Antifascist

Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Android | RSS Cover photo: Italian anarchist partisan fighters celebrate the defeat of fascism. In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we talk with long time indigenous author, artist, and organizer, Gord Hill, who for decades has written under the pen name, Zig Zag. While Gord is perhaps best known for documenting indigenous struggles across the so-called Americas, in his newest work for Arsenal Pulp Press , he takes on the history of fascism and resistance to it over the past 100 years in, The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements, which also features a forward by Mark Bray . ...

Jérôme Blanchet-Gravel is a fucking pig. It’s been a few months of hearing about the pretentious, racist, and misogynist young essayist Jérôme Blanchet-Gravel. Whether for his contributions as a “writer” or as a student at Laval University and Ottawa. He says disgusting things, both in the public sphere, as in his articles for reactionary media Causeur and Sputnik, but also in private, as shown by the screenshots that have leaked in recent weeks and been published on many FB pages. ...

On August 8, the racist far-right group PEGIDA and their friends the Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin, Northern Guard, and Canadian Combat Coalition got together for one of their now regular meetups and public displays of racism and Islamophobia. This time, it seemed they were particularly interested in using the upcoming anniversary of 9/11 to forward their anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant message. This is one individual’s report back on the day; ARC also has a good timeline and photos. ...

[Click on the image to download the poster]

This past August 25th, the racist group La Meute organized a “visibility action” with all its clans. No doubt sick of demonstrating while trapped in parking lots, this time Clan 02 decided to focus on its strengths: cars, and organized a float parade. From Chicoutimi to Saint-Félicien, passing though Jonquière, Saint-Bruno and Roberval along the way, the wolf cubs traveled in the comfort of their convoy of cars, decorated with spray paint and painter’s tape. ...

An interview with an anti-fascist based in Montreal. We discuss the history of the Quebec far right dating back to the 1930s, anti-fascist resistance in 1990s Montreal, and the contemporary context, including an important victory against La Meute on July 1, 2018.

On July 1st, La Meute, Storm Alliance, and a new group called “Independence Day” planned to converge in downtown Montreal and march against “illegal” immigration, in what La Meute promised would be a demonstration of “historic” proportions. Thanks to a coordinated response from local antifascists, antiracists, anarchists, communists, Indigenous and anticolonial activists, migrant justice groups, and concerned citizens, what it ended up being was a historically colossal failure. This was La Meute’s first attempt at a demonstration in Montreal since March 4, 2017 – and this time, they weren’t able to parade their vicious, hateful rhetoric through the streets. ...

Before the weekend of action On June 23rd, the addresses of a La Meute activist and another from Storm Alliance who live in Hochelaga were revealed and they were paid a little visit. June 27th, CRAM shared the claim for the painting of the Maisonneuve and Macdonald monuments. The weekend of action in photos A nice victory – we promised them hell, they got a taste of hell. ...

A particularly disgusting piece of “fake news” was being shared on social media following to two far-right rallies that occurred in Montreal on July 1st. While La Meute and Storm Alliance were immobilized by antifascists, a smaller march called by the Front Patriotique du Québec marched from Carré St-Louis to the Jacques Cartier Bridge. Within hours of the FPQ march ending, a story began to be shared in their networks – and also by members of La Meute, Storm Alliance, and other such groups – about a brutal attack on three Indigenous people who had been trying to join the FPQ march. According to this story, antifascists spotted these would-be Patriots at an unnamed metro station and beat them so badly they had to be hospitalized: ...

On July 1st, far right group La Meute planned to hold their “largest and best rally ever” in Montreal. Anti-fascists outnumbered them, surrounded them, and prevented them from marching by keeping them confined to a single block.

The leader of La Meute – Sylvain « Maikan » Brouillette – promised “the best demo in its history”. It was a monumental fiasco: (1) While La Meute claims to have 60,000 members, the exact number in the real world is more like 150… Buses came from as far away as the Saguenay. Adding up all their most devoted fans, La Meute was unable to gather more than 200 people, which includes their allies in Storm Alliance and Independence Day. What a shame for Mr. Brouillette! (How will Mr. Brouillette continue lying about the real membership of La Meute?) ...

Since the last boneheads (neonazi skinheads) were run out of the neighbourhood around 2008, the neighbourhood of Hochelaga had once again become a little paradise for bums like us, for punks, for counter-culture overall. It is a multicultural neighbourhood where we feel good, where everyone speaks to each other easily and where there is a lot of solidarity… Since the return and the multiplication of racist groups in Quebec since 2016, our neighbourhood hasn’t been immune but continues to resist and hold itself well! ...