When to Defend

The big question our club is chewing on right now is whether or not community defense organizations on the left, specifically, and antifascists in general should be showing up to counter Trump’s minions on January 17 when they have planned to be present at state capitals nationwide. It’s not clear whether this will be just another gathering of clowns, an organized insurrection, or something in between (like we saw on January 6).

Right now, our answer is: No, antifascists should not show up at state capitals on January 17. We also do not think antifascists should show up at the inauguration in DC on January 20.

It’s a tricky question, though. It is factually true that when fascists organize in public spaces and are not effectively shut down, it emboldens them and their next event is bigger, more dangerous, and closer to their genocidal goals. Usually, it is the left that must take on the role of countering them because the state — and the police, specifically — just doesn’t mind fascism that much. At least half of the police are themselves fascists.

If you watch the January 12 episode of Renegade Cut, you’ll see that they suggest that antifascists should always show up to counter fascists, and it’s a good argument.

Our argument for not showing up for this specific event is:

  1. Right now, the police are countering Trump’s minions; Trumpers are being shut down without the left’s involvement. While this could certainly change at any moment, and may vary depending on which state capital we’re talking about, it is generally a good thing when your enemies are fighting each other. It’s entirely possible, in fact, that a few police officers and Trumpers might become better people through the experience of having to face each other as enemies. It could break the spell of misinformation driving them.
  2. The left is almost universally seen as the enemy by conservative voters; these are the most powerful block of voters for both the Republican and Democratic parties. If the left shows up in a way that is visible, it allows the police and Trump’s minions to pivot toward fighting the left together. This unity would destroy the learning opportunity presented by the police and Trumpers fighting each other, allows for an alternate narrative (“both sides are bad”), and creates a very real danger of unity between Trumpers, police and complacent liberals.
  3. We talk a lot about how conservatives are resistant to reality; unfortunately, this problem includes conservative Democratic voters (Bidenists). I believe that the only way they are ever going to agree to fight against fascism (both in terms of state policy and local action) is if confirmable Trumpers are allowed to do horrible things — more horrible than what happened on January 6. It’s sad and horrible, but the longer America puts off the fight against fascism, the more sad and horrible things will become. The risk is that the right wing would be so organized that the left’s absence would allow them to get control of the federal government; I absolutely do not think that’s going to happen. This particular insurrection will be crushed, even if it takes longer than we might like. In terms of an historical analog, if you look at Nazi Germany, it took the combination of humiliating defeat and the public revelation of the Nazi’s horrible crimes to get the German people as a whole to agree to shutting down fascism — and they still have the occasional Nazi pop up despite their continued strong opposition to fascism. The reason the Weimar Republic went full Nazi in the first place is because complacent liberals preferred the Nazis to the various leftists that were fighting the Nazis in the streets.
  4. We have nothing to gain by defending the Biden government, or any neoliberal state government. Liberals use the left for leverage, and then ignore us or worse. From an historical perspective, the story is always the same: Liberals use the left and then destroy it.

If it seemed likely that the Biden government would fall without the help of the left, then, yes, we’d recommend defending it because the Biden government is better than any overtly fascist government would be. That does not appear to be the case, though.

We should still defend our communities, though. The first line of defense is recommending that people who are likely targets of fascist violence stay away from state capitals on January 17. The next thing to consider is any likely specific targets (whether individual people or structures) in your community. In the case of people, relocating them for the weekend is the best strategy. In terms of a structure, relocating the people who might be inside it is a great idea. In cases where you’re not able to relocate people, armed defense and/or creating barriers to violent attack would be appropriate (depending on what the people you are defending would prefer). However, because in many cases the people you will want to defend are liberals, and because we must always get their consent, you might find that there simply isn’t any way to help them because they are not willing to accept the reality of what is happening.

We are still strongly ambivalent about this issue, and could change our minds at any moment, especially if our understanding of what’s going to happen on January 17 or 20 changes dramatically. Obviously, we don’t want anyone to die, but conservatives in both parties have allowed things to get so out-of-hand that a significant death toll is now inevitable. We’re forced, then, to weigh the deaths resulting from our inaction against the deaths resulting from our taking action; right now it really seems like inaction is the correct strategy, but we’re all going to have to reconsider the conditions on the ground every single day.

In terms of where antifascists should focus their energy, it’s our opinion currently that public education should be the number one priority. We have 110 million Americans who are completely lost right now. When we started this club in 2016, we thought everyone just knew what fascism is and that it should be stopped — we thought people understood basic political concepts; we sure were wrong about that.