Patriot Front Arrested in Idaho
The US has a fascist white supremacist problem
On June 11th, 31 Patriot Front members were arrested in a U-Haul on their way to disrupt a Pride event.
It is clear to us, based on the gear the individuals had with them...along with paperwork that we seized from them, that they came to riot downtown. - Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White
This happened in Coeur D’Alene, about 25 miles from where I was born and my parents still live. I attended BLM protests there in the summer of 2020. There was a heavy militia presence then with armed men marching around down town due to rumors that antifa was going to bus in activists. Those rumors were completely unfounded. This latest arrest shows that it is right wing white supremacist groups that are traveling from out of state to disrupt peaceful events like Pride. It is fortunate that they were stopped before arriving at the event, their arrest likely saved lives. I had friends at the event and I’m glad they are safe, but until we address the causes of racism, homophobia, and patriarchy, these threats will only grow. A collapsing capitalist system is thriving ground for the growth of fascism and hate.
Patriot Front is an openly white supremacist group.
An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labelled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora.
— Patriot Front manifesto.
A report by former FBI member Michael German released by the Brennan Center shows that white supremacists and nationalists have a large presence in the US police force.
While it is widely acknowledged that racist officers subsist within police departments around the country, federal, state, and local governments are doing far too little to proactively identify them, report their behavior to prosecutors who might unwittingly rely on their testimony in criminal cases, or protect the diverse communities they are sworn to serve. - Michael German
These forces go largely untracked and unaddressed. However, the government has a history of closely tracking leftist groups. In the 60s and 70s, the FBI infiltrated and targeted groups such as the Black Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society, Puerto Rican Independence Movement, and the New Left. This continues today as Occupy Wall Street was targeted by a conglomeration of state and private agencies. As described by Naomi Wolf in The Guardian:
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.
What we are seeing here is a merger of corporations and state directly targeting the left. This was evident at Standing Rock in 2016 when private corporation TigerSwan was hired to coordinate the suppression of the protesters. Sociologist William Robinson writes of this event in Global Police State:
Bankrolled by a consortium of banks that included Wells Fargo and Bank of America, the private Fortune 500 oil and gas company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, hired a mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan, that originated as a Pentagon and State Department contractor for the Middle East wars. TigerSwan was charged with organizing a counter-insurgency campaign against the protesters in coordination with the company and with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including National Guard troops
The state forces of oppression were actually under control of a private corporation being paid by an oil company. This is modern day fascism being implemented today. The US has a white supremacy problem which goes back to its founding based on genocide and slavery. But the history of this land did not begin in 1776 or 1619 or 1492. These lands were populated by indigenous people for tens of thousands of years. The oldest evidence of human presence in North America dates back over 21,000 years. And at Standing Rock, the state, private corporations, and paramilitary groups came together to brutally attack the original inhabitants of these lands.
We have a growing far right paramilitary presence such as Patriot Front, that have shown they are willing to kill. A 2021 PRRI poll came up with some disturbing results:
This is a disturbing trend on the right. This violence is likely to be targeted along lines of identity politics - against minority races and different sexual and gender identities.
The Center for International and Strategic Studies has shown that far right violence has increased significantly in the past decade.
This is not just an issue on a domestic front. The US state itself is the world’s largest terrorist organization. However, the citizens of the US do not realize this. From the 2021 PRRI poll:
About three in four Americans (74%) agree that America has always been a force for good in the world, including 19% who completely agree with this idea and a majority (55%) who mostly agree. One in four (24%) disagree, including 17% who mostly disagree and 7% who completely disagree.
The Biden regime has been sending weapons to Ukraine, the only other country to vote against condemning Nazism in the UN in 2021. The US has voted no on every version of this resolution since 2005. Ukraine has such a neo-Nazi problem that it is difficult to find a picture from there that doesn’t include Nazi insignias. A recent Reuters photo gallery showed a local Ukrainian with a Swastika tattoo. NATO made the same mistake when it tweeted out a picture of a Ukrainian soldier with a black sun insignia. They later retracted the post. Nazism is not a minor problem in Ukraine, yet the US pretends it does not exist. They ignore white supremacy in their police at home and arm Nazis abroad. As the saying goes, birds of a feather…
A local resident inspects a damaged van following a military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine June 8, 2022. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
This is a perfect storm for growing fascism. The US is facing record inflation rates and another recession. Growing economic desperation is a breeding ground for extreme ideologies. Fascists want to make this a culture war, when in reality it is a class war. They will target minorities and immigrants and women and LGBTQ+ people who are not to blame for the problems created by the capitalist class. Both parties will ignore the plight of the working class to enrich their corporate overlords. There is money to enrich the military industrial complex and arm Nazi battalions in Ukraine, but no healthcare, student loan debt forgiveness, free college, or a 15$ minimum wage at home. The police are well funded, but crime rates continue to go up due to a failure to meet the basic needs of the working class. Instead of housing the homeless, the state will send the police to sweep them off the streets. The same police that have their own problem with white supremacists in their ranks are killing unarmed black and brown people at a higher rate than before the George Floyd protests.
It is right that the working class and petite bourgeoisie should be angry, but the right are directing that anger against the wrong people. It is the capitalist class that is responsible for this crisis. It is not immigrants or women or minorities or abortion or critical race theory. The oppression of the working class stems from the capitalist system. Massive burdens of debt, lack of healthcare, food insecurity, over priced housing and predatory rent hikes - these are all symptoms of the system. We should be concerned with racism and the attack on reproductive rights, the attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. These are all signs of a building fascist tide.
Nothing’s more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all. - Fred Hampton
The solution to growing fascism is counter it with communism. Only a strong socialist movement against neoliberalism, imperialism, and capitalism can lead to a better future. It is more important than ever to unite the working class under the banner of communism. Only then can we prevail over the building forces of fascism. If we fail to address the deep economic inequalities and the class issue, we will never be able to solve the cultural issues within our society. The fight against fascism begins with the fight against capitalism.
You can learn more in the Crawdads and Taters episode which I co-host with Erin McCarley: The Best Way to Fight Fascism is to Fight Neoliberalism.