Monthly Archives: August 2017

How activists should respond to the racist right: 2. shut them down (antifa) (?)

Standing up to a racist fascist movement when it is still small enough to start seems to make sense. Antifa is an umbrella term uniting people who commit to doing so aggressively, as (at right) in Berkeley in April. Of … Continue reading

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How activists should respond to the racist right: 1. nonviolent counterdemonstrations

Of course it’s heartening to see 40,000 explicitly anti-racist demonstrators turn out in Boston (August 20), dwarfing the assembly they were protesting against. Was it the best approach to countering white nationalist mobilization advancing in response to Trump adminstration policies … Continue reading

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How Trump encourages and provokes political violence

Donald Trump has done great damage to more than his presidency. With his remarks about the tragedy in Charlottesville, Trump dramatically increased the nourishment and encouragement he has been feeding the racist right. Activists respond to signals, and racist right … Continue reading

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Business defections, updated

Donald Trump’s advisory councils are no more. This doesn’t mean, of course, that Trump will no longer be taking advice; it’s not clear that he ever listened to these groups anyway. But, since the horrifying events in Charlottesville, and especially … Continue reading

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Varieties of disruption: business defections

Protest can exercise influence by disrupting the usual politics of the moment, and there are lots of ways to create disruptions, and different people have vastly different opportunities. Large demonstrations are one way to show strength, but you need to … Continue reading

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And the Confederate monuments?

About those statues? The Nazis and Klansmen and associated white racists said they were marching in Charlottesville to save the statue of General Robert E. Lee on horseback. Last year Charlottesville’s City Council voted to strike the statue and rename … Continue reading

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Why Charlottesville?

With the help of Donald Trump, a few hundred white nationalists captured national attention this weekend, eclipsing for the moment growing international dangers as well as the much larger sustained mobilization of the anti-Trump Resistance. Weapons, provocative symbols, counterprotest, and … Continue reading

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