On September 6th, Antifa Philadelphia held a small demonstration and March in the Tacony section of North Philly. The motivation and call can be read here.
When we arrived, we were greeted by some opposition. “Wait,” you say… “How could anyone oppose something called ‘The March Against Racists and Rapists?’”
Enter Keystone United, also known as the Keystone State “Skinheads.”
KSS was so terrified of this event that they called every person they could to get them to come back them up. All in all, they called out about 10-20 boneheads who proceeded to threaten and harass protestors as they arrived. They were joined by one family, who has produced to date at least 2 Neo-Nazi scum spawn, and the head of the Tacony town watch, who was mad about being trolled by an Antifa Philadelphia member online after calling on us to cancel our march in the name of “maintaining the peace.” A member who told him exactly how we feel about groups like his. He had also alerted the police and must have told him something pretty wild because they were out in force that day.
A few days ago, KSS released their take on the events on their blog. Typical for Fascists, it was laughably inaccurate.
First, they referenced an incident a week earlier when a 9 year old boy was grazed by a bullet at the same intersection, and criticized Antifascists for not being out there to protest against gun violence; members of a Neo-Nazi gang of assaulters, rapists and murderers.
The Nazis claimed that the only people at the march were a handful of Antifa Philadelphia members while they received community support from “many locals of every race and color.”
In sum, KSS’ report back was another example of KSS tying to paint adversaries as “outside agitators.”
Forgetting even for a moment that we don’t need anyone’s permission to protest against Nazis and Rapists, KSS is just lying.
Here is the entire opposition to the March Against Racists and Rapists, minus at most 1-3 people.
We know these faces. They came from Harrisburg. Scranton. Mechanicsburg. Altoona. New Jersey. KSS was so scared by this march they rang the alarm to their entire network of members and supporters. Those are the people who came out in Tacony against us to accuse us of being “outside agitators.”
This is what KSS means when it says “community.” It means their community of White Fascists. That’s who counts in their mind. The people that came out to support Antifa Philadelphia, the people who we spoke with while flyering that neighborhood during the lead up for the march who expressed sympathy for our goals, the people of color and GLBT and anti-racists could never be from “their” community.
Here are some of the Nazis who opposed Antifa Philadelphia and our supporters.
Our crowd was almost entirely Philadelphia residents, with the majority being from Tacony. And not only Philly residents, but ones willing to stand out in the pouring rain surrounded by police while Neo-Nazis snarled and screamed at them. And give it back to them. A crowd of people who feel that a situation where Klansman and Nazis are recruiting youth and assaulting women in the street is unacceptable. People interested in little things like freedom and equality. That’s a community. Not a bunch of guys on a phone tree who live hours away from you.
It was inevitable that KSS would try and claim this as a victory. We see it more as the beginning of the end for them in the last neighborhood in Philly they felt safe.
Antifa Philadelphia
P.S. – Daryle at OPP was in attendance and has his take as well.