Punching Nazis, Exposing Fascists, and the Antifa Philosophy: Fringe Nation

[Music] um [Music] marching down this street [Music] is [Music] [Music] previously [Music] [Music] the killing of george floyd sparked protest in the united states with millions of americans showing up against police brutality in the weeks after floyd's death daytime demonstrations turn to nighttime uprisings or looting and riots depending on who's telling the story according to president trump there was one place to lay the blame the violence and vandalism is being led by antifa hardly a new phenomenon trump and his surrogates have pointed to an antifa threat since the protest and unrest on his inauguration day in 2017. america is waking up to the menace of antifa radical leftist antifa thugs i was walking on the street and this guy like sucker punching in the back of the head tonight growing questions about who may be under those masks there are no hard figures as to how many people count themselves members of antifa they've got clubs and they've got everything antifa on may 31st trump announced that he would list antifa as domestic terrorists but with no official leadership or official organization even the department of justice has struggled to identify who or what antifa is antifa can be best thought of i think as a umbrella term for what is essentially a movement comprised of loosely organized groups around the country [Music] in portland birthplace of the modern anti-fascist movement in the u.s the trump administration deployed federal agents to suppress and in some cases abduct protesters a move that led to escalating tensions in the streets what started two months ago as protests against police brutality has now become a nightly ritual 53 days seven and a half weeks portland oregon has been burning and that made it a good place to start to try to figure out what this antifa thing is all about most of the chaotic scenes on the news all come from a two-block area in front of the portland justice center a lot of battles against our right wing have gone down right here this is our square who is the hour the people okay anybody who opposed fascism um because they line up over there so when we face off this is where we face off across the street i see luis marquez has been a fixture at leftist protest here for years and embraces the direct action trump has focused on when characterizing the antifa threat and this is uh homeland security right here's the fed right there so this is the justice center the police like to portland police come out of here they'll put snipers up top right there [Music] these are gunports that the portland police that are in here will open up to shoot protesters that's kind of it's super up when it comes to anti-fascism and the idea of antifa some people really don't know who the hell you guys are and what it is that you do or even if you do exist you're using this word you right so anti-fascism is a philosophy right so there's no say national antifa group right there are a bunch of friends that identify with this philosophy of no fascism of everybody being free of people being equal of rights being upheld so then if you subscribe to the philosophy then you are antifa yes so then you would be antifa sure okay but i belong to no group right so it makes sense no but you see how confusing this can be right it's like being a christian but just like not belonging to a church so but you but but then you are a christian still all right yeah so you so for for this for this for the sake of this interview you're antifa there we go all right there we go boom so as an anti-fascist you say that you know you all play a protective role and specifically you have played a protective role yes sir in what way i have not allowed proud boys neo-fascists nativists or nazis to come into our crowds period and have they refused song and then what what is that what is it what does that mean we dance you dance a little bit we talk we have we have a rap battle it's on spoken word but now you are directly fighting the state on these grounds where you know federal troopers are here and you guys are confronting them fascism has to be confronted wherever you find it whether it's some stupid rocking the confederate battle flag or federal troops fascism is fascism okay somebody understands fascism and they're like yeah i'm against that mm-hmm but wait a minute this dude is going around slapping nazis in the face i don't know if that's me anti-fascism is broad you don't have to do what i do to be anti-fascist you have to say hey not accepting people for who they are not giving them the opportunities that another group has that's fascist and if you're against those things then you're anti-fascists luis sees racism and structural injustice underneath the broad umbrella of fascism in america like him many we spoke to were reluctant to identify under a single banner of antifa making it hard to associate any individual's actions to an official group meanwhile the trump administration has consistently described a coordinated onslaught of violence we spoke to historian mark bray to set the record straight so i am kind of on a journey to figure out who and what antifa is great well you came to the right place that's what i'm saying and you being the author of the handbook i just got to ask is antifa even real yeah yeah it is but not in the way that donald trump says it is so so antifa is short for anti-fascist in a bunch of different languages and it's not one specific group or organization with a headquarters or a ceo if you do the kinds of activities or organize a group that basically aims to shut down the far right in one way or another you're basically antifa the history of anti-fascism in general goes back 100 years people are generally more familiar with opposition to hitler and mussolini what people know less about is how after world war ii the question became how to make sure that you don't get another holocaust or another mussolini in power a great example is britain where right after the war ends oswald mosley who organized the british union of fascist the 1930s gets out of prison he starts a new movement doesn't call it fascist but it is fascist and it's really anti-semitic so this group of jewish world war ii veterans which calls themselves a 43 group says we're not going to let this happen at home after we fought the nazis so they just organize to physically disrupt these fascist anti-semitic meetings and they're successful in a couple of years mosley's movement falls apart when you say physically disrupt what are we doing they would beat the crap out of the fascists uh you know these were guys who were the real deal they saw their people almost exterminated take that model and fast forward to 2020. like i've seen videos of like antifa folks going around punching nazis in the face i mean it it seems like that would be personally cathartic but is it good for the movement that that's the the interesting debate over the last few years is does physical confrontation with the far-right help them or hurt them or is it irrelevant right and um i think that on its own if that were all that these folks were doing that would be insufficient and and not necessarily all that important but i think if you look at the history you can see that the overall goal is to make it so that being a nazi or being a fascist is personally economically and socially untenable physical confrontation is part of the the repertoire but it's it's not the most commonly used tactic more often antifa groups will succeed by doxing the far right exposing who they are getting them fired it's this notion that we don't let them have the streets we don't let them normalize their politics no matter the size they need to be stopped as soon as possible here in minneapolis they set an 8 p.m curfew they don't give a damn about a curfew [Music] i'm impressed you're really worried this will be used for voter fraud they don't want us to vote vice news tonight monday to thursday at 11 on vice this summer anti-fascists turn their tactics for combating the far right towards openly combating the u.s government when the federal crackdown in portland happened it galvanized the city two months in what were becoming dwindling protests turned into growing nightly gatherings bringing all sorts of folks into the freight no justice no peace take it to the streets [Music] so here at the protest there's a lot of black lives matter chants because that's what this protest is about i'm sure that antifa is here i mean most of these people are anti-fascists i would think but in terms of like the formal antifa folks i don't know where they are portland we got work to do we will revolutionize what community safety looks like we will not fail [Applause] when this gets wild you got my back i said who's got my back when you see white folks and all black throwing water bottles over the barricade at federal troops do you feel like that takes away from the focus of black lives matter no there's four levels when it comes to protesting one of those levels is rioting so there has to be some form of violence but when there is no narrative to go with that then that's the problem if you think anti-fascism is terrorism that's exactly what fascists do that's exactly what hitler dude did he quelled all that rage he got rid of all the politicians that opposed him is trump doing right now i got i got plates on i got you know we both got plates on we're ready to go we're defending ourselves yeah i'm dressed in black and armored up and stuff right now but you know i'm not part of antifa or whatever what would you say ntp is i would say that antifa is in large part a right-wing boogeyman at this point where's antifa everywhere bro everyone here is anti-fascist do you hear that's the cops yeah get your mask that's the cops all right if he says the feds are pulling up with tear gas i believe him so i'm about to put my mask on i mean what we heard was we heard the police announced to disperse everything generally comes right after that right right so [Music] night after night in portland this has been the pattern the marches and speeches end and the chaos begins luis took us to the front [Music] [Music] man [Music] [Music] we're here to confront passage can't confront him in your back [Music] is [Music] [Music] yes [Music] encourage the police to attack them but this is the response of proofread you're gonna come tonight donald trump we have been fighting a war here in portland assistance indiscriminately knowing that women and children and mothers and grandmothers are here who isn't just taking somebody's seal going straight to the front [Music] [Music] me [Music] i was there when it was people chanting and giving speeches peacefully and bro in a matter of 10 to 15 minutes it turned to bedlam nothing changed nothing changed except for the pigs i told you i was like get your mask on yeah i was like why it's like it's about to happen so what's next tonight yeah we go back let's go you hear that do you have any injuries we just got out of it we're going back in what did you say you got an interesting time of asking questions we're the cops we just shot what's next there's a boom i'm 19 years old i'm about to be the biggest drug dealer that you can become i was considered one of the best counterfeiters in the world i smuggled a whole bunch of immigrants into this great country and we most definitely made it great again i should have stayed my ass at home oh my god are they starting a war with me or what i was a teenage felon new episode tuesday at 10 on vice another day another day ready to go make our voices heard how you doing my knee hurts i'm bruised up on the side did you you got that yeah i got a couple shots well you did oh i got hit and then i saw that flashbang and i got hit in the side of the head but yeah i remember that i remember that so you want to see something i don't know what you got for me to see i got something so this dude this dude's full of surprises bro what this is what they've been using souvenirs yeah these are cs canisters these are the canisters that shoot us this is a chain ball cs you can feel the pellets in that right that's this wait oh that's what this is what i got shot with last night yeah yeah let me show you one last got a museum of the protest bro man what that's a live grenade they put that back in the car man that's what i'm cool with these because they've been used already but you i'm not even going to touch that that's what these are right there right you see and then they pull the pin throw them and then it breaks apart that's what they're deploying on united states citizens that are out there saying black lives matter what i witnessed last night it was crazy insane yeah now it started off as a peaceful protest led by black folks leading chance of black lives matter then it turned into mofos trying to break down the barricade at the federal building right and they didn't come out until you guys were out there provoking them it's like it's almost like you guys are feeding each other because you don't want the troops here so you go fight them when you go fight them trump says this is the reason why the troops are there because you guys are fighting them and in that tit for tat this cat and mouse game between you guys and the federal troops folks over there black lives matter are like yo we still here homie what you guys doing ain't about us i hear that i too am a person of color right i don't tell you how to fight don't tell me how to fight [Music] right we're all working towards the same goal right different streams different rivers all go to the same ocean they're all necessary all tactics but if you want to look at the timeline of portland we were wrapping up we were ready to go home we're not the ones that sent feds here snatching people off the street citizens that's what made people come back out that's what brought your moms out that's what brought your veterans house can we talk just like candidly about last night bro sure and at one point you were anticipating the federal troops getting ready to fire on us again and you and some other folks are just dancing yeah as if you were excited no look i mean this is a bullet bro you know those guns that you saw yesterday that's what they put in this shot you that don't make you mad yeah it makes me a little pissed bro if we go home we say it's okay to do this if you get shot with this and you're like okay i give up what do you think the next time they're gonna do and the time after that and the time after that you have to am i nervous when we know they're gonna rush yup and do i have that energy and do i is that why i bounce yep but what else do you do before you potentially die why not dance because what do i have compared to this what do i have compared to any of this nothing so we're here in baghdad we're in moscow washington chicago mexico flint michigan chernobyl italy there's always going to be resistance to change seriously i think it's become so politicized all these people have died of harvard 19. what is it that you want the rest of the world to see happening here vice news tonight monday to thursday at 11 on vice not all anti-fascists are the same luis embodies the direct action strategy known as black bloc geared mostly towards physical confrontation and the stereotypical black uniforms but many choose to participate in other ways pop mob is a group of portland activists pushing a different aesthetic everyday any fascist is kind of like our catchphrase because we're trying to encourage people to see beyond just like this one stereotype about what an anti-fascist looks like anybody can be an anti-fascist parents school teachers food service workers health care workers we're your neighbors we're the people sitting next to you on the bus we are all over the place and we are everybody like we're just normal people and that most of our time is spent doing things like having meetings like oh my god so many meetings i spend hours of my life in meetings and that is the work that is so invisibilized so what about like the you know the folks that are in the organization that are a bit more moderate that look at the direct action strategic folks and they're like do you have to like slap these white supremacists in the face do you have to always fight like that's not doing the movement any good actually that is the kind of um perception that we are actively trying to push against it is it is a tactic of the state to do things like that to perpetuate that good protest or bad protest or narrative as a way to disrupt thriving movements because we are a threat to their power and so by perpetuating that rhetoric and like pitting us against each other then it takes the focus off of them and then the infighting takes the energy away from working together to fight towards the things that we actually want they all fall under an umbrella which we often talk about like diversity of tactics that black block is our front lines and they are our community defense and they protect us and we are safe coming out here because they are there and that is a narrative that's never communicated why do you think there's so much confusion and misunderstanding as to what antifa is and how you guys operate i think that up until a couple years ago a lot of people never heard the term antifa right and so their first exposure to it has been through what they saw in the news and what they've seen on tv and what they've seen on the internet which started with a lot of these counter protests of these far-right groups that were springing up after the election and even before the election and so that dichotomy and that conflict was basically born out of the news coverage and the news coverage was overwhelmingly footage of like fights and violence i often say that like 98 of what we do doesn't even happen in the streets [Music] emily korczynski is an activist whose anti-fascist work increased after the 2017 unite the right rally where she lived in charlottesville with her internet sleuthing skills she started doxing white nationalists basically she identifies racists at these rallies and publicly puts them on blast for the world to see myself and other anti-fascist activists have exposed middle school teachers we've exposed civil servants we've exposed people in government we've exposed people that work at restaurants right these are people that you will encounter on a day-to-day basis how many is it of you guys doing this kind of work you know there's no official network we're not colluding with anyone we're not coordinating i look at things that affect my life um i look at people who came to charlottesville when the united rally was being organized most of this planning was being done over discord which is a sort of chat service that's popular among gamers and so all of these planning chats were exposed and one of these characters was this guy that called himself tyrone but what's interesting about tyrone is that he was asking was it okay in virginia to hit people with your car if they're standing in the street and so that put them on my radar and so i read through all of these chats there's one message that stuck out so this this image here was unique so i went here and just did a google search for this image so when you look for this image you get all of these news stories and one of them that comes up is that these us marines are arrested at a confederate rally joseph warner manning and michael joseph chesney so i do some looking into michael joseph chesney and so now i have a name and a face but i don't know that this is who tyrone is so i do a little bit more digging um to figure out what is tyrone all about so he posts this message about reversing white genocide two at a time it's a baby announcement and it looks like they're having twins and then i look a little bit more closely and i sort of noticed this hairline and then i look at this guy and it's like okay well you know that's not proof in it of itself but it's pretty damn close so you know i pop over to twitter and sure enough he's got four daughters and okay here's his wife so i go to the facebook and it says how she's having twins and she's got four kids and you know all of this stuff and so now i'm thinking okay now we've got tyrone and you know here he is he's a united states marine with explosives training emily posted her work on covering chesney's identity on twitter and included the receipts weeks later he was officially discharged from the marines what do you say to the folks that are like look i'm just a white dude that's proud of my race i go to a rally is that a crime you know if you're proud of your heritage good for you that's your business i don't think that a lot of these guys are per se violent actors right it's maybe the one percent um but those one percent are propped up by the other 99 and that's why we can't allow that to be you know unchecked i'm 19 years old i'm about to be the biggest drug dealer that you can become i was considered one of the best counterfeiters in the world i smuggled a whole bunch of immigrants into this great country and we most definitely made it great again i should have stayed my ass at home oh my god are they starting a war with me or what i was a teenage felon new episode tuesday at 10. on vice [Music] anti-fascists are fighting what they consider to be fascism on many fronts they see an authoritarian presence in the white house suppressing opposition by sending federal troops to portland and from the same seat of leadership comes the stoking of racist flames by not only refusing to acknowledge the increasing threat of white nationalism but going so far as to say that they're good people on both sides the site of white nationalism in the south cherishes their confederate monuments which became a flash point between the far right and anti-fascists this summer new at 11 a cbs 46 exclusive and this weekend protesters and counter protesters are scheduled to descend upon stone mountain park at least 2 000 militia members are set to storm stone mountain saturday at nine stories tall stone mountain is the largest monument to the confederacy and in the past it's been a meeting spot for the clan on july 4th it was the site of an armed march by an all-black militia prompting a counter-rally in august made up of anti-government militias like the three percenters and right-wing groups like american patriot usa led by known white supremacists and former clan leader chester doles monica works with flower a coalition of anti-racist groups including atlanta anti-fascists that tracks and disrupts white supremacist rallies we're planning to uh hopefully outnumber the racists and show that georgia is in this place where they could just come unopposed and march on public space and uh kind of instill fear and in various communities so we're there to outnumber to show that there is a there's a different tide so you in the streets you're a fighter a legend yeah yeah yeah would you call yourself antifa no because i don't think it's really real i don't think there's many people that would call themselves antifa unless they're being a little ironic so why do you think folks that are doing anti-fascist work like yourself just do not want to be associated with this title antifa well it's really just a boogeyman it's not um something that describes the vast majority of people doing work for a sustained amount of time antifa is this thing kind of conjured up in the ideas of many reactionaries right wingers of people who just want to go and destroy and so that doesn't describe me [Music] the call to defend the monument went out across social media and thousands responded online but when the time came only a handful of armed supporters showed up compared to over 150 counter protesters in anti-fascists on top of that the local authorities denied them their permit so the demonstrations took place outside the park entirely great hello good morning everybody you know we're all here for the same reason to combat racism in all its scores can i get a hell yeah it was very important that we came out of numbers today we're really thankful that we have so many endorsing organizations and i love to see us united like this [Music] five years ago we made a strikeout against stone mountain and it was a little bit lonely i'm not lonely anymore [Applause] i got friends i got friends let us stay together over 30 different groups signed on to the flower coalition in what they called the unite against hate counter rally atlanta's naacp chapter was one of the partners and has been advocating for the removal of confederate monuments for years when you pass that mountain and you see that and you know what it stands for if you have one dylan roof come from visiting that mountain it's one two men it didn't take long for the counter protesters to directly confront the armed militia members you're a traitor you're standing here with a trainer you want to tell them you traitor you better not never walk the streets and run into a vietnam vet because they all let them see you no you're gonna listen to a veteran traitor you're gonna listen to somebody that actually fights for this there were about 15 white nationalists about 10 feet behind me and they were standing there growing but right now the counter rally protesters are not respecting their space at all as you can see [Music] it seems that you guys have a much more overwhelming force than they do do you think that's indicative of how the country is going in terms of suppressing that sort of ideology you know i think about this all the time and it's pretty obvious here like they've got the guns but we've got the numbers uh and like literally guns i mean you got you guys got some good stuff we got some guns too yeah yeah do you consider what you guys are doing here to be part of like antifa and anti-fascism i think more people are not joining groups and not saying like oh i'm joining this one group everybody's more disseminated and i think that's scarier for fashion after pushing the initial group back the counter protesters marched through the town as a show of force leading to more confrontations [Music] [Music] uh [Music] price news investigates extremism in america there's a strong anti-government push right now on the left and the right the term boogaloo is it fair to say that it refers to a future civil war not around coalition was created to protect the black community is that tv even real truth there used to be a lot of plan here they're still here the far right today looks like what al qaeda looked like in the early 90s just over that tree line there was a neo-nazi terrorist group training what was your role in adam moffatt division do not shoot them kill them we could be looking at a full-fledged insurgency you can execute a small arms attack in 10 different cities all at the same time you're willing to die for this cause yes and all of a sudden they're gonna burn this to the ground a vice news investigative event fringe nation new episode monday at 10 on vice as anti-fascist protests escalated across the country republican lawmakers and the trump administration deflected a conversation about systemic racism by focusing on violence and destruction they associated with antifa tell that to the people of portland who've seen antifa for 53 days rioting looting stealing destroying property one of the loudest refrains came from ohio republican jim jordan ranking member on the judiciary committee and one of trump's biggest cheerleaders pushing for law and order you've said on occasion that antifa is a terrorist organization do you believe that i think that's an appropriate term and so again it was first used by the president united states the attorney general called him terrorist radical violent extremist that's pretty strong language from the chief law enforcement officer of our country what should citizens do when they vehemently disagree with the law it shouldn't be violence what should they do participate in the system the greatest system ever what happens when that system doesn't work for black brown and gay people or trans people i just disagree with that premise but congressman black men continue to get killed by police officers transgender folks continue to get killed disproportionately right and writing letters calling your congressmen that's the way it's supposed to work but when when when people that protest if they kneel they're told that that's wrong if they protest in the streets peacefully they're told that they're wrong and they may get snatched up by the police no no no no no no no no my wife and i our family we've engaged in peaceful protests we've been to pro-life uh rallies pro-life marches no one ever got by we've been we've been involved so that that's how it's supposed to work but supposed to is the key phrase there i'll ask you this samuel adams john hancock paul revere patriots or anarchists patriots the boston massacre was violent there were centuries on guard right that night before the boston massacre and there were the sons of liberty right there in front of them who did not want their presence here in the colonies so so now you're equating antifa to the sons of liberty are you kidding me they were uh taxed without representation they they couldn't vote for their their their person in parliament that's completely different than what we have in america absolutely absolutely it's completed they fought they fought because of taxes people that are fighting on this front are fighting because black people are getting killed at the hands of the police unjustly and when and when those terrible tragedies happen they should be held accountable exactly should it be that should be you don't think the police officer in minneapolis is going to be held accountable holy cow of course he what is one of the police officers that that ran into brianna taylor's house and shot her while she would sleep what are they doing right now well there's there's going to be a this is how it works in america you have you have a trial by your peer jury of your peers you have a trial there's there's evidence presented that's how it works congressman it's been months the woman would sleep in her house so going out in the street and beating up someone else is is okay who's beating up who again look at what's happening in portland so that's okay and that's antifa i don't know but it might be but i don't know but you don't know but you're why do you say it's antifa if you don't know who you don't know that it isn't what is antifa to you i would i would say it's it's uh it's maybe the the the the most dangerous cancel culture entity out there because when you see the violence that's associated with it that is really intimidating and i think uh will will lead to silencing of points of view and so that's what scares me most about antifa would you say that you are against fascism yeah i'm for freedom i mean i love this great country i'm for the first amendment i'm for equal treatment you got you got some basic liberties in the first amendment you're right to practice your faith your right to peaceably assemble peaceably that's the way it's supposed to work in this country not what's happening in our cities today we've been on a journey trying to understand what antifa is who they are and what they do we've spoken to a lot of people who do anti-fascist work but they don't really consider themselves to be quote unquote antifa but one thing is for sure they're frustrated with systemic injustice homophobia xenophobia and racism and they put this all underneath an umbrella that they call fascism but we're here on the hill right now and there seems to be a different narrative there are republican congressmen who refuse to acknowledge that these injustices are fascism but what's crazy is these two parties are talking past each other in a way that they don't even understand what it is that they're arguing about the rhetorical battle over antifa continues to spill out into the streets and political violence is escalating during protests in late august after another police shooting left kenosha wisconsin resident jacob blake fighting for his life an armed 17-year-old counter-protester killed two demonstrators and injured a third four days later a trump supporting counter protester in portland was shot and killed by a man who referred to himself as 100 antifa and in early september a whistleblower complaint from within the department of homeland security claimed that trump's appointed leadership had asked intelligence analysts to downplay the domestic terrorist threat of white supremacists and play up the threat from antifa and left-wing groups to match with the president's talking points are we currently living in a fascist state i don't think that we're at the point yet where we actually have a textbook fascist society but all of the kinds of prerequisites for getting there exist it's hard for anybody like to stand back and say that this isn't authoritarianism how can it not be and i feel like we've gotten so desensitized to how completely bananas things have gotten over the last four years that nothing even shocks us anymore the upcoming election will decide if trump gets another four years in the white house but with the unprecedented demonstrations witnessed this year many americans may begin sounding more like these anti-fascists capital a and tifa optional children in camps people being murdered by the police a lack of education a lack of food a lack of opportunity a lack of employment those days i've seen we shall overcome our day's coming tomorrow that we're going backwards you

Channel: VICE

Views: 275,551

Rating: 3.4024992 out of 5

Keywords: vice_videos:premiere, documentary, riot, violence, protest, guns, Portland, extremism, media, Black Lives Matter, anti-fascist, Patriotism, antifa, alzo slade, Insurgent, vice, journalism, culture, interview, film, movies, vice videos, lifestyle, independent, vice guide, exclusive, vice magazine, vice.com, world, documentaries, short films, docs, yt:cc=on

Id: JuSNYVj6Ts8

Length: 47min 23sec (2843 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JohnnyGrinder]

Fuck that was a good watch.