For Workers Action Against Fascist Threat

Fascist “Patriot Front” Marches
in D.C. on July 4

Patriot Front brought hundreds of masked marchers to Washington, D.C. on July 4. The PF symbol (in the middle of the photo, inside a circle of stars), is the fasces (a bundled ax) adopted by Mussolini’s fascists in Italy.
(Photo: Mark Sherman via AP)

On July 4, on the morning of President Donald Trump’s “Great American State Fair” flop, supposedly celebrating 250 of American independence, several hundred Patriot Front (PF) fascists marched in uniform in Washington, D.C. in a publicity stunt recruiting for racist terror.  These Hitler-lovers were all masked, in khaki pants and blue shirts, a number with full-body shields. They waved the 13-star U.S. flag, which has been adopted by various white supremacists, as well as the Confederate battle flag of the slaveholders’ rebellion and Ku Klux Klan terror. They also chanted “Reclaim the U.S.,” the slogan on a banner at the head of the march. While often referred to in the liberal media as “white nationalists,” Patriot Front is openly fascist, choosing as its symbol the fasces (a bundled ax) adopted by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party in Italy

Harking back to Mussolini’s Blackshirts and Hitler’s Nazi Brownshirts – paramilitary squads that attacked leftists, Jews and others branded as enemies – the PF blueshirts fit right in with the racist MAGA (Make America Great Again) crowd on the National Mall. As the Trump regime unleashes masked ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Patrol thugs to carry out mass deportations, throwing immigrants into concentration camps, fascist action squads act as auxiliaries in targeting leftists, gay and transgender people and others deemed “the enemy within.” As capitalism falls deeper into decay, in the drive toward authoritarian police-state rule, the fascists have been held in reserve as shock troops to violently attack those fighting against the racist capitalist system. Now some are parading publicly to sow terror in the public.

Patriot Front came out of the 11 August 2017 “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which racist and fascist groups banded together to “save” a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. They carried torches and chanted “Jews will not replace us.” The next day, James Fields, Jr., a Nazi who had been marching with members of Vanguard America led by Thomas Rousseau, drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist counterprotesters, murdering Heather Hayer and injuring 31 others.¹ In the aftermath of that deadly provocation, Vanguard America split and Rousseau renamed his wing “Patriot Front” to be less overtly Nazi in its symbolism and to promote their fascist white-supremacist ideology as “All-American.” The next year it busted up an “Occupy ICE” encampment in San Antonio, Texas.

Patriot Front has focused on building its “brand” and recruiting with stickers and banner drops. During the 2020 summer of protests after the police murder of George Floyd, Patriot Front defaced and destroyed dozens of anti-racist murals. In Boston on July 4th weekend 2022, Rousseau and 100 PF members viciously beat a black musician and activist, Charles Murrell III, who had tried to film a march by the masked provocateurs. Earlier, on 12 June 2022, 31 PF members were arrested as they traveled in the back of a U-Haul truck to stage a provocation at a Pride event near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Although they were arrested before they could go into action, a compliant judge dropped the charges. Over the last few years, Patriot Front has harassed and attacked many gay pride and trans rights events around the country, and marched in the anti-abortion “March for Life” rallies in D.C. and elsewhere.

While Patriot Front portrays its provocations as First Amendment-protected speech, in fact they are intended to intimidate and (as in Boston) have included violent attacks. These fascists are a threat to immigrants, women, gay, lesbian and trans people, to leftists and all defenders of democratic rights. They clearly have the backing of Trump (recall his remarks at the time of the 2017 Charlottesville fascist rally that “there were some very fine people” among the crowd of white supremacists). They must be stopped by workers action.

Two months earlier, on 4 June 2017, there was a mobilization of some 300 unionists and supporters to stop a fascist provocation in Portland, Oregon. The action was initiated by comrades of Class Struggle Workers – Portland (CSWP), which works fraternally with the Internationalist Group. As we wrote at the time:

“It is urgently necessary to mobilize labor/black/immigrant power, in alliance with all those targeted by racist and fascist terror, to smash the fascist provocations. Crucial to this is the disciplined, organized preparation of workers defense guards based on the power of the labor movement and the multiracial working class that makes everything run and can bring everything to a stop in this country.”

–“Portland Labor Mobilizes to Stop Fascist Provocation,” The Internationalist No. 48, May-June 2017

The Portland anti-fascist mobilization was the result of CSWP activists’ work, starting immediately after Trump’s November 2017 election. This resulted in seven area unions passing coordinated resolutions calling for “mobilizing against the clear and present danger that the provocations of racist and fascist organizations pose to us all.”

Then, days after the Charlottesville racist/antisemitic murder rally, an attempt by the fascist Patriot Prayer outfit to stage a deadly provocation in the San Francisco Bay Area was thwarted by the action of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 to shut down the port of Oakland and march to the rally site (see “Fascists Forced to Flee San Francisco – A Significant Victory,” The Internationalist No. 49, September-October 2017).

Now as the federal government ratchets up its attacks on immigrants and other vulnerable sectors, as well as against leftists and unions, it is going after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), with criminal charges of fraud and conspiracy, for having paid some informants in fascist outfits to obtain information on threats by these paramilitary organizations. Calling the liberal SPLC “anti-Christian,” Trump ludicrously claimed in a 60 Minutes (26 April) interview that the Charlottesville Nazi rally was “all funded” by the SPLC “to make me look bad” and get the Democrats elected in 2020. As the MAGA gang whitewashes U.S. history, wiping out references to the oppression of black and other non-white people from textbooks, museums and parks, they promote fascists like Patriot Front and try to shut down those who oppose this murderous scum.

The Internation­alist Group says: Hands off the SPLC! Down with the witch hunts against leftists and other anti-fascists! Mobilize labor/black/immigrant power to stop fascist provocations!  ■

To contact the Internationalist Group and the League for the Fourth International, send e-mail to: internationalistgroup@msn.com

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