Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

ghostsinthemachine

(3,569 posts)
Mon Aug 28, 2017, 04:25 PM Aug 2017

Victory in Berkeley! (Nazis go home!)

From a friends FBpage.

Victory in Berkeley
I am very proud to be part of a community that mobilized an incredibly diverse 5,000 people yesterday (8/27) to demonstrate against white supremacy and genocide and to demand that there be no room for fascists in our community. Contrary to many establishment media reports, the day cannot accurately be described as a series of brawls between fascists and anarchists. On the contrary it was a day of spirited, militant and determined peaceful demonstrations, punctuated by a tiny number of direct confrontations with a handful of jeering fascists protected by the police and then chased away by the crowd.
Truthfully, the police were a bigger problem that the handful of right wingers who came to be Berkeley. The University of California Police Department reneged on its agreement to allow the Rally Against Hate to go forward on the grassy area on the west side of the campus. Overnight they surrounded the area with concrete barriers and demanded that anyone wishing to enter go through a single, narrow passageway and decreed that no backpacks would be allowed. Then, when we decided to rally on Oxford Street instead, a Berkeley Police lieutenant on a motorcycle showed up and threatened to arrest the driver of the flatbed truck we using as a stage for blocking the street - contradicting BPD's earlier agreement to facilitate the rally.
Fortunately - and I hate to admit this - the Oakland cops showed up and saved the day. Captain Holmgren and his crew blocked off Oxford so the rally of 2500-3000 could proceed in peace. Just after 12, the rally ended and most participants headed down Addison to MLK park, where the Berkeley police had set up barricades and check points.
Other groups mobilized elsewhere. On Hearst a coalition that included SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), the Anti Police Terror Project, the Catalyst Project, and many others rallied and then started marching toward MLK park. After a few blocks we were joined by about 100 antifa activists dressed in black to create an inspiring demonstration of unity and determination to make Berkeley and the entire East Bay a fascist-free zone.
Once at MLK park people prepared to defend themselves against the kind of attack that left at least seven people suffering from knife wounds in Sacramento last June. Instead, the handful of fascists stayed behind the police barriers, some literally kneeling at the cops' feet as they hurled racist jibes and gave the finger to the anti-fascist protestors. People became predictably angry. I wanted to dismember one of the junior Nazis myself.
The police finally made the smart decision to deescalate the confrontation and leave the park. The anti-fascists, black clad and many others, chased away the few fascists who were stupid enough to remain. Remarkably, and contrary to some of the media narratives, the fascists escaped with their lives and without serious injury.
The successful mobilization demonstrated that the East Bay community, like Boston, will not tolerate fascists and their advocacy of genocide in our community. We demand that local politicians follow our leadership and urge communities throughout the country to unite against the alt-right.
~ Dan Siegel

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Victory in Berkeley! (Nazis go home!) (Original Post) ghostsinthemachine Aug 2017 OP
Thank you for the correct details. Last night I saw the news in San Diego BigmanPigman Aug 2017 #1
I was getting live updates all day ghostsinthemachine Aug 2017 #2
2000-3000 & majority antifa? wow those are tall tales. smh lunasun Aug 2017 #3
Huh? ghostsinthemachine Aug 2017 #5
Another friend's report ghostsinthemachine Aug 2017 #4
Another report ghostsinthemachine Aug 2017 #6
Excellent post, great information. Thank you EOM The Mouth Aug 2017 #7

BigmanPigman

(51,432 posts)
1. Thank you for the correct details. Last night I saw the news in San Diego
Mon Aug 28, 2017, 04:42 PM
Aug 2017

and read the various newspaper reports and it was 100% different from what you described. The media reported that all of the violence was by antifa and they were the majority of the protesters. They also made it seem that the police were justified in their actions by protecting the Neo Nazis.

ghostsinthemachine

(3,569 posts)
4. Another friend's report
Mon Aug 28, 2017, 06:18 PM
Aug 2017

Anyone who was on the ground in Berkeley yesterday will tell you how beautiful a demonstration it was: thousands of people, old and young and in between, socialists, anarchists, liberals, unionists, brass bands, religious groups, students, you name it. There was tactical cooperation between very different groups. A large Antifa contingent played a vital role in defending the community from the 30 or so white supremacists who showed up armed and looking to fight. There were a handful of scuffles, and a few Nazi's got mildly beat up and removed from the park by Antifa folks. But the day was overwhelmingly celebratory and peaceful. The hundreds and hundreds of cops in all their military gear were totally useless, and they were forced to abandon their plans of restricting entrance to Civic Center park because there was just too many of us. There was no large scale violence whatsoever, which just shows what can happen when you kick the Nazi's out of town: shit tends to be a lot more peaceful. Weird, huh? What kept the peace was: 1.) masses of peacefully assembled people on the streets and 2.) a couple hundred Antifa who used a small amount of force to prevent any white nationalist violence. It was an absolute success, and today those of us who were there are talking about how beautiful it was to see a true diversity of tactics at work, and we're NOT arguing about whether it's ok to break windows. This feels like a huge step forward.

The media is apparently living in a completely alternative universe. Today all you see in the headlines is "Anarchists cause violence in Berkeley." It's frustrating I guess, but not surprising. Their narrative is so completely detached from what happened that one wonders if they wrote their story on Saturday. I guess they decided that it's not as exciting to print a story about diverse sections of the community (of which are anarchists are merely one, though sizable, element) coming together and working in solidarity across huge ideological and identity divides, and successfully driving out fascists from Berkeley using very limited physical violence, and leaving no shattered glass behind to whine about. But that's what happened, unequivocally. Please spread the word, if you were not present, so that people do not get misled by this. This weekend was a huge moment for the Bay, and was a perfect example of what we can accomplish when anti-fascists of all stripes put our heads and hearts together. - Carl

ghostsinthemachine

(3,569 posts)
6. Another report
Tue Aug 29, 2017, 01:26 AM
Aug 2017

I live in Berkeley. I work here. I've been covering Bay Area protests for almost 15 years. And it kills me to see how a lot of reporting on yesterday's protest came out. Here are some of the worst examples:

1. ---Accounts that counter-protesters "charged" or "routed" a right-wing protest.---

*THERE WAS NO RIGHT-WING PROTEST to "charge" or "rout." There was no stage. No speakers. No organized group of people. The convener of the right-wing protest had *cancelled* it two days prior in the face of massive counter-organizing, and enterprising reporting by student journalists (more on that below) showing she'd been selling weapons for her rally (kind of a liability issue for her). I was at the erstwhile protest venue around the fountain in MLK park all day long -- no group of people ever charged into it, because there was nothing happening to charge into.

*THE SKIRMISHES were on the edges of the massive anti-hate rally nearby. Basically, there were ~20 fringe-right figures who popped up (alone or in pairs, never as a pack) in various locations during the day. When they meandered around their erstwhile protest venue, they sometimes got shouted at, but never assaulted (that I saw) -- it was when *they* approached the anti-hate protest that they got chased off (and sometimes beaten).

*AT LEAST SOME FIGHTING WAS *INITIATED* BY THE RIGHT. Multiple witnesses (including Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer) saw one alt-righter hit the anti-hate crowd with a jet of pepper spray. Then, per Shane, some of them hit him and chased him off. The only thing that made it into the videos of the incident was the hitting and chasing, because people generally start their cameras *after* an inciting incident, not before. (Something to keep in mind if your reporting process consists of sitting at a desk and wrapping copy around bystanders' videos of fights.)

2. ---Characterizations that it was a "violent" protest---
There were thousands of peaceful people in the streets all day, and perhaps five brief skirmishes towards the end. Leading coverage with the transient skirmishing is just pandering to the public's appetite for spectacle -- not an honest characterization of what the day was like. Here are some other ways of thinking about the day:

*FOR PERSPECTIVE: There were thirteen arrests during the rally. The number of arrests during an average Raiders game is 17.8. (But we don't report sports events where incidental violence occurs as "violent sports events.&quot

*THE TREND WAS DOWN: there was *much* less violence than at previous right-wing demonstrations in Berkeley, even though there were far more anti-hate demonstrators than at any of them. (I haven't seen *anyone* report this as a trend story about decreased violence resulting from increased organizing.)

*THERE WAS EVERY REASON TO EXPECT MORE VIOLENCE. Amber Cummings, the *organizer* of the right-wing rally that didn't happen, is someone who's on video throwing punches at prior demonstrations. She used her Facebook account to *sell sticks and shields* for people coming to her rally. She was getting them autographed by Kyle Chapman, who's currently facing *felony* charges stemming from his assaults at prior demonstrations in Berkeley. (It took a *student* newspaper to dig that up by--you know--scrolling through Cummings' public Facebook posts.)
Remember: this is not some fringe participant, this is the *organizer* of the rally. That's what anti-hate organizers were primed for -- but I haven't seen that context in any coverage of the day's events.

3. ---Finally, a note for reporters on hostility toward cameras---

*I'VE SEEN A LOT OF REPORTERS indignantly go off on how Black Bloccers blocked or swatted at their cameras. I'm sorry that happened. I'm also not surprised, and don't consider it newsworthy. They've been doing it for as long as they've been around.

*YES, YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT to take pictures in public. That doesn't mean the people you're shooting are going to be cool with it -- particularly the ones who are afraid of being "doxxed" (identified by right-wing internet trolls who then post their personal information online to make them targets of violence and intimidation).

*THEY ALSO HAVE EVERY RIGHT to ask you to stop, or to obstruct your shot. A lot of them distrust the media in general. Unlike the alt-righters, they weren't there to get on TV -- they were there to stand up to fascists (or at least, people they perceived to be fascists -- I'm personally not sure how to taxonomize them).

*"BUT THE FIRST AMENDMENT <mumble> <mumble>" was the tenor of some comments I saw. A gentle reminder: the First Amendment protects
us from *government* censorship and repression--not from civilian protesters. There are only two things that protect you from getting a camera swatted out of your hands while photographing someone who doesn't want you to: assault statutes, and a good zoom lens.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Victory in Berkeley! (Naz...