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.
EVESHAM TWP, NJ–Neo-Nazi Owen Carr, who as a member of the Atlantic City “Skinheads” (ACS) was one of the organizers of a white power concert in Atlantic City last summer died Tuesday of an apparent drug overdose, according to sources. He was 38.
While little details have been revealed, word of mouth and a Facebook posting since removed noted that Carr, who has had a long history of drug abuse, suffered the overdose sometime Tuesday evening. Friends have been posting tributes to him on his Facebook page over the past 24 hours. Carr has written in posts dating back to October 16, 2012 that even his mother was concerned about a drug problem, even writing him a letter about those concerns. “(S)omeone tell me am I in a Suicidal Tendencies video or on an episode of (I)ntervention?!?!” he joked as he referenced a line from the Suicidal Tendencies song “Institutionalized”. “Just get me a pepsi with ice ma!!!!”
TOGETHER AGAIN: Carr, left, with Atlantic City “Skinheads” Founder Brian Bradley who in 2011 was removed from our presence courtesy of a lightning bolt while he worked construction on the Revel Casino.
Carr, a longtime ACS member, was a supporter of far right/racist causes but seldom if at all participated in political rallies and other events, although he associated regularly with Philadelphia area neo-Nazi. He would often be seen at Philadelphia area punk and metal shows. On August 10, he was one of the main promoters, along with Aggravated Assault/Chaos 88 lead singer Warren Meicke of a white power concert at Le Grande Fromage in Atlantic City that brought out well-known hate bands such as No Remorse and Max Resist.
On January 11, Carr was arrested in a domestic violence incident that involved the mother of his two children. At press time it is not known what the case outcome had been. Carr leaves behind a son and daughter.
———————————————————————–
Every time one of these life-long boneheads from Atlantic City Skins dies the world looks a little brighter. No crew so embodies how much of a dead end being White Power is like ACS. What legacy does this guy leave behind except some police reports revealing that he failed as much at being a partner and father as he did at being a human being? We know Nazis read this blog. We hope this serves as a cautionary tale. You don’t want people like us celebrating your death. Give that shit up now or destroy yourself like Owen did. There is no future for fascism in Philadelphia or anywhere else.
