by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
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gas rifles and on horseback stood behind them. The great metal fence was between
us and them; it was composed of massively heavy sections, almost inextricably linked
together. Amazingly, we were able to get one of the sections free, and pushed forward
with it and a couple of our own barricades against the lines of police that immediately
rushed to meet us. This confrontation was much more pitched than the earlier one had
been; the police rained blows upon us, and we struck back, lifting the visors of their
helmets to even the odds where necessary. One particularly aggressive officer lost his
head in the fray and found himself surrounded by us^?^his colleagues had to snatch him
over the fence to safety. It was real pandemonium at times, when police and protesters
were mixed up and the lines between them became unclear; I believe at one point I even
saw a demonstrator make use of a stage diving technique to get into the action! Once
again, those the police attempted to nab for arrests were freed, but we failed to make
much headway against their lines. In the end, we lifted the section of metal fencing over
our heads and passed it to the back of the crowd, where it was dropped into a pit at the
foot of the building behind us so it would not block further advances on our part. This
simple disposal of a large segment of the police barricade was gratifying, at least, but it
was dear we weren't prepared to break through their lines frontally.
The fascist rally was in fiill swing, now, with the two dozen of them who had made
it out of the parking lot holding their swastika flags and making their speeches, most
of which were drowned out by audience noise. The pohce had prohibited even the few
fascist sympathizers who had shown up from passing through their lines, perhaps as
^ ,.j. ., . ,. a result of our activities; it was only fascist would-be leaders, their children, and the
Antifasast Action '
60 cameras of the mainstream media on the site. Lacking other ideas as to how to interrupt
the event, some who had brought smoke bombs attempted to deploy one. The plywood banners that were still in our possession proved usefol here: by holding them up in the air, some were able to obscure the vision of the police ahead of us (though perhaps not of the rooftop snipers with binoculars) while others attempted to light and throw the smoke bomb. Under the circumstances this was imprudent at best, though, since at that point there were many around us who were not prepared for this level of risk. Some of us, not sure how we felt about what was going on, took it upon ourselves to form a buffer between the ones with the smoke bomb and everyone else. The inexperienced individual who attempted to hurl the smoke bomb once it was lit failed to get it past the banners, and it was something of a debacle, though no one was hurt (or especially frightened, with the possible exception of said individual). As my friend's high school band teacher always told him, practice at home!
Others among us took advantage of the sympathetic crowd cover to paint the buildings behind us with small slogans and artwork critical of fascism. Conversations took place, as well: people asked why we were wearing masks, and were generally understanding when we explained it was to avoid being profiled by the police?and, for that matter, the fascists, who were running surveillance of demonstrators for their own purposes.
The only decidedly negative reception any of us experienced came from two of the organizers of the permitted rally. One of them, a white man associated with the flagship state university, had come up to us when we were engaged in our standoff between the parking lot and the rally site, suggesting that we cease our militant activity and join the silent, passive protest in the permitted zone; he insistently persisted, providing no tactical rationale for why we should give up the gains we had made at that point, until one hotheaded young person finaUy asked if he was a police agent. The other, somewhat less absurdly, asked the demonstrator with the big drum to stop playing it in the proximity of the permitted zone, on the grounds that it was drowning out their silent protest' for t? ^'*'""
Antifascist Action 62
