Beating Fascism In The Streets and Online
About one month back 15-20 masked antifascists stormed a white supremacist meeting at the Ashford House restaurant in Tinley Park, IL with weapons in hand and not only brought the meeting to an immediate end, but out of the 12 white supremacists in attendance, 10 were injured, many were hospitalized, 2 were arrested and several were DOX'd after the action. 5 of the alleged attackers were also arrested and are currently fighting charges.
Different variations of anti-racist activists from liberal to militant have voiced their opinions of the action (some silently and some not so silently) in terms of the approach and the outcome. The obvious critics saying that " it did nothing for the cause" and even some more militant anti-fascists have raised the question "was it worth it in the end?". The purpose of this article is to critically analyze the approach used by anti-fascists on May 19th in Tinley Park and to show why we see this action (and others alike), although no better than some other tactics at achieving direct goals, as one of the more effective, in terms of the massive long term damage done to fascist organizing and spirit.
Other less dangerous, yet still militant, tactics, like the ones employed at the attack on the MCL cafeteria in Indiana during Irving's 2011 tour, the smoke bombing at the Hitler birthday celebration in Lyons, IL in 2011, or other preemptive attacks on individual organizers, can very well achieve the same immediate end and should typically be seen as the go-to tactics , as they better allow you to remain anonymous and at a more safe reach from the fascists and the state. We must always attempt to minimize injuries on on our side as they can be extremely hurtful to the work we are doing. Staying safe is always extremely important but we must be realistic; simply doing this work, at any level, puts us in a precarious and often unsafe position. The danger of fascist organizing or individuals should be taken seriously, but here and there, a genuine show of strength, courage and brute force is necessary. Especially when numbers permit. We can not, and will not, always toss rocks over picket fences at one another. Whether we, as antifascists, can agree on that statement or not, the lasting impact that actions like the battle of York, Baltimore, the battle of Pemberton in 2011, the 2009 campaign against David Irving and In Tinley Park last month, leave in the hearts and minds of the fascists, as well as anti-fascists, is undeniable.
These type of actions do more than simply end an event or meeting. The attack at the Ashford house has driven fear and paranoia into the white supremacists scene, especially those in attendance. It drove potentially talented white supremacists organizers out of commission and set an example of what can happen to any space or business hosting these type of events. Aside from the immense damage it dealt to their side, for us, it was inspirational and sparked a massive interest in militant anti-fascist work. At last, it created a platform for us to express to more mainstream audiences why we believe using direct action to fight against the fascists is necessary as it forced many non-radical folks to look for answers to the questions that were causing them such cognitive dissonance.
The fear:
Imagine, after months of planning, several anarchists in your area, some you may know and some you may not, sit down at a table in some neutral space to have a discussion. Then, within minutes, you become trapped in a room filled with 20 masked white supremacists wielding weapons and injuring 70% of the attendees at this event. What kind of effect do you think this would have on us? How many people would drop out of "anarchist organizing"? Would folks blame others for the lack of security or even make snitch or informant accusations. Would people feel comfortable to ever go to another event and would the topic at hand be overshadowed, or distracted from, by the immense need for self protection. How would this type of attack differ from say a protest or phone calls to our host space? Had the event been attacked the night before, the host may have pulled the plug, but with some hurdle jumping and a few phone calls could we potentially continue the discussion with at least a portion of the crowd, at some other place, at some other time in the not so distant future? All the tactics mentioned above should not be dismissed, nor should they be considered ineffective, weak or less glamorous, especially the latter, but at the same time, think of the tremendous long lasting damage this type of full frontal assault would have on us and our supporters mentally. The fear, the sense of defeat and the disempowerment.
Since the Ashford attack, the predictable came true; Not only has the finger pointing and snitch jacketing amongst white supremacists began, but the lead organizer has alleged her retirement from her short lived activist career as a direct result of antifa harassment. The discourse taking place amongst a large number of white supremacists on stormfront no longer revolved around offensive organizing of any kind, but were now defensive, and centered around how to deal with us and how to protect themselves, and as long as we do our job right, this pondering should continue.
Setting a precedent:
Aside from the lasting impression on white supremacist individuals, this attack sets a fine example of what type of consequences you can expect from hosting such events.The next time David Irving, or any other white supremacists speaker or organization, reserves a space, simply reminding them of Irving's tour in 2009, in which Edelweiss restaurant was damaged and then sued for a half a million dollars , hotels were barged into, and attendees were stabbed, should be enough to make them think twice. If not, this very incident in Tinley Park, the alleged 15,000 dollars in damages, loss of customers and bad reputation, will surely do the trick. It is just another addition to the list of reasons of why you should not support fascist organizing.
The arrests on our side:
The down side to the Ashford attack was the arrests made. Only so much critique can be laid down here. If those arrested were actually involved, only those who attended know what led them to be arrested and how, if at all, it can have been avoided. However, from the look of things from an outside perspective, the fact that there wasn't a public call to confront the white supremacists yet there were 20 antifas there, the fact that the secret hosting location was discovered and that according to media reports the attack lasted under a minute, it doesn't seem to be a matter of bad planning or lack of pre-emptive thought.
We believe that the outcome, in terms of the arrests, shouldn't necessarily have any difference on the way we view this approach unless we see these arrests as an essential characteristic of such an approach. Had no one got arrested would some of the more militant advocates still hold such criticisms over the tactic used? It is also important to remember that, although it is always our goal to evade capture, our immediate goal as antifascists is to attack fascist organizing and shut down organizations and events, and in that it did.. and then some! If someone feels that in this particular case, the arrests weren't worth the damage done to fascist organizing, they are entitled to that opinion. This opinion may or may not be commonly shared or popular, but it should not necessarily reflect negatively on the approach universally as much as in this particular case.
Clandestine yet visible:
Being anarchist antifascists we recognize that the state and capitalism are just as undesirable as the fascism we fight and that the law actively seeks to render us ineffective, the same way we do to the fascists. That being said, sometimes visions of antifa crews that allow everyone and anyone to participate with no hesitation can be utopian and naive. Depending on a given antifa crews methods, this type of approach can be detrimental. This doesn't mean that anti-fascism should be specialized or left to professionals. The difficulty within ARA and antifa work is just that; we want this war to be inclusive (or at least more visible and less specialized) yet we want it to be secure and impenetrable for those of us who participate. To a certain degree, this action met all standards; a quietly organized group of folks achieved an end, while also reaching out to several thousands of people not already involved in antifa work and said, "Do the damn thing, and this is how!"
If you look close enough, and stop waiting to read public call outs by fascists, you will realize that fascist organizing is happening quite often and generally in secret. If we constantly used the tactic used at Ashford house a great majority of us would likely burn out, or be in jail. It is not that we believe that arrests are unavoidable in this type of approach, but the visibility and large number of people engaging in illegal activity in a single area do make it a little harder to evade capture. Tactics we use should be dependent on the situation. Their numbers, the type of location, the type of group were dealing with and their organizational strategy etc. We should remain inventive and have multiple forms of attack. We should attempt to use tactics that better guarantee we will be around to fight another day.
It is absolutely important when you start doing antifascists work to strategize. Analyze what is happening around you and what you think might work best in your situation. But only so much strategy can be developed without action. Spending far too long strategizing, fearing and remaining in a defensive mindset without action will get you nowhere. We must instigate. They hide from us, not the other way around. The best way to further develop your strategy is to create action and document your experience.
Be smart, and be secure, but be fearless fucking tigers. Some of them are willing to go the distance..are we?
Mad solidarity to the Tinley Park 5 and all those fighting against the state, capitalism and the fascists!
Their world is shit and our dreams are beautiful!
Marcin GolebiowskiTaken from Des Plaines Patch:
3847 N Pontiac AveChicago, IL 60634-1930
Age: 32
Associated with strong survive terror crew
Married to Suzy Lenner
latawiec@mail.com
sstcrew@gmail.com
strongsurvive_usa@hotmail.com
Runs strong survive
records
Hours after someone set fire to a house in Joliet where nine people were sleeping in June 2007, police arrested two men and charged them with arson.
The cases against these men were dropped, for Daniel Marlin, 32, of East Peoria, almost immediately, and for Marcin Golebiowski, 34, of Des Plaines, months later. Now the man at whose house they were drinking when the fire started has been arrested in their stead.
That man — white power leader Brian Moudry — appeared in federal court Thursday on charges of arson, using fire to interfere with housing rights on the basis of race and using fire to commit another felony. FBI agents arrested Moudry May 29.
The nine people sleeping in the burning house were black. Moudry, a vocal, active racist, lived seven doors down from them on South Reed Street.
Moudry was mentioned in police reports chronicling the fire investigation, but it was two other men who were charged with torching the house.
Golebiowski and Marlin both traveled to Moudry's house for a "party," according to police reports. The three went to Jewel, bought beer and drank together in Moudry's garage.
Moudry's unidentified girlfriend was also drinking in the garage, police said.
The cops showed up around midnight and told the partiers to turn down their music. Marlin reportedly told officers that he, Golebiowski and Moudry "went into the garage where they were sitting around talking about politics and such, and the next thing he remembers is waking up with the police there in the garage area."
Prior to waking up to find the cops in the garage, Marlin said he, Golebiowski and Moudry "drank throughout the night to the point he was completely intoxicated," according to a police report.
The cops were in the garage because a 16-year-old from the torched house told them she smelled smoke about 4 a.m. and saw a small fire outside. She ran out and caught sight of a man splashing gasoline on the corner of the house, police said. The man was white and had a "tattoo near his head."
Moudry is heavily tattooed. He has the words "Blue Eyed Devil" inked into the back of his shaved head and sports drawings of horns and the Nazi SS logo, among other things.
The girl said she and the man looked right at each other before he fled toward Moudry's residence and she ran back inside to tell her mother what was going on, police said.
The man was wearing an orange shirt, police said, just like Golebiowski. And the girl told police she was sure Golebiowski was the man pouring gas on her house.
Marlin was released by police the same day he was arrested and never even made it to the county jail. Golebiowski wasn't as fortunate. He was jailed on charges of residential and aggravated arson. He eventually bonded out, but the case against him lingered for nearly nine months before prosecutors dropped the case.
Moudry had been subpoenaed as a witness in Golebiowski's case. Now that Moudry's the one facing arson charges, will Golebiowski and Marlin be called to testify against the man whose garage they were drinking in when the family down the block's house was set on fire?
"I don't know anything about it yet," Golebiowski said, claiming he has yet to be informed by prosecutors whether he will play a part in the Moudry case.
Golebiowski said he was never a member of Moudry's white power organization and that he no longer associates with the jailed racist.
"As far as I know, Brian doesn't hang out with anyone," Golebiowski said.
Marlin could not be reached to discuss the case.
Randall Samborn, the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment on whether either man was to be used as a witness against Moudry.
Beckie is on the board of trustees for Family Assistance for White Nationalists(FAWN), allegedly a member of Council of Conservative Citizens(CCC) and in May of 2011, she took control of the "Illinois Whites" SF group from "Asgard14". Beckie is of Scottish ancestry and works at a construction company called Williams and Family with Francis John Gilroy Jr, who was arrested at the event for possessing a weapon (see bid schedule here and here). In the cyber attack on Beckie Williams, we learn that she has intimate relationships with several white supremacists across the globe, including event attendees Michael Gull and possibly Steven Eugene Speers. The latter was also arrested at the event on pedophile charges and multiple warrants.Beckie Williams
1220 51st Ave. Apt 202
Rock Island, IL 61201-6886
309-749-5164
State ID# 4525-9670-616
Birthday: January 16, 1970
scottylass22@yahoo.com
bckbrggmn0@gmail.com
Stormfront user: SGAITHAICH
Other names: scottylass
In recent years, it seems Jesse may have moved in with another family member in Lancaster, Ohio and no longer resides with Jon Carr at his home in Olde Town East. His Facebook profile shows that he attended Crossroads Center for Youth, a center of the Franklin County juvenile courts for teenagers at risk of dropping out, or those with extraneous school records. 
Watching the white supremacist community react to the alleged attack in Tinley Park has been very informative. Online racist forums are marked by utter chaos, confusion, backstabbing, and top-down censorship in the aftermath of the event. White supremacist are turning on each other, blaming each other for perceived faults. They’re keeping their members from discussing anything that doesn’t fit into their talking points. They’re fleeing the white nationalist movement like rats from a sinking ship. They’re simultaneously claiming to be innocent, law-abiding victims of Marxist thugs while making death threats against children and family members. We’d like to delve into some of these issues in brief detail.
Skin color trumps everything, even pedophilia
In all fairness, not all members of the white supremacist community want to turn the alleged assault of a pedophile into a rallying cry for the white nationalist community. The leaders of the movement however see things much differently. Rather than just admit that one of the longtime activists involved in their community was indeed a disgusting human being who abused his wife and children and that they’re glad that his sexual proclivities have been exposed so as to rid their community of him, they decided to double-down.
In this screenshot we see that those of lower social status in the white supremacist community want nothing to do with Stormfront’s new obsessive cause. User chrisnoble states, “Just read about the ‘victim’ arrested for the child porn warrant. WTF! We can’t seem to have a single news worthy incident connected to the White Nationalist Movement without something like this materializing out of the story. I am so sick of the freaks and misfits that gravitate towards our cause.” The white supremacist community knows it’s filled with pedophiles and rapists. In order to protect its ‘prestige’, we see that the leadership of Stormfront makes the executive decision to censor any talk regarding the Steven Speer’s pedophilia.
In this thread Shawn “Kayden” bans all mentions of referring to the victim’s problem with child-pornography. User merk0331 adds in regarding the censorship of rank-and-file members of the community with, “Agreed. No need to assist them in their efforts against us. (They will have enough assistance.) The topic is: Evil/Violent/Misguided/Marxist/Fascists who attack innocent people.” (We’ll not bother to dissect the ridiculous irony of simultaneously labeling someone as both Marxist and Fascist.)
I hope all the low-ranking members over there are clear about what you’re allowed to talk about on Stormfront: Talking points set forth by your leaders. You can feel free to express yourself as long as it’s in line with the false narrative they think will best serve them. Not the “victims” of the alleged attack. Not the truth. Your leaders’ self-interest.
The tactic of simply avoiding the topic didn’t work out very well. Steven Speers is just to disgusting an individual to be ignored and the story is just too sensational to be covered up. So once again, rather than just throwing him under the bus, they triple-down. The new talking point you’re allowed to discuss on Stormfront is that the pedophile was an Anti-Racist Action mole. Surely they have some sort of evidence to back this ridiculous claim up you might assume…. Oh they do…. He has an anarchy symbol tattooed on him.
Anarchy symbols mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Given Speer’s difficulty with law enforcement over his violent and pedophile-riddled legal history, I don’t find it surprising that he’s no friend of the police. They keep cramping his ability to assault his family and stroke off to child pornography. His wife successfully took his children away from him, we can only hope she did it in time…
If you look at Steven the Viking’s profile on Stormfront you’ll see that he’s been a member since 2006. The new talking point is that Anti-Racist Action had a pedophile mole. This mole used his real name, attended several white supremacists events, and then finally decided to act on his “under-cover” work after six years by allegedly getting his head split open. Then after the poor little racist chomo got his ass handed to him, he decided he’d become a triple-agent! He volunteered to participate in a line-up to identify his former-anti-racist comrades, only to have his name run through the system finding warrants for child pornography.
Because Beckie Williams (aka “SGAITHAICH”, “scottylass”) supposedly used Steven’s laptop (and possibly was romantically involved with him), the geniuses over at Stormfront and white news network have asserted that he must have ‘hacked’ her accounts and leaked it to his ARA buddies. He did this all while incarcerated in Cook County Jail. Quite a story… I wonder how many of the rank-and-file members of the Stormfront community actually buy this shit? More simple explanation: Your “leaders” are all incompetent.
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| Threat 1, 2, 3, and 4 |
The Tinley Park Five have a court appearance 9am June 12 at the Bridgeview Courthouse (10220 South 76th Avenue Bridgeview , IL 60455). The white supremacist community is threatening later violence against anyone in attendance as can be seen in this thread from Stormfront. The International Action Center has posted a short article about the court date located here. The Tinley Park Five and their support network hope to gather a large group of people to attend, in order to prevent their friends and family from being targeted by violent fascists.
We realize that many activists in the Chicago area might not be supportive of the tactics the Tinley Park Five are accused of. Keep in mind, they have not been convicted of anything at this time. We ask that you consider attending this court date even if you’re uncomfortable with militant actions as a show of support to their families. We need a large group of people for the families to be able to blend into. If you’re not comfortable showing solidarity with the Tinley Park Five, we ask that you consider attending as a show of solidarity to their families and friends who have never participated in any direct action and just want to be able to see their sons, brothers, and partners without fear of being murdered by fascist thugs.
Those willing to participate in this show of solidarity are asked to seriously consider the potential risks of walking into the cross-hairs of these racist lunatics.
If you are willing to come, we ask that you adhere to the following guidelines in order to protect the families and loved ones of the Tinley Park Five as well as to not jeopardize the legal outcome of the case:
-Do not bring cameras.
-If asked to comment by media, or anyone claiming to be a journalist, say only two words: “NO COMMENT“
-Be respectful and cooperative with all law enforcement and court officials
-Do not engage in debate or discussion with any racist elements
-Do not confront or posture against white supremacists at the courthouse. They will be there trying to provoke a response.
-Do not assume that anyone you do not personally know is a supporter. White nationalists do have plans to ‘infiltrate’ their supporters as well as pose as journalists, bloggers, and curious activists
-Do not wear any clothing that shows allegiance to any anti-racist or anti-fascist cause.
-Be aware that the Chicago Tribune and other main-stream media outlets have already jeopardized the safety of Tinley Park Five supporters. They are desperate for any chance to portray the Tinley Park Five and their supporters as crazy fanatics. Don’t give them this ammunition, even though both reporters and white supremacists will be doing their best to bait you into behaving in a militant fashion.
-This is serious business. If you don’t think you’re capable of holding your tongue when hearing Nazis and Klansman call supporters things such as “race-traitors”, “niggers”, “anti-white terrorists”, “mud-babies”, and every other ethnic slur imaginable we ask that you show your support in one of these different ways.
-The overwhelming support the Tinley Park Five continue to receive has become a life-altering experience for those of us working on jail support. Thank you for considering to help. Solidarity.
Once again Christmas has come early this year for us anti-fascists. Yet another info leak has been sent our way. This time it's the united Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. It includes their constitution, rank system, hand shakes and salutes as well as organizer addresses for Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Georgia and many others. Another big thanks from Anti-Racist Action and all the antifa who benefit from this knowledge.
