#does he think im a socialist?? was that a threat???

[foundbybullet]

me arguing with the capitalist in my world cultures class after him saying we should kill half of the population to stop carbon emissions

[nicklloydnow]

“To assure its very existence, any institution that enforces a socialist theory of property must rely on the continual threat of violence. Any such institution threatens people who are unwilling to accept its noncontractual appropriations of their natural property with physical assault, imprisonment, enslavement, or even death, and it must carry out such threats if necessary, in order to stay 'trust-worthy" as the kind of institution that it is. Since one is dealing with an institution - an organization, that is, which performs these actions on a regular basis - it is almost self-explanatory that it refuses to call its own practice of doing things "aggression," and instead adopts a different name for it, with neutral or possibly even positive connotations. In fact, its representatives might not even think that they themselves are aggressors when acting in the name of this organization. However, it is not names or terms that matter here or elsewhere, but what they really mean. Regarding the content of its actions, violence is the cornerstone of socialism's existence as an institution. And to leave no room for misunderstanding here, the violence on which socialism rests is not the kind of violence that a natural owner of things would use or threaten to use against aggressive intruders of his property. It is not the defensive threat toward a prospective murderer of, let us say, subjecting him to capital punishment, should he in fact murder someone. Rather, it is aggressive violence directed at innocent victims. An institution carrying out socialism literally rests on the threat posed by a prospective murderer against innocent people (i.e., people who have not done any physical harm whatsoever to anyone) to kill them should they not comply with his demands, or even to kill them just for the "fun" of killing.

It is not at all difficult to recognize the truth of this. In order to do so, it is only necessary to assume a boycott of any exchange-relation with the representatives of socialism because such an exchange, for whatever reasons, no longer seems profitable. It should be clear that in a social system based on the natural theory of property - under capitalism - anyone would have the right to boycott at any time, as long as he was indeed the person who appropriated the things concerned by using them before anyone else did or by acquiring them contractually from a previous owner. However much a person or institution might be affected by such a boycott, it would have to tolerate it and suffer silently, or else try to persuade the bovcotter to give up his position by making a more lucrative offer to him. But it is not so with an institution that puts soclalist ideas regarding property into effect. Try, for instance, to stop paying taxes or to make your future payments of taxes dependent on certain changes or improvements in the services that the institution offers in return for the taxes - it would fine, assault, imprison you, or perhaps do even worse things to you. Or to use another example, try to ignore this institution's regulations or controls im. posed on your property. Try, that is to say, to make the point that you did not consent to these limitations regarding the use of your property and that you would not invade the physical integrity of anyone else's property by ignoring such impositions, and hence, that you have the right to secede from its jurisdiction, to "cancel your membership" so to speak, and from then on deal with it on equal footing, from one privileged institution to another. Again, assumedly without having aggressed against anyone through your secession, this institution would come and invade you and your property, and it would not hesitate to end your independence. As a matter of fact, if it did not do so, it would stop being what it is. It would abdicate and become a regular private property owner or a contractual association of such owners. Only because it does not so abdicate is there socialism at all. Indeed, and this is why the title of this chapter suggested that the question regarding the socio-psychological foundations of socialism is identical to that of the foundations of a state, if there were no institution enforcing socialistic ideas of property, there would be no room for a state, as a state is nothing else than an institution built on taxation and unsolicited, noncontractual interference with the use that private people can make of their natural property. There can be no socialism without a state, and as long as there is a state there is socialism. The state, then, is the very institution that puts socialism into action; and as socialism rests on aggressive violence directed against innocent victims, aggressive violence is the nature of any state.

But socialism, or the state as the incorporation of socialist ideas, does not rest exclusively on aggression. The representatives of the state do not engage solely in aggressive acts in order to stabilize their incomes, though without it there would not be any state! As long as the relationship between the state and private property owners is exclusively a parasitic one, and the activities of the representatives of the state consist entirely of unsolicited interferences with other people's property rights, designed to increase the income of the former at the expense of a corresponding reduction in income of the latter, and these agents of socialism then do nothing else with their income than consume it for their own private purposes, then the chances for the state's growth and the spread of socialism are at least very limited and narrow. Certainly, one man, or one group of men, possessed with sufficient aggressive energies can inspire enough fear in one and possibly even in a few others, or in another more numerous group of men who, for whatever reason, lack such characteristics, and can establish a stable relationship of exploitation. But it is impossible to explain the fact, characteristic of all states and each and every socialist social system, that the group of men representing the state can hold people ten, a hundred, or even a thousand times more numerous than they themselves in submission, and extract from them the incredibly large amounts of income that they in fact do, only by instilling fear in them.” (p. 146 - 149)

[shanascarlett]

Thoughts on Hasbro Universe after Revolution

Im big fan of G.I. Joe/Transformers. But when I heard that there are more than 2 franhises in one universe, it blew my mind. So I decided to check out them. One of them I heard when I was kid.

Revolution was big. For some it was epic, other think it was mess. I understand why ppl love and hate it. Personally I love it. There’s conflict and how heroes unite against evil. It was the beggining of massive universe. So, how it turned out?

To be fair.... not so good.

Its my own opinion. You can disagree with me. If you love aftermath of Revolution, thats fine. I just want to tell about the conclusion of Hasbro Comic Book Universe.

Optimus Prime.

I think the writer put a lot of his view on life: disappointment on every religion. I really didnt like how he made that Optimus Prime is always wrong. Even when he listens and he does what he was asked to do, ppl still angry at him. “You should listened to me!” and “You shouldn’t listen to me!”. I love that they put Joes, but here’s the big issue: OOC of Mainframe and Flint with his daughter look similar the same age.

Remember when Trasnformers had the mystery of their religion and mythology? Mix of Sci-Fi and Cosmic Fantasy. Yeah, forget about that. It was all Shockwave’s evil plan. Another big disappointment for me.

I like how they described the ghost of Bumblebee, but Shockwave being one of 13 Primes looks very... confusion to me. 

Lost Light

Lost Light deserves to be called a weak sequel. Remember when in MTMTE was magic mystery, adventure, gore and development of characters and relationships? Here I found nothing. New characters for me are not interesting. And yes about them being “trans”. Im not transphobic and sorry if my opion might hurt you or offend. I just dont see transgenders in Transformers.  I dont see transformers suffering of gender dysphoria. Hell, I doubt they suffer of homophobia, bc they are totally fine with mlm and wlw. If you dont know, hetero relationships are for the population of Earth. And Transformers managed told that they can love each other, but their love is not like Earth’s bc they dont have to have sex to create life. They have strong emotion connection to each other.

Speaking about love. I love Chromedome/Rewind love story bc it was developed. We saw the birth of connection, loss, pain, reunion, fear and happiness. Same with Cyclonus and Tailgate. To be fair I dont ship the last two as romantic couple, but as platonic couple. For me they dont have that emotional connection like Chrome/Rewind but they care each other. In Lost Light nothing. You just accept that a lot characters are couple to each other. Why and how? Just accept it. This is why I dont feel emotional connection to Lug and Anode. To be fair I thought they are friend and Lug looks a lot like a boy. If they’d develop her more better, I think I’d like her. The whole Lost Light is just comics of couples. I was thinking when they’re gonna do the Orgy like in Ancient Rome.

Also here’s another disappointment in religion. Everything was lie. As I told earlier - I didnt like it. I’d rather to rewatch TFP, Bayverse or G1. BC I felt emptiness. MTMTE is masterpiece.

G.I. Joe

Where do I begin? Was written by socialist who doesnt know anything about military, ruined Quick Kick who was nice and gentle, made Scarlett an idiot, turned charasmatic Shipwreck into fat vegan, new characters have no backstory or reasons why they joined to Joes. Also: huge hypocricy. Scarlett says that G.I. Joe is now international team, but they refuse to work with USA. I get it they tried to turn G.I. Joe into Overwatch, but OW was working with every country. Including USA, where they had one of their headquarters. American G.I. Joe was more progressive bc they were helping every country who had deal with Cobra or any threat. They even teamed up with Russian soldiers.

The huge disappointment was no explanation about Snake Eyes rebirth (and no love story of Snake/Scarlett) and Quick Kick being an ass. Just check G.I. Joe ARAH show. There Quick Kick was nice. I miss that one....

The only good stuff was about Rock n’ Roll nightmares and guilt for shooting Grand Slam, grumpy Grand Slam and Doc being half-alien. Thats alll.

Revolutionaries

It was a bit better bc its literally crossover with conflict and backstories. Here they at least tried to make story interesting. And brought a lot interesting references. Especially to 90s: KLAW, Slaugther and even to original Action Force.

M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand

At 1st they tried but then it all felt down. I wouldnt call it horrible. You can check out 1st issues. I can say that only villains were interesting. While main heroes...  here’s the problem.

Original Matt Trekker was an engineer, millionaire, helped ppl and white. Why the last important? BC in reboot he became boring black guy who seeks vengeance for his father death and the main bad guy is white man. Im not racist bc I like how it was done in Spawn, but it wasnt so obvious who is the bad guy who just wants to take over the world. I get it you hate Trump. He is a clown.

Also original Trekker raises his son alone. So he is widowed. It could play in reboot: lost all, but tries to keep his son safe. So much potential for drama of lonely father. But we got what we got. I just go to rewatch Spawn animated series.

If they wanted “diverse” why they didnt put more poc characters from MASK? You know there are actual canon black man and indian man? Even native american man?

ROM

It was boring. 1st issues were interesting and brutal bc of alien invansion. You wouldnt know who is the enemy and who is the friend. But drama...

Whole Rom’s drama was about losing his humanity. At 1st we see him as cold-hearted alien. Then they all forget about it. Original Rom from Marvel was losing his humanity until he met brave girl Brandy who made him to remember his loss of homeplanet and love of his life. He was afraid to be alone and to be complete machine. And yes, in reboot his old girlfriend is alive. But I felt nothing with this. I prefer to read original comics bc I felt sorry for Rom.

Micronauts: Wrath of Karza

It was boring. The only thing I can remember is Larissa being Baron Karza’s daughter. I dont compare reboot with original series bc I havent read yet. I liked the new one bc of Baron Karza and his wife (and their fetish).

First Strike

Hoo- boy. It was bad. Preety bad. Not bc villains tried to destroy Cybertron. Not bc TF thought its gonna be war of humans and TF. No, it all was good. The main villain is Joe Colton who wants to destroy Cybertron to save Earth. And that he was bad from the beginning. His motivation sounds like Miles Mayhem from M.A.S.K.. That shock effect of surprise villain doesnt work here. It looks like disrespect to Joe fans. They managed to ruin Scarlett’s character who was turned into G.I. Joe not bc she was the best. She was in Joes bc she didnt do 50 push-ups. If you dont know, G.I. Joe is elite guard where they take the best men and women bc they do a lot dangerous work. So the whole story arc is full disrespect to Joe fan. I dont know about you, but I was offended by that.

Was there smth good? Team up of villains and the easter egg of Visionaries.

Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor

I almost forget about the plot bc it was boring. Rom was rude like every commander (yeah, for someone “losing humanity”). New character was boring. So everythng was boring. Even Autobots didint save the situation.

Rom & the Micronauts

Well, they at least tried with characters development. I really liked how characters interact with each other. But the whole story was “meh”

Scarlett's Strike Force

It was very short and cancelled. BC that writer Sitterson wrote offensive tweet about Nine Eleven. I get it what he was trying to do: to make comics based on cartoon G.I. Joe. This is why Quick Kick and Spirit fight against Storm Shadow. Personally I thought it was racist bc “only asian fight agains asian”. And Storm Shadow has the worst redesign I’ve ever seen. Theres nothing to talk about the comics bc its unfinished and cancelled. So theres nothing.

Transformers vs. Visionaries

This comic had potential. But the ending ruined it. The story is about colonization to save living race. But it will kill another nation. Its interesting theme. And how they managed? Nothing. For some reason everyone in peace and safe. The ending is just weird. I think writer didint know how to end that conflict so she wrote “everyone safe and in peace. Colonization is bad”. Not the ending is the problem. Main characters: Leoric and Virulina redesigned very strong. Leoric looks like total different character (why not to create new character? He looks good). And Virulina looks like student from art-school, not the villain. The redesigned I like are Cryotek and Arzon. And the art was very good.

The last 2 ones I havent finished yet. I can tell this: TAAO isnt look so bad, but I’m ready for disapointing ending, like TF Unicron.

In conclusion:

I dont tell that it was done horrible. Its just explains why IDW decided to reboot TF and G.I. Joe. Low sales. BC I’ve noticed a lot easter eggs in those comics for future story plots. I think they’d made it good if IDW would give them chance.

If you love them, thats fine. I’ll enjoy my own version of Hasbro Universe.

[the-connection]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders visited Wichita, Kansas, in support of congressional candidate James Thompson. Is the red state ready to turn blue?

In a dim corridor backstage, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders looked down at Kansas congressional hopeful James Thompsons denim jeans and black boots. Hey James, Sanders said without cracking a smile. Could I borrow your cowboy shoes?

Thompson took just a second to recover from the razzing.

I wear them because the shits so deep around here, he replied.

Through the thick cement walls of this downtown Wichita convention hall, we heard the roar of 4,000 Kansans awaiting speeches by Sanders, Thompson and progressive rocket ship Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in support of Thompsons run for Congress. It was Ocasio-Cortezs first political appearance outside New York after her remarkable primary win in June, when the 28-year-old democratic socialist defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats in Washington. Here in the midwest, Thompson who also has never held office has tapped into similar yearning for a representative who has more old friends at the local pub than in DC.

The choice of location for Ocasio-Cortezs debut outside New York is poetic: like Sanders, she and Thompson have refused corporate donations, and this district is home to perhaps the greatest conservative influencers in US history the Koch brothers, whose political network pledged to spend $400m on conservative candidates before the midterms.

Its one thing to push the Democratic party left in New York City. It is quite another to rabble-rouse for universal healthcare, wind energy and a livable wage in Charles Kochs backyard. Doing so takes, my friends in the north-east might say, hutzpah.

Or, as my Kansas farmer grandpa might have said: That Jim is full of piss and vinegar.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughs backstage with congressional candidate James Thompson. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

No congressional candidate has ever done what Thompson is doing in this era of unrestricted corporate campaign donations: hold a progressive sword at the precise geographic heart of the dark-money beast. When I asked whether anyone has, say, tried to break his kneecaps, Thompson let out a big laugh.

Id like to see them try, he said. Thats one good thing about being 6ft 2.

Such humor joking in a manner that polite society might view as unseemly is the necessary roughness that millions of Americans develop to survive on job sites, in barrooms, in their own homes while the air conditioning window unit drips water on to the carpet.

It only makes sense that a progressive movement unifying the working class across lines of race, gender, age, religion and location would contain candidates like Thompson, who is both a civil rights attorney who represented detained immigrants and victims of police brutality and a former bouncer at a Wichita country-western nightclub called InCahoots.

Fight for America

A hard story often comes with hard language. During a period of homelessness, Thompson bathed, washed clothes and fished for food in a canal. He fought for emancipation from an abusive parent and attended 16 schools before finishing high school. This is a not a man who, in the face of rising authoritarianism, will be civil to please pearl-clutching political leaders on either side of the aisle.

This is precisely his appeal in southern Kansas. Thompson might be a new star for coastal reporters. But his combination of progressive ideas and unapologetically impolite language has been gaining supporters and even converting some Trump voters for a year and a half without the national Democratic party lifting a finger.

In contrast to a version of liberal America often criticized as, well, a bunch of wimps, his campaign slogan is Fight for America.

Attendees watch a short promotional video at Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center in Wichita. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

Thompson told me he was first encouraged to run for office by Republican friends who felt out of sync with a party morphing into an insanely right caricature. A pro-choice, gun-owning military veteran who supports legal weed and social security expansion, Thompson can kick dirt with farmers at rural events, walk in Wichitas recent pride and Juneteenth parades, and post a photo of himself smiling with two guys wearing bearded deplorable shirts after a long conversation about the issues.

He nearly won a special election last year. Now Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders who won the Kansas Democratic caucus for the 2016 presidential nomination two-to-one are here to make sure he gets it done in the midterms, thus flipping this district blue for the first time in 26 years.

The eager crowd, which outgrew its original venue and was relocated at the last minute to accommodate thousands more, is mostly midwesterners who loathe Trump and were long ago written off as a waste of resources by the national Democratic party. Recently governed by extreme conservative Sam Brownback for eight years, they were resisting long before it was a national movement.

In contrast to red-hatted rallies that in 2016 got far more political coverage, they are both pissed off and peaceful, both riled up for change and diverse in racial makeup.

Thompson knows that, while the progress his would-be constituents seek is toward a serene, humane society, the fire in their bellies must now be summoned.

I had to fight all the time. Literally and figuratively, Thompson will tell them from the stage, as he asks them to fight now alongside him. Thats just part of growing up in poverty. When I see people struggling and I talk about it, Im not talking about it from up on a hill somewhere.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has faced different uphill battles, carries herself with the same self-possession. She taunted on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the current president doesnt know how to deal with a girl from the Bronx. She and Thompson evoke the unflagging spirit of California representative Maxine Waters, who received death threats for unapologetic criticism of the corrupt Washington regime and responded: You better shoot straight.

This scrappy attitude is not the empty bluster of a fearful ego with an orange combover seeking to preserve itself. It is a knowing of ones own strength, fortified by the mortal dangers of poverty, labor, misogyny, white supremacy.

It is the Statue of Liberty looking a bully in the eye in a barroom and saying to someone standing behind her: Hold my torch.

Presence is such a basic thing to ask for

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for the national anthem backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

To back up their talk, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson quite literally walk the walk.

The day after the Wichita event, Ocasio-Cortez told me by phone from Missouri, where she was campaigning for congressional candidate and fellow progressive Cori Bush, that physical presence both builds support and dissolves the political polarities on which so many pundits feed.

When someone actually knocks on your door or goes to your civic association meeting and you actually touch their hand, it really does change everything, said Ocasio-Cortez, who recently tweeted a photo of the shoes she wore door-to-door, holes worn through the soles, with the comment: Respect the hustle.

There are places in the Bronx and neighborhoods in Queens that look like neighborhoods in Wichita. I walked in thinking I was in for a world of hurt, she told me. There is this impulse to just abandon it. To just say, you know what, forget it its a lost cause. Its just gonna be difficult or hurtful or dangerous. But I decided to go in anyway.

What she got for her leap of faith was one of the greatest political upsets in modern history and an appreciation for the extent to which working-class voters have felt forgotten.

Her 48-hour tour of Wichita, Kansas City, Kansas, and St Louis, Missouri, confirmed this theory, recalling fellow community organizer Barack Obamas musings about his well-received travels through the rural midwest as a black liberal.

The thing that I hear over and over and over again is Thank you for coming here. Thank you for coming, she said, her tone implying incredulousness that, besides Sanders, other Democrats with national platforms hadnt deigned to visit. Presence is such a basic thing to ask for.

Sanders told me by phone from Washington, a few days after his Kansas stop, that a 50-state strategy is common sense.

It is beyond comprehension, the degree to which the Democratic party nationally has essentially abdicated half of the states in this country to rightwing Republicans, including some of the poorest states in America, those in the south, Sanders said. The reason I go to Kansas and many so-called red states is that I will do everything that I can to bring new people into the political process in states which are today conservative. I do not know how you turn those states around unless you go there and get people excited.

Bernie Sanders reviews his notes backstage before speaking at the event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

For many in the crowd, his visit was validation of months of hard work that takes particular gumption in a place described by so many headlines as Trump country.

Since launching his first run for the seat in early 2017, Thompson says, he and his campaign have knocked on 40,000 doors and made 330,000 phone calls. Including phone bankers across the country, the effort has included 7,000 volunteers.

That hustle has already knocked 25 points off the Republican partys lead from 31 points when the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, won in 2014 to just six points in last years special election won by Representative Ron Estes. Before the rally with Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson reflected on the difference between his approach and that of opponent Estes when hes back from Washington.

[He] is either in a vehicle waving or walking down the center of the street waving, Thompson said. He had 400 individual donations in the special election. We had 29,000. As long as hes got his 400 people that are willing to donate money, and the big corporate Pacs giving money, he doesnt need to dirty his hands shaking hands with people.

On social media, Thompson has been challenging Estes to debate him in each of the districts 17 counties show up or shut up with no response. While under a very different context, its not so unlike when New York representative Joe Crowley kept failing to appear at primary debates against Ocasio-Cortez.

Thinking that you can get a job without showing up for the job interview just is wild to me, Thompson said.

This is the great irony of conservative criticism of progressive candidates. Candidates such as Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Thompson are accused of seeking handouts for lazy moochers, while evidence suggests they are the hardest workers in the fight.

I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right

When Ocasio-Cortez was in fifth grade, her tough teacher in the New York City public schools was a Kansas native with a fierce love for her home state. Young Ocasio-Cortez was nervous, she told the Wichita audience, when the teacher organized a state history project and assigned her Kansas.

After reading a lot about wheat, as a 10-year-old, Ocasio-Cortez said to laughs, I learned that Kansas was founded in a struggle over the conscience of this nation.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reviews her notes backstage. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

She referenced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which charged the Kansas territory with deciding whether they would allow slavery. Abolitionists fought bloody border wars with neighboring, slave-holding Missouri sparking the civil war and Kansas was established as a free state.

That is the crucible and the soul of this state, Ocasio-Cortez said, articulating what many Kansans know but rarely see reflected in modern politics, national discussion, or the electoral college that obscures their votes.

Like Sanders and Thompson, she pointed out that persistent notions of Kansas as a deep red state didnt jibe with the large minority she was seeing on the ground. While the Wichita crowd thundered after one of Sanders remarks on stage, Ocasio-Cortez peeked out from behind the curtain with her cellphone. She tweeted the video, adding: The midwest feels pretty all right to me!

Meanwhile, leaders in the Democratic party from the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, to former senator Joe Lieberman have been critical of this excitement, saying it wont play in middle America or that moving left harms the party.

If a centrist model is what works [in Kansas] then why has that centrist model not won the past 20 years, and in fact lost by 20-30 points in every election since [1992]? Thompson asked me. The idea that we need to be more like Republicans so we can beat Republicans is asinine. We need to have a clear choice. Something to vote for instead of against.

One such thing would be Medicare for all, he said, which he acknowledged isnt feasible under the current legislature but has pledged to work toward. When describing public healthcare or other programs that have been defunded or privatized into oblivion, he put it in language working-class voters might appreciate.

Its like taking a car, taking the battery out and going, Oh, see, it doesnt run any more. So we need to get rid of it, Thompson said. Put the battery back in.

He laughed when I noted there are a lot of lawmakers who would never think of a car battery as an analogy because theyve never had to change one. Thompson explained that law school taught him to avoid legalese when addressing a jury.

[Voters] want to hear me talking about real solutions in plain language that is not mealy-mouthed and trying to play both sides of the fence, said Thompson, who walked onstage to Garth Brookss 1990 country hit Friends in Low Places. Regardless of whether they agree or not, theyre going to respect that a lot more.

Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me

Thompson told me that he learned in the military both to be willing to have conversations with people who have different perspectives and to draw a line in the sand when someone doesnt share your openness.

You offer em a choice, Thompson said. I would prefer to sit down and talk. But if you wanna be an ass, all right.

While he does not identify as a democratic socialist like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, Thompson is perceived at the national level as a party rebel for his stances on the minimum wage, healthcare and other basic assurances that all three candidates insist will summon voters regardless of location in midterm primaries and elections this year.

Theyre not radical ideas theyre commonsense ideas, Thompson told the crowd at the convention hall. They laughed when he added, Thats why we see a crowd of thousands here today when there was a MAGA rally four days ago that had 50 people at it.

But Thompson got some of the events wildest cheers when he spoke about the supposedly more divisive matters of womens reproductive rights he is a staunch defender of Roe v Wade and drug laws.

When people talk about raising money for our state? Heres an idea: legalize marijuana, he said, and the crowd exploded.

Congressional candidate James Thompson, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wave at the end of the campaign event. Photograph: Amy Kontras for the Guardian

At another point, he called out false narratives about his home that might cause some to be surprised by the massive gathering at noon on a weekday, months before the election in a midterm year: When people wanna say this is Trump country, I say hell no.

Video of this statement made it on to his least favorite cable television network, later prompting Thompson to tweet with several laugh-cry emojis: Must be doing something right if Fox is talking about me and causing alt-right heads to explode.

Its a herculean undertaking to fight the forces that work against Thompsons campaign: Fox News, the Koch brothers, his own Democratic party. Where Im from, theres only one thing that might hold more sway than they do: straight talk and an authentic handshake.

Solidarity from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and other candidates and activists across the country fortifies the progressive Kansans doing the talking and shaking.

If James wins here, Sanders said onstage, this will be not only another progressive member to the Congress. This will be a shot heard around not just this country the world.

All three candidates challenged the crowd to channel the energy of the moment into the civic action that might decide election outcomes.

Im just a figurehead, Thompson said. You are the way that we flip this district. You are the ones that can make the changes that you want. You are the ones that have the power in this country. Its not with the Koch brothers. Its not with the big corporations. Its with you.

The crowd cheered so loudly that a woman behind me plugged her ears with her fingers.

Ron Estes, I hope you look at this crowd and are shakin in your boots, Thompson said. Because were coming for you.

This article was amended on 26 July 2018 to correct the year the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed to 1854, from 1861 as an earlier version said.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

[samanthasroberts]

Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are several commonalities between the far left and the far right including a disdain for liberals but the biggest divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free food, a face-painting booth and a protest sign-making station a pile of cut-up cardboard boxes, paint markers and rolls of packing tape. A group of neighborhood boys, each no older than 12, gathered around. They wanted signs to tape to their bicycles, so they could ride around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in big letters: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely quickly stepped in.

Im not sure you should use that word, he said, his voice taking on a fatherly tone. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That word isnt very respectful to women, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Maybe you can think of another word to use.

The boys conferred. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive protest sign at least in Neelys eyes. FUCK TRUMP, it read, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31-year-old activist with long hair and a full bushy beard, Neely had a full day of political activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100th day in office with a speech at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: organizations such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrats and the local Indivisible group planned to march in protest.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small park, offering a barbecue and leftist pamphlets. Someone had planted a bright red hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby table hung a black banner that bore the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a chapter of the Redneck Revolt group. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

If you havent noticed, we arent liberals, said Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout friends. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your guns back.

Wooly liberals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of armed political activists from rural, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the term redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an exclusively white group, though it does take a special interest in the particular travails of the white poor. The organizations principles are distinctly left-wing: against white supremacy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where gun owners can legally carry firearms in public without concealment. Redneck Revolt members often see the practice of openly carrying a gun as a political statement: the presence of a visible weapon serves to intimidate opponents and affirm gun rights. Many of the cookout attendees owned guns, and had considered bringing them today but ultimately they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of keeping the event family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a firearms training project originally based in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had seized upon what he saw as a contradiction in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea Party activists were fellow working-class people who had endured significant hardships as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the very wealthy. And yet, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1%.

By supporting economically conservative politicians, Strano thought, they would only be further manipulated to benefit the already rich.

The history of the white working class has been a history of being an exploited people, he wrote. However, weve been an exploited people that further exploits other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve also been used by the rich to attack our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colors, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt branches have sprouted across the US; the groups range widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the woods, floating coolers of beer down a river, shooting off fireworks, just generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, said Neely. Things most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve made mistakes and bought into white supremacy and capitalism, but also give ourselves an environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of inspiration from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960s-era activist group consisting primarily of white working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, said Hy Thurman, one of the early founders of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start conversations with poor white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once used the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another emblem of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on providing an explicitly anti-racist presence in rural areas, and focus particularly on gun shows. Many members are from places where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely wants Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise join the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege, the US has witnessed an increase in anti-government paramilitary organizations. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the US constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to skew far right. During last years presidential election, they announced that members would be monitoring voting booths to prevent election tampering, stating he was most concerned about expected attempts at voter fraud by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, objections to mass surveillance and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, anger at the continued struggles of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a way to relate to people, said Neely, whose grandfather was an avid hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic message is: guns are fine, but racism is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws prohibit anyone associated with a hate group from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, said Neely. Ive got friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a pickup truck at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian

Pikeville is a small Kentucky town deep in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of idyllic mountain scenery. Mining has long been the major industry here, though Pikeville also attracts tourism: mid-April draws over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days festival, a celebration of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the festival ended, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had taken a distinct turn. Neo-Nazis were coming to town the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right white nationalist organizations was planning a rally in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Take a stand for white working families, read an invitation that circulated online.

This begins a process of building and expanding our roots within white working class communities to become the community advocates that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fertile setting for spreading their ideology. The city of Pikeville itself has actually experienced some growth in the past few years, but the greater area is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant rhetoric and successfully won more than 80% of votes cast. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop existing pro-Trump sentiments into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, said Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve seen factories shut down, weve seen people losing their jobs, weve seen families getting desperate and reaching out for drugs or other things that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved a permit for the Nationalist Front to gather downtown, citing the constitutional right of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued a statement promoting peace, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville planned a counter-protest, but the event was quickly canceled due to safety concerns: university officials feared that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and members of the antifascist movement or antifa could escalate into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Sean Kitchen

Developed in Europe over the past few decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of anarchists, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to stamping out fascism by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of fascism. They often employ black bloc tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black clothing to avoid police identification.

Antifascist groups have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where masked individuals recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the wake of Trumps election and the ensuing spate of hate crimes, they have swiftly mobilized. A masked man famously punched white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit fires on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented wealth inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, said Sidney (not his real name), an Appalachian antifascist who has been keeping a close watch on white nationalist activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a resurgence because were in that moment. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving an infection alone.

A 27-year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining family. He splits his time between installing drywall and organizing with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my attention, said Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been making real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it really sticks in my craw.

Rednecks against racism: Anti-fascist protesters in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during demonstrations, the Pikeville city commission passed an emergency ordinance that prohibited the wearing of masks or hoods in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a mask or hood would be subject to 50 days in jail and a $250 fine.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their faces, which could be potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial recognition software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we tend not to cover our faces anyway, said Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to come armed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own firearm: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple locals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant blame them for feeling like that, said Sidney. Theyve got this huge ideological fight on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw only about 10 white nationalists, waiting in a little area that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a renewed attempt at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegations, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from this region, and they dont represent the people here, its not terribly surprising, said Sidney.

A Pikeville resident argues with Redneck Revolt protesters. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Harrisburg, a group of six young white nationalist men wearing a uniform of white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout site; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and asked, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they responded. They identified themselves as members of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European, non-Semitic heritage. They had initially supported Trump as a presidential candidate, but were now in Harrisburg to protest him; they were disappointed that he had not yet created a white ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another day, in a different setting, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the picnic attendees were young black activists from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the task of arguing for the legitimacy of your existence against those who deny your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends kept a careful watch from across the street, Neely let the Identity Evropa members talk more about their ideology about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his quiet listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for being so calm and civil.

Its easy to be calm when youre a white man, said Neely. Its easy when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not see the back of his shirt, which depicted a hooded figure dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter ended rather decisively: three local teenage girls had chased off the white nationalists.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall sign made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby residents filled plates with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A neighborhood man looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid out. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, read one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about community defense, answered Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, the man continued. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a bomb on to the row house that had served as a headquarters for Move, an armed black liberation group. There were 11 casualties, including the groups founder, John Africa, as well as five children. The resulting fire destroyed 65 houses. A special commission later appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white members of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with movements like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness in particular, their ability to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to patrol rooftops during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect protesters from the police but many activists were alarmed and intimidated by the appearance of heavily armed white men. When Redneck Revolt members show up at black-led protest events, they are generally invited.

They are our security, said Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs local iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone hateful. They put themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a caravan rolled into the parking lot down the street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, marched up to the courthouse building. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Someone had brought a shield featuring Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then came a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi speeches. This turned into a few hours of shouting, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with drums and jeers. From the midwest to the south, they chanted, punch a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville residents lingered on the other side of the police barricade, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the protesters, eventually making up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist voices there, said Sidney. Im assuming most of these folks were apolitical, or maybe conservative, but they were drawing a line in the sand.

No injuries, no shots fired; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A heavy police presence had kept the two groups separated and prevented any opportunity for confrontation. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville protests the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

In Harrisburg, night fell. Max Neely and his band of companions eventually regrouped at a

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/23/redneck-revolt-the-armed-leftwing-group-that-wants-to-stamp-out-fascism/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/redneck-revolt-the-armed-leftwing-group-that-wants-to-stamp-out-fascism/

[allofbeercom]

Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are several commonalities between the far left and the far right including a disdain for liberals but the biggest divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free food, a face-painting booth and a protest sign-making station a pile of cut-up cardboard boxes, paint markers and rolls of packing tape. A group of neighborhood boys, each no older than 12, gathered around. They wanted signs to tape to their bicycles, so they could ride around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in big letters: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely quickly stepped in.

Im not sure you should use that word, he said, his voice taking on a fatherly tone. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That word isnt very respectful to women, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Maybe you can think of another word to use.

The boys conferred. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive protest sign at least in Neelys eyes. FUCK TRUMP, it read, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31-year-old activist with long hair and a full bushy beard, Neely had a full day of political activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100th day in office with a speech at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: organizations such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrats and the local Indivisible group planned to march in protest.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small park, offering a barbecue and leftist pamphlets. Someone had planted a bright red hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby table hung a black banner that bore the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a chapter of the Redneck Revolt group. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

If you havent noticed, we arent liberals, said Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout friends. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your guns back.

Wooly liberals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of armed political activists from rural, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the term redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an exclusively white group, though it does take a special interest in the particular travails of the white poor. The organizations principles are distinctly left-wing: against white supremacy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where gun owners can legally carry firearms in public without concealment. Redneck Revolt members often see the practice of openly carrying a gun as a political statement: the presence of a visible weapon serves to intimidate opponents and affirm gun rights. Many of the cookout attendees owned guns, and had considered bringing them today but ultimately they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of keeping the event family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a firearms training project originally based in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had seized upon what he saw as a contradiction in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea Party activists were fellow working-class people who had endured significant hardships as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the very wealthy. And yet, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1%.

By supporting economically conservative politicians, Strano thought, they would only be further manipulated to benefit the already rich.

The history of the white working class has been a history of being an exploited people, he wrote. However, weve been an exploited people that further exploits other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve also been used by the rich to attack our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colors, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt branches have sprouted across the US; the groups range widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the woods, floating coolers of beer down a river, shooting off fireworks, just generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, said Neely. Things most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve made mistakes and bought into white supremacy and capitalism, but also give ourselves an environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of inspiration from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960s-era activist group consisting primarily of white working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, said Hy Thurman, one of the early founders of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start conversations with poor white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once used the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another emblem of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on providing an explicitly anti-racist presence in rural areas, and focus particularly on gun shows. Many members are from places where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely wants Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise join the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege, the US has witnessed an increase in anti-government paramilitary organizations. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the US constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to skew far right. During last years presidential election, they announced that members would be monitoring voting booths to prevent election tampering, stating he was most concerned about expected attempts at voter fraud by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, objections to mass surveillance and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, anger at the continued struggles of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a way to relate to people, said Neely, whose grandfather was an avid hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic message is: guns are fine, but racism is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws prohibit anyone associated with a hate group from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, said Neely. Ive got friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a pickup truck at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian

Pikeville is a small Kentucky town deep in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of idyllic mountain scenery. Mining has long been the major industry here, though Pikeville also attracts tourism: mid-April draws over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days festival, a celebration of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the festival ended, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had taken a distinct turn. Neo-Nazis were coming to town the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right white nationalist organizations was planning a rally in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Take a stand for white working families, read an invitation that circulated online.

This begins a process of building and expanding our roots within white working class communities to become the community advocates that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fertile setting for spreading their ideology. The city of Pikeville itself has actually experienced some growth in the past few years, but the greater area is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant rhetoric and successfully won more than 80% of votes cast. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop existing pro-Trump sentiments into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, said Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve seen factories shut down, weve seen people losing their jobs, weve seen families getting desperate and reaching out for drugs or other things that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved a permit for the Nationalist Front to gather downtown, citing the constitutional right of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued a statement promoting peace, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville planned a counter-protest, but the event was quickly canceled due to safety concerns: university officials feared that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and members of the antifascist movement or antifa could escalate into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Sean Kitchen

Developed in Europe over the past few decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of anarchists, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to stamping out fascism by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of fascism. They often employ black bloc tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black clothing to avoid police identification.

Antifascist groups have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where masked individuals recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the wake of Trumps election and the ensuing spate of hate crimes, they have swiftly mobilized. A masked man famously punched white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit fires on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented wealth inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, said Sidney (not his real name), an Appalachian antifascist who has been keeping a close watch on white nationalist activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a resurgence because were in that moment. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving an infection alone.

A 27-year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining family. He splits his time between installing drywall and organizing with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my attention, said Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been making real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it really sticks in my craw.

Rednecks against racism: Anti-fascist protesters in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during demonstrations, the Pikeville city commission passed an emergency ordinance that prohibited the wearing of masks or hoods in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a mask or hood would be subject to 50 days in jail and a $250 fine.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their faces, which could be potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial recognition software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we tend not to cover our faces anyway, said Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to come armed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own firearm: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple locals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant blame them for feeling like that, said Sidney. Theyve got this huge ideological fight on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw only about 10 white nationalists, waiting in a little area that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a renewed attempt at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegations, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from this region, and they dont represent the people here, its not terribly surprising, said Sidney.

A Pikeville resident argues with Redneck Revolt protesters. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Harrisburg, a group of six young white nationalist men wearing a uniform of white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout site; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and asked, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they responded. They identified themselves as members of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European, non-Semitic heritage. They had initially supported Trump as a presidential candidate, but were now in Harrisburg to protest him; they were disappointed that he had not yet created a white ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another day, in a different setting, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the picnic attendees were young black activists from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the task of arguing for the legitimacy of your existence against those who deny your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends kept a careful watch from across the street, Neely let the Identity Evropa members talk more about their ideology about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his quiet listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for being so calm and civil.

Its easy to be calm when youre a white man, said Neely. Its easy when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not see the back of his shirt, which depicted a hooded figure dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter ended rather decisively: three local teenage girls had chased off the white nationalists.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall sign made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby residents filled plates with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A neighborhood man looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid out. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, read one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about community defense, answered Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, the man continued. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a bomb on to the row house that had served as a headquarters for Move, an armed black liberation group. There were 11 casualties, including the groups founder, John Africa, as well as five children. The resulting fire destroyed 65 houses. A special commission later appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white members of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with movements like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness in particular, their ability to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to patrol rooftops during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect protesters from the police but many activists were alarmed and intimidated by the appearance of heavily armed white men. When Redneck Revolt members show up at black-led protest events, they are generally invited.

They are our security, said Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs local iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone hateful. They put themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a caravan rolled into the parking lot down the street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, marched up to the courthouse building. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Someone had brought a shield featuring Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then came a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi speeches. This turned into a few hours of shouting, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with drums and jeers. From the midwest to the south, they chanted, punch a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville residents lingered on the other side of the police barricade, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the protesters, eventually making up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist voices there, said Sidney. Im assuming most of these folks were apolitical, or maybe conservative, but they were drawing a line in the sand.

No injuries, no shots fired; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A heavy police presence had kept the two groups separated and prevented any opportunity for confrontation. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville protests the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

In Harrisburg, night fell. Max Neely and his band of companions eventually regrouped at a

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/23/redneck-revolt-the-armed-leftwing-group-that-wants-to-stamp-out-fascism/

[victoryliononline]

Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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[topsolarpanels]

Hillary Clinton ‘dropped climate change from speeches after Bernie Sanders endorsement’

Climate Home: Transcripts indicate the Democratic presidential nominee referred to climate change immediately in less than half as many speeches after her left-wing challenger confessed defeat

Hillary Clinton has dropped the words climate change from the majority of members of her public addresses since winning the endorsement of her party rival Bernie Sanders, according to Climate Home analysis.

While the presidential candidate talks regularly about her plan for the US to become a clean energy superpower, in recent months she has rarely made reference to the planetary crisis that necessitates it.

On Monday, when she launched her pitch to millennials online, she could find no room for an issue that will affect that voting cohort more than any other.

The rhetorical shift undermines hopes that climate change might emerge as a key campaign issue in 2016. Boosted by the discrepancies between Clinton and her Republican opponent Donald Trump, a self-professed non-believer in climate change.

Indeed, the signs were there. During the last six months of Clintons primary campaign against Sanders, the transcript log of her speeches demonstrates she was talking about climate change at one out of every 2 speeches she gave.

But since Sanders endorsed Clinton on July 12, the full focus of the Clinton campaign has swung to Trump. In 38 speeches since that date, Clinton mentioned climate change specifically eight days. Just once every five public addresses.

As Bernie reminds us so powerfully, we owe it to future generations to work together to combat climate change, told Clinton as she accepted Sanders endorsement.

Bernie Sanders (@ SenSanders) August 24, 2016

Without action on climate change, the average 21 -year-old college graduate in the class of 2015 will lose over $126,000 in lifetime income.

The overwhelming priority for progressive Americans is to avoid a Trump presidency. This has necessitated a change in tone, told Prof Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program. The Clinton campaign needs to target its messages to independent, undecided voters at this phase. Speaking to her own constituency on the left would not be a productive use of her day and effort.

Research from Yale released in July indicates that even during the hottest year ever recorded, only the 17% of voters who describe themselves as alarmed about climate change rank it as a top tier election issue. Meanwhile, Trump has framed Clintons climate change response as a poverty-expansion agenda. The economy ranks in the top two defining policy areas for all other voters.

The Democratic primary season was altogether different. Clinton, the overwhelming favourite for the nomination, was ambushed on the left by her socialist challenger. To tackle climate change, Sanders had promised to declare legislative war on fossil fuel companies. For her part, Clinton announced a plan to increase US solar capacity seven-fold by 2020. In the springtime, she rolled out a wider platform on environmental justice and protection.

After a sometimes antagonistic campaign, Sanders and Clinton appeared together in New Hampshire and Sanders offered her his endorsement. Speaking to acrowd that contained some vocal and disaffected Sanders supporters, Clinton accepted her opponent had done much to frame climate change as a battle for justice.

As Bernie reminds us so powerfully, we owe it to future generations to work together to combat climate change, she said.

In the working day before the endorsement, Sanders team had worked to extract every concession possible from Clinton in the text for the Democratic Party platform. The resulting draft was the most aggressive plan to combat climate change in the history of the Democratic Party, according to his policy director Warren Gunnels. But we are not finished. We have got to follow through on the promise of this agreement.

The most notable insertion was a call for a price on carbon, which Clinton has never publicly backed. Its not her scheme, her energy policy advisor Trevor Houser told AP.

David Axelrod, a former senior political adviser to chairperson Barack Obama, told the New York Times he would advise Clinton to avoid playing into Trumps hands on the issue of carbon pricing. If Im in her campaign, I dont want to hand a cudgel to the other side, he said.

Hillary Clinton (@ HillaryClinton) September 9, 2016

Making the wrong selection on climate change would be a disaster for our children and grandkids. pic.twitter.com/ dhc0OABqml

Climate coyness was a feature of Obamas first word( when Axelrod was at the White House ). According to analysis of speeches from 2008 to 2011, climate change was scarcely mentioned even as Obama began to ramp up funding for climate-related projects.

He was doing more than he was talking about because he was going incognito to avoid assaults from the Republicans, told Timmons Roberts, Ittleson professor of environmental analyzes at Brown University, who conducted the analysis.

Obama has since emerged as something of an atmosphere warrior, but even in the election campaign for his second word he scarcely spoke about climate change, told Roberts. I think hes careful to not whack the hornets nest of the ideological and fossil fuel interests on the right.

John Podesta was the silent designer of Obamas climate policy. He is now Clintons campaign manager.

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign told Climate Home: Hillary Clinton believes climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time. Thats why shes been discussing her bold and ambitious plan to transform US energy and combat the harms of climate change throughout this campaign.

The most important data point is that Hillary Clinton is operating on the strongest clean energy and climate platform of any candidate in history and Donald Trump is operating on the absolute worst, told Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. Were always eager to see this difference talked about more because more dialogue induces it more clear just how obvious the choice for climate voters is this election.

Nevertheless, Clintons realpolitik has left some Sanders supporters fretted about how she will represent their issues as president.

Roberts, an avowed feeler-of-the-Bern, told: Its not a core issue for her, its an add-on. I think her postures have really been lacking an understanding of the depth and breadth of the transformation thats necessary. Her posture has always been that we can build 500 million solar panels, but she never genuinely addresses actively shutting down the fossil fuel side.

On carbon pricing and fracking he believed Clinton had failed to take the posture necessitated by the climate crisis.

In fact there is a big haemorrhage of her supporters over to Jill Stein of the Green Party and shes got to win those people back, he said.

Climate Home searched for the words climate change in all speech transcripts published on the Clinton campaign website between the beginning of 2016 and early-September. Outcomes can be accessed here.

The majority of recent mentions were jabs at Trumps climate scepticism. On 30 July in Johnstown, Pennsylvania she lampooned him for applying for help to protect a golf course from climate change whilst he dismisses it as a Chinese hoax.

Throughout the year there is a clear regional tendency, with Clinton curtailing herself to mentioning climate change only in the north east, California and on one journey to Florida.

A search for the word environment exposes just how little weight Clintons campaign considers broader environmental issues to have with voters. In the 78 speeches for which Clintons campaign have logged transcripts in 2016, she mentions the word in just four.

Hillary Clintons silence on the issue of the depth of the ecological crisis is deafening, Greens presidential candidate Jill Stein, who had a warrant issued for her apprehend after participating in a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline, told Climate Home. While she makes the occasional pas nod to the environment, I have built it the very cornerstone of my entire campaign.

Note: The article was amended to clarify it was Clintons online pitch to millennials that does not mention climate change , not her speech on Monday, which did .

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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[victoryliononline]

Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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[victoryliononline]

Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are various commonalities between the far left and the far right including a arrogance for liberals but the most difficult divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free meat, a face-painting kiosk and a demonstrate sign-making terminal a pile of cut-up cardboard caskets, coat markers and moves of parcelling videotape. A group of place sons, each no older than 12, assembled around. They missed signalings to tape to their bicycles, so we are able to razz around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in large-hearted words: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely rapidly stepped in.

Im not sure you should utilize that command, he answered, his voice taking on a kindly hue. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That term isnt exceedingly respectful to girls, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Perhaps you are able to think of another parole to use.

The sons awarded. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive rally clue at the least in Neelys attentions. FUCK TRUMP, it spoke, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31 -year-old activist with long fuzz and a full wiry beard, Neely had a full era of government activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100 th day in role with a addres at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: makings such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrat and the regional Indivisible radical planned to rally in rally.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small ballpark, offering a barbecue and leftist folders. Someone had planted a bright scarlet hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby counter hung a black banner that tolerate the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a section of the Redneck Revolt radical. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > root > If you havent acknowledged, we arent liberals, mentioned Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout acquaintances. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your shoots back.

Wooly radicals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of forearmed political organizers from urban, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the period redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an alone lily-white group, although it was does take a special interest in the specific travails of the white good. The establishments principles are plainly left-wing: against white ascendancy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where shoot proprietors can legally carry weapons in public without camouflage. Redneck Revolt members often realise the course of carrying out openly carrying a artillery as a political statement: the presence of a discernible artillery has contributed to intimidate resists and corroborate shoot freedoms. Many of the cookout attendees owned grease-guns, and had considered bringing them today but eventually they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of restraining the phenomenon family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a handguns developing activity originally are stationed in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had confiscated upon what he saw as a negation in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea party organizers were fellow working-class people who had permitted significant sufferings as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the terribly prosperous. And more, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1 %.

By corroborating economically republican politicians, Strano recalled, they would only be significantly controlled to benefit the once rich.

The history of the lily-white working class has been a record of being an manipulated parties, he wrote. Nonetheless, weve been an manipulated people that farther employs other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve too been used by the rich to affect our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colourings, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt fields have ripened across the US; different groups straddle widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are lily-white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the groves, hovering coolers of brew down a creek, hitting off fireworks, simply generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, mentioned Neely. Acts most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve originated mistakes and bought into white-hot ascendancy and capitalism, but also contribute ourselves a better environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of insight from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960 s-era partisan radical comprising primarily of white-hot working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, answered Hy Thurman, one of the early benefactors of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed combating racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start the talks with good white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once squandered the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another insignium of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on accommodating an explicitly anti-racist existence in rural areas, and sharpen particularly on gun displays. Many members are from the locations where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely requires Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise meet the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge besiege, the US has evidenced an increase in anti-government paramilitary companies. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the American constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to distort far right. During last few years presidential election, they announced that members would be checking electing booths to prevent referendum tampering, territory he was most concerned about expected tries at voter forgery by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, dissents to mass monitoring and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, feeling at the continuation of the contends of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a room to relate to beings, pronounced Neely, whose grandfather was an ardent hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic content is: firearms are penalty, but intolerance is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws veto anyone associated with a abhor radical from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, pronounced Neely. Ive went friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a station wagon at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Image: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian figcaption > beginning > Pikeville is a small Kentucky town depth in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of peaceful mountain surrounding. Mining has long been the major industry now, though Pikeville too captivates tourism: mid-April chooses over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days gala, a occasion of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the celebration objective, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had made a distinct form. Neo-Nazis were coming to municipality the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right lily-white nationalistic make-ups was scheming a revival in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Make a stand for white acting lineages, read an invitation that flowed online.

This embarks a process of building and expanding our seeds within grey working class communities to become the community preaches that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fruitful lay for spreading their ideology. The metropoli of Pikeville itself has actually knew some growth in the past few years, but the greater expanse is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant hyperbole and successfully triumphed more than 80% of votes assigned. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop dwelling pro-Trump sentimentalities into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, did Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve visualized factories shut down, weve witnessed people losing their jobs, weve heard families going frantic and contacting out for narcotics or interesting thing that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white-hot ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved work permits for the Nationalist Front to gathering downtown, citing the constitutional title of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued the following statement promoting quietnes, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville scheduled a counter-protest, but the occasion was speedily canceled due to safety concerns: university officials is concerned that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and representatives from the antifascist motion or antifa could intensify into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Picture: Sean Kitchen Developed in Europe over the past decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of revolutionaries, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to embossing out autocracy by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of dictatorship. They often hire black alliance tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black draping to avoid police identification.

Antifascist radicals have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where disguised people recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the aftermath of Trumps election and the ensuing heap of hate crimes, they have hurriedly mustered. A masked somebody famously swiped lily-white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit flames on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented affluence inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, added Sidney( not his real name ), an Appalachian antifascist “whos been” hindering a close watch on white nationalistic activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a revitalization because were in that time. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving new infections alone.

A 27 -year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining pedigree. He separates his time between investing drywall and planning with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my courtesy, pronounced Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been realizing real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it certainly pokes in my craw.

Rednecks against intolerance: Anti-fascist objectors in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during performances, the Pikeville city commission overtook an emergency rule that restricted the dres of masks or scarves in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a cover-up or punk would be subject to 50 daylights in jail and a $250 penalize.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their fronts, who are able potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial acceptance software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we incline not to cover our fronts regardless, replied Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to stop forearmed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own pistol: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple regionals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant denounce them for detecting like that, did Sidney. Theyve went this huge ideological oppose on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw simply about 10 grey nationalistics, waiting in a bit range that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a refurbished strive at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegatings, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from such regions, and they dont represent the people here, its not exceedingly surprising, pronounced Sidney.

A Pikeville inhabitant indicates with Redneck Revolt objectors. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Harrisburg, groupings of six young white-hot nationalist servicemen wearing a outfit of lily-white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout place; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and invited, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they greeted. They related themselves of the membership of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist radical that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European , non-Semitic heritage. They had originally been subsidized Trump as a presidential applicant, but were now in Harrisburg to affirmed him; they were disappointed that he had not yet initiated a white-hot ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another epoch, in another fixed, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the outing attendees were young black partisans from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the job of arguing for the legitimacy of your reality against the individuals who disavow your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends maintained a scrupulous watch from across the street, Neely tell the Identity Evropa members talk more about their dogma about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his hushed listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for is just so calm and civil.

Its easy-going to be allay when youre a white man, responded Neely. Its simple when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not accompany the back of his shirt, which outlined a hooded representation dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter objective preferably decisively: three neighbourhood youthful daughters had chased off the white nationalistics.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall signal made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Image: Cecilia Saixue Watt figcaption > source > By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby citizens replenished dishes with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A vicinity being looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid down by. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, spoke one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about society defense, reacted Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, “the mens” resumed. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a rocket on to the row house that had dished as a installation for Move, an armed pitch-black freeing group. There were 11 fatalities, including the groups benefactor, John Africa, as well as five children. The developing attack destroyed 65 residences. A special fee afterwards appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white-hot each member of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with campaigns like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness including with regard to, their capacity to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to garrison rooftops during the 2014 objections in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect opponents from the police but many activists were scared and daunted by the form of heavily armed white people. When Redneck Revolt representatives show up at black-led rally occurrences, they often invited.

They are our security, enunciated Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs regional iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone repulsive. They applied themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a van reeled into the parking lot down wall street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, rallied up to the courthouse house. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Person had brought a shield peculiarity Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then extended a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi discussions. This turned into a few hours of wailing, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with rhythms and mocks. From the midwest to the south, they sung, swipe a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville tenants persisted on the other side of the police railing, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the objectors, eventually obliging up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist utters there, remarked Sidney. Im assuming the majority of them tribes were apolitical, or perhaps republican, but the latter are drawing a line in the sand.

No traumata , no films burnt; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A ponderous police spirit had obstructed the two groups separated and frustrated any the possibilities for struggle. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville affirms the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett In Harrisburg, night precipitated. Max Neely and his banding of comrades eventually regrouped at a

Read more: https :// www.theguardian.com/ us-news/ 2017/ jul/ 11/ redneck-revolt-guns-anti-racism-fascism-far-left

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