All anarchists are anti-fascist. It's inherent in the ideology. Anti-capitalism and anti-statism are the antitheses of fascism, since fascism is inherently a pro-capitalist and pro-state-repressive ideology.
That's like saying all Amish are anti-nuclear war. Sure, it's technically true, but for an anarchist to simply describe themselves as anti-fascist without being clear that they oppose all governments is more than a bit misleading.
They have neither helped nor harmed BLM, anti-Trump, and anti-ICE measures.
I've been attending them since around 2011, and the idea that antifascists caused robust issues is openly nonsense; police violence preceded any antifascist action with Black Lives Matter in 2014, Occupy Wall Street in 2011, the original anti-DHS actions, and the anti-ICE actions.
Police violence is HELPFUL to BLM, anti-Trump, and anti-ICE measures so long as no cover for the violence is given. Police violence was a crucial aspect of the Civil Rights Movement, one of the most crucial (the police dogs in Birmingham could be seen as the moment the national tide turned).
What anarchists acting like fools have done is provide cover for that violence. Every building burned, every bottle thrown, every window smashed, gives the average "moderate" American more room to dismiss the protests and accept a degree of state violence against them. I follow Portland news a bit closer than most since I grew up there and still have friends there, and I have heard many BLM activists in Portland who have expressed extreme displeasure with anarchists fukking up protests that they were never invited to and severing damaging the reputation of BLM protesters.
Here's just one passage, which is interesting because it mainly shows the perspective of a Black anarchist. Even though he identified with the anarchists rather than the BLM group, he still couldn't get the anarchists to respect the BLM group's desires or see how they were being counterproductive.
The belief that some protests were no longer focused on racial justice had been unspoken for months but was finally brought into the open Nov. 4, when a Black Lives Matter march crossed paths downtown with a group of anarchist protesters. The BLM group asked the anarchists to join their non-violent march for the night.
Kevin Wright, who has protested in peaceful marches and “direct actions” that encouraged vandalism, stood on the back of his truck watching the two separate groups converge at an intersection, both chanting Black Lives Matter, both refusing to march together.
Wright told the crowd, mostly dressed in black, some wearing helmets, that they have an opportunity to unite. He was met with unenthusiastic cheers.
“I didn’t understand,” said Wright, who is Black and was there initially with the anarchist group. “It made no sense for the two protests not to be together, especially if the end goal is for Black civil rights.”
For four years, Portland activists had mobilized in resistance to actions by the Trump administration. But the day after the election, with Trump’s defeat looking more certain, groups were not merging to celebrate toppling a shared nemesis. Instead, they split.
Racial justice activists told Wright they were afraid that if windows were broken or property destroyed, it would be framed as racial justice protesters committing acts of vandalism.
“The problem is breaking stuff,” Wright asked. “If we just don’t break stuff for one night, can we come together?”
He got on a microphone and tried to convince the mostly white, black-clad group of anarchists to refrain from doing what they seemingly had shown up to accomplish.
“For tonight, don’t break stuff,” Wright pleaded. “Stand with Black people. Set an example when Black people and Black organizers ask you to stand with their revolution.”
Some in the crowd cheered, but others turned away. Under the Burnside Bridge, Wright heard a smaller group of anarchists debating what to do next.
“I definitely heard them say, ‘We’re not here to just listen to Black people. We have no leaders, no one decides to tell us what to do.’”
The anarchists split away, smashing windows of businesses indiscriminately, prompting the governor to send in the National Guard.
That was one key incident two months ago but if you know the protest scene in Portland then you know this shyt has been going on THE ENTIRE TIME. Black Lives Matter and other such groups will attempt to do one thing and anarchists will come in and fukk it up.
If all the public were subject to were images of Black folk protesting peacefully and police engaging violently, then public opinion would be impacted. Every time a black-clad figure throws a brick through a window or burns a building down, it decreases the public support of the BLM movement among the non-committed center. And you see the White Supremacists know this, the ones who are purposely sending in agents to incite violence in BLM protests. If you anarchists are doing the same things to BLM that the White Supremacists are doing, then perhaps it's the wrong move?
If you're over the age of 20, you've lived through at least 4 waves of pretty massive "peaceful protest" that has resulted in no state action to amplify what the angry citizens.
If you honestly think marching around alone will bring about any significant change, or that organizing large groups alone will bring that about, I can give you a list of actions nationwide since 2000 that perhaps may force you to change your thesis.
Complaining that marches haven't brought change and suggesting that therefore nonviolence protest doesn't work is like complaining that street gangs haven't brought change and suggesting therefore that violence doesn't work.
Disorganized protest movements without effective tactics and significant long-term sacrifice rarely succeed whether they're violent or nonviolent. The Civil Rights Movement demonstrated major success over the course of a decade because they were well-organized, had clear long-term objectives with explicit plans to meet those objectives, and were willing to undergo meaningful sacrifice. We haven't had that level of effective organization and leadership yet in the 21st century protest movements, which is why we haven't attained the same level of success. However, we are closer now than we've been in a long long time.
Don't fukk it up for the rest of us.
