Archive for category: #Fascism #Elections #Bonapartism

In 2023, market fundamentalism is fostering authoritarianism—in the United States and abroad.

In the amicus brief he submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the state…

Welcome fellow antifascists!

Since our last column, much has happened. After Elon Musk took over Twitter and quickly moved to align with the far-Right by removing anarchist and antifascist accounts, we wanted to bring back this column and use it as a vehicle to promote antifascist theory, action, and research.

Today there’s much to celebrate – a new wave of antifascist action and community self-defense is kicking off all around us. Antifascists, two years after the coming to power of Biden, have continued to build coalitions and relationships within our communities while working to increase our collective capacity to take on growing far-Right forces – which have only become more emboldened following the attempted coup in Washington DC.

Patriot Front has recently been active in the Atlanta metro area: here’s a sticker removal photo from Stone Mountain village. Thanks to the local community for all the tips we get on their activity. Keep vigilant and try to get them on camera. pic.twitter.com/iYNa9w9ebV

— ATL Antifascists (kolektiva.social/@AtlantaAntifa) (@afainatl) January 16, 2023

This week’s column will include a look at some of the newest neo-fascist, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi formations that have emerged out of the changing terrain that is the post J6 landscape. We also present a roundup of recent antifascist action across the so-called US, and a look at the neo-Nazi network ‘White Lives Matter,’ which has called for another round of pathetic monthly events.

We hope this column continues to be a space for sharing information, news, action, and theory – so with that in mind, let’s dive right in!

New Fascist and White Supremacist Formations Emerge Amid Ongoing Far-Right Wave of Attacks on the LGBTQ+ Community

The wave of threats, deadly attacks, and harassment that began last year against the LGBTQ+ community, Pride celebrations, and drag events has only continued into the new year. With it, we are seeing new far-Right, neo-Nazi, neo-fascist, and white supremacist groups emerge.

Some of these groups seem to be splits from Patriot Front, a neo-Nazi formation that attempted to re-brand itself after one of its associates murdered an antifascist counter-protester at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Recently, Patriot Front has been hit with a series of lawsuits, doxxes, and communication leaks, weakening the organization.

Other formations seem to have formed simply within the absence of existing groups, or amidst the breakdown and disunity currently found in associations like the Proud Boys. Others seem to be forming because they see an opportunity to take part in ongoing far-Right rallies and demonstrations.

It’s important that antifascists understand these new formations and mobilize quickly to take action, map their social networks, and act to defend their communities.

Rose City Nationalists throw up Hitler salutes.

• Rose City Nationalists: Based in the Pacific Northwest, as Rose City Antifa wrote, this neo-Nazi group was founded by “Gaston, Oregon resident Casey Knuteson,” a former Proud Boy and member of Patriot Front. Like Patriot Front, the group has a dress code of khaki pants and black hiking wear and has taken part in White Lives Matter “days of action” and far-Right protests against drag events. In Eugene, Oregon in October, members of the group threw up Nazi salutes at an anti-drag rally, only to later run to their cars from a much larger antifascist crowd.

State Representative Anthony Sabatini speaking at American Virtue conference in 2022.

• American Virtue/American Populist Union: The Groyper alternative for when Nick Fuentes becomes just too cringe. According to Salon, the group “closely mimics Fuentes’ movement and counts many groypers among its ranks. [John] Doyle has headlined multiple APU events and served as [the] figurehead for the movement.” In the spring of 2022, Arizona Republican Paul Gosar denied that he would be speaking at an APU event, after being listed on its website. Soon after, the group re-branded as “American Virtue,” and has had Florida State Representative Anthony Sabatini speak at its conference. As Political Research Associates wrote, while its leaders have “close ties to alt-right figures such as Richard Spencer, Identity Evropa, and the 2017 Unite the Right rally, as well as to Fuentes and the groypers,” they have also attempted to clean up their image and firmly position themselves as part of the mainstream GOP.

“NorCal Active Club” post on Telegram.

• Active Club Network: Out of the ashes from groups like the Rise Above Movement (RAM), the Active Club Network is an attempt to merge neo-Nazi politics with MMA style training and Patriot Front styled ‘activism.’ The network is active on Telegram with groups across dozens of states. They have strong cross over with White Lives Matter chapters and established groups like Patriot Front.

Neo-Nazi throws up a Hitler salute at a anti-drag rally organized by Kelly Neidert.

• Protect Texas Kids: Led by self-described “Christian fascist” Kelly Neidert, Protect Texas Kids is a pan-far-Right formation and non-profit that has ties to both established GOP circles, Christian Nationalist groups, and neo-fascist/white supremacist organizations. While in college in Texas, Kelly and her twin brother Jake, formed alliances with groups like the Proud Boys and also reportedly worked with the group’s former white nationalist lawyer, Jason Van Dyke, famous for attempting to join the neo-Nazi terrorist group, the Base. Featured on Fox News and other conservative outlets, Neidert gained wide spread media attention for calling for people who attend Pride events to be “rounded up” and has been documented repeatedly working alongside anti-Semites, neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, and neo-fascist groups.

These are the people in Neidert’s coalition. pic.twitter.com/wVx2u6tctN

— Candice Bernd (@CandiceBernd) December 18, 2022

• Aryan Freedom Network: An outgrowth of a neo-Nazi version of Christianity called Christian Identity and various KKK formations, the Aryan Freedom Network is a Texas based neo-Nazi group that openly embraces flying swastika flags and throwing up Hitler salutes at public demonstrations. They’ve become a regular at rallies organized by Kelly Neidert and Protect Texas Kids, rallying alongside a variety of other neo-fascist and white supremacist groups. The group is led by Dalton Henry Stout and his father, George Bois Stout, who live in De Kalb, Texas, north of Dallas. The Aryan Freedom Network has also recently been in the news, after it attempted to sue veteran and antifascist researcher Kristofer Goldsmith, who exposed the meeting place for the group’s recent conference – which was also attended by Jason Van Dyke.

American Nationalist Initiative (ANI) poster promoting mutual aid programs. Even goes to far as to use, “We keep us safe,” a slogan from the George Floyd rebellion.

• American Nationalist Initiative (ANI): In what appears to be another re-branding of Patriot Front, with colors, rhetoric and aesthetics that come across as a more edgy Identity Evropa, this group continues use of PF’s fasces symbol while also attempting to recuperate autonomous, anarchist, and left-wing mutual aid projects. Like the Proud Boys, the group claims to be open to men of all races, yet also praises neo-Nazi leaders like Oswald Mosley and clearly promotes a neo-fascist vision of the US. This group has shown up in Texas at various anti-drag events along with other neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, but claims to have chapters in dozens of US cities.

Symbol of the New Columbia Movement, a fascist Catholic organization modeled around groups like Identity Evropa and Patriot Front.

• The New Columbia Movement: Think Identity Evropa energy mixed with fascist-Catholic rhetoric. While promoting an authoritarian set of politics, like the ANI, they claim to not bar non-white “fellow soldiers for Christ.” As Steve Monacelli wrote, the group embraces a form of
  
  “Carlism, a semi-fascist Catholic pro-monarchist ideology, [that] emerged in 1800s Spain and played a part in Franco’s brutal regime.” The group has appeared at numerous anti-LGBTQ+ rallies in Texas alongside Kelly Neidert and a variety of neo-fascist and white supremacist groups.

A drag friendly drag show in Lakeland, Florida was surrounded by nazis calling for the death of the “pedophiles” inside. Cops surrounded the place and sat in there cars and did nothing. NatSoc Florida was responsible for this. https://t.co/dyaPsQS5wA pic.twitter.com/09MkosPAHG

— Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) December 4, 2022

• NatSoc Florida: A neo-Nazi group that grabbed headlines when they rallied in support of DeSantis at a Turning Point USA event in Orlando and against a drag event in Lakeland, Florida. According to Miami Against Fascism, “Josh Nunes of Jacksonville, FL leads one of these cells known as NatSoc Florida.” The group works closely with members of the Goyim Defense League (GDL).

Neo-Nazi Jon Minadeo, Jr. fist bumps with a police officer in Austin, Texas after being stopped for dropping an anti-Semitic banner outside of a Jewish neighborhood.

• Goyim Defense League (GDL): Led by Jon Minadeo Jr., who recently moved from the bay area to Florida after his house was vandalized, the GDL is known for its neo-Nazi ideology and harassment of Jewish communities across the US with banner drops and flyering campaigns. Known for heavily documenting their actions on social media, the group also works closely with a wide variety of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.

Hi Robert Bowen Wheldon aka R-Dub – Admin of WLM California- from San Diego, CA!
DOB: 08-03-1990

See below.

Repeat after me: “#FuckCrew562 #FuckLegionXIV #FuckProudBoys #FuckNazis”

Dossier: https://t.co/X5DzgWUrbe https://t.co/kvyQnIwut1 pic.twitter.com/q9kTN8bnmu

— Karma🏴 is a Mirror™️ (@KarmaOneSixOne) April 23, 2022

• White Lives Matter: A loose network of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Proud Boys that carries out monthly “days of action” which includes banner drops, flyering and sticker campaigns, and at times, flash (unannounced) rallies in various cities. While generally never drawing more than a dozen or more, WLM has attempted to bring together older, more experienced neo-Nazis from a variety of groups and organizations, with many newer activists from online spaces. While they have faced ongoing community opposition and push back from antifascists, the group has continued to carry out unannounced actions in a variety of cities, monthly.

NSC-131 leader Chris Hood pic.twitter.com/sj0CUcFEQL

— New England Nazi Watch (@nenaziwatch) December 18, 2022

• Nationalist Social Club-131 (NSC-131): Based in the New England and Massachusetts area, NSC-131 includes ex-members of Patriot Front and in many ways, blends PF’s organizational blueprint with more confrontational street politics. The group is known for openly flying swastika flags and throwing up Hitler salutes in public, but will also hand out flyers, put up graffiti, and hold demonstrations and flash rallies. The group is also known for attempting to hold protests against anarchist and left-wing events and spaces. It is led by long-time white supremacist organizer Chris Hood and is capable of mobilizing upwards of several dozen members. In the spring of 2022 the group grabbed headlines after the lead singer of the punk band the Dropkick Murphy’s called the group out on social media for using the band’s song in a promotional video. The racists never materialized for the potential brawl. Ironically, despite attempting to label all LBGTQ+ people as “groomers,” the group includes a former member that is doing jail time for child pornography and solicitation.

Taking a step back and looking at these new formations, we see trends developing. While some of these groups claim they do not bar members based on race, they are still more than willing to work directly with open white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and as fascists, see themselves as all working towards common goals. Far-Right currents such as opposition to drag and Pride events provide a common ground for potential unity, as Trump supporters stand side-by-side Hitler saluting national-socialists. Organizers like Kelly Neidert are fine with rallying with neo-Nazis, as long as they bring out bodies and potential muscle. Just last month, it was even made public that Kelly’s brother Jake, is now working as the legislative director for Republican state Representative Tony Tinderholt of Texas.

Representative Tony Tinderholt’s decision to hire Jake Neidert comes amid a wave of threats against the LGBTQ+ community in Texas and across the country. https://t.co/H4KaKjlzN1

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) December 17, 2022

Antifascists must work to continue to expose the high-degree of cross over between these groups and the Republican party; shining light on how GOP-linked organizers are creating safe spaces for fascist and far-Right nationalist coalitions to grow.

We also must keep in mind that many of these groups are attempting to build organizations that aren’t defined explicitly by racial politics – and instead are using language based around everything from religion to American nationalism and economic populism. Some groups like the ANI are even recuperating anarchist strategies like mutual aid organizing.

The good news is that antifascist groups and coalitions are putting in the hard work of building relationships and fighting to mobilize big numbers against these groups. But between protests and demonstrations, we also have to be doing the work of educating our communities and explaining to the broader public the danger that these groups pose and the fascist politics they are promoting, as new organizations attempt to rebrand.

One of the best chants we’ve ever heard

“Follow your Leader, Bang Bang Bang” pic.twitter.com/oXh6h4cQ9P

— Elm Fork JBGC (@elmforkJBGC) January 15, 2023

Just as the Alt-Right faded into the background by the middle of the Trump presidency, so to are we seeing the post-J6 formations come apart and form new groups and networks while experimenting with different strategies and tactics.

The challenge ahead remains to build a broad antifascist movement that can push back against these fascist forces, splitting them off from their bases of support and exposing their links with established power structures, while also building a counter-movement that speaks to the struggles of poor and working people’s lived realities; promoting autonomy, self-defense, mutual aid, direct action, and class conflict in the face of whites supremacy, authoritarianism, conspiracy theories, and fascist violence.

Roundup of Antifascist Resistance

Vancouver, BC: Over 500 people mobilized to oppose a few dozen bigots protesting a drag-story event at a library in Vancouver.

Coquitlam. A drag performer is reading a story to children inside the library. The man with the megaphone is protesting the reading – he’s confronted by supporters. pic.twitter.com/4nCxxcemF1

— St John Alexander (@ctv_stjohn) January 14, 2023

Dallas, TX: Around 50 antifascists and community members mobilized to protect a drag event against a collection of far-Right and white supremacist counter-protesters, including members of the American Nationalist Initiative and New Columbia Movement.

Pictures from the Dallas, TX defense activities today. Stolen from fash and made shareable here.

CC: @elmforkJBGC pic.twitter.com/aRjQWpcgZA

— pridewasariot.sac (@pridewasariot_) January 15, 2023

Fall River, MA: Antifascist crews, socialist groups, John Brown Gun Club chapters, and community organizations mobilized several hundred people in support of drag-story hour that in the past had been targeted by neo-Nazis. While the white supremacists were no shows (choosing instead to mobilize in Taunton, several minutes away), a handful of far-Right protesters did materialize.

Baltimore, MD: Supporters rallied outside of a library during a drag-story hour, facing off with umbrellas and flags against protesters.

Some favorite from today’s protest/counter-protest of Saturday’s Drag Story Hour at the library in Canton. pic.twitter.com/fYAqWtKnoi

— Nathan Aaron (@punkinxspice) January 15, 2023

Redlands, CA: Local antifascists and community members held it down at a drag story hour event, despite attempts by the Proud Boys to harass the event.

I’m spite of all the chud activity here in Redlands. SRS went to drag story hour in Riverside and it was so cute and fun. pic.twitter.com/D5iqY4QRt9

— Saferedlandsschools (@SafeRedlandsk12) January 15, 2023

New York City, NY: Hundreds of people turned out to defend a drag story event from Proud Boys and neo-Nazis. Clinic defenders have also continued to mobilize in defense of the local Planned Parenthood, facing down police and far-Right protesters.

NEW YORK CITY LOVES DRAG STORY HOUR!!

Today, hundreds of New Yorkers showed up at the Jackson Heights Library in Queens for a joyous community defense to protect Drag Story Hour from the far right.

⬇️THREAD⬇️ pic.twitter.com/PPruSqMuoF

— United Against Racism and Fascism NYC (@UARFNYC) December 30, 2022

San Diego, CA: Church hosting far-Right grifter Sean Feucht was covered in antifascist and pro-LGBTQ+ graffiti.

City View Church in #SanDiego, where far-right musicans & evangelist Sean Feucht plans to hold a #NewYearsEve event was vandalized last night with pro-LGBTQIA & anti-racist messages. Feucht, the real bigot, has repteaedly tagreted the #LGBTQIA community w/ marches and rallies. pic.twitter.com/sFLJH4rJDc

— Shawn Schwaller (@madprofes) December 31, 2022

White Lives Matter

White Lives Matter (WLM), a loose network of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Proud Boys, has again called for monthly demonstrations in 2023. This activity generally takes the form of banner drops, flash demonstrations, and flyering actions. This month, WLM actions popped up in a small smattering of cities, including in Idaho, Toronto, and in Boca Raton, FL, where neo-Nazis in the Goyim Defense League reportedly flyered. The group has been particularly active in this region and the group’s leader, Jon Minadeo Jr., also recently announced that he was moving from the North Bay Area of California to Florida, after he was doxxed and his house was vandalized.

Thank you to all the Conejos and Conejas who were out in the rain today, doing the work, watching over our community. This community rejects fascism. We keep us safe. pic.twitter.com/ZqpJctpvxZ

— Conejo Valley Antifascists (@CAntifascists) January 15, 2023

White Lives Matter participants were also confronted – both as large crowds mobilized to defend Drag Story Hour events and also in the streets. In Missoula, MT, neo-Nazis were pelted with eggs and in the Conejo Valley of Southern California, people again patrolled areas known for past neo-Nazi activity.

Missoula comes out for community defense! https://t.co/vmrcoRxTYt

— try anywhere else (@AntifaWhisperer) January 15, 2023

Until next time, see you in the streets!

photo: Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club

It was once thought that anti-Semitism was literally dying out of the country but it’s having a resurgence instead, The Washington Post reported in its article on the survey.

The survey shows “antisemitism in its classical fascist form is emerging again in American society, where Jews are too secretive and powerful, working against interests of others, not sharing values, exploiting — the classic conspiratorial tropes,” Matt Williams, vice president of the ADL’s year-old Center for Antisemitism Research, told The Washington Post.

The ADL survey asked more than 4,000 individuals to rate the truthfulness of 14 statements describing different traditional anti-Jewish tropes. They included such statements as Jews “have too much power in the business world” (26% rated that mostly or somewhat true); are “so shrewd that other people do not have a fair chance at competition (24%); and “are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want” (20%).

I would argue that the government of Israel is part of the problem. From the ADL’s summary:

read more

Márquez said her security team found a highly destructive explosive device near her family home during a security check before her visit. Peoples Dispatch reports.

The post Another Assassination Attempt Against Colombian Vice President Francia Márquez appeared first on Toward Freedom.

On January 8, far-right supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the seat of Brazil’s government in a scene reminiscent of the US Capitol riot. But President Lula, unlike the US government, is swiftly cracking down on the perpetrators.

Security forces arrest supporters of Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília on January 8, 2023. (Ton Molina / AFP via Getty Images)

On Sunday, January 8, a rabid crowd in green and yellow invaded the Plaza of the Three Branches in Brasília, the seat of the federal government of Brazil. The group was comprised of supporters of Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, and carried symbols of his party and campaign into the headquarters of the country’s executive, legislative, and judicial governmental branches. Inside, they trashed the interiors while demanding that the military step in to depose President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The similarities between their actions and those of Donald Trump’s supporters on January 6, 2021, are inescapable, with both events involving motley crews of right-wing protesters storming federal buildings in a show of support for their losing candidate. But unlike US opponents of Trump, Brazil under President Lula is handling its response to the Plaza invasion very well so far.

The day’s protests began at the nearby army headquarters building, a site of near-continuous demonstrations since Bolsonaro’s loss to Lula as right-wing Brazilians seek to pressure the military to stage a coup on their behalf. The crowd then stormed through barricades and military police who were guarding the Plaza and made their way in through tear gas and pepper spray. After entering the Plaza, they stormed and vandalized the three buildings.

Investigations by the police and journalists into the Brasília Plaza invasion are still ongoing but currently show that the events of January 8 were planned starting last week on WhatsApp and Telegram group chats. This planning enabled the crowd to develop a plan of attack, avoid police intervention until the last minute, and coordinate travel to Brasília — most of the nearly four thousand people who invaded the Plaza arrived in over a hundred chartered buses from around the country, joining several hundred locals who had already been camped at the capitol.

The protesters’ apparent plan was to secure a military intervention in Brazilian politics, and they hoped that their actions would inspire this. (Some of the protesters carried banners reading “military intervention now.”) Early clashes with the police notwithstanding, in the first hours of the invasion it seemed that the police on the Plaza grounds might be sympathetic to the protesters. Video has surfaced of some military police chatting and taking selfies with protesters on the outskirts of the crowd, and some police seemed to act as a kind of escort to the Plaza. President Lula has criticized the Plaza security teams for their early inaction.

Lula Cracks Down

By early evening, however, things had changed. Lula signed off on federal security intervention in the Plaza invasion, putting the federal government in charge of the crackdown. Shortly thereafter, the military police moved in en masse and began to remove the protesters from the buildings, immediately detaining them and transporting them to centers where they are currently being processed and charged with crimes. As of today, over twelve hundred people are to be charged for invading the capitol and property destruction, with the government saying more arrests are likely.

Though the ill-prepared protesters were removed from the scene within a few hours of their invasion, right-wing activity continued on the streets of Brazil. In major cities such as São Paulo, right-wingers blockaded major streets. Protesters were taken to regular detention centers, which right-wing complainers have rather pathetically dubbed “Lulags,” a portmanteau of “gulag” and Lula. Alexandre de Moraes, leader of Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal, has responded that protesters shouldn’t have expected to be held at a “summer camp” after their arrest. Brazil has also begun investigating and prosecuting the bus and transport companies that arranged for protesters to be bused to the Plaza.

These protests follow months of right-wing backlash by the Right over Lula’s victory and two previous attempted coups by Bolsonaro. The first occurred on September 7, 2021, when Bolsonaro led a group of supporters to invade the Brazilian Supreme Tribunal to seek a change in electoral law that would have boosted his chances of winning the 2022 election. The second attempt occurred on Election Day, as the Highway Police blockaded neighborhoods and detained buses transporting Lula voters in an effort to rig a close election.

The key difference between those events and the capitol invasion this Sunday is that the two earlier efforts stood a chance of succeeding — either could conceivably have kept Bolsonaro in power. This weekend’s Plaza invasion, by comparison, was more an amateurish expression of resentment than a strategic move to change the course of Brazilian politics. Any success in toppling the Lula government would have relied on the cooperation of the security forces in Brasília itself, which Lula quickly federalized.

Bolsonaro Absent

The riot’s failure is in no small part due to Bolsonaro being absent on Sunday. Not only was he not with the protesters — he wasn’t even in the country. Bolsonaro had left Brazil on December 31 for Florida, skipping his successor’s inauguration and likely avoiding arrest, as no longer holding office means that he was vulnerable to prosecution for the first time in his adult life. (He is currently under federal investigation for conspiring with the police to shield his sons from prosecution and spreading lies about Brazil’s elections.)

So, while his overzealous supporters were plotting an attempt to reinstall him as president in absentia, Bolsonaro was enjoying an American vacation, wandering around a Publix grocery store and chowing down on KFC. On Sunday, the former president criticized the rioters for their “destruction and invasion of public buildings.”

The official response to this weekend’s outburst was quick and decisive. The near-unanimous reaction from the federal government recognized the danger posed by the protesters. Lula and his government have emphasized that they aren’t fighting these protesters because of their right-wing politics but because of their attempt to undermine democracy, drawing on the legacy of Brazil’s transition from its long military dictatorship and reminding everyone of the serious threat posed by anyone who advocates for an end to democratic rule. “The coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished,” Lula tweeted the night after the riots. “Tomorrow we resume work at the Planalto Palace. Democracy always. Goodnight.”

Lula has also been clear that, even though he wasn’t there and didn’t plan Sunday’s Plaza invasion, Bolsonaro was responsible for it. His years of fearmongering, his denial of the election’s results, and his open calls for an end to Brazilian democracy mean that he is culpable for the actions of his supporters. “There are several speeches by the former president of the republic encouraging this,” Lula said. “He encouraged encroachment on the Three Powers whenever he could. And this is also his responsibility and the parties that supported him.”

The Brazilian government is seeking to freeze Bolsonaro’s assets in connection with the attack.

Parallels

Coverage of the Plaza invasion in the United States and other countries’ press made the obvious comparisons between what happened in Brasília this weekend and the invasion of the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Both attacks featured the ragtag supporters of a recently ousted right-wing president claiming that they’d had an electoral victory stolen from them, and both involved the destruction of federal property. Both were planned in advance and widely condemned by the international community.

But these comparisons are somewhat shallow. The recent events in Brazil were more a manifestation of inchoate rage than a serious attempt to overthrow the government. The US Capitol invasion was timed and orchestrated to prevent Congress from recognizing Joe Biden’s victory, the last step before his inauguration on January 20. Targeting the Capitol at that moment, and specific politicians vital to the process like former vice president Mike Pence and anti-Trump Republican senator Mitt Romney, made it undeniable that protesters were attempting a coup, even if it was a pitiful attempt. On the other hand, Sunday’s events in Brazil occurred when no politicians were in the building. And while Trump was present in DC on January 6 urging his supporters on, Bolsonaro was thousands of miles away, taking selfies with his American fans.

The biggest difference, though, is in the Brazilian government’s response to the Plaza invasion. Whereas the Brazilian protesters have already been detained, with hundreds of arrests and more to come, in the United States, security forces escorted the rioters out of the building on January 6 and waited before beginning any formal prosecution of the Capitol invaders, even relying on online researchers to identify many of those responsible after allowing them to leave the scene of their crimes.

The Brazilian government isn’t limiting its efforts to the protesters who invaded the Plaza either. For example, a warrant has been issued for Anderson Torres, a former Bolsonaro official who was head of security for the Federal District of Brasília at the time of the Plaza invasion. By contrast, the US government has not addressed the egregious failures of security forces in its own Capitol riot.

This means that many observers have drawn exactly the wrong conclusion, saying that Brazil is a warning for the United States. It’s the opposite — Brazil is swiftly and seriously prosecuting its amateur coup-plotters. Brazil’s major cities saw major street protests condemning the Plaza invasion almost immediately. Meanwhile, the United States has dragged its feet, waiting months to investigate and years to prosecute and only now beginning to grapple with the connection between those who invaded the Capitol on January 6 and the politicians egging them on. The United States, not Brazil, is the cautionary tale of what can happen if a country fails to stand up to threats to democracy.

Lost in the rush of political and climate-related news in the closing weeks of 2022 was the small but intriguing story of a December 3rd armed attack on two power substations in Moore County, North Carolina. The installations were severely damaged by gunfire, leaving 45,000 residents to suffer through the winter cold without power, many of them for several days.

A little over two weeks after the attack, a large, swastika-bedecked banner sporting the slogan “BRING IT ALL DOWN” was hung from an overpass on US Route 1, a few minutes’ drive from the substations. The banner included an internet address leading to a photo of an electrical substation under the same “BRING IT ALL DOWN” slogan. That photo had been posted following an earlier substation attack in Maysville, North Carolina, 170 miles away.

In the months leading up to these incidents, far-right elements had shown growing interest in sabotaging the nation’s electrical grid. The US Department of Energy reports “hundreds of physical attacks to electrical systems”—with “the most in the last decade” occurring in 2022. Intentional damage, sabotage, or vandalism accounted for more than one out of four power disruptions across the country during that period. Annual numbers of such attacks have doubled over the past 10 years.

“The rise in attacks on electrical distribution systems has been striking.”

Because the North Carolina strikes caused an especially serious disruption, they broke into the national news cycle. These kinds of stories are typically covered only on the local 11 o’clock news, but this year’s surge in such incidents is coincident with, and potentially connected to, the politicization of energy and climate throughout extremist circles, so it’s a story we should all be keeping an eye on.

Coming off its recent losing streak in the federal courts, in Congress, and finally, at the polls, will the MAGA cult increasingly turn to violent local actions, including sustained assaults on the power grid? If so, what would be the potential consequences for the nation’s electricity supply—something that’s as essential to the maintenance of a high-tech industrial society as food and water, but is also a crucial factor in the global ecological emergency?

Lights out: A very American power struggle

The rise in attacks on electrical distribution systems has been striking. In September, intruders broke into and damaged six substations in Florida, triggering power outages. In early November, someone riddled two substations in Ohio’s Knox and Licking Counties with dozens of rounds from a .308 caliber rifle. The attack resulted in “a power outage giving students a three-day weekend,” according to local reports.

November also saw attacks on at least a half-dozen substations in Oregon and western Washington. According to an FBI memo, the mayhem included “setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits . . . , and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.” This Pacific Northwest spree resumed on Christmas Day, when vandals broke into and disabled four substations in the Tacoma, Washington, area, plunging 14,000 households into holiday darkness. Two men were arrested on New Year’s Eve and charged with the sabotage.

Then, on January 4, a man allegedly drove a vehicle through the fence surrounding a solar power plant near Las Vegas, parked the vehicle next to a large transformer, and set it on fire. The solar farm—home to 300,000 panels with enough capacity to supply 27,000 U.S. homes—was knocked out of service for at least a week. The man was apprehended and charged with terrorism and arson.

Suspects have not been identified in any of the late 2022 substation attacks other than the Tacoma and Las Vegas incidents. In a November 22 bulletin sent to private industry and obtained by CNN, the FBI warned of a rise in such attacks and stressed that their purpose could well be “to create civil disorder and inspire further violence.” Citing the report, CNN noted that “anti-government groups in the past two years began using online forums to urge followers to attack critical infrastructure, including the power grid. They have posted documents and even instructions outlining vulnerabilities and suggesting the use of high-powered rifles.”

Writing for Newsweek in late October 2022, Tom O’Connor and Naveed Jamali reported on a corporate intelligence security memo describing at least 15 incidents, going back more than a year, in which online extremists urged attacks on electrical substations, cell towers, and pipelines. O’Connor and Jamali examined documents that, they wrote, “could serve to help groups and individuals in carrying out such attacks, including maps, manuals, and instructions on the vulnerabilities of electricity infrastructure and readily accessible methods to disrupt their operation.”

Law enforcement officials are noting that the nation’s 55,000 substations—essentially huge transformers that reduce the voltage of electricity delivered by long-distance lines before it’s distributed to customers—make for juicy targets. Most substations are located in isolated spots that punctuate the nation’s 160,000 miles of high-voltage power lines—places where saboteurs can break into the station or fire a few rounds at the equipment and then make a getaway without being seen. Indeed, it appears that none of this fall’s perpetrators has been identified yet.

Domestic terrorists, officials told the news site Insider, may “feel that disrupting the electrical supply will disrupt the ability of government to operate. . . . And, secondly, by conducting attacks against the communications and electrical infrastructure, [that] it will actually accelerate the coming civil war that they anticipate, because it will disrupt the lives of so many people that they will lose faith in government.”

Writing less than two weeks before Election Day 2022, O’Connor and Jamali argued that these far-right terrorists’ focus on energy infrastructure was no coincidence: “Adding to the volatility of the situation, inflation and rising gas prices have proven top issues among voters, making energy sites an attractive target for groups and individuals seeking to cause mayhem at a politically sensitive time for the nation.”

Pro-white mixes with anti-green

Without knowing who’s responsible for these attacks, we can’t know for certain if the perpetrators’ goals are connected to energy and climate or just general disruption and chaos. My guess is that most of the actions so far have been, like the North Carolina attacks, more pro-white than anti-green. But we have also seen how, in their reactionary fervor, far-right movements can be fluid when it comes to the specific causes they ally themselves with.

Think of the Proud Boys, who are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy in federal court. They came to prominence because of their associations with Trumpism and their central role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, but they’ve since piggybacked on a broad array of cultural battles over Covid lockdowns, masks and vaccines, critical race theory, trans hate, and QAnon fever dreams.

“In their reactionary fervor, far-right movements can be fluid when it comes to the specific causes they ally themselves with.”

Now, in ginning up their followers over the supposed loss of their “freedoms,” far-right leaders increasingly cite climate and energy issues alongside their usual appeals to white patriarchy. Speaking in September to the ultra-right student-led movement Turning Point USA, radio host and provocateur Alex Jones (who did more to assemble and mobilize the January 6 mob than just about anyone with a last name other than Trump) was asked by TPUSA’s Charlie Kirk how the Green New Deal and “environmental fascism” connect to what the far right has come to call the “Great Reset”: the claim that a global liberal elite is plotting to control humanity. Jones responded, “If energy was a chess piece for the globalist game plan, on the board, it’s the queen.” That, he said, means, “if you control energy, you control populations, you can bring them to their knees.”

Ted MacDonald of Media Matters writes,

While conspiracy theories related to the Great Reset as a whole are not new, issues of climate denial associated with the Great Reset have been gaining momentum across right-wing media in recent months, fueled by the global energy crisis and a summer of climate-fueled weather disasters. . . . Notorious climate denier Marc Morano was pushing this idea as early as 2020, when he stated on the December 21 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight that the Biden administration will “go from COVID lockdowns to climate lockdowns.”

MacDonald quotes Carlson himself claiming, “Energy is civilization. . . . People don’t understand how threatening [Democrats’ climate policy] is and how close we are to being under the complete and total control of people who wish us ill.”

Rita Katz, the founder and executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, told the reporters O’Connor and Jamali, “Immediately after the reports about the [December 3] attacks, we at SITE saw such communities praise what happened in North Carolina and call for more, while sharing more directives about what to target and how to do so. Some have specifically suggested large cities,” where you-know-what kinds of communities live.

Simon Purdue, director of the Domestic Terrorism Threat Monitor, told O’Connor and Jamali, “The situation in Moore County offers only a glimpse into the chaos that attacks such as this can cause, and larger scale assaults could bring disruption on a statewide or even national level.” Purdue has seen “a steady slew of manifestos, social media posts, videos, and even instruction manuals on this kind of attack being produced by extremists over the past few years.”

Will a “green” electric grid be even more vulnerable?

Today’s electric grid is highly complex, aimed at rerouting power to fully align supply with demand at every location in the country, continuously. That mission includes instantaneously and precisely adjusting for every supply interruption, large or small. Coordinated attacks by people with a good understanding of how the grid works could potentially overwhelm the system, triggering cascades of blackouts over broad areas.

CNN intelligence analyst John Miller believes that right-wing extremist groups’ ultimate aim is to take out large swaths of the national power supply: “Their theory is that if you identify the key nodes and you knock out one and they divert power to the next one, and you knock out the next one and the next one, a domino effect can actually start to topple the national grid and plunge the nation into darkness and chaos.”

“To make matters worse, a future, much greener power grid may be even more vulnerable to widespread breakdowns.”

To make matters worse, a future, much greener power grid may be even more vulnerable to widespread breakdowns. Eliminating fossil fuels from the nation’s power supply will require the buildout of a vastly larger energy-delivery system. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a fully “decarbonized” electric grid would need to have two to three times the capacity of our current grid. It would also have to be even more comprehensively fine-tunable than today’s grid, to make a gazillion adjustments a minute, rerouting power across vast areas, from solar or wind farms that are at that moment enjoying plenty of sun or wind to areas where renewable power stations are not producing enough. And, as Politico observes,

the number of critical grid components vulnerable to attack will only grow as the U.S. expands the power grid over the coming decades and as more people and businesses buy electric vehicles. Wind and solar power plants in particular are often in remote areas where fewer grid protections may exist—and they offer more entry points for attack than a single power plant.

A less vulnerable power grid can be achieved, experts suggest, through fortification of power installations and armoring of all equipment that’s vulnerable to gunfire. Stepped-up surveillance is needed as well. But protecting 50,000 (or, in our more electrified future, perhaps 150,000) substations would be astronomically costly, and it still wouldn’t eliminate wider threats to the electrical system, much less our quests for ecological renewal and pluralistic democracy. Those carrying out such attacks, whoever they are, might simply move on to other targets in our technologically complex, increasingly fragile economy.

Having suffered serious setbacks in the political arena throughout last year, the MAGA cult may be embracing even more warmly the idea that political violence can be a more effective means of achieving the sinister goal that they are failing to reach through legal and political means: an authoritarian takeover of US society. Disinformation and violence failed to get them what they wanted on January 6, 2021, and they must not be allowed to prevail in 2023.

The original version of this article was published by City Lights Books as part of its ‘In Real Time’ series.

Carrying signs reading, “Together against fascism and apartheid” and “Democracy in danger,” thousands of Israelis on Saturday marched in protest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, which less than a week after being sworn in has already threatened to strip the country’s judiciary of power and announced punitive measures against Palestinian people and leaders.

According to Haaretz, about 20,000 people attended two different marches—one organized by the grassroots group Standing Together and calling for equality and partnership between Palestinians and Israelis, and another focusing on Netanyahu’s threats to the Israeli justice system.

The protests came days after Netanyahu’s new national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, angered Palestinians and the Israeli opposition by entering the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem, which was seen as a provocation and an escalation of Israel’s attacks on Palestine.

“Extremists are starting to deploy their forces and it’s not the majority,” a protester named Omer told France24 at a march in Tel Aviv.

u201cThousands of Israeli citizens marched in Tel Aviv today to protest Israel’s new extremist government (Photo credit: Yair Palti)u201d

— Ori Nir | u0627u0648u0631u064a u0646u064au0631 | u05d0u05d5u05b9u05e8u05d9 u05e0u05d9u05e8 (@Ori Nir | u0627u0648u0631u064a u0646u064au0631 | u05d0u05d5u05b9u05e8u05d9 u05e0u05d9u05e8)
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Netanyahu’s government, which has been called the most right-wing in Israel’s history, also announced that it would expand settlements in the occupied West Bank. The prime minister’s office indicated on Friday the punitive measures are being taken in retaliation for Palestinians’ call for the International Court of Justice to render a legal opinion on Israeli’s policies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Despite the opposition of Israel and the U.S., the United Nations General Assembly voted last week in favor of a resolution calling for an opinion.

One U.S.-based observer noted that language describing Israeli’s violent anti-Palestinian policies as “apartheid” was prevalent at Saturday’s demonstration. The term has long been rejected by supporters of Israel and used by human rights advocates and experts.

u201cWhat was surprisingu2014in a good wayu2014about the protest in Tel-Aviv was the amount of people who said the word #Apartheid to describe #Israel, and acknowledged the frightening place we are in in history, see photo:u201d

— Guy Ben-Aharon (@Guy Ben-Aharon)
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The protests were held days after Netanyahu’s newly appointed justice minister, Yariv Levin, announced reforms that would allow lawmakers to override Supreme Court decisions. Members of Netanyahu’s Cabinet have also made derogatory claims about LGBTQ+ people and reportedly plan to roll back laws allowing gay couples to adopt children.

“We can see right now many laws being advocated for against LGBTQ, against Palestinians, against larger minorities in Israel,” Rula Daood of Standing Together told ABC News. “We are here to say loud and clear that all of us, Arabs and Jews and different various communities inside of Israel, demand peace, equality, and justice.”

In addition to the expansion of illegal settlements, Netanyahu’s government announced last week that it would withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and use the funds to compensate the families of Israeli victims of the conflict and said on Sunday that it had revoked Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki’s travel permit.