Formation | 2007 |
---|---|
Founded at | Portland, Oregon, United States |
Affiliations | Anti-Racist Action |
Website | rosecityantifa |
Rose City Antifa (RCA) is an antifascist group founded in 2007 in Portland, Oregon. [1] A leftist group, [2] it is the oldest known active antifa group in the United States. [3] [4] While anti-fascist activism in the United States dates back to the 1980s, Rose City Antifa is the first to adopt the abbreviated [5] moniker antifa. [3] [6] Since 2016, Rose City Antifa has been one of the nine chapters of the Torch Network coalition. [7] [8]
Rose City Antifa was formed in 2007 to coordinate opposition to a music festival that was planned to be held near Portland by neo-Nazis associated with White Aryan Resistance. [3] [9] According to one of its leaders, the group concentrates on "outing" people whom they believe to be neo-Nazis. [10] According to Alexander Reid Ross, the author of the book Against the Fascist Creep, Rose City Antifa grew out of the group Anti-Racist Action (ARA) which first appeared in 1987. Through Rose City Antifa, "the European and American models were sort of synthesized and the current model of Antifa in the US was developed". [11]
Between 2007 and 2013, Rose City Antifa was part of Anti-Racist Action. Since 2016, Rose City Antifa has been part of the Torch Network. [7] In a 2020 interview, RCA activists described the group as having "a strong feminist and queer component", as opposed to a tendency toward toxic masculinity in ARA, and as pursuing tactics going beyond street confrontations with the far right. [9]
Rose City Antifa has campaigned against the white separatist organization Volksfront, the band Death in June, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Renaissance website. [3] The group has organized opposition to Patriot Prayer rallies in Portland. [12] Rose City Antifa clashed with law enforcement officials and supporters of the presidency of Donald Trump following the 2016 United States presidential election. [13] Before a June 2017 rally, the group released a statement saying they would be "unapologetic" over the use of "physical militancy". [14] In August 2020 RCA and Popular Mobilization organized a counter-protest against the Proud Boys in Portland. [9] In September 2020, RCA published a photograph of Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson with Chester Doles, a former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. [9] RCA argues that the Portland Police Bureau tolerates crimes by far-right groups while suppressing protests by left-wing groups. [9]
The group has sought to counter the argument that anti-fascist activism infringes on the freedom of speech of the far right. They have argued that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution "protect[s] citizens from state interference, not from criticism by the public ... we do not have a powerful state apparatus at our disposal ... therefore the concepts of 'censorship' and 'free speech rights' are not in any reasonable way applicable." [15] Rose City Antifa also argues that anti-fascism does not target the speech of the far right, but rather targets its political organizing. [15]
Antifa may refer to:
Anti-Racist Action (ARA), also known as the Anti-Racist Action Network, is a decentralized network of militant far-left political cells in the United States and Canada. The ARA network originated in the late 1980s to engage in direct action and doxxing against rival political organizations on the hard right to dissuade them from further involvement in political activities. Anti-Racist Action described such groups as racist or fascist, or both. Most ARA members have been anarchists, but some have been Trotskyists and Maoists.
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were opposed by many countries forming the Allies of World War II and dozens of resistance movements worldwide. Anti-fascism has been an element of movements across the political spectrum and holding many different political positions such as anarchism, communism, pacifism, republicanism, social democracy, socialism and syndicalism as well as centrist, conservative, liberal and nationalist viewpoints.
The Proud Boys is a North American far-right, neo-fascist militant organization that promotes and engages in political violence. The group's leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the federal government of the United States, including its constitutionally-prescribed transfer of presidential power. It has been called a street gang and was designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand. The Proud Boys are opposed to left-wing and progressive groups and support Donald Trump, the former president of the United States. While Proud Boys leadership has denied being a white supremacist organization, the group and some of its members have been connected to white supremacist events, ideologies, and other white-power groups throughout its existence.
The 2017 Berkeley protests were a series of protests and clashes between organized groups that occurred in the city of Berkeley, California, in the vicinity of the University of California campus. Violence occurred predominantly between protesters opposed to then-President Donald Trump, including activists such as antifa groups and socialists; and pro-Trump groups such as Republicans, members of the alt-lite and alt-right, neo-Nazis, and white nationalists. The majority of the participants were peaceful.
Redneck Revolt is an American political group that organizes predominantly among working-class people. The group supports gun rights and members often openly carry firearms. Its political positions are anti-capitalist, anti-racist and anti-fascist. Founded in Kansas in 2009, members were present at several protests against Donald Trump and against the far-right in 2017.
Antifa is a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement in the United States. It consists of a highly decentralized array of autonomous groups that use nonviolent direct action, incivility, or violence to achieve their aims. Antifa political activism includes non-violent methods such as poster and flyer campaigns, mutual aid, speeches, protest marches, and community organizing. Some who identify as antifa also use tactics involving digital activism, doxing, harassment, physical violence, and property damage. Supporters of the movement aim to combat far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Patriot Prayer is an American far-right group founded by Joey Gibson in 2016 and based in Vancouver, Washington, a suburban city in the Portland metropolitan area. Since 2016, the group has organized several dozen pro-gun, pro-Trump rallies held in cities in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Often met with large numbers of counter-protesters, attendees have repeatedly clashed with left-wing groups in the Portland area. Far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys, have attended the rallies organized by Patriot Prayer, as well as white nationalists, sparking controversy and violence.
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is a 2017 book written by historian Mark Bray and published by Melville House Publishing, which explores the history of anti-fascist movements since the 1920s and 1930s and their contemporary resurgence.
Refuse Fascism is a U.S.-based anti-fascist coalition organization, led by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Until the 2020 United States presidential election, it was characterized by its call for the removal of the first Trump administration by non-violent street protests. Since the election, it has counter-demonstrated at a series of pro-Trump events.
The Trump Free Speech Rally was a demonstration organized by Patriot Prayer on June 4, 2017, in Portland, Oregon, in support of President Donald Trump. Several hundred participants gathered, along with a larger group of counter-protesters who organized the Portland Stands United Against Hate Rally outside City Hall. Police worked to keep the groups separate and closed neighboring Chapman Square where anti-fascist demonstrators had gathered. Officers clashed with this particular group of demonstrators, and fourteen people were arrested. Many weapons were confiscated, but there were no reported injuries.
Joseph Owan Gibson is an American right-wing activist and the founder of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, which is active in Portland, Oregon and other cities within the Pacific Northwest.
Patriot Front is an American white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group. Part of the broader alt-right movement, the group split off from the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in 2017. Patriot Front's aesthetic combines traditional Americana with fascist symbolism. Internal communications within the group indicated it had approximately 200 members as of late 2021. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the group generated 82% of reported incidents in 2021 involving distribution of racist, antisemitic, and other hateful propaganda in the United States, comprising 3,992 incidents, in every continental state.
Andy Cuong Ngo is an American right-wing social media influencer, who is known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is a journalist and editor-at-large for The Post Millennial, a Canadian conservative news website, and a regular guest on Fox News. Ngo has published columns in the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal and authored a best selling book on Antifa.
The End Domestic Terrorism rally, sometimes subtitled "Better Dead Than Red", was a far-right demonstration organized by the Proud Boys and held in Portland, Oregon on August 17, 2019. The event, the purpose of which was to promote the idea that the "antifa" anti-fascist movement should be classified as "domestic terrorism", received national attention. The rally drew more counter-demonstrators than participants, with at least one group urging its members in advance not to attend, and ended with the Proud Boys requesting a police escort to leave.
Cider Riot was an American cider producer with a cider house in the Kerns neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon, from 2016 until November 2019.
On August 29, 2020, Aaron Danielson, an American supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was shot and killed by a far-left activist after participating in a caravan which drove through Portland, Oregon, displaying banners and signs supporting President Donald Trump, and clashing with participants in the local George Floyd protests.
Kyle Chapman, also known by the nickname Based Stickman, is an American white nationalist and alt-right activist. He earned his nickname and prominence in the alt-right movement after he was recorded beating an anti-fascist counter-protester with a stick at the March 2017 March 4 Trump rally in Berkeley, California. Shortly after, he founded the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK), a paramilitary group that is considered a partner or subgroup of the far-right, neo-fascist Proud Boys organization. He led the FOAK until later that year, when he faded from his leadership position following an assault conviction related to the March 4 Trump rally. In November 2020, Chapman announced an attempted takeover of the Proud Boys organization, as well as a plan to reform the group as an explicitly white supremacist organization. The attempted coup was not successful.
Since its foundation in 2016, members of the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization, have been involved in a number controversial and violent events. This list contains a number of those events, some of which have resulted in criminal charges being filed against participants.
Tusitala John Toese also known as Tiny, is a convicted felon. He is a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that engages in political violence in the United States. He was, and still is, a member of the Portland area far-right group Patriot Prayer, prior to joining the Proud Boys and has been convicted of multiple criminal charges for violence at rallies.
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