Review: Never mind the Justice League, here’s ‘The Antifa Comic Book’
If you sometimes find yourself with twinges of hope even two years into the calamitous Trump presidency, the first page of The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements isn’t going to help you keep that mood. The section, which defines fascism, uses some descriptions that in the head of our orange-faced leader ring true. And while it too often seems like our president is a fascist, that doesn’t mean that every institution in the country has capitulated to his desires. A fascist leader does not a fascist state make, it turns out. At least for now.
But history is against that kind of outcome and Gord Hill, a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw nation in Western Canada, takes great measure to make that clear. All it takes is the right kind of pain and the right kind of rage and the right kind of paranoia to mobilize at just the right moment and soon enough, a leader will find plenty of forceful followers to make a fascist agenda the new normal for any country. Where’s the Justice League when you need them?
Well, it turns out they might be wearing black masks and gong under the name Antifa. They scare the hell out of conservatives and liberals clutch their pearls and say they go too far, but that’s what they said about Spider-Man, right? All it takes is one J. Jonah Jameson to get the propaganda going daily, and anyone with a backbone ready to stand up to fascism can be painted with a crooked brush.
And if you’ve read any of the DC comics in which Lex Luthor is the president of the United States, then you know that reality can reflect fiction in some alarming ways.
The original Antifa was an effort by the German Communist Party to push back the Nazis, but the more recent version appeared in Germany in the 1980s, the work of anarchists opposing an encroaching far-right movement. Well, the far right hasn’t gone away, and neither has Antifa. In America, most people encountered them for the first time during Occupy Wall Street, and they’ve not gone away since. But if we’re focused on who they are, we should be equally concerned with who they are against.
Hill traces that enemy starting with its rise under Mussolini in Italy including the appearance of the Arditi Del Popolo in 1921 who rose to oppose the fascists after two years of slumber on the left. It’s a meticulous, detail-filled, and thoughtful recounting of Italian history brought to life through Hill’s colorful artwork. An equally compelling history of the Nazis follows and includes those who fought against them long before World War 2, including the Red Front, the Edelweiss Pirates, and the White Rose, and those who appeared during the conflict, like the Polish and Yugoslavian Partisans.
Hill also recounts the circumstance of the Spanish Civil War, which in some ways provided a preamble of idealism to World War II, and the spreading of fascism as movements in England, including the National Front.
All this history, though, is pointed to one specific thing — now. Following the rise of European neo-Nazis in the 1990s and a British branch of Antifa to combat them on the ground, and with a segue into the German origins of the modern Antifa movement in general and a survey of the 21st Century fascist movements in places like France, Sweden, Italy, Greece, and other countries, it becomes obvious that the idea that fascism had been defeated more than half a century ago. It was a sickness that festered. Like the Black Death, it breaks out in deadly clusters. And sometimes, you’re not immediately clear its the same plague reappearing until it’s too late.
There’s a focused section at the end on neo-Nazi movements in the United States and Canada, tracing the recent enthusiasm directly to our current leadership, and Hill is unable to provide any clean ending for us. It’s an ongoing battle, they make plain, and this vigorous recounting of why does a great job of not only getting its message across but doing so in a way that far-left and radical comics often don’t achieve.
Rather than descending into rage-filled experimentation, a sober and organized narrative is combined with straightforward color work that bursts out of the panels with its energy and detail, especially when rendering the continual conflicts, from protests to street fights to war battles while still making them about the people in these situations
This is accessible radical history and, unfortunately, living history that is still necessary to attend to. Hill does an amazing job at giving you the information you need to combat the pandemic of modern Fascism, often marked by cheap red hats.
John Seven is a journalist and children’s book writer living in North Adams, Massachusetts. His books include ‘A Rule Is To Break: A Child’s Guide To Anarchy,’ ‘Happy Punks 1-2-3,’ ‘Frankie Liked To Sing,’ and others. Find out about all his things at johnseven.me.
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Antifa: Portland Police ‘Protect White Supremacy’ by Passing Intel to Patriot Prayer
A Portland police lieutenant gave the leader of a far-right streetfighting group tips about leftist demonstrators’ movements, newly released text messages and emails reveal.
The messages, first reported by Willamette Week, show police Lt. Jeff Niiya keeping in regular contact with Joey Gibson, leader of the violent far-right group Patriot Prayer. Police sometimes communicate with groups like Patriot Prayer that host regular demonstrations, but Niiya’s messages with Gibson suggest a friendly relationship. The lieutenant is seen passing Gibson information about leftist protests, and counseling Gibson on how to prevent one notoriously violent fighter’s arrest.
Olivia Smith, co-chair of Portland’s Democratic Socialists of America, called the messages “evidence” of a relationship leftists have long suspected between the Portland Police Bureau and Patriot Prayer.
“American police forces were founded to protect white supremacy and the ruling class that enforces it,” Smith told The Daily Beast. “This was sort of a given for us, but now we have actual concrete evidence supporting what we already know.”
Niiya appears to be a police liaison with Patriot Prayer, helping law enforcement monitor the group. Niiya also appeared to do favors for the far-right leader, who travels from Vancouver, Washington to host frequent rallies in Portland.
“BTW, make sure Tiny has his court stuff taken care of,” Niiya texted Gibson in December 2017, according to messages released by Portland police. “I was told on the radio at the Jamison Sq event he had a warrant. I told them we would not be arresting Tiny right now. So please be sure he’s good to go before coming down.”
Tusitala “Tiny” Toese is a Patriot Prayer associate, with ties to the Proud Boys, a similar far-right group that glorifies violence. Although both groups officially claim no ties to white supremacy, their events have become mingling grounds for neo-fascists who rail against immigrants, LGBT people, and the left. One former Patriot Prayer attendee went on to fatally stab two people in a racist 2017 attack in a Portland train. Toese has been arrested multiple times for disorderly conduct and harassment, and is accused of assaulting multiple, including a black teenager who shouted at Toese after he drove through Vancouver, Washington with a Confederate flag.
In other messages, Niiya told gave Gibson a warning that anti-fascists were moving his way during a rally. “Heads up just told 4-5 black Bloch [anti-fascists] heading your way,” Niiya texted in January 2018. “One carrying a flag. We will have officers nearby but you may want to think about moving soon if more come.”
And in another message, Niiya told Gibson that a rally by the leftist Queer Liberation Front “is small and we aren’t paying any attention to it. If you and the others go down there it will cause us to be around. I’d rather not and let everyone do their thing today.”
But Portland’s leftist activists say the messages are just confirmation of a friendly relationship they already suspected. Rose City Antifa and Portland’s DSA told The Daily Beast they keep their distance from law enforcement, in part because they suspected a relationship between police and Patriot Prayer. Both groups have attended counter-protests against Patriot Prayer.
“It would be putting ourselves in danger by communicating with them and giving them a heads-up on what we’re going to do, because you saw those texts,” Smith, the Portland DSA co-chair said. “They were like ‘antifa’s coming this way.’”
Portland’s left has accused police of targeting them during rallies. At an August 4 rally in Portland, police stood between a right-wing coalition and left-wing counter-protesters, ostensibly to keep the two sides separated. But police stood with their backs to Patriot Prayer, and their weapons facing the counter-protesters, ultimately showering the latter group with stun grenades, rubber bullets, and pepper spray. Multiple counter-protesters were badly injured, with one narrowly escaping death when a stun grenade punctured his bicycle helmet. In the ensuing confusion, Patriot Prayer and other right-wingers patrolled the streets, attacking opponents.
“We've witnessed the PPB's collaboration with Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups over the last couple years,” a Rose City Antifa spokesperson told The Daily Beast, “starting with the PPB providing free transportation at the tax-payers expense on April 29, 2017, and continuing through the police attack on activists that occurred on August 4, 2018, which then allowed Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys the opportunity to hunt and attack activists throughout downtown.”
After the texts between Niiya and Gibson became public, Portland DSA issued a call for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to resign his post as police commissioner. The group is calling for Jo Ann Hardesty, the first African-American woman elected to Portland’s city council, to take his place overseeing police.
“She ran on a platform of comprehensive police reform,” Smith said. “That is something Portlanders clearly wanted because she won in a sweeping victory. I think Ted Wheeler is clearly either not willing or not capable to make the changes that are needed.”
Hardesty condemned the messages in a Thursday statement, calling Patriot Prayer’s events “hate marches.”
“This story, like many that have come before it, simply confirms what many in the community have already known,” she wrote, “there are members of the Portland police force who work in collusion with right-wing extremists.”Wheeler called the communications between Niiya and Gibson “disturbing,” adding that “Incidents like this contribute to the distrust that so many community members have about the Portland police bureau.”
Portland police say they are launching an internal investigation into the messages.
“The Portland Police Bureau has strong organizational values that encompass integrity and accountability. We have also pledged transparency to our community," Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said in a statement. “I have directed an internal investigation to review the context of these communications and determine if any Bureau directives were violated. If anything is identified that is deemed outside of our values and directives, it will be addressed.”
Niiya’s apparent relationship with Patriot Prayer wasn’t making the city safer, Rose City Antifa said.
“The direct result of the Portland Police collaborating with Patriot Prayer and other far-right groups is that more of Portland's citizens end up injured, assaulted, threatened, and arrested,” the group said. “Meanwhile, those bigots who travel from across the country to declare open war against Portland's citizens are encouraged, protected, and supported.”
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