TOM JUSTICE

Lock Haven

Violent protests in Portland,Ore., last weekend were declared unlawful-again. A hundred and twenty days, sick of it? I am. In the beginning, the death of George Floyd elicited nation-wide outrage and united Americans, calling for social justice and police reform. Subsequent weeks and months of violence, looting, arson, and targeted police assassinations have destroyed all of that.

Why did this happen?

The chaos and violence were inevitable because of the radical political ideology of the organizations that took control of the protest movement: Black Lives Matter and Antifa. BLM’s Marxist roots were exposed in an Express editorial on Aug. 22. It is now time to expose Antifa.

Antifa claims to be anti-fascist, but it was my mother’s generation that defeated fascism 75 years ago in Italy, in Nazi Germany, in Imperial Japan. Today’s Antifa has not defeated “fascism” anywhere. In fact, Antifa has become fascist themselves-adopting whole-heartedly the tactics of confrontation, bullying, and street violence that were the hallmarks of Hitler’s Brown Shirts. Seeing the similarities between Kristallnacht (1938) and today’s organized riots is chilling.

Antony Mueller, a German economist wrote that, “the Antifa movement uses a false terminology to hide its true agenda. While calling themselves ‘antifascist’ . . . Antifa itself is a foremost fascist movement.” [Newsweek, April 2, 2018] Antifa is Marxist-Leninist and can be traced to the Soviet Union, 100 years ago, and its “Theses on Comintern Tactics” (Dec. 5, 1922). The Communist Party of Germany established the paramilitary Roter Frontkampferbund and then Antifaschistische Aktion-which is the forerunner of today’s Antifa. In America, the American League Against war and Fascism was established by the Communist Party USA in 1933. [Kler, Haynes, & Firsov, The Secret World of American Communism] It infiltrated labor unions and the Democratic Party.

In Congressional testimony (1953) the CPUSA’s Manning Johnson revealed that American activists were to be used “as a cover to attack our government, our social system, our leaders . . . to attack our law enforcement agencies and to build up mass hate against them,” AND to prepare “millions of people ideologically” for the overthrow of the U.S. government. Is that not exactly what is going on today?

Antifa and BLM share those goals-and a common history. An Antifa precursor was the Black Panthers (1969), a Marxist-Leninist organization which evolved into the Black Liberation Army-responsible for three dozen murders. (So far in 2020, 37 police officers have died in the line of duty.) Among their goals was “to establish autonomous community-based” areas free of police. [Spencer, The Revolution Has Come] Sound familiar?

Today’s activists believe that the police have to be de-funded and removed, so that Antifa and BLM can rule the streets. With control of the streets, control of the population follows. Citizens can then be coerced. They will live in fear. Crimes will go unpunished.

Antifa, then, cannot and should not be dismissed as a bunch of young kids, blowing off steam. They are normalizing and rationalizing violence.

They are interconnected with radical extremists the world over. Thanks to the internet, they can easily access revolutionary rhetoric from the UK, from Sweden, from Germany, from New Zealand.

The web pages are all slick and professionally well done. They are experts in propaganda.

Many will be surprised to learn that New Zealand is viewed by Antifa as a “fascist” state that must be overthrown.

New Zealand as a military dictatorship?

Crazy.

Their own statements condemn them and should mobilize every American citizen of conscience to fight against them. Here are some:

— This is our time and we will make no excuses for the terror.” (Rose City Antifa, Portland).

— I’m here to disrupt until my demands are met. You cannot rebuild until you break it all the way down … prepare to be met with any means necessary.” (Seattle CHOP leader, June 17, taped by Andy Ngo).

— Infringement (on freedom of speech) is justified for its role in the political struggle…” (Bray, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook).

— … how do we get from our current capitalist society to a future anarchist-communist one? … destroy the current order, there will need to be a revolution …” (Seattle Autonomous Zone pamphlet).

— Oh, you thought I just wanted to defund the police? This whole system needs to go.” (Antifa poster in Seattle).

— Revolutionary greetings from the insurrection sweeping throughout the occupied territories of the so-called United States of America.” (Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement).

— We need to align ourselves with the global struggle …,” i.e. a world-wide Communist revolution (Nikkita Oliver, former mayoral candidate of Seattle — Wealth & Poverty Review, June 11, 2020).

— “You are now leaving the USA”-sign displayed at the entrance to the CHOP zone in Seattle.

— BLM leader: “We’ll burn the system down if U.S. won’t give us what we want.” (Newsweek, June 25, 2020).

On July 31, Antifa protesters put a police hat on top of a severed pig’s head, placed these on top of an American flag, and then burned them all. (Andy Ngo, video tweet, 3 a.m.) On Aug. 1 BLM and Antifa activists burned American flags and Bibles on the streets of Portland in front of the federal courthouse. (The New York Post, Aug. 2, 2020) On Sept. 1, a Trump supporter, Aaron Danielson, was murdered in Portland.

“We got one here. We got a Trumper here,” Antifa members exclaim. Two shots ring out at close range, and a man died. Far from expressing remorse, a black woman with a bullhorn exhorted the crowd. “We can take out our own trash. I’m not sorry a (expletive) fascist died tonight,” she exclaimed, offering no proof as to the victim’s “fascism,” a man she had never met.

These are symbols that tell us who BLM and Antifa really are.

“This system cannot be reformed, it must be overthrown,” they proclaim. (Revolution: The Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA website) They openly declare, “We have the strategic approach … we have the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.”

God help us all.