ANTIFA, the far-left group comprised of admitted socialists, communists and anarchists, is organizing a new line up of nationwide protests on the popular anarchist date November the 4th.
During the week, several far-left activist groups released an online call to arms against the elected Trump administration, a government they find to be too tyrannical, hoping to gain the momentum for a domestically organized “regime change.” An effort that one could say cements their place as the grassroots neoconservatives of the left. The types of people who we’ve seen justify their offensive violence by roughly saying “it’s okay when we do it because we’re spreading freedom and equality.” Sound familiar, progressives? If bombing countries has terrorist blowback, the same goes for assaulting Alt-Right loonies or even just those conservatives, libertarians and centrists of the right.
But alas, few progressives and leftists seem to take my liberal advice on this. I mean, it’s the same argument that I agree with them on for foreign policy. But domestic policy? No, regime change, revolution and civil war here through undemocratic means is just fine. It’s all violence in the name of progress against fascism after all, the same way neoconservative bombing is imperialism against Jihadism and Islamists. Only with ANTIFA organizations, they’re just W. Bush larping in Trotsky clothing.
One of those groups was RevCom, the self-professed “Voice of the US Revolutionary Communist Party”, which this week ordered protestors and militants to “gather in the streets and public squares of cities and towns across this country, day after day and night after night — not stopping — until our DEMAND is met”. They reaffirmed: “The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!”
This was followed by the crying words of RefuseFascism.org, known for their influence at Milo Yiannopoulos’ “Free Speech Week at Berkeley,” who demanded: “Americans must put a stop to the grave danger that the Trump/Pence Regime poses to the world by demanding that this whole regime be removed from power.” Their protest locations are so far the only ones publicly disclosed, and according to the RefuseFascism Facebook page, they will organize in: New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, with more places to come. Considering their prior history, readers should take their safety seriously in the areas listed.
Even Anonymous News, another anarchist website, broke anarchist orthodoxy by asking their war-loving, regime-changing representatives of the United States to actually do something. “Call your congressman,” they write, “your senator, sheriff, mayor’s office, and ask them: “What are you going to do to ensure these domestic terrorists don’t get away with killing more Americans?”
I swear, where have we heard this all before? The image that comes to mind is that of Neocon Bill Kristol skipping around in his best ANTIFA gear to the cries of “Please… please, remove Assad!! Think of those Syria- I mean, American children!!”, all the while opposing Trump for the very few liberal policies he had on the campaign, his calls to “get out of these stupid wars.” Of course, a man like Kristol wouldn’t be caught saying as much. It’s the same for the faces of ANTIFA.
Earlier this week, the activists then took to blocking traffic on the 101 freeway in downtown Los Angeles, holding placards that read: “November 4, It Begins”.
One of those freeway demonstrators was USC film professor Perry Hoberman, an active member of the national steering committee for Refuse Fascism, who publicly told LA Weekly the November 4th effort “will resemble January’s Women’s March,” which people know as a largely peaceful protest. Give these left-neocons a mask, like those described above, and you get a different picture. Revcom even detailed who their organizational inspiration will be. Who do they turn to in this “ferocious struggle” under President Trump? Not the likes of protestors like Linda Sarsour, peaceful protestors who just so happen to have odious beliefs. No, they take a liking to that of Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and his literature titled The Coming Civil War.
The PR disaster doesn’t stop there for ANTIFA’s track record. As early as March 2017, Liberal YouTuber Sargon of Akkad highlighted footage of heavily armed ANTIFA protestors, clad in armor and masks, marching and intimidating Phoenix reporters and citizens in the area.
And just last week, Conservative comedian Steven Crowder produced an undercover video about the organizational efforts of the California ANTIFA movement. The video, which has little reason to be called fake or out of context, exposed the group planning violent attacks via the use of sleeper cells, using sharp objects to puncture opposing protestors, and discussing obtaining AK-47s.
With all this, one has to wonder: with the second amendment debate, which clearly states citizens must have arms to stop tyrannical government through a “well-regulated militia,” is this the kind of militia people envisioned? One known to crack bike-locks over innocent skulls, assault women, assaults blacks, and leaves what is and what is not tyrannical up to interpretation? Everyone is an absolutist up until a point, and I would add rightly so. Larping revolutionaries are a genuine concern to look out for. And whether it be gun control, cultural changes, the enforcement of the police and the current laws, one can’t exactly take their gaslighting words at face value.
So much so, ANTIFA’s open vow to overthrow the government, in addition to their violent tactics, have gained the attention of America’s counter-terror institutions.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have formally begun to classify ANTIFA’s activism as “domestic terrorist violence,” having followed the group since July of 2016.
While the New Jersey DHS lists the group on its own website under the designation of “domestic terrorism”.
