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Direct Action, Orgs, Politics

Proud Boys Attempt To Silence Critic At Her Own Home

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Two members of the Proud Boys allegedly made a threatening appearance at the home of a popular critic of theirs, Gwen Snyder, in Philadelphia. “My partner went down to get details. The neighbor said that a group had approached, and two Proud Boys had identified themselves, tried to find out if he knew me,” Gwen tweets, “and told him to relay the following message to me: ‘Tell that fat bitch she’d better stop.'”

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Proud Boys as a hate group, with members and leadership who “regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.” The group purports to be a men’s club, and Republican lawmakers and public figures have repeatedly been seen publicly with members of the Proud Boys.

Sandi Bachom

The far-right Proud Boys recently had a less-than-successful rally in Washington DC after the group experienced internal troubles, their main speakers mostly canceled their plans, and anti-fascist counter protesters arrived to drown out the Proud Boys’ speeches and chants.

Average citizens and Democratic lawmakers alike are concerned about organizations like the Proud Boys as law enforcement agencies report that far-right terrorism is on the rise, making up the majority of US domestic terrorist attacks in 2018. Despite far-right, white terrorists committing the bulk of US domestic terrorism (outnumbering Islamic domestic terrorists), the President and Republican lawmakers have recently set their sights on anti-fascist protesters instead, publicly declaring support to criminalize anti-fascists as terrorists.

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Direct Action, Orgs, Politics

Conservative Lawmakers Announce Call To Investigate “Antifa” Under RICO Act

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Sarah Shoemaker, News2Share

“I write to urge you to open an organized crime investigation into Antifa” writes US Senator Ted Cruz, “an anarchist terrorist organization that routinely relies on violence to intimidate and punish its political opponents.” Cruz writes to Attorney General William Barr, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Cruz is not alone; U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) join his call to officially criminalize the anti-fascist movement popularly known as “Antifa” under the RICO Act, a law famously used to catch mobsters and even corrupt Pennsylvania lawmakers. “While RICO was originally aimed at the Mafia, over the past 37 years, prosecutors have used it to attack many forms of organized crime: street gangs, gang cartels, corrupt police departments and even politicians.” reads Justia’s article on the law. Even the President has joined in the calls, lumping anti-fascist protesters in with violent gang MS-13, calling them “Radical Left Wack Jobs”

Critics of the move cite not only the fact that criminalizing anti-fascism is suspiciously fascist, but that “Antifa” isn’t an actual organization. Wikipedia describes the movement as being “composed of left-wing, autonomous, militant anti-fascist[7] groups and individuals in the United States.” In addition, the counter-protesters often only appear to suppress right wing extremist groups, which committed the majority of domestic terror attacks in the USA in 2018.

Nevertheless, the bills introduced by the lawmakers could spell serious trouble for organizations aligned with the popular anti-fascist movement like the Socialist Rifle Association, John Brown Gun Club, Huey P. Newton Gun Club, and Redneck Revolt. All organizations have participated in protests associated with Antifa, often while open carrying firearms. The organizations aim to suppress fascism and white supremacy, often by carrying firearms as a deterrent to ward off potential Right Wing Extremists, like the attacker in Charlottesville Unite The Right rally.

At the event, the attacker rammed his car into a crowd of anti-fascist counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer. He was recently sentenced to more than 400 years in prison. Footage of the rally was recently shown at the end of the major motion picture BlacKKKlansman, calling for an end to the alt-right and far-right extremism.

The calls for action come after Portland anti-fascist protesters were filmed in a physical confrontation with far-right journalist Andy Ngo, and an attack on an ICE facility in Tacoma by a self-proclaimed far-left gunman.

Orgs

National Shooting Sports Foundation Revokes Membership of Socialist Rifle Association, Citing Support for Free-Market Capitalism

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The growing pro-firearms non-profit Socialist Rifle Association is bristling after receiving a letter from the CEO of the NSSF, a popular alternative to the NRA, informing them that the SRA’s membership has been rescinded. The reason cited in the letter (attached below) specifies that the NSSF “embraces free-market capitalism” and “is aware of (sic) that your organization does not share these same values”

On Monday, July 22nd, the SRA received an email informing us that our membership in the NSSF had been rescinded and our $200 nonprofit membership dues were refunded. In a followup email, a representative of the organization claimed that the NSSF stands for “free market capitalism” and that a socialist organization being a member of their trade association would be contrary to their “core values”. Further, they claimed both publicly and in the followup email that the SRA had joined through their “automated membership system”, with the clear insinuation that they had accepted our membership without knowledge of our organization’s values and purpose.

– Socialist Rifle Association
SocialistRA.org

The NSSF claims that the SRA was only granted membership due to their application process being automated. The SRA refutes this claim in their public statement, stating “we followed up with both phone and email correspondence to set up our account and spoke to an individual claiming the title of “Manager, Retail and Range Services”. While setting up our online account, an NSSF employee even created the temporary password “Socialist1″ for us.” The statement includes a follow-up email from NSSF Director of Public Affairs, Mike Oliva:

The public statement shifts the blame from the NSSF as a whole to the board members of the foundation. The SRA statement elaborates, noting that it believes their membership was initially called into question on online forums like the one at AR15.com. In an archived forum thread, user noFoTeeneR said “US taxpayers payed good money to train me to kill commies. I don’t intend to betray that by associating with them, in any capacity. Better dead than red.” Most, but not all, of the comments slammed the NSSF for granting the SRA membership. User texassooner said “More people with guns is a good thing [in my opinion].”

The SRA’s statement shames the NSSF for the expulsion and expresses a desire for acceptance of firearms and pro-Second Amendment beliefs among the US political left. ” The SRA not only represents gun owners who align politically to the left, but also minority groups and members of the LGBTQ+ community who feel unwelcome in many circles that claim to support the Second Amendment rights of ALL Americans. The people that make up these circles represent the same voices that seem to have scared the NSSF away from its initial decision to broaden its scope to include a large contingent of gun owners that feel voiceless in regards to mainstream gun politics.”