Whether its cops shooting unarmed black children, politicians talking of bombing more countries most Americans never heard of, or just the average republican burning down synagogues and mosques. Right wing militarism is on the rise across America. What are you doing to stop it?
The Dawn of 21st Century American Paramilitarism - It's Going Down
We are on the cusp of a dangerous shift in modern American society.
A new threat is beginning to take shape on the horizon. Human perception being what it is, we cannot be certain of our future, no matter how many historical parallels we use as yardsticks. But if the omens we have witnessed are to be believed, the presidency of Donald Trump will mark the beginning of what could tentatively be called “political gang warfare.”
The events of June have reframed the ongoing struggle between antifascism and fascism, as it exists in modern America. While this month has produced the largest gatherings of American antifascists in recent memory, we have also glimpsed the face of a deadly enemy which has gradually incubated within the temperamental rabble of the alt-right. In addition to the violence which has been unleashed by a resurgence of reactionary politics, the inevitable collusion between police and fascists has come to fruition before our very eyes. And now, a botched assassination attempt has handed the Trump administration a cheap means by which to both demonize leftists and, by contrast, present itself as a bastion of peace, while we are targeted by police and rightist thugs alike.
If we are careless in the near future, if we do not appreciate the gravity of our situation, if we disregard the warning signs, we may not recognize this new threat until it is knocking at our doors: domestic, far-right paramilitarism.
This essay will not attempt, nor could it possibly succeed at trying, to put forward a rubric for how best to defend our movement. No single document or person could account for every variable, nor speak for every leftist individual or community. Rather, this article is delivered as a warning, a sober analysis of what might lie ahead, and the dangers we face as the targets of state-sanctioned vigilante violence.
The Dawn of 21st Century American Paramilitarism - It's Going Down