Antifa: A Lived Experience

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
This will be a “lived experience” — or as we used to call it, an anecdote. As such it is not “evidence”, but rather indicative. A break in the monolithic characterization by the mainstream that “Anti-fa” is somehow “good” or that their violence is just a few “bad apples”. To applaud anti-fa because they claim to oppose Nazism, is a bit like applauding the Nazis because they also rounded up Jehova Witnesses, or even better, if they had renamed themselves “Anti-Jehova Witnesses”. Liking something for what they oppose is suicidal. It is what something is for that matters.
I was a punk in the 1980s. Dead Kennedys, CRASS, Reagan Youth, False Prophets, TSOL, MDC, etc. A homeless street punk for a couple of years, followed by your typical spate of lower class jobs until about 1993 when I decided that getting a real job wasn’t selling out so much as enabling myself to indulge my passions. I sired my first child in 1995, which made all the other stuff moot. This was all in Portland, Oregon.
The reason I bored you with that little biography was to explain that I know a little bit about Anti-fa.
As an aside, the original slogan, as sung by MDC was “No War, No KKK, No Fascist USA”. Interesting what was changed, isn’t it? They could have made it four parts and kept the Rhyme, but instead they eliminated their opposition to War. I also want to point out that MDC has a song that illustrates the Antifa method for identifying Nazis (check out “John Wayne was a Nazi”). MDC was a great Homocore band, but the illusion broke when I realized that their meth addiction & tendency to steal cars might mean that the police’s attention on their behavior was not unjustified.
Back on topic, even back in the 1980s, Antifa was a violent collection of lame-ass losers. They have only become bolder and bolder as we continue to ignore them.
To be totally honest, I am unsure which came first to Portland, Anti-fa or the Neo-Nazi Skinheads. I do know that both were present in 1987.
Now, the primary representatives of the antifa, at that time, in Portland, were two groups, “Skins Committed Against Racism” and “Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice”. SCAR was in Portland prior to SHARP. As you might guess it was very hard to tell the difference between Antifa Skins and Neo-Nazi Skins. This was made even more difficult by the simple fact that the membership between the two groups kept revolving. Brutus Skinhead would get in a fight with his mates and go join the opposing side for a bit, then after getting in a fight with them, he would move back.
I vividly remember sitting outside the Multnomah Library one evening when a car rolled up. Five skinheads and one skin-bitch (that is what the females called themselves) rolled up looking to jump someone.
Fortunately, they were antifa and I was wearing my Dead Kennedys “Nazi Punks F*** Off” shirt. Even they couldn’t rationalize me as being a Nazi. Unfortunately, a friend of mind was not so lucky, and they pitched him through a plate glass window. Evidently, a skinny goth-punk street kid with a tri-fin just had to be a nazi (he wasn’t).
The Nazi’s and the Anti-Fa were, as was typical at the time, attacking third parties, mainly because both the Nazis and the Antifa travel in packs, and neither were too fond of anything less than 6-to-1 odds.
During the 1990s, both sides had started to broaden their base. You couldn’t avoid Nazis or Antifa just by avoiding people with shaved heads. However, something interesting did happen. The Nazis cut back on the random attacks. After the Mulugeta Seraw case, violence committed by Nazi skinheads in Portland started to decline.
However, Antifa continued. They would start riots against Republicans, call in bomb threats to venues daring to allow a gay brit to play guitar, threaten violence to the fans of those musicians (I admit that most of my information post-1995 is music related), and similar.
So, yeah, don’t tell me how Antifa are misunderstood. Don’t tell me that this is something new. Don’t tell me that they aren’t violent. Antifa has been engaging in this behavior for decades. It is just the modern mindset that emboldens them to be even more blatant.
Antifa are a cancerous, violent assortment of misfits that will be lined up and disposed of should their desired Communist utopia occur — just as has always happened to any anarchists who have ever worked with any communist revolution. Sure, they may be in the second list, but they will be rounded up and eliminated. Red Anarchism was one of the reasons why I stopped being an Anarchist.
Anyway, that is my story.
Truth is found in the Rubble of Falsehood
Love is the law, love under will
References/Citations
SCAR was probably a local independent group, I cannot find anything on them.SHARPMulugeta SerawNote, the article is incorrect, they were not officially affiliated with WAR, and as I recall they were friends with, but not members of, East Side White Pride
“No War, No KKK, No Fascist USA”: MDC - Born to DieThe 2016 version with the new lyrics
Attributions
SHARP & Anti-SHARP logos (from Wikipedia)Design by: Williamcaseyhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Intro/Outro Music is from the Free Music Archive.
Borrowed without their knowledge for non-commercial purposes.
There opinions are their own and the use of their music should not be taken as agreeing with my positions or even as awareness that I even exist.
Opening:Kai EngelChant Of Night BladesDeathless: The RenaissanceDownloadLicense
Ending:KeoszThe CharonENTITY EPDownloadLicense