Rose City Antifascists celebrates its fourth year as an active antifascist organization this October. We would like to take the time to reflect on our successes, thank those of you who helped us over the years, and renew our commitment to eliminating organized bigotry in our city.

Flash back to 2007. Volksfront--an international neo-Nazi organization that was founded in Oregon's prison system--teamed up with the neo-Nazi Hammerskin Nation gang to bring over one hundred violent racists to the Willamette Valley. The president and founder of Volksfront, Randal Krager, called Portland his home, and large white supremacist gatherings--like Hammerfest, Aryan Fest, etc.--had been taking place in our region on a semi-regular basis for decades.

In four short years, the landscape has changed. We attribute this in no small part to the hard work of those active in the fight against fascism. There has not been a single large gathering of neo-Nazis in the Portland area since the Ad-Hoc Coalition Against Racism and Fascism--RCA's predecessor--was successful in shutting down Hammerfest, and Volksfront's Oregon leadership no longer reside in Portland after RCA's repeated campaigns exposing their white power activity. Our city is not a safe organizing base for fascists.

Over the past four years, RCA has maintained constant research and monitoring of organized fascist activity in our area, received hundreds of tips, given workshops, hosted a national anti-racist conference, participated in strategy sessions with neighbors about combating fascist activity in their area, mobilized to protest bigotry, "outed" active white power organizers to their neighbors and workplaces, published news reports, developed educational materials to fight bigotry, and supported fellow antifascists in the Pacific Northwest.

We couldn't have done it without help. Rose City Antifascists sincerely thanks our friends and allies, anonymous tipsters, event spaces which have taken a stand, community members and neighbors who have shared our research or contributed their own, and all of those who make confronting bigotry a priority in their lives. Thank you for fighting alongside us.

As we enter into our fifth year of actively opposing fascism in Portland, we remember ways in which RCA has had a positive impact on our city. We also take note of the many sobering reminders that organized racism, homophobia, and other oppression remains a big problem in our area. Rose City Antifa will continue to build off of our successes, and learn from our missteps. Our organization remains absolutely committed to opposing fascism and helping build a culture of dignity and respect in Portland.

On Sunday October 16th, a group of 20-30 antifascists and allies gathered at SE 32nd Avenue and Taylor Street to oppose the opening of Mars Hill’s Portland branch. Demonstrators carried banners with statements of support for the LGBTQ community and maintained a presence in front of the church throughout the service. As church attendees exited the building, demonstrators held a dance party with the aid of a portable sound system and chanted, “Homophobes get out of here! Pro-Choice! Pro-Queer!”

The vast majority of passersby were supportive of the protest. Some neighbors expressed concern with the neighborhood association’s failure to effectively deal with the church’s arrival in SE Portland, especially in regards to the safety of the area’s queer residents. A few neighbors offered criticisms about the protest itself, however the overwhelming majority of community feedback was positive.

Mars Hill is a misogynistic, homophobic, evangelical megachurch founded by Mark Driscoll in Seattle, Washington. Driscoll’s charismatic persona and lively combination of pop culture references and “Radical Reformism” proved to be a dynamo combination for tapping into a new vein of pierced and tattooed recruits. His tiny flock first met in his living room in 1996 and swelled to a membership of 1,000 by 2003. It now boasts 12 branches in four states. The original Seattle branch alone was reported to have an attendance of 3,500 people per week in 2006, and numbers have grown since then. There are congregations of Mars Hill specifically devoted to “converting” queer people, encouraging them to suppress their sexuality and live a straight lifestyle. The newest church outpost here in Portland aims to change the sinful ways of the Rose City: namely the city’s Left-wing, feminist, and pro-queer culture.

Mars Hill is of particular interest to Rose City Antifa because of its extremely conservative social agenda wrapped in a stylized package that appeals to activist youth, specifically targeting young men. Mars Hill has been successful in growing its ranks through its laid back, faux-rebellious image, underpinned by rigid authoritarian values and a hierarchical, patriarchal structure. Pastors utilize social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to provide a constant stream of church messaging to their followers, and promote a series of Driscoll’s online sermons to broaden their base of support in a franchise-like fashion. Driscoll’s style of sermon, peppered with humor and slang, appeals to a hip, younger audience that may be put off by stodgier, traditional church services. His casual, conversational demeanor, however, belies the intolerant, hard Right foundation of Driscoll’s teachings. The version of “God’s Kingdom on earth” that Mars Hill is explicitly interested in creating is one in which women are subservient to men and homosexuality is banned.

These ideas are hateful and dangerous.  As rates of queer teen suicide and queer-bashings demonstrate, ideas have real world consequences. Religious organizing can create political and ideological space, in the case of Mars Hill this includes the dehumanization of women and queer people. We do not think it is wise or safe to let Mars Hill gather numbers and continue their agenda of creating a theocratic society. Mars Hill follows in the neo-Calvinist tradition of the new evangelical movement, the activist Religious Right, that grew out of the anti-choice movement and developed into a powerful conservative force. This type of theology teaches that its adherents should be actively fighting for a Biblicaly fundamentalist world. Mars Hill does this in a new way that is appealing to a new audience, one they have come specifically to Portland to reach. We urge others to stand in opposition to Mars Hill and in solidarity with women and queer people.
 
Gems from Mark Driscoll

On women:

“Now what we mean by “be subject to” or “submit to” is that the husband is to lovingly humbly, sacrificiously, selflessly –let me put lots of words behind this– lead his family. And that the wife is to respect him and follow his leadership.”

“If your wife is working, you are a selfish bastard...[Women should be] homeward focused [and should not work outside the home even if] given permission by her husband”

"God made the man and put him in charge and gave him a job description... and the woman was made to help him... Women will be saved by going back to that role that God has chosen for them."

"There is no occasion where women led a society and were its heads and the men complied and followed. ... It's a matter of Biblical creation."

“Because I am speaking to fellow men, my tone may not be well suited for some women and, therefore, I would request that they not read this booklet, unless they are a wife whose husband has read it first and he can discuss its contents with her in love.”

“A woman with a hot body and no discretion regarding to whom she shows it is nothing more than a well-accessorized animal. This explains why the women men lust after are not the kind of women they would marry, because pigs are fun to roll around and get dirty with but you'd never want one sitting next to your mother for holiday dinners.”

“First Corinthians 11:7 says that your wife is a reflection of your leadership. If your sex life is not satisfying, then it is your responsibility, whether or not it is entirely your fault, because you are the head of your wife.”

"At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either."

"Ladies, if the hair on the back of your neck stands up, it is because you are fighting your role in the scripture.”

On abortion:

“Do you think that abortion as a result of rape is wrong?” “YES.”

“Driscoll, a prominent emerging church pastor whose theology is conservative, encouraged any woman facing this dilemma [whether to have an abortion after being raped] to seek prayer, comfort and counsel from him that very night [that they were raped]”

“The bottom line is this: the first two purposes of birth control pills are contraceptive in nature and therefore acceptable for use by a Christian couple. However, the third function of birth control pills is potentially abortive in that it seeks to disrupt the ongoing life of a fertilized egg. That potentiality is incredibly controversial; thus, faithful Christians who are staunchly prolife and believe that life begins at conception are divided over the issue.”

On “effeminate” values:

"[The church has produced] a bunch of nice, soft, tender, chickified church boys. … Sixty percent of Christians are chicks... and the forty percent that are dudes are still sort of chicks.”

“The effeminate nature of pastors and churches causes many masculine men to feel unwelcome in what they perceive as an organization solely for women, children, and weaker men. Third, there is a timidity among weak pastors to wade into controversial issues in general, and sexual ones in particular. Lastly, the sad truth is that many pastors are also enslaved to their own sexual sins and/or are languishing in unfulfilling and infrequent sex with their wives, and therefore are unable to speak of sexual matters out of a sense of disqualification.”

" [The mainstream church has transformed Jesus into] a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ... a neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.”

"[Driscoll is not a] weepy worship dude...singing prom songs to a Jesus who is presented as a wuss who took a beating and spent a lot of time putting product in his long hair.”

On homosexuality:

"Seattle logic [says] two consenting adults can have sex whenever they want... This is what happens when you walk away from Scripture: You walk away from what's right and wrong." The next thing you know, he says, "You've got a rainbow on your camel. You've got pink taffeta on your toga. You've got a church float in the pride parade....The people of the church are so confused. They think that in tolerating [homosexual] behavior, they're being like Jesus. Your banners, your floats, your buttons—they're not good. It's just like letting cancer come into a body... until the cancer consumes the body and kills you... We will extricate the cancer, and if that person who has the cancer is repentant and wants to kill the cancer, then we'll welcome them back. But they have to accept that anything but one man, one woman, one God, one life, is sexually immoral."

“Speaking of God's people in Exodus, Paul warns us that throughout history God was so sickened by sexual sin that he killed perverted multitudes in the desert, as well as in places like Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, God does
whack some people. Sometimes it's all at once, and sometimes it's a bit at
a time, say with a sexually transmitted disease.”


On masturbation:

“First, masturbation can be a form of homosexuality because it is a sexual
act that does not involve a woman. If a man were to masturbate while
engaged in other forms of sexual intimacy with his wife then he would not
be doing so in a homosexual way. However, any man who does so without his
wife in the room is bordering on homosexuality activity, particularly if
he's watching himself in a mirror and being turned on by his own male
body.”

On yoga:

“Should Christians stay away from yoga because of its demonic roots? Totally. Yoga is demonic...If you just sign up for a little yoga class, you're signing up for a little demon class."  

Sources:

http://theresurgence.com/books/porn_again_christian/introduction

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=32140

Mars Hill Blog

http://www.christianpost.com/news/mars-hill-tackles-sex-rape-birth-control-the-biblical-way-30842/

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/furore-as-us-pastor-calls-yoga-demonic/1/116838.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11punk-t.html

Call to Action:
Oppose First Public Meeting of Anti-Gay Mars Hill Church
10 AM this Sunday, October 16th, 2011 at 3210 SE Taylor



Last month Mars Hill--an evangelical megachurch with nine branches in Washington and one in New Mexico--postponed its first public meeting after a dance-in and kiss-in was organized by LGBTQ folks in Portland to protest the church’s hateful message equating homosexuality with cancer. Mars Hill claimed the postponement was a result of parking concerns due to the Belmont Street Fair scheduled to take place the same day.

In an effort to save face, Mars Hill Pastor Tim Smith and a colleague met with the Q Center’s Executive Director Barbara McCullough-Jones and Operations Manager Paul Fukui, and waited for the controversy to blow over.

We are not satisfied with this empty gesture that fails to address Mars Hill’s active promotion of bigotry and dehumanization of LGBTQ people, women, yoga practitioners, and others.

The church has announced plans to open its doors to the public for the first time at 10 AM this Sunday, October 16th, 2011 at 3210 SE Taylor.

We urge active opposition to the scheduled opening.  Let’s show Mars Hill that organizing against LGBTQ people will not fly in the Rose City!  

Zackary Loren Beck, Kory Boyd, and Lawrence Silk were sentenced this year following their attack on a black man in a Vancouver sports bar in January, 2010. The attackers--all of whom had ties to white supremacist groups--shouted, "White power!" and racist slurs as they attempted to kick the lone black patron out of the bar. Outside, the man defended himself, reportedly blocking Beck's punch and putting him in a headlock. Boyd and Silk threw bottles at the man until a friend of the victim intervened and the three white supremacist attackers fled. The victim suffered minor physical injuries.

Beck--who had a 2003 hate crime charge for attacking a Mexican man in Idaho and was formerly tied to the white supremacist group Aryan Nations--was convicted in June of conspiracy to violate civil rights, interfering with federally protected civil rights, and witness tampering (for asking an ex-girlfriend to provide a false alibi). He was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment, followed by three years supervised release. In January of this year, after the investigation was under way for the 2010 attack, Beck denounced his white power belief system.

Kory Boyd pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime charge in January and received a 34 month sentence. Lawrence Silk pleaded guilty to malicious harassment charges and received a 2 year sentence.

BOOT DAVID IRVING OUT OF TOWN!

David Irving’s last anti-Semitic speaking engagement in Portland was met with resistance from local anti-racist and antifascist groups.  This time, we intend to shut him down.

Irving’s speaking tour serves as a platform for spreading lies and hate, and as a source of income for Irving.

Will we allow a fascist to financially gain from spreading racist propaganda without opposition in the Rose City?

Not a chance.

Please join Rose City Antifascists in letting David Irving know that racism in any form is not welcome in Portland. Continue checking our blog for  opportunities to get involved.

For more information on David Irving, please refer to our 2009 Portland Indymedia release here, and South Side Chicago ARA's release below the cut.

As always, if you have information or tips about racist or fascist organizing in Portland, please contact us at fight_them_back [at] riseup [dot] net or call our voicemail tip line at 971-533-7832.

Confront David Irving’s 2011 Holocaust Denial Tour

The notorious holocaust denier and Nazi sympathizer David Irving is at it again, attempting another US tour of thirty cities across the Southern, Western and Midwestern states. The topic of this year’s speaking engagements? “The Life and Death of Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s lieutenant.” Irving’s fraudulent and methodical endeavors to rewrite history commonly attract other neo-Nazi miscreants and white supremacists to his gatherings. We’re calling upon anti-racist organizations and individuals to confront his tour every step of the way, and send a clear message that revisionism and fascist organizing is not welcome in our communities. His troubled recollection of basic history must extend to the more recent past, when he encountered fierce antifa resistance the last time he came to the states in late 2009. The fact that Irving can’t go out in public without facing angry mobs trying to run him out of town has forced Irving to organize in secret, going through great lengths to screen potential attendees to his event, never revealing the location until the last minute, and hiring private security. This has never stopped protesters from shutting down his events nor has it provided any sort of security or privacy for the racist scum that attempt to hear Irving speak.

In New Jersey, dozens of anti-fascists filled the Pompton Plains hotel, chanting and struggling with attendees.  They were so effective in disrupting the event that police had to escort attendees out. The same happened a day later in NYC, where the event was not only disrupted, but both Irving’s tour manager Jaenelle Antas and neo-Nazi friend Alex Carmichael were pepper-sprayed. Faced with humiliation and defeat, Irving was forced to cancel his next few scheduled appearances, but the chaos did not end there. Days later his Chicago event was shut down when dozens of masked anti-fascists stormed into the Edelweiss restaurant turning over tables, destroying his merchandise, and assaulting attendees, while Irving and Antas locked themselves in a supply closet in a magnificent display of cowardice.

Right in the middle of his failed east coast appearances, his websites were also attacked by anti-fascist hackers who released his private emails and databases to WikiLeaks. The emails gave hilarious details of the frustrations caused by Irving’s infatuation with his much younger assistant Jaenelle, and also eventually caused his landlord to kick Irving out of his Winsdor home. More importantly, this leak revealed private speaking locations as well as names and addresses of dozens of racist Nazi sympathizers who purchased tickets – a warning to those who would consider purchasing a ticket to Irving’s gatherings.

The conflicts that populated Irving’s 2009 tour exemplify the danger that venues are sure to face should they host his events. Irving, fearing confrontations during his tour, had hired “Tip of the Spear,” a group which advertises private security for white power events. At the 2009 Palm Beach function, the very people he hired for security had initiated a knife fight amongst warring neo-Nazi attendees Christopher Nachtman and John Kopko. The event was booked under Focal Point Productions and the Ritz-Carlton had no idea who Irving was. Additionally, one person attending last year’s Chicago function, John Gisselbrech, was hospitalized during the antifa disruption, hurt so badly that he has hired the prominent Deratany Firm to file a lawsuit against David Irving, his publishing company Focal Point Productions, and Edelweiss Restaurant (who hosted Irving for the second year in a row) for failing to make adequate security precautions. The million dollars at stake may shut down these businesses down–yet another warning of what might happen to spaces that host fascist speaking events. Further, they give warning to the puerile few considering attending, as to just what might happen if they do attend. They will be confronted, exposed, shut down, and humiliated.

Interestingly, David Irving’s tour manager and personal assistant for the second year in a row is Jaenelle Antas (7823 Ella Dobbs Ln, Indianapolis, IN 46227 317-379-8871 / 305 923 9400). Despite the unforgettable troubles stemming from the 2009 tour (the pepper-spray and Irving’s elderly sexual advances) is giving him another chance and is handling all booking and ticket sales for his tour. The former Assistant to the Chair of the Indiana Libertarian Party, Jaenelle is also involved in her local white supremacist scene in Indianapolis, belonging to the hate group “Hoosier Nation” which is organizing to support Indiana’s anti-immigrant bill SB590.

David Irving, much like our own Chicago-based holocaust denier (and Northwestern University professor) Arthur Butz (2214 Central St, Apt 3 Evanston, IL 60201) and all other proponents of holocaust denial, have a very specific agenda that, upon further examination, has less to do with spreading their distorted fantasies, and more about Nazi sympathy, scapegoating Jews, and legitimizing racism. Holocaust deniers are attempting to lift the taboo off the holocaust in order to make Nazism a more accepted mass political ideology; in other words, they deny the holocaust so that it can happen again. Even some Nazis, such as William Pierce, find this to be absurd, claiming that holocaust denial proves one to be incapable of living up to the duties of white nationalism. Pierce and those who recognize that the holocaust happened believe it is something to be proud of and feel it should be understood as something necessary.

We anti-fascists find this historical perversion appalling, but — more importantly — find it an impetus to destroy their quest of creating a potential for fascism to gain ground. David Irving’s attempts to legitimize such a movement and to victimize Nazis as being bad jacketed must be met with organized militant resistance and shut down everywhere he attempts to make an appearance.

The Anti-Racist Action Network’s first point of unity: “Whenever fascists are organizing or active in public, we’re there. We don’t believe in ignoring them or staying away from them. Never let the Nazis have the street!”

Below are the dates and locations where David Irving is scheduled to make an appearance. He frequently books his events under fake names to mislead the venues into not knowing what exactly they are getting into, and to prevent the possibility of being confronted by anti-fascists.

February 28: Miami, FL
March 1: Orlando, FL
March 2: Savannah, GA
March 3: Columbia, SC
March 4: Raleigh, NC
March 5: Richmond, VA
March 6: Washington DC
April 9: Indianapolis, IN
April 10: St. Louis, MO
April 12: Dallas, TX
April 13: Houston, TX
April 15: San Antonio, TX
April 16: El Paso, TX
April 17: Albuquerque, NM
April 20: Las Vegas, NV
April 21: Phoenix, AZ
April 22: Sherman Oaks, CA
April 23: Orange County, CA
April 28: San Francisco, CA
April 29: Sacramento, CA
May 1: Portland, OR
May 2: Seattle, WA
May 3: Spokane, WA
May 4: Kalispell, MT
May 6: Billings, MT
May 8: Bismarck, ND
May 9: Fargo, ND
May 10: Minneapolis, MN
May 11: Madison, WI
May 12: Chicago, IL
May 13: Detroit, MI

March 9, 2011, Gene Johnson and Nicholas K. Geranios of the Associated Press and the News Tribune reported that an arrest had been made in connection with the bomb found on the parade route at Spokane’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration.

Kevin William Harpham, 36, who the Southern Poverty Law Center recorded as being associated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance, and who federal agents describe as a white supremacist, is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and possessing an unregistered explosive device.  

As Jessica Robinson’s March 14th OPB News article elaborates, the pseudonym that Harpham used on neo-nazi forums, “Joe Snuffy,” was very active in online white supremacist circles, writing about “race wars and The Turner Diaries.”  In addition to his ties to the National Alliance and his online neo-nazi activity, Harpham reportedly sought out a North Idaho Aryan Nations group requesting information.