Picture
NSM member Nathan Goncalves --AP Photo by Troy Wayrynen
On October 5, 2010, National Socialist Movement (NSM) propaganda was found littering the Clark College campus in Vancouver, Washington. Fliers prominently displaying a swastika and the words "White and Proud" were left around campus and were reported to have been aggressively distributed to students.

The Colombian, a local Vancouver paper, quotes Clark president Bob Knight defending his slow and lackluster response to the distribution of white power materials on his campus. "I just don’t know how many students this really, really affected," Knight said.

Nearly two weeks after the NSM flier distribution, Clark devoted its regularly scheduled "open dialogue" to the topic, on Monday, October 18.

Nathan Goncalves, NSM member and resident of Stevenson, Washington, claimed responsibility for distributing the fliers. He was given the first opportunity to speak to the room of 250 students, faculty, and community members. For three minutes he stood in front of the crowd in a full NSM uniform, boots, and a swastika armband, delivering a fascist recruiting message on behalf of the National Socialist Movement.

Earlier this month, Clark’s attorney general approved of a second round of neo-Nazi fliers to be posted on official college bulletin boards. These fliers delivered a message suggesting people of color are inferior to white people. Knight defended the choice to grant space to the racist fliers.

At the end of August this year, President Knight's contract was renewed until 2013. Knight and the other authorities at Clark have shown precisely the wrong way to respond to fascist organizing, by creating opportunities for it to spread. In their “delay, then dialogue” approach towards genocide-inclined neo-Nazis, these authorities seem to have disrespected and drowned out the voices of people of color, members of the queer community, Jewish people, Leftists and other targets for Nazi hostility.

In response, over 100 students rallied on the campus on November 9 to promote diversity and oppose the actions of the College and the NSM.

The College’s counter-productive response reflects myths about fascism and fascist organizing. Within this framework, there is an open marketplace of ideas, and good ideas eventually triumph over poor ones just as surely as the invisible hand of market economics tends towards prosperity—-don’t intervene and everything will be fine. What this model omits, among other things, is the question of power. As history indicates, fascist political forces pose the question of power from the start, through creating an atmosphere of intimidation against opponents. Their speech reflects and magnifies strategies of violence—-street violence when on the periphery of power, massive structural violence when power is achieved. To pretend that civility is in order, therefore, is to clearly demonstrate that one will stand idly while intimidation takes place, and to give a go-ahead to fascist escalation. The idea that good ideas simply win out on their own, is furthermore an insult to all those throughout history who have had to risk, struggle, and sacrifice security for the purpose of freedom and dignity.

Finally, to give a neo-Nazi space to say that his movement is “about love,” is to sacrifice the concept that words have meanings as well as consequences. It is an improper stance not only for any educator, but for any thinking person.   

Rose City Antifascists have contempt for Clark’s handling of this situation. We fully support students, staff and community members who are trying to address the reality of fascist organizing on campus in a more adequate manner.
1 Comment
 
 
Rose City Antifascists would like to express our dismay with the recent story, “Racists and Anti-Racists,” by Marcus Griffith published in the Vancouver Voice on Wednesday, August 4, 2010. The story contains a number of errors and misrepresentations of both our organization and militant anti-racism in general. It is disconcerting that Griffith quotes a “staff member” allegedly with Rose City Antifa, when our organization does not have staff, and no member of our organization was interviewed or even approached by Griffith for the story. What remains is an article based on an unnamed source within Portland law enforcement, as well as on statements from neo-Nazis. Griffith manages to ascribe to Rose City Antifa positions that contradict or misrepresent our own written statements. Those who wish to judge our alerts and analysis for themselves may do so at: rosecityantifa.org.

We are most seriously concerned that Mr. Griffith allows a Portland law enforcement officer to characterize the actions of our organization as equivalent to gang activity, and as “less a battle of ideology and more of a turf war between competing gangs.” Rose City Antifascists is a political organization that opposes organized fascist groups and movements; it is not a criminal association whose goal is to control “turf.” Our opposition to individuals involved with groups such as Volksfront, Blood & Honour American Division, the National Socialist Movement, and the Northwest Front is based on their political efforts which often involve extreme violence. These efforts aim to purge our region of people seen by white supremacists as undesirable--whether this means people of color, Jewish people, sexual minorities, leftists, or others perceived as enemies. The fact that members of neo-Nazi organizations may engage in criminal activity as part of their political work or their individual lifestyles, is for the most part incidental to our own political efforts against them.

Griffith’s police narrative of a “tit-for-tat” conflict is based on false equivalencies, and is an attempt to remove actions from their political context. Rose City Antifa’s work in recent months--since the attempted assassination of Luke Querner--has consisted of: hosting educational events and a conference, flyer campaigns, fundraising, media work, and help with one protest. Several of these activities were scheduled in advance of Luke Querner’s shooting, although our organization is of course proud of the solidarity work we’ve done since then. Our initial flyer campaign exposing neo-Nazi activist Jeffrey Jay Thomas was explicitly in response to a “Blood & Honour” neo-Nazi gathering in the Midwest, not as Griffith portrays via our alleged “staff member.” When a protest arrived outside Thomas’ residence on July 31, this was part of Call to Action that involved anti-racist coordination and events held coast to coast. The Call to Action responded to a much broader resurgence of the extreme Right, not just to the attempted assassination in Portland which occurred within this upswing. Griffith fails to mention that the July 31 event in Portland was co-sponsored by three other political and community organizations. This crowd all became “members and supporters of the RCA” in Griffith’s account, because this fits with the police narrative of a two-sided, equivalent conflict, not a multifaceted situation involving different political actors. Griffith further flattens everything out by insisting that Rose City Antifa exists in “coalition” (the word is used three times) with Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP). SHARP are then compared to Volksfront by the Portland law enforcement source: “both have huge drug problems, domestic violence issues and a slew of other crimes.” There is no reality to such a portrayal, especially when one considers, for example, that Rose City Antifa consistently stresses anti-sexist and feminist politics.

By copying a police script, Griffith is--intentionally or not--complicit with state repression. Articles such as “Racists and Anti-Racists” are generally intended to set the stage for and justify police crackdowns. The Portland “Red Squad”/Criminal Intelligence Unit has a long and inglorious history of surveillance and action against political opponents, as documented for example in the Portland Tribune’s five-part series on “The Secret Watchers” printed in 2002. Almost twenty years ago, the Portland Police also waged a campaign against anti-racist members of the skinhead subculture, viewing them equally as bad as, if not worse than, the neo-Nazis. These days, law enforcement is pretending to be even-handed, by paying as much attention to anti-racists who highlight neo-Nazi events and structure in their writings, as they do to the neo-Nazis who plot and attempt assassinations. In the broadest possible contours, what is going on is a three-sided political struggle between the state, fascist organizers, and a third pole of anti-fascists and radicals. Griffith simply doesn’t get it, and writes as if it’s a brawl between rival gangs in The Outsiders instead. It is unfortunate that a reporter for an “alternative” newspaper is so insistent on portraying the conflict from the state’s eye view.

Finally, if members of Volksfront or other white supremacist groups are choosing Clark County as their new home and base of operations, then we encourage people in the County and the city of Vancouver to organize to stop these violent racists from posing the same threat that they have in Portland. We are happy to assist with anti-racist community responses.
Add Comment