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<h1>An Injury to One is an Injury to All!</h1>
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<div id="headline0">
<h1>We Will Not Let the Virus of Hate Spread</h1>
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<div id="byline">
<h3>CUPE Ontario</h3>
</div>
<p class="intro-text">Hate crawled up from the sewers of <a
class="relay"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Unite_the_Right_rally">Charlottesville,
Virginia on Friday</a> and flooded the streets with thousands of
white men baring torches and chanting unbelievable hatred.</p>
<p>Many thought we were past such horrors, that the days of torches
and pitch forks held high by angry white men screaming hate were
gone for good. We might have hoped that the racist haters that
still exist understand that this kind of venom just won’t be
tolerated by most people in our society.</p>
<div style="float: right; border: 1px solid black; margin: 1em;
padding: 0.3em; width: 29.2em;">
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<img src="http://socialistproject.ca/bullet/b1469.jpg" alt="The
‘Proud Boys’ confronted in Halifax" height="295" width="500"></div>
<p class="jpg_caption">The ‘Proud Boys’ confronted in Halifax.</p>
</div>
<p>With Friday’s rally of violent white supremacists this hope died.
What happened in Charlottesville was an overt manifestation of
what is experienced by millions of First Nations, Black, south
Asian, Hispanic and most non-white people everyday. What is
exceptional about this moment, is that there is a President in the
U.S. who has been fanning the flames of racist hatred.</p>
<p>None of us can afford to stay silent. The future of our society
is at stake. And we cannot be fooled into believing this is a
problem only south of the border.</p>
<h3><a id="continue">In Canada Too</a></h3>
<p>We have already seen branches of the so called “<a class="relay"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOAgNxp2_7U">Proud Boys</a>,”
attack a First Nations’ rally in Canada. Affiliates of the white
supremacists behind Charlottesville are organizing in Canada.
Their propaganda has been found postered in neighbourhoods all
across the country.</p>
<p>It is true that we are living through difficult times because of
increasing economic inequality. Many working people here and in
the United States are losing their jobs, being forced to take
low-paid and precarious work, struggling to make ends meet. It is
this vulnerability that racist haters, white supremacists and
neo-nazis are trying to exploit to pit us against each other.</p>
<p>We cannot let this happen.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear, it is not racialized people that are taking jobs
away from working people or responsible for the increase in
part-time, temporary low-wage jobs. It is the largely white
corporate elite who keep shipping jobs off shore so they can
exploit other racialized workers in sweatshops. They are the ones
who rake in hundreds of billions in profits while cutting jobs,
privatizing the things we all own in common and refusing to pay a
living wage.</p>
<p>We must all rise together against racism and hate. It is only
together that we can truly address the inequalities in our
society. •</p>
<p class="auth">CUPE Ontario is the political wing of the Canadian
Union of Public Employees – Canada’s largest union – in the
country’s largest province. This statement was first published on
their website <a class="relay"
href="https://cupe.on.ca/will-not-let-virus-hate-spread/">cupe.on.ca</a>.</p>
<div id="headline2">
<h1>Statement on Nazi Violence in Charlottesville</h1>
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<div id="byline2">
<h3>Democratic Socialists of America</h3>
</div>
<p class="intro-text">Yesterday's events in Charlottesville,
Virginia are a stark reminder that we must fight for socialism or
succumb to the barbarism of white supremacy.</p>
<p>We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the white
supremacist, racist, anti-Semitic terrorist attack on our comrades
in the DSA, the ISO, IWW, Antifa and all others who joined forces
in the streets of Charlottesville, VA yesterday.</p>
<p>The final number remains unknown. However, latest reports suggest
that at least one person has lost their life and at least 19
injured. Two DSA members were hospitalized and have since been
discharged. There are reports that an ISO comrade was also
injured. A comrade reportedly from the Industrial Workers of the
World lost their life on the front line of the battle against
fascism.</p>
<p>In the face of growing racist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist
violence, comrades from across the left came together in an
incredible display of left unity. They came from many different
organizations but spoke with one voice, chanting “Black Lives
Matter” and other pro-solidarity slogans. Undaunted, they held the
line and showed the fascists that they shall not pass. The day
ended with the streets of Charlottesville free of Nazi scum.</p>
<h3>Build a Strong United Front</h3>
<p>We call on the left to build a strong united front against this
emboldened right wing. We need to be clear and recognize that
white supremacist terrorism will not simply go away if it's
ignored. This violent and dangerous movement should never be
allowed to have a platform. It should always be fought against by
the strength of our united front.</p>
<p>It is important to acknowledge the differing responses of the
police to white supremacist marches and terrorism and their
reactions to Black Lives Matter protests and marches. Black Lives
Matter protests are always met with the worst police brutality and
suppression while white supremacist marches are allowed to freely
attack counter-protesters on many occasions.</p>
<p>In this way, we plainly see whose side the police are on. From
the days of the creation of the modern day police in the 1800s,
they were used as a violent force for the physical suppression of
a resistant working class, of Black slaves, and indigenous people.
Today, their role of social control and oppression remains largely
the same.</p>
<p>Trump delivered a meandering and at times incoherent statement
Saturday afternoon. During the statement, where at one point he
even talked about totally unrelated “record employment,” he
predictably blamed “all sides” for the violence, as if the left
has a centuries-long history of state, systemic, and societal
violence against oppressed groups. This is a tired line that the
right wing uses to justify its terror. Trump also spoke of the
need for “law and order,” but we know that this is a signal for
more police and vigilante terrorism against Black and Brown
communities and the left.</p>
<p>We believe that the terror unleashed on our comrades can be
defeated. We also believe that the wider system of racist
oppression can be defeated, but only with the ending of the
capitalist system which birthed it.</p>
<p>We encourage you to <a class="relay"
href="https://www.gofundme.com/medical-fund-for-comrades-in-cville">donate
to help with the medical costs</a> of comrades injured in the
attack. As we mourn for the dead, we must also fight like hell for
the living. DSA members across the country are turning out for
solidarity actions in their communities. Get in touch with your <a
class="relay" href="http://www.dsausa.org/chapters"
target="_blank">local chapter</a> to find ways to participate.</p>
<p>Together, we will fight fascism and build the better world we
know is possible. Solidarity forever. •</p>
<div id="headline3">
<h1>After the Murder in Charlottesville, We Must All Unite to
Defend Ourselves and Each Other</h1>
</div>
<div id="byline3">
<h3>General Defense Committee (GDC) of the Industrial Workers of
the World</h3>
</div>
<p class="intro-text">We are horrified but not surprised at the rise
of political violence and murder from the alt-right and other
fascist groups across the country. Today's murder was not an
isolated incident, but is the latest in a string of violent
attacks and murders from fascists. These include the shooting of
an IWW/GDC member in Seattle, the stabbing double murder on the
Portland MAX train, and the recent bombing of Dar Al Farooq mosque
in Minnesota, among many others.</p>
<p>Fascism is a deadly threat to all of us. There is no escape from
the demand that we confront it. Politicians, the police, and the
university will not save us. We cannot vote our way to safety. As
always, police aided and protected the fascists, while permitting
and assisting wholesale violence against counter-protesters.
University officials refused to use campus security to protect
students and others from a gang of hundreds of fascists. </p>
<p>The General Defense Committee calls upon all people who value
human life, freedom, and dignity, to enter the struggle against
fascism in every way they can. Give to the fundraisers for
survivors and surviving family members of today's fascist murder.
Talk to your family and friends, your coworkers and neighbors, and
determine a way to directly and concretely confront fascist hate
wherever it appears. If you can, <a class="relay"
href="https://www.iww.org/">join your local General Defense
Committee</a> or another local antifascist group.</p>
<p>We may be entering a new stage of struggle. We are determined to
meet the challenges ahead of us. We will beat back and defeat the
fascists. We must defend each other. That means all of us.</p>
<p>An injury to one is an injury to all! •</p>
<div id="headline4">
<h1>This Is the Time to Unite<br>
and Fight Far-Right Terror</h1>
</div>
<div id="byline4">
<h3>International Socialist Organization</h3>
</div>
<p class="intro-text">The mask has been ripped off the supposedly
new ‘alt-right’ movement to reveal the familiar and horrifying
face of fascism that most people thought was a relic of history.</p>
<p>Last weekend's <a class="relay"
href="https://socialistworker.org/node/36678">“Unite the Right”
rally</a> in Charlottesville, Virginia, wasn't about some fake
defense of ‘free speech’, but championing a Confederate statue. It
welcomed open Nazis into its ranks, who roamed the streets looking
for people to assault – and ultimately committed a vehicle-terror
attack against a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing 32-year-old
local activist Heather Heyer and injuring several dozen others,
many seriously.</p>
<p>The outraged response to Nazi terror in Charlottesville was
immediate and powerful, with protests and vigils in hundreds of
cities and denunciations of the violent racists coming from
everywhere. Everywhere but Donald Trump's White House, that is.</p>
<p>This is a decisive moment. “Will the overt displays of racism
return the extreme right-wing to the margins of politics, or will
they serve to normalize the movement, allowing it to weave itself
deeper into the national conversation?” <a class="relay"
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/far-right-groups-blaze-into-national-view-in-charlottesville.html">asked
the <cite>New York Times</cite></a>.</p>
<p>The answer depends on what the millions of people who despise
Donald Trump and want to stand against him and the right do in the
coming weeks and months.</p>
<p>Now is the time to overcome the fear that the fascists want us to
feel and organize demonstrations with overwhelming numbers – to
stop this cancer now, before it can grow into something far more
threatening. That means organizing broad protests open to everyone
affected by this threat – which is just about everyone – to prove
the far right is a tiny minority.</p>
<p>After the sickening violence of the storm troopers in
Charlottesville, we know that the far right isn't looking to gain
power through winning votes, and they don't care about approval
ratings. We can't defeat them by following the liberal advice to
‘just ignore them’.</p>
<p>If we don't stop the far right today, they will stop us from
organizing tomorrow – it's that simple. This isn't a battle that
we chose, but it's one we have to win.</p>
<p>Let's also be clear that we can't rely on the police to protect
us from fascists or on the government to deny them permits. It's
up to all of us to defend our communities and our movements from
the right.</p>
<p>If we're successful, Charlottesville could be remembered as a
turning point, not only in our fight against the right, but in our
ability to organize for our own demands.</p>
<h3>A United Fight to Confront and Defeat Fascism</h3>
<p>The International Socialist Organization is wholly committed to
this urgent struggle, and we join with the call that has come from
so many organizations and individuals since Charlottesville: for a
united fight to confront and defeat fascism.</p>
<p>There will be flash points in the coming weeks, from Boston to
Berkeley, but this fight needs to be taken into every city and
town, into every community, onto every campus, and into every
workplace. We appeal to all our supporters and the whole left to
take this stand: Now is the time to unite and fight.</p>
<p>The most horrifying incident from Charlottesville last weekend
was, of course, neo-Nazi James Fields' terror attack, in which the
Vanguard America member plowed his car into a contingent of
marchers that included members of the International Socialist
Organization, Democratic Socialists of America and Industrial
Workers of the World, among others.</p>
<p>But the project of fascism is a lot larger than solitary terror
strikes. They want to build an organization of disciplined thugs
to systematically brutalize and intimidate the oppressed – a
program that, as history shows, inevitably involves murder.</p>
<p>In this instance, it was James Fields who was the killer. But the
Nazis and far-right ‘peacekeepers’ who came heavily armed to
Charlottesville were prepared to inflict violence on people of
color, Jews and the left. They are more than willing to kill
individuals in order to pave the way for their real aim – mass
murder and genocide.</p>
<p>The real face of fascism was apparent throughout the weekend in
Charlottesville: <a class="relay"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/12/charlottesville-far-right-crowd-with-torches-encircles-counter-protest-group">Hundreds
of torch-wielding men</a>, chanting “Blood and soil!” and
assaulting counter-protesters; groups roaming the streets with
weapons and shields, looking out especially for <a class="relay"
href="http://www.theroot.com/interview-20-year-old-deandre-harris-speaks-out-about-1797796038">people
of color like 20-year-old Deandre Harris</a> to brutalize.</p>
<p>As <cite>ProPublica</cite> <a class="relay"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/a-new-generation-of-white-supremacists-emerges-in-charlottesville">reporter
A.C. Thompson wrote</a>, the far right in Charlottesville:</p>
<p class="quote">“exhibited unprecedented organization and tactical
savvy. Hundreds of racist activists converged on a park on Friday
night, striding through the darkness in groups of five to 20
people. A handful of leaders with headsets and handheld radios
gave orders as a pickup truck full of torches pulled up nearby.
Within minutes, their numbers had swelled well into the hundreds.
They quickly and efficiently formed a lengthy procession and begun
marching, torches alight, through the campus of the University of
Virginia.”</p>
<p>The fascists in Charlottesville were confident. One smug little <a
class="relay"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/state-of-emergency-declared-after-white-nationalists-gathering-in-charlottesville/2017/08/12/7c67cb72-7fb1-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_video.html">Nazi
named Sean Patrick Nielsen bragged to the <cite>Washington Post</cite></a>,
“I'm here because our republican values are, number one, standing
up for local white identity, our identity is under threat, number
two, free market, and number three, killing Jews.”</p>
<p>All of which made Donald Trump's initial statement condemning
violence “on many sides” all the more sickening to millions of
people – and a cause for celebration for <a class="relay"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/13/one-group-loved-trumps-remarks-about-charlottesville-white-supremacists/">the
neo-Nazi <cite>Daily Stormer</cite> website</a>.</p>
<p>This is another warning sign of the dangers of the current moment
– with a Trump administration infested with far-right racists,
from alt-right promoter Steve Bannon to Euro-fascist ally
Sebastian Gorka to Confederacy enthusiast Jeff Sessions.</p>
<p>We shouldn't have any illusions: The toxic combination of a far
right that spans the range from open Nazis to people with access
to key White House personnel produced the biggest show of force
for American fascism in generations in Charlottesville.</p>
<h3>Solidary Demonstrations</h3>
<p>Our side has a powerful potential weapon to use against this
growing threat: overwhelming numbers. The events of
Charlottesville – not only the terror attack, but the Nazi flags,
the torch-wielding march and the thuggish violence – horrified the
vast majority of U.S. society.</p>
<p>From Saturday night through Monday, <a class="relay"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/counter-protests-across-country-charlottesville-rally_us_598fdd95e4b090964297846f">solidarity
demonstrations were called in more than 400 cities</a> across
the country – an explosion of protest that recalled the days after
Trump's election last November.</p>
<p>Jason Kessler, the Charlottesville resident who initially called
the Unite the Right rally, was <a class="relay"
href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jason-kessler-blames-charlottesville-clashes-local-cops-article-1.3408166">chased
from his own press conference</a> by furious local residents.
Statements poured in from across the country condemning white
supremacy, domestic terrorism – and Trump's weak response. The
corporate media suddenly stopped referring to Richard Spencer and
his pals as ‘alt-right’ and called them the more accurate ‘white
supremacists’.</p>
<p>Dozens of Republicans in Congress, who made their careers out of
pandering to racism and reaction, rushed to condemn the Nazis and
distance themselves from Trump – who was finally forced on Monday
to explicitly condemn white supremacists.</p>
<p>Even then, though, it should be noted that Trump's response to
Charlottesville is to call for more “law and order” – a racist
buzzword that means giving police and immigration authorities more
unchecked power to detain and brutalize people of color.</p>
<p>The forces of ‘law and order’ were all over the streets of
Charlottesville – and they <a class="relay"
href="https://www.propublica.org/article/police-stood-by-as-mayhem-mounted-in-charlottesville">stood
by as the orgy of right-wing violence took place</a>.</p>
<p>Instead of appealing to the government to defend us, we have to
build mass protests to defend ourselves and one another. The
strategy of relying on small groups of anti-fascists to fight on
behalf of the oppressed was shown to be insufficient in
Charlottesville by the bigots' large mobilization.</p>
<p>This is the moment to build united fronts with as many
organizations as possible to confront the right – not only
left-wing groups, but unions and civil rights organizations, down
to every possible club on campuses.</p>
<p>In Portland, Oregon, this type of coalition brought out <a
class="relay"
href="https://socialistworker.org/2017/06/12/how-did-portland-stand-united-against-hate">more
than 1,000 people in June to confront hate groups</a> that
celebrated the racist murders of Ricky John Best and Taliesin
Myrddin Namkai-Meche.</p>
<p>We need more of this kind of organizing in the coming weeks when
the far right descends on Boston on August 19, and throughout the
school year as fascists like Richard Spencer attempt a provocative
tour of campuses. The Movement for Black Lives has called a
national day of action for August 19.</p>
<p>On August 27, the far right is planning an all-out mobilization
in Berkeley, California, for a “No to a Marxist America” rally,
where they will try to repeat their racist rampages of last
spring. But <a class="relay" href="http://august27berkeley.com">anti-fascists
have been preparing for weeks to send the message</a> that we
will not retreat in the face of their violence and hate.</p>
<h3>Fighting Back Against Racist Terror</h3>
<p>Amid the many condemnations of the far right in Charlottesville,
there has been one distinctly false note coming from many
political leaders: that these fascists are somehow ‘un-American’.</p>
<div style="float: right; border: 0; margin: 1em; padding: 0.3em;
width: 29em;">
<div class="img-shadow" style="margin-left: 0.5em;">
<img src="http://socialistproject.ca/bullet/b1469b.jpg"
alt="Back Seat Drivers - by Mike Constable" height="290"
width="500"></div>
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<p>Violent racism has deep roots in this country, and terrorism in
defense of the right's twisted ideals is as American as white
sheets and a swinging rope.</p>
<p>But fighting back against racist terror is also very much a part
of U.S. history. Those who tell us to ignore the racists and
they'll go away are either ignorant of that – or they don't want
us to build movements against the far right because they
instinctively sense that our movements won't stop there.</p>
<p>This is the time to learn the history of previous generations who
fought the KKK and the courageous struggle against fascism in
Europe. And it's time to come together in action to give ourselves
the courage to confront the forces that want us to stay home.</p>
<p>Just as we've taken strength from the bravery shown by the
residents of Ferguson, Missouri, we can take strength from the <a
class="relay"
href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-heather-heyer-profile/index.html">words
of Heather Heyer's mother</a> about her daughter: “She would
never back down from what she believed in. And that's what she
died doing, she died fighting for what she believed in.”</p>
<p>The threat of the right is growing, but it has to be faced and
overcome in order to fight for any of our demands. One organizer
in Columbus, Ohio, gave voice to the instinct for solidarity and
struggle that has been felt around the country since
Charlottesville:</p>
<p class="quote">“When we started planning the Columbus airport
protest [against Trump's Muslim travel ban] in January, several
right-wingers and Islamophobic scum started posting graphic photos
of animals and people being run over by cars.</p>
<p class="quote">“Their aim was clear: to bully and threaten, and
make people scared to come out. For several hours late at night,
we just kept taking those photos down. Hundreds and hundreds of
people showed up anyway to fight the ban. We kept a look out for
errant cars, but they didn't show up. And so we became part of the
historic airport actions that beat back the first version of the
Muslim ban.</p>
<p class="quote">“These fascists will try to silence us, they will
try to intimidate us, they will try to make us feel afraid. But we
are many, they are few.” •</p>
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