Fascists Fail to Disrupt Boston Anarchist Bookfair

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Following the Sunday, November 18 attempt by neo-fascist group Patriot Front to storm and harass the Boston Anarchist Bookfair, the organizing collective released the following statement on the incident. You can follow the Boston Anarchist Bookfair‘s social media on Facebook and Twitter.

November 19, 2018 — Boston, MA

First off, we’d like to thank everyone who tabled, presented, and attended this year’s Boston Anarchist Bookfair.

Well, not everyone who attended:

Five masked fascists attempted to storm the Boston Anarchist Bookfair on Sunday November 18th 2018. Their masks themselves were emblazoned with fasces and arrows, the symbols of neo-Nazi organizations Patriot Front and Vanguard America, from which the former split last year.

Their chants included “Blood and Soil,” a direct translation of “blut and boden,” a phrase long associated with German ultranationalists and popularized by Richard Walther Darré for the Nazi Party, as well as “strong borders, strong nation.” Bookfair participants quickly assembled and prevented the fascists from entering the tabling room, expelling them from the building with chants of “Nazis out!” The physical danger and invasion of our space was prevented without the involvement of the police, who would have relished the opportunity to target us as well, or campus security. This is the second time in the last two years that Patriot Front have attempted to enter an anarchist bookfair and were repelled by collective action (the other being the Houston Anarchist Book Fair in September 2017).

We do not wish to understate the severity of neo-nazis in broad daylight dawning masks and attempting to intimidate those they view as a threat to their quest for domination. We, however, do not wish that they succeed in their goals of intimidating us or our friends, comrades, and supporters. While open displays of fascist rhetoric should be taken very seriously, they were massively outnumbered, unable to even enter the bookfair, and driven away in a matter of minutes. We demonstrated our ability to stand together when the moment required it. As always, solidarity is our most powerful weapon against the fascist threat.

As anarchists we seek to embody everything the fascists oppose. In the face of white supremacy we build anti-racist solidarity, not only in opposition to the fascists but also against all embodiments of settler colonialism and the carceral state. In the face of white nationalism we declare our opposition to the state and we work towards the self-emancipation of the international working class. In the face of attacks on migrants and the strengthening of borders we seek to tear down the walls that divide us and defend our friends, families, and community members from deportation. In the face of patriarchy and enforcement of hierarchical gender and sexual norms we embrace revolutionary feminism and the possibilities for freedom that emerge from queerness. In the face of capitalist crises and appeals to authority for protection we struggle for a world without bosses or politicians, knowing that we alone can save ourselves. This is the heart of anti-fascism and we will never let the threat of fascist thugs prevent us from loving and supporting one another or fighting for a world rooted in freedom and equality. Our bonds of solidarity are based in our shared struggles for freedom. Do not believe for a second that efforts to intimidate us will shake these bonds, let alone break them: it will only make them stronger.

– Boston Anarchist Bookfair organizing collective


This statement was originally published by the Boston Anarchist Bookfair organizing collective. For further details on the incident, read “Small Band of Fascists Attempting to Disrupt Boston Anarchist Bookfair Are Quickly Repelled.”