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Protests against President Donald Trump brought a range of groups into the streets last week. Throngs of protestors wore pink pussy hats and chanted, When they go low, we go high!

Others covered their faces, smashed windows and punched white nationalist Richard Spencer in the face.

The more extreme actions are the work of anti-fascist activists, often called antifa for short.

What is antifa?

Activists who call themselves antifa proscribe to a set of tactics that have developed since the early 20th century as a confrontational response to fascists. Their practices are informed by militant left-wing politics and anarchist politics.

Organizers from anti-fascist site Antifa NYC told the progressive outlet The Nation: Antifa combines radical left-wing and anarchist politics, revulsion at racists, sexists, homophobes, anti-Semites, and Islamophobes, with the international anti-fascist culture of taking the streets and physically confronting the brownshirts of white supremacy, whoever they may be.

How do they organize?

There is no central antifa organization. The term can refer to a range of groups and individuals loosely associated with one another. There are dozens of groups across the country that may identify as anti-fascists.

Are they violent?

They can be. As opposed to other anti-racist organizations, like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, antifa activists may confront groups they identify as fascists directly using whatever tactics deemed necessary.

The antifascist Good Night White Pride emblem is drawn from a 1998 confrontation between the KKK and anti-fascist organizations in Michigan.

Mark Pitcavage, a research fellow, for the ADLs Center on Extremism said that antifa activists often turn out, in large numbers, to white supremacist rallies, such as those put on by racist skinheads or the Klu Klux Klan.

In those cases, there is a very real chance of physical altercations between white supremacists and antifas, Pitcavage said.

The ADL encourages anti-racists protestors to organize unity rallies held in separate locations, and discourages counter-rallies.

What does antifa say about the alt-right?

While an earlier generation of white supremacists, like the KKK, would hold real world rallies or marches, the alt-right white nationalists are organized largely online.

Good Night Alt-Right recasts an earlier anti-fascist emblem and pictures a masked protestor punching the alt-right cartoon icon Pepe the Frog.

This has meant that antifa have also switched some of their tactics, too. Antifas have been known to dox, or release private identifying information, about online white nationalists who would otherwise have been anonymous.

But the alt-right is seeking to establish itself outside of internet forums. Spencer is mounting a campus tour for 2017 and is hoping to make a name for himself in Trumps Washington D.C.

As the alt-right asserts real world influence, antifa are organizing in opposition.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Excerpt from:

Who are the 'Anti-Fascists' Fighting the 'Alt-Right'? - Forward

Background

The Alternative Right is a term coined in 2008 by Richard Bertrand Spencer, who heads the white nationalist think tank known as the National Policy Institute, to describe a loose set of far-right ideals centered on white identity and the preservation of Western civilization. In 2010, Spencer, who had done stints as an editor of The American Conservative and Takis Magazine, launched the Alternative Right blog, where he worked to refine the movements ideological tenets.

Spencer describes the Alt Right as a big-tent ideology that blends the ideas of neo-reactionaries (NRx-ers), who advocate a return to an antiquated, pseudo-libertarian government that supports traditional western civilization; archeofuturists, those who advocate for a return to traditional values without jettisoning the advances of society and technology; human biodiversity adherents (HBDers) and race realists, people who generally adhere to scientific racism; and other extreme-right ideologies. Alt-Right adherents stridently reject egalitarianism and universalism.

At the heart of the Alt-Right is a break with establishment conservatism that favors experimentation with the ideas of the French New Right; libertarian thought as exemplified by former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas); anarcho-capitalism, which advocates individual sovereignty and open markets in place of an organized state; Catholic traditionalism, which seeks a return to Roman Catholicism before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council; and other ideologies. It is a reaction to the conservative establishment as exemplified by the nomination of Barry Goldwater for the presidency in 1964. According to Spencer, that solidified several aspects of contemporary conservatism, including an emphasis on liberty, freedom, free markets and capitalism. Spencer considers these ideas to be anti-ideals and says the Alt-Right is redefining categories for a new kind of conservative.

Spencer describes Alt-Right adherents as younger people, often recent college graduates, who recognize the uselessness of mainstream conservatism in what he describes as a hyper-racialized world. So its no surprise that the movement in 2015 and 2016 concentrated on opposing immigration and the resettlement of Syrian refugees in America. Although such stances align with older forms of white racism, Spencer insists that the Alt-Right is a liberation from a left-right dialectic.

The Alt-Right is intimately connected American Identitarianism, a version of an ideology popular in Europe that emphasizes cultural and racial homogeneity within different countries. One difference is that while European Identitarians indict the generation known as the 68ers, a reference to the left of the 1960s, their American counterparts attack baby boomers, who are presumed to comprise the bulk of the current Republican Partys base. But the movements on both continents are similar in accusing older conservatives for selling out their countries to foreigners.

Spencer left his Alternative Right blog on Christmas Day 2013 in order to focus on the Radix Journal, an online journal published by the National Policy Institute that promotes the creation of a white ethno-state. Spencers abrupt departure, referred to as the Christmas Day Purge, left the blog to two fellow white nationalists, Colin Liddell of the United Kingdom and Andy Nowicki, a former college professor. The blog has struggled since then to stay relevant to the white nationalist movement.

Although Spencer has positioned himself as the effective leader of the Alt-Right, other proponents include several well-known names on the far right, including Jared Taylor , editor of the American Renaissance racist journal; Greg Johnson of the publishing house Counter-Currents; Matthew Parrott and Matthew Heimbach of the Traditionalist Youth Network; and Mike Enoch, who runs The Right Stuff blog. But the general population of the Alt-Right is composed, by and large, of anonymous youths who were exposed to the movements ideas through online message boards like 4chan and 8chans /pol/ and Internet platforms like Reddit and Twitter.

The movement is not monolithic. The diversity of far-right ideologies that it includes has resulted in some disagreement with regard to Jews, and whether to blame them for the perceived plight of white culturea belief that has undergirded many sectors of white nationalism for decades. While some Alt-Right leaders are unquestionably anti-Semitic, others, like Jared Taylor, are not, seeing Jews simply as white people. For his part, Spencer has repeatedly brought in anti-Semites to speak at his events.

In March 2016, for instance, Spencer invited former California State University-Long Beach professor Kevin MacDonald, the author of a trilogy purporting to show that Jews seek to undermine the host Christian societies in which they often live, to speak at an event titled Identity Politics. After the event, Spencer stopped just short of questioning the Holocaust, telling a Huffington Post reporter that if it really happened, then of course it wasnt justified. If it happened differently than what the story weve been told [is], then I think that needs to be let out.

Social media have been instrumental to the growth of the Alt-Right. Legions of anonymous Twitter users have used the hashtag #AltRight to proliferate their ideas, sometimes successfully pushing them into the political mainstream.

The best example of that is probably the term cuckservative a combination of cuckold and conservative, coined to castigate Republican politicians who are seen as traitors to their people who are selling out conservatives with their support for globalism and certain liberal ideas. The phrase has a racist undertone, as some of its backers have suggested, implying that establishment conservatives are like white men who allow black men to sleep with their wives. It received widespread media attention, including, to the delight of Spencer and others, in The Washington Post.

But the Alt-Right has taken on many more issues than that, including issues of high importance to white nationalists like the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. and Europe in 2015 and 2016, the Black Lives Matter movement and immigration reform. Propaganda campaigns also have been organized around hashtags such as #WhiteGenocide, a reference to the myth that white people are being subjected to an orchestrated eradication campaign; #ISaluteWhitePeople; #BoycottStarWarsVII, a racist campaign to protest the black actor who was cast in a lead role in the 2015 Star Wars reboot; and #NROrevolt, which arose after the National Review, a journal that has historically served as the gatekeeper to mainstream conservatism and has vehemently opposed Donald Trumps candidacy for president.

Trump is a hero to the Alt-Right. Through a series of semi-organized campaigns, Alt-Right activists applied the cuckservative slur to every major Republican primary candidate except Trump, who regularly rails against political correctness, Muslims, immigrants, Mexicans, Chinese and others. They have also worked hard to affix the Alt Right brand to Trump through the use of hashtags and memes.

The movement is not limited to the Internet. At least twice a year, Spencer reserves the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., for a coat-and-tie gathering of his followers. The events are open to reporters but also cloaked in secrecy attendees regularly use false names or refuse to identify themselves for fear of being labeled as racists. Topics and themes vary. The gathering in March 2015 was titled Beyond Conservatism and capitalized on the strength of the cuckservative meme. Identity Politics in March 2016 focused heavily on the continued success of Trumps presidential campaign. Each of the speakers featured there addressed a different facet of Trumps influence of politics and American culture. Kevin MacDonald classified Trumps rise as part of an implicit white backlash against present-day politics, while Spencer declared that Trump was merely creating a political space, intentionally or not, in which the Alt-Right could grow.

The Alt-Right also has a stable of publishing houses. Most notably, both NPI and Counter-Currents have publishing arms NPIs is Washington Summit Press that focus on historical and contemporary extremists. They distribute the works of such well-known white nationalist writers as Alexander Dugin, Corneliu Codreanu, Guillaume Faye and Alain de Benoist, along with more contemporary authors like F. Roger Devlin, Andy Nowicki, Greg Johnson and Richard Spencer.

In March 2016, Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos wrote an article for the right-wing Breitbart news site that claimed that the Alt-Right was fundamentally about youthful provocation and subversion, rather than simply another vehicle for the worst dregs of human society: anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other members of the Stormfront set, a reference to an online forum run by a former Alabama Klan leader. Yiannopoulos, who was instrumental in the online harassment campaign against women in the electronic gaming world known as Gamergate, was not well received. Virtually every mainstream conservative publication, from the National Review to The Federalist, condemned it. And some on the furthest extremes of the Alt-right attacked him as a Jewish homosexual, in the words of Andrew Anglin, who runs the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, which Anglin describes as The Worlds Most Visited Alt-Right Web Site. Anglin said Yiannopoulos had a history of engaging in sneaky Jewish tricks and added that this is how they get you. Clearly, the man seeks to undermine right-wing movements for Jewish purposes.

That last attack, which came despite the fact that Yiannopoulos has been photographed wearing a necklace with the German Iron Cross symbol, illustrates the diversity of opinion within the Alt-Right world. But, at the end of the day, neo-Nazis like Anglin, coat-and-tie racists like Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor, and oddball figures like Yiannopoulos have more in common, in terms of sharing a vision of society as fundamentally determined by race, than they disagree about.

Martin Luther King Jr., a fraud and degenerate in his life, has become the symbol and cynosure of White Dispossession and the deconstruction of Occidental civilization. We must overcome!

National Policy Institute column, January 2014

Immigration is a kind a proxy warand maybe a last standfor White Americans, who are undergoing a painful recognition that, unless dramatic action is taken, their grandchildren will live in a country that is alien and hostile.

National Policy Institute column, February 2014

Since we are fighting for nothing less than the biological survival of our race, and since the vast bulk of Jews oppose us, we need to err on the side of caution and have no association with Jews whatsoever. Any genuine Jewish well-wishers will understand, since they know what their people are like better than we ever can. Saving our race is something that we will have to do ourselves alone.

Greg Johnson, White Nationalism & Jewish Nationalism, August 2011

I oppose the Jewish diaspora in the United States and other white societies. I would like to see the white peoples of the world break the power of the Jewish diaspora and send the Jews to Israel, where they will have to learn how to be a normal nation.

Greg Johnson, White Nationalism & Jewish Nationalism, August 2011

At the core of the JI [Jewish Identity] is a malevolent supremacy. This is the manifest in their rejection of outgroups who wish to participate and innovate traditional Jewish cultural activities. Why reject diversity and progress within your community if not a false feeling of betterness? The root of this problem is, of course, a sexual feeling of inferiority. Mighty psychosexual urges must not be downplayed within group dynamics. As a remedy to this, the JI must be infiltrated with foreign members to procreate with their men and women. That way, the deep psychological psychosis can be treated at the root.

A Critical Analysis of the Jewish Identity, The Right Stuff, January 2016

The new left doctrine of racial struggle in favor of non-Whites only, a product of decolonization and the defeat of nationalists by egalitarians after WWII, must be repudiated and Whites must be allowed to take their own side in their affairs. A value system that says Whites are not allowed to have collective interests while literally every other identity group can do so and ought to do so is unacceptable.

The Fight for the Alt-Right: The Rising Tide of Ideological Autism Against Big-Tent Supremacy, The Right Stuff, January 2016

This is our home and our kith and kin. Borders matter, identity matters, blood matters, libertarians and their capitalism can move to Somalia if they want to live without rules, in the West we must have standards and enforce them. The freedom for other races to move freely into white nations is nonexistent. Stay in your own nations, we dont want you here.

Matthew Heimbach, I Hate Freedom, Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

Those who promote miscegenation, usury, or any other forms of racial suicide should be sent to re-education centers, not tolerated.

Matthew Heimbach, I Hate Freedom, Traditionalist Youth Network, July 7, 2013

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Alternative Right | Southern Poverty Law Center

January 26, 2017 by Tom Hesse

A request to form an alt-right student group at the University of Wisconsin at Madisonled the chancellor, Rebecca Blank, on Thursday to issue a campuswide letter informing students and faculty members that the student who made the request has a criminal record of arson attacks on black churches.

In the letter, Ms. Blank did not identify the student but said she had become aware that he was convicted in 2005 of racially motivated arsons of two African-American churches. She added: I am appalled by attacks on churches and by organizations that express hatred of people of color, Jews, Muslims, or any other identity.

Ms. Blank said that the universitys admission system does not ask prospective students to disclose their criminal histories but that, in light of this situation, I will request that the Board of Regents consider a review of this policy. Colleges often decide not to ask applicants about their criminal records because they believe such a question effectively discriminates against minority students and those from poorer communities.

The so-called alt-right movement, a euphemistic term for a white-supremacist or white-nationalist ideology that embraces a range of racist and anti-immigrant views, gained notoriety during the presidential election. Ms. Blank said in her letter that the student claims an affiliation to the American Freedom Party, a white-nationalist group.

The chancellor also wrote that there is no specific threat to the campus, but we continue to track this situation closely given the students history.

Go here to see the original:

U. of Wisconsin Says Student Behind 'Alt-Right' Group Was Convicted of Burning Black Churches - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) (blog)

By Chris Teale (Photo/Chris Teale)

Last week, a new website dedicated to the self-proclaimed alt-right launched, with its operations based on King Street in the heart of Old Town.

A post on the website, AltRight.com, said it looks to bring together the best writ- ers and analysts from around the world of the alt-right. Nonprofit civil rights advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the alt- right as white supremacy rebranded for the digital age.

The alt-rights core concept is that white people and their influence are being undermined by mass immigration and multiculturalism. It is primarily Internet-based, and has undertones of racism and anti-Semitism.

It is a new name for a really old idea, said Ryan Lenz, online editor of the SPLCs Hatewatch blog. Basically, the white supremacist movement has gone through a couple of iterations, or at least name changes, in order to make itself more politically palatable and approachable, especially as it makes an effort to push into the mainstream.

The AltRight.com website lists three members of its leadership team: Daniel Friberg, Jason Jorjani and Richard Spencer. The trio did not respond to requests for comment.

Spencer gained notoriety last November when at the annual conference of the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank that Spencer chairs, video captured by The Atlantic shows him shouting Hail Trump! during his speech, and being greeted with Nazi salutes by some attendees.

In a November interview with NPR, Spencer said the election of President Donald Trump would help the alt-right movement continue to grow. Trump has disavowed the movement and its support.

What I would ultimately want is this ideal of a safe space effectively for Europeans, he told NPR. This is a big empire that would accept all Europeans. It would be a place for Germans. It would be a place for Slavs. It would be a place for Celts. It would be a place for white Americans and so on.

And in an interview with The Atlantic earlier this month, Spencer said the new headquarters in Alexandria will serve as more than an office for his new project. He said the space confirmed to be at the intersection of King and North Patrick streets by multiple business owners and residents will include areas for video making and functions on the outdoor patio.

Lenz said the location of the new headquarters, just outside Washington, D.C., is significant as it shows that the movement believes it will be able to have greater influence on mainstream politics.

I think its important that [residents] know exactly what is taking place in their neighborhood, and that is an organized effort to bring racist ideas into the mainstream of the American political system, he said. The fact that Richard Spencer has chosen, or feels that its necessary, or for that matter politically palatable, for him to set up shop so close to the nations capital means that he feels that he has a good chance to influence the machinery of politics with these ideas.

City spokesman Craig Fifer pointed to city councils statement on inclusiveness, issued November 19, as evidence that there is no room for hate or intolerance in Alexandria. He said councilors have continually reaffirmed that diversity is key to the community.

Our city declares itself to be a hate-free zone, the statement reads. We are an accepting and embracing community where we treat each other with human dignity and respect. There is no place for intolerance in our community. This is a core value of our city.

Meanwhile, the reaction from local residents and businesses to their new neighbor has been strong. Numerous small businesses and residents in Old Town and Del Ray have put up posters or lawn signs emphasizing the citys inclusiveness. One popular poster reads that there is No vacancy for hate and uses the Twitter hashtag #InclusiveALX.

I generally dont hang posters as a small business owner, as everyones money is great, said Susan Scheffler, co-owner of eatery Nickells and Scheffler. I dont like to take stands politically. But this one was worth it. I think people are interested in showing solidarity.

Our town is so open and thoughtful and wanting visitors from every aspect of our world and all cultures, every background to come in and explore and enjoy our city, said Kelly Ferenc, owner of womens clothing store Bishop Boutique. I thought it was a wonderful way to have our voices heard, and its powerful, especially when you walk down King Street and the side streets where you get to see the posters in the windows. I hope it serves its purpose.

In addition, a flyer was distributed in Old Town urging people to raise their concerns with City Manager Mark Jinks. Fifer said the city has received a fair number of emails, phone calls and social media posts, all opposed to the new tenant as far as I know.

But officials stressed that all speech is protected under the First Amendment, even that which people find disagreeable. Fifer said that it is the city governments responsibility to be fair when it enforces the law.

The city has no authority to regulate residential or commercial property owners or tenants who follow the law while purchasing or leasing space, he said. But while we uphold the First Amendment right to free speech, we will not permit harassment or hate crimes in our city.

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, said at a January 16 town hall hosted in Arlington by U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8) that freedom of speech works both ways.

Our best solution is more speech, Gastanaga said. If that means standing on the public sidewalk and protesting what they emote, thats what we should do.

Read the rest here:

The 'alt-right' arrives in Alexandria - Alexandria Times

Richard Spencer was recently punched on camera: I cant do these things alone any more. Photograph: Spencer Selvidge/Reuters

The on-camera punching of Richard Spencer in DC last weekend launched a thousand memes. It also crystallized a moment of difficulty for the far-right movement whose name Spencer coined the alt-right.

It was a literal and figurative punch in the face, Spencer told the Guardian in a telephone conversation, adding that it would change his approach to public appearances. I didnt think of myself as someone who needs bodyguards, but I clearly do. Particularly at events an inauguration or an election. I just cant do these things alone any more. It wasnt like that six months ago, and it certainly wasnt like that five years ago.

Suddenly the far right is a target, and this is constraining the freedom of action that its leaders, like Spencer, once enjoyed.

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, the movement has risen from relative obscurity to become a household political name. There has been voluminous coverage of Spencers views on race and white identity, which have been widely described as fascism.

This new prominence has led anti-fascist groups to focus on the movements leaders. Local activists targeted Spencers former base in Montana and in recent weeks, other prominent far-right bloggers, podcasters and YouTube personalities have been subject to doxxings: their real identities were revealed, with real-world consequences.

Just over a week ago, Mike Enoch, host of the podcast The Daily Shoah (whose title is a pun on the Holocaust) and operator of the website The Right Stuff, was revealed to be a New York-based tech worker named Mike Peinovich. The Right Stuff and its stable of podcasts were a major hub for promoting and popularising antisemitism and white supremacist theories of race. But the doxxing also revealed that Peinovichs wife was of a Jewish background.

I didnt think of myself as someone who needs bodyguards, but I clearly do

For segments of the movement, this counted as a scandal, despite the support Peinovich received from Spencer and others. Subsequently, one of his colleagues at The Right Stuff announced in a podcast that Peinovich had separated from his wife, and reportedly he has also lost what he described as his normie job.

Peinovich was the latest in a string of doxxings involving others connected with the website. Another YouTuber, Millennial Woes, was unmasked as 34-year-old Colin Robertson, which reportedly led him to flee his native Scotland.

Spencer confirmed that these tactics have had an effect. The doxxing is absolutely terrible and it does scare off a lot of people. I hate to say this but doxxing is a weapon, and it is a way of attacking people, and it often works.

These attacks occurred amid continuing infighting between the alt-light rightwing populists led by figures such as Milo Yiannopoulos and the mens rights blogger Mike Cernovich who have backed away from the white supremacy of the hard core, including Spencer.

Last weekend, Spencer was refused entry to the Deploraball, an event organised by Cernovich, entrepreneur Jeff Giesea and others in Washington DC. The Deploraball had been a source of conflict after Cernovich barred the far-right Twitter influencer Baked Alaska from the event after reports of his history of antisemitic remarks.

Talking with the Guardian via email, Cernovich explicitly distanced himself from the movement, saying I am not alt-right. Its fake news to say otherwise. On Spencers exclusion from the event, he said: The alt-right wants to be invited to my parties; I dont go to theirs. That says it all.

Indeed, since Trump disavowed Spencers infamous conference which culminated in fascist salutes, figures like Cernovich and Giesea have tried to channel the energy of Trumps online supporters into mounting a nationalist, populist challenge to the Republican party establishment.

Cernovich told the Guardian that the Deploraball was a statement of intent, describing it as a party to reward those who made Trumps election possible. It was also saber rattling If the GOP opposes Trump, well vote them out of Congress. We have the will to win and we do not like the globalist wing. We are too big to ignore.

Asked about these ructions, Spencer said: Theres always infighting in movements. You get bad apples in movements and all they do is infight. I just take steps to avoid it, stay above it, and not get pulled into it.

Matthew N Lyons, a longtime scholar of the far right and author of a forthcoming book on the alt-right, agrees that the movement is facing a difficult moment.

I hate to say this but doxxing is a weapon, and it is a way of attacking people, and it often works

Theres been real disagreement between the alt-right and some of its sympathisers. The brouhaha over fascist salutes at the NPI conference was an example of that. Some people were critical of Spencer for making the alt-right look bad, especially figures on the alt-light, he said. The disagreements over tactics and ideology is to some extent coming more out into the open. Its likely those tensions will continue.

But Lyons said the fact that they were on the back foot was largely a testament to the effectiveness of anti-fascist tactics. He said doxxing does certainly constrain their freedom of action in the sense that it makes them more cautious. Mike Peinovich did not want his name to be made public because of work and personal considerations. Thats clearly an example where doxxing weakened the movement.

But is violence a legitimate tactic? The far right have, again and again, shown that they are quite ready to use violence, and more likely to use it against those who they see as vulnerable. If they see that people are prepared to defend themselves, in many cases they back off.

Lyons, who describes himself as an anti-fascist, sees no reason for complacency. I dont want to glorify force, but I think it is appropriate to organize to defend communities under attack.

He also warns against placing too much stock in Trumps disavowals. Whether or not they stay on good terms with Trump, they can still have an influence on the administration, because they have shown that they communicate effectively with a significant part of Trumps base.

Richard Spencer is also well aware of this. Last week he launched a new, collaborative website, altright.com, which is intended as a more populist, big tent channel for the movements ideas than previous, more esoteric sites. It is run out of premises in Washington DC which are shared with Arktos, a far-right publisher.

Ultimately, it will be a Breitbart-style site with a lot of different voices and a lot of people, he said. The aim is to bring more people into the movement, and to create a network on the far right.

Everyone in the leadership of altright.com is open and you cant stalk them. I can totally understand why people dont use their real name or face because they want to protect their family and their career and their livelihood.

He paused, and then added: Were not going to become a mainstream movement unless we show our face.

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The weakening of the 'alt-right': how infighting and doxxing are taking a toll - The Guardian