Chicago Reportback


HOW IT WENT DOWN

It was a beautiful Sunday Spring afternoon where the Illinois National Socialist Front were supposed to march for "White Pride World Wide." But for the few Nazis that dared show their face in the city of Chicago, there was nothing but a barrage of blows raining on their parade. Southside ARA had been scouting in the downtown area early on, watching out for neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists. Within minutes of their pathetic march of four boneheads waving white pride flags, clandestine anti-fascists took formation and confronted them, successfully delivering U-lock justice to the unsuspecting Nazi trash with trained precision. In broad daylight on Michigan Avenue, Nazis helplessly had flags ripped from their hands and were beaten down as pedestrians watched in awe. Later, a police car pulled up and arrested the bewildered and injured boneheads while the anti-fascists swiftly disappeared into thin air. Showing up seconds later, the pro-diversity / anti-hate rally laid the final icing on the cake by surrounding the humiliated and obviously defeated boneheads and taunted them with chants, holding a rally directly in the path of their march. With only a handful of white supremacists willing to publicly show their faces, it was evident that local neo-Nazis were not willing to get behind the NSF. In fact, the NSF didn’t even show up to their own march; intelligence gathering showed that they had dropped out of participation just before the march and had handed it over to other local neo-Nazis, unwilling to complete what they had started.

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE NSF

Several months ago Chicagoland anti-fascists launched a campaign against the NSF utilizing a diversity of tactics including face to face confrontations, flyering the neighborhoods and schools of individual members, posting their home addresses and phone numbers, initiating phone campaigns focusing on key Nazi organizers, and multiple cases of successful infiltration of their ranks. These tactics have achieved successes in that the NSF has become ineffective: six months ago they were openly organizing barbeques, protesting "black on white hate crimes," and the opening of a Holocaust Museum in Skokie, etc. Their most recent attempt to march in Chicago was a complete failure, their recruitment gatherings have dwindled, their website went down for a month at a crucial time for promoting the White Pride March, and they have not responded to phone calls or emails from people asking about public information concerning their events.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

While it is easy for us to see a neo-Nazi march as an intrusion of racism into our community, we must also address the way that racism affects our city on a daily basis. Two weeks ago, a homeowner in Mt. Greenwood posted a sign in his front yard stating "No to the Ghetto … White Power" and if you read recent newspaper headlines you can see the aftermath of Jon Burge and the inherent racism of the Chicago Police Department. Confronting neo-Nazis and other white nationalists is only the beginning of eliminating racism, and we intend to align with other organizations to further combat forms of racism that exist in extremist groups as well as in sectors of society that are less blatant yet no less important.

HOW IT WENT DOWN

It was a beautiful Sunday Spring afternoon where the Illinois National Socialist Front were supposed to march for "White Pride World Wide." But for the few Nazis that dared show their face in the city of Chicago, there was nothing but a barrage of blows raining on their parade.

Southside ARA had been scouting in the downtown area early on, watching out for neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists. Within minutes of their pathetic march of four boneheads waving white pride flags, clandestine anti-fascists took formation and confronted them, successfully delivering U-lock justice to the unsuspecting Nazi trash with trained precision. In broad daylight on Michigan Avenue, Nazis helplessly had flags ripped from their
hands and were beaten down as pedestrians watched in awe. Later, a police car pulled up and arrested the bewildered and injured boneheads while the anti-fascists swiftly disappeared into thin air. Showing up seconds later, the pro-diversity / anti-hate rally laid the final icing on the cake by surrounding the humiliated and obviously defeated boneheads and taunted them with chants, holding a rally directly in the path of their march.

With only a handful of white supremacists willing to publicly show their faces, it was evident that local neo-Nazis were not willing to get behind the NSF. In fact, the NSF didn’t even show up to their own march; intelligence gathering showed that they had dropped out of participation just before the march and had handed it over to other local neo-Nazis, unwilling to complete what they had started.

THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE NSF

Several months ago Chicagoland anti-fascists launched a campaign against the NSF utilizing a diversity of tactics including face to face confrontations, flyering the neighborhoods and schools of individual members, posting their home addresses and phone numbers, initiating phone campaigns focusing on key Nazi organizers, and multiple cases of successful infiltration of their ranks. These tactics have achieved successes in that the NSF has become ineffective: six months ago they were openly organizing barbeques, protesting "black on white hate crimes," and the opening of a Holocaust Museum in Skokie, etc. Their most recent attempt to march in Chicago was a complete failure, their recruitment gatherings have dwindled, their website went down for a month at a crucial time for promoting the White Pride March, and they have not responded to phone calls or emails from people asking about public information concerning their events.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

While it is easy for us to see a neo-Nazi march as an intrusion of racism into our community, we must also address the way that racism affects our city on a daily basis. Two weeks ago, a homeowner in Mt. Greenwood posted a sign in his front yard stating "No to the Ghetto … White Power" and if you read recent newspaper headlines you can see the aftermath of Jon Burge and the inherent racism of the Chicago Police Department. Confronting neo-Nazis and other white nationalists is only the beginning of eliminating racism, and we intend to align with other organizations to further combat forms of racism that exist in extremist groups as well as in sectors of society that are less blatant yet no less important.

CONCLUSION

We effectively came together as a city to successfully kick the Nazis out of town. Fierce resistance was delivered and everyone got away without arrest or injury. To the defeated Nazi scum reading this, give it up! ARA is everywhere.

South Side Chicago Anti-Racist Action
http://southsideara.wordpress.com/
[email protected]