SOURCE: https://redguardsaustin.wordpress.com/2016/11/09/it-will-not-fall-unless-you-hit-it/
This theoretical document was written as a local circular but it is being made available to anyone interested.
Introduction
The writing of this article was prompted by the recent wave of fascist activity in Austin as well as the resistance to that activity. These events, like all events, do not occur in a microcosm and cannot and must not be compartmentalized and isolated into neat little packages. Nothing in reality is so simple. We aim here to provide a brief and simple theoretical framework for understanding these conditions as well as fighting to change them. We rely on the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our guide in all matters.
In Austin as well as in the US in general we have seen a rise in what we understand as fascist populism, which has mobilized and embarked on increasingly bold actions in response to local and countrywide conditions. This rise in right-wing and fascist visibility must not be misunderstood or deliberately misrepresented if we wish to combat it seriously. So our point of departure must be to answer the first question: what is fascism? Where does it come from and why does it emerge? What does it look like as a popular movement that has yet to gain power? Fascism is not simply vocal people with bad ideas (though they most often are both); fascism does not fall from the sky or just spring into being in ignorant minds. Harboring such liberal illusions is the most deadly sort of metaphysics, and in the final analysis these illusions can only give camouflage to the true nature of fascism and hence help it spread among the masses. Fascism is the most reactionary, most deadly, and most vicious form of imperialism—it is open terror with no more illusory democracy. Ideologically it embodies the quest for an open terrorist dictatorship of the imperialist bourgeoisie.
1. Imperialism in decline and a state of crisis
While fascism comes in many flavors there are a few universal aspects that must be the center of any analysis. Fascism always comes from the contradictions within the bourgeois camp itself, and it is no way ideologically or materially a product of the working class. Imperialism has its own contradictory aspects and enters into states of serious crisis that see contradictions arise between various sections of the bourgeoisie. When these contradictions become particularly sharp in an imperialist country, a rising fascism is almost certain. This matter is of particular importance for communists in the imperialist centers. While Russia has seen one of the largest neo-Nazi movements in the world, we should rightly focus on US imperialism, which is the greater threat to the world right now.
US imperialism is in backwards motion: it is losing territory to Chinese and Russian imperialism as well as being beaten back by the peoples of the third world. As US imperialism is entering crisis, both presidential potentials represent basically the same thing—their greatest similarity is that both are incredibly thirsty for war and conquest. The elections themselves are just a pageant designed to lend legitimacy to whichever will wage war in the way the imperialist bourgeois would most prefer. The decline in US imperialist–controlled territory as well as the scramble for war means that whichever wins, fascism in the US and its popular movements are likely to increase.
The bourgeois can be thrown into a state of crisis for many reasons, one of which being the weakness or the strength of the communist movement. When imperialism is threatened it responds with fascism, the contradictory and antagonistic opposite of communism. This has been seen in places like Indonesia, where there was a large and popular legal communist movement that worked alongside its progressive national bourgeois before being wiped out by a US-backed military coup that proceeded to systematically carry out genocide (1 to 3 million communists were murdered along with their families and anyone else suspected of being a supporter). We have seen this inversely in other places, especially in Europe before World War II, where the communist movement was relatively weak, where fascists came to power on the wings of populism with very little resistance. In the US itself we have such a condition: we are host to one of the weakest communist movements, where revisionism holds sway and revolutionary communists are few and far between. Our weakness here lends strength to the rising fascist movement. The prevailing conditions for the US—shrinking world hegemony and a disillusionment with neoliberalism—create just the right environment for fascism to spread its darkness like a plague. Very stark horrors come to mind when imagining an openly fascist US. This in the absence of any existing socialist state that could defeat it would be apocalyptic to say the least.
Contrary to liberalism’s preferred narrative, Donald Trump is not the cause of right-wing and fascist populism; he is primarily a symptom, not a cause, though he in turn is further whipping up the confidence of those susceptible to his boisterous, chauvinist rhetoric. Just like his counterpart Clinton, he has faithfully represented the interests of the imperialist bourgeoisie, who have come upon an inevitable crisis. This crisis is the wellspring of the obvious and unmistakable increase in fascist activity. Fascism cannot be defeated by a vote, and it never has been, so cast aside all illusions that a vote for Clinton will in any way oppose fascism. The only reason large sections of the bourgeoisie from the Republican camp have come out to support Clinton is because they see her as the more reliable warmonger; while they admire Trump’s viciousness, they also fear his instability—instability that is an inherent part of fascism. It is fascism’s zeal for war that makes it internally volatile, combustible, and an overall undesirable weapon to most of the ruling class at this point. The ruling class like all things divides into two, and Trump represents only the first glimpse into what is coming regardless of who wins the elections this month. At some point the currently secondary aspect within the bourgeoisie can overcome its counterpart and become the principal aspect—demanding the open terrorist dictatorship and the reorganization of the state in line with fascism and its aims.
We understand that this can happen without “revolution” but it cannot happen without bloodshed, for fascism is birthed in blood.
2. Fascism’s variants and its mass base
“Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses, on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions.”
—Dimitrov
Fascism, as the most pure expression of imperialism, is not without its mass base. While its strongest base exists among the dwindling petty bourgeoisie, or small business owners, it still appeals to and orients itself toward large sections of the working class.
In a reverse of the Maoist method, it seeks to consolidate the backward, win over the intermediate, and isolate (or exterminate through genocide) the advanced.
It consistently frames itself in plain talk, where it appears to shoot from the hip, and it aims right at the frustrations of the largest sections of the working class and appeals to their short-term interests.
It is no good for them, but just like drugs it does, on the surface, seem to solve problems and (very) temporarily cause them to feel better, and like drugs it comes at the expense of others.
To defeat a thing you must understand it.
It is important now for fascists to use a story of victimization, in the form of their claim that whites are the ones who are really suffering.
And it’s crucial to understand the kernel of truth in their story: working-class white people do suffer at the hands of capital.
While sections of the left will deny this (based on sometimes marginal and always relative privilege), they are ultimately allowing the fascists to answer the burning questions of the white working class and failing to take up the task themselves.
Every bit of ground we cede to them we retreat closer to our own graves.
Fascism itself has its own variations as well as its own internal contradictions that keep it struggling for unity within its own camp.
US fascists can coalesce and consolidate around moments or figures to spread their contagion among the masses or large sections of the masses, and it is when fascist sentiment runs high that we have the most to lose.
3. Liberals and revisionists—the left wing of fascism
Consistently the liberal “analysis” of fascism revolves around the anti-people stereotype of the “southern rural idiot.”
This first and foremost absolves the bourgeoisie of being the source for fascist ideology, and at the same time it blames sections of the working class, in essence shaming them for their own poor living conditions.
This attitude is often coupled with a phony demand for democratic rights, which by flattening the contradictions in the typical liberal way seeks to provide “free speech” for fascism, equating all violence, never distinguishing between the oppressed’s need for revolution and the oppressors’ need for repressive violence.
The revisionist on the other hand sits far closer to the revolutionary movement, sometimes even hiding within our own ranks, pushing their reformism, tailism, and electoralism, all of which offer safe cover for fascism by denying the necessity of revolutionary armed struggle.
Revisionist parties and the theories that guide them most often concern themselves with defending reactionary regimes and parties that themselves verge on or harbor fascism.
From them come all sorts of vile projects, for instance the recently founded “Students and Youth for a New America,” which is an outgrowth of the Workers World Party.
SYNA, through its combination of reactionary nationalism of the oppressor white nation and its call for “socialism,” can only appear to any historically literate person as Hitleresque.
This is one example among many in the US “left” who are so far to the right politically that their brand of socialism is fascism in content and “socialist” in name only.
They too stand for class collaboration, for a reckless adherence to past dogma mystified for cultural use, and for a toxic dose of “patriotism,” all of which are elements of fascism.
Open fascists like the Traditionalist Worker Party also play up the word “socialism” in their own efforts to rope in and capitalize on the frustrations of the US working class.
In essence, revisionists always subvert the class struggle and push the masses further into the very system that is developing toward fascism—depriving them of a genuine revolutionary movement.
4. On forming a united front against fascism
As mentioned above, fascism appeals to a mass base among the middle class (the petty bourgeoisie) as well as the working class.
The working class’s susceptibility to it is not due to idiocy but instead to confusion.
We must never forget to demarcate between what seems to be in the short-term or immediate interests of some limited sections of the working class and the long-term interests of the working class as a whole.
Fascist propaganda, as well as its ideology, appeals to the immediate frustration of the white working class while baiting it away from its deeper, more all-around long-term interests as workers of the world.
They use slogans such as “white lives matter,” which simplifies and liberalizes the actual agenda of the Traditionalist Worker Party.
There are genuine grievances among the white working class, which fascism looks to address in its vitriolic and hyper-nationalist way.
The majority of hunger in the United States due to decreasing wages is felt by the working class, including its white majority.
As the state itself changes words from “hunger” to “food insecurity,” the workers’ frustration mounts.
Sections of the liberal and revisionist left will content themselves to focus primarily on interpersonal aggressions and relative privilege, which only fetishizes identity and sits by while the white masses are more and more won over by the right.
To combat this trend we must begin establishing a united front against fascism, one that can win sections of the white working class away from right-wing ideology—something that is in the long-term interests of all sections of the working class.
One major and immediate roadblock to defeating the growing fascist movement is the established left’s previously mentioned inability and unwillingness to answer the burning questions of the white working class, a task that has been taken up by the right.
In the absence of a genuine revolutionary communist analysis, any layer or section of the working class is prone to seek metaphysical solutions, especially those that lack liberal apologies for their difficult conditions and in some way appeal to their genuine desires for “freedom” and “liberation.”
This thirst offers exactly the sort of contradiction needed for the lurking fascist, who will sell the worker on their immediate needs at the expense of their class as a whole.
Contradictions between workers are universal to the capitalist mode of production, inherent to the fact that workers must compete for jobs.
Such contradictions are typically non-antagonistic, and it is the maneuver of fascism to turn them antagonistic, turning the white worker into a scab against their class siblings of the oppressed nations.
One invaluable asset to the fascist is the whole settler-colonialist ideology that permeates the US ideological superstructure. “Make America Great Again” is one such promise that lacks merit—because even for the white working class, America was never “great.”
This slogan capitalizes on the workers’ needs for better wages, which they currently seek through more industrial jobs, and it then shifts the blame to oppressed-nations people for the lack of jobs and smuggles in a call to return to the days of lynching, slavery, and indigenous genocide.
This is the American dream for the fascist.
We must seriously concern ourselves with mass antifascist education that can both explain and combat neoliberal reforms and expose the true class nature and origin of fascism.
Our agitation-propaganda must be communist in its essence; it must utilize a correct method of leadership and come from the masses to the masses.
The Maoist method of propaganda seeks to answer the questions that the masses already have, using patience and principle in the process and deeply analyzing all the most pressing issues.
This cannot be accomplished without being among the people.
The fascist method of propaganda is to speak loud enough, long enough, over and over again, shouting at the masses until the masses come to take the loud lie for the truth.
In the long term there is no genuine antifascist struggle without a mass character.
Even the most committed comrades, we ourselves included, are nothing more than rain drops against the armored shell of the fascist beast.
We must reach the masses: our lives depend on it.
The most advanced sections of the US masses are of course found in oppressed nations and should be consolidated and steeled against fascism in the interest of their national liberation and the right to self-determination.
This can in no way imply that the white workers who constitute a majority of the working class should be ignored or sidelined in our mass work.
This is not the immediate responsibility of the oppressed-nations comrades, who have to first and foremost liberate their own nations; the comrades from the white nation must be charged with taking this task seriously, because no amount of skin privilege will compensate for the fact that they will be killed for being communists should the fascists gain power.
Ideas of race and its place in fascism are secondary to fascists’ hatred for their antagonistic opposite—communists.
5. Mass work and antifascism
In order for anti fascism to establish its popular base among the people, the people’s needs and interests must remain front and center. We have to be where the people need us and to serve them wholeheartedly.
This can and must be done throughout the whole country. This can come in any form based on the given conditions of an area, whether it is part of workplace struggles, organizing against benefit cuts, or directly feeding and clothing working-class communities.
All of these fronts no matter where we are must be considered as part of our antifascist work, which must inform our tactics. It is better to begin this work before fascist populism can grow any more.
In Greece, the fascist party Golden Dawn has embarked upon addressing austerity using tactics it has appropriated from the left by operating soup kitchens and food pantries.
Of course, these service programs are not for the people, but for “Greeks only.” This type of favoritism has been found in the left as well, and we should oppose it on the grounds of establishing a united front.
Fascist ideology reaches disenfranchised white youth at an early age: its posturing and inherent militarism are intentionally captivating to young people who are justly angry and desire to fight to change their conditions.
This anger and desire to fight must be channeled into efforts to serve the people. On campuses and in the streets, youth revolutionary fronts should be established.
When concerned with a united front a few things must be plainly understood from the get-go: what we argue is never for class capitulation or collaboration.
It must be made clear that the only united front that communists should enter is one where we remain independent and able to offer guidance.
For this reason we must be cautious to never align ourselves with any cousins or twins of fascism. Unity is always built upon ideological struggle, which not only corrects our own mistakes but wins others over to our side or as supporters.
Communists must exclude anticommunists from any antifascist work for this reason. Even liberals and petty bourgeoisie can be united with provided they do not harbor anticommunism, which is objectively in the service of the fascists.
Crypto-fascists on the left cannot be united with due to their backward analysis of imperialism, which cannot correctly identify the contradictions creating populist fascism.
These organizations will only be a hindrance and a burden holding back militant antifascist resistance. Real anti-imperialism is indispensable to combating fascism.
To fail to correctly fight imperialism is to give up ground to fascism.
Organizations that shill for Chinese and Russian imperialism cannot actually fight imperialism.
6. Ideological and physical confrontations
“Many comrades did not believe that so reactionary a brand of bourgeois ideology as the ideology of fascism, which in its stupidity frequently reaches the point of lunacy, would be able to gain any mass influence. This was a serious mistake. The putrefaction of capitalism penetrates to the innermost core of its ideology and culture, while the desperate situation of wide masses of the people renders certain sections of them susceptible to infection from the ideological refuse of this putrefaction.”
—Dimitrov
Combating fascism means doing so radically in all respects—politically, culturally, ideologically, and physically.
Fascism finds its traction in the ideology produced by capitalism, with all of its individualism, always seeking to divide and never to unite, where the greatest social honor is to succeed at the cost of all others.
Individualism is a capitalist outlook that must be taken seriously and rooted out. To do this we must ourselves fear no sacrifice and be daring, always putting the interest of the people before our own self-interest.
Fascist propaganda is keen on the fact that individualism creates the need for heroes, measures to look up to and aspire to.
This is where the fascist notion of the superman is found: it is individualism in a concentrated form.
We do ourselves and the masses no favors by engaging in the subjectivist error of rejecting heroism altogether, and we must instead provide the people with revolutionary heroism and revolutionary heroes.
Fascism in its hyper-nationalist fervor will dig painstakingly through history for folk heroes to appropriate to stand as these supermen.
They do this in Turkey with Ataturk, in the US with figures like the “founding fathers,” in occupied Ireland with William of Orange, and so on.
They provide a pantheon of figures to fit into their cause. Communists must look at the history of class struggle, which is rich and diverse, and promote the people’s heroes like John Brown, Nat Turner, and others who sacrificed themselves in the interest of the people.
While communists are correct to oppose all forms of reactionary nationalism in favor or revolutionary internationalism, we cannot over correct and become nihilistic. We must look to the best parts of the working-class struggle and uphold those traditions in the cultural sphere.
We must understand and promote parts of our history that matter, like the organizing of Alabama sharecroppers during the Great Depression.
We must look to the most revolutionary aspects of the Labor movement, the Black Panthers, the New Communist Movement, and so on.
While we look to these things we must also look critically and never fetishise our history the way that fascists do.
We communists must remain forward-facing and not sink into a nostalgic or reactionary worldview.
Revolutionaries are not born: there is nothing in the blood, in being born to working-class parents, that makes someone a fighter for their class. We are a product of our material conditions shaped in a dialectical process of theory-&practice- theory, and so on.
No one is born ready to physically confront a mob of fascists when they decide to organize publicly.
Some have the freedom and relative safety to ignore these matters for a long time. We do not, and so we are left with nothing but the necessity to fight.
This reality places self-defense on our agenda.
Fascism is thoroughly metaphysical: it bows not to reason and analysis but respects only might. For the fascist to retreat he must remain afraid.
If our streets are to remain free of organized fascists, we must never avoid the necessity of physical confrontations.
All comrades are correct to defend themselves and each other from fascist attacks, by any means necessary. This should be taken seriously and training should commence.
Militarism is the method of fascism, and communists must not succumb to such shit.
The principal method of training comes through practice: we must never overemphasize training, and we must instead rely on our numbers and our courage in battle.
All members of the front and all cadres must be tempered in struggle through repeated confrontations.
We must all go through heart-checks, where our wills and our resolve are put to the test.
Each time we develop as conscious and disciplined fighters who learn how to make war by making war.
Every single comrade can put in work in the antifascist struggles, regardless of their physical ability. Intel can be as useful to self-defense as a gun or a knife.
All macho attitudes and ablist thinking must be challenged and left at the door.
There are many types of fighting and many types of fighters, and we must put all to the test. Each contribution from each and every comrade should be valued and noted.
Some of the best tools of self-defense are the bonds of solidarity built among loving comrades through shared struggle.
The domination of revisionism and its most common rightist manifestation has produced a cultural fog among the left, one that eschews gun training and ownership, leading to a situation where only the right takes up and wields these tools.
This is a product both of the subjective weakness and backwardness of revisionism and of the material conditions in the US, where gun rights (like all of the constitution) are subjective and unevenly applied in favor of white supremacy.
While these rights are constitutionally protected, black people with completely legal guns are often shot by the police, while armed white men can take over federal nature preserves without a charge or a scratch.
This is not exclusively a matter of privilege, either: it goes deeper than that.
Guns should and must be acquired for the purpose of personal and collective self-defense.
This must not even for a moment be mistaken for a revolutionary strategy, which would fall into ultra-left adventurism.
In a revolutionary situation, the legality of guns is inconsequential to the mass base.
The masses armed with nothing but rocks can themselves acquire firepower by using the enemy as their supply line, making the people the principal aspect of war.
The context we are speaking in is not a revolutionary situation in the current moment but the urgent need to defend ourselves and our movement from anyone who would seek our deaths.
The need to establish a mass base is as crucial as ever, and it necessarily requires defending our small gains and staying alive long enough to continue our organizing efforts—this requires self-defense.
Power bows only before power, and without power all is illusion.
The system fears nothing but guns, for that is where all political power emerges.
The sooner we on the left familiarize ourselves with the gun, the longer we will be able to continue existing.
So long as democratic rights exist, we can use them in most cases to legally arm, and we should make full use of this.
Communists despise the boisterous posturing of the fascists.
We prefer to be modest, artful, and clever.
We do not pose with firearms on the internet or wave them around for street cred.
The only use for a gun at this stage is to kill in order to defend our people from unwarranted attack.
In complete opposition to the communist outlook, fascist militarism places the gun in command of politics and not politics in command of the gun.
We must vigorously oppose all such militarism without giving any ground at all to the suicidal idealion of pacifism, which is another vile relative of fascism.
Pacifism is the cousin of fascism who, while not harming you directly, will make sure you are in a stupor unable to fight off the attacker.
Pacifism as a political ideology places our non-consenting bodies against the bayonets of the enemy. In its claims to oppose violence it is the first wave of inevitable violence itself.
Contrary to the claim that having guns is objectively ultra-leftist, it is more common for ultra-leftism to come in the form of lack of guns while brazenly confronting those who have them and will use them against us.
We must never witness another Greensboro Massacre, where five unarmed communists were murdered in broad daylight on camera by armed members of the KKK.
In all scenarios the martyred comrades would have been correct to return fire and die fighting.
We should maintain such an outlook and extend it to defending anyone on the left or among the masses who faces a direct violent threat from fascists, whether or not they are part of a united front.
7. Party-building and antifascism
Two antagonistic opposites cannot coexist: one must battle to overcome the other—this is a universal law. As one inevitably divides into two within the bourgeois camp, either bourgeois democracy or open terror will triumph.
To deal with the ever-sharpening contradictions, we must prepare ourselves as the polar opposite of fascism. Communists must win in a protracted struggle against the growing fascist movement locally and on a countrywide level.
Communists are in a key position to win a leading role within antifascist struggles by relying on the masses themselves and providing consistent and sober guidance.
We must not act from our desires but from a concrete analysis of concrete conditions while viewing phenomena in motion, always paying close attention to its contradictions and contradictory aspects.
While structures and leaderless movements aim to jump from protest to protest or street fight to street fight with no central plan, communists must establish organized forms and mobilize on multiple fronts. Our tactics for each situation must conform to our overall longer-term strategy, and the two must not be confused or inverted.
All matters of importance to antifascist resistance should be democratically discussed and debated, and when a line is settled on it must be carried out by all without reservation.
We must be diverse in our process but united firmly in action, marching together as many moving parts of one body. This work requires fast action from decisive leadership who will not balk in the face of danger, who must not succumb to fear of arrest or even death.
Decisions must be carried out without hesitation and with enthusiasm. It is this organizational discipline that will save lives and give us a clear advantage over the responses from liberals, which can only be spontaneous at best.
Leaders must be elected and developed who can stand as coordinators between organizations who have come together for this struggle.
These groups must share democratic and comradely bonds so that they can rely on each other with confidence and not act in an individualistic manner, which could compromise safety or objectives.
The only way to defeat fascism in the long run is with revolution.
For revolution to take place, we must develop collectives and build cadres who can serve the people as a way of life and not as a pastime or a hobby. We must build the communist party. Party-building is the principal task of all revolutionary communists.
It must not be sidelined in the interest of united front work—this would turn the united front into nothing but a mess of scattered parts.
Historically, the biggest defeat for fascism came at the hands of the Soviet Union led by its communist party.
The role of the vanguard party cannot be tossed aside in the antifascist struggle; no better form exists for crushing fascism, and all of our local efforts are for naught unless we utilize all sites of struggle in the interest of building such a party.
This is being far-sighted and keeping politics in command.
Through antifascist campaigns and working against fascism among the masses, we must build up and test the most advanced elements and bring them closer or into our party-building efforts.
We must set a course firmly to build bonds with others who are not even communists: we must fight against sectarianism and never see things one-sidedly or overemphasize one aspect of things. Sectarianism diminishes our ranks and treats friends like enemies.
Anyone who is willing to work with communists against fascists should be treated like a comrade in the struggle.
This outlook is in service to our cause and in service to our class. Likewise we must not give in to reconciliation with liberals or social-democrats; we must never even for a moment tail them or let their ideas gain hegemony, which would set us up for failure.
It is only possible to oppose sectarianism if at the same time we oppose liquidation and capitulation.
We must guard ourselves against the system, which in its repressive and ideological arenas will protect fascism: we must stand firmly against anyone who would defend a fascist in any way, whether ideologically, physically, or politically.
We must draw firm lines of demarcation with bold action and increase the pressure until fascists have been beaten back.
8. Conclusion and the situation in Austin
“To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather.”
– Mao Zedong
Austin is witnessing one struggle against fascism on three main fronts: the neighborhood front, the university front, and the judicial front. These three trenches of combat must be organized and step in unison. Each must support the other with actions and they must not be allowed to fracture into independent efforts.
On the neighborhood front, our comrades have been faced with an onslaught of fascist online attacks, by neo-Nazis, Trump supporters, and InfoWars fanatics. These scum have rushed to the defense of gentrification, understanding it correctly as the march of white power into the black and brown territory of the east side. The petty-bourgeois gentrifying business that is targeted by comrades has accepted the fascists’ money and has extended support and thanks to them. The fascists have been emboldened and have begun to organize in plain sight; they have increased the output of racist graffiti, targeting day labor centers on the southeast side. This front is the most crucial, and all efforts should be made to defend our neighborhoods from increasing fascist presence.
On the university front, our comrades have been leading an antifascist campaign against propaganda from Identity Evropa and other white supremacists and Nazis. An anti–affirmative action bake sale was targeted by antifascists (who disrupted the event and expropriated the baked goods) and 300 student protestors. When the university refused to remove white supremacist neo-Nazi graffiti for over 8 months (another example of UT’s deep-rooted racism), students removed the graffiti themselves and left a clear message to the administration. After these actions three non-student activists were arrested as scapegoats on felony vandalism charges. Comrades wasted no time in coming together to condemn this arrest, organizing a phone jam and a demonstration outside of the jail, and efforts begin immediately to raise money for the arrested comrades’ legal defense.
On the judicial front the UT ANTIFA 3 have a long fight ahead of them, which could take months if not longer. It is crucial that we see the court as a key trench of combat where we will cede no ground to fascism. The comrades must be victorious and have all charges dropped. Actions have already been planned on campus and in the streets to show solidarity with these comrades who took one for the people. We will accept no concession from the state, and anything other than complete exoneration would be a slap in the face. All three comrades are united in solidarity with each other and are not handling their case as individuals but as dedicated and disciplined communist fighters. We owe them no less than our complete respect and solidarity—not only have they stood up to the fascists in the ideological realm on campus but they are now standing up to it in the repressive realm of the courts.
These three fronts will only grow as things develop, and we will win. No fascist will be welcome or safe in our city, and we must surround and annihilate their organizational efforts.
We call on all comrades to come together to confront and shut down the “white lives matter” rally on Saturday Nov 19 at the State Capital 11 am. Come prepared and ready.
¡No Pasaran!
—Red Guards Austin, November 2016
