Tag: Fascism

Neo-Nazis Driven Off CSU Campus After Turning Point USA Event

Courtesy Unicorn Riot:

Fort Collins, CO – On Friday night, Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing xenophobic student group, held a “Smashing Socialism” speaking event featuring its founder Charlie Kirk, at Colorado State University (CSU). A call to protest the event came from the Northern Colorado Antifa Collective, who has stated they oppose TPUSA because the organization provides “sanctuary” to “dangerously prejudicial sentiments.” The evening ended with police dispersal orders as an amassed crowd of antifascists confronted a small group of neo-Nazis who arrived at the end of the event, driving them off campus.

In the days leading up to TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk’s speech on Friday night, fliers from the national socialist Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) were found on campus. Various news outlets began to report that TWP members were planning to attend the February 2 event. While CSU president Tony Frank condemned the TWP fliers, TPUSA chapter president Isabel Brown, in statements to the Coloradoan, did not. Brown later backpedaled on her original support by stating that TPUSA condemns white nationalism; TPUSA head Charlie Kirk made statements to this effect during his Friday night speech as well.

The German anti-racist group HateXchange created a fundraising campaign to “adopt a Nazi enabler” and donate on behalf of the Traditionalist Worker Party members planning to attend. Donations from the campaign go to CSU Student Diversity Programs and to Life After Hate, an organization that works to help people leave hate groups.

Hours before the event, local police and EMTs were seen staging with vehicles and shields.

Full story and more photos from Unicorn Riot may be found here:

Neo-Nazis Driven Off CSU Campus After Turning Point USA Event

This tweet from speaker Charlie Kirk after the event denounced violence on both sides:

Films, newspapers, magazines and intranets and other media spread decadent ideologies, cultural poisoning

Photo courtesy KCNA.

North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun Calls for Foiling Ideological and Cultural Poisoning by Imperialism

Date: 20/01/2018 | Source: KCNA.kp (En) | Read original version at source

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) — For all the nations aspiring to independence and opposing imperialism to combat the poisoning of decadent ideologies and culture of every description precisely means a fierce struggle to defend their sovereignty and dignity, says Rodong Sinmun in an article Saturday.

The article goes on:

The imperialists regard the reactionary ideological and cultural poisoning as the most effective way for attaining their aggression and predatory aims with ease.

The degenerate reactionary ideology and the American outlook on value, which were employed as a guide to aggression, play the main role in aggression at present.

The imperialists consider the rising generation as the main target of their corrupt ideological and cultural poisoning.

Through films, newspapers, magazines and intranets and other media which the young people enjoy very much, the imperialists make them corrupt and degenerate and spread illusions about imperialism.

Those young people infected with luxury and enjoyment are reduced to renegades of their countries and stooges of imperialism unwittingly.

North Korean Defector: Return DPRK to State Sponsored Terrorism List

Some countries witnessed regime changes and government falls and the young people took the lead in causing such abnormal situations. That is because they were infected with the imperialist ideological and cultural poisoning.

The struggle in the ideological and cultural field is a war without gunfire. And a wrong struggle results in the worse consequences than the defeat in war.

The bourgeois ideological and cultural poisoning is more dangerous than a formidable enemy coming in attack with guns.

Any hesitation and concession to the ideological confrontation would give way to the bourgeois ideological and cultural poisoning and then it would make mess of the destiny of a nation and country.

The Amazing Kims: Mythology and the Cult of Personality in North Korea

Wreckage of Soviet plane shot down over Auschwitz in 1945 found in Poland

© The Close Places of Memory Fund
The plane’s wreckage was found in a pond whose owner pumped water out of it in early winter
In Auschwitz-Birkenau, fascists killed in gas chambers and burnt in crematorium furnaces over 1 million Jews, and also dozens of thousands of representatives of the Polish intelligentsia and Soviet prisoners-of-war.

WARSAW, January 19. /TASS/. The wreckage of an Ilyushin Il-4 bomber that was shot down in January 1945 during the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet troops has been found in Poland, member of the Close Places of Memory Fund Artur Chongala told TASS on Friday.

The plane’s wreckage was found in a pond whose owner pumped water out of it in early winter and noticed the bomber’s fragments protruding from the silt. He told the Fund about his discovery. The Fund started examining the plane’s wreckage.

“We recovered several fragments, by which we were able to make it clear that this was precisely an Il-4 plane [a two-motor bomber of the period of the Soviet Union’s 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany],” the Fund’s representative said.

“A legend had long been circulated in Auschwitz about a wrecked Soviet plane but no one knew where it was,” he stressed.

“Now it is known that the plane fell short of a couple of kilometers to fly to the Birkenau camp,” he added.

Nothing is known about the fate of the bomber’s pilots. No remains were found inside it. An effort is under way to identify the names of the pilots with the help of the Russian embassy.

“We would very much like to learn their names,” Chongala said, adding that the Fund would demonstrate the plane’s discovered wreckage at an exhibition.

In Auschwitz-Birkenau, fascists killed in gas chambers and burnt in crematorium furnaces over 1 million Jews, and also dozens of thousands of representatives of the Polish intelligentsia and Soviet prisoners-of-war. Estimates indicate that overall from 1.5 million to 2 million people of various nationalities died in that camp. The concentration compound was liberated by the Soviet troops on January 27, 1945.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp was liberated in the course of the Vistula-Oder operation by Soviet divisions making part of the 60th army of the First Ukrainian Front.

According to the 60th army’s roster (the document was declassified several years ago), Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by combatants of 39 nationalities. Various estimates indicate that from 234 to 350 Soviet soldiers and officers died during the liberation of the concentration camp.

 

New Antifa Documentary Now Online: Global Uprisings

Update: The new 30-minute documentary is now available for free viewing or download here:

ANTIFA: Special January 20th Screener!

 

The film will be available online by midnight Central European time at the end of January 19, so anyone can organize a screening and download it to show on January 20. If you need to communicate with someone in advance about showing the film, email info@weinterruptthisprogram.org.

Here’s a trailer for the film:

Since the election of Donald Trump, acts of racist violence have proliferated across the United States. Racists and misogynists feel emboldened to express and act on their views. White nationalist groups and resurgent traditional white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have used Trumps victory to gain new recruits. All that stands in their way are the groups of anarchists and anti-state communists who have taken it upon themselves to prevent fascism from becoming a powerful political force in the United States. This film tells the story of what “Antifa” is and why people are using these tactics to confront racism and fascism in the US today.

Who are the anti-fascists? What motivates them to risk their lives to fight the far right? What is the history of militant anti-fascism and why is it relevant again today? How is anti-fascism connected to a larger political vision that can stop the rise of fascism and offer us visions of a future worth fighting for? Through interviews with anti-fascist organizers, historians, and political theorists in the US and Germany, we explore the broader meaning of this political moment while taking the viewer to the scene of street battles from Washington to Berkeley and Charlottesville.

New Documentary on January 20, 2017: ANTIFA

Ben Shapiro at UCLA: Antifa & Antifascists as Fascists: Livestream and More

Live

SO WHAT EXACTLY IS BEN SHAPIRO DOING OR SAYING THAT IS CAUSING FOLKS TO SEEK MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT?

Ben Shapiro is a conservative promoting traditional values. Shapiro advocates for capitalism, traditional marriage (man and woman), intact family units (two-parent households) and morality derived from religion (unless it’s Islam–more about that below).

Shapiro is a prolific author. His conservatism is reflected in some of his more popular titles:

Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth (2004).

Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future (2005).

Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America (2013).

How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument (2014)

In Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, Shapiro writes:

“At my own beloved UCLA the numbers are just as frightening. There are thirty-one English professors with registered party affiliation. Twenty-nine of them are affiliated with the Democratic party, the Green party, or another leftist political party. Out of thirteen journalism professors with registered affiliation, twelve are affiliated with leftist parties. Fifty-three out of fifty-six history professors are affiliated with leftist parties. Sixteen out of seventeen political science professors are affiliated with leftist parties. Thirty-one of thirty-three women’s studies professors are affiliated with leftist parties.”

In Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future, Shapiro says:

“Never in our country’s history has a generation been so empowered, so wealthy, so privileged—and yet so empty.”

But where Shapiro really goes hard on college students is in his book How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument:

“College students’ sense of moral righteousness doesn’t come from achievement – it comes from believing that you are a bad person. You are a racist and sexist; they are not. That makes them good, even if they don’t give charity, have never met a black person, stand for policies that impoverish minority communities across the United States, and enable America-haters around the globe.”

And this, also from How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them:

“The leftist bullies have taken over the major institutions of the United States. The university system has been monopolized by a group of folks who believe that it’s no longer worthwhile debating the evidence on tax rates, or whether the Laffer curve is right, or whether Keynesian policies actually promote economic growth. They don’t want to debate those issues. What they want to teach instead is that is you are personally ignorant, bigoted, corrupt, and mean if you disagree with them. Their opinions are not opinions; they are fact. This is the hallmark of being stuck inside a bubble. The people who occupy the professoriate have not had to work a real job – a job with real-world consequences — in over 30 years. They’ve lived on a campus where everyone agrees with them, convincing them that their beliefs are universally-held. Anyone who disagrees is a “flat earther.” Anyone who disagrees is a monster. You are a monster.”

In 2014, Shapiro ruffled feathers when he published this video titled, “The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority is Just That.”

And then, in 2015, Shapiro got in heated debate with transgender journalist Zoey Tur, after which Shapiro filed a police report.

So that’s Ben Shapiro… and, as Ben Shapiro says, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.”

Poll Shows Millennials Prefer Socialism Over Capitalism

Annual Report on US Attitudes towards Socialism Shows Americans Still Have a Lot To Learn

Compiled by Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation/October 2017

This year’s centennial anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution has caused many to reflect on the legacies that Marxism and communism have left on our cultural memory. It has been a full century since Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and communism made its bloody debut on the world stage. Authors, activists, and politicians alike are asking the question: what has America learned from one hundred years of communism?

When the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation published its inaugural study on American attitudes toward socialism and communism in 2016, the results revealed some disturbing trends in American society.

The second annual study tracks how opinions about communism among Americans have changed since 2016.

As of this year, more Millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country (44%) than in a capitalist one (42%). Some even said they would prefer to live in a communist country (7%). The percentage of Millennials who would prefer socialism to capitalism is a full ten points higher than that of the general population.

According to the poll, the majority of America’s largest generation would prefer to live in a socialist or communism society than in a free enterprise system that includes private property and limited government. However, results show that, despite Millennials’ enthusiasm for socialism and communism, they do not, in fact, know what those terms mean.

Participants were asked to choose the best definition for each term. Definitions are commonly accepted and adapted from Wikipedia. (Due to rounding, totals may not equal 100%)

Another finding of the study is that, to a high degree, Americans favor absolute protections for free speech, regardless of their views of communism or socialism. Communists and socialists more broadly have historically and ideologically favored state regulation of the press, speech, and popular assembly. Results suggest that Millennials who favor socialism and communism have not thoroughly considered the implications of their political beliefs.

A full report is available at http://victimsofcommunism.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/YouGov-VOC-2017-for-Media-Release-November-2-2017-final.pdf

November 7, 2017 declared National Day for Victims of Communism.

National Day for the Victims of Communism

Bob Avakian, Refuse Fascism & the Revolutionary Communist Party in the US

Who is Bob Avakian?

Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party in the United States since 1975.

Author of multiple books, including the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

In 2005 Avakian published an autobiography called From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist.

Recent press release calls him “the most radical revolutionary alive.”

Critics call him the head of a “cult of personality.” (MORE ABOUT THIS BELOW)

Former student at the University of California, Berkeley during free speech movement.

Known as “Chairman Bob” or “BA.”

Often spends time in self-imposed exile, though he is not wanted for anything.

Maoist synthesized with Marxism, Leninism and science.

In 2016 Avakian founded Refuse Fascism refusefascism.org, an organization opposed to the presidency of Donald Trump. Previously founded “World Can’t Wait” campaign to overthrow the Bush regime.

BIO

Robert Bruce Avakian, born March 7, 1943 in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Berkeley, California.

Previous involvement with the Students for a Democratic Society at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement, the Black Panther Party, Revolutionary Youth Movement, Bay Area Revolutionary Union.

Charged with assaulting a police officer in January 1979 at a demonstration in Washington DC to protest Deng Xiaoping’s meeting with Jimmy Carter. Fled to France. Charges dismissed but remained in self-imposed exile.

From revcom.us:

To this day, through his talks and writings, and his overall political and ideological leadership, Bob Avakian has continued to guide the RCP, USA, in its fundamental orientation and strategic approach of working for revolution in the U.S. itself and contributing all it can to  revolution and the ultimate goal of communism in the world as a whole.

Cult of personality criticism

Described by critics as having created a this mystique of exile (he is not wanted for anything), he is said to equate himself with revolutionaries such as Malcolm X with a target on his back, the subject of death threats  and a victim of US government attacks and persecution. Followers said to cherish and idealize “Chairman Bob.” He fights for the oppression of Black people, Latinos, women and other oppressed sections of society.

Bob Avakian posters, in the spirit of Che Guevarra posters, are often posted at the Burning Man festival to create hype and generate interest. (BA t-shirts are also available.)

The Article “Free Bob Avakian! Oh, he’s already free? Never mind” written by Mark Oppenheimer (2008) goes into more detail about the cult of personality.

http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/01/27/free_bob_avakian/?page=1

————-

Sunsara Taylor, advocate of Bob Avakian’s new communism, writer for Revcom.us, is a co-initiator of Refuse Fascism. Here she is with Bill O’Reilly in 2007 discussing the “Shout-Down” technique the group often employs.

Bob Avakian is set to speak on the UC Berkeley campus in April, 2018 about freedom of expression and communist revolution. The press release indicates he will be exposing and refuting the lies and distortions of Berkeley’s Chancellor Christ about the Free Speech Movement. This event will be co-organized by Sunsara Taylor.

Revolution Books is a chain of bookstores opened with support of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the U.S. which is spearheaded by activist and political theorist Bob Avakian and which sells his many books and pamphlets.

Civil War 2017? Not really–the story behind the hashtag

Antifa Parody Accounts

Photo courtesy “AmishAntifa” Parody Account 

Antifa parody accounts have quietly existed for some time, spoofing Antifascist activism via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

But one now suspended account, @antifaboston, caused all sorts of confusion and embarrassment when in September mainstream media mistook it for a Russian operative account spreading disinformation. Hysteria over Russian interference in social media peaked when someone noticed the Boston Antifa Twitter account had geo-tagged itself as originating in Vladivostok, Russia.

(NOTE: THIS PARTICULAR TWITTER ACCOUNT HAS NOW BEEN SUSPENDED)

Even Chris Hayes of MSNBC got caught in the crossfire when he reported on the “Russian” account, later admitting on Twitter, “yeah that wasn’t my best performance.” Likewise, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford was duped.

 

According to North Shore Antifa, which claims to be a true Antifa account representing the Boston area, “Boston Antifa” no longer has an active Facebook page nor any other social media, any existing pages are fascist honeypots or troll accounts spreading misinformation. Please do not interact with these pages or share their content, however monitor their activity as precaution.

North Shore Antifa is currently the ONLY verifiable and trustworthy resource on social media for the actual real life antifascist organizing taking place in the Boston area.

For all inquiries/tips please message us directly or use encrypted email & contact NorthShoreAntifa@protonmail.com as well as AntifaBoston@protonmail.com.”

Well, the parody Boston Antifa Twitter account is now back up and running (Boston Antifa @AntifaBostonUSA) announcing, “The Russian @antifaboston trolls have been dealt with. We will leave our geotag on so that folx know we are legit and not from Vladivostok.”

Boston Antifa Explains Parody: Vladivostok, Russia, Geo-Tagging & More

And for more Antifa fun, check out these few (though there are many more):

AmishAntifa

Beverly Hills Antifa

Nantucket Antifa

Pyongyang Antifa

 

 

Civil War 2017? Not really–the story behind the hashtag

November 4 It Begins: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

Refuse Fascism has been publicly organizing a call to action over the past couple of months. According to the group’s website (as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts), Refuse Fascism is planning an occupy-style protest to demand an end to the “Trump/Pence Regime.” There does not appear to be any mention of a “Civil War” nor are any of the group’s activities the least bit secretive.

The call to action reads as follows:

ON NOVEMBER 4, 2017

Take To The Streets And Public Squares

In cities and towns across the country continuing day after day and night after night—not stopping—until our DEMAND is met.

——————

In the Name of Humanity,

We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America!

Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime!

The Trump/Pence Regime is a Fascist Regime. Not insult or exaggeration, this is what it is. For the future of humanity and the planet, we, the people, must drive this regime out.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence have assembled a vicious cabal that has put forth positions and begun initiatives which demonstrate that they fully intend to shred political and social norms with catastrophic consequence.  Because Trump has his finger on the nuclear trigger, the Trump/Pence regime is more dangerous to the world than even Hitler.

Fascism has direction and momentum. Dissent is piece by piece criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned.   Group after group is demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to real horrors.  All of this has already begun under the Trump Regime. History has shown that fascism must be stopped before it becomes too late.

Millions of people, outraged by this regime, took to the streets delivering a stinging rebuke to Trump the day after the inauguration. Protest and resistance continues against the many attacks on the people by the Trump/Pence administration.  This must grow broader, deeper, and more determined. This resistance is righteous and necessary, but it is not sufficient. We must recognize that the character of fascism is that it can absorb separate acts of resistance while continually throwing the opposition off balance by rapidly moving its agenda forward. The Trump/Pence regime will repeatedly launch new highly repressive measures, eventually clamping down on all resistance and remaking the law… IF THEY ARE NOT DRIVEN FROM POWER.

In the first weeks of the Trump/Pence regime they have begun subverting the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, called for a new nuclear arms race, demonized the press, dismissed the very concept of truth substituting their own fabricated “alternative facts.”  It can already be said of Trump/Pence that “first they came for” the Muslims, then the Mexicans, then all refugees, then women, then Black and Latino people, LGBTQ persons, the environment, and anyone who doesn’t conform or submit to their vision and plan for a nation cohered around white supremacy and a political form of Christian fundamentalism, that should rightly be called Christian Fascism.

Fascism is not just a gross combination of horrific reactionary policies. It is a qualitative change in how society is governed.  Fascism foments and relies on xenophobic nationalism, racism, misogyny, and the aggressive re-institution of oppressive “traditional values.”  In Trump’s election campaign he encouraged and fed on the threat and use of violence to build a movement and come to power. In his inaugural address he pledged allegiance only to this movement. What is crucial to understand is that once in power fascism essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights.

Even as the Trump/Pence Regime is moving fast, they have not yet fully consolidated their regime, or, as yet, been able to implement their full program.  But, this is their objective and it is very possible. It might only take a single serious crisis – international or domestic — for this regime to drop the hammer. We do not have much time.

Don’t Normalize…Don’t Accommodate…Don’t Conciliate…Don’t Collaborate…

There is method to Trump’s madness that echoes Hitler.  Fascism advances in stages through outrage, shock and intimidation,  followed by brief periods of normalization where people accommodate to the new situation the regime has imposed.

After the election, Obama said of Trump: “We are now all rooting for his success.” NO! If Trump succeeds, humanity loses. Bernie Sanders has said that he will work with Trump on jobs or where they agree.  NO! If you work with fascists you normalize the road to horror.

This is not just a pendulum swing Democrat to Republican, but a regime that is moving to establish a fascist order under the signboard of “America First.” Acting as if the election in 2018 or 2020 is the way to deal with this regime is folly, betraying a lack of understanding of just how fast, furious, and profoundly this regime will change the rules, cement its rule, destroy lives and crush spirits.

You cannot try to “wait things out.” Those who lived through Nazi Germany and sat on the sidelines, looking on as Hitler demonized, criminalized, and eventually rounded up one group after another, became shameful collaborators with monstrous crimes.

All of this is what renders the Trump/Pence Regime illegitimate and a grave threat to people all over the world. Therefore, we resolve:

[1] Our single unifying mission must be to Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime.

[2] We must manifest the power of NO! everywhere: on signs, billboards, walls, social media and the news. NO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America must resound.

[3] Every outrage committed by this regime must be met with greater and greater resistance.

[4] We must ORGANIZE:  working with all our creativity and determination toward the time when millions of people can be moved to fill the streets of cities and towns day after day and night after night, declaring this whole regime illegitimate – Demanding, and Not Stopping, Until the Trump/Pence Regime Is Driven from Power.

If this happens, then the whole political landscape would be dramatically transformed, every faction within the established power structure would be forced to respond—and all this could lead to a situation in which this fascist regime is driven from office.

Let it not be said that we did not move heaven and earth to drive out this regime.  This must be a moment in history when millions stand together with conviction and courage, overcoming fear and uncertainty, to resist and say NO! Not just for ourselves, but in the name of humanity.

Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime!

——————–

Get Organized! Leaflets, Posters and Graphics for November 4 are provided at https://refusefascism.org as well as upcoming events in a variety of American cities.

According to Wikipedia, Refuse Fascism was founded by Bob Avakian, the chair of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, in December 2016. Its national office is in New York City.