Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution

Update: Motion to vote on language submitted by Councilmember Hurtak, Councilmembers Maniscalco and Gudes motion to postpone until 08/18/2022 at 5:00 PM. Maniscalco-Gudes motion carries 4-1, Hurtak votes no.

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa honors the rights of pregnant people to bodily autonomy and control over their private medical decisions; and

WHEREAS, access to safe and legal abortion is a deciding factor in long-term health, safety, and quality of life; and

WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States hasoverturned the 1973 landmark ruling, Roe v. Wade, which previously prevented individual states from directly banning such care; and

WHEREAS, on April 14, 2022, Florida Governor Ron Desantis signed into law HB 5, which effective July 1st, criminalizes access to abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy; and

WHEREAS, Article I Section 23 of Florida’s State constitution guarantees all Floridians a Right of Privacy, a right that the Florida Supreme Court, in In re T.W., 551 So. 2d 1186 (Fla. 1989) ruled also extends to protecting the right to abortion. Article I Section 23 states, “Every natural person has the right to be left alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life…:”;

WHEREAS, anti-abortion clinics, commonly known as “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers”, use deceptive tactics and propaganda to dissuade people from seeking abortion services. These anti-abortion clinics don’t provide abortions, don’t offer a full range of reproductive healthcare, and are explicitly opposed to legal abortion;

WHEREAS, people have a basic human right to medical treatment, up to and including abortion; and

WHEREAS, eliminating legal access to abortion has been empirically proven to dramatically increase the risk of death, bodily injury, and infertility, especially within low-income communities and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, the resources of the City of Tampa must always be dedicated to the health and well-being of its residents; and

WHEREAS, the City Council has demonstrated its commitment to abortion access in Resolution No. 2019-837, wherein the City Council supported the Federal Medicare for All Act of 2019 which includes “reproductive care;” and

WHEREAS, the right to privacy should protect doctors, patients, and all others providing abortion-related medical care from any criminal investigation related to decisions made within the healthcare provider-patient relationship so long as those decisions occur without coercion, force, or negligence; and

WHEREAS, the City Council of the City of Tampa has a responsibility to protect its residents from any violation of their human rights and any criminalization of the free exercise thereof;

NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF TAMPA, FLORIDA:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa formally condemns any action intended to abrogate the fundamental liberties of its people and affirms its commitment to protecting the right of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion care, for themselves.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any action or activity that would abrogate or criminalize the rights of its residents to make reproductive health decisions, including abortion, for themselves. This further includes but is not limited to;

● Storing or cataloging any report of an abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act;

● Providing information to any other governmental body or agency about any abortion, miscarriage, or other reproductive healthcare act, unless such information is provided to defend the patient’s right to abortion care or the healthcare provider’s right to provide that care; or

● Conducting surveillance or collecting information related to an individual or organization for the purpose of determining whether an abortion has occurred, except for aggregated data without personally identifying information.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

The policy stated above does not apply in cases where coercion or force is used against the pregnant person, or in cases involving conduct criminally negligent to the health of the pregnant person seeking care.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa will not approve the appropriation of funds for any organization or entity operating a “crisis pregnancy center” or “pregnancy resource center” that is established with the explicit purpose of opposing legal abortion and dissuading pregnant people from seeking abortion services;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That the City Council of the City of Tampa’s approved appropriation of funds will reflect that the investigation or support for the prosecution of any allegation, charge, or information relating to any individual who seeks, provides, or supports abortion and abortion-related care will be the lowest priority for enforcement and the use of City resources and personnel.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That all proper officials of the City of Tampa are authorized to do all things necessary and proper in order to carry out and make effective the provisions of this Resolution.

The post Tampa DSA’s Abortion Rights City Council Resolution appeared first on Tampa DSA.

Tonight we're joined live by the NewsGuild of New York's Chris Brooks and Stephanie Basile, two labor organizers on the front lines of some of today’s most exciting worker-led campaigns. We’ll be discussing trends in labor organizing, as seen in groundbreaking victories from workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple Stores, Trader Joe’s, and many more. What in labor history can help us understand this current moment, and how do we keep up the momentum?

 

Want to learn more about worker-led momentum organizing? Read Chris Brooks in In These Times: https://inthesetimes.com/article/amazon-starbucks-workers-organizing-unions-momentum-movement-moment

The membership of the Champlain Valley Democratic Socialists of America votes on the chapter’s endorsements. You can see three candidates’ responses to our questionnaire here. But since we didn’t endorse a candidate in every race, our electoral working group put together this guide to offer some unofficial recommendations and guidance on harm-reduction voting to help fill up the rest of your ballot if you’re so inclined. (Several candidates running for the Democratic nomination are members of the Vermont Progressive Party, whose own ballot does not feature any competitive races.)

US Senate

• We give Isaac Evans-Frantz credit for stepping up, when no one else would, to offer some kind of left-wing challenge to Peter Welch’s all but inevitable accession to the Leahy throne. Though he won the endorsement of the Progressive Party, Evans-Frantz’s campaign, based on a grab-bag platform of progressive policies, didn’t appear to find a popularly compelling point of focus or make any inroads with organized labor. Still, many of us may prefer to cast a ballot for an anti-war activist than for a longtime recipient of defense contractor donations.

US House of Representatives

• A few weeks ago, CVDSA endorsed the 27-year-old former congressional staffer Sianay Chase Clifford, based in part on her willingness to work directly with DSA to fight for socialist priorities on the federal level. Unfortunately, Sianay ran into fundraising challenges and dropped out on July 19, setting up a contest where outgoing  VT Senate Pro Tem Becca Balint gets to play the “progressive” against Molly Gray’s moderate. Since we tend to believe that either would end up a stock-standard Democrat in Congress, we’re not inclined to rescind our commitment to Sianay’s defunct campaign.

VT Lieutenant Governor

• Former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman has represented the Progressive Party and, for better or worse, the left flank of Vermont politics for the past three decades. An organic farmer with a crunchy ideology to match, he is not a vocal socialist, but he has been endorsed by every labor union in the state. Patricia Preston and Kitty Toll are both candidates backed by the Dean-Leahy-Burlington Business Association faction of the Vermont Democratic Party that has previously fostered shining stars such as Molly Gray. Representative Charlie Kimbell is an ex-Republican and by far the most right-wing candidate in the race. CVDSA recommends Zuckerman.

VT Secretary of State

• While no candidates in the race have a left-wing or working-class ideology behind them, Montpelier City Clerk John Odum is pushing for the most good-government progressive reforms, such as ranked-choice, non-citizen, and 16- and 17-year-old voting. Odum also brings a fresh and rarely seen electoral perspective as an advocate for open-source technology and public ownership. Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters has also voiced support for things such as ranked-choice voting and public financing of elections — as has Representative Sarah Copeland Hanzas, though while a chair of the State House’s Government Operations Committee, she has stood in the way of those reforms being passed.

VT Attorney General

• We have no real preference in this race. Charity Clark, chief of staff to former Attorney General and current Roblox employee TJ Donovan, seems likely to continue her boss’s policy of zero accountability for law enforcement in the state. Washington County State’s Attorney Rory Thibault at least has some detailed plans for police oversight in the state, but remains a skeptic of life-saving measures such as safe injection sites for opiate users. If you are the protest vote type, former DSA endorsee Scott Pavek and VT ACLU chief Jay Diaz’s names have both been thrown forward as possible write-ins.

Chittenden County State’s Attorney

• We’ve heard that Republicans are pulling Democratic primary ballots specifically to vote for Ted Kenney, who represents a local instantiation of a nationwide fascist surge of carceral politics, focused for now on punishing and removing reformist prosecutors for often largely imaginary post-pandemic upticks in violent crime. In reality, Sarah George is not the reformer we’d like her to be — she has refused, for instance, to take a stand against solitary confinement — but Ted Kenney should be stopped.

Vermont State Senate - Chittenden central

• State Representative and DSA member Tanya Vyhovsky has been one of, if not the strongest voice for the interest of the working-class in Montpelier. Now running for the State Senate, it is critical that she continue to do the work. Erhard Mahnke has been a longtime advocate for affordable housing in the state and is a staunch Progressive. CVDSA ENDORSES TANYA VYHOVSKY and recommends Erhard Mahnke.

Vermont State House  - Chittenden 16

• Asked why she joined the race in Chittenden 16, first-time candidate Kate Logan told us that she is “running for office because I believe that working class and/or oppressed people need to run for office and serve as policy makers. Running for office is one of the things I am doing to cope with how hard it is to live in the status quo and build movements for a complete transformation of society and economy.” She’s running against a hand-picked ally of House Speaker Jill Krowinski, who proved herself an enemy of Vermont’s public sector workers in the last legislative session. CVDSA ENDORSES KATE LOGAN.

Vermont State House - Chittenden 15

•  DSA member and incumbent State Representative Brian Cina is running in a non-competitive race, but we hope that his supporters will show up to demonstrate that he has a strong base of support in Chittenden 15. Brian is a true Champ of Socialism™ who has fought in the legislature for public banking, reparations, and drug decriminalization. He supports mustache champion Troy Headrick, the only other candidate in Chittenden 15, for the district’s other seat.  CVDSA ENDORSES BRIAN CINA.

TAMPA, FL — 

The Tampa chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has developed a list of demands in response to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. This decision is an affront to bodily autonomy and democracy, and poses a mortal threat to the health and wellbeing of the working class. These demands are aimed at our elected officials and community members in positions of power, and we have called on members of the community to sign on to a petition for these demands. At the time of this press release, 208 local community members and organizations have signed on in support. 

Tampa DSA demands that:

• The City of Tampa refuse to enforce laws criminalizing abortion
• Mayor Jane Castor refuse to enforce laws criminalizing abortion
• Chief of Police Mary O’Connor instruct the Tampa Police Department to refuse to act against offenders of any laws criminalizing abortion
• State Attorney Andrew Warren uphold his statement pledging to abstain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions
• Hillsborough County Sherrif, Chad Chronister, refuse to monitor or take action against offenders of any laws criminalizing abortion
• Various local institutions of power refuse to report any signs of miscarriage or self-managed abortion to the authorities, including public schools and healthcare institutions (Tampa General Hospital, USF Health, Advent Health, etc.)

“Many people in positions of power have come forward in opposition to stripping away reproductive rights, but they say very little about what they plan to do about it. Our mayor, city council, CEOs of hospital systems and clinics – they do have power and there are paths available to them to help protect our right to abortion despite this ruling. The question is: do they care enough about us to take a real stand and act?” – Alec J., member of Tampa DSA.
“Poor and working class people have long been criminalized by the local Tampa government,” said Sam M., member of Tampa DSA. “We cannot stand idly by and watch our communities face further persecution. We must demand that our local officials take action.”

The post TDSA Abortion Rights Press Release appeared first on Tampa DSA.

From New York to Los Angeles and everywhere in between socialists have been winning in local, state, and federal elections. Daniel and Mike from the National Electoral Committee join us to discuss recent victories, upcoming campaigns, and the challenges faced by the ascendent socialist movement in the years to come.

Last Wednesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted to uphold the “Heartbeat” bill, signed into law by Brian Kemp in 2019, which effectively bans abortions after 6 weeks in Georgia. Atlanta DSA condemns this undemocratic, abhorrent assault on the right to healthcare and bodily autonomy for working-class people across the state.

The court’s enforcement of this 6-week ban represents a larger authoritarian campaign waged by a tiny right-wing minority against the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose abortion bans. We must demand that the US government take action to defend abortion rights for all, in addition to the right to universal healthcare, paid parental leave, living wages, childcare, college and more.

While this decision is horrific, working people have the power to win back our rights by getting organized! For this reason, we have worked alongside our progressive allies to resist the Supreme Court’s decision since its initial leak. We are mobilizing for pro-abortion protests, hosting workshops and trainings, and building public support for establishing a $300,000 city abortion fund in Atlanta to ensure that all who need abortion care can get it.

In order to win abortion rights for all people we must fight back against the extremist right wing and the capitalist class that supports them. Not only should we fight for bodily autonomy, but we must fight for a world where working-class people have real democratic power to shape policy and society around the needs of the many, not the few. Join us in the struggle for abortion rights and a democratic socialist society. We stand for free abortion on demand without apology, nothing less.

Fight back for abortion rights:

• Donate to ARC Southeast and Feminist Women’s Health Center.
• Sign on to demand Atlanta City Council create a $300,000 abortion fund and speak at a City Council meeting.
• Sign up to canvass for a city abortion fund this Saturday in Cabbagetown.
• Join DSA and organize with us!

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: 

Marina Roberts, mkelseyroberts@gmail.com, 228.238.5854

Austin DSA: Website — Twitter — Facebook — Instagram

San Marcos DSA:  Facebook — Twitter 

San Antonio DSA: Website — Twitter — Facebook — Instagram

AUSTIN, TX -- The Austin, San Antonio, and San Marcos chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America join forces this month around an Organized Labor for Reproductive Justice Rally and Resource Fair. The event will be held at the Federal Courthouse (501 W 5th St) in Austin, TX on Sunday, July 31st from 6:30-8:15 pm. 

This event will bring together labor unions, organizing workers, abortion funds, reproductive justice organizations, and community groups to rally around the demand for abortion rights. Information and resources about accessing abortion safely in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade will be shared. The Resource Fair will offer information about joining and organizing unions to build economic and political power among working people. The growing list of groups participating includes Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), United Workers of Integral Care, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 520, Texas State Employees Union (TSEU), Restaurant Workers United (RWU), Tiff’s Treats organizers, UNITEHERE Local 23, Workers Defense Project, Austin Justice Coalition (AJC), and Sunrise Movement ATX. More will join in the coming days, watch the event page for updates.  

“The GOP, the political elites of Texas, and the Democratic Party are failing the working class,” said Austin DSA organizer Crystal Maher. “As the GOP criminalizes abortion, Texas already has the highest repeat teen pregnancy rate, among the highest maternal mortality rates, highest percentage of uninsured children of any state, soaring housing costs, and a serious childcare shortage. Working families here are struggling. The Democrats have offered no political solutions to any of this, only pandering. One minute Nancy Pelosi sends frantic emails to workers begging for their hard-earned money to defend abortion rights. The next minute, she travels to Texas to campaign for the lone anti-choice Democrat in the House, Henry Cuellar. Working people deserve solidarity and protection, not this hypocrisy.” 

“The dissolution of Roe v. Wade poses a problem that won’t be resolved by politicians alone,” said San Antonio DSA Co-Chair, Lexy Garcia.  “A majority of people in this country already support the right to abortion. What we need is an organized working class that can demand and win abortion rights for everyone. When workers claim our power through unions and organizing, we also claim power over the decisions that affect our lives. We do not have to be ruled by undemocratic, classist institutions like the Supreme Court.”

“A better world is possible when working class people have a voice and real political power through unions,” said San Marcos DSA organizer, Eden Ewing. “Many folks feel strongly about abortion rights, but don’t know how to fight back. Organizing offers us a way to do that. If workers join unions and organize in our communities, we can win abortion rights, free universal childcare, Medicare For All, environmental justice and more. Free abortion on demand no matter where you live is our goal, and we will not stop until the poorest among us can access abortion as freely as the rich.” 

Water will be distributed at the event, which will be held as planned pending extreme temperatures during the scheduled time.

###

Tonight we’re joined live by Michaelangelo Pomarico, an organizer with Mid Hudson Valley DSA and the Public Power New York Coalition who has devoted a lot of time over the last several months organizing to elect Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA endorsed candidate for the New York Assembly. Michaelaneglo will share how Sarahana’s insurgent campaign in the Hudson Valley succeeded to unseat longtime incumbent  Kevin Cahill last month in the Democratic primary and what comes next for their DSA chapter. 

We also talk with Socialist Councilmembers Alexa Aviles and Tiffany Caban about their first six months on the New York City Council and we’ll hear in their own words why they, along with four other council members, were the only members to vote NO on the City Budget that was pushed through in a late night vote by the Council Speaker and later signed by Mayor Adams earlier this month.   

To learn more about Mid-Hudson Valley DSA follow them on twitter @MHVDSA  and visit www.mhvdsa.org 

To learn more about Sarahana Shrestha follow her on twitter @sarahana and www.sarahanaforassembly.com/

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