Earlier this week, the avenues of West Philadelphia were blanketed with myriad of posters, warning residents of the presence of local neo-Nazi scum Mark Daniel Reardon, and his corny ‘Not a Nazi’ side-kick Jeff Thomas. This past spring, Reardon was driven from his apartment when community members learned that he had posted fliers around University City, looking to recruit for Atomwaffen, a violent neo-Nazi organization. Since then, Reardon has been forced to hide his wretched self away, spending his time re-tweeting Pepe the frog memes and periodically leaving his sad, lonely cave to get food from the Checkers on 43rd and Market.
Thomas resigns himself to attending Trump rallies and infrequently posting stickers and Alt-Right fliers around town. Oh, and getting in Facebook arguments about how he’s “totally not a racist,” despite being at the Unite the Right rally, and working security for known Holocaust denier Augustus Invictus. Pitiful as both Reardon and Thomas are, Charlottesville serves as proof that fascist and white supremacist groups are growing emboldened, and that individuals are becoming more committed to their racist ideologies, and backing them up with violence and terrorism against our communities.
While its easy to spot the bad guys at events, or the dude strolling along the street with a swastika on his arm; what about the Nazis living down your block, or working in your midst? We’re here to remind them that there will be no comfort for them, no community spaces that are accessible, or that feel safe. No individuals will be allowed a platform to exercise racist rhetoric, or recruit for their misguided and genocidal causes.
So keep your eyes open for these scum, skulking around West Philly and beyond, and give us a shout if you should happen across them. Know that while they are undoubtedly grade A tools, take note that we also believe them to be dangerous (as all white supremacists are), so please exercise caution.
The US is a country, like many others, that will not, and in many ways cannot, come to terms with its remarkably barbaric inception. The narrative of Columbus’s exploits and the later colonization of the territory is so extraordinarily savage that Americans, imperatively, create a preposterous story around this period. But the victims of white supremacist colonialism know all too well what Columbus represents. Revolutionaries, in solidarity with indigenous struggles, took action all across the country, in a total rejection of the colonial state.
Philly
Philly: As some prepare to celebrate Columbus Day, revolutionary anarchists and abolitionists reject all supremacist notions of colonialism. There is no place within radical working class movements for the triumphalism of a so-called “holiday” based on the domination, exploitation, and mass murder of indigenous people. Real solidarity means rejection of a genocidal legacy. Real unity means fighting together. Philly rejects colonialism. Power to indigenous people everywhere!
[Philly Anti-cap note: Follow the above link to see nation-wide actions, this post only includes a local action]
An online fundraising page has been set up in coordination with the Philly Anti-Repression Fund to preemptively prepare for any possible arrests during the mobilization against the IACP.
From the No IACP Bail Fund:
Organizations and individuals will be mobilizing in mass demonstrations and have called for decentralized, autonomous actions throughout the weekend to oppose this gathering, and we need your help! Any funds you can give will go towards bail in the event of arrests that weekend, and it’s crucial that we fundraise in advance in order to show people coming out for this mobilization that we support them.
Please donate what you can – anything you can give helps!
** All funds not used for bail during the IACP conference will be donated to the Philly Anti-Repression Fund to support future arrestees. **
Jewish Voice for Peace – Philadelphia has called for an action on October 22nd outside the convention center targeting the participation of the Anti-Defamation League in the IACP conference. Their call, titled Tell the ADL: End Deadly Police Exchanges, reads:
TELL THE ADL: END DEADLY POLICE EXCHANGES. Militaristic policing doesn’t make us safe!
Why will the Anti-Defamation League, a self-professed civil rights leader, have a table at a conference of police chiefs?
Join JVP Philly for this action outside the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference. We’ll be out there to call on the Anti-Defamation League to stop running exchange programs between U.S. police departments and Israeli military. These exchanges exacerbate racist police violence, militarization, and surveillance both here and in Israel/Palestine.
Policing doesn’t make us feel safe, and we reject safety built on militarized, racist, Islamophobic policing.
We’re working towards a world in which safety for all people is created through community and justice, and not for some people only through violence against others.
This action is part of the #DeadlyExchange campaign to end police exchanges between the US and Israel. To learn more and get involved with this local campaign email philly@jvp.org.
To kick off resistance to the IACP throughout their conference, a march has been called for the morning of Saturday, Oct. 21st, the first day of the conference. Meeting at Thomas Paine Plaza at 10AM, we will do our best to make it clear that the IACP and all police are firmly unwelcome in Philly.
Later on the 21st and on the 22nd, Philly for REAL Justice has called for two events as part of #AbolitionWeekend:
October 21-24, police chiefs from all over the nation will be gathering in Philadelphia. But we are clear that they are the heads of military forces which occupy black and brown communities, terrorizing and killing civilians. They will not come into our city without opposition.
On Saturday, October 21st, we rally outside of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, to denounce the militarized policing that plagues our country. [Event page here: http://bit.ly/2yvEKYN]
On Sunday, October 22nd, we are again outside of the Convention center, but this time, we will hold space as we discuss the theory of police abolition and the ways that we can fight for our freedom from the militarized police state. [Event page here: http://bit.ly/2xFryRG]
We need as many people as possible to come out, stand with us, and learn with us. Freedom is on the horizon. It’s time for us to move.
Below are some new outreach posters! Click images for PDFs.
Keep an eye out for more announced events and actions, and feel free to send any calls, questions or endorsements to noiacp@riseup.net.
This month will mark the 10 year Anniversary of the first time Keystone State Skinheads, aka Keystone United, held their “Leif Erikson Day Celebration” along Kelly Drive in Fairmount Park.
The event, innocuous sounding and followed by a “family-friendly” BBQ, was a big hit among the more “respectable” elements of the Neo-Nazi skinheads scene. It also had the added advantage of being booked during the weekend that the Anti-Racist Action Network’s national conference had been occurring for years, reducing the possibility of militant opposition.
The third year, 2009, Philly was invaded by Neo-Nazis from all over the country including representatives from The Vinlanders Social Club and Volksfront, two crews that had been bitter rivals in the past. This rang an alarm for Anti-Fascists in the region as to the long term damage an event like this could create by giving KSS both a foothold to rally in Philadelphia while also providing an opportunity to resolve conflicts within their movement.
2009 was also the first year when Antifa were there to oppose the Nazis. A handful of Anti-Racists from One People’s Project and associates blocked the Thorfin Karlsefni and heckled the nazis while they gave speeches. They also prevented KSS from laying their wreath. It was symbolic victory, but one that drew a line in the sand and foreshadowed the resistance that was to come.
2010 was an anomaly. The departure of the creator of LED from KSS had thrown them into disarray. A small band of Antifa were in the park but the nazis were no shows. When OPP posted a story about it, local nazis from the Council of Conservative Citizens, including KSS co-founder Steve Smith, threw together a photo op unannounced to save face.
2011, or the “Occupy LED” year, saw an influx of people who came over from the Occupation of City Hall, with Antifa numbering around 40 at their height against a slightly smaller group of KSS.
In 2012 a committed band of Antifa showed up and blocked the statue, heckling the 20 or so boneheads from KSS and Hated Skins that showed up.
2013 was a peak year of resistance to LED, and the final year that KSS was able to attempt to publicly announce their plans to rally in Philly. Mobilizing for weeks in advance, Anti-Fascists from Philly and the surrounding area were able to draw several hundred people to protest. Despite KSS drawing boneheads from as far away as Texas, they were outnumbered 4 or 5 to 1. Jeered and booed the entire day, forced to abandon their traditional march in favor of being walked down to the statue by the hand by Philly PD, it was an embarrassing defeat that KSS is yet to recover from.
Since then, the past three Octobers KSS has kept all details of the event secret, even from many in their own movement. While they have been able to rally in the dead of night for photo ops, the event no longer serves as a recruiting tool, nor is it a feather in the cap of KSS. Instead, it is an obligation to be fulfilled as quickly and quietly as possible, lest people realize that KSS has no public presence in Philadelphia to speak of any more.
We have confirmed that KSS WILL BE HOLDING a LED celebration in Philly at some point in October. Will it be another late night lurk in the shadows or will KSS dare to show their faces in Philly? Time will tell.
Rather than waiting to hear, after the fact, that the Nazis were in Fairmount Park, Anti-Racists in the area are appropriating Leif Erikson Day as a day against White Supremacy, Colonialism and Fascism. Let that be the legacy of this event, which was started to build Neo-Nazi organizing capacity in Philadelphia and has instead built our networks and groups.
Several different organizations in Philly are working together on this, reuniting as the “Philadelphia Residents Against Racism” coalition. We support this initiative and encourage our readers to join us in Faimount Park on October 7th to rally for a free and equal world and proudly claim that Philly is and will remain an Anti-Fascist city.
Here are some of the past organizers and attendees of Leif Erikson Day:
Steve Smith is a longtime Neo-Nazi. He is a former Klansman, co-founder of KSS and Luzerne county republican committeeman.Anthony James (AJ) Olsen – Philadelphia director of Keystone State Skinheads (KSS)Joey Phy, longtime Philly KSS Member and Neo-NaziBob Gaus, Co-Founder of KSS and longtime Neo-Nazi who lives in HarrsiburgJoseph Hoesch, Philly KSS member and co-founder.Matthew Heimbach, Head of Neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker’s Party, who has spoken at several LED events.Brien James, former head of Vinlanderss Social Club, current head of American GuardRyan Wojitowicz (l) and Jason Honeywell (r), KSS members.
Bryan Vanagaitis, KSS member formerly of Philly now living in Harrisburg area.Ron Sheehy – Sheehy engages in racist trolling online under the username Tremley, attends KSS events and was spotted in Charlottesville at the Unite the Right Rally.
Every October for the past decade often around Columbus Day Weekend, which is also around Oct. 9 – Leif Erickson Day – Keystone State “Skinheads” (aka Keystone United) and their supporters come to Philadelphia, PA to hold what they call their “Leif Erickson Day Celebration” at a Viking Statue ( that’s not of Leif Erickson) on Boathouse Row. Residents have come out to oppose them, most notably in 2013 when the neo-Nazis were overwhelmed by the opposition to their event. Since that year they have done everything they could to avoid the opposition whenever they organize this day. They didn’t have an event in 2014 until they were mocked, and over the past two years haven’t announced publicly or online, and held the event at night when no one is around to see them.
Well just like last year, we intend to come out regardless of their plans and celebrate us as a people. We will gather at the Thorfin Karlsfeni statue on Boathouse Row on Kelly Drive and rally against Racism, Colonialism, and KSS organizing in our city and state.
In the wake of Charlottesville, where several of the Leif Erickson Day Celebration attendees were seen, communities have been working to confront and keep down the activities of neo-Fascist in this society. Philly will be no different. We are calling on all Anti-Racists and Anti-Fascists to join us in confronting KSS & Co. and showing them that they are (still) not welcome in Philadelphia.
[October 7 from 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM at 1 Boathouse Row]
