By SJ Otto
Last year I as in Portland
Oregon
One article I read was about the town council moving a city
council meeting because Antifa had threatened to disrupt it. Both sides accused
each other of being unreasonable. The city refuse to meet and discuss anything with
Antifa. And Antifa was adamant that their rights of free speech were being
violated.
A year later, the city still has far right activists
fighting it out with Antifa. According to Yahoo
News:
"PORTLAND ,
Ore. (AP) — Portland
police are mobilizing to prevent clashes between out-of-state far-right groups
planning a rally here and the homegrown anti-fascists who oppose them as America
Saturday's rally — and the
violence it may bring — are a relatively new reality here, as an informal
coalition of white nationalists, white supremacists and extreme-right militias
hones its focus on Oregon's largest city as a stand-in for everything it feels
is wrong with the U.S. At the top of that list are the masked and black-clad
anti-fascists who turn out to violently oppose right-wing demonstrators as soon
as they set foot in town.
"It's Portlandia, and in
the public mind it represents everything these (far-right) groups are
against," said Heidi Beirich, director of the Intelligence Project at the
Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. "It's progressive,
and even more offensive to them, it's progressive white people who should be on
these guys' side."
The far right groups seem to go by various names, including Proud
Boy, who made their appearance recently and Patriot
Prayer, the name of a group from last year. The opposition on the left is
almost always Antifa— short for Anti-fascists. There are a lot of left-wing and
progressive groups in Portland .
But most of these groups have chosen to ignore the far right militias Antifa is usually about the only group that fights against them. Some progressives have condemned Antifa for
their actions. Other groups just ignore the whole thing. A few cooperate, at leas on some issues.
These conflicts affect a lot of activities in the city. As
an example a 5k
race, that is planned for August 17, has been moved. Whether the people in Portland like it or not,
this battle is set to take place in their community. As stated above, far right
groups have focused on Portland
because it is a progressive and left oriented town. Therefore it represents all
the things that right-wing groups hate.
Whether local activist like it or not, Antifa is probably
taking action that might prevent the right-wing militias from just taking over
the town and its various institutions. Most Antifa groups or influenced by
anarchist philosophy and ideology. For that reason many Marxists don't like
them. But as Marxists we need to be looking for ways we can attack the
capitalist system we live under. Some of Antifa's tactics might be useful to
Marxist organizations. As with anarchist, Marxists need a certain level of
militancy. We can't just play it safe. We may need to get our hands dirty from
time to time.
At the very least we should not take a position of antagonism
or opposition to the Antifa. They do lack discipline and they avoid
organization. Still we gain more from them than we may lose by letting them
take on the far right militias. Those militias should not get a free ride in
any town. They need to be exposed by those who oppose them. Most of all they
need to BE OPPOSED.
As the Antifa use various methods of political struggle we
can learn from them, both their mistakes and those methods of action that do
work. Antifa is doing us a favor by taking on the militias.
Portland
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2018, file
photo, counter-protesters prepare to clash with Patriot Prayer protesters
during a rally in Portland, Ore. Portland police are mobilizing in hopes of
avoiding clashes between out-of-state hate groups planning a rally Saturday,
Aug. 17, 2019, and homegrown anti-fascists who say they’ll come out to oppose
them. Since President Donald Trump’s election, Portland
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