The Alt-Observer Weekly Summary highlights activities from revolutionary communist, radical anarchist, fascist and other ‘alternative’ political groups that fulfill our intelligence requirements for both the Alt-Left and Alt-Right groups. This report is available for Intelligence subscribers.
Priority Intelligence Requirements
- PIR1: What indicators describe the Alt-Left movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, and capabilities?
- PIR2: What indicators describe the Alt-Right movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, and capabilities?
- PIR3: What are the new indicators of future politically related violence?
- PIR4: What is the current threat index score for the Alt-Left movement?
- Culture War Roll-Up
PIR1: What indicators describe the Alt-Left movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?
National
Antifa International: For the month of June Antifa International is posting an example of real-life antifascist action everyday to teach and inspire activists. An example of one of these actions is wearing anti-fascist/anti-racist patches, pins, and shirts to display antifascism.
Additionally, Antifa International published a quarterly report that details everything that they have done with their “International Anti-Fascist Defense Fund.” The following is a list of things that they have done with the money they have raised:
- “We helped with the costs associated with the arrest of a Bristol anti-fascistdefending their city from an Islamophobic hate rally;
- We contributed to the legal defence of two Parisian antifa accused of a revenge attack against one of Clément Meric’s murderers;
- We made sure that an anti-fascist in NYC could pay their rent and had food on their table as they recovered from injuries inflicted on them after being brutalized by the NYPD at a demo against a white supremacist meeting;
- We helped with a hospital bill a Colorado Antifa was left with after being assaulted by fascist TWP swine;
- We helped defend four Seattle antifascists arrested after confronting America’s largest Islamophobic hate group.
- We helped out with the lawyer’s bill for a Toronto antifa who was arrested for the crime of standing in front of an Islamophobic march under Canada’s draconian new ‘masked with intent’ laws.”
In the report Antifa International also provided details into a request for aid that they ultimately turned down, “There was one request that the Defence Fund’s Decisions Crew – the body of nearly 600 anti-fascists who discuss and make decisions regarding the Defence Fund – turned down. Yogyakarta, Indonesia’s Libera Community Space wrote us to request support to help expand their community centre. While we agreed that this was a fantastic project, we felt that it fell outside of the mandate of the Defence Fund and turned down their request because of that.”
To thank their supporters, Antifa International wrote “None of this would have happened without the generous donations of our supporters. We do vitally-important work that deserves your support. We strongly encourage everyone to make a contribution to the Defence Fund. Sign up to make a recurring monthly donation of any amount via our paypal or Patreon accounts or make a one-time donation via our paypal or fundrazr. Hold a fundraiser for us! Print out our downloadable flyer and spread the word! Re-blog our posts! Anything you can do to help us help anti-fascists helps.” (Source: https://antifainternational.tumblr.com/post/174467049485/30-anti-fascist-actions-1)(Source: https://intlantifadefence.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/june-2018-quarterly-report/)
Antifa United: Antifa United posted on Facebook this week asking what people’s gateway into leftist life was. The following is a list of notable reasons that people gave in the comment section: Father was a Black Panther, YouTubers, being a single mother, Trump, bad teachers, mean bosses, having a black role model, deployment to Afghanistan, the Iraq war, comic books, being poor, the Civil Rights Movement, and Milo Yiannopoulos. The most common reasons people gave were being exposed to the punk music scene, encounters with white supremacist gangs, and having an ex who was a white supremacist. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/antifaunited161/posts/958744137636330)
East Coast
West Virginia: The group Appalachians Against Pipelines (AAP) published an update on It’s Going Down this week detailing their recent actions against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. According to AAP, on Monday, 04 June, “3 people prevented the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for 4 hours by locking themselves to equipment along Route 219. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is slated to run under Route 219, a main thoroughfare for the area; pipeline fighters locked to drilling equipment that will be used to place pipe under the road. Police arrived on the scene shortly after 8AM. Although they repeatedly threatened to use violence (tasers, pepper spray, batons), protesters were extracted without harm by 11AM.” (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/lockdowns-stop-construction-to-mountian-valley-pipeline/)
Ontario, Canada: A new anarchist podcast called “From Embers” was announced this week by Anarchist News. According to Anarchist News, From Embers is “a new anarchist podcast out of Kingston, Ontario. A few times a month, we post episodes about actions and projects going on in so-called Canada that inspire us, or about topics that we think will be relevant to anarchists living north of the border.” In addition to announcing the new podcast, Anarchist News asked for people to contribute content for the podcast: “If you’re an anarchist in so-called Canada and you’d like to propose or contribute content or make yourself available for an interview, get in touch! Because we’re also on community radio here in Kingston, we’re especially interested in content that might be relevant (or at least intelligible) to anarchist as well as non-anarchist audiences.” (Source: https://anarchistnews.org/content/new-anarchist-podcast-“-embers”)
Midwest
Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Antifa posted on Facebook calling for antifascists to tear down posters that were put up by Identity Evropa. In the post Cleveland Antifa referred to Identity Evropa as “violent white supremacists” and said “If you see the assholes putting these up, make sure you get pictures of them and their vehicles, and send them to us so that we can expose them. Remember, fascists deserve to be knocked the fuck out.” (Source: https://www.facebook.com/clevelandantifa/posts/1894781997220198)
Southeast
Charlotte, North Carolina: Red Guards Pittsburgh (RGP) posted on Facebook asking for solidarity with Red Guards Charlotte (RGC), who are selling MayDay solidarity shirts on Teespring that feature two Black Bloc protestors burning an American Flag that’s hanging upside-down. (Analyst Comment: The shirt has been taken down from the site, but it is not known whether or not RGC took it down themselves, or if Teespring did. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/redguardspittsburgh/posts/1801551436557354)
Charlottesville, Virginia: An activist named Corey Long, who is one of the Alt-Left protestors still facing charges following the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has had his trial continued until June after his lawyers rejected a plea deal. An article published by Liberation News titled “Anti-Fascsist Heroes Face Criminal Charges in Charlottesville,” glorifies Long and other Alt-Left protestor’s actions. In the article the author states that Long was “photographed standing defiantly against a man wielding a Confederate battle flag as a club. In the photo Long appears to have placed his body in between a group of violent white supremacists and an elderly man. Filmed from farther away, a video captured the events immediately before and immediately after Long ignited an aerosol spray can to defend himself against the white supremacists. In the seconds leading up to the photograph, the men coming down the steps from Emancipation Park can be seen swinging clubs at Long, and a man can be seen firing a gun at him from behind. Despite all of this, Corey Long still faces criminal charges for his actions that day.” (Source: https://www.liberationnews.org/anti-fascist-heroes-face-criminal-charges-charlottesville/)
West Coast
San Diego, California: The San Diego Free Press published an article this week that equates voting for Sheriff Bill Gore and District Attorney Summer Stephan with endorsing police brutality. The article’s author, R. Zamora, is related to a man named Jonathon Coronel, who was shot and killed by San Diego police in 2017. According to Zamora, his cousin was unarmed when he was shot 22 times by officer Christopher Villanueva. Zamora states in his article that Officer Villanueva was never charged for killing Coronel, which is why voting for San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan and Sheriff Bill Gore is an endorsement of police brutality. (Source: https://sandiegofreepress.org/2018/06/a-vote-for-summer-stephan-and-sheriff-bill-gore-is-an-endorsement-of-police-brutality/)
Los Angeles, California: An LA fundraiser called “Running Down the Walls” has been started on Fundly to raise money for “political prisoners and prisoners of war held within the prison systems.” As of 09 June, 2018, the fundraiser has received $800 of it’s $1,500 goal. (Source: https://fundly.com/running-down-the-walls-los-angeles-2018)
Portland, Oregon: Antifa and members of Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys clashed in Portland, Oregon last weekend during a free speech rally. Portland Police attempted to separate the two opposing groups, however, the Antifascist and Anarchist protestors attacked the police, throwing bottles, rocks, and fireworks at them. According to Ammoland, the protestors were carrying knives and other weapons, and pepper sprayed the free speech activists. Newsweek reported that four protestors were arrested and that Portland police advised local residents to avoid the area where the rally and protests were held because they were “at risk of getting caught in between violent clashes and any law-enforcement actions or arrests.” (Source: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/06/antifa-protest-patriot-pray-free-speech-rally-in-portland-or/#axzz5HqpTnfmc)(Source: http://www.newsweek.com/portland-antifa-and-patriot-prayer-counter-protests-erupts-violence-four-956140)
Southwest
Austin, Texas: Revolutionary Student Front (RSF) has threatened to assault members of a University of Texas at Austin Conservative group called the Young Conservatives of Texas (TexasYCT). The threats by RSF came in response to members of TexasYCT mocking RSF after their “People’s Trial” against UT professor Robert Reece failed. After the failed trial TexasYCT took to Twitter saying “We as young Conservatives are announcing a People’s Trial against Revolutionary Student Front for wasting our time. On May 10th at 6 PM RSF was supposed to entertain the Young Conservatives of Texas by larping as judicial officials and putting on a mock trial in the same way third graders play doctor sometimes. Instead we were greeted with no such trial, and many of us traveled at least a ten minute walk for the purpose of being entertained during finals.”
In response to TexasYCT’s tweets, RSF tweeted saying “Y’all can be next up on the list for the Ritchie treatment,” with a link to a video of RSF assaulting a man named Christopher Ritchie, who they have accused of being a Neo-Confederate. (Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/red-alert-politics/communist-group-threatens-campus-young-conservatives-with-assault)
PIR2: What indicators describe the Alt-Right movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?
Indiana: According to Rawstory, an Indiana man has threatened to shoot Alt-Right activists to gain sympathy for white supremacists. The Alt-Right has received a lot of negative attention, publicly, and news coverage following the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where an Alt-Left protestor was killed by an alleged Neo-Nazi. The Indianapolis Star reported that the man made a post on 4Chan saying “I’m going to bring a Remington 700 and start shooting Alt-right guys. We need sympathy after that landwhale got all the liberals teary eyed…. Someone is going to have to make it look like the left is becoming more violent and radicalized…. It’s a false flag for sure but I’ll be aiming for the more tanned/dark haired muddied jeans in the crowd so real whites won’t have to worry.” (Source: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/indiana-man-threatened-shoot-alt-right-guys-gain-sympathy-white-supremacists-charlottesville/)
Identity Evropa: This week Identity Evropa activists put up stickers and flyers in Morristown, New Jersey, attended a Hungarian Festival in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and distributed free food and water to the homeless in Spokane, Washington. (Source: https://twitter.com/IdentityEvropa)
PIR3: What are the new indicators of future politically related violence?
09 JUNE: Counter-protest against Patriot Prayer’s Rally against Planned Parenthood, Kent, WA
(Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/kent-wa-call-to-defend-planned-parenthood-from-patriot-prayer-june-9th/)
09 JUNE: Black Women’s March — Sacramento, California (Source: https://www.facebook.com/BlackLivesMatterSac/posts/2073326962944146)
09 JUNE: 12th Annual NYC Anarchist Bookfair (Source: https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/06/06/12th-annual-nyc-anarchist-book-fair-55-washington-square/)
11 JUNE: International Day of Solidarity (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/one-month-til-june-11th-some-ideas-for-solidarity/)
11 JUNE: Benefit: The Gentleman Bankrobber — Austin, Texas (Source: https://www.facebook.com/events/142334156622237/)
18 JUNE: Letter Writing to Incarcerated Sex Workers — Austin, Texas (Source: https://www.facebook.com/events/611601782549568/)
19 JUNE: Juneteenth Mobilization Against Prison Slavery (https://itsgoingdown.org/call-for-a-juneteenth2018-mobilization-against-prison-slavery/)
19 JUNE: (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/juneteenth-capture-the-flag/)
20 JUNE: Anarchist Black Cross Volunteer Night — Austin, Texas (Source: https://www.facebook.com/events/231439370954899/)
22-24 JUNE: Second Annual “Another Caroling Anarchist Bookfair” — Asheville, North Carolina (Source: https://anarchistnews.org/content/annoucing-second-annual-another-caroling-anarchist-bookfair-june-22-24-2018-asheville-nc)
25 JUNE: IWW Solidarity Actions With J20 Defendants (Source: https://www.iww.org/content/solidarity-actions-j20-defendants)
04 JULY: Day of Action in Memory of Dan and Spit, Las Vegas, Nevada (Source: https://twitter.com/afainatl/status/989568441597202437)
PIR4: What is the current threat index score for the Alt-Left movement?
Indicators of Revolutionary Activity
Strong Indications: 7
Weak Indications: 6
No/Negligible Indications: 7
We remain at 13 total indicators, and there’s been no change in the last week.
Culture War Roll-Up
New York Magazine: In an article recently published by New York Magazine, the author, Ed Kilgore, claims that senior citizens are more Conservative because poor people do not live long enough to become seniors. This, according to Kilgore, is because “Poorer people are often hobbled by chronic illness, and succumb to premature death.” To back his claims, Kilgore cites an academic study featured in The Washington Post’s Monkey Page blog titled “Poor People Die Younger in the U.S. That Skews American Politics”:
“Political participation of the poor is overall lower because of poverty, bad health and many other factors, but millions of impoverished Americans across the country also die prematurely…. mortality among the poor increases during middle age — which is when citizens generally get more involved in politics. The premature disappearance of the poor, then, occurs precisely at the moment when they would be expected to reach their ‘participatory peak’ in society. But they don’t live long enough to achieve that milestone.”
(Source: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/poor-people-often-dont-survive-to-become-seniors-who-vote.html) (Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/05/31/because-poor-people-die-younger-in-the-u-s-our-politics-are-more-unequal-than-elsewhere/)
LeBron James: During an NBA Finals press conference this week, LeBron James stated that if his team wins the championship, they will not be accepting President Trump’s invitation to visit the White House. James’ announcement was in response to a question about President Trump’s decision to revoke the Philadelphia Eagles’ invitation to the White House after the team stated that the majority of it’s players would not be attending. When asked about the president’s revocation James said, “It’s typical of him. I mean, I’m not surprised…. Let’s not let someone uninviting you to their house take away from that moment…Winning is way bigger than getting invited to the White House, especially with him in there.” In addition to stating that the Cleveland Cavaliers would not be accepting the White House’s invitation, James also stated that the Golden State Warriors would not be accepting the invitation either, which was later confirmed by Golden State Warrior’s point guard Stephen Curry. (Source: http://time.com/5301989/lebron-james-philadelphia-eagles-trump/)