Still Messing With Big Tex

Big Tex, showing off his horticultural skills and fine taste in apparel.

New motto for Texas: Texas never leaves a good deed unpunished. At least that seems to be the lesson they’re intent on teaching our friend Big Tex, who two years ago stood between a drag queen event at a Fort Worth brewery and armed transphobes who had declared their intent to murder the participants and event attendees alike.

Big Tex & friends defending a Texas drag event

Happily, the presence of level-headed, well-armed anti-fascists kept the bigots from making good on their threats and no one was harmed that day. Well actually, that’s not accurate, because the police decided to intervene and arrest three of the anti-fascists doing their job of keeping the peace, including Big Tex! This of course lead to a protracted legal battle, with the Defence Fund helping to pay for a good legal defense team, leading to a not guilty verdict in Big Tex’s case.

That wasn’t the end of it, though. The transphobes then filed a lawsuit against two of the arrested anti-fascists, claiming that the anti-fascists violated their civil rights by preventing them from physically assaulting drag show attendees! Once again, the Defence Fund stepped in to help pay for lawyers to quash this bullshit in the courts (results pending).  

Still not satisfied that Big Tex has not been punished enough for protecting his community, last month Texas special prosecutors charged him with resisting arrest, interfering with public duty, and evading detention – TWO AND A HALF YEARS after the alleged “crimes” occurred! Seem the special prosecutors are sore losers and can’t live with the fact that Big Tex beat the bogus felony charges they slapped him with at the time. Big Tex has some choice words about this, which you can read here.

And so, once again, the Defence Fund has been called to stand with Big Tex and help him defend himself against bullshit charges – which we’ve done via a contribution to his crowdfunder. We strongly encourage anyone to do likewise.

When They Kick At Your Front Door, How You Gonna Come?

Some of the damage done by German police to the homes of antifascists.

Several antifascists in Augsburg, Germany can answer that question posed by The Clash years ago. You see, after antifa in that city were successful in confronting fascist “identitarian” leader Martin Sellner and his stooges and running them out, police decided this was a “crime.” The cops, excited about getting to cosplay the military, launched a series of pre-dawn raids on the homes of antifascists around the city, smashing in doors and completely trashing the homes they raided. This was all done in support of charges of ” aggravated breach of the peace.”

So, thanks to the barbarians in the Augsburg police, there was an immediate, emergency need to repair and secure the entries of several antifa’s homes. A crowdfunder was set up and the Defence Fund was able to get them to their initial funding goal.

The answer to how you gonna come with they kick at your front door? By calling on your fellow antifascists to stand with you in solidarity!

Showdown In Alvarado

January 2025: thousands of people gather in Dallas, Texas to protest the targeted kidnappings of migrants by ICE.

Alvarado, Texas was named by its first sheriff after the town in Veracruz, Mexico where he fought in the Mexican-American war. It’s disappointing to see that the town continues its violent, colonialist tradition by serving as home to the Prairieland Detention Center, one of the largest ICE holding facilities for the people kidnapped by the agency. Out of all ICE facilities, this history made the protest outside of it, on the night of July 4th, especially poignant.

It’s still unclear what transpired during the protest. ICE of course have put out their own narrative – that their Gestapo agents & supporting police were “ambushed” by armed attackers and that one police officer was injured. But remember this is the same agency that would have you believe that most, if not all, of the people they snatch from our communities are criminals, when we know now that 71% have no criminal record whatsoever. So you’ll forgive us if we take their version of events with a big ol’ grain of salt.

What we do know is that eleven people – many of them well-known community activists – are now facing serious charges in a country currently governed by fascists; fascists that repeatedly demonstrate their contempt for the rule of law. The stakes could not be higher for our friends. This is why the Defence Fund has made a contribution to the crowdfunder established to fund their legal defense. We hope it helps them get the truth out, preferably in a court that has not yet been corrupted by the fascist regime that controls the country.

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund: 2024-2025 Annual Report

June 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund. In 2015, the social media collective Antifa International took notice of frequency of anti-fascists running into some sort of serious trouble as a result of their activities (criminal charges, injuries, repairing damages from vandalism and arson attacks, a sudden and urgent need to relocate their families to a safer home – the list goes on). It didn’t seem fair that these brave souls put themselves on the line to defend their communities from bigotry and hatred and then were left to fend for themselves when very negative consequences for them personally manifested.

Having some familiarity with a defence fund set up by the Anti-Racist Action network in the late 1990s/early 2000s, we came up with the idea to launch a standing defence fund that would hopefully get enough donations and support to be able to provide significant emergency help to anti-fascists when they ran into trouble. We decided this Defence Fund would be accessible to all anti-fascists around the world and that all decisions about how it ran and was used would be made democratically. Specifically, anyone making a minimum donation of $20USD or equivalent would be invited to join a group of antifa that would discuss all requests for help in an attempt to reach consensus (and resort to voting if consensus was not attainable.

We printed up anti-fascist t-shirts and stickers and sold those to start the initial funding of the Defence Fund, then expanded from there. In its first year of operation, a group of 40 anti-fascists was established to run the Defence Fund and about two dozen other anti-fascists in six countries received help from us. As we expanded our network of contacts, we heard about more and more cases and our fundraising efforts struggled to keep up.

But here we are, ten years later, and still playing a crucial role in providing emergency support to anti-fascists. To date, we’ve provided over $250,000USD to more than 800 anti-fascists in 26 different countries. Over the last twelve months, we’ve intervened nine times to assist 52 anti-fascists in Finland, France, Germany, the UK, and the US.

About 12% of the funds we disbursed over the last twelve months went to medical expenses incurred after attacks by fascists. 8% went to repairing damages to physical property after fascist attacks as well as improving physical security at those sites to hopefully prevent further attacks. But the majority of what we spent – four-fifths of our spending – went to pay for legal defence and related costs (hiring lawyers, court costs, fines, etc.).

This was money well-spent. No fewer than 15 of the anti-fascists whose lawyers we helped pay for since June 2024 walked away from criminal trials with not guilty verdicts or having their charges thrown out altogether! You can read about all the cases we provided support for on our blog.

All decisions about how the Defence Fund operates and gets used are made by the Decisions Crew – a body of anti-fascists who’ve contributed at least $20USD to the Defence Fund and then receive an invitation to join in conversations aimed at reaching decisions via consensus whenever possible. In early 2025, we broke the 1600 mark of invited anti-fascists, from over twenty different countries.

After intervening in over 200 cases over the years, we’ve come to the conclusion that a typical emergency faced by an anti-fascist will require around $20,000USD to resolve. We plan to continue our work until we’ve raised enough to cover any expense or need emanating from anti-fascist work, or until fascism is defeated and there is no longer a need for anti-fascist work – whichever comes first!

Three For Three!

Another five defendants in the “Bibby Stockholm” case were acquitted on all charges last week, thanks in part to The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund!

When London police decided it would be a good idea to charge 44 people who came out to prevent their friends and neighbours from being hauled off to a prison barge and then deported with various fabricated crimes, we wonder what they thought the outcome would be. Did the coppers know at the time that they would be wasting effort, money, and resources attempting to prosecute these heroes? Becuase that’s how it’s played out so far in the courts!

The first five defendants on trial had all charges dropped.
Then the next four defendants met the same result.
And now, as of last week, the next five defendants were acquitted of all charges!

Beginning to see a pattern here? The authorities attempt to kidnap and deport community members. Other community members directly intervene to prevent this from happening. Those intervenors are then hit with fabricated charges with no hope of conviction. When the charges go to trial, prosecutors are forced to admit they lack any evidence, and the defendants are acquitted.

Our latest exonerated heroes had this to say:

“Our actions that day were rooted in compassion and humanity. Our actions were peaceful and proportionate and intended to prevent any further harm being done to the asylum seekers being forced onto that bus. It is our greatest pleasure to stand in solidarity with the immigrant community of this country. We hope to show how we stand by the belief that refugees are welcome here so firmly that if the immigrant community comes under attack by vicious, racist and ultimately unlawful acts we are willing to briefly stop some traffic as an entirely proportionate response.“

While we’re happy the trials are playing out as they have been, facing charges and then having to cobble together the resources to defend yourself in a court of law is disruptive and stressful, to put it mildly. And it’s starting to appear that that is the whole point of the criminal charges. The authorities are less interested in prosecuting actual crimes than they are in weaponizing the criminal justice system to harass and abuse people courageous enough to stand in defence of their neighbours

Sadly, this farce has not yet ended, with many more still waiting for their day in court. If you’d like to help defer the costs involved, you can donate here. If you’d like to help the Defence Fund provide competent lawyers for the next time this happens, you can donate here.

Being A Good Neighbour

Croydon, London, April 2024: Immigration officers attempt to force refugees into a van, to be taken to Heathrow, where they were to be forced onto an airplane so they can be dumped in Rwanda.

London-based S. is a good neighbour. When his neighbours were kidnapped by Immigration officials who tried to force them into a van so they could be driven to Heathrow airport, forced onto a plane, and then dumped in Rwanda, S. joined others and put their bodies between the van and the road to the airport. Refusing to give any ground, the group stayed in-place until the Immigration officials were forced to concede defeat and take the kidnapped refugees out of their van.

Stinging from the defeat, Immigration cops brutally threw S. to the ground while cameras were rolling, then had the audacity to arrest him, claiming that he assaulted them! With the abundance of witnesses and video evidence available, no one present believed the charges would stick, but this still meant that S. would now have to hire a solicitor to defend him in court.

We wanted to ensure that S. could afford a decent solicitor and sent him funds to make that possible. This investment in his freedom paid off last week when S. was found not guilty on all charges!

Preventing your neighbours from being kidnapped and packed off to another country is the neighbourly thing to do! We’re happy that S. and company proved to be such good neighbours and we were well-pleased to support him.

Paris: Toujours Antifasciste!

February 23, 2025: Parisiens take to the streets in protest of a fascist attack against an immigrant worker centre’s screening of an anti-fascist film the previous week.

Paris has seen more than its fair share of fascist violence over the years. From the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s to the murder of 18-year-old Clément Meric by fascist thugs in 2013 to a series of stabbings and shootings targeting immigrants from 2021-2022 that left three dead and five injured, the City of Light has developed a terrible reputation for violence by bigots and fascists.

In that sense, it is perhaps unsurprising that a mob of about two dozen masked fascists would turn up at a Turkish and Kurdish migrant workers’ centre on the day Young Struggle Paris was screening a documentary about anti-fascism there. Armed with batons and knives, the fascists beat and stabbed their way into the venue, trashing it and attacking the audience, before running off into the night, chanting PARIS EST NAZI!”

While it was heartening to see hundreds of Parisiens in the streets the following week to protest the cowardly attack, marching in the street won’t repair the damage done to the migrant workers’ centre or help pay for the recovery of the man hospitalized with stab wounds after the attack. All told, locals estimate it will take €18,000 to cover everything. A crowdfunder has been established to help cover those costs. The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund proudly made a contribution that we hope goes a long way to undoing the harm caused.

Brenner Pass Throwback

Think back, dear reader, to the year 2016! COVID-19 did not exist, Donald Trump was president of the US for the first time, and in Austria, the government planned to reinforce its border at the Brenner Pass with armed soldiers to make it more difficult for migrants to enter, as its contribution to “Fortress Europe.”

A lot of people weren’t having it, though. A lot of people believe that migrants have an inalienable right to cross invisible lines in order to find safe refuge and prosperity for themselves and their families. At least 1000 of those people converged on the Brenner Pass to demonstrate their opposition Austria’s plan to endanger migrants.

Brenner Pass, Austria, 2016: Police attack protestors demonstrating against the closure of the border to migrants.

Our man N. was one of them and was also one of the people arrested during the demonstrations and if you’re wondering why we’re telling you about a 2016 arrest here at the end of 2024 it’s because the charges he caught are still looming over him in, as the Kafkaesque legal process sloooowly creaks forward. Here we are, almost nine years later, and N. needs to come up with thousands of Euros to pay his lawyer to fight this legal farce.

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund stands with N. – both in the actions he took defending migrants in 2016 and in fighting his case in the courts, and we were proud to help pay a chunk of his legal bills. We look forward to N. finally getting out from under these charges and moving on with his life!

Nanuk Of The East (Germany)

Imagine riding your bike through Berlin streets on a pleasant autumn day when you’re suddenly jumped by armed tactical police while their colleagues ransack your apartment. Then you’re driven off in an armoured van while a press scrum snaps photos, and thrown into a prison cell, where you sit to this day.

That’s what happened to our friend Nanuk in late October. What heinous crime has he been accused of to warrant this heavy-handed action and attention?
1) Supporting an anti-fascist organization between 2018 and 2020
2) A bar fight at a notorious neo-nazi bar in Eisenach in 2019
3) Vandalizing a court building

This in a country that turned a blind eye to a gang of neo-nazis committing multiple murders and terror attacks and which routinely dismisses attacks and conspiracies hatched by far-right extremists as “harmless” (at least until they threaten to violently challenge state power).

Now Nanuk faces the fight of his life – against the German judiciary – and he needs our support! The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has intervened to support Nanuk’s legal defence via his support team and we encourage anyone who believes that anti-fascism is ALWAYS self-defence to do likewise!

UPDATE: More Anti-Fascists Have All Charges DROPPED!

Our four friends, outside of the magistrates’ court this past Wednesday, after being their charges!

We have another happy update for you about the dozens of heroic anti-fascists who prevented a busload of migrants in London from being carted off to a prison barge! The 2nd trial of the arrestees concluded on Wednesday with all charges dropped! This is the 2nd trial of our friends and so far, the score is anti-fascists 2, authorities 0!

We’re not saying the excellent result is because the Defence Fund helped to make sure that the defendants had quality legal representation buuut we’re not saying that it’s not because of that, either!

In any event, the ordeal isn’t over yet for three dozen or so who haven’t had their day in court yet. If you’d like to help defray their legal costs, you can do that right here. Likewise, if you want to make sure the Defence Fund is ready to go the next time anti-fascists get done up on bogus charges, you can make a contribution here!