On July 2^nd 2022, a large force from Patriot Front, the largest Neo-Nazi group in America, marched through downtown Boston. They assaulted an onlooker, but the situation was deescalated by FBI agents on the scene. The Nazis proceeded to ride the MBTA Orange Line to Oak Grove, where they were confronted by antifascists. They were protected by police and allowed to exit without incident. As a Boston antifascist, I say this shit sucks.

There have been a few writings published about this incident. Some are in the genre “Oh my gosh Boston is better than this!!! WTF?” Boston is not better than this. Another common genre is “Oh my gosh look at these scary Nazis why won’t somebody do something! Here’s a bunch of descriptors to make them look tough!” Boston antifascists need to set the record straight and make sure well-meaning liberals don’t end up just reproducing Nazi propaganda for Patriot Front. Patriot Front is actually very shitty, and not even in the “they’re dangerous Nazis” sense: they’re a bunch of angry children trying to look tough. They are not tough. 

Moreover, their display on July 2nd does not represent the amount of force that Patriot Front can reliably bring to bear in Boston or anywhere in the Northeast. Patriot Front locally is much more of a “stickers and graffiti” type of organization, not a marching one. 

What is Patriot Front?

PF grew out of the ashes of Vanguard America, after one of VA’s members committed a vicious car attack at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. This left Heather Heyer dead and many others wounded and traumatized. This was a turning point in the alt-right movement. It was a public relations disaster and many alt-right and alt-lite organizations fell into infighting. Patriot Front sprung from the remnants of VA and appeals to the same demographic of angsty fascist teen boys and their desire to feel like big men.

Patriot Front has been active in Massachusetts for years. Their appearance is not new. Chris Hood, their original main organizer locally, showed up to protest Mark Bray (author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook) at the Harvard Coop in 2017, alongside members of Boston Free Speech. After that, Hood showed up to several local fascist events, trying to network with, organize with, ally with and recruit from the likes of BFS and Resist Marxism.

The first time I ran into Patriot Front they were attempting to disrupt the Boston Anarchist Book Fair in 2018. Likely, the local PF had chosen the book fair as a target because PF in Texas, where it originated and has typically had its largest concentration of members, had more successfully disrupted a similar event weeks earlier. But the attendees of the BABF quickly mounted up to eject the fascists, and we chased them off without further incident.

In early 2019 Patriot Front stirred up intimidation and anxiety by flyering East Boston, a largely immigrant neighborhood. After what seemed to be great success the first night they went out and flyered again the next night. This led to a police officer confronting PF, and one of them panicking, which then forced the cop to search them. Several of them (including their local leader, Chris Hood) were carrying illegal knives and were arrested. The lesson here is that oftentimes, a fascist has to make a mistake—like annoying a cop—before the cops will arrest them. Ultimately, the charges against these PF people were minor. Catching a charge did not deter Chris Hood, who is still a fascist organizer (although not with PF, since he was later ejected for stealing money that was supposed to go toward sticker printing and instead buying weed with it).

Patriot Front’s modus operandi is to spread Nazi propaganda and deface things. As I said before, Patriot Front is the largest Nazi organization that exists in America. But it’s also important to note that the vast majority of their work is putting up stickers and going out into the woods to hit each other as “training.” Members of Patriot Front only tend to get violent when they think they can win, and in Boston we have out-organized them and left them too afraid to directly confront the “scary antifa communists.” 

One of Patriot Front’s primary tactics, which has been adopted by other Nazi groups such as Hood’s PF Spinoff, The Nationalist Social Club, is to suddenly arrive at a location in force, do a photo op to prove they went to the location, and then leave. This has the advantage of looking very scary, while also having extremely limited risk for the Nazis doing it. It’s not easy to counter events that are not announced ahead of time. But the risk level for this sort of action is not zero, as Patriot Front discovered when they attempted this trick in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Thirty-one of their members ended up arrested, including their Texas-based founder and leader, Thomas Rousseau. Nationalist Social Club found this out, too, last summer, when their attempt to march around Manchester, NH was countered: antifascists found their rally point, and the Nazis fled without any hesitation. 

What happened July 2^nd

At about 12:45pm a large group of Patriot Front Nazis appeared near Haymarket in downtown Boston. From there they marched toward the Boston Public Library in Copley. One thing is clear: two FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force managed to catch up to them in short order, and followed along with them.

I have to be a little bit coy discussing the details here. Fascists do not like that we resist them. Likewise, we know Boston antifascists are under surveillance by state forces. The state doesn’t necessarily like Nazis, especially ones who call for the overthrow of the government. But they treat Nazis very differently from how they treat antifascists. Often, if a Nazi is caught with an illegal weapon, their charges will go up in smoke very quickly, while just as often an antifascist who has the temerity to stand against white supremacy can very easily end up in a years-long cycle of court dates on trumped-up charges. Indeed, the JTTF agents have convened grand juries to harass local antifascist-sympathetic filmmaker Rod Webber and his family and friends. It’s also very interesting that the FBI agents from the JTTF managed to catch up to the march so quickly. Interesting and very lucky indeed, because agent and Boston cop Andy Creed was seen calming Patriot Front while they assaulted an innocent bystander.

From various news articles it appears that calls to 911 from bystanders fell on deaf ears. If the role of police in society were to protect people from violence you would expect them to come as quickly as possible and dissuade the Nazis from committing acts of violence. Instead 911 operators ignored and disconnected calls from people who saw these Nazis. For those wondering why emergency services didn’t respond to Patriot Front assaulting people on the streets, remember that when fascists organize openly in Boston the police always operate as their private security team.

The Patriot Front march was all over Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter is a terrible source of real time information. For my part, I jumped on the Orange Line, came to the conclusion they were going toward Copley and made my way to Back Bay. By the time I reached Copley they were already long gone. By that time, there were images of them at Back Bay station on Twitter, so I jumped back on the Orange Line. I assumed they were traveling north (where they came from). Patriot Front ended up on a train which went out of service at Community College. It’s unclear if the MBTA’s rotting infrastructure is to blame or if the T wanted time to make sure there was a police welcome for the Nazis at their destination. Regardless, I managed to confirm their presence at Community College. It was still unclear exactly what their destination might be: the last three stops on the Orange Line all have large parking lots, convenient for out-of-town fascists and their cars. 

It turned out they were going to Oak Grove. When they arrived, there was a significant police presence at the station to ensure the safety of Patriot Front. There were also many counter protesters at Oak Grove. Widely available videos give a bit of a false impression that it was only Rod Webber shouting at them, which is not the case. This is because Rod has a semblance of operational security and does not want to aid the police and Nazis in their attempts to doxx antifascists. But even so, it is very difficult to organize enough people to travel to and confront a march of 75 or so Nazis with zero forewarning. That’s why Patriot Front uses this tactic.

The cars that drove Patriot Front away from Oak Grove were largely from out of state. Patriot Front is indeed active in Massachusetts, as it has been since late 2017, but this particular event was an attempt to give a false sense of scale and power. The Patriot Front marchers came from all across the country, with a few positively identified as coming from as far away as Texas (such as Thomas Rousseau himself). Patriot Front has done similar actions in other cities on past July 4th weekends, and they have been more active lately. Incidents of stickering, flag drops and other stealthy propaganda distributions have increased nationally. But unlike with other fascist groups that get less mainstream attention, this was a one-time attempt to project power, rather than part of an ongoing campaign aimed at the Boston area. 

In short: Patriot Front in the New England area sucks, both in our terms because they are Nazis, and in their terms, because they are weak. This was a puffed-up attempt to show strength, and we all can see through it once we know the facts. 

Antifascism is a long game

Fighting fascism is a long, slow process and it’s a bigger problem than just Patriot Front. Throughout late 2017, 2018, and early 2019, Resist Marxism tried to turn Boston (and then, as they started losing ground here, Providence) into an East Coast version of what Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys established in Portland, Oregon: a place to go to beat up “commies” with reckless abandon. Through the work of Boston DSA and many other organizations and comrades, we successfully repelled their efforts. Resist Marxism’s successor org, Super Happy Fun America, will now rarely show their face in Boston because they know they’ll be humiliated. I have been involved in this work since 2018 and spent many hours disrupting fascists and protecting leftist groups and events from far right attempts at disruption. It takes a lot of effort and organization, but it is worth it.

Boston DSA has been deeply ingrained in the struggle against fascist organizing for years, of which the struggle against Patriot Front is only one very small part. Social media is not nearly the whole story here. To those who weren’t at Oak Grove on July 2nd, who posture online about what they would do if they saw PF, now is the time to stop posting and start organizing. Antifacism works in numbers, and we need those numbers in the street.

Moreover, most of the media sources who have seen fit to opine on the Patriot Front march have been less than helpful to local antifascism. The editorialist in the Globe who made the July 2nd march more about the use of masks than about the violence and fascist beliefs of the marchers seems to have missed the last two and a half years entirely. I thought we were past the “masks are for cowards” thing. DigBoston requested in their “annoyed Starbucks customer” way for someone else to make an early warning system for fascist actions…but the editors have made a policy of not covering antifascism in Boston for years. Antifascist organizers, including some who have written for DigBoston in other capacities, have offered to write about antifascism for the paper, and to offer inside access to Dig reporters, and the editors have consistently rebuffed them for vague reasons pertaining to their “not naming fascists” policy. If the media would like to cover fascist stunts like the July 2nd march, they should be careful to put these events in context, and use local antifascists as their sources.

For the sake of our safety, many antifascist organizers must work anonymously. The state meets us with tremendous violence for the crime of protecting our communities, far more harshly than they come down on the fascists for terrorizing those same communities. Anonymity is important, but only goes so far. Our work is amplified when we work together, and to do that takes the sort of trust built only by shared struggle and shared vision of a better future. I have spent many years working with Boston DSA. Here, and in other organizations, is where you can find the people you can work with to make a difference. 

If you were horrified by the display Patriot Front put on, that’s the right response. The next step is to join up with comrades, find an organization in the struggle, and get involved in the work. 

Vinnie M

The most immediate and useful thing you can do is give your money to an abortion fund – WHO/Ohio (@whoohio) Midwest Access Coalition (@midwest_access_coalition), Preterm in Cleveland (@pretermclevelandohio), the Aggie Fund in Toledo. They all facilitate people getting abortion care that they need as abortion care that is now more difficult to access than ever.

Remember that we have known – with certainty – that this was coming for six weeks. Organizers, clinic defenders, clinic workers, and other folks on the front line have known for much, much longer. Roe has been a line in the sand, allowing state level restrictions to pop up rapidly and prevent many, many people from accessing abortion services despite the theoretical right.

What is a Right without Access?

Every day of the six weeks prior to the court’s decision was a blessing for those who sought abortion care, because every day the Supreme Court delayed their decision – however cowardly it was to do so – people were able to get that care.
Abortion is older than the state.

Abortion providers have historically been witches, midwives, rootworkers, herbalists, people on the margins who serve the health of our communities, and people from who power has been withheld.

Legality hasn’t been the norm for most of human history. Stripping away the legal right to abortion will not deter us from owning and celebrating our bodies and holding our community close.

There is no pithy statement, quip or hot take that wouldn’t immediately undermine the severity of what has happened. People are suffering.
There is no usefulness in being content with our moral superiority, pointing out hypocrisy and shortcomings of the “other side.”

It is now time to dive deep within ourselves to take care of our people and to do for us what the state cannot or refuses to do.

The people in power do not care about us. not the GOP, not the Democratic Party – but there are more of us than there are of them.
It is time to join a mass movement that takes care of others and will fight back for the right to do so.

You can join ours at columbusdsa.org. It will take all of us.

We’re always looking for ways to increase engagement from our membership. Let us know what you’d like to see us do more of by sending us an email.

Socialist Feminism cannot ignore the brutal reality of international capitalism.

A robust critique of capitalism is the only way to achieve a global understanding of women’s oppression.

Patriarchy predates capitalism, and the oppression of women transcends class. From unpaid domestic labor to cultural expressions of misogyny, socialism must confront the specific realities of women’s lives.

The path to achieving true equality requires a focused critique of the cultural force of patriarchy.

From the Buffalo DSA Healthcare Work Group:

Today’s Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns the right to abortion which is supported by the majority of the people in country.

People have to fight back. But the abortion fight has been taken over by professionals with a clever legal strategy and a polished PR campaign for politicians, nonprofits, and individualistic aid efforts that all distract from the class war destroying working people and American public life. 

These “experts” have failed. We cannot trust their institutions or politicians to wage a fight for what little we have left of abortion rights. Their apologetic arguments emphasize individual “choice,” privacy, and worst case scenarios, rather than plainly stating that abortion and birth control have a central role in the freedom of working people. 

Let’s learn from socialist countries, the first and best on abortion, who went up against the established church and valued women as workers and comrades, starting with the Soviet Union providing free abortion in public hospitals and clinics in 1920. When Western Europe won legal abortion in the mid- to late 70s, it was simply included in the national health systems that the labor movement and left parties had already instituted. Irish feminists in their 2018 referendum didn’t just talk about the situations in which abortion might be needed to save lives. They said “free, safe, legal” and organized to bring abortion into their healthcare system by publicly and plainly telling the truth about it.

In America’s post-war labor compromise, it was decided that we would get healthcare through our jobs rather than a universal system – so when we won abortion legally, we still had to figure out how to pay for it. Roe v. Wade protected the private right to buy an abortion procedure on the healthcare marketplace.

Never forget that these compromises were made to discipline American workers through horrible working conditions – including reproductive working conditions: we are not guaranteed universal childcare, healthcare, or paid leave. We are tied to our employers in the marketplace, and fear agitating for more.

Today’s decision is possible because of our minoritarian political system and class domination. We can’t let the same undemocratic forces continue to absorb movement politics. We can’t mobilize for one day in the streets, then move on. We can’t let establishment defenders of the Roe-status-quo continue to tell working class people that private healthcare and abortion is the solution to our bad working conditions and insecure, expensive healthcare and childcare!

Abortion is healthcare, and must be: Public. Free. Safe. Legal.

linktr.ee/buffalodsa ~ protectabortion.org

Show up. Meet people mobilizing in outrage about the Supreme Court Decision, wherever they are in your community.

• Become a part of an organization to structure and amplify your decisions and demands.
• Have real conversations with people about their experiences and what they care about. Make sure to get their contact information so you can channel your rage into organizing and durably change our political-economic system.

Follow up. Organize for universal, public healthcare that includes reproductive care as an essential, and normal, service.

• Collectively, we must refuse to vote for or donate to politicians that do not fight for Medicare for All on the federal level, or New York Health Act on the state level: legislation that would institute a public, single-payer healthcare system.
• We must fight and organize together. Strategize, provide political education, knock doors, and make calls with a democratic membership organization like DSA about single payer healthcare.
  • Buffalo DSA has a militant, badass Healthcare Committee: Meeting, July 5

Work it out. Radicalize your coworkers and union into the fight for universal, single payer healthcare.

• Your union can extract wins from your boss, but we can all fight back against the boss class making these decisions. Politicize your coworkers. DSA union members can use this guide to organize their co-workers and unions.
• Union members are strongly encouraged to work with our Healthcare Committee to provide political education on how American healthcare disciplines labor and families, as well as how we can fight back together.

The Senate Must Take Action

The Colorado Springs Democratic Socialists of America condemns the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. We strongly believe that all people have the right to reproductive freedom and to practice bodily autonomy. This ruling is an extreme overstep by an authoritarian Supreme Court and is an attempt to reassert patriarchal social norms and thwart women’s liberation. 

We will not let this move go unchallenged. We call on Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper to end the filibuster, codify the right to an abortion, bring forward and vote to pass legislation that would end lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court, to add additional seats to the Supreme Court to end partisan supermajorities that threaten our democracy, and to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees peoples’ right to reproductive freedom. Safe abortion access is a human right and we call on all Colorado and Colorado Springs legislators to declare it so.

In the face of rising authoritarianism, we must champion the principles of democracy and organize to defend our democratic and human rights. The Colorado Springs Democratic Socialists of America is committed to pushing back against the threat of fascist and patriarchal rule in these critical times for democracy. 

Emergency Protest – Friday, June 24, 6:30pm at State Capitol
Mass Meeting – Saturday, June 25, 4pm at 711 Catherine St SW

Abortion is healthcare and a human right, fundamentally tied to the principle of bodily autonomy. We condemn the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which will harm and criminalize working people. This decision is an act of class warfare, and we must oppose this undemocratic assault on our human rights.

This decision shows further proof of what we’ve seen for decades: that the Supreme Court has become a rogue institution uninterested in protecting the constitutional rights of the people and more focused on fulfilling the interests of major corporations and far-right Christian nationalists. 

The Supreme Court has made barbaric decisions in the past, upholding segregation in the 19th century and overturning labor protections in the 1920s. These undemocratic rulings were only overturned with the power of mass working class movements that challenged instituted powers at their core. We urge people to make their voices heard and reject all politicians who oppose the right to control one’s own body.

Access to safe, affordable housing is a right. However, the city of Columbus insists on letting a “market” dictate this basic necessity, where only individuals who have enough wealth to participate in the system can afford housing. The city’s reliance on handouts to developers instead of directly working to solve the housing crisis leads to residents becoming displaced by rising rents, inflated property values, and an ever-dwindling supply of affordable options. Housing does not belong in a market.

To this end, we affirm and support unhoused encampments in our city, including @heertoserve and @firstcollective614 located on East Mound Street. Unhoused communities are a direct result of the city’s market-based approach to the housing crisis. As long as the city persists in this approach, our community will have residents who cannot access housing. Until we have affordable housing for all, we must stand with unhoused neighbors who deserve the dignity to live as they can.

We demand housing justice for all.

In solidarity,

Columbus Democratic Socialists of America
Housing Priority Campaign

On May 14th, the Tops market on Jefferson Ave in Buffalo suffered a mass shooting motivated by conspiratorial, racist hate.

We’re heartbroken, and mourn the victims.

White supremacy and all racism is antithetical to our core values.

We believe in and work toward a world where all are free and all needs are met. The forces of division, whether race, national origin, ability, gender, or religion, are our enemy.

These divisions aren’t essential or accidental, but reinforced by class society. Capitalism reproduces poverty and the segregation that allowed Masten Park to be targeted.

Efforts against racism and right-wing radicalization must be anti-capitalist.

Democrats and Republicans approve funding for war, policing, and corporations, while everyday people suffer. Their platitudes don’t teach us skills, or build a high-participation democracy.

President Biden’s visit to Buffalo offered sympathy, if only symbolism to a population marred by real inequality. Without public goods, care for the planet, and living-wage jobs, the employing class’ parties don’t provide for or keep us safe.

Some far-right Republicans and their media mouthpieces even gesture to the conspiracy that motivated this shooter to murder 10 community members, like “Great Replacement” theory that states immigrants and demographic change are the causes of American economic distress and resource scarcity.

The solution to scarcity and competition is not racist violence to win the battle against each other. It is struggle against the exploitation of the employers and politicians already winning the class war against all working people.

Without anti-capitalist struggle to educate young people in patient, faithful work alongside members of our multiracial class, they’re facing a world of shocking inequality, flatlined wages, pollution, and addiction – and instead are radicalized to hateful, apocalyptic conspiracies.

It is out of deep love that we organize our workplaces and neighborhoods in support of an alternative, so that the power of everyday people will replace the bureaucracy of a few.

We must unite as a class in the struggle to elevate people across all backgrounds. Our fight is against prejudice in all forms, and against the minority rule of capitalists who only drive people toward hate and violence.

Denver DSA has been fighting for over a year alongside frontline communities to shut down Colorado’s coal plants and make the just transition to clean, renewable, community-owned electricity. The dirtiest of these coal plants is now officially slated to close no later than January 1, 2031. It’s a huge victory and a testament to the power of mass organizing.

The Coal Plant That Never Should Have Been Built

The Comanche 3 coal plant is the largest polluter in Colorado. Offensively named after an indigenous nation that extractive capitalism itself waged genocide against, this plant has been met with opposition since it was proposed back in 2004.

Despite protests, lawsuits, outcry at public hearings, and the clear scientific evidence that a new coal plant would worsen the already serious climate crisis mounting, Xcel Energy moved forward with construction, with the blessing of the Public Utility Commission (PUC).

The plant went online in 2010 and Xcel hoped to run it until 2070. The massive facility has been pumping tons and tons of carbon dioxide and toxins into the atmosphere. The nearby working class, Latinx community in Pueblo bears the worst of the effects with many residents suffering from respiratory diseases.

The fight to close this plant has never let up. Over the past year, the EcoSocialist committee has been fighting in coalition with others to have the PUC do what it should have done from the beginning – shut this coal plant down.

People Power Forces Xcel to Concede

Thousands of Colorado residents wrote into the PUC demanding that the coal plant be shut down as soon as possible. Dozens of Pueblo residents testified at a public hearing. Over 100 people testified at the final statewide hearing demanding the same.

Xcel took notice. First they offered a 2040 closure date. Then, following the Pueblo hearing, tried making a backroom deal for a 2035 date. We kept fighting, insisting that the plant be closed by at least 2030, if not sooner.

The PUC expressed skepticism around the 2035 Xcel proposal. Another rally kept the pressure on the PUC to do the right thing.

Finally, on April 26, 2022 Xcel came back to the negotiating table and agreed to close the coal plant no later than January 1, 2031.

The Fight Continues to Close the Comanche Coal Plant As Early As Possible

While the newest deadline is great news and could not have happened without thousands of people standing up to Xcel’s profiteering, the fight is not over. This coal plant never should have been built in the first place. We’re experiencing unprecedented drought, wildfires, and heatwaves. Frontline communities still breath the poisoned air and every day more carbon is added to the atmosphere we’ll then need to draw back down.

We’ll take this opportunity to celebrate together with the many others fighting to get to this point. Then we’ll regroup and decide the best path forward to shut down coal once and for all and usher in a new clean and affordable energy system.

To get involved, email the EcoSocialist Committee at ecosoc@denverdsa.org