Alt-Observer Weekly Summary for 18 May 2018 – Forward Observer

Alt-Observer Weekly Summary for 18 May 2018

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 Alt-Observer 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

Admin Note: This is Sam Culper. I’ve had a few questions about why we provide the URL instead of a simple link. One respondent said that the URL was distracting and that it detracted from the overall report, so I wanted to explain why. Because links matter. When we link to websites, those sites can see that they have traffic coming from our website. And our goal is to monitor and report on a host of sources without their knowing. We’re not talking about state secrets here, but the lower on the radar we can be, the better. We’ve already seen Leftist Twitter accounts and blogs shut down because they feared they were putting out too much sensitive information. So be it, but I don’t want Forward Observer to be a reason why those accounts dry up. I hope you understand.

PIR1: What indicators describe the Alt-Left movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?

National

Anarchists: An anarchist collective recently published a “Spiritual Anarchism Workbook” titled “White Flag, Black Flag,” that serves as “a guide to moving towards enlightenment, from an anarchist perspective,” as well as “a guide to moving towards anarchist utopia, from a spiritual perspective.” (Source: https://anarchistnews.org/content/white-flag-black-flag-%E2%80%93-version-10)

East Coast

District of Columbia: An Antifa member has been sentenced to 60 days in jail for assaulting reporter Jack Posobiec in D.C. last year. The Antifascist was originally sentenced to two years of probation, but was arrested again in December 2017 for public intoxication. According to the Gateway Pundit, the antifascist claimed self-defense for his assault on Posobiec, however, his claim was disproved due to the assault being caught on video. (Source: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/05/antifa-who-assaulted-pro-trump-reporter-sent-to-prison/)

Ontario: The city of Hamilton, Ontario has reportedly forced a local anarchist group to remove it’s “” anarchy symbol from it’s headquarters. According to city spokesperson Marie Fitzpatrick, the city of Hamilton started a bylaw investigation into the anarchy symbol, which determined that it is “hate material” similar to the swastika. As of 26 March, 2018, the a have complied with the order and removed the symbol. (Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-anarchy-symbol-1.4664192)

Ontario: An anonymous submission to It’s Going Down detailed a recent antifascist action by a Canadian antifascist group who crossed the “fictional” US/Canada border into the United States. The author of the submission claims that Niagara Falls Anti-Fascist Action International (NFAFAI) “crossed the border from Klanada to the United Snakes, landing amphibiously near Niagara University to combat fascism.” According to the antifascists, a bar near the university is a neo-Nazi owned and operated establishment, whose employees allegedly “beat a 21 year old bloody with brass gloves for bringing his black girlfriend into the establishment.” The antifascist group distributed flyers, which included pictures of the owners along with their phone numbers and home address, in order to expose the bar’s neo-Nazi affiliations. The flyers read: “Biro is a member of the ‘Aryan Renaissance Society.’ He has stolen thousands of dollars and has been arrested recently on drug charges. His wife, Marie T. Basile, runs RUST, a bar on Third Street and the site of a VIOLENT RACIST ASSAULT.” In addition to the flyers, NFAFAI included the following statement in their submission to It’s Going Down:

“Marie Basile and Todd Biro, and the Aryan Renaissance Society: We are watching you. Fascism will not be permitted to gain a foothold on either shore of Niagara Falls. Do not even think about fleeing across the border when times get tough—you will be walking directly into our hands. We know you have other properties, for now, and they are all cursed. You cannot hide from us. You will fail. And by the way, all of you, your friends and kin, have the most embarrassing and hilariously bad tattoos we have ever laid eyes on. Thanks for assisting in your own demise. Nazis fuck off.” (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/niagara-falls-antifascists-drop-fliers-against-neo-nazis-linked-to-racist-attack/)

Midwest

Minnesota: An anonymous antifascist submitted a blog post to the antifascist and anarchist blog site Enough Is Enough in which the antifascist reflects on the May Day march in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Analyst Comment: Nothing significant took place during this year’s May Day protests in Minneapolis, which is a fact that the author of this post is aware of. However, what is worth noting are some insightful comments that were made by the author about black bloc, their recruitment procedures, and the growth and future of the movement.)

“It starts by building from where we’re at and recognizing what could be done better. It means starting from a small crew and coming with a bigger crew, multiple crews and affinity groups. There were several random people in the crowd that seemed to want this too. They came alone and bloc’ed up by themselves and gravitated toward us. We decided to be present to make it known that we desire this with others, that we invite you to come the next time there’s a call. You don’t have to wear all black or even cover your face. Bring your friends. Practice staying close and building your trust in each other. Simply being together with others who practice this art as a responsive crowd opens the situation up to other possibilities. For the purpose of breaking down the barriers between those who would bloc up and others who weren’t we decided to attempt a “casual bloc.” Admittedly this is something new to us or perhaps we just have too many black clothes, so instead people were mostly a poorly done black bloc rather than a casual bloc. This distinction doesn’t necessarily have be made along the lines of whether black is worn or not. It is determined by the open character of the bloc—essentially what makes it feel like something others can see themselves within. If covering one’s face is not simply an aesthetic practice of a revolutionary subculture but a necessity for confrontational practice then it needs to become a practice shared by all who desire to engage in militant resistance despite identification. Space must also be made for varying levels of risk to coexist within a bloc. It must be acknowledged that those who come just to be in the street, needing to to leave in the event that the situation becomes too risky still allows for others to hold the streets with them that much longer. There as many ways to be unruly as we can imagine and being a bloc is only one experiment among others. Our intention is to open that door.” (Source: https://enoughisenough14.org/2018/05/16/yes-and-no-late-reflections-on-the-mayday-march-in-minneapolis/)

Southeast

Georgia: Georgia State Senator Michael Williams, a Republican and a staunch supporter of President Trump, has been constantly harassed by hundreds of protestors while on his campaign tour for governor. According to It’s Going Down, protestors in Decatur  surrounded Williams’ tour bus on all sides, preventing it from leaving. Williams has reportedly had to cancel future stops throughout the state due to the organized demonstrations by Alt-Left groups. Williams’ tour bus, which is known as the “Deportation Bus,” features decals that say things like “Follow me to Mexico” and “Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molestors, and other criminals on board.” In addition to his infamous bus, Williams has claimed in numerous ads that he would “physically load undocumented people onto the bus for deportation.” His rallies have drawn supportive right wing groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters. (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/hundreds-in-georgia-shut-down-deportation-bus/)

North Carolina: Protestors of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in North Carolina reportedly blocked the driveway of Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good’s mansion in Charlotte. Duke Energy is one of the major partners in the pipeline which will go through Virginia and connect North Carolina and West Virginia. (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/atlantic-coast-pipeline-protestors-block-duke-energy-ceos-driveway/)

North Carolina: Charlotte city councilwoman Lawana Mayfield is facing controversy after she likened police to terrorists in a tweet. In the tweet Mayfield stated that “Being Black in America under #45 has created homegrown terrorist wearing blue uniforms. #AReckoningIsComing” (Source: http://www.fox46charlotte.com/news/local-news/charlotte-city-councilwomans-compares-police-to-terrorists-in-tweet)

West Coast

California: The Red Guards LA Facebook page posted a thank you to the Communist blog network Victory of the Oppressed and Exploited in response the network translating a WordPress document published by supporters of the Red Guards. The following is a translated quote from the document:

“we declare war against all the poisonous things for the people and our revolutionary cause. War to the gentrificadores! War to parasitic villains! War Against Real Estate Vultures! War to capitalist developers! War against the local government traitors like the city hall! War against the local sellers seeking their own interests, filling their pockets with the blood money of the oppressed and exploited, rather than benefiting the people. War to traitors traitors who disguise themselves as radicals or revolutionaries who claim to be ” Communists “, ” Marxist “, ” Marxist-leninist “, even some who falsely claim allegiance to ” maoism “. the war against fascists, Although currently in decline, it continues to be in paramilitary organizations! War to the enemies of the people!” (Source: https://www.facebook.com/RedGuardsLA/posts/2141653909195303)

California: A bill has been proposed in California that would make May 1st “International Worker’s Day,” an explicitly socialist holiday, and allow for students to take the day off from school. International Worker’s Day or “MayDay” has a long, violent history in the United States, and has recently become increasingly violent in cities across the US from Seattle to New York. (Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB3042)

California: The Los Angeles chapter of the Industrial Worker’s of the World Education Workers will be hosting a community teach-in about “Building Autonomous Communities: A Community Teach In on Autonomous Movements in Rojava, Chiapas, and New Afrika” in LA this Saturday. (Source: https://twitter.com/iww620LA/status/995138793853173760/photo/1)

Southwest

Texas: Red Guards Austin (RGA) published a WordPress document in which they respond to allegations by another socialist group in Austin that RGA is a police agent group. According to RGA, the Party for Socialism and Liberation “pig-jacketed” them in response to RGA “pointing out that they were harboring a rapist.” In the document RGA responds by saying that “Unlike PSL, our organization actually faces FBI harassment and repression—COINTELPRO for us is not just some panic button we can hit but an actual government-run program used against us. For us, it is material and not an excuse to evade responsibility for defending rapists. Obviously, the State does not persecute and repress its own agents; PSL simply uses COINTELPRO as a scare word and carries out classic pig-work by doing so.” (Source: https://redguardsaustin.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/anti-revisionism-is-confirmed-in-action/)

Texas: The Socialist Rifle Association of Central Texas posted the Brittanica article for the AK-47, saying, “A light history of the AK platform.” The AK-47 or “Automatic Kalishnikov” is a widely used Soviet assault rifle, which according to Britannica has been the favored weapon for armies with former political and military ties to the Soviet Union and guerrilla and nationalist movements throughout the world. The Socialist Rifle Association is one of the many Alt-Left revolutionary communist groups active across the US who have organized their movement around the usage of firearms. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/sracentraltexas/posts/1601494576614811)


PIR2: What indicators describe the Alt-Right movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?

New Hampshire: The co-founder of the white supremacist gang was killed after being shot multiple times outside of a Chinese Restaurant in New Hampshire this week. Jesse Jarvis co-founded the Brotherhood of White Warriors in 2010 while he was at the Northern New Hampshire Corrections Facility. In 2013 Jarvis told a parole board that he had left the prison gang, however, according Jarvis was recently listed as an administrator of an unnamed white supremacist Facebook group. (Source: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/white-supremacist-gang-leader-executed-outside-chinese-buffet-new-hampshire/)

DOD: Congressman Keith Ellison has formally requested that the Department of Defense (DOD) launch an investigation into a`nineteen year-old Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marines, who is also a member of the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division. In solidarity with Representative Ellison’s call for investigation, the social networking website Care2 has started a petition to “urge the U.S. Military to implement measures to ensure that those who wish to deprive us of our freedom are not charged with protecting it.” According to Care2’s website biography they are a “community for good” with over 45 million members who “work towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.” Care2 also describes themselves as being against bigots, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people; while standing with “humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.” As of 18 May, 2018 the petition has 37,739 supporters, which is only 2,261 signatures short of their 40,000 goal. (Source: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/554/774/054/keep-white-supremacists-out-of-our-military/)

Kentucky: The former leader of the Traditionalist Worker’s Party (TWP) was sentenced to 38 days in jail on Tuesday, May 15th in Louisville, Kentucky after violating his probation. In March of 2016 Matthew Heimbach was arrested and sentenced to 90 days in jail, followed by two years of probation, anger management classes, and volunteer work, after he physically assaulted a black woman at a rally. As a part of his probation, Heimbach was ordered to have no involvement with political rallies, however, Heimbach violated his probation after organizing and attending rallies in Virginia, Tennessee, and Michigan in which he was also caught on video engaging in street violence and assault. In addition to these violations, Heimbach was arrested in March of 2018 when he assaulted his wife and fellow TWP member Matt Parrott after they discovered that Heimbach was having an affair with Parrott’s wife. Heimbach was charged with a felony and three misdemeanors including strangulation, intimidation, battery and domestic battery committed in the presence of a child. After his 38 day sentence Heimbach will be on probation again until July 2019. (Source: https://itsgoingdown.org/report-back-from-louisville-ara-matthew-heimbach-goes-to-jail/)

Identity Evropa: Identity Evropa activists put up stickers and flyers in four different cities across four different states this week including Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, Seattle, Washington, and Laramie, Wyoming. (Source: https://twitter.com/IdentityEvropa)


PIR3: What are the new indicators of future politically related violence?

12-19 MAY: International Week of Action Against Fossil Fuel Infrastructure (https://itsgoingdown.org/call-for-international-week-of-action-against-fossil-fuel-infrastructure-may-12th-19th/)

16 MAY: IWW – Education Workers Teach-In, Los Angeles (Source: https://twitter.com/iww620LA/status/995138793853173760/photo/1)

16-23 MAY: #SayHerName Week of Action by the Black Youth Project (Source: https://byp100.lpages.co/sayhername2018/)

18-20 MAY: National Faith Weekend Anti-Trump Protest (https://refusefascism.org/2018/05/03/national-faith-weekend-may-18-20-i-am-my-brothers-keeper-the-trump-pence-regime-must-go/)

19 MAY: Malcolm X Day, Washington DC (https://www.facebook.com/BLMDC/posts/1986236388114569)

23-24 MAY: Anarchist Theatre Festival, Montreal, Canada (https://anarchistnews.org/content/montreal%E2%80%99s-13th-annual-anarchist-theatre-festival)

19 JUNE: Juneteenth Mobilization Against Prison Slavery (https://itsgoingdown.org/call-for-a-juneteenth2018-mobilization-against-prison-slavery/)

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

There’s been no change to indicators this week.


Culture War Roll-Up

The Communist Manifesto: The principle document of the Communist political ideology has recently been adapted into a comic book. The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, has been revered by Communists and Socialists around the world since it’s publication in 1848; and is often referred to as one of the world’s most influential political documents. The comic book version of the the manifesto, according to Gizmodo, is a more accessible adaptation that is “timely”, “nightmarish” and allows the ideas of Marx and Engels to “stand on their own,” while also providing for them “horrifying physical forms.” (Source: https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-communist-manifesto-gets-a-comic-adaptation-thats-b-1826023181)

Proud Boys: The “Western chauvinist” fraternal organization Proud Boys, founded by Vice Magazine co-foudner Gavin McInnes in 2016, has officially been registered and trademarked via the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a Limited Liability Company (LLC). The organization was registered by lawyer and Proud Boy J.L. Van Dyke Esq. in Texas with the intention of preventing future claims of the Proud Boys name, properly establishing future chapters within the fraternity, and promoting the interests of it’s members. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/ProudBoysInternational/posts/220294475233181)

Florida: A black man who was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat was verbally attacked by several staff members while having dinner at a Cheesecake Factory location in Miami, Florida. According to the witness a dozen staff members surrounded his table and began pointing fingers at him and verbally assaulting him for wearing the hat. The restaurant released a statement on Twitter concerning the incident saying “No guest should ever feel unwelcome in one of our restaurants and we are taking this matter very seriously. Upon learning of this incident, we immediately apologized to the guests in person. The individuals involved have been suspended pending the results of our investigation.” (Source: http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/05/15/black-trump-supporter-attacked-at-cheesecake-factory-over-maga-hat-report.html)

 



Mike Shelby is a former Intelligence NCO and contractor. He's now the CEO of Forward Observer.

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