A few members of Antifa Philadelphia participated in Tonight’s (8/20) Rally and March in Solidarity with the people of Ferguson resisting the police and national guard called by the Travon Martin Organizing Committee.
From the call:
Another Black man dead. This would be just another day like every other day in America, if it weren’t for one simple fact: Ferguson turned out, stood up, and has refused to get back on its knees.
Mike Brown was days away from college? Don’t care.
Didn’t he steal some cigars? Don’t care.
What about the looters? Don’t care.
Mike Brown was black, guilty of only this, which made him guilty of all else: (jay)walking while black, (back)talking while black, breathing while black. Black like Oscar Grant, black like Kathryn Johnson, black like Renisha Mcbride, black like Eric Garner, like Rodney King, like Emmett Till. All black, and all guilty.
Mike Brown’s life was of value–is of value. Full stop. No college degree makes that so; no robbery takes that away. The people of Ferguson recognize this. White supremacy’s subtle baiting of thievery, college degrees and saggy pants and talking back does not.
We talk back. We turn up. We stand tall. With Ferguson–for Mike, for every black body in America robbed of its right to live–for every injustice that we are growing sick and tired of. We are done with your police/media slander campaigns. We are sick with anger.
Thanks to One People’s Project, Philly Antifa was alerted, less than 48 hours before, to a planned rally by several sects of the Ku Klux Klan in the city.
Masturbator Race
The KKK is extremely fragmented these days, so for an explanation of those involved we turn to DLJ over at One People’s Project:
“According to some reports, the threat of a Klan rally was brewing for just over a month in the Tacony section of Philadelphia after a local Grand Dragon was kicked out of a town watch organization. According to Joe Nicoletti of the Tacony/Holmesburg Town Watch, The East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire have been trying to start their own town watches, and have been trying to recruit within established committees such as his. When he discovered this among his own ranks, his town watch removed the person. In response, the Klan groups wanted to come out to the neighborhood in a “show of force” to support him. There was no public call or any messages on the internet announcing the event, but a permit was filed with the city. Police officials said they could not release the name of the person who filed the permit.
The Klansmen boasted upwards (of) 80 Klansmen were to participate with a number of high profile speakers on hand, but in the end only seven stood on the steps of the Tacony Library on the corner of Torresdale and Knorr. Among them were Richard Preston, Imperial Wizard of the Confederate White Knights of Rosedale, Md., which as only been in existance for three years, The Knights of the Nordic Order, which was founded by former Aryan Brotherhood members, and other Klansmen from Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. The East Coast Knights banner was unfurled during the rally.”
Thanks, DLJ
Despite almost no notice, over 60 people turned out to protest against the Klan. That number started as a handful but continued to grow as word spread throughout the neighborhood and people came out to join Philly Antifa, One People’s Project and their fellow Anti-Racists.
The rally was typical Klan fare these days: they had 7 people, a permit and police escort. They were slated to rally for 2 hours but were there for about 45 minutes. No one heard a word they said over the boos and jeers. Someone had also written a sign that said “honk if you hate the KKK” which elicited plenty of honks. The Klan left hurriedly. They didn’t even bother to talk shit except once inside their cars speeding away. But that wasn’t the end of the day for Antifa.
Instead, about 2 dozen people from the crowd got to talking about something: the fact that local Neo-Nazi organizers Bryan and Patricia Vanagaitis lived only a few blocks away. Together we walked over there to 6611 Ditman st. and said hello.
Gross. Uh, we mean…hello?
The crowd chanted “DEATH DEATH DEATH TO THE NAZIS” and “THIS IS OUR COMMUNITY NAZIS OUT NAZIS OUT” out front and spoke with the Vanagaitis’ neighbors, informing those who were unaware of their affiliations. Eventually it became clear that no one was coming out even though they answered the door when the cops knocked.
The Vanagaitis’ house. Hung above the porch was an Italian flag with a Fasces on it, a Fascist symbol associated with Mussolini.
Despite claims by KSS that they “prefer to be in the streets” in 2012 Greek Nazi Zine, the Vanagaitis’ passed on our invitations to come outside. In the same interview, the KSS member says that “The reds (meaning anyone who opposed fascism) in America are often times young, spoiled, suburban kids with no real desire to be face to face with us, or people of other groups…” (Omerta Terror Machine #28)
Vincent Pellegrino on the left, pictured also on the right along with his brother Nunzio (wearing the KSS Supporter shirt in the back) and Philly KSS member Joey Phy in front of Nunzio.
As One People’s Project has reported (as well as Philly.com and the Philadelphia Inquirer) Keystone State Skinheads (KSS) associate Vincent Pellegrino died on the morning of May 20th while fleeing the scene after sexually assaulting a woman in the 2600 Block of Collins Street.
Pellegrino crashed the car, which belonged to the woman he assaulted, into a wall along Westmoreland street and was pronounced dead at the scene minutes later. It is unknown whether he lost control of the car or intentionally crashed.
KSS (also known as Keystone United) had been trying desperately to fix their brand in recent years, changing between the two names frequently, and claiming in interviews that their acts of violence are all in the past. They would have us believe that these days they are just concerned nationalists. This incident demonstrates once again that KSS members and supporters are the scum of the earth, and no amount of careful media planning or timid behavior in public will make people forget this.
The Pellegrino brothers are both listed on the 6400 Block of Ditman street, only a few blocks from KSS members Patricia and Bryan Vanagaitis. Nunzio was the KSS supporter who recently attended a rally against Russian intervention in Ukraine. KSS members and other Neo-Nazis are lamenting Pellegrino’s death on social media and making absolutely no mention of the assault.
Rape and sexual assault are a global crisis. As much as we would love to blame it on Fascism, rapists (overwhelmingly but not always male) will claim to follow all sorts of political ideologies. What we can confidently say is that Fascism is and always has been a sexist and anti-woman movement.
“Woman’s world is her husband, her family, her children and her home. We do not find it right when she presses into the world of men.” – Adolph Hitler
Fuck you, Hitler.
Antifascists must support reproductive freedom, personal autonomy, an end to rape and rape culture, and oppose patriarchy and sexism. If we ignore those things in favor of making alliances with sexists who may be Anti-Nazi, we doom our movement to destroy itself with toxic people, as happens within Fascist movements routinely.
By now most of you have heard about the Misogynist murder spree of Elliott Rodgers, a so-called “nice guy” who was in reality a murderous sexist and racist to boot. Rodgers felt entitled to murder women for the “crime” of not wanting to sleep with him. He lamented online about how he couldn’t compete sexually with “inferior” black men. He had weapons and choose to turn them against unsuspecting young women because he felt entitled to do so.
Philly Antifa believe that we can live in a world without men like Elliott Rodgers and Vincent Pellegrino. That racism, sexism and hetero-patriarchy were concepts not borne from nature but intentionally engineered into our social and religious institutions as forms of control that have since become “tradition” or “just the way it is.” The fights against those evils are all unique and require different analysis and tactics, but they will either all be won or all be lost.
As we’ve written about before, every October for the past 7 years Neo-Nazis have converged on Philadelphia and held a “Leif Ericson Day Celebration” that is in reality an attempt to have a real street presence in Philadelphia for even just one day a year. Opposition to the event has increased pretty much every year, with last year’s being especially embarrassing to the boneheads because they had brought friends from as far as Texas and still could not match the numbers of the Antifascists, who prevented them from marching and drowned out their rally, sending the boneheads home with nothing to show for their efforts.
Shortly after the event we released the names and pictures of almost all the attendees, as well as listed their affiliations to KSS, Blood and Honour, The Vinlanders, and several other White Power organizations. We have also outed the primary organizers of the event and their locations in the city.
Philly Antifa, in conjunction with #Anonymous & #ro0ted #OpAntifa now bring you more attendees of Leif Ericson Day 2013’s real name and most recent known address.
Anthony James Olsen, Philly Director of KSS, 2912 Knorr Street, Philadelphia PAPatricia Benner Vanagaitis and Bryan Vanagaitis, Philly KSS. 6611 Ditman Street, Philadelphia PAPatrick Rogers, KSS Supporter. 815 Wilson St Williamsport, PA 17701Joseph Phy, KSS – 4838 Salmon St., Philadelphia PA
Elizabeth and Michael Marcink – Vinlanders – 11340 W. Shipshewana IN
Donald M. Palmer – Blood and Honour – 211 S. 7th St., Unit A, Jeanette PABrien James – Head of Vinlanders – 2507 English Avenue, Indianapolis, INPatrick D. Westfall – Vinlanders – 4922 State Road 25 W, Lafayette INMatthew Heimbach – Founder of Traditionalist Youth Movement – 19616 Selby Ave, Poolesville, MD 20837. Allegedly recently moved in to a house with fellow TYN member Thomas Buhls at 3382 West Spruce Drive, Bloomington, IN 47403.
Jay Butterbaugh, Blood and Honour – 111 Elm Avenue, Hollidaysburg, PADavid “Matt” Parrot – Traditionalist Youth Network – 950 S. Ridgecrest Lane, Paoli, IN 47454Kevin McKeegan – KSS Supporter, Active with Council of Conservative Citizens and European American Action Coalition, a group founded by KSS chairman Steve Smith. 149 New Street, Glenside, PA 19038
We would like to call on local Antifa in these towns to pick up this fight and use this info to gather more intelligence to better combat your local Nazis. Their movements rely on anonymity; do not allow them to have it.
Philly Antifa would like to make it clear to the people listed below that coming to our city and contributing to KSS’ attempts to gain a foothold here, even for one ineffective day, is a provocation that will be met. Our allies are legion. All your friends do is invite you to get embarrassed and then targeted.
“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.” ― Sophie Scholl
We at Philly Antifa are pleased to announce our affiliation with the newly formed Torch Antifascist Network.
Points of Unity
1. We disrupt fascist and far right organizing and activity. 2. We don’t rely on the cops or courts to do our work for us. This doesn’t mean we never go to court, but the cops uphold white supremacy and the status quo. They attack us and everyone who resists oppression. We must rely on ourselves to protect ourselves and stop the fascists. 3. We oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation. We intend to do the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement of oppressed people centered on the working class against racism, sexism, nativism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed people. We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. We want a classless, free society. We intend to win! 4. We hold ourselves accountable personally and collectively to live up to our ideals and values. 5. We not only support each other within the network, but we also support people people outside the network who we believe have similar aims or principles. An attack on one is an attack on all.
On October 19th, 2013 a coalition of Neo-Nazis from as far away as Texas, massed together by the Blood and Honour network and led by the Keystone State Skinheads (KSS), converged on Philadelphia with the intention to march in formation through Faimrount park and rally at the statue of Thorfin Karlsefni.
From the moment they (numbering 30-40) arrived at the top of lemon hill the boneheads knew they were in for a long day. They were immediately set upon by an equal number of protestors who hurled insults and abuse at them and the police protecting them. At first Philly KSS head A.J. Olsen was pleasantly surprised at the turnout by Anti-Racists, but had his hopes deflated as moments later another 100+ protestors made their way up Lemon Hill and blocked their march route, linking arms and chanting “DEATH, DEATH, DEATH TO THE NAZIS…”
Civil Affairs police attempted to force their way past the bloc of Antifascists, who refused to give way. After several attempt to circumvent or push through the bloc, a few of the Nazi organizers frantically attempted to salvage the situation. Eventually they chose to abandon their attempts to march completely and instead to just walk down Lemon Hill in pairs and individuals with their own police escorts. Never has the old chant “the cops and klan go hand in hand” looked so literal.
This created what must have been the strangest and most exciting moment of the day, when the 200+ demonstrators, 30+ Nazis and 50+ civil affairs police met in a large mass, strolling down lemon hill together. One Antifa ripped the banner KSS has brought from their hands. One instantly-legendary lady Antifascist grabbed Vinlanders Social Club founder Brien James by the neck and arm and pulled him down until a civil affairs officer stepped in to rescue him from her. There were several more scuffles like that and by the time the Nazis reached the bottom of the hill the protestors had formed up in front of the statue while others enveloped the Nazis and cops on all sides.
Two Boneheads trying to snitch on an Antifascist who had torn one of the poles off their banner to the cops that were protecting them. No surprise there they snitch on each other so often. Fortunately, the Antifa escaped arrest.
The Nazis attempted to put on a brave face but were clearly rattled. Several of them made short speeches in a bullhorn but were drowned out by the jeering crowd of protestors and Antifascists. Brien James had the nerve to claim that we had “failed” to prevent them from holding their event, conveniently ignoring the fact that without the police protection they would have gotten stomped out the second they left their cars on lemon hill. Well, Brien, I guess that depends on how you define failure. For example, someone might say that when a group holds a march in formation for 6 years and then on the 7th is forced to run down the hill holding the hands of police detectives, one might call that a failure. When a group tries to lay wreath at a statue and cannot for five consecutive years because of a mass of people in opposition to them blocking their way, one might call that a failure. When the supposed largest Network of Neo-Nazis in this whole world can only mobilize 30-40 boneheads willing to show their faces in Philadelphia, scraping the bottom of the barrel (Aryan Teror Brigade, Advanced White Society and NSM, really?) and going as far as Texas for support, one might call THAT a failure.
Unfortunately, outside of light scuffling the Nazis escaped unscathed thanks to the police. Fortunately, there were no arrests.
Some of the Nazis who made the trip to Fairmount to be humiliated include:
Anthony James Olsen, Philadelphia Director of KSS and organizer of LEDBob Gaus, member of KSSBryan P. Vaganaitis, Philly KSSPatrick Rogers, KSS Supporter who lives in Williamsport, PAHeidi McCarthy, KSS SupporterJoseph Phy, Philly KSSRyan Wojitowicz, a member of the American Freedom Party and European American Action Coalition, support of KSS. Lives in Nanticoke, PAPatricia Vanagaitis. Married to and lives with Bryan.William “Bill” Decker. Active with Vinlanders and Blood and Honour. Lives in Rockton, PA. Works at Horizontal Well Drillers in Luthersville, PA. Their number is (814) 583-5074.Mikey Marcink. Active with Vinlanders. Pictured here with wife and fellow Nazi Elizabeth Marcink. They live in Shipshewana, IN.Michael Rohrich, active with Blood and Honour and Vinlanders. Lives in York, PA. From Fayetville, NC originally.Donald Palmer, Vinlanders. Lives in Irwin, PABrien James, Founder of Vinlanders. Lives in Indianapolis.Patrick D. Westfall, VinlandersDon Hansard, Vinlanders. His jacket said Oklahoma but he lives in Arlington, TX and is from Florida originally.Matt Heimbach, founder of Traditionalist Youth MovementJames Hastings, KSS SupporterRon Sheehy, member of Advance White Society from Tremley Point, NJ.Elizabeth McGrill, KSS Supporter. Why are all of these people named Pat, Matt, Brian or Elizabeth?Jay Butterbaugh, Blood and Honour. Lives in Holidaysburg, PAMatt Parrot, Traditionalist Youth NetworkKevin McKeegan, supporter of KSS. Active with EAAC and CCC. Lives in New Jersey
As per usual, we accept any and all verifiable intelligence on these clowns.
This is only another battle in the war against Blood and Honour. No one is buying this shit about a “Kinder, Gentler White Nationalist” except for idiots who believe what they read in the Philadelphia Weekly. The rest of us know what you do and what you’re about. You claim the random racist and homophobic/transphobic violence is all in the past?
That is a picture from this years’ Leif Erikson Day Celebration. Notice anything interesting, other than what that one lady is wearing? Seriously, she looks like she just woke up from 1985. But no, not her:
The bonehead walking next to Jay Butterbaugh is wearing an Aryan Terror Brigade bandanna. Two Aryan Terror Brigade members were convicted LAST AUGUST of attacking two Egyptian men in a random racist attack in New Jersey following a SOCIAL GATHERING of Neo-Nazis, not unlike Leif Erikson Day. Oh, and Aryan Terror Brigade was also started by this man.
We have no intention of letting Philadelphia be a rallying location for Blood and Honour, KSS, or any of these other little fucking crews of douche bags watering down their politics for the T.V. cameras and puffing out their chests. Oh, and those of you that who were too cowardly to actually even show up in Fairmount and just went to the after-party:
