White Supremacists Plan August 12 Rally in Charlottesville
Call Issued: “We say absolutely #NoNewKKK!”
Updated August 7, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This Call to Action was posted on Solidaritycville.com on July 25:
“On August 12, the alt-right plans to descend on our small town of Charlottesville, VA. Right now they claim to be bringing as many as 1,000 people to terrorize and intimidate anyone who disagrees with their ideology of white supremacy and toxic masculinity. We must outnumber them in order to #DefendCville. This is a call to everyone across the nation who feels called to stand in solidarity with Charlottesville to shout loud and clear that we say absolutely #NoNewKKK. Bring your friends, bring your skills, bring your voices, we are deeply grateful for every offer of support....”
The plan for a “Unite the Right March on Charlottesville” comes after recent confrontations between white supremacists and anti-KKKers. In May, after the city council decided to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, 100 white supremacists rallied with burning torches, some with automatic weapons, and chanted “We [white people] will not be replaced.” On July 8 a couple dozen KKKers, showed up, wearing white KKK robes, sporting handguns in holsters, carrying Confederate flags, and shouting “white power” slogans. A multinational crowd of about 1,000 counter-protesters rallied to SHUT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS DOWN. The cops protected the KKKers and brutalized anti-KKK protesters, arresting 22, four of whom now face felony charges.
Dr. Cornel West and Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon are among national leaders planning to go to Charlottesville—to support plans to confront the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally. And Congregate C’ville has issued a call for 1,000 clergy and faith leaders to travel to Charlottesville August 11-13 and local clergy and faith leaders are planning trainings, interfaith services, and opportunities for visible prayerful presence throughout the weekend.
Black Lives Matter has also issued a National Call to Action—“August 12th, Facing the Alt-Right, and Everything After,” which says, “We invite allies of Black Lives Matter to once again #DefendCville and to say #NoNewKKK for an entire weekend of action (August 11th-13th, 2017).”
A recent post at the Solidarity Cville website says: “We have seen time and again, from Berkeley to Portland, that a proven tactic of the alt-right is to use the freedom to assemble as a smokescreen to create a violent situation—and then count on law enforcement to intervene on their behalf by violently cracking down on their opponents. This is what we can reasonably expect to happen on August 12.... Even the white nationalist organizers acknowledge that they are not intending to peaceably assemble to exercise freedom of speech but are using the event as a pretext for violent attacks against their political opponents. Given this evidence, we cannot, as a city, continue to insist this is a free speech issue.”
The threats of reactionary violence are not intimidating anti-KKK organizers in Charlottesville who are calling on people in the city and “everyone in the nation” to come to the city on August 12 and shut this white supremacist shit down.
Stay tuned at revcom.us for ongoing coverage of this struggle in Charlottesville.
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