Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last two years, you may have noticed that far right extremists have shifted their apoplectic rage towards drag queens and trans people as of late. There have been hundreds of violent attacks on events featuring drag queens and events supporting trans people’s right to simply exist.
Most of us would stay home and let the event organizers, performers, and attendees fend for themselves. But not Leif. Leif put his body on the line defending people from the bigots’ physical violence, crucially intervening when the armed goons attacked people as they left the event.
Of course, the dozens of police on the scene doing nothing to protect people eventually stepped in to the altercation to make an arrest OF LEIF! Incredibly, despite the overwhelming evidence showing Leif acting in self-defense and in the defense of others, he’s the one now going on trial this month.
Defending people against murderous, bigoted thugs shouldn’t mean you end up facing prison time and thousands of dollars in legal fees. We’ve stepped in to help Leif defray those costs. You can too by contributing to Leif’s crowdfunder. You’re also always welcome to help us get emergency support to the people defending drag shows and countering transphobic hate by making a contribution to the Defence Fund.
Imagine going out for a drink with your mates and by chance picking a bar where high-ranking members of one of the most racist organizations in the country are socializing. If you’re like some of the friends of Offensive Antifasciste Bordeaux, you’d take that as the perfect opportunity to have a frank and honest exchange of views with the bigots of Rassemlement national (RN).
Unfortunately and before our five friends could really, really drive their points home, Bordeaux police intervened and as a result, charged and convicted them with various offences. Now, in addition to prison time, our friends face court fees, lawyer bills, and damages. The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has intervened to help defray some of these costs and we stand with the heroes of Bordeaux for defending their preferred drinking spot from a fascist invasion. Never let them have the bar!
Andy “Antifa Milkshakes Bring Me To Their Yard” Ngo
Andy Ngo is a one-trick pony. The guy just can’t stop trying to repeat his past success of making himself a victim to grift for $$$. More recently than the infamous milkshaking of this clown and liar, he once again tried to provoke a left-wing demonstration and wound up running back to his fancy hotel to hide, which of course he then used as the pretext to sue anyone he thought may have been at the protest he went to antagonize. In the hopes of suing them later. True, is probably preferable to when he was compiling hit lists for a neo-nazi terrorist organization, but still not cool.
Of course, on the other side of things, this meant that some of the leftists & anti-fascists Ngo was trying to sue in court for opposing him had to hire lawyers to defend themselves against this lawsuit. One of those people included a single mom who had to put up a crowdfunder to pay her lawyer. She reached out to the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund for support and how could we say no to contributing to a 0 in court for Andy’s score card?
The Defence Fund has proven this time and time again – when anti-fascists can afford good lawyers, they beat the cases against them in court. We’re help to help make sure every anti-fascist facing a trial has solid legal representation standing there with them. Please help us continue to do that.
But sometime he’s not just an amusing buffoon. Sometimes he and his pals from his far-right extremist current affairs site (no, not the far-right extremist current affairs site he used to be the editor of, the other one he started on his own) put on stunt events. Like earlier this year, when they hosted a “debate” in Pittsburgh about whether trans people have a right to exist.
As you can imagine, the good people of Pittsburgh (were NOT having it and hundreds of them showed up to try to shut it down. As you probably would have guessed, the police were out in full force to protect the transphobic stochastic terrorists from the people who did not want them to dehumanize trans people. Arrests were made, two of which reached out to us for some help with their legal defense which we were happy to provide. We hope their lawyers make a mockery of the prosecution’s case as easily as it is to make a mockery of anything Ben Shapiro believes.
Last month, the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund helped out an anti-fascist in Oregon after a confrontation with a neo-nazi “active club” member in Oregon City left the fash not-so active and the anti-fascist in handcuffs.
This altercation happened after right-wing groups assembled in Oregon City to protest an LBGTQ+ pride event. However, antifascists may have been the least of their problems that day, as the reactionary goons once again proved that no one hates fascists like other fascists. The protest turned embarrassing for the anti-trans and homophobic bigots when a crew of Portland, Oregon-based Proud Boys couldn’t keep track of who they were supposed to be protesting. They had a running beef with certain members of the local neo-nazi scene, and took the opportunity to attack members of the Rose City Nationalists (RCN), a crew also based in Portland that is part of the broader neo-nazi “active club” network.
While there is a certain entertainment value in watching fascists beat each other up, the police in Oregon City still opted to arrest and charge an antifascist in the midst of it all – one of many comrades who have suffered consequences for standing up to bigoted, authoritarian violence, and who need ongoing support. If you’d like to help us continue to help them, please consider donating to the Defence Fund.
Atlanta po-po bring out the SWAT team to arrest three people for “charity fraud.” Yeah, this doesn’t look at all like an intimidation tactic!
Our Defence Fund shares a lot on common with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund. Like them, we provide a LOT of legal defense support to anti-fascists facing trouble because of their anti-fascist work. In fact, the Atlanta Solidary Fund got its start in 2016 defending anti-fascists arrested after shutting down a KKK rally – something we also helped out with!
This case has far-reaching implications – certainly for our own Defence Fund but also for any effort to raise money and resources to resist anything that police support. One can see how this is an attack on the constitutional rights of citizens to protest or show solidarity with protestors. More immediately to us: successful prosecution of these three would pave the way to shutting down our own anti-fascist fundraising operations.
Given that, our Defence Fund has made a sizeable contribution to the crowdfunder for the legal defense of the admins of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund – something that you can also do, if you think that criminalizing attempts to support public protest is wrong and defending those brave enough to publicly raise their voices in opposition to injustice is an important part of the society you want to live in.
The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund was established in June of 2015, when members of the Antifa International collective saw the need for a standing fund to be used to provide emergency support to antifascists when, as a result of their anti-fascist work, they were in trouble and needed immediate assistance.
Eight years on and the Defence Fund has provided emergency support to antifascists the world over, whenever they’ve faced dire circumstances resulting from their work thwarting bigotry and fascism. It remains the only international anti-fascist solidarity project we’re aware of that’s dedicated exclusively to supporting antifa in emergencies. To-date we have provided over $200,000USD in emergency aid to more than 700 antifascists in 25 different countries.
Since last June, we’ve intervened eighteen times to provide game-changing levels of support and material aid to two dozen antifascists in eleven different countries (Canada, Germany, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, and the US). This amounted to $42,310.23USD worth of support we’ve provided since June 2022.
83% of the funds disbursed since June 2022 went towards legal defence, court costs, fines, and prisoner support; 16% of contributions coveredemergency relocation costs for antifascists who had been threatened at their homes by fascists. Repairing property damage accounted for the remaining funds disbursed over the last twelve months (1%).
This was money well-spent; our interventions helped save antifascists from life-altering circumstances they were facing, solely because of their public opposition to fascism. Over the last twelve months, we’ve helped antifascists in dire situations stay healthy, get to safety, and stay free. You can read about the people we’ve helpedon our blog with two exceptions – an antifascist whose circumstance require us to not publicly reveal any details of their case, for security reasons; and one whose upcoming trial might be harmed by revealing any details.
The Defence Fund is operated by the Decisions Crew – a body of antifascists from around the world who have made contributions of at least $20USD to the Defence Fund. Decisions about how the Defence Fund operates are made via consensus wherever possible and by majority vote in circumstances where consensus is not forthcoming. In our first year, there were all of 45 Decisions Crew members. As of today, more than 1500 antifascists from 25 different countries have been invited to join the Decisions Crew.
As more and more places drop COVID restrictions altogether, we are seeing increasing numbers of clashes between far-right extremists and people opposed to their bigotry and violence. We fully expect this “return to normal” to result in a huge spike in requests for emergency support over the coming months – indeed, during the past two months alone the Defence Fund handled five different request for help from eleven anti-fascists and sent out $22,500USD worth of emergency aid in response. In order to be prepared to offer as much support as possible, there is currently an urgent need to build our reserve fund back up, so it’s put to use as effectively as possible when called upon.
We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done with The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund and we firmly believe it has proven itself as one of the most effective ways to support antifascism. We strongly encourage anyone opposed to bigotry and fascism to make a contribution to the Defence Fund today and become actively involved in our project of international antifascist solidarity!
You’ve probably noticed by now that biggest proponents of “the master race” idea don’t tend to be outstanding examples of that same idea themselves. To be blunt, white supremacists do not tend to be obvious exemplars of the alleged mental, moral, or physical supremacy of the “white race.” This tendency towards the Dunning Kruger Effect also appears to extend to the realm of civil law, given that a white supremacist managed to hire a lawyer to sue The Torch Antifa Network over some imagined slight of some kind. The problem is he’s yet to, you know, sue The Torch Antifa Network and instead is attempting to sue venerable anti-racist charity One People’s Project on the basis of OPP having once registered a website for The Torch Antifa Network. We’ll let OPP head Daryle Lamont Jenkins tell the story:
So there you have it. The brilliant plan to sue The Torch Antifa Network out of existence stumbles out of the blocks by not managing to sue the correct group.
If you’d like to help One People’s Project turn their legal defense against this nonsense into a legal offense, you can make a donation to them here.
If you’d like to help the Defence Fund makes sure that anti-fascists are able to defend themselves against malicious and vexatious legal actions taken against them, you can make a donation to the Defence Fund here.
August 2022: Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club defending a drag event in Roanoke, TX.
The Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club gained fame/notoriety this past summer for having the gall to show up to defend drag & LGBTQ+ events in Texas from armed bigots who were turning up regularly to threaten event attendees. Note the word “armed” in that last sentence. Not being suicidal and also understanding that bigots on the far-right have been responsible for the lion’s share of terrorist violence in the US for years now, the EFJBGC came armed, too. Turns out the principle of “mutually-assured destruction” worked and the fascists kept their guns holstered and a respectful distance from the events they came to attack, as well as from the well-armed defenders of said events.
Which is not to say that the far-right left it at that. Fox and other far-right media channels went into full-on pearl-clutching mode about “armed antifa” and suddenly some of the most pro-gun news outlets out there were called for gun control! Needless to say, daring to show up well-equipped to defend drag/LGBTQ+ events had put the EFJBGC on the map and on the radar of the far-right.
So it comes as little surprise that last month, when our friends were doing their thing in defence of a drag show at a Texas brewery, the police put as much heat as possible on them, ignoring the far-right chuds that had shown up to try to shut the event down. Three of our friends took bullshit arrests that day and now need help defending themselves in the courts. The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund we honored to be in a position to help defend those defenders.
This is the context that makes Orban’s Hungary a beacon of fascism, attracting other fascist insects like Tucker Carlson. It also draws neo-nazis from all parts of Europe, who make an annual pilgrimage to take part in the so-called “Day of Honor” march in Budapest commemorating nazi war criminals. Fortunately, Hungary still has anti-fascists who are not afraid to confront the march each year and shut it down, but at this year’s march, the Budapest police used the full force of the state to oppress the anti-fascists, kettling 150 of them and arresting four. The police then leaked mugshots, names, and addresses of the arrestees to the media, leading to manhunts and death threats from Hungarian fascists. Now both Hungarian and German police are collaborating to identify as many anti-fascists from both countries as possible, while Orban and his media cronies fuel a debate about banning anti-fascist groups altogether.
Right now, our main concern is with the arrestees, so we have answered Rote Hilfe Berlin’s call for donations and recommend you do the same. Fighting hatred is never a crime. Anti-fascism is always self-defence. Solidarity is our weapon.
The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund 
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