 Six months ago was anti-racist skinhead Luke Querner's 30th birthday. It was also the day Querner was shot and nearly killed in what appears to have been assassination attempt. In the early hours of Saturday, March 27, Luke was ambushed and shot in the chest on SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland, between Stark and Washington Street. The 30-year-old union ironworker and anti-racist skinhead, who had dedicated over a decade of his life to opposing the most vicious elements of Portland's white supremacist movement, spent the next week in a medically induced coma, fighting for his life. Rose City Antifascists, the Portland chapter of the Anti-Racist Action Network, believe that it was an element within the neo-Nazi movement which Luke had opposed for years that attempted to murder him on Saturday morning. If the plan was to intimidate those fighting organized bigotry, it failed. Luke survived the assassination attempt and anti-racist communities in Portland remain strong. Antifascists locally and from around the world responded to the March 27 shooting with messages of support, organizing efforts against the white supremacists, and donations to help Luke with costs resulting from the shooting. Luke's story was heard internationally--translated by French, Basque, German, and Greek antifascists. Local anti-racists held benefit soul, punk, and early reggae music nights for Luke in the months that followed. Rose City Antifa hosted a panel discussion to educate Portlanders about the context of the shooting--an event that drew over one hundred community members on April 24. On July 31, anti-racist and anti-fascist events were held from coast to coast as part of a Call to Action Against Racism and Fascism, endorsed by almost two dozen organizations and responding to the broader resurgence of the extreme-Right which provided the context for Luke’s shooting. Antifascists continue to organize on an international scale to counter white power and neo-Nazi activity. Luke's shooting has reinforced the importance of taking a firm stance against fascism, and not allowing neo-Nazis to recruit or gain a foothold in our communities. Six months on and we are more committed than ever to confront the white power movement and create space for a culture based in dignity and respect to flourish. Rose City Antifa’s initial statement on the shooting of Luke Querner is here. To help with Luke's continued expenses, please donate here. Add Comment During the early morning hours of March 27th, a Portland, Oregon anti-racist activist was shot in what appears to be a well orchestrated attack. It is suspected that the attackers were members of the neo-Nazi movement. The victim is a member of the anti-racist skinhead movement, a son, a friend and has dedicated the past ten years of his life to fighting white supremacist organizing. The Portland Police Department has suggested that the shooting is “gang related.” Already facing mass protests over numerous recent cases of police brutality and murder, the police treatment of this case is not surprising, and fits into a pattern of downplaying racist violence while targeting anti-racist activists. Although police and politicians attempt to portray cities like Portland as welcoming safe places, Portland and the Pacific Northwest has a violent and dangerous history. For 30 years Portland and the surrounding region has been targeted by white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements. Groups like White Aryan Resistance (WAR) and Aryan Nations waged an ongoing and underground campaign to both recruit young whites and to terrorize people of color, GLBTQ people, and others who were seen as enemies of their racist order. The 1980’s were an especially violent period in which neo-Nazi skinheads with ties to WAR beat Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw to death. But this racist terror has not gone unopposed. Coalitions of anti-racist youths, militants from the GLBTQ communities, and individuals fighting for justice and dignity organized to beat back the racists and neo-Nazis. This organizing was often opposed and criminalized by the authorities who sought to disrupt independent antifascist organizing. This situation led organizers to rely on themselves and their own communities. The organizing by anti-fascists in Portland was a positive example and has been part of a broader, longterm campaign across the country. From NYC to LA, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, there is a history of peoples organizing to both defend themselves against racist terror, as well as come together to build multi-racial coalitions to discuss and plan forms of action to address conflicts and crisis in our various communities. The shooting in the context of growing reaction The March 27th shooting occurred within a backdrop of growing Right wing, racist, and emerging fascist organizing and activity. There has been a dramatic escalation of rhetoric and action from the broad Right. While all sectors of the working classes and poor face economic and social uncertainty, the racists, the Right wing, and the smaller but significant sections of the neo-Nazi and fascist movements are looking to divide our class and peoples. Where there should be united class anger against a system that is continually grinding people down, the Right openly demonstrates its contempt and hatred for our people. Fascists and neo-Nazis are looking for these moments of division in which they can move in, recruit, and carry out their own organizing. Call to Action We propose Saturday July 31, 2010 as a Call to Action Against Racism and Fascism. We want to use the CA to both engage the broad, independent, and radical antiracist/anti-fascist movements. We want mass and varied forms of protest and action. These actions can range from: music and DJ shows; educational events; outings of known Right and fascist organizers; street protest; immigrant solidarity and anti-minuteman action; and so on. While we want collaboration and coordination when possible, we also want to maximize the impact of this CA and thus argue for the greatest degree of creativity and initiative. We encourage individuals and organizations to determine what best works in their localities. We support the incorporation of any existing and ongoing anti-racist/anti-fascist action into this CA and imagine the CA as a way to bolster already active organizing. To reiterate, we argue for a maximum of creative and independent initiative and ask only that a) individuals and organizations endorse the call b) any public actions and events be promoted. We would not necessarily seek to publish details of planned actions unless requested to do so. We want to use the CA as a means to increase collaboration between our forces and work in a popular manner to highlight the need for a mass, radical response to racist and fascist organizing. Endorsers: Anti Racist Action - Central Texas Anti Racist Action - Los Angeles, CA Anti Racist Action - Portland/Rose City Antifascists Anti-Racist Action - Kent, OH Anti-Racist Action - Trenton, NJ Bring the Ruckus! Common Cause - Ontario, Canada First of May Anarchist Alliance Four Star Anarchist Organization Iron Rail Infoshop Kersplebedeb Red & Anarchist Skinheads – Northeast Solidarity & Defense Wild Rose Collective Workers Solidarity Alliance Endorse the Call! Email: july31.antifa@gmail.com. French: http://july31antifa.blogspot.com/2010/06/31-juillet-2010-lappel-laction-contre.html Spanish: http://july31antifa.blogspot.com/2010/06/31-de-julio-de-2010-una-llamada-la.html See july31antifa.blogspot.com for more information. A Short History of Anti-Racist Action 05/03/2010
Reposted from Twin Cities IndyMedia: In the 1980s the Twin Cities were a hotbed of Neo-Nazis and racist skinhead gangs, some of which were violent and others which were openly organizing working class white young people to further an agenda of hate and intolerance. Many folks in Twin Cities communities began organizing a response and eventually drove most of the nazis and racist skinheads out and underground through a multi-decade struggle. Among the first groups to organize a response were young punks who formed street crews that eventually founded Anti-Racist Action (ARA). ARA chapters quickly spread to other cities and still exists in other states today. Kieran, Molly and Katrina spoke at Macalester College on April 1 about the history of ARA in Minneapolis, copwatching, sexual assault within the movement and the ongoing struggle against overt and covert white supremacy. Rose City Antifa would like to note that there are a couple factual errors in the beginning of Kieran's speech regarding the shooting of Luke Querner. Shortly after the attack on Luke, when this speech at Macalester occurred, it was believed that Luke what shot multiple times. We now know that only one bullet hit him. Although this bullet nearly killed him, we do not yet know the degree of permanent damage. Local Anti-Racist Shot in Downtown Portland 04/01/2010
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, March 27, a man was brutally attacked in the heart of downtown Portland. His attacker shot him and left him lying in the street. He is currently fighting to overcome extensive injuries. It is no secret that this man, Luke Querner, is a long-time anti-fascist activist. He has devoted over a decade of his life to opposing the most vicious elements of our city’s white supremacist movement. Rose City Antifascists, the Portland chapter of the Anti-Racist Action Network, believe that the local neo-Nazis whom Luke has opposed for years attempted to murder him on Saturday morning. Luke is proud to be an anti-racist skinhead. The true skinhead movement has always been anti-racist, tracing its origins to the cultural intersection of Jamaican immigrants and working class whites in England during the 1960s. After racists and the far-Right attempted to hijack the skinhead movement in the late 1970s and ‘80s, a movement known as SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) emerged in 1987 to reaffirm the anti-racist roots of the subculture. As with many other anti-racist skins, Luke is deeply committed to racial equality and social justice. This commitment has caused Luke to be targeted in the past. Rose City Antifa believes that the most recent attack was planned and committed by an element within Portland’s neo-Nazi underground. This is the most logical explanation for such a vicious act, for several reasons:
Portland has a long, violent history of racist organizing that continues to this day. In the late 1980s, Portland became notorious as a hotbed of white supremacist activity. Many organizations, such as the Aryan Nations, declared the Pacific Northwest to be a future white homeland. The groups that would go on to comprise Volksfront and other formations, swelled in numbers. The 1988 murder of Ethiopian student Mulugeta Seraw and trial of the three neo-Nazi culprits represented the high water mark of Nazi terror at that point. Concerted community efforts, as well as a high-profile civil suit, drove many local neo-Nazis underground. Unfortunately some of these white supremacists are still here, always struggling to re-emerge. The attempted killing also reminds us of the 1998 executions of Lin "Spit" Newborn and Dan Shersty--who were also anti-racist skinheads--by neo-Nazis in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Rose City Antifa believes that this shooting is of particular significance, representing a neo-Nazi attempt to reclaim the streets and apply their white supremacist agenda through force and terror. This seems to be tied to the larger context of a nationwide mobilization of the radical Right. We criticize the Portland Police response to this tragic attack, which appears to be further victimizing the survivor and his community. This police approach reflects the Department’s institutional biases regarding race and racial hate, apparent in the recent police bean-bag shotgun assault on a 12-year-old African American girl, and their killing of an unarmed African American man two months ago. Despite the fact that Luke’s shooting was an unprovoked attack with a fairly obvious motive, the police appear to be treating the victim as the problem. The police released Luke’s name to the media on the Sunday after the shooting, in total disregard for his safety and security. We feel it is extremely important to clarify the nature of this situation, given that the information released so far has generally situated this event in the same category as an unrelated shooting about 50 minutes earlier in Portland, reportedly related to violence between rival gangs. Treating Luke’s shooting as a gang related event obscures the political implications of the attack, and utterly misses the point. The racist overtones of much of the online commentary on the coverage is particularly appalling given that Luke was someone that spent his entire adult life fighting white supremacy. Portland Anti-Racist Action vigorously challenges any assumptions that the ambush was performed by people of color, which may have been suggested by prior media coverage. This was not a fight that got out of hand. There was no fight. It was an assassination attempt. Luke is currently looking at a mountain of medical bills. The Anti-Racist Action Network is currently hosting benefits from coast to coast to raise funds. In addition, the ARA Network has set up a PayPal account to send Luke donations. As always, Rose City Antifa is looking for any and all information related to fascist organizing in our town. Contact us at fight_them_back@riseup.net or leave a voice mail message at 971.533.7832. We will not rest until we see some measure of justice for Luke. | ROSE CITY ANTIFA
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