Portside

We have an ethical obligation to stand against the fascists and racists in a way that doesn’t help them.

Relying on the photographs, reporting and video in the mainstream media can give you a false idea about the marches and demonstrations against white supremacists and Nazi sympathizers in San Francisco and Berkeley last weekend. 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 ILWU demonstrates what can be done.

Leaked emails show that white terrorist groups planned violence in advance of August 12 in Charlottesville. They planned on inciting racial violence and hatred. They even planned on driving motor vehicles into the crowd demonstrating against hatred and white nationalism. Where are the federal indictments of these white terrorists for conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to incite racial violence and hatred. Where are the indictments of the leaders and organizers?

Americans should build this pivotal post–Civil War era into the new politics of historical memory.1877

Following the horrific events precipitated by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members on Saturday in Charlottesville, VA, where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was murdered, President Trump shockingly came out in favor of the alt-right. The response by our community was swift. Some illustrators and designers created work anew, others re-purposed existing political art, illustrations and posters, and these began appearing in online publications and social media.

This last week has been surreal for my family. We lost one of our own in one of the most public ways possible. A man in a car ran down my cousin, Heather Heyer, because she decided to join her fellow Charlottesville residents against the neo-Nazis and white supremacists on their streets.

What Gary Cohn, Steven Mnuchin and Jared Kushner did - or, rather, what they didn't do - is a shanda. They'll know what that means, but, for the uninitiated, shanda is Yiddish for shame, disgrace. All three let it be known through anonymous friends and colleagues that they are disturbed and distressed by what Trump said after the white terrorist demonstration and attack in Charlottesville. But not in public.

Radical rightists purposefully mix “heritage” with “history,” rhetorically pining for a once proud “white” America. But history proves that America was never white.

Make no mistake about it: What we observed was an act of terror. This brutality was designed to intimidate people of color, such as myself, as well as to intimidate the many courageous people who were in Charlottesville opposing white supremacy in full force. The goal was to place a high cost on protesting white supremacy and to frighten people away from standing up for their rights.