thebluefood

ICYMI: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/08/16/boston-free-speech-rally-white-nationalists-john-medlar-charlottesville-alt-right-fight-supremacy/ Round two, folks.

So our liberties and our lives lie solely in the hands of elected officials. Our only recourse is through the ballot. Mind you, it isn't part of a multi-faceted strategy - one cog in a machine for our better - but our only recourse? Not in ourselves but only in our votes and the chance that the people we put into power may, incrementally, put legislation into action that might help us down the road.

Well considering the Panthers didn't exist until the mid 1960s I suppose Dr. King wins by default but as far as starting free clinics, self-defense courses, organizing working class and anti-fascist groups across racial lines, and starting free breakfast programs for black youths - I'd say the Panthers did a damn good job. I'm gonna let Chairman Fred Hampton pick it up from here (NFSW Language).

I mean - if we're talking about replacing those statues with folks like Eugene Debs, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and John Brown then hell yeah! Let's party. Somehow, though, I don't think this President would support that. I don't...I really don't even know what to say about this anymore. Only thing we can do is focus on our communities and leave Washington to its own devices. They obviously don't care about "We the People" so it looks like "We the People" gotta look after ourselves and each other.

I'm sorry but this is bugging me because while my people have been feeling the brunt of western imperialism and racial oppression for centuries, antisemitism is one of the most bewildering things humanity has ever cooked up. Why is it always Jewish People they go after? Why them? Every reason I've ever heard can be traced back to bad theology and a laughably poor understanding of world history (which only serves as a pretense for a deeper seeded prejudice that's based God only knows where). Why them?! Why won't people leave Jews alone?!

Mazel Tov, my Jewish brothers and sister! I knew you still had it in you to piss fascists off just for existing! Well done! (Also that Klezmer band quip made me chortle)

And as I've been trying to say (though it seems few people in this discussion wish to admit things happened before the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s) - Anti-Fascist tactics and organizations have a much longer and more effective history than the watered-down memories folks seem to have from a half-century ago. Without even mentioning the obvious - Mussolini and the Vichy didn't topple only by sit-ins and witty articles in the Saturday Evening Post. Despite having little support and poor organization, the CNT-FAI militias gave Franco and his black shirts a run for their money and as I've said time and time again, civilian anti-fascists probably played the biggest role in keeping it off the streets in the UK.

Yup and they stood up for themselves like champions instead of cowering in fear. You don't let this fly. We've seen what happens when you let this kind of thing fly.

I knew someone would drag Dr. King out like this. It's inevitable. Funny thing about him is that while he personally used non-violent tactics exclusively, he empathized and worked with those who didn't. That's from an interview he did in 1966 with CBS. From "Letters from a Birmingham Jail." And while Dr. King ought to be revered for his actions, we've been seeing a steady reversal of the progress made during those years - with the most obvious case being the Supreme Court invalidating parts of the Civil Rights Act which opened the door for states to pounce on it and do what federal and state authorities have been doing since the republic's birth: using backdoor tactics to exclude undesirables. Beating back fascism and the inequity it creates requires a diversity of tactics. We saw that in Charlottesville over the weekend as Anti-Fascists (including members of the IWW's General Defense Committee) kept clergy and other non-violent parties safe from literal Nazis and other white supremacists

To go along with what I said earlier (regarding Cable Street and general, domestic and civilian resistance to fascism): "NO PASARAN!"

Exactly. Dr. Cornel West even gave Antifa kudos because they took the shots for the clergy after making a link around them. I mean, some of y'all actually think ignoring fascists work. Ignoring fascists is what got the Weimar Republic knocked off because no one took the Nazis seriously, even as they were gaining steam. Ignoring fascists gets people killed - more than if you face them head on in the streets. Fascism is a political ideology based on bullying and discrimination. If it and the factors that create it aren't addressed by society at large it will fester and it will grow, whether or not you cover you ears and scream "LA LA LA CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Tell ya what - when people are coming for you and yours and saying they want all y'all dead just for who you are who you live, then come back to me with this. And while you're doing that, go back to Cable Street in London in 1936 and talk to the anti-facists that lined up against Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts and tell them how they should just "be more peaceful" or "ignore them" while they tried to march on and intimidate a Jewish neighborhood. My life is on the line. My friends lives are on the line. If you think we're not going to fight these creeps "by any means necessary" then you got another thing coming.

Some folks on Facebook have been using the old Union's globe as their Facebook profile picture. If anything good's come out of this whole thing (apart from having a bunch of literal Nazis running from supposed "snowflakes") it's been this.

That's what I was trying to tell my colleague at the office. I'm a person of color working for an LGBTQIA+ magazine in a pretty conservative part of Pennsylvania. If these fascists gain traction (and an area like this would be easy picking for them), my ass is on the line. The life of my family and friends are on the line, especially those who are even more active in anti-fascist activity. You gotta snuff this out where it starts - on the streets and in your communities. Sometimes that means punching Nazis but it more often means engaging young, impressionable people and making sure they know the "others" (i.e. black people, Latinx folks, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people who practice other religions than the dominant religion, etc.) are not their enemy and folks who tell them otherwise are a greater threat to them, their safety, and their sustained happiness.

Was talking to one of my colleagues about this when I got to the office. There's a belief that if you "just ignore it, it will go away" and perhaps there are times when this is true. I don't think dealing with fascism is one of those times. Best example can be found overseas. When fascists like Oswald Mosley tried to build support for fascism in Great Britain (and it was something he tried to do for decades), working people rose up en masse to oppose him and his supporters - so much so that they had an all out brawl with Mosley and the police when they tried to march on a predominantly Jewish neighborhood on Cable Street in London in 1936. Anti-fascists of all stripes - yes, this was an "Antifa" counter-demonstration - came out and drove those fascists back into the depths from which they came. The starts with us. It starts on the streets and starts with us confronting this and snuffing it out by any means necessary. Charlottsville is just the latest in a long line of Anti-Fascists getting the job done.

To Heather Hayer - the Charlottsville resident who lost her life yesterday. An apparent member of the budding DSA and someone who took the socialist cause seriously enough to die for it.

She's shook but I think she'll be alright. She's an old hand at Leftist organization and activism - she knows what it's like to be threatened and harassed by bigots. Last I checked, IWW Durham/Raleigh is all accounted for and they're heading back home (if they're not there already) but this was a hard day for everyone. We were even worried we lost a fellow worker (not from our branch but another branch of the Union) but it turns out that was not the case. We mourn those have died today, though.

Unbelievable. That "Leftist Mob" included clergy, Quaker laity (you know...the pacifists who sit in silence for much of their worship), and members of the DSA - who are far from a bunch of marauding rabblerousers . For this man to call my friends - one of whom was in the camera frame when the car ran into the crowd (she was holding a red flag) - part of a mob that's "even more violent" that a bunch of fascists that want to see everyone that doesn't look like and doesn't think like them dead disgusts me.

Accidentally stumbled upon the Redskins bar in downtown Harrisburg, PA the other night while on business. Glad to know I can suffer with company this season. That's also going to come in handy since apparently the Redskins Radio Network doesn't go into Pennsylvania.

Duck and cover...under wooden desks as a giant, devastating inferno comes sweeping toward you and everything you love. Nailed it.

I mean...I hope you're right. I really do.

Now mind you (and I haven't been keeping up with it - playing catch-up) I am disappointed to see Jacoby out in the cold (Again) and I'm surprised Don Coryelle didn't make it again this year.

Agreed - apart from Jerruh I can't see anyone who isn't worthy of the Hall