IGDcast – It's Going Down

On today’s episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Leif, a trans activist in Northern Ohio who is currently facing assault charges after defending children and their parents from violent neo-Nazis and Proud Boys in Wadsworth, Ohio in March of this year.

Neo-Nazis with Blood Tribe rally in Wadsworth, OH

From Leif’s support campaign:

In March of 2023 a family-friendly drag show in Wadsworth OH was threatened by anti-LGBT protesters including Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and Neo-Nazis. Show organizers asked for volunteers to help protect the show and its attendees. Leif was one of many people from Central Ohio who answered this call for volunteers. On the day of the show, attendees and supporters were outnumbered nearly 2-1 by anti-LBGT demonstrators from all over Ohio. While escorting families out of the event, Leif was assaulted by anti-LGBT protesters who hit him in the head with a megaphone. Police stood by and allowed this to happen. Leif feared for his life and the lives of the people he escorted – including children and a person with a service animal – and he took swift action to end the attack. FOR THIS JUSTIFIED ACT OF DEFENSE HE IS BEING CHARGED WITH THREE COUNTS OF ASSAULT!

Do trans people have the same self-defense rights as everyone else? The law throughout the whole US allows a person to use force in defense of human life. Ohio is a ‘stand your ground’ state. This means a person has no “duty to retreat” and may use force in self-defense or defense of others, if they feel their life is in danger. The police and the state of Ohio have chosen to prosecute a trans man with criminal charges instead of the transphobes who assaulted him. We are going to fight back using any and all legal means necessary.

Leif currently has a trial date on October 24th and needs support. Donate to Leif’s support fund here and get more info here.

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with journalist and investigator Amanda Moore, about spending over a year undercover within the broader MAGA movement and the outright fascist and white supremacist currents and activists she found firmly embedded within it. During our discussion we speak on the role of conspiracy theories within the movement, the lead up to January 6th in Washington DC, entryism into the GOP by white nationalists, and the inability of the neoliberal media to hold the Republican party to account for its lurch towards outright fascism.

From Amanda’s recent expose in The Nation:

I attended more than a dozen extremist and conspiracy events and went to ostensibly mainstream Republican conferences, including the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, the annual gathering of Republican activists, politicians, and hopefuls, and Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, and witnessed a radical youth movement trying to take over the GOP. Like a parasitic pilot fish, a robust fascist community follows the big Republican events into every town. They host shadow parties, receptions, and speeches as they work to recruit new members. The conservative establishment benefits from the presence of these farther-right gatherings; the extremists are often younger, well-dressed, and social-media savvy. While the more mainstream GOP organizations occasionally ban the most overt racists from a featured event, their attempts often feel half-hearted, and there are always other extremists who step up and fill the role as intermediaries between the white nationalists and normie conservatives.

Some of the neo-Nazis and fascists I met undercover in 2020 are working as congressional campaign staffers and helping to form congressional caucuses. They are meeting with leaders of far-right political parties in Italy and Hungary. They are leaders in their local Young Republican organizations. They have access to elected GOP officials at the national and local level.

Despite this growing influence, few of them or their true beliefs are known to the public. Some have worked hard to scrub themselves from the Internet or to curate their online personas; others operate in the shadows, so that people do not even know to look for them. But they network with each other, calling in favors and introductions. They’ve created a social maze that’s almost impossible to trace—unless you are invited to become one of them.

As segments of the far-Right reposition themselves in a post-J6 world, we discuss how these forces will continue to evolve as the 2024 election looms and Trump’s future role in the movement remains in doubt.

More Info: Amanda More on Link Tree and selected works at The Nation.

In this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present an audio recording from the recent Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in so-called Asheville, North Carolina in August, 2023. The recording features a conversation with author and activist, William C Anderson and JoNina and Lorenzo Ervin, two longtime anarchist organizers who have been directly involved in the historic civil rights movement and proceeding Black liberation struggles.

From the bookfair’s website:

A discussion of using dual power to engage in widespread sabotage against the corporate state in order to fight fascism. JoNina and Lorenzo are two anarchist ex-Black Panthers. Between them they have 70 years of political activity spanning lives that have included everything from teaching at a revolutionary community school to hijacking a plane and taking it to Cuba. Both are now involved in the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers.

Be sure to check out the Black Autonomy Podcast and our interview with William C Anderson here.

photo: Koshu Kunii via Unsplash

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with two members of the General Defense Committee (GDC) in Michigan, about their recent conference, organizing in the midwest in the post-George Floyd landscape, and pushing back against recuperation from non-profits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff74prg3dqg

Check out some video from the Midwest Anti-Capitalist Conference here, which set out to ask:

In the shadow of the George Floyd Rebellion, the pandemic, and the rise of the far right, we ask: What does anti-capitalist resistance look like today? What is the current terrain we are organizing on? What are our strategic priorities and challenges?

Photos from the Midwest Anti-Capitalist Conference via Michigan GDC

Check out the Michigan GDC on Facebook here and on Instagram here.

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we present a recording from a recent speaking tour of the Pacific Northwest featuring authors Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti, who discuss their new book, States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System. From the book’s description:

Inspired by the George Floyd Rebellion, States of Incarceration examines the ongoing reconfiguration of mass incarceration as crucial for understanding how race, class, and punishment shape America today. The rise of mass incarceration has coincided with massive disinvestment in working-class communities, particularly communities of color, and a commitment to criminalize poverty, addiction, and interpersonal violence. As Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti argue, the present is a moment of transition and potential reform of incarceration and, by extension, the American justice system. States of Incarceration provides insights into the rise of mass incarceration and its recent history while focusing on the needs of campaigners struggling with the issues of police and prison abolition, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with these questions.

During the discussion, Kurti and Shanahan talk about cycles of revolt and struggle and the questions that they pose: what forms or organization should rebels push to create? Should we struggle for reforms? How do we continue the spirit of revolt after the tear-gas fades? Hopefully this discussion will begin to address these questions and beyond.

More Info: States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System

Photo Credit: Flikr – Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) via Prachatai

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we look at the Mexican state’s targeting of Indigenous resistance movements and communities, specifically the cases of Yaqui political prisoner Fidencio Aldama and politically persecuted Mazatec anarchist Miguel Peralta, and how this relates to the militarization of borders across so-called North America.

As a recent article on It’s Going Down wrote:

Militarization is being seen as a filter to prevent migration coming from the south and headed north toward the United States. AMLO has touted the project as a means to “develop” southern Mexico, or to put it correctly, to exploit the resources of the region and take advantage of the dispossessed populations as cheap labor. This cheap labor includes the extensive migrant population that travels through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec headed north.

Indigenous communities across southern Mexico represent an organized threat to the Mexican state and its various proposed mega-projects. As Avispa Media reported:

It is important to highlight the role of the Armed Forces who, under the pretext of executing the works, have extended their presence in the indigenous territories. At the same time as militarization is advancing, the communities charge that organized crime is also making inroads and, with it, violence through executions, disappearances and other crimes within the native populations.

This clamp-down is also happening at a time when the US is pushing for the militarization of borders across North America through troops on the ground and an expanding network of high-tech surveillance and migrant prisons. As discussed in this episode, with the ending of Title 42, which banned refugees and asylum seekers from entering the US under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US is now pushing to expand border militarization under so-called Title 8, which will increase the policing of migrants across the Americas, subject them to criminal charges for crossing, and utilized US troops and other aggressive tactics to stop people from entering the US. According to one report:

Under the terms of Title 42 emergency public health rules, which were implemented by the Trump administration at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, 2.4 million migrants seeking to enter the US, many of them asylum seekers, were deported back to their country of origin or to Mexico in violation of their fundamental immigration rights.

Over the past 28 months, the Biden administration has stepped up the expulsions and used Title 42 aggressively, while claiming to be opposed to its repressive rules. Now Biden is replacing the expiring procedure with a no less draconian regime of migrant apprehension and removal.

All those removed under Title 8 will be banned from entering the US for five years, and if they attempt to enter before then, will be subject to criminal prosecution.

This repression of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees is also taking place against a backdrop of growing attacks from both political parties and far-Right fascists. Just last weekend, in Allen, Texas a neo-Nazi gunman opened fire at a mall killing eight and in Brownsville, Texas, a driver made anti-migrant statements outside of a shelter before driving into a group of Venezuelan refugees, also killing eight.

As echoed throughout this podcast discussion, the need for autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements to build up networks and relationships of solidarity and mutual aid is needed now more than ever, in the face of increasing fascist violence, state repression, and border militarization.

Fidencio Aldama:

Webpage: https://fidencioaldama.org/en/

Miguel Peralta:

Facebook: Libres Ya

In this episode, we speak with someone involved with El Comedor, an autonomous mutual aid hub and organizing center in so-called Tijuana, Mexico, which was founded by anarchists and asylum seekers in 2018. From a previous report:

El Comedor is currently one of the only places, if not the only place, serving hot meals everyday in Tijuana. Though “the caravan” is out of the news, thousands still pass through Tijuana on their way north hoping to escape violence.

During our discussion, we speak about autonomous, mutual aid, and anarchist projects in Tijuana, Mexico as well as the rapidly militarizing borderlands. Under Biden, the US, and by extension, the Mexican and Canadian borders have continued to crack-down on refugees. In late March, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) was passed. As Canadian Tire Fire wrote:

[The new agreement] forces migrants to claim asylum in the “first safe country” they reach, [and] until recently applied only to legal border crossings. Until Saturday, migrants could cross into Canada from the US, and vice versa, at irregular points along the border and, if they made it, claim asylum once they arrived without being immediately turned away under the agreement.

This crackdown comes after years of far-Right attacks on migrants and refugees and has already led to the deaths of eight people that died attempting to cross into Canada, including two infant children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU29v6OjCno

The Biden administration has also continued to pressure the Mexican state to act as a police force for Central and South American migrants. Under Title 42, a rule which was originally put into place by Trump advisor Steven Miller, the white nationalist and former friend of Richard Spencer, the United States has barred asylum seekers from entering into the US under the ironic pretense that it will contribute to the spread of COVID-19. While Title 42 is set to expire in a month, Biden’s new plan is now to:

[N]ot [allow refugees] to enter the US to apply for asylum, regardless of the fact that such a right is guaranteed under international law, on the grounds that they should apply for asylum in Mexico instead.

[President] AMLO has deployed the Mexican military to serve as an auxiliary of the US border police, arresting and often brutalizing Central and South American immigrants passing through his country on the way to the United States.

This brutality was recently thrust into the spotlight by the deadly fire in Ciudad Juarez, after guards refused to release detained migrants when a blaze ripped through the facility, killing forty and injuring over twenty. And while hundreds of migrant children remain separated from their families, according to the New York Times, “The Biden administration is considering reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally — the same policy the president shut down over the past two years because he wanted a more humane immigration system…”

As neoliberalism, US foreign policy, and climate change continues to force millions from their homes in an attempt to cross into the US and Canada, autonomous spaces like El Comedor will be needed more than ever.

More Info: Support El Comedor here and check out this article on Mutual Aid in the Borderlands by Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, and check them out on Instagram here.

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with a member of Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists about the history which has now been placed center stage on the popular podcast series, Alphabet Boys, which looks at how the FBI used informants during the George Floyd uprising in the Denver, Colorado area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgezMO0m4xg

As Democracy Now wrote:

A new podcast out today called “Alphabet Boys” documents how the FBI disrupted racial justice organizing after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, including paying an informant at least $20,000 to infiltrate and spy on activist groups in Denver, Colorado. The informant also encouraged activists to purchase guns and commit violence, echoing the FBI’s use of the COINTELPRO program to sabotage left-wing activist groups in the 1960s.

But as our guest explains, the FBI’s use of informants during the George Floyd protests was only the latest example of government agencies engaging in surveillance, infiltration, and repression of grassroots left-wing movements in the Denver area. This includes surveillance of groups like the American Indian Movement (AIM), infiltration of socialist organizations and community spaces, and the placement of informants even within tenant union organizations.

Repression is a constant mode of activity for the state and the US has engaged in a campaign of counter-insurgency against movements from bellow and communities which threaten the established order since its conception. As A Murder of Crows wrote:

Because of democratic baggage, repression is often understood as simply an anomalous and outrageous violation of rights. What people fail to comprehend is that repression is part of the standard operating procedure of any class society. There are those that rule and those who are ruled, and to maintain this divide, a combination of coercion and accommodation is necessary. To preserve the social structure of our society then, it is necessary to recuperate parts of social movements, and to repress the other parts. Essentially, repression is a strategy for maintaining power by capitalist ruling classes within nation-states. Thus, since it is a long-term strategy, it is always in motion and not some occasional occurrence.

As shown by FBI infiltration of anarchist demonstrations and events and local police infiltration of protest groups, it is easy to see that they were not investigating crimes that had taken place, but rather they were investigating possibilities of concrete resistance, which by necessity, generally break the law. This shows that there are plenty of examples, and certainly many that we may never know about, which demonstrate that repression already exists and is underway. It is not intermittent, and does not always respond to particular violations of the law; it is a long-term strategy of the state to destroy opposition. This strategy, however, has wider implications beyond the bounds of the radical milieu and affects the exploited as a whole.

During our discussion we also talk about attempts by Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists to call out under-covers, how informants attempted to push back on their outing by attacking those exposing them, and the relationship between authoritarian politics and state actors.

Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) Metro, Vice, Narcotics, and Intelligence Division infiltrated Colorado Springs Socialists, leading to citations and arrests for taking a march off of the sidewalk.

CSPD Officer April Rogers infiltrates the Chinook Center, a hub for leftist organizing in Colorado Springs by joining the Colorado Springs DSA. Officer April Rogers also infiltrated the Colorado Springs Tenant Union, which organized out of the Chinook Center.

Mickey Windecker infiltrates Black Lives Matter formations on behalf of the FBI and entraps Zebb Hall with an illegal firearms purchase.

Mickey is involved in a direct action at the Denver Police Academy that the police appeared to know about before hand. 8 people are arrested.

Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists issues a statement urging caution around Mickey Windecker as red flags around him grow.

Mickey Windecker makes a video in-front of a PKK flag and an ar-15 calling Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists cops and fascists.

Mickey Windecker sends a threatening message to Lloyd Porsche who he falsely believes to be involved with Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists, saying something big is going to happen that might make the news to the anti-fascist group.

Lloyd Porsche’s home is violently raided by Denver Police. The home’s windows were shot out with rubber bullets with a two-year old baby inside. While being interrogated, Lloyd Porsche rats on another radical who is subsequently arrested.

Colorado Springs Tenant Union organizers are arrested by CSPD after taking a march off of the sidewalk. April Rogers began trying to entrap members of the Colorado Springs Protest Security group by pressuring them to make illegal firearms purchases, sales, and to form a militia.

More Info: Alphabet Boys podcast and Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists on Kolektiva

This February, anarchists, antifascists, and people across the Left raised the alarm about the “Rage Against the War Machine” rally, which was organized by the far-Right Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party and brought together far-Right grifters with pseudo-populist blowhards, influencers, and washed up politicians. Neo-Nazis like Matthew Heimbach, who has long attempted to brand himself as a “socialist,” was also in attendance, and later took part in a small event put on by the disgraced Center for Political Innovation (CPI), a pro-Putin grouping which seeks to build alliances with the far-Right against “the West.” But what brought this island of unwanted toys together in the first place?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDBUpnyMCk

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Rob from The Right Podcast, and unpack the grifters and influencers pushing a “populist” alliance against “wokeness” on the tankie Left and fascist far-Right. This includes a look at Duginism, the Center of Political Innovation (CPI) and its leader, Caleb Maupin, the so-called “MAGA Communism” of grifters like Jackson Hinkle, why the Right is so spun on Putin, and much more.

More Info: Follow The Right Podcast here and watch on YouTube here.

photo: Kit O’Connell

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with long-time organizer and anarchist, Scott Branson, author of the new book, Practical Anarchism. We talk about the book, our day to day relationships, and what we can do daily to live our politics. Moreover, we discuss culture and the various points of encounter that can help bring in new people to radical ideas and social movements. During our discussion, we touch on print culture, the underground DIY punk and hardcore scenes, The Office, distroism – and much more!

More Info: Practical Anarchism on Pluto Press