EmanuelaBrolandi posted:what can leftists learn from far right militias in bumfuck midwest/pnw would be a more interesting thread
Perhaps it's not such a bad idea. So, to find out I decided to share a little investigation into one of our local grassroots far right groups.
Let me know if this is interesting, and if so then it will probably be interesting to other posters how your local fascists are organizing too. So do a little research and post it here! Perhaps some patterns emerge, maybe we learn something.
Hogar Social Madrid ("Madrid Social Home") begun in August 2014 in Madrid, Spain. It was initially formed as part of an occupation / squatting of abandoned offices in Tetuan, one of the neighborhoods of the city centre with the highest population of immigrants.
The office buildings were used to provide social housing for local (Spanish) homeless people. There were clashes between HSM and local leftists (the majority in the area), which eventually resulted in the police intervening and beating and evicting HSM. This emboldened them and they continue their work actively across several districts of the city of Madrid.
Ideology
HSM originally begun with the name Hogar Social Ramiro Ledesma, in homage to the national-syndicalist ideologue who was instrumental in nurturing the violent militia strategy particular to Spain in the 1930's.
Ramiro Ledesma posted:Long live the new world of the twentieth century!
Long live fascist Italy!
Long live Soviet Russia!
Long live Hitler's Germany!
Long live the Spain that we will create!
Down with bourgeois democracies and parliaments!
Soviet Russia? While it may seem jarring, Ledesma had some views which might not immediately jump to mind when you think "fascism". He wrote of himself, under pseudonym in 3rd person, that he was more comfortable with Garibaldi's redshirts than Mussolini’s blackshirts. He also worked (albeit unsuccessfully) to forge a tactical alliance with the CNT against marxism.
This ideological lineage can be perceived in some of the actions/statements of HSM, in addition to vestiges of Rexism and more contemporary ideas from Dominique Venner. There seems to be strong similarities between HSM and CasaPound in Italy and Golden Dawn in Greece.
Leadership
Their founder and public spokesperson is Melisa Domínguez Ruiz (known simply as Melisa D), a graduate in Social/Cultural Anthropology and Philosophy. She is 27 years old. Prior to HSM Melisa D's had some involvement in MSR (Movimiento Social Republicano).
Public records show she was arrested in 2009 for direct action protest against bullfighting. She also received a caution for assaulting a latinamerican woman.
Her only previous media appearance was during the 2009 trial of a young fascist member of the armed forces who was facing 26 years in prison for murdering an underage antifascist by stabbing him in the heart. She shouted "Free Josue!" and was punched in the head by a family member of the deceased.
Community Engagement
Ostensibly the reason they were founded was the housing struggle. They currently protect Spanish citizens that are facing evictions due to repossession/poverty through coordinated direct action (i.e. blocking access to police, landlords etc). They also continue in their effort to squat empty buildings and use them as social housing. This has lead to violent confrontation and arrests of their members.
HSM set up stands weekly to collect and distribute food donations to needy Spanish families in a number of neighborhoods.
Every week they also go out at night and distribute meals to the city's homeless Spanish nationals. These are livestreamed on Periscope.
Free self-defense classes are offered twice a week at their HQ for both men and women.
Other social events include public lectures/discussion, community meals (often vegan-friendly), televised football matches (lol at St James "Moor-killer" in the background) and field trips for children.
Public actions
They are very quick to organize public actions in protest over current events, such as TTIP and the recurrent cases of corruption of the incumbent PP government. Public protests are often peaceful in which they provoke other groups to violence and adopt a calm demeanor.
Their response to terrorist attacks in Europe has been successful in getting attention as they acted almost immediately after. Images below; flares/fire on the mosque in Madrid (the largest in mosque in Europe), flares/blocking traffic in central roundabout of Madrid, banners on government buildings.
The strong similarities between HSM and CasaPound in Italy and Golden Dawn in Greece has mean they have coordinated joint marches with them and AlternativEurope in Hungary in rememberance of Venner on the anniversary of his suicide.
Notable aspect of their media strategy; no swastikas. In fact Melisa D has a swastika tattoo on her ankle, but this is covered in every public action.
So, there's a starting point anyway. If this is interesting/useful let me know and I can answer questions/do more research/whatever. Post your own local fascists too.
Edited by Gssh ()
MarxUltor posted:Fighting for social housing, feeding the homeless, community engagement, apparently our far right militias need to learn from your far right militias. America clearly isn't great, we can't even do nazis as good as anyone else.
when I wrote the quote that Gssh quoted I was def thinking of the American far right militia type. In one of his letters to Angela Davis George Jackson expresses his shock at how Fred Hampton and others were killed and arrests 'allowed' to happen without violent resistance. He basically says, to paraphrase, "I've been to prison and come into face to face contact with the armed pig state and I don't see why you'd expect anything less. we're opposing armed fascists we should expect an extremely violent reaction and prepare accordingly" and I was kind of thinking along those lines but this is good.
unfortunately I think the 'left' has learned a lesson from the type of group from the OP in that that as MarxUltor sort of pointed out these people basically sound like a 'leftist' group in the U.S. (sad lolz)
Edited by EmanuelaBrolandi ()
Long live the new world of the twentieth century!
Long live fascist Italy!
Long live Soviet Russia!
Long live Hitler's Germany!
Long live the Spain that we will create!
Down with bourgeois democracies and parliaments!
hey are you guys fucking cool?
I wonder what is the Azov Battalion's position on queer theory and intersectionality?
Edited by COINTELBRO ()
COINTELBRO posted:The 21st century is weird because it's the first time there is a huge nazi revival everywhere without communists to counter it, only tepid social democrats and internet liberal discourse. Plus there's an actual huge war going on in Syria of almost world war proportions but leftists prefer focusing on trans bathrooms and burkinis.
I wonder what is the Azov Battalion's position on queer theory and intersectionality?
haha yes the problem with The Left is they give a shit about the oppression of minority groups in the west,
meanwhile there are actual communists and other leftists out there, including trans and muslim comrades, fighting nazis in the streets. but you wouldn't know it if you only concern yourself with your social media feeds or whatever. congrats on being the actual tepid internet liberal!
Horselord posted:tbh there is slightly a point there in that the original hitlers existed at the same time germany had the largest communist party in europe. wally mosely's brownshorts were up against the CPGB which was likewise massive. i don't see die linke putting together street fighting militias and patrolling the city in trucks any time soon
the point about the lack of significant communist parties/states at this point in time is well taken but conflating that lack with the observation about "trans bathrooms and burkinis" is reactionary nonsense.
Seriously, every successful modern anti-revisionist party (and some revisionist ones) have employed tactics similar to these in order to build a base of support in target areas, though obviously without the racism. The Black Panthers were famous for their Free Breakfast and Serve the People programs, but during the great depression the CPUSA (back when it was less awful) and the Communist Party of Canada did the same thing with their Unemployment Committees and Political Action Committees respectively
COINTELBRO posted:The 21st century is weird because it's the first time there is a huge nazi revival everywhere without communists to counter it, only tepid social democrats and internet liberal discourse. Plus there's an actual huge war going on in Syria of almost world war proportions but leftists prefer focusing on trans bathrooms and burkinis.
I wonder what is the Azov Battalion's position on queer theory and intersectionality?
intersectional religious / political movements are going to counter the nazi revival,
Islam->ISIS has a head start on this
I wanna help kick start the Christian-Communism brand
both sides will pincer attack the two faced beast that is New Fascism / PC Godless Liberalism, and then they will Face Off
i'm still reading myself but i promise not to drop any future history spoilers 
http://www.bibleprofessor.com/files/Isaiah.pdf
SparksBandung posted:The Black Panthers were famous for their Free Breakfast and Serve the People programs, but during the great depression the CPUSA (back when it was less awful) and the Communist Party of Canada did the same thing with their Unemployment Committees and Political Action Committees respectively
this is complete garbage
The Black Panther Party was annihilated by state violence and the CPUSA was never a threat to capitalism or the Amerikan state.
Horselord posted:tbh there is slightly a point there in that the original hitlers existed at the same time germany had the largest communist party in europe. wally mosely's brownshorts were up against the CPGB which was likewise massive. i don't see die linke putting together street fighting militias and patrolling the city in trucks any time soon
yeah how'd that work out lol
Edited by EmanuelaBrolandi ()
EmanuelaBrolandi posted:The Black Panther Party was annihilated by state violence and the CPUSA was never a threat to capitalism or the Amerikan state.
What's that Mao quote "it is right to be attacked by the enemy?" I hardly think that the collapse due to outside pressure invalidates my point, in fact given the BPP's widespread support and close ties with revolutionary Korea, China, Algeria, and others I'd say the success of their Serve the People programs were precisely why they were such a threat to the american government.
Besides if you want to really go back to the source, Serve the People comes from the successes of the Chinese revolution so...
my question is why you brought up the CPUSA and the CPC
chickeon posted:ifap that turdlord already
EmanuelaBrolandi posted:
EmanuelaBrolandi posted:yeah im aware of what the BPP was.
my question is why you brought up the CPUSA and the CPC
Because the Political Action Comittees are good examples we can learn from, that doesn't change the fact they became shit parties which tried to liquidate into the NDP and the Dems post-WW2
SparksBandung posted:Because the Political Action Comittees are good examples we can learn from
baahahahahaha ok buddy have a good night
The_Boourns_Identity posted:COINTELBRO posted:
The 21st century is weird because it's the first time there is a huge nazi revival everywhere without communists to counter it, only tepid social democrats and internet liberal discourse. Plus there's an actual huge war going on in Syria of almost world war proportions but leftists prefer focusing on trans bathrooms and burkinis.
I wonder what is the Azov Battalion's position on queer theory and intersectionality?
intersectional religious / political movements are going to counter the nazi revival,
Islam->ISIS has a head start on this
I wanna help kick start the Christian-Communism brand
both sides will pincer attack the two faced beast that is New Fascism / PC Godless Liberalism, and then they will Face Off
i'm still reading myself but i promise not to drop any future history spoilers
http://www.bibleprofessor.com/files/Isaiah.pdf
Nice to see we're taking notes from the revolutionary leadership of the KPRF and are appropriating Clash of Civilizations rhetoric
EmanuelaBrolandi posted:SparksBandung posted:Because the Political Action Comittees are good examples we can learn from
baahahahahaha ok buddy have a good night
you've been making shitty posts for like 5 years now. we need more sparksbandungs and less yous
babyhueypnewton posted:if what you got from settlers is that the CPUSA was always shit and white communists should just kill themselves then maybe that book is as toxic as people say it is
Just because E-Bro is making godawful posts right now doesn't mean you need to start shitting on Settlers
EmanuelaBrolandi posted:SparksBandung posted:The Black Panthers were famous for their Free Breakfast and Serve the People programs, but during the great depression the CPUSA (back when it was less awful) and the Communist Party of Canada did the same thing with their Unemployment Committees and Political Action Committees respectively
this is complete garbage
The Black Panther Party was annihilated by state violence and the CPUSA was never a threat to capitalism or the Amerikan state.
This is a really weird position to take. Sparks is correctly pointing to community work as a forgotten but successful organisation strategy - a rather obvious one when you think about it! You can mock "feeding people" if you like, as you did in another post, but the question is why poor working class and unemployed people should pay attention to anyone who talks about ending oppression without taking any practical steps with the masses as brothers and sisters. It's all very well to say the CPUSA was never a threat, but if you believe their depression era work was a joke, well, that's not really a materialist take! Just because the party quickly turned to shit doesn't meant they weren't onto something good there. Likewise the BPP - even you acknowledge it was the state's violent repression that was their downfall, are you really going to ridicule and dismiss the community work and mass organising that triggered that repression rather than appreciate and learn from what worked?
babyhueypnewton posted:if what you got from settlers is that the CPUSA was always shit and white communists should just kill themselves then maybe that book is as toxic as people say it is
i remember this time a guy parked at the intersection of hotep and jason unruhe told me that book proved that poor white people never existed in north america. i showed him a picture of 19th century honky child labourers and he accused me of turning the photo black and white to make them "racially ambiguous"
anyway since then i've been a scared to read settlers incase it turns me into a posadist fourth-worldist or something
Horselord posted:anyway since then i've been a scared to read settlers incase it turns me into a posadist fourth-worldist or something
I'm reading Settlers (although it's going embarrassingly slowly because I've mostly been trying to restrict myself to doing it while at work and I've actually been busy lately) but even just the first few chapters have really helped me gain some very solid and interesting perspectives and analysis.
It's even topical to the thread, because it's specifically helped me to much better understand the root causes of a lot of the white rage driving the nazi militia movement in particular, but also some other aspects of amerikan political culture that I hadn't quite put my finger on.
also to seriously address the thread, the answer, at least with regards to the amerikan 3%/Oafkeeper/Moron Label gangs, is absolutely fucking nothing. These guys are individually and collectively the most unimaginably stupid animals your grandmother doesn't have a recipe for. If you want to learn stuff from militants read Che and Mao and not a bunch of drooling halfwits that worship a crayon-marked up copy of the us constitution like a religious relic ffs.
MarxUltor posted:also to seriously address the thread, the answer, at least with regards to the amerikan 3%/Oafkeeper/Moron Label gangs, is absolutely fucking nothing. These guys are individually and collectively the most unimaginably stupid animals your grandmother doesn't have a recipe for. If you want to learn stuff from militants read Che and Mao and not a bunch of drooling halfwits that worship a crayon-marked up copy of the us constitution like a religious relic ffs.
the same is true of the Strayan far right scene, but the OP isn't about that. it's actually a really interesting insight into how the far right is mobilising so successfully in europe. keeping the swastikas under wraps is an obvious trick - even the dumbest white supremacists know certain things are "bad optics" - but the housing activism is smart and clearly effective. golden dawn's food drives are a similar example.
the point is not so much that there is anything novel here to be learned from the enemy, but that the less we are concerned with doing community work as part of organising, the more ground we cede to the right by default.
Petrol posted:the point is not so much that there is anything novel here to be learned from the enemy, but that the less we are concerned with doing community work as part of organising, the more ground we cede to the right by default.
I think a slightly different view, at least with regards to the toxic amerikan right, is that by failing to do community work the left fails to distinguish themselves from the right.
The last thing you need to worry about is the moron labels starting a free breakfast for school kids program. They actively harass groups trying to do community work.
http://www.rop.org/temperatures-are-rising/ is a great example. The 'mediation' threat is something new though and that is concerning, although it looks like they were just ignored, it's a very dangerous path to step down.
Also, ironically, the literal exact thing they accuse Muslims of doing with "sharia law" 