By Nathan Barton
In These Times (which I believe is a leftist webzine) has an exultant article by Peter Cole about how wonderful the most Tranzi of unions, the Dockworkers et al, just shut down “fascists” in California and were therefore going to teach the entire “labor movement” (itself just a subsidiary of the transnational progressive movement) how to do it.
Let me quote part (thanks to the folks at Freedom Net Daily): “What role should the labor movement play in beating back the resurgence of fascism? Resistance, while a powerful concept, is far too vague. Local 10, the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU, perhaps the most radical union in the United States) demonstrates what can be done. This past week, the San Francisco Bay Area–long a center of unionism, social justice movements and radicalism–took center stage. Patriot Prayer is a right-wing organization with a demonstrated history of inciting racist violence, most obviously in Portland, Ore., while ironically asserting peaceful intentions. The far-right group declared it would rally in San Francisco on Saturday. Local 10 took a lead role in organizing counter-protests that contributed to the San Francisco event being canceled the day ahead of its scheduled event. The union’s role in this wave of popular mobilizations demands consideration.”
Where to begin?
A two-year-old’s temper tantrum while refusing to take a nap is about the closest thing I can think of to compare to “Resistance” as practiced by these kinds of people.
I would be no more proud of the SF Bay Area’s being a center of unionism than I would be proud of it being a center of shanghaiing (along the infamous Barbary Coast) or the corruption of early 20th Century San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose. And of course, the area (Berkley, San Jose, Novato County, and Folsom Street and more) is filled with social justice warriors – those of thin skin and extreme egos. Radicals? Yes. The kind that gloried in helping massacre AmerInd in the 1800s, concentrating Asian Americans during WW2, and now, driving white students and professors off campuses.
Who are these right-wing/Alt-right enemies of humanity that the union defeated? I know nothing about “Patriot Prayer” except from their Facebook page and the huge number of stories on-line, most of which condemn them as “fascists” and white supremacists. (Which is rather odd, considering that the group’s leader is a mixed-race Amerasian – and photos of him seems to confirm that.)
The reference to Portland, Oregon seems to be a seriously-warped version of what really happened there, where this Patriot Prayer organization held a rally, only to be attacked by AntiFa “counter-protesters” who among other things went around slashing tires of people they thought were part of the rally. The “racist violence” seems to have been so-called “reverse racism.” Or at least that is the impression news at the time and a quick review today gives me. The AntiFa movement seems to believe that a perception of the threat of potential violence (even violence in self-defense) is an excuse and justification for launching significant levels of violence “to prevent” the possible perceived threat. Or maybe they just WANT to have violent confrontation.
So the violence against the group by AntiFa “counter-protesters” in Berkley (condemned, if you can believe it, by Nancy Pelosi) and the union’s action caused this evil organization to cancel first its protest at Crissy Field (an old Army airfield on the Presidio) and then its press conference at iconic Alamo Square Park. That is the “union victory” that the rest of the “anti-fascist movement” should imitate, according to this story. Indeed, at the Alamo Square Park, San Francisco cops mobilized massively against the “counter-protesters” who found nothing to protest but lots of ways to cause trouble and be violent. There is nothing like a mob that has no focus point.
I don’t see it as any sort of victory to be celebrated. Even by the Alt-left. Rather, I see it as something else: intimidation which succeeded in denying people their right to freely assemble and protest. Intimidation that will, ultimately, result in hotheads on both sides taking stupid actions that will lead to blood in the streets. That will ultimately result in the same sort of widespread violence that really hasn’t even begun – yet. That will resemble Weimar Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s, and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
I see that these so-called Antifa thugs as being exactly what they claim that they are against: socialist thugs that want to turn the Fifty States into a police state in which freedom – personal AND market freedoms – are banned. The only difference between them and what they claim Trump, and his supporters like Patriot Prayer, want is WHICH freedoms are to be prohibited. And obviously, who is on top of the pyramid.
The violence that they claim to be fighting, and in fact trigger, is one path to that goal.
Our first response should be, when possible, to step aside, to avoid them (which is what I think Patriot Prayer was doing). Unless there is more to gain from direct confrontation than to lose, it makes no sense to do so. I realize that is hard to do. But honestly, what do public protests and marches and rallies really accomplish?
If we must confront them (and ultimately, that will be necessary), we need to approach it with great care. We need to do nothing that would give credence to a claim that we initiated the violence. It is necessary to endure and accept without rebuttal insults and even minor injury: to go the second mile and turn the other cheek.
But at the same time, we MUST be prepared to defend ourselves and those with us, when the violence becomes harmful and deadly. As it will. Our defense must be appropriate, but it must be effective as well.
And no lover of liberty, no one who believes in and espouses a godly, moral, sane society, should ever depend on any level or element of government to defend us from the extremes, but especially not from the AntiFa and their ilk. The record of the last several weeks demonstrates that police will stand down – and the courts will not be neutral, much less friendly. Nor will civic administration fail to support the Antifa and other enemies of what is good.
Ultimately, liberty WILL win – sanity will return. The question is how many of us will be there to greet that new day.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Suppressing our liberties
By Nathan Barton
In These Times (which I believe is a leftist webzine) has an exultant article by Peter Cole about how wonderful the most Tranzi of unions, the Dockworkers et al, just shut down “fascists” in California and were therefore going to teach the entire “labor movement” (itself just a subsidiary of the transnational progressive movement) how to do it.
Let me quote part (thanks to the folks at Freedom Net Daily): “What role should the labor movement play in beating back the resurgence of fascism? Resistance, while a powerful concept, is far too vague. Local 10, the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU, perhaps the most radical union in the United States) demonstrates what can be done. This past week, the San Francisco Bay Area–long a center of unionism, social justice movements and radicalism–took center stage. Patriot Prayer is a right-wing organization with a demonstrated history of inciting racist violence, most obviously in Portland, Ore., while ironically asserting peaceful intentions. The far-right group declared it would rally in San Francisco on Saturday. Local 10 took a lead role in organizing counter-protests that contributed to the San Francisco event being canceled the day ahead of its scheduled event. The union’s role in this wave of popular mobilizations demands consideration.”
Where to begin?
A two-year-old’s temper tantrum while refusing to take a nap is about the closest thing I can think of to compare to “Resistance” as practiced by these kinds of people.
I would be no more proud of the SF Bay Area’s being a center of unionism than I would be proud of it being a center of shanghaiing (along the infamous Barbary Coast) or the corruption of early 20th Century San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose. And of course, the area (Berkley, San Jose, Novato County, and Folsom Street and more) is filled with social justice warriors – those of thin skin and extreme egos. Radicals? Yes. The kind that gloried in helping massacre AmerInd in the 1800s, concentrating Asian Americans during WW2, and now, driving white students and professors off campuses.
Who are these right-wing/Alt-right enemies of humanity that the union defeated? I know nothing about “Patriot Prayer” except from their Facebook page and the huge number of stories on-line, most of which condemn them as “fascists” and white supremacists. (Which is rather odd, considering that the group’s leader is a mixed-race Amerasian – and photos of him seems to confirm that.)
The reference to Portland, Oregon seems to be a seriously-warped version of what really happened there, where this Patriot Prayer organization held a rally, only to be attacked by AntiFa “counter-protesters” who among other things went around slashing tires of people they thought were part of the rally. The “racist violence” seems to have been so-called “reverse racism.” Or at least that is the impression news at the time and a quick review today gives me. The AntiFa movement seems to believe that a perception of the threat of potential violence (even violence in self-defense) is an excuse and justification for launching significant levels of violence “to prevent” the possible perceived threat. Or maybe they just WANT to have violent confrontation.
So the violence against the group by AntiFa “counter-protesters” in Berkley (condemned, if you can believe it, by Nancy Pelosi) and the union’s action caused this evil organization to cancel first its protest at Crissy Field (an old Army airfield on the Presidio) and then its press conference at iconic Alamo Square Park. That is the “union victory” that the rest of the “anti-fascist movement” should imitate, according to this story. Indeed, at the Alamo Square Park, San Francisco cops mobilized massively against the “counter-protesters” who found nothing to protest but lots of ways to cause trouble and be violent. There is nothing like a mob that has no focus point.
I don’t see it as any sort of victory to be celebrated. Even by the Alt-left. Rather, I see it as something else: intimidation which succeeded in denying people their right to freely assemble and protest. Intimidation that will, ultimately, result in hotheads on both sides taking stupid actions that will lead to blood in the streets. That will ultimately result in the same sort of widespread violence that really hasn’t even begun – yet. That will resemble Weimar Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s, and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
I see that these so-called Antifa thugs as being exactly what they claim that they are against: socialist thugs that want to turn the Fifty States into a police state in which freedom – personal AND market freedoms – are banned. The only difference between them and what they claim Trump, and his supporters like Patriot Prayer, want is WHICH freedoms are to be prohibited. And obviously, who is on top of the pyramid.
The violence that they claim to be fighting, and in fact trigger, is one path to that goal.
Our first response should be, when possible, to step aside, to avoid them (which is what I think Patriot Prayer was doing). Unless there is more to gain from direct confrontation than to lose, it makes no sense to do so. I realize that is hard to do. But honestly, what do public protests and marches and rallies really accomplish?
If we must confront them (and ultimately, that will be necessary), we need to approach it with great care. We need to do nothing that would give credence to a claim that we initiated the violence. It is necessary to endure and accept without rebuttal insults and even minor injury: to go the second mile and turn the other cheek.
But at the same time, we MUST be prepared to defend ourselves and those with us, when the violence becomes harmful and deadly. As it will. Our defense must be appropriate, but it must be effective as well.
And no lover of liberty, no one who believes in and espouses a godly, moral, sane society, should ever depend on any level or element of government to defend us from the extremes, but especially not from the AntiFa and their ilk. The record of the last several weeks demonstrates that police will stand down – and the courts will not be neutral, much less friendly. Nor will civic administration fail to support the Antifa and other enemies of what is good.
Ultimately, liberty WILL win – sanity will return. The question is how many of us will be there to greet that new day.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.