On August 31st, in so called Illinois, in the tradition of Black August revolutionary learning and growth, RAM members facilitated “What will bring about our freedom”, a discussion/workshop on Black anarchism that we plan to replicate across the country.
Our discussion drew on the work of Zoe Samudzi, William C. Anderson, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, Kuwasi Balagoon and Ashanti Alston in addition to the experiences of many of the black folks taking part in the discussion.
Major discussion points included the need for a anarchist movement that does not center whiteness, how traditions of resistance against the state have been part of the black freedom tradition far before the first anarchist arrived to the United States and the need for black anarchist collectives to emerge.
We are hopeful about the future. We will burn down the American plantation. In the tradition of our ancestors and martyrs, we will continue to fight for our liberation.
If you are interested in bringing this workshop to your community, please contact us at phillyram@riseup.com
Background: On August 31, the Broadway Theatre in Pitman, NJ, will play host to variety of speakers from the far-right, including Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, who helped fuel the anti-feminist harassment of GamerGate.
Action: Call the Broadway Theatre at (856) 384-8381 and ask them not to let fascists use their space to organize. Be polite and offer to explain the context of the event.
Sample Script:Hello, I’m calling on behalf of No Hate NJ to ask you to cancel the upcoming MINDS New Jersey event that will be held at your theater on August 31. The speakers include Carl Benjamin, who helped inspire a campaign of harassment and terror against feminists during GamerGate; Mark Meechan, who was convicted of a hate crime in the UK; Aydin Paladin, a Holocaust denier; and Andy Ngo, a conspiracy theorist who recently inspired a neo-Nazi kill list with his lies. Thank you so much for your time.
The Philadelphia Proud Boys have recently escalated their violence, paying a midnight visit to the home antifascist researcher Gwen Snyder. Snyder was not home at the time, so they confronted her neighbor.
“You tell that fat bitch she better stop,” one of them told her neighbor.
Researchers in Philadelphia have set up a website, PhillyProudBoys.com, to track the members of the group.
Embarrassing Turnout for Philly Militia Rally
About a dozen militia members, including Unite the Right’s Tammy Lee and Gary Sigler, paraded around historic Philadelphia on Saturday under heavy police escort. They’re doing these “Patriot Pride” marches as a series of weekend rallies, they were in Chicago last weekend. Look for them in your city soon.
Community alert that a far-Right march will take place on Saturday in Philadelphia.
WHITE NATIONALISTS, ISLAMOPHOBES and other assorted FASCISTS are planning to show themselves in Philly on 8/3, for a late-announced march under the guise of “Patriot Pride.”
Organized by Houston resident Chris White with local the event doubles as a publicity campaign for White’s “Freedom Hard” lifestyle brand. As part of an attempted national campaign White marched in Chicago on July 27th to a paltry turnout, had planned to hold similar events in DC and Philly, but seems to have canceled his DC event for lack of interest.
But what White and friends either don’t know or care about, is that this march’s registered attendees include members of hate groups such as the Proud Boys, Three Percenter Militia, Chester County KKK, white supremacist Asatru practitioners and other assorted far right CHUDs.
As seen nationally post-Charlottesville, many far right groups have retreated from attempts to organize in the open, and recruit covertly inside more milquetoast right wing groups. This was widely exposed leading up to last year’s “We The People” rally, similarly organized under the guise of innocuous patriotism but actually planned and attended by Three Percenter Militia and Proud Boys members.
Take this information as you will; vulnerable folks seeking to avoid Center City tomorrow is totally understandable. But if you’re willing and able to help keep Nazi’s and their ilk off our streets, any resistance is encouraged!
Ron Sheehy and Dan D’Ambly led a crew of four people to harass members of the Jewish community and their supporters protesting Trump’s concentration camps. Gee, whatever got their dander up?
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Neo-Nazis, two who were readily identified as participants in the 2017 “Unite the Right” Rally in Charlottesville, were seen at an anti-ICE protest at Independence Hall today.
Jewish-American organizations across the country organized this week to be a national “Never Again Week of Action,” and are holding similar marches across the U.S., linking the current immigration enforcement tactics employed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Holocaust. “As Jews, we’ve been taught to never let anything like the Holocaust happen again,” the Facebook event page reads. “Now, with children detained in unacceptable conditions, ICE raids targeting our communities, and people dying at the border while seeking safety in the US, we are seeing the signs of a mass atrocity. We refuse to wait and see what happens next.”
During the march, four White men identified as neo-Nazis were heckling the passing protesters with anti-Semitic language. Of the four, two were identified because of their notoriety. Dan D’Ambly of the New Jersey European Heritage Association (NJEHA), raised the Betsy Ross American flag while shouting at passers-by, while Ron Sheehy, once of the Advanced White Society joined him while videotaping those he was heckling on his cell phone. According to a since deleted post from his “Tremley” account on Stormfront, the other two were members of NJEHA.
Sheehy also said the four of them later attempted to lay a wreath emblazoned with NJEHA decals on the grave of Ben Franklin but was met with opposition. “We all paid $3 each to get into the Cemetery, and we asked if we can lay a Reef (sic) on Ben Franklin’s Grave Site so we can take a Picture,” he wrote. “(T)hey said ok, but once we did, 2 queer guys who worked there flipped out and tried taking the Reef (sic) away from us. A lot yelling back and forth with them calling us White Supremacist and stuff, so we left after that.” Sheehy also went to an anti-I.C.E. protest earlier this week at the offices of Rep. Tom Malinowski where he heckled the protesters while videotaping them. It is not known at this time if anyone joined him there.
D’Ambly is best known for attempting to hold a rally in Princeton, NJ but failed to show once the residents learned of his plans. The NJEHA seldom, if ever, hold public rallies, opting instead to post flyers on telephone poles in various cities around the state. Sheehy has been seen often at anti-immigration events over the past decade in the New York City area, and just like D’Ambly was photographed at the rally in Charlottesville which cost this life of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed when White Supremacist James Fields plowed his car into a crowd of protester. D’Ambly was also identified as one of the participants of the “Unite the Right 2” rally the following year in Washington, DC, with his NJEHA organization.
Not done with the #NJEHA just yet. I was going through my Charlottesville 2017 video files and found Dan D’Ambly walking with a crowd of folks. pic.twitter.com/ET1HZ68dSG
Dozens of protesters were arrested during the Fourth of July Parade while marching through demanding those being held in what has been referred to as concentration camps be removed from such establishments, one of them being in Berks County, PA.
[Philly Anticap note: This post only contains the sections of Unicorn Riot’s article about Philadelphia. To read the entire post visit the link above.]
While [American Identity Movement] exact plans have not yet been announced, recent actions by the American Identity Movement’s core members provide a likely template. In May 2019, a few members of AmIM targeted crowds at a baseball game in Philadelphia, and brought a vinyl banner celebrating Kate Smith, a former singer of the National Anthem at the Philly stadium whose statue was recently removed due to her history of making racist comments. The small group of white supremacist activists brought the banner into the crowd arriving for the game, and managed to entice several unsuspecting passerby into posing with them in footage later released in a propaganda video.
A message in the American Identity Movement’s private online chat for members, posted by ‘Konrad-MD,’ requested donations to recoup costs paid out of pocket to pull off the small media stunt.
Kurtis Buckingham aka ‘Konrad’ solicits donations for racist activism in the American Identity Movement’s MatterMost chat server.
Unicorn Riot has identified ‘Konrad’ as Kurtis Bailey Buckingham, an active member of AmIM’s Maryland chapter who appears at most of the group’s national actions. Buckingham is one of the newer hardcore members of the group, with leaked Discord logs showing that he joined Identity Evropa in August 2018.
Kurtis Buckingham aka ‘Konrad-MD’ at the white nationalist American Renaissance conference in May 2019.
Philadelphia Proud Boys- 1. John Lombardo, 2. Joseph Ruff, 4. Tom Moermann, 5. Nicholas J. Magner, 9. Sonny Sullivan, 10. Donovan Chiarlanza, 11. Zachary Rehl, 13. Stephen Hartley, 14. John David WilliamsMore Scum- 2. Tyler Yamaguchi, 5. Jason Wiltsley, 6. Sean Curran, 7. John David Williams, 8. Mark Anthony Tucci, 9. Stephen Hartley, 10. Nicholas J. Magner
Philadelphia’s chapter of the Proud Boys has existed since mid-2017, though they have for the most part tried to remain out of the public eye and off the radar. Their attempts to hide however, have been decidedly ineffective.
So what is the point of exposing a group with no real public presence or visible effect on the world? The real question one should be asking is why wait until this group has caused harm to act? The Proud Boys on a national level have very clear intentions and are responsible for a rash of violent incidents across the country, like gang beatings in New York, and Portland. They are founded on carefully coded white supremacist and misogynist rhetoric, bigotry that makes them rotten to the core and often flares up among individual members despite PR efforts by the group as a whole to simply appear as conservatives. By willingly accepting the name and associations of the Proud Boys, this Philadelphia chapter has made their intentions clear. They have seen what the group has done across the country and decided that they too wish to be a part of that. They have made their clear and conscious decision, a decision that makes their state of mind and eventual goals apparent, and they should be responded to accordingly. Why wait until they’ve committed violence?
The first mentions of this chapter were in the spring of 2017, when prospective members began to organize on reddit. Among the initial organizers were president Stephen Hartley and vice president Tom Moerman, who began mentioning their membership on social media around this time. The group steadily gained numbers behind the scenes throughout 2017 and into 2018. Almost all of their activity up to this point was social in nature, consisting mostly of drinking outings and outdoors activities like rafting or boating. During this time, members like John Williams and Stephen Hartley cavorted with prolific national personalities in the far right like Gavin McInnes, Milo Yiannopoulous, and Sal Cipolla, attending national Proud Boy events like parties in New York, or their music festival, West Fest.
Some of the Philadelphia Proud Boys on a rafting trip with other chapters
They began to intersect with other portions of the Philadelphia Far Right, namely the group Sports, Beer, & Politics (On facebook, Sports, Beer & Politics II), led by Zach Rehl and Sonny Sullivan. Sports, Beer, and Politics and their connections to other Far Right groups has been outlined before http://archive.is/8CIpg. Zach and Sonny first began to appear as known members of the main chapter of the Philadelphia Proud Boys in the Summer of 2018, though how long they had interacted before this is unknown. It should be noted that another group, the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, was active in Philadelphia and is considered an offshoot of the Proud Boys. Members of this group organized closely with Sports, Beer, and Politics in 2017 and provided the personal security detail of Neo Nazi Augustus Invictus in Charlottesville. The Alt-Knights have not been very active in quite some time and their associations with the main group that refers to itself as the “Philadelphia Proud Boys” is unknown.
For the Philadelphia Proud Boys, their public debut was at the “We the People Rally” in Philadelphia, on November 17th, 2018. Zach Rehl, one of the members, was one of the main organizers of this event and welcomed Proud Boys both local and national, with open arms. While Proud Boys initially openly pledged allegiance to this event, they quickly backpedaled after the negative press that came out after a weekend of violent incidents and arrests in New York and Portland. They were instructed not to show up in their distinct uniform of Black and Gold Fred Perrys, and not to appear in any organizational capacity, but just as “patriots”. The still referred to themselves as Proud Boys in the security organizing chat leading up to the event though. Such duplicitous behavior is a trademark of organizer Zach Rehl. Indeed many of them showed up to the rally on the 17th, thinking they could disguise themselves in Plain Clothes. Several of them are seen together at a cigar bar after the rally, some of them apparently having changed into their Proud Boy uniforms. After a concerted doxing campaign on twitter, many of them panicked and went quiet and it seems the ranks were shuffled a bit. Zach Rehl would attempt to organize several fascist rallies in the Northeast, with a rogues gallery of boomer militias, meathead goons like Alan Swinney, and hardcore fascists like American Guard. All of these events fell through due to a mix of infighting and extreme incompetence on the part of everyone involved. Nonetheless, small crews of Philly Proud Boys would show up to various events in Philly later in the spring, with a contingent of them showing up to harass protesters outside a speech by Candace Owens at UPenn, and another group of them showing up to an anti-abortion rally. Most recently, Thomas Savasta seems to be rising through the ranks, even attending a national event where the Proud Boys declared a defamation lawsuit against the SPLC. Their most recent appearance was at Philadelphia pride- ostensibly for the purpose of participating with their gay members and appearing nice and liberal and tolerant. Of course, this is all a trick of optic’s sake- don’t be fooled. They are still working with the same base material of a group founded in bigotry, no matter how much they try to deny it. A polished turd is still a turd.
This attempt to manifest publicly was alarming and set in motion a concerted effort to root out and expose the members of this group, as a counter to their attempts to remain out of the spotlight. They will be dragged into it. Knowing who is organizing this group and who is involved in it allows us to defend our communities from any violence they may commit or invite in the future.
In general, their ranks seem to be drawn from men in their late 20s-early 40s, with most of these ‘boys’ being in their mid 30’s (Imagine calling yourself a ‘Proud Boy’ at that age… absolutely pitiful). Almost all have an inclination towards right-libertarian politics. This chapter appears to be much more optics conscious than other chapters, trying to maintain a sanitized image free of overt bigotry. This is done to the point of even being regarded as “liberal” by other members of the far right across the country. Indeed they only let their bigoted views loose in settings they believe are private or unwatched, or under different names. They love to play the game of plausible deniability, watching their tongues carefully to try and prove they aren’t racist. It must be remembered that joining into an organization with White supremacist roots, that is heavily laden with hardcore white supremacists, bolsters their actions and violence, and makes you complicit.
One strain of bigotry that seems to run consistently through the group and on the surface is Islamophobia- considering the massive spike in Islamophobic violence since Trump got elected, it is reasonable to assume that this group is a danger to Muslims in Philadelphia. Many of them seem to be drawn from the Pop Punk/Metalcore/Easycore/Metal fandoms and people who actively participate in those are warned to keep an eye out for them.
Please note that addresses given are, as a result of the data collecting method used, not confirmed as entirely true unless there is some form of on the ground evidence that that person resides there.
So who are the known members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys? Some of the key figures have provided a glut of information on their lives and activities, while others are more halfhearted about their dedication to the group and their public image, so of course there is a lot more information on some rather than others.
Chicago Antifa identified Matthew Missimer, of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, as far-Right Twitter troll @Mathaeus-M. He frequently retweeted neo-Nazi and white nationalist accounts, including former Traditionalist Worker Party co-founder Matthew Parrott, white nationalist website VDARE, and Identity Evropa, and made frequent misogynistic and transphobic statements. After being publicly identified, Missimer promptly deleted his Twitter account.
“We are the account killers,” quipped Chicago Antifa. “3rd one this week.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Missimer is an Invoice Processor at Aerotek, a staffing services company in Downington, Pennsylvania. You can let them know about their employee by tweeting @Aerotek.
[Philly Anticap note: We have only included a locally relevant fragment of the original post. To read the whole post follow the link at the top of the post.]
Ian Hoffman AKA Papa Pizzagate; Identity Evropa PA Coordinator
One of the Identity Evropa originals!
A devoted white nationalist, Ian Hoffman of Palmyra, PA was arrested on assault and battery charges at Unite the Right in 2017,(https://archive.st/lryf ). He was doxxed then, but its time for a redoxx! Ian Hoffman is the Pennsylvania coordinator for Identity Evropa and handles the t-shirt orders for his fellow nazis. One time he put up stickers in Harrisburg, before they were promptly removed by locals.
He’s 30 years old, born on July 25, 1988 and is a diehard Trump supporter. Hoffman enjoys trolling the opposition using racial slurs, and posting it to Discord: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/481597551272001546/509197425601413136/unknown.png. He has declared that “we have a president who is openly calling himself a nationalist. Demographics are being discussed openly (and not always favorably) on cable television. Senators and pundits are using language that would only have been heard from White Nationalists as recently as 5 years ago.” Hoffman goes on to say that he thinks Trump won because he hates a lot of the same things regular Americans hate too, like Globalism, political correctness, bureaucracy, the “deep state”, multiculturalism and so forth. Further illustrating his belief that the time is right for proudly claiming one’s white identity, Hoffman helped cement connections between Identity Evropa and politician Steve King of IA, saying “The left went full court press on ‘STEVE KING IS A WHITE NATIONALIST’ and he still won.”
Hoffman’s social media is full of loads of garbage, including this sad attempt at poetics:
“Nationalism is Rising
Globalism is falling
Neoliberalism is on it’s way out
Trump taught the American public to hate the media, and they do.
People are seeking other answers to the truths
of our broken society and system
White Identity is in the air.”
Around the holidays, Ian Hoffman recommends encouraging Identity Evropa members to “name the Jew” to their parents and family. Going on to say that “White people [are] notacting in self-preservation and group interest. Let’s focus on improving that. Promoting these ‘grand Jewish plans’ makes us sound extreme, inaccessible and unhinged, so may as well drop it and focus on what we can do. Ultimately, whether or not you believe in the plan is irrelevant” and ending his diatribe with “I’m SURE that if (((THEY))) didn’t circumcise young men, America would be [a] white ethno-paradise.”
Don’t forget Ian, the internet is forever and we will keep finding you and finding you.
Ian lives alone at 129 W Main St, APT 2E in Palmyra, Pa. In a show of how empty his life is, he lists his hobbies as cars, entrepreneurship, dirt bikes (his field of work now) and bonsai trees.
A collection of texts from Anathema, an anarchist publication out of Philadelphia, about anarchist action and analysis following the police shooting of Kaleb Belay in a rapidly gentrifying area of the city.
It’s well known that West Philly is rapidly gentrifying. Developers and more moneyed renters and buyers continue to successfully take more space from poor and working-class Black people. In this process, one of the few negative consequences these newcomers might experience is getting robbed in the neighborhood. In January, the number of robberies in the heart of gentrifying West Philly shot up, in the area between 41st and 49th streets (from east to west) and between Ludlow and Cedar avenues (from north to south). At least eight robberies were reported during that month, according to a University City District (UCD) report. Four homes on Hazel and Larchwood avenues between 49th and 51st streets were also burglarized during this time.
In response, a few of the more unapologetic gentrifiers not only reported the incidents to the police, but also attended a “community meeting” hosted by the police. Following the meeting, the Philly police announced that they would have an increased police presence in the area, including foot patrols specifically in the area between 48th-52nd streets. Sure enough, residents have noticed a lot more cop cars as well as cops on foot in the area since.
On Wednesday, March 6, this increased cop presence and paranoia culminated in the cops shooting a young Black man who live near 49th and Hazel — exactly where gentrifiers had been complaining about burglaries and robberies taking place. Claiming that they had been called to the scene in response to a “stabbing incident” (no stabbing victim was found at the scene) and that he was holding a knife outside a house on the street, the cops shot 25 year old graduate student Kaleb Belay six times (three in the chest). As of this writing he is stable condition at Penn Presbyterian Hospital.
It’s never worth it to call the police over some lost property — and we personally won’t call them to deal with any of our problems. The high 40 and low 50 streets are undergoing intense gentrification. Know that the police’s role is to attract more gentrifiers and push people originally from the neighborhood out. That’s what happened when University of Pennsylvania cleared out an entire neighborhood (what was once called the Black Bottom) of West Philly in order to move the school there decades ago — that’s why UCD security roam the neighborhood.
The police are just looking for an excuse to roll in and further the dispossession and extermination of Black people from the neighborhood.
Resistance Following the Shooting of Kaleb Belay
The night after the police shooting, a group of 20-30 people marched down Baltimore Ave with a banner reading “Fuck the Police.” At least two new buildings on the ave between 50th and 48th streets, all with gentrifying new architecture, had windows broken, and one had “Fuck Cops” written on it. The Mariposa Co-Op, which has been a beacon of gentrification in the neighborhood for a long time (known for calling the police on panhandlers), had red paint thrown at one of its surveillance cameras. Anti-police tags and stickers were put up. After the police arrived, things calmed and the march went to the hospital where Kaleb is recovering before dispersing. Throughout the march many passersby and drivers shouted “Yeah, fuck the police!” and other words of encouragement. There were no arrests.
On March 8th, opportunists Refuse Fascism/Revolutionary Communist Party held a candle-lit vigil for Kaleb near the site of the shooting. This event was poorly attended and seen by many as an attempt to use the grief and anger around the shooting to recruit for their organization.
On March 10th, the Philadelphia Ethiopian Community held a debrief and discussion at the Ethiopian Community Center in West Philly. Kaleb’s lawyer and his boss/family friend gave updates on his situation. Next steps to assist Kaleb and his family were planned. Over the weekends of March 16-17th and 23-24th there were fundraiser events for Kaleb at the Ethiopian Community Center.
A march demanding justice for Kaleb went to the district attorney’s office on April 6th. Simon Haileab, Kaleb’s attorney, reports that Kaleb is recovering slowly; he is out of the intensive care unit but remains at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Police are charging him with aggravated assault, simple assault, and possessing an instrument of crime. Anyone interested in donating money to Kaleb can do so by visiting his gofundme here or dropping off money at Bookers Restaurant at Baltimore Ave and 50th St.
An Analysis Of the Anti-Police March Following the Shooting of Kaleb Belay
When some discontents spray-painted and smashed windows after the police shot an immigrant graduate student in Cedar Park, many were quick to condemn the attacks. These criticisms did not target the anti-police and anti-gentrification sentiment behind the attacks, but rather their choice of targets. The thing about anger and revolt is that it strikes out at what is perceived as oppressive.
No uprising has ever surgically delivered anger to the doorstep of only the most oppressive and powerful, while excluding the lesser contributors of a stifling society. Not everyone is going to track down the head honcho of this or that realty company when they see an example of gentrification around the corner.
In relative terms, what happened to the businesses on Baltimore Ave is calm; police violence has sparked much more devastating responses in other contexts – like the burning of entire neighborhoods.
It also bears mentioning that at the time of this writing, despite many critics suggesting better targets for vandalism (the police, University of Pennsylvania, money lenders, banks, etc), none of these targets seem to have been vandalized. These critics seem content to suggest how others express their anger and direct their rebellion without doing so themselves. If these people are waiting for the ideal targeting of the proper institutions and yet they do not plan on going after them themselves, they are simply waiting. When people start to condemn all but the most pure and correct actions, they climb the stairs of an ivory tower.
Will arrogance about how others struggle move someone closer to freedom? It seems more likely to lead to further separation from those who are struggling and making concrete their rebellion, to create a roadblock for feelings of solidarity. Throwing paint at the expensive Mariposa Co-Op grocery store and breaking the glass door of a fancy-looking new apartment building along Baltimore Ave, some of the actions during the demo that were later criticized by others, targeted small businesses whose gentrifying impact is felt in this particular neighborhood where police shooting took place.
It is gentrification that led to the increased police presence in this neighborhood, which inevitably led to a black man getting shot. In addition to wanting to push back against gentrification in this area, those who criticize colonialism, or ecological destruction, those who hold nihilist perspectives, and even the less discriminating among the anti-capitalists may see the destructive actions on Baltimore Ave as a step in the right direction. We don’t all imagine liberation in the same way, but it should be understood that a dramatic transformation of society is necessary, so when we see that taking place on a small scale as destruction we can understand it to be part of that liberatory transformation even if you would go about it that way yourself.
“There are many who await the hour of liberation impatiently, but how many work to bring it closer?”
attached are some screenshots of a facebook review and profile of Scott Baxtin, a Patriot Front member from Erie, PA that is likely attending the Horna show in [on 4/10] Allentown at 4pm
Far-right campus group Turning Point USA’s director Candace Owens just showed up at UPenn campus in Philadelphia. She ignored our questions about whether TPUSA plans to address ongoing neo-Nazi infiltration and recruitment among their membership.
[Video Here]
A group of Proud Boys and others have shown up and started a heckling match with antifascists opposing Candace Owens and Turning Point USA at UPenn in Philadelphia
[Video Here]
We were able to briefly interview Candace Owens when she appeared at UPenn in Philly today. Owens didn’t respond to a Q about her recent dubious Congressional testimony & called it “a weird question” when we asked about being cited in the New Zealand mosque shooter’s manifesto.
[Video Here]
Local activists are protesting chocolate company Gertrude Hawk’s continued employment of Steven Scott Smith of Pittston, Pennsylvania. Smith is a neo-Nazi and founding member of the Keystone State Skinheads, as well as a former member of the KKK and a leader in the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens.
If you would like to join the local Easter boycott of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, you can call the company and let them know at 1-800-822-2032, or let them know via the following social media:
from Facebook
Candace Owens, Hitler apologist, the racist alt-Right’s best black friend (https://www.theroot.com/candace-owens-is-racist-white-americas-black-friend-and-1833921887), and communications director for Turning Point USA, sure has been making the rounds recently. After testifying at the House Judiciary Committee with the clear intention of derailing a hearing on white nationalism, and gracing Storrs, CT with her authoritarian rhetoric at the University of Connecticut on April 9, Owens is making her way back to Philadelphia. She will give a talk at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday August 15, in an event sponsored by the UPenn College Republicans and ultra conservative paper The Statesmen.
While Owens tries to deny the white supremacist politics behind TPUSA and the broader right movement in the so-called U.S., she fully embraces and espouses positions that are explicitly anti-trans, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. Examples include statements that trans identities are “a mental disorder” and that “Europe will fall and become a Muslim majority continent by 2050. There has never been a muslim majority country where sharia law was not implemented.” After Owens was mentioned in the manifesto of the Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter, her response was literally “LOL.”
Suffice it to say that Owens, along with her buddy Charlie Kirk and TPUSA, run in the same racist dog-piling circles as Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, Lucian Wintrich, and other white nationalist, white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys. All of these individuals and groups have several important things in common: they deny that racism is a problem while simultaneously spewing white supremacist, homophobic, misogynistic rhetoric that has been directly linked to violence and mass killings. They claim Hitler’s only mistake was “globalism” rather than focusing on “nationalism.” They spout hateful rhetoric about immigrants and workers alike, not to mention women, Muslims, the trans community, and people of color. They simultaneously call for a weaker government while chumming up with grand fascist and white supremacist himself, Trump.
As noxious as Owens and TPUSA are, and as crucial as it is to drive them out of town when they do show up, it is equally important to recognize that they are invited by people who actually live in Philadelphia. UPenn College Republicans are actively attempting to advance anti-trans, islamophobic, xenophobic, misogynist and anti-immigrant politics in Philly. That they are doing so from a university that is and has been aggressively advancing gentrification in west philly is especially noxious.
We call on all students, staff, employees, and Philly residents to denounce and disrupt both her appearance and the sniveling rich kids who invited her. We cannot stand by and watch as her positions are cast as “free speech,” “dialogue,” and “conversation” when we know what it really is – an authoritarian project to carry out violence against ourselves and our friends and neighbors.
There can be NO platform for fascists and racist hatespeech! Come out Monday April 15 to SHUT DOWN fascist speech in Philadelphia, remind Candace of the last time she tried to step foot in our city https://twitter.com/PhillyANTIFA/status/1026468028383457282https://twitter.com/PhillyANTIFA/status/1026508608836722689, and let our community and neighbors know we have their backs! Bring drums, whistles, trumpets, other noisemakers, and your dance shoes for a party in the street. 6:15PM, College Hall, UPenn, off 34th & Spruce.
We also call on all those who can to crew up and engage in autonomous actions. Diversity of tactics should and must be respected.
Gritty says Get the Fuck Out
No Borders.
Trans Day of Revenge 24/7/365.
Queer as in Fuck Nationalism.
FTP // 1312 // (A)
Turning Point USA’s Director of Communications, Candace Owens, is scheduled to speak at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday the 15th of April, at College Hall room 200. Since this event was announced, the community has organized to shut down this engagement early by making phone calls to UPenn President Amy Gutmann at 215-898-7221 and emailing Ms. Gutmann at presweb@pobox.upenn.edu. Joann Mitchell, Senior Vice President for Institutional Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, can be contacted at 215-573-9162 or joannm@upenn.edu
We must act now to protect our community. During a TPUSA speaking engagement held at Colorado State University, masked members of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Workers Party showed up carrying shields, chanting the Nazi rallying cry “blood and soil!”
TPUSA is responsible for the Professor Watchlist, which targets and harasses “leftist” professors for being “anti-American.” Their adulation of free speech and patriotism just barely veil a neo-fascist organization working hand-in-hand with a “soft white power” movement to recruit 18 to 22-year-olds — a well-worn tactic of early fascists from the Blackshirts to the Hitler Youth. Concerned citizens of Philadelphia must contact UPenn administration and let them know we refuse to allow this in our city of brotherly love.
TPUSA’s former national field director, Crystal Clanton, texted, “i hate black people. Like fuck them all… I hate blacks. End of story.” TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk said Clanton was “the best hire we ever could have made,” & “Turning Point needs more Crystals; so does America.”
While less aggressive tactics continue, such as phone calls, emails, speaking with the staff, and spreading awareness on social media, it seems likely that a large-scale confrontation is inevitable. We consider TPUSA to be a threat to our city.
By mainstreaming Alt-Right ideology, TPUSA has aligned themselves against feminism, internationalism, anti-capitalism, immigrant and refugee solidarity, workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights, indigenous rights, and ecological responsibility.
