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Slate has an excellent article today: “Yes, What About the “Alt-Left”? What the counter-protesters Trump despises were actually doing in Charlottesville last weekend.”
The article includes testimony from several individuals who put their lives on the line in counter demonstrations. Many consider themselves to have been saved from violence by the antifa. I can’t do it all because of fair use, but I’ll hit some highlights.
Brandy Daniels
Postdoctoral fellow at the Luce Project on Religion and Its Publics at UVASome of the anarchists and anti-fascist folks came up to us and asked why we let them through and asked what they could do to help. Rev. Osagyefo Sekou talked with them for a bit, explaining what we were doing and our stance and asking them to not provoke the Nazis. They agreed quickly and stood right in front of us, offering their help and protection.snip [100 Neo-Nazis rushed them with weapons]Based on what was happening all around, the looks on their faces, the sheer number of them, and the weapons they were wielding, my hypothesis or theory is that had the antifa not stepped in, those of us standing on the steps would definitely have been injured, very likely gravely so.
A Charlottesville resident, Rebekah Menning
No police officers in sight (that I could see from where I stood), and we were prepared to be beaten to a bloody pulp to show that while the state permitted white nationalists to rally in hate, in the many names of God, we did not. But we didn’t have to because the anarchists and anti-fascists got to them before they could get to us. I’ve never felt more grateful and more ashamed at the same time. The antifa were like angels to me in that moment.
And the minister I quote in the title:
Rev. Seth WispelweyDirecting minister of Restoration Village Arts and consulting organizer for Congregate C'villeI am a pastor in Charlottesville, and antifa saved my life twice on Saturday. Indeed, they saved many lives from psychological and physical violence—I believe the body count could have been much worse, as hard as that is to believe.snipA phalanx of neo-Nazis shoved right through our human wall with 3-foot-wide wooden shields, screaming and spitting homophobic slurs and obscenities at us. It was then that antifa stepped in to thwart them. They have their tools to achieve their purposes, and they are not ones I will personally use, but let me stress that our purposes were the same: block this violent tide and do not let it take the pedestal.The white supremacists did not blink at violently plowing right through clergy, all of us dressed in full clerical garb.
In a comment in a post last night, I questioned the antifa tactics. I worry about two groups of armed demonstrators facing off and the capacity for much loss of life.
Nonetheless, I cannot ignore that the people Donald Trump (and some centrists who know better) call the Alt-Left saved lives because they were willing to fight back and protect others.
It’s easy from the safety of blogging to see things as black and white. Criticize the antifa. But those people putting their asses on the line against Nazis and Klansmen offer profoundly moving testimony about the antifa’s role.
Read the entire Slate article. Many more testify about how the antifa protected them from harm.
Slate has an excellent article today: “Yes, What About the “Alt-Left”? What the counter-protesters Trump despises were actually doing in Charlottesville last weekend.”
The article includes testimony from several individuals who put their lives on the line in counter demonstrations. Many consider themselves to have been saved from violence by the antifa. I can’t do it all because of fair use, but I’ll hit some highlights.
Brandy Daniels
Postdoctoral fellow at the Luce Project on Religion and Its Publics at UVASome of the anarchists and anti-fascist folks came up to us and asked why we let them through and asked what they could do to help. Rev. Osagyefo Sekou talked with them for a bit, explaining what we were doing and our stance and asking them to not provoke the Nazis. They agreed quickly and stood right in front of us, offering their help and protection.snip [100 Neo-Nazis rushed them with weapons]Based on what was happening all around, the looks on their faces, the sheer number of them, and the weapons they were wielding, my hypothesis or theory is that had the antifa not stepped in, those of us standing on the steps would definitely have been injured, very likely gravely so.
A Charlottesville resident, Rebekah Menning
No police officers in sight (that I could see from where I stood), and we were prepared to be beaten to a bloody pulp to show that while the state permitted white nationalists to rally in hate, in the many names of God, we did not. But we didn’t have to because the anarchists and anti-fascists got to them before they could get to us. I’ve never felt more grateful and more ashamed at the same time. The antifa were like angels to me in that moment.
And the minister I quote in the title:
Rev. Seth WispelweyDirecting minister of Restoration Village Arts and consulting organizer for Congregate C'villeI am a pastor in Charlottesville, and antifa saved my life twice on Saturday. Indeed, they saved many lives from psychological and physical violence—I believe the body count could have been much worse, as hard as that is to believe.snipA phalanx of neo-Nazis shoved right through our human wall with 3-foot-wide wooden shields, screaming and spitting homophobic slurs and obscenities at us. It was then that antifa stepped in to thwart them. They have their tools to achieve their purposes, and they are not ones I will personally use, but let me stress that our purposes were the same: block this violent tide and do not let it take the pedestal.The white supremacists did not blink at violently plowing right through clergy, all of us dressed in full clerical garb.
In a comment in a post last night, I questioned the antifa tactics. I worry about two groups of armed demonstrators facing off and the capacity for much loss of life.
Nonetheless, I cannot ignore that the people Donald Trump (and some centrists who know better) call the Alt-Left saved lives because they were willing to fight back and protect others.
It’s easy from the safety of blogging to see things as black and white. Criticize the antifa. But those people putting their asses on the line against Nazis and Klansmen offer profoundly moving testimony about the antifa’s role.
Read the entire Slate article. Many more testify about how the antifa protected them from harm.
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