subsequent activities of the Weather underground did not
build any movement ---

The SDS that disintegrated after 1969 had tremendous potential ---

Even the ANC of South Africa confronted with massacres by the Apartheid
government utilized its violence aimed at PROPERTY not people ---

There are no "base areas" for guerrilla armies as in China or Vietnam ---
there is no Debray-style "foco" point from which to harrass the capitalist
state --- The method for beating the capitalists has yet to be discovered
--- but a handful of individuals ready to use violence and maybe die if not
suffer grievous injury and probable long prison sentences is probably not
going to get us very far 

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Re: [Marxism] Antifa

2018-07-12 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 7/12/18 3:51 PM, Ron Jacobs via Marxism wrote:

The prosecution was dropped because the charges were trumped up.


Of course they were trumped up but if people in masks had not been 
running down the streets breaking bank windows, they never would have 
been brought up in the first place. These brats running around like they 
were in Fort Lauderdale on spring break should be taken out to the barn 
and spanked by their daddies.

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Re: [Marxism] Antifa Activists Are Freaking Out About a Proposed 'Unmasking' Law - VICE

2018-07-12 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 7/12/18 8:07 AM, Thomas Campbell via Marxism wrote:

Actually, all the charges against the Inauguration Day detainees have been
dropped by prosecutors. Of the 21 people who admitted their guilt, only one
person did four months in jail; the rest were not sentenced at all. No one
is facing a lengthy prison term.


This was a result of prosecution malfeasance involving the withholding 
of video evidence. It could have turned out worse.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/prosecutors-withdraw-inauguration-day-rioting-charges-against-7-people/2018/05/31/2dbb824c-6404-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html
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Re: [Marxism] Antifa Activists Are Freaking Out About a Proposed 'Unmasking' Law - VICE

2018-07-12 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 7/11/18 10:19 PM, Saman Sepehri via Marxism wrote:

Louis, seriously... this is what you are focusing on? Rather than this is a 
right wing attack, comparing anti-fascists to the KKK?
S.


Okay. let me spell things out. The black bloc is a counter-productive 
tactic no matter the intentions of those that carry it out. When you 
wear masks and go on window-breaking rampages, it allows the state to 
discredit the entire movement. It also leads to terrible victimization. 
A number of people who had nothing to do with the window-breaking idiocy 
on Inauguration Day were swept up by the cops and now face lengthy 
prison terms.


If a law is passed that prevents people wearing masks at protests, that 
will have zero impact on legitimate mass movement building. The Vietnam 
antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, the gay movement, the 
woman's liberation movement, the anti-nuclear movement all produced 
significant gains without having people wearing masks and breaking windows.


These ultraleft idiots have to get their act together if the law passes. 
It may lead to agent-provocateurs finding other ways to make money but 
the economy is expanding and they should do okay.

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Re: [Marxism] Antifa Activists Are Freaking Out About a Proposed 'Unmasking' Law - VICE

2018-07-11 Thread Saman Sepehri via Marxism
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 From the Article Louis posted:

In August 2017, an Arizona lawmaker said he wanted to use unmasking laws to go 
after Antifa protestors by explicitly comparing them to the KKK.

"The thugs wearing masks and throwing things at police officers and breaking 
windows and robbing and pillaging while wearing masks and hoods are the 
equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan," state representative Jay Lawrence told the 
Arizona Capitol Times. “Now, there are no hangings of white people, yet.”
from Louis:

Maybe these idiots will finally realize that their tactics are 
self-defeating.

Louis, seriously... this is what you are focusing on? Rather than this is a 
right wing attack, comparing anti-fascists to the KKK?
S.

On Wednesday, July 11, 2018, 6:35:33 PM CDT, Louis Proyect via Marxism 
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Maybe these idiots will finally realize that their tactics are 
self-defeating.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjb8kw/antifa-activists-are-freaking-out-about-a-proposed-unmasking-law
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Re: [Marxism] ‘Antifa’ Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right

2017-08-18 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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On 8/18/17 3:35 PM, Greg McDonald wrote:

http://libcom.org/blog/6-reasons-why-chomsky-wrong-about-antifa-18082017



1) Antifa's 'predecessors' are more significant than Chomsky thinks

(clip)

"And in North America they were the Teamsters who formed a defense guard 
against the Silver Shirts in the 1930s..."


---


This is a complete crock of shit. Here is what the Trotskyists did. It 
had nothing in common with the kids in masks throwing bags of urine at 
the fascists in Charlottesville.


The United States in the 1930s became a battleground between industrial 
workers and the capitalist class over whether workers would be able to 
form industrial unions. There had been craft unions for decades, but 
only industrial unions could fight for all of the workers in a given 
plant or industry. This fight had powerful revolutionary implications 
since the captains of heavy industry required a poorly paid, docile 
work-force in order to maximize profits in the shattered capitalist 
economy. There were demonstrations, sit-down strikes and even gun-fights 
led by the Communist Party and other left groups to establish this basic 
democratic right.


Within this political context, fascist groups began to emerge. They drew 
their inspiration from Mussolini’s fascists or Hitler’s brown-shirts. In 
a time of severe social crisis, groups of petty-bourgeois and lumpen 
elements begin to coalesce around demagogic leaders. They employ 
“radical” sounding rhetoric but in practice seek out working- class 
organizations to intimidate and destroy. One such fascist group was the 
Silver Shirts of Minneapolis, Minnesota.


In chapter eleven of “Teamster Politics”, SWP leader Farrell Dobbs 
recounts “How the Silver Shirts Lost Their Shrine in Minneapolis”. It is 
the story of how Local 544 of the Teamsters union, led by Trotskyists, 
defended itself successfully from a fascist expedition into the city. 
Elements of the Twin Cities ruling-class, alarmed over the growth of 
industrial unionism in the city, called in Silver Shirt organizer Roy 
Zachary. Zachary hosted two closed door meetings on July 29 and August 2 
of 1938. Teamster “moles” discovered that Zachary intended to launch a 
vigilante attack against Local 544 headquarters. They also discovered 
that Zachary planned to work with one F.L. Taylor to set up an 
“Associated Council of Independent Unions”, a union-busting operation. 
Taylor had ties to a vigilante outfit called the “Minnesota Minute Men”.


Local 544 took serious measures to defend itself. It formed a union 
defense guard in August 1938 open to any active union member. Many of 
the people who joined had military experience, including Ray Rainbolt 
the elected commander of the guard. Rank-and-filers were former 
sharpshooters, machine gunners and tank operators in the US Army. The 
guard also included one former German officer with WWI experience. While 
the guard itself did not purchase arms except for target practice, 
nearly every member had hunting rifles at home that they could use in 
the circumstance of a Silver Shirt attack.


Events reached a climax when Silver Shirt leader William Dudley Pelley 
came to speak at a rally in the wealthy section of Minneapolis.


Ray Rainbolt organized a large contingent of defense guard members to 
pay a visit to Calhoun Hall where Pelley was to make his appearance. The 
powerful sight of disciplined but determined unionists persuaded the 
audience to go home and Pelley to cancel his speech.


This was the type of conflict taking place in 1938. A capitalist class 
bent on taming workers; fascist groups with a documented violent, 
anti-labor record; industrial workers in motion: these were the primary 
actors in that period. It was characteristic of the type of class 
conflict that characterized the entire 1930s. It is useful to keep this 
in mind when we speak about McCarthyism.


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2017/08/18/the-ex-member-of-larouches-fascist-cult-who-writes-for-robert-parrys-consortium-news/

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Re: [Marxism] ‘Antifa’ Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right

2017-08-18 Thread Greg McDonald via Marxism
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http://libcom.org/blog/6-reasons-why-chomsky-wrong-about-antifa-18082017


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Gradg3te0



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gkqL0I20sI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgtgQIHFAYA
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Re: [Marxism] ‘Antifa’ Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right

2017-08-18 Thread Greg McDonald via Marxism
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I always thought the more contemporary manifestations of antifa originated
among left-wing supporters of football clubs, in no small part as a
response to right wing football hooliganism, but what do I know?

Greg McDonald
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