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‘Proud Boys’ assault NYC protesters
/ 5 days ago
Nov. 2018 Proud Berkeley (Scott Strazzante:Chron)
Proud Boy member threatens anti-fascist protesters in Berkeley, Calif.,
last year.
By MARTY GOODMAN
“We will kill you. That’s the Proud Boys in a nutshell.” — Gavin
McInnes, Proud Boy founder
“The German resurrection is a male event.” — Engelbert Huber, Nazi
author, 1933
Shortly after an Oct. 12 presentation by fascist “Proud Boy” founder
Gavin McInnes at the Manhattan Republican Club, three anti-fascist
protesters were assaulted by about 20 Proud Boys goons. Visible in a
video provided by an independent videographer, the fascists set upon the
departing antifa (anti-fascist) protesters around the corner from the
Republican Club. Kicks and punches were clearly visible in the video to
shouts of “faggots!”
Within moments, cops arrived as the melee unfolded in plain sight, yet
no Proud Boy was arrested. The jubilant Proud Boy goons simply walked
away unhindered by police. Cops arrested the three antifa
victims—Finbarr Slonim, 20, Kai Russo, 20 and Caleb Perkins, 35—on
charges of robbery and assault. Perkins faces an additional charge of
resisting arrest. The Proud Boys claimed a protester stole the hat of
one Proud Boy.
Cops taunted protesters by saying things like, “You should be lucky
we’re not letting them beat your asses,” according to testimony at an
Oct. 19 press conference organized by the People’s Assembly. A statement
was read to the media: “New Yorkers should not forget that the Strategic
Response Group [a police unit present on Oct. 12] was created as a
response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Since its creation in 2015,
the SRG has been used to arrest and jail activists, spy on us, break our
bones, bloody our mouths and hospitalize us. The Proud Boys were acting
on what the NYPD shows them every day: that in our white supremacist
system, poor people, people of color, migrants, women, and LGBTQ people
are fair game. On Oct. 13, Gavin McInnes stated on his podcast that he
has ‘a lot of support in the NYPD.’ We believe him.”
Once again, capitalist police have shown themselves to be reliable
allies, enablers, of racism and reaction! A week after videos of the
attack were made available, public outrage eventually resulted in the
arrest of nine Proud Boys. City Councilman Rory Lancman said, after
viewing the video, “It is revolting to see white supremacists commit a
hate crime on the streets of New York City—in full view of the NYPD—and
for none of them to be arrested or prosecuted.”
The day after the New York attack, on Oct. 13, Proud Boys joined with
Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups in a “flash mob for law and
order” in Portland, Ore., to counter a memorial gathering for police
shooting victim Patrick Kimmons. Police said that people carried knives,
hard-knuckle gloves, and firearms into the fight that followed. On Oct.
19 in Miami, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was
confronted by a protest organized by local Republicans, who shouted
Trump slogans and yelled that Pelosi was a “Communist.”
Who are the Proud Boys?
Gavin McInnes, born in England, was a co-founder of the Canadian Vice
magazine—the basis for a liberal TV cable program—but he parted ways
with it in 2008, and his politics moved rightward. He founded the Proud
Boys in 2016. Today it claims chapters in several U.S. cities and in
Israel, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK. McInnes tells
recruits that they’re not men until they’ve been beaten up and they’ve
beaten up someone else.
McInnes parades the Proud Boys as a “fraternal” organization. Members
are often recognized by their black and gold Polo shirts, and their
pro-Trump red caps with the slogan, “Make America Great Again.” McInnes
officially disavows violence, along with racism, anti-Semitism,
homophobia, and misogyny. A few “Proud Girls” are featured on their
Facebook page, and there’s even an occasional Black Proud Boy and a
handful of gay followers.
Regardless of its claims, however, the Southern Poverty Law Center, an
anti-racist, anti-Klan organization, labeled the Proud Boys as “a hate
group” that is “known for anti-Muslim and misogynist rhetoric.” McInnes
has referred to transgender people as “gender niggers” and “stupid
lunatics.” He wrote, “through trial and error, I learned that women want
to be downright abused” by men, and said in a tweet that “every guy I’ve
ever known to be involved in a ‘domestic’ was the result of some cunt
trying to ruin his life.”
Muslim woman attacked by far right
One self-described Brown Muslim woman wrote of her encounter in New York
City with far-right groups: “On June 10, 2017, I attended a
counter-protest demonstrating against the ‘March Against Shariah,’ a
nationwide anti-Muslim event organized by the SPLC-designated hate group
“ACT For America” [said to be linked to the Trump administration]. When
the event ended at 2 pm, the counter protest marched to City Hall and
dispersed….
“On my way to the train station I encountered a group of 4 men wearing
‘Make America Great Again’ hats and ‘Proud Boys’ shirts, who then began
harassing me because I was wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it.
One of the men singled me out and repeatedly yelled Islamophobic and
misogynistic comments. He told me that my family and I should ‘go back
to our country.’ He called me a ‘terrorist’ and said that a ‘Muslim
slut’ like me should be killed, along with my family.”
“Alone, surrounded, and fearing for my safety, I threw my iced coffee
toward him and tried to get away. He became instantly enraged and lunged
toward me. He grabbed me by the throat and pushed me up against the
wall. He held me there in a choke-hold, but because I was struggling he
slammed me to the ground and tried to put his whole body on top of mine.”
“I kept fighting back so he slammed me again on my left side and pushed
my face into the sidewalk, and then slammed me one more time before he
put his knee on the back of my head while he kept trying to choke me.
During all of this I remember telling him to stop and that he was
choking me, but he said, ‘I can still hear you breathing” and choked me
even harder.’”
The writer said she identified a G. Young on Facebook. Young bragged of
“bashing that terrorist breeder,” and even gave the location where it
happened, she said. The attacker, she continued, “was motivated by
bigotry against Muslims, immigrants, and Black and Brown people, along
with his hatred of women. The Proud Boys as an organization encourage
violence against left wing protestors, offering a ##‘fourth degree
status’ to their members if they commit acts of violence. After
assaulting me, Geoff Young updated his Facebook bio to say ‘Fourth
Degree Proud Boy,’ implying that he had somehow leveled up by assaulting
me, a small Muslim woman.”
In their disavowal of the iconography of 1930s-style fascism, the Proud
Boys follow the strategy of European fascist organizations who have
abandoned overt fascist symbols like the swastika—much like the latter
day Ku Klux Klan, whose leader, David Duke, is a Proud Boy admirer.
Brien James, a former Proud Boy leader, stated that he refused to mingle
with National Socialists, yet he marched alongside them at the 2017
“Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. A video of the rally showed
James behind a man yelling “Black lives don’t matter” and “Hitler did
nothing wrong.” James, a racist skinhead organizer known for his extreme
violence, was removed from Proud Boy ranks only after the widely
condemned march, which resulted in the tragic murder of socialist
Heather Meyer.
Here are some quotes from McInnes himself: In a June 2016 episode of the
Gavin McInnes show, he said, “We will kill you. That’s the Proud Boys in
a nutshell. We will kill you. We look nice, we seem soft, we have boys
in our name … we will assassinate you.” In 2017, he said in an interview
that violence “is a really effective way to solve problems.” Pawl Bazile
pointed out that, as McInnes says, the Proud Boys are “Western
chauvinists”—that is, in plain talk, supporters of racism and imperialism.
McInnes in a 2017 interview on NBC, said, “I’m not a fan of Islam. I
think it’s fair to call me Islamophobic.” McInnes’ “Rebel Media” video
features include “Donald Trump’s Muslim ban is exactly what we need
right now” and “10 examples of the Koran being violent.” He’s hosted
Pamela Geller, a prominent anti-Muslim bigot, on his newest show, “Get
Off My Lawn.”
McInnes says, “Fighting solves everything. We need more violence from
the Trump people. Trump supporters: choke a motherfucker. Choke a bitch.
Choke a tranny. Get your fingers around the windpipe.”
At its core, Proud Boys despise changing gender roles and the fight for
women’s equality. McInnes said last June on his “Get Off My Lawn” show,
when speaking of immigrant women, “It’s such a rape culture with these
immigrants, I don’t even think these women see it as rape. They see it
as just like having a teeth [sic] pulled. ‘It’s a Monday. I don’t really
enjoy it,’ but that’s what you do. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t
have the same trauma as it would for a middle-class white girl in the
suburbs because it’s so entrenched into their culture.”
There are three degrees of membership within the Proud Boys, and to
become a first degree he has to declare “I am a western chauvinist, and
I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” The second degree
requires a Proud Boy to endure a beating until he can yell out the names
of five breakfast cereals and give up masturbation because, in theory,
it will leave him more inclined to go out and meet women. Those who
enter the third degree have demonstrated their commitment by getting a
Proud Boys tattoo. The Proud Boys offer a “fourth degree status” to
their members for acts of violence; left activists are a favorite target.
Build a mass united front to defeat fascism!
Far right attacks have risen dramatically with the Trump presidency. In
desperation, capitalism is launching trade wars, breeding grounds for
racism and nationalism (World Wars I and II). Moreover, capitalism has
not fully recovered from the 2008 economic meltdown. Right-wing
movements are advancing in Europe and in Brazil, which recently elected
Jair Bolansaro, a death-squad-linked military thug and misogynist, as
president. Working people, disgusted with corporate Democrats and even
fake socialism, as in Brazil (the Workers Party), are seeking
alternatives to the status quo. Some have turned to Trump, and many
youth have turned to socialist ideas.
The U.S. right is testing the limits of terror against working people
and all oppressed groups, fearing a possible rebellion. Fascism must be
stopped in its tracks. Since both Republicans and Democrats represent
the wealthy 1%, voting for Democrats is no solution to the Trump
madness. Similarly, the cops and courts are part of this corrupt system
that needs to be replaced.
Fascism seeks to terrorize working people and their organizations. Only
working people, especially the millions organized in unions and doubly
oppressed sectors, mobilized independently of the twin parties of
capital, can hope to crush the fascist menace and drive them back into
their rat holes.
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November 18, 2018 in Fascism / Far Right, New York.
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_________________________________________________________________
Isaac Asimov
“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in
telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after
death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst
out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement,
and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how
wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous
something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov
