Bay Area mobilizations counter neo-fascists

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T he organization of massive united-front-type counter-mobilizations to challenge the planned Aug. 2627 neo-fascist demonstrations in the San Francisco/ Berkeley Bay Area proved to be key to exposing these alt-right currents for the tiny groups of isolated and pathetic reactionaries that they are.

In Berkeley, on Sunday, Aug. 27, the newly formed Bay Area Against Hate coalition of more than 70 organizations drew 5000 to 7000 protesters for a rally at the University of California Berkeley, followed by a march to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. These actions aimed at countering a scheduled, but then cancelled, neo-Nazi “No to Marxism in America” event. Endorsers of this disciplined, well-monitored and carefully planned counter-protest included the Alameda County Central Labor Council; the Berkeley and Peralta Federation of Teachers; several SEIU and AFSCME locals; the UAW/Graduate Student Union; several faith-based groups; socialist organizations; and a host of community organizations.

Pre-rally monitor training and security sessions, with some 200 activists participating, were organized to ensure a disciplined, peaceful, and secure event that would maximize participation while minimizing possible disruption from both police and potential right-wing attacks.

The cancelled Aug. 26 “Patriot Prayer” rally in San Francisco’s Crissy Field had been granted a permit by the National Park Service, but its organizers thought better of using it in face of an impending labor-community counter-mobilization that promised to expose the handful of ultra-rightists as virtually irrelevant. In announcing their cancellation, the demoralized and demobilized ultra-reactionaries informed the media that they would hold a press conference instead at Alamo Square. The following day, they said, they would join their co-thinkers in Berkeley for a rally from which “both fascists and Marxists” would be banned—a hyperbolic statement typical of these self-proclaimed “god-fearing Christian ‘free speech’ advocates.” On less than a day’s notice, 1000 counter-protesters, led by a contingent of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose Local 10 voted to close down the Oakland Port to organize ILWU members to challenge the threatened fascist rally, arrived at Alamo Square. Again, few, if any, ultra-rightists appeared.

In Berkeley the police, mayor, and campus administrators mobilized heavily armed police contingents from virtually all the state university campuses to surround MLK Civic Center Park to protect the would-be neo-Nazi rally. At the same time, they denied permits for the counter-protesters to rally and march, and barricaded the West Campus Lawn assembly site to try to minimize participation and egress. As city officials warned the public to steer clear of the area, Berkeley police blocked off march routes and cordoned off MLK Park itself. But the sheer size and discipline of the anti-fascist mobilization dwarfed the police presence and forced city and police officials to open up previously closed streets. Rally speakers repeatedly stressed the need for united and disciplined mass counter-mobilizations of working people and their allies, as opposed to small-scale con... Boston protest (continued from page 12: “Boston showed how mass action can defeat fascists”)

the report on the Bay Area protests above).

Unease over Trump in ruling circles The fact that the fascists have met resistance around the country has reinforced the understanding by the major sector of the U.S. ruling class that now is not the time to lift its mask of “tolerance” and “democracy.” Accordingly, a host of politicians and corporate CEOs have seized the opportunity to stress their abhorrence of racism, their anger over the events in Charlottesville, and their horror over the resurgence of overt fascist groupings—although not long ago they were happy enough to work with the fascists in the And many of them have wept over the fact that Trump, by speaking his mind, has not displayed what they consider to be a “proper” sensitivity to these issues. This is one more indication, according to some politicians—including Republicans—that the impetuous Trump is proving to be a liability, both domestically and in foreign policy, and that he must be reined in.

This was revealed by Stephen Bannon, who after stepping down as Trump’s top advisor, announced that he would return to a position at the alt-right Breitbart News in order to “cover for frontations, as the key to challenging what most agreed are today still extremely limited fascist and alt-right gatherings.

Several socialist speakers took the occasion of the fascists’ proclaimed “Anti-Marxism” rally to present their own views of Marxism and of socialism as a humane and future society that would strive to guarantee full democratic rights for all—free from capitalist wars, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-immigrant prejudice, and the degradation of the human spirit.

A separate anti-fascist march of 1000 to 2000 people also proceeded to MLK Civic Center Park. It was organized by several Bay Area organizations including SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), Arab Resource Organizing Committee, Community Ready Corps, and activists from the Anti Police Terrorism Project (APTP). A black attired and masked antifa group joined in. While police initially prevented both marches from entering the MLK Civic Center Park, the absence of fascists inside and the huge presence of the counter-mobilizations outside led city officials to order the police to abandon their barricades.

A handful of neo-fascists who remained peppersprayed the approaching counter-protesters, but were quickly dispersed by march security teams. A couple of harmless smoke bombs set off in the course of this brief scattering of the fascist thugs provided the unfortunate visual effect that was inevitably employed by the corporate media to slander the mass counter-mobilization as the product of violent extremists of the left. The Washington Post, whose reporters were absent from the scene, blared, “Black Clad Antifa Members Attack Peaceful Right Wing Demonstrators in Berkeley.” The San Francisco Chronicle similarly headlined, David Bacon / Capitalandmain.com “Masked Anarchists Violently Rout Right Wing Demonstrators.” Mention of the 7000 peaceful Berkeley protesters, who accounted for the nation’s second largest united anti-fascist mobilization after Boston’s 40,000 a week earlier, was strikingly absent.

Rally Against Hate organizers met a few days later to evaluate the Sunday events and to discuss possible future mobilizations, perhaps against the UC Berkeley administration’s late September so-called Free Speech Week, where contemplated invitees are the Breitbart News former senior editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, and perhaps other far-right figures like Ann Coulter and former Trump senior political adviser Stephen Bannon. The unanimous assessment of the Aug. 27 march and rally organizers was that their efforts represented an important victory for the rising movement against fascism and white supremacy. This victory rested in the broad united-front effort that democratically engaged labor, student, community, faith-based groups, and anti-racist organizations. It also reflected the resulting increase in confidence of the participants that they, not the tiny assemblage of fascist thugs, represented the vast majority and the best aspirations for humanity’s future. The mass counter-protests also had the undeniable effect of demoralizing and demobilizing the fascist forces as well as exposing those public officials who sought to place an equal sign between the violent and reactionary intentions of the fascists and those who mobilized to oppose them. The fact that the corporate media slandered and violence-baited their efforts was noted with regret but was more than mitigated by the fact that participants grew in understanding that neither the corporate media nor the police, city and state officials are to be trusted. n