The malice of the day

Finding out the pedigree of the current left-and-radical protest movement, American journalists usually lead it to European anti-fascism of the 30s. Journalists are misleading the self -name of “ Antif ” . In fact, the activists of the movement to the same extent anti -fascists as both anti -globalists and anti -capitalists. They, as they say, for all the good, and the one who is against is the fascist.

Radical protest roots should be sought in the 80s of the XIX century, when anarchist terror swept America. On September 6, 1901, the 25th US President William McKinli died at the hands of anarchist Leon Cholgosh. The killer was a fan of Emma Goldman - immigrants from Russia, the ideologist of American anarchists. The president became Vice President Theodor Roosevelt. He called the anarchism “a crime against the human race”, but at the same time admitted that there is a social truth in the claims of the anarchists, therefore the state should take control of a big business and encourage the trade union movement.

Murder of US President McKinli (1901)

In 1917-1918, in the United States, “red panic” broke out due to a series of terrorist attacks. By order of the Minister of Justice, Alexander Palmer, mass raids on left -wing radicals were held in the country. Many of them turned out to be immigrants and were deported. In December 1919, 249 immigrants from the former Russian Empire, and among them Emma Goldman and her husband Alexander Berkman were sent to Soviet Russia with a special flight of the Buford steamer, which the American press dubbed the Soviet Ark.

The radical left underground was revived on American soil in the 60s of the last century. It was an extreme branch of the movement for civil rights and racial equality. One of the groups of this kind was “ meteorologists ” who declared war on the state and adopted bombs and arson. In March 1970, in New York, three meteorologists were accidentally blown up by a bomb of their own manufacturing. In March 1971, the group organized an explosion in the Capitol building, in May 1972 - in the Pentagon. In 1978, the administration of Jimmy Carter accused former FBI leaders of illegal searches of the houses of American citizens, including meteorologists. In court, former President Richard Nixon, who proved that the head of state had the right to give the FBI orders for such searches, was in defense of the FBI. (The Irony of Fate: Nixon did not know then that one of those whom he defends, the former first deputy director of the FBI Mark Felt, was a “deep sip” - a secret informant of journalists in the Watergeic case, which entailed the forced early resignation of Nixon in August 1974).

I do not regret that I put bombs. I feel that we did not have enough

“Meteorologists” eventually divided: one faction abandoned the previous tactics and legalized, the other remained underground. She called herself “communists on May 19” (the date of birth of Ho Shi Min and Malcolm Exca ) and merged with other “partisans”, such as the army of black liberation. In October 1982, this “partisan detachment” attacked an armored car of the collectors and stole 1 million,600 thousand dollars. As a result of the attack, two policemen and a driver died. The guilty were found and tried. This court became the end of “meteorologists”. Currently, only one of them remains in the list of people wanted by the FBI - Elizabeth Anne Duke, who is 76 years old today.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the rivals of Barack Obama, including Hillary Clinton, raised the question of the relationship of the candidate with the former Meteorologist, and now the venerable professor of the University of Illinoi Bill Eirs. Obama was forced to condemn the past of Eires, and Eirs denied reports of his close relations with Obama and said : “I do not regret that I put bombs. I feel that we did not do enough.”

The story of only this, far from the only one, ultra -inflammation, demonstrates all the complexity of the phenomenon, its inseparability from official politics, its conditionality of the anger of the day. When on January 21 of this year, the day after the inauguration of Donald Trump, Angela Davis appeared on the rostrum of the Washington “march of women”, this also had its own pattern. Herbert Markuze's student, Davis defended his doctoral dissertation on philosophy in the GDR, then got closer to the radical wing of the Black Panther . Herbert Marcuse with his anti-capitalist pathos became the ideological leader of the 60s youth rebellion. One of the centers of the protest movement was the University of California in Berkeley. The then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, called the campus in Berkeley a nest of "communist sympathizers, rebels and sexual Ivezchens." On May 15, 1969, he ordered the police to suppress students rebellion in Berkeley. The police used tear gas and shotgun. One student was killed, 128 was hospitalized. This day was called "Bloody Thursday".

Consequences of riots in Berkeley

In February of this year, the campus in Berkeley again became an arena of a sharp collision. Students protested against a performance at the University of the right -wing activist Milo Yannopoulos. The protest was peaceful until people with closed bandans appeared at the scene of action, who made lawlessness. They beat people in the crowd indiscriminately, threw stones at the police, set fire to the building. There were one and a half thousand participants of the action, aggressive levoradicals - about 150. The damage caused to the university is estimated at 100 thousand dollars. In March and April, in Berkeley there were a tague between the ultralers and supporters of President Trump, protecting freedom of speech. New York Times called these events a semester of hatred.

"Antifa" is not a single organization. It is rather a system of networks and cells, scattered throughout the country and thanks to social networks, capable of rapid mibilization. Ordinary members may not know their historical roots, but the leaders know them very well. They take pseudonyms in honor of the famous anarchists of the past. One of them gives an interview under the name Frank Sabata, the other calls himself a malatesta. Francesk Sabate is the famous Spanish anarchist, the organizer of the impudent expropriations, an underground and fighter with a franchist regime. Erriko Malatesta is the leader of the Italian anarcho communists, a friend of Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Stepnyak-Kravchinsky. Perhaps the “anti-fascists” do not study the theoretical heritage of the classics of anarchism, but in their midst, a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre, which wrote about the colonial liberation of Africa, is popular in their midst: “The rim of the rebel is a proof of its humanity. It means to kill the European to kill two birds with one stone, destroy the oppressor and the person, which he oppresses, at the same time: there is only one murdered person, and only one murdered person, and one is left. free".

A rebel gun is a proof of his humanity

However, on one of the largest and most visited anarchist sites there is a library in which you can familiarize yourself with some theoretical works and biographies of the founders. Finally, the name of one of the networks-“Direct Action”-indicates an ideological relationship with the French left-winging organization Action Directe, “famous” in the 80s of the last century by a series of terrorist attacks, murders and robberies.

The American “direct action” originates from mass protests in November - December 1999 in Seattle, where the Conference of the World Trade Organization was then held. The composition of the protesters was extremely motley, but against the general background “Oregon anarchists” stood out in their black shirts. The group was formed in the city of Eugene, Oregon, from the audience of the annual music festival and originally engaged in “green anarchism” - interfered with the cutting of trees and struggled with excessive consumption, which, in their opinion, contributes to global warming. Continuation of Seattle was shares in Washington in the days of annual conferences of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The national congresses of the Republican Party also turned into a traditional reason for “anti -fascist” protests. In August 2008, the Protestants gathered in Minneapolis, where the next congress took place. Levoradic extremists made up only a small part of the protesters, but they managed to arrange street riots and clashes with the police - as a result, more than 250 people were arrested.

Riots in Charlotsville, August 2017

Transformation of goals and methods, ideological eclecticism is very characteristic of movement. Fighters for the rights of African-American and transgender people, participants in the “Square Wall Street” and defenders of illegal immigrants completely or partially joined his ranks. The latest presidential election gave a new impetus to the movement.

The riots with the participation of levoradic activists began on the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump and continued throughout the country. The election of Trump contributed to the sharp growth of their rows. In some cases, the supporters of Trump (and not only neo -Nazis) had to cancel their events, since the authorities could not guarantee their safety. This happened, for example, in Portland, Oregon, where since 1905, at the beginning of summer, a traditional rose festival has been held, which does not carry any ideological load. This year, the organizers were forced to cancel the main event of the festival - the Rose parade: “Antifacists” threatened to disrupt the procession, because members of the local branch of the Republican Party planned to be held in the column. The authorities of Charlotsville, where on August 12 the riots occurred, ending with a tragedy , decided differently.

The first part of the article dedicated to American ultra -right movements can be read here .