from Philly Antifa
About a year ago, Anti-Fascists around the country started seeing a man calling himself Mohammed coming out to demonstrations against Neo-Nazis and Klan as well as Anti-Fascist/Leftist events and conferences and trying to get involved in the Anti-Fascist movement.
“Mohammed” has been busy the past year, travelling from his home in the Bronx to places like Ohio, Georgia and here in Philly trying to make connections with Antifa and extract personal information from them. He managed to get a couple phone numbers and promptly handed them over to the National Socialist Movement (NSM). The NSM’s “head of security” Mike Scholer, then began making harassing and threatening phone calls to those Antifascists.
Fortunately, Scholer is about as smart as the rest of the NSM and couldn’t help but let certain clues slip during his calls that allowed Anti-Facists to realize not only that there was in infiltrator in their midst, but that the only person it could have been was “Mohamed.”
From there it wasn’t hard to figure out that “Mohammed” was actually Gabriel Diaz, also known as “The Nazi Cabbie,” who grabbed headlines 2 years ago when he suspended for 30 days after being photographed driving his cab around Manhattan wearing a Swastika Armband. Diaz got his license back after the suspension, but it is unknown whether he is still working as a cab driver or not.
Diaz was confronted when he attempted to join the May Day event in Union Square in NYC and sent packing. Scroll down in the link for video. Fliers with his face and affiliations were circulated among the crowd and he was told that if he is seen at any further leftist or Antifascist events he would be treated like any other Nazi bonehead.
Diaz is living in the Bronx, and during the time of his suspension was living with family. His parents had previously tried to blame Diaz’s fascist politics on mental illness, but when someone is putting Anti-Racists in danger by giving their information to members of the NSM, their mental stability ceases to be an issue. It is also all-too-common for people to try and pathologize Nazism as a way to avoid the hard truth that their friend or family member wholeheartedly believes in social Darwinism, eugenics, militarism, racism, sexism and homophobia. Furthermore, clearly Diaz’s parents claims that they would “handle” their son so he wouldn’t harm anyone were empty.
Here is an interview Diaz gave with the local news right after he was suspended. He proclaims himself to be a proud National Socialist, denies the holocaust and defends Hitler. Does Diaz appear to be unaware of his surroundings or not in control of his faculties? He certainly was sane enough to maintain an alter ego, book plane tickets, keep up correspondence with Antifa AND The NSM, etc. More to the point, there are many people who do not fit the definition of “sane” who manage to not engage in this bullshit. Anti-Semitic paranoia does sometimes manifest in Schizophrenics, but not usually accompanied with full National Socialist ideology. Nor spying for an all-white, Hitlerist, Klan-Allied, White Power organization like the NSM.
Gabriel Diaz being sane or not is not the reason he is the way he is. Fascist, racialist politics are not strictly the purview of white people. Diaz is a Nazi and a Fascist just as much as any bonehead or Klansmen and should be treated as one. If this is hard to wrap your mind around, we recommend this article by Spencer Sunshine, in which Sunshine gives an accurate account of the very complicated and nuanced state of the racist right today.
Anti-Fascists around the country should be vigilant that Diaz may try and form a new identity and start again infiltrating leftist circles or that the NSM may try again with another agent. The best way to prevent that is to spread this information far and wide.
If anyone spots Diaz at any Anti-Racist or Anti-Fascist events please e-mail us at PhillyAntifascists@gmail.com with details.
