The Nazis are coming to town, without pulling a permit. The organized resistance includes legal observers, marshals, and a march to the common. The details available as of today are as follows: Please promote this event to your networks.
Donate at youcaring.com/fightsupremacy
******Q&A******
Q: Will this be safe?
A: As with all public actions there is always a risk of injury and/or state violence. Please exhibit extreme caution and awareness if participating. We can not ensure safety at this event, however we will have visibly identifiable marshals and safety teams on site, as well as legal observers.
Q: What’s the point? You can’t talk sense into a Nazi.
A: Resistance takes many forms. One of those forms is counter-protest. Counter-protests send a message to white supremacists that their hateful rhetoric, physical violence, and fear mongering will not go uncontested. It’s also a show of solidarity and an opportunity for allies to “show up” and wield their privilege.
Q: I can’t attend. How else can I support?
A: You can donate to local Black and queer individuals or organizations in your area. And you can donate to the organizers of this march by visiting youcaring.com/fightsupremacy. Additionally, we ask that individuals continue to amplify the voices and needs of Black and queer communities, which includes sharing events like this among your networks.
Q: Are the organizers of this event committed to non-violence?
A: The organizers of this event are committed to survival and protecting marginalized communities.
Ask additional questions below or call: 617-652-0151 or email violenceinboston@gmail.com or BLMcCambridge@gmail.com
#FightSupremacy #BostonResist
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Thank you AmberPaw for putting this up.
Changed time stamp to “bump”
Mayor Walsh and Commissioner Evans have their work cut out for them. For Boston to come out unscathed will require thoughtful, detailed preplanning and preparation albeit the “organizers” are planning marshals, legal observers and likely street medics. After the report I got from Seattle [reprinted without attribution as requested] from a friend’s first person account, that seems very important.. Here is the first hand report from last week from a street medic in Seattle who asked not to be named: ” First hand account of protesting white supremacists in Seattle, from a street medic. TW: police violence
I was attending the GDC march as a medic, to protest the Nazis and white nationalists and bigoted Trump supporters who were amassing in Westlake center. We gathered at a nearby park and tried to walk to Westlake but riot cops with batons blocked ever nearby street.
Suddenly folks darted down an alley, but at the end of it (a block away), the riot cops were waiting and people turned back. I can’t confirm the rumors that one was arrested there, but my protest buddy and I waited for everyone to come out of the alley and there were several people who had been doused in pepper spray. I emptied an entire bottle of LAW (liquid antacid and water) into one guy’s eyes as his whole body shook and he struggled to breathe and hack up phlegm. Physical and verbal affirmations (holding his hand or shoulder, saying “you’re okay” or “we’ve got you”) seemed like the only things keeping him from complete terror/panic at the worst of the waves of pain. We found a clergy member to take care of him as the last of the march went by after 5-15 minutes of treating him, and continued on.
The march kept trying to go to Westlake where the neonazis were gathered, and cops continued blocking the way. Finally, when the crowd was at 2nd and pike/pine? folks had gotten tired of walking around, and stopped marching to focus on the double lines of riot cops currently blocking the path to Westlake. One cop near us was obviously taking really deep breaths, swallowing hard, and trembling.
The usual scene played out: folks yelled at the police and sprayed them with silly string, and cops attacked with brutal violence. My buddy and I were at the front (so we could see the line between cops and protesters well) but off to the side enough that when the indiscriminate pepper spraying began and the crowd scrambled backwards in a mass collective motion, we were not in the midst of the retreat.
Space opened between the riot cops and most of the crowd, but 5-10 people were pepper sprayed so badly that they were immobilized: blind and in excruciating pain. An amoeba-like arm of the black bloc rushed forward to grab many of these folks and pull them into the safety of our crowd, where medics were mobilizing to treat them, but one woman was too far into the no mans land, screaming with pain and unable to stand or walk. One orange-capped person of fairly small stature was trying to help her, but they were going nowhere. SPD began their gut-wrenching “MOVE BACK!” and boot-clomping advance. My buddy and I rushed into the open space in front of the ballooning police line to try to help pull the woman (drenched in a literal chemical weapon) to safety when shit literally started exploding.
Mind you, at this point the crowd had retreated almost completely from the entire intersection we had occupied and there was lots of empty space for cops to advance into. This space was very sparsely populated with only the folks so injured they had trouble moving, and those assisting them. Everyone was trying to move away from the cops. But you have to love the police state: they used at least 3 flash-bangs (or blast balls or something that is incredibly loud and bright and sends shrapnel flying) within *5 feet* of the four of us trying to help get this woman out of the line of fire. One exploded *on* my buddy’s leg. One rolled directly between the legs of another person on the ground nearby, exploding within 2 inches of their ankle before they were able to fumble away. A third went off within 3 feet of us, in the path of our retreat. Not only was each of these somewhat blinding and deafening, but the concussive force was strong enough to make me stumble. There was, by the way, at least 10 yards of empty space between cops and protesters near us–but as usual SPD lobbed their tiny bombs directly at the people least able to run away.
Adrenaline made me feel like a linebacker, putting my entire body into pushing the three of us carrying the pepper spray-soaked woman (who literally couldn’t support her own weight at all) towards the safety of the crowd. She was screaming the whole time (barely noticeable with the deafening explosions), both in pain and because she was completely blind in the midst of a minefield.
We made it to a wall and poured at least 6 bottles of water and LAW into her eyes and over her face for 15 minutes while she screamed in waves of pain. She couldn’t go more than 30 seconds without some kind of eyewash. Of course, she was badass enough to add humor to her cries: “this has to be as painful as childbirth!!!” and “I hope my stepmother sees videos of me like this because maybe that will finally change her politics!!”
At least 10 people with significant chemical wounds came through our impromptu med station, which soon moved to a nearby hose (where I learned that a hard spray can spatter pepper spray onto the medic applying it, and briefly had to get my own eye rinsed out). There were about enough medics but we flew through the eyewash, even with people doing supply runs. I saw many people we hadn’t treated with red eyes and the white stains of dried eyewash, so I’m sure that there were many other medics/medic stations.
My buddy has a cut and bruise on her shin, and my ears are still ringing, but overall we escaped amazingly unscathed. Love to the black bloc and other medics and all the other women and femmes who took care of everyone today!! Fuck the police and fuck Nazis!!! #CopsAndKlanGoHandInHand
(feel free to share via copy and paste, no attribution”
We know people have distorted social and governing ideas, and they should feel free to express themselves in a peaceful assembly as the Constitution allow. It crosses the line when instead of citizens it is an army with armor, torches, shields, and guns show up. This no longer fits the Constitutional definition, and should have been stopped in its tracks. It is the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre. The greatest work here is standing up against this display of what such groups call a militia. There was no message from these people, only a threat to people who believe in an inclusive Republic.
It appears it will be necessary to stand guard at the Boston Holocaust Memorial.
Suspect in today’s vandalism is under arrest, per BPD.
Shockingly (at least to me), the suspect is only 17.
Also this:
Stand for Solidarity
Public · Hosted by Coalition to Organize and Mobilize Boston Against Trump and Answer Coalition Boston
Saturday, August 19 at 11 AM – 4 PM
Boston State House
24 Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02466
More at https://www.facebook.com/events/175606822982714/
I agree with those who say the worst thing that we can do is directly confront them with violence or even in a way that enables their violence against non-violentvresisters.. This is exactly what they need to continue to grow.
Instead, a totally separate candlelight march of love as was held in Charlottesville on the UVA campus to ‘reclaim’ that place, is not only much wiser and more effective, but is what the fascists fear the most-
The fascists need violence and fear to grow.
The NYT has a great piece about how one German city death with persistent Nazi marches: make the Nazis the butt of a long joke.
Some opponents of the Nazis dressed as clowns. Rainbow confetti was thrown on the Nazis. And the clowns had the best riposte: we are dressed like clowns but you are the ones who look weird.
Our local event is not a march, but confetti and clowns remind me of my generation putting daises into the barrels of National Guard troops sent to silence anti-Viet Nam war protesters. We don’t need antifa fakers to make the Nazis look bad. We need to attract normal Americans who don’t like hate but don’t like pseudo-left violence.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/how-to-make-fun-of-nazis.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Oops, “dealt” not “death.”
“Just as momentum builds to remove Trump he baits the left to fight instead over removing statues of more dead people. Fools will fall for it.” -Richard Painter (today)
We must outsmart them. Must.
” This whole administration is a distract / destroy assault on the country as a whole.”
MICHAEL MOORE
I could of course be completely wrong and I can’t quite put my finger on why, but part of me feels like this event is going to end up fizzling.
THIS is the America I remember and am proud of! My understanding is that event organizers numbered in the dozens while 40,000 counter-protesters showed up. Commissioner Evans reported 27 arrests, but overall happy with how things went today.