Reminder that Punching Nazis doesn’t work. It led to the punched Nazis being seen as Martyrs by the Alt Right and reviving the Neo Nazis in the present and led to events like Charlottesville. Punching Nazis creates more Nazis in the long run.
Hey white Supremacist Richard Spencer, what do you think? Does punching nazis like yourself work or does it backfire and create more nazis?
OK, but just so we’re clear: did antifa punching you and disrupting white supremacist events by any means necessary shut down white supremacist events and make it harder for nazis to organize publicly or did it just martyr you and create more nazis?
Could you be more specific, you racist sack of shite?
Oh, you were specific when you said you’d no longer plan white supremacist events at colleges “after violent protests led by antifa.”
Look Anon, we’re not saying that “punching nazis is the only thing you can do to thwart fascists.” It’s not even in the top 30 things that comprise everyday antifascist work. But sometimes physically defending your community from fascists is necessary. And it works.
Would you like another example? World War Two. What did Adolf Hitler have to say about punching nazis?
Adolf Hitler: “Only one thing could have stopped our movement - if our adversaries had understood its principle and from the first day smashed with the utmost brutality the nucleus of our new movement.” (SOURCE: Daniel Guérin, Fascism and Big Business; Pioneer Publishers, 1939, pg. 107).
Maybe you’re still not convinced? Maybe you still think that antifascism must mean not physically defending ourselves and our communities from fascists? So what are the alternative actions you’re proposing? Should we debate nazis?
Franz Frison, Holocaust survivor: “If fascism could be defeated in debate, I assure you that it would never have happened, neither in Germany, nor in Italy, nor anywhere else.” (SOURCE: The Irish Times, letter to the editor, December 12, 1988).
Should we just ignore them and hope they’ll go away, then? History has very clearly shown us that ignoring violent racist extremists doesn’t make them go away; on the contrary, it gives them license to intimidate, attack, and eventually murder the people belonging to groups they’ve targeted - racialized people, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, religious minorities, women, migrants, etc. This is because fascists take your total disregard of their presence as a sign that you agree with them. It also tells the people they target know that no one will defend or support them. As novelist Joy Kogawa put it, “if there’s just one thing that history teaches us, just one thing, it’s that bystanders and perpetrators are both on the same side.“
Maybe you think we should just call the cops and let the cops handle the nazis?
People who believe this is the way to address fascists in their communities are often extremely disappointed with the result. At best, the authorities aren’t going to do anything to stop fascist plans until they have injured or killed somebody. To our mind, that is far, far too late.
There are other problems with relying on the authorities to solve fascism and racism as well. The old saying “cops and the Klan go hand-in-hand” doesn’t just come from police going out of their way to protect fascists and racists while viciously attacking those brave enough to confront fascists.It also comes from decades of evidence of police involvement as members of fascist and racist groups themselves. Some notorious examples of this include:
- the police in Greensboro, North Carolina colluding with the KKK to allow them to shoot up an anti-racist demonstration, killing five people;
- this asshole:
- this police department/KKK Klavern in Florida;T
Then there are things like the time when the Canadian spy agency funneled money and intelligence to one of the main organizers of the neo-nazi Heritage Front, allowing it to grow into the largest white supremacist group in the country.
Or the time when Germany’s intelligence agency, which had been paying money to neo-nazi organizers, became aware of a neo-nazi gang’s serial murder plot and instead of stepping in, actively obstructed and tampered with the police investigation. The neo-nazi gang would go on to murder nine immigrants and one police officer along with committing two bombings and fifteen bank robberies.
Finally, there is the fact that in most cities, racialized people are more likely to be killed by police than by any other group of people.
Maybe you think passive, non-violent protest is an effective way to counter the movement responsible for the majority terrorist killings over the last 25 years?
As Stokely Carmichael said: “Dr. King’s policy was that nonviolence would achieve the gains for black people in the United States. His major assumption was that if you are nonviolent, if you suffer, your opponent will see your suffering and will be moved to change his heart. That’s very good. He only made one fallacious assumption: In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience. The United States has none.”
Do you really think that nazis and white supremacists have a conscience when it comes to hurting other people, Anon? Let’s be real here: fascists not only lack that, but they actively fetishize and valourize violence as a legitimate political mechanism, a preferred political tactic, and a philosophical principle that builds group cohesion and commitment. Doing something about fascism necessitates personal and community self-defense unless the goal is to become the victims of fascism. Failing to grasp this = making the same mistakes of people like the White Rose Society.
Look, Anon, most of us don’t like punching people, even if they’re nazis. We’d rather go about our business and live our lives in peace. But when nazis begin to encourage, organize for, and promote violence against people because of who they fundamentally are as people, we have to stand up to defend those people by shutting those nazis down by any means necessary.