Anti-Fascist Series #7: Don't Be Surprised

 It Was Predictable

Everything that happened in D.C. was predictable.  Someone in the Capitol Police allowed this to happen, something that the Left, BLM and Antifa and even CNN/MSNBC know.  The D.C. police and National Guard were also missing.  The head of the Capitol police or D.C. police would be fired immediately in a normal world. The Democrats should be worried that the armed force of the state disappeared on their day of days.  Check your back, Democrats.

One Metro D.C. cop claimed on FB that:  "...off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and ID cards as they attempted to overrun the building." There are reports that DHS provided no 'risk report' on the rally, while the Trumpist leadership of the military disarmed and stalled the Guard, making mobilization longer.

The second part of this is the constant naiveté shown by our  corporate media as to anything real beyond the Beltway.  They were all flabbergasted, when they should have known.  "It can't happen here" say these American exceptionalists.  These people are upper middle-class amateurs, an embarrassment to their profession.

The hysterical hypocrisy of the corporate media and the bourgeois politicians over this ‘insurrection,’ ‘terrorism’ and ‘coup’ is transparent however.  Most of the hundreds that pushed their way into the Capitol through a broken window and door were Proud Boys, 3%ers, Patriot Prayer or neo-fascist militia ‘incognito,’ as the head of the Proud Boys advised.  They were the hard core of Trump’s white supremacist, nationalist and neo-fascist base.

What obviously links them all is paranoid anti-communism and anti-socialism, while white supremacy plays a quieter role.  The Proud Boys are really the new Brown Shirts, based on small business attitudes, including some Latinos and African-Americans. This has been historically true of rightist street-fighters.

Might I remind the talking heads and U.S. politicians that they also have supported invasions of legislative buildings, not to mention dozens of coups.  We can cite 3 recent examples.

1.    The first is the support for Boris Yeltsin’s assault on the Russian parliament in 1993, which resulted in the killing and wounding of many Communist legislators.

2.    The second is the warm embrace of the Maidan coup in Ukraine in 2014, when hard-right demonstrators in the Right Sector laid siege to the parliament after days of street-fighting. Before that they had seized some government buildings.  This eventually resulted in the elected head of the Ukrainian government fleeing the country.

3.    The third is the assault on the Hong Kong legislative assembly in 2019 by pro-Western demonstrators, who took it over for a time.

There are no doubt other examples, including the recent violent attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government which never got beyond the beach.  Prior to this there was an attempted invasion of the legislature by Juan Guido.  All of these were approved by TV’s talking heads at CNN, MSNBC and FOX, along with the U.S. government.  Overthrowing governments opposed to the U.S. is second nature to the politicians in D.C.  The method is tactical but the hypocrisy is strategic. Far right mobs stormed Germany's Reichstag in 2020, Hungary's parliament building in 2006 and in the Netherlands, rightist farmers have invaded government offices for years. 

The second point is the careless and propagandistic use of words to describe what happened in D.C. by the media.  Even elements of the liberal-left wet the bed.  It was not an insurrection, a coup, a sacking or terrorism as those words are commonly used.  Nor is this "The People's House" for obvious reasons.  An actual insurrection involves lethal violence to take control of a country.  A coup is the sudden, violent taking of power, especially by the army.  Terrorism involves killing innocent civilians or government officials for political reasons.  Sacking involves significant destruction and many valuables stolen.  (From the Cambridge Dictionary.)

None of this happened.  The Trump woman killed was shot by the Capitol police or Secret Service.  While bombs and Molotovs were found, they were not used.  Some weapons were hidden, but not used.  There was fighting and injuries instead.  The other 3 'dead' Trumpers were heart attacks, strokes and being crushed.  Doors and windows were broken and some items stolen. Protesters left the Capitol and did not try to occupy it.  If they were really serious, they would have stayed. Some of their actions were even clownish - you might call this the "Selfie Putsch" or the "Social Media Putsch." Some were arrested and others ushered out of the Capitol grounds quite politely.  All of this is illegal but it does not rise to the level of counter-revolution - yet.  I might remind Leftists that destroying property or trespassing does not rise to the level of physical harm either.

All of these terms have been used or will be used against the real Left.  Behind these words will be actions.

What happened was the Rightists’ pushing, shoving and fighting moved into the Capitol to delay a legal vote for president.  It might accurately be called a ultra-rightist political riot.  They succeeded.  It scared the hell out of a bunch of legislators who maybe needed a bit of a wake-up call.  This was a mass anti-democratic act to stop the certification of Joe Biden, part and parcel of the voter suppression and violent street fighting the white nationalist Right and the Republican Party have acted on for years, now taken to a logical conclusion.  It is no accident that the Confederate flag was carried too.  Lee tried to occupy Washington twice.  The actual Left was invisible on this day in D.C. though the lying fucks at FOX thought maybe ‘antifa’ was behind this.

I might remind people that in Wisconsin in 2011 the labor movement and left occupied the Wisconsin State House rotunda for days while anti-labor laws were being passed by the Republican Party.  That occupation was certainly much more polite that this.  The Republicans called that movement ‘terrorist’ too, just as they do any actions against police killings and brutality.  Even labor strikes have been called 'terrorism.'

If there is a RICO case coming out of this, the greedy mob boss in the White House is implicated.  In Latin America there is a term for a deposed leader who attempts to stay in power though nefarious methods - autogolpe (self-coup).  That is what this idiocy looks like, but its a faux coup.  Will Pence go along with the 25th Amendment call made by the big capitalists, the Association of Manufacturers?  Doubtful.  At this point the U.S. is a laughable and weakened hegemon.

ANTI-FASCIST FRONT

On January 20^th, the thugs will be back to try to wreck Biden’s inauguration and perhaps start shooting.  Beyond that is the real issue.

The socialist left in the U.S., along with BLM and Antifa elements, need to form a broad Anti-Fascist Front dedicated to defending communities and labor and repelling neo-fascist attempts to control the streets or destroy democratic functioning.  Unions would be invited as well. Whether the leaders of these organizations or tendencies can work with each other is debatable, but I think they have to.  If they don’t, one day they will be forced to.  A Front would rely on all reasonable and defensible tactics, with the broad goal of mobilizing thousands and tens of thousands of proletarians.  Ultimately unions would be invited.  Certainly the work in Portland is a good initial example.

The prescription of the 3^rd International for an Anti-Fascist Front came in 1923 after the rise of Mussolini.  We certainly are not there yet, as the far right has overplayed their hand.  But in order not to get there, we have to act now.

P.S. - Later it was 'reported' that a police officer, Sicknick, died after injuries received in a fight with Trumpists.*  The death of a police officer, as part of the state apparatus, is the final straw for those who control the state apparatus.  Only a small silver of the capitalist class directly supports the neo-fascist right, but they are outweighed by the overwhelming majority of the class who do not see the need for fascism yet.  Efforts by the Joint Chiefs, the NAM, nearly every internet corporation and the courts have all stalled Trump. Which is why Trump read out a condemnation and recognition of Biden's win, written by lawyers who are trying to protect him from indictment.

Here is a Guardian article on a real coup attempt in Spain in 1981.For Spaniards who remember 1981, the storming of the Capitol looked eerily familiar | US Capitol breach | The Guardian

P.S. - CNN reported on 2/2 that Officer Sicknik did not have 'blunt force trauma' as reported by the NYT. No video of his 'injuries' has been recovered.  His death is still a mystery. 

P.P.S. - How high-up Trump officials in military and FBI hindered defense of the Capitol, from Alternet: https://www.alternet.org/2022/12/police-conspiracy/

Prior blog reviews on this issue, use blog search box, upper left:  Fascism Today; Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate; Against the Fascist Creep; Fighting Fascism (Zetkin); The Real Red Pill; No Fascist USA; The Ultra-Right; It Can’t Happen Here (Lewis); Anti-Fascism, Sports, Sobriety; The Coming Storm; A Fascist Edge; Clandestine Occupations; Charlottesville, Virginia; What is the Matter With the Rural U.S.?; Angry White Men.

Red Frog

January 7, 2021