The Antifa
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The Antifa

Stories from Inside the Black Bloc

Jack Posobiec

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eBook - ePub

The Antifa

Stories from Inside the Black Bloc

Jack Posobiec

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About This Book

Few in the media have followed Antifa more closely - and have the scars to prove it - than journalist Jack Posobiec.

From infiltrating their 2016 meetings where they planned their attack on Trump's inauguration to going undercover in Seattle's CHAZ in 2020, Posobiec has never backed down from exposing the true nature of Antifa.

In The Antifa, Posobiec uncovers the secret history of this radical anarchist group, while integrating his personal encounters with some of its most hardcore and violent members. While until recently few Americans were aware of Antifa's existence, Posobiec shows that, in fact, it is part of a violent revolutionary tradition that dates back more than a hundred years.

Like its predecessors, most recently including the Weathermen terrorists of the 1960's, it is driven by an overriding aim: the overthrow of the existing political order and capitalism itself, and replacing it with a communist state.

Antifa saw and seized its chance in 2020. Because it was not brought to heel - indeed, was encouraged in its violent mayhem by sympathetic city and state governments -- it now looms as a greater threat than ever before. In fact, as Posobiec shows, Antifa is today better positioned than were any of its radical forebears to actually achieve its goal.

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Information

Publisher
Calamo Press
Year
2021
ISBN
9780999705995

ONE

THE RISE
The riots began at the end of May, and by the end of August nearly every state in the country had been hit. The pandemic lockdowns had everyone on edge, and then a viral video of a suspect dying in police custody was the spark that lit the fuse. It was the summer of 2020. Riots raged in Minneapolis, from there, spreading to the West Coast, and flaring to the East. Cities like Portland and Seattle saw protests, then mobs of violent activists appear overnight. In Chicago, New York, St. Louis and Philadelphia, looters took to the streets, smashing storefronts and stealing their pick of what was inside. Cable networks and smartphone screens alike filled with scenes of violence and carnage across American streets. Statues of America’s founders and religious figures were toppled. Lafayette Park outside the White House filled with occupiers who set fire to a historic church.
Amidst the mayhem, a singular force emerged; black-clad militants joined in the fray from city to city, urging protesters to go further, to cross the line. In some cases, armed militia wearing patches and flying flags of red and black appeared, chanting that they now controlled the streets. The coronavirus pandemic had forced mask-wearing in many American cities, and so the militants easily weaved in and out of the larger crowds that summer. Pallets of bricks and construction materials sitting out on city streets became caches of weapons. By the end of the summer, over 30 people had been killed in the riots. Nearly 700 police officers had been injured nationwide. Damages were estimated in the billions across the country, the highest in American history.
Most people who participated in the summer riots of 2020 were supporting the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, who for the most part peacefully exercised their First Amendment right. But another force attempted to infiltrate BLM, a force dedicated to overturning the establishment through a violent insurrectionist revolution.
This was the Antifa.
An internal memo released from the Department of Homeland Security dated July 25, 2020 explained the situation as it related to the city of Portland, which weathered some of the most violent riots:
“Starting now for Portland, replace the V.O. definition accompanying our FIRS (field intel reports) and OSIRS (open source intel reports) to VIOLENT ANTIFA ANARCHISTS INSPIRED (VAAI). Why? Myself and I&A leaders have been reviewing the Portland, FIRS, OSIRS, baseball cards of the arrested and FINTEL as well as the Ops info. The individuals are violently attacking the federal facilities based on these ideologies.
We can’t say any longer that this violent situation is opportunistic. Additionally, we have overwhelming intelligence regarding the ideologies driving individuals towards violence and why the violence has continued. A core set of threat actors are organized, show up night after night, share common TTPs, and draw on likeminded individuals to their cause.”
The memo went on to state:
“Here is the VAAI definition which will be applied from now forward: Threat actors who are motivated by Anarchist or ANTIFA (or a combination of both) ideologies to carry out acts of violence against state, local, and Federal authorities and infrastructure they believe represent political and social ideas they reject.”
- Acting Undersecretary for Intelligence,
Department of Homeland Security
America had seen this movement’s violence the previous summer. On August 4, 2019, 24-year-old Connor Betts, dressed in black and clad in body armor, walked into Ned Peppers Grill in Dayton, Ohio, and opened fire with a semi-automatic .223 caliber long gun. Before police killed him, he had murdered nine people, including his own sister, and injured 27 others.
As in many such cases, Betts had been troubled for years. A bully in high school, he spent his aimless twenties living with his parents and devoted to what Vice termed the “extreme metal music scene.” He performed in purportedly antiracist metal bands such as the Menstrual Munchies and Putrid Liquid. A ex-girlfriend reported he’d confided to her his bipolar disorder and he suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In the wake of his horrific attack, the mainstream media struck familiar notes: mournful reflection – and anger. Pundits pontificated on the sickness in America’s soul, editorialists blasted the NRA and the (overwhelmingly Republican) politicians who support it. But, what for so many made the Dayton tragedy especially heart-rending was that it closely followed two other mass shootings in the summer of 2019; one in Gilroy, California and one in El Paso, Texas, that were also perpetrated by young, single white men.
Social media sleuths began tracking the shooter as soon as he was identified, and quickly found numerous references to his extreme leftwing politics. He viewed conservatives, especially Trump supporters, as enemies, and he supported a movement known as “Antifa.”
Indeed, one of Betts’ last acts before launching into his killing spree was to support a Twitter post calling for my own death.
A New York Post headline blared just two days later: DAYTON SHOOTER CONNOR BETTS MAY BE ANTIFAS FIRST MASS KILLER. It noted that, “Betts had long expressed support for Antifa accounts, causes and individuals. That would be the loose network of militant leftist activists who physically attack anyone to the right of Mao in the name of ‘antifascism.’ In particular, Betts promoted extreme hatred of American border enforcement.”
In the aftermath of the Dayton tragedy, the connection was impossible to miss. “Kill every fascist,” the shooter proclaimed on Twitter, echoing Antifa militants everywhere. Over time, his Tweets dramatically increased in violence: “Nazis deserve death and nothing else,” he tweeted in October 2018. Betts labeled those with whom he disagreed as “Nazis” online.
The Post continued: “By December, he reached out on Twitter to the Socialist Rifle Association, an Antifa gun group, to comment about bump stocks, and the SRA responded to him (A bump stock is an attachment for semiautomatic rifles that allows them to fire much faster.) In the months leading to his rampage, Betts expressed a longing for climactic confrontation. In response to an essay by Intercept writer Mehdi Hassan titled, ‘Yes, Let’s Defeat or Impeach Trump—but What If He Doesn’t Leave the White House?’ Betts wrote: ‘Arm, train, prepare.’ By June he tweeted: “I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round understanding.” Moreover, in the days leading up to the shooting, he made posts that demonized Senators Ted Cruz and Bill Cassidy for their resolutions against Antifa extremism.
Betts’s Twitter account also contained statements directly supporting Antifa’s call for “revolution” against the rich, posting rhetoric in favor of beheading corporate leaders. Videos showed Betts among the Antifa counter-protestors at a failed KKK rally in Dayton two months before the shooting.
Betts was a member of the Antifa movement.
Betts’s shooting rampage is the most chilling early evidence of Antifa’s penchant for ruthless brutality. Violence perpetrated by leftist anti-government extremists had been sharply mounting in frequency and severity for years, and especially since the election of President Donald Trump.
Starting with the attack on Trump’s inauguration, antiracist violence has become omnipresent in the Trump era. Though only a handful of its actions drew more than passing notice from the largely sympathetic press – those in Portland, Berkeley and Charlottesville – a partial list of the cities where Antifa thugs have assaulted peaceful marchers and otherwise inflicted mayhem include Kansas City, Saint Paul, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Washington, Berkeley, Laguna Beach, Sacramento, Tucson, Portland, Milwaukee, Richmond, Atlanta, Asheville, Lexington, Phoenix, Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Vancouver (Washington), Tacoma and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many “actions” on college campuses are excluded from this count.
Why has establishment media remained indifferent? The answer lies in the personal politics of many reporters, who consider themselves to be champions of ideals espoused by Antifa’s militants. In short, they see themselves as fellow travelers for the Antifa movement, rather than critical observers or journalists.
Yet Antifa remains hard to define by traditional terminology. It is not a gang, a political party, or even a national collective. Rather than a readily identifiable organization with a distinct purpose, vision, and leadership, it is a loose confederation of far-left, semi-autonomous cells and individuals in an open source movement. In a Fifth Generation Warfare environment, these entities unite for specific actions, and disband, often connecting only over social media. This phenomenon not only spans the United States, but also extends to like-minded groups abroad. Antifa originated in Europe, and is united by vaguely articulated but passionately held core beliefs – a commitment to “social justice” in its fluid varieties and an equally intense hatred of capitalism and its practitioners. Its activity ebbs and flows, but its goals remain the same.
Joe Biden infamously claimed that “Antifa is just an idea.” Is that true? Antifascism is an ideology espoused by numerous groups, cells, and individuals, harnessing unique entities into a united movement. Throughout this book, I refer to Antifa as a movement, and I will demonstrate that this term is appropriate for the observed phenomenon. So - what are the goals of the Antifa movement?
The ultimate goal is revolutionary change. Antifa is an anti-government insurrectionist movement, guided by a belief in anarcho-communism, which combines critical ideas of anarchism and communism. Antifa’s emblem melds the black flag of anarchism paired with the red flag of communism. While various Antifa cells may ascribe more closely to one ideology over the other, they share a common belief in the destruction of the Western system of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of press, free market competition, freedom of religion, and rule of law. The Antifa movement is outside the realm of the traditional mainstream of politics, and both Democrats and Republicans have found themselves in their crosshairs; however, since 2016, its target has become President Donald Trump and his supporters. Key to understanding Antifa is their lack of discrimination based on establishment party affiliation.
In the anarcho-communist doctrine, the larger systems and institutions of the United States, Canada, and Europe constitute “fascism” and must be overthrown. Indeed, Antifa predates MAGA by nearly 80 years, a fact unacknowledged by the mainstream media.
Thanks to a sympathetic press, the Left has largely succeeded in redefining the terms “white nationalist,” “far-right,” and “extremist,” to reflect their use in the Antifa and far-Leftist lexicon. Once, such extreme terms were reserved for swastika-carrying Neo-Nazis and white-hooded Klansmen, but today they include mainstream conservatives, all Trump voters, members of law enforcement and the military, traditional Christians, and anyone who disagrees with the progressive Left.
Establishment media outlets, many corporate leaders and extreme-left Think Tanks employ similar tactics to use such labels to falsely smear their political opponents, rather than exchange in honest debate over policy or issues. Indeed, the ruling class frequently uses the antifascist movement to target their populist opponents.
Despite its symbiotic relationship with the media, Antifa never hesitates to intimidate journalists. Prior to one action in Washington, D.C., its local political arm, AllOutDC, distributed a handout warning reporters to “avoid publishing any potentially incriminating photographs or video footage…” and to “ensure that you have explicit consent before capturing auto recordings or directly quoting interviewees… Members of the media who refuse to comply with these reasonable guidelines will be removed.” Shortly after this warning, Washington Examiner reporter Julio Rosas, doing his job in a public space, was assaulted for defying the order.
The Antifa movement’s clandestine operation has been critical to its growth. Like all fanatical organizations, it is a beacon for angry, lost souls. It is understandable that many Millennials would be attracted to this movement. Millennials experienced 9/11 and the subsequent war in Iraq during their formative years, and graduated from college as America was in the throws of the Great Recession. Wealth and family formation for Millennials has stagnated, been delayed, or obliterated for many. Antifa offers an outlet for rage against the system.
Betts’ Dayton attack took place just two weeks after a firebombing incident in Tacoma, Washington. Antifa member Willem van Spronsen, identified as a 69-year old “carpenter and musician,” attempted to firebomb an ICE immigrant detention center. He arrived at the facility with a rifle and incendiary devices at 4 a.m. on Saturday, July 13, 2019, following an Antifa protest there the previous day. He attempted to burn buildings, vehicles, and ignite a propane tank when he was shot by Tacoma police.
Reportedly, Spronsen had participated in a previous Antifa assault on the same center months earlier. When he was arrested, he was carrying a blackjack and a knife; and yet, the judge hearing the case released him without so much as a day of jail time.
Democrat mayors have long given Antifa virtually free rein. In places like Tacoma, Seattle, Portland, Charlottesville, and, later, Minneapolis, the behavior of local authorities (including orders to police to “stand down”) clearly enabled greater violence. Quite simply, Antifa’s militants were seen not as violent insurrectionists, but as deeply committed Leftist warriors who had the guts to stand up to America’s true enemies -- Donald Trump and his evil white nationalist supporters. This of course, is the preferred narrative pushed by media elites and politicians.
The Trump years were a godsend for Antifa, promoting favorable press coverage, and engendering a swell of support, especially on college campuses. By early 2020, the Twitter account of NYC Antifa alone had expanded by more than ten-fold from 2017. Its Twitter account had more than 41,000 followers, while that of the Antifa-related Democrat Socialists of America had more than 210,000.
The Press Freedom Tracker, which publicizes attacks on reporters, details on its website many, many incidents of Antifa assaulting journalists between 2017 and 2019. In Charlottesville, Antifa activists punched The Hill correspondent Taylor Lorenz in the head; in Berkeley, they beat reporter Dave Minsky with a pipe; in Richmond, they trounced a CBS cameraman; in Chicago, they punched Sun-Times writer Sam Charles. And these were journalists presumably sympathetic to Antifa – at leas...

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