On the night of February 21st 2022 in Providence, Rhode Island, the Red Ink Community Library’s “Red Book Day,” which gathered anti-capitalist forces from around the state in the form of anarchists, socialists, and Communists for a celebration of the anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, was cut short by shrieked racist slurs and sieg heils. It was only forty-five minutes into the reading when a bloc of fascists, adorned with sonnenrads and SS symbols, arrived to bait the Communists and fellow travelers into a physical confrontation. The assembled leftists showed more bravery and self control than the neo-Nazis had anticipated, and when the incident was said and done everybody walked away unharmed. Even so, the boldness and belligerence of the neo-Nazi attack and the fact that they were were not only prepared for, but hoping to provoke an exchange of street violence, reveals the danger their formations pose to organizers in Rhode Island.
It is critical to understand that this is not an isolated incident. Openly-fascist organizing is not new to Rhode Island, just as it isn’t new to any other state in the U.S. Empire. The attack on Red Ink fits neatly not only into the deeply reactionary, blood-soaked history of this settler-republic, but also tracks with an observed uptick in violent right-wing and paramilitary activity in New England generally, and Rhode Island specifically.
Two organizations, Patriot Front, which is a broad fascist organization headquartered in Texas, and NSC-131, a self declared neo-Nazi organization, are responsible for the bulk of fascist activity in Rhode Island. Both are a product of a milieu of new fascist organization that bubbles up from, and finds fertile soil in, a white suburban petit-bourgeoisie that finds itself increasingly subject to downward pressure and proletarianization. On the national stage, Patriot Front has launched a campaign of violent terror and reactionary propaganda against left-wing organizations and marginalized groups across the country. An accounting of all of Patriot Front’s vile acts is beyond the scope of this piece, but notably the organization recently found national attention after 31 of its masked and uniformed members, armed with bludgeoning weapons, knives, and handguns, were arrested in Washington State on their way to attack a local Pride parade. NSC-131 (“Nationalist Social Club,” an intentional nod to National Socialism, and 131 for ACA: Anti-Communist-Action) has a smaller, more regional footprint, operating in New England and based mainly in New Hampshire.
Between them and their partners the Proud Boys, as well as various presumably unorganized fascist elements in the area, a major intensification of fascist activity is sweeping the state. According to the Anti-Defamation League (a liberal organization with dubious politics which nevertheless offers systemic tracking of certain types of fascist activity), Rhode Island saw an increase of 384% in terms of incidents of white supremacist activity as measured by propaganda actions between 2019 and 2021. Propaganda depicting NSC as a white vanguard defending New England against a Black and Jewish “assault” has been distributed in several Providence suburbs and the city itself. According to the Providence Journal, in July members of NSC-131 were apprehended by East Providence police having just posted their racist flyers at the Gordon School on Maxfield Avenue, an institution that teaches children as young as five and as old as thirteen, and which touts itself as a leader in progressive and inclusive education in the state. It should be noted that the local police did not arrest the fascists because of an objection to the content of their propaganda, but rather because East Providence has a law against stapling paper to light posts and because the fascists refused to identify themselves when asked.
The attack on Red Ink is not alone; the local office of Black Lives Matter Providence was also attacked by fascists in December of 2021.
All the evidence points towards a steady increase in right-fascist numbers, determination, and organizational strength. Their campaign of terror and repression against the nationally oppressed, and against LGBT persons and persons of oppressed genders, in Rhode Island demonstrates conclusively that the most violent reactionaries have entered a new phase in the past few years, one in which their forces strengthen themselves and coalesce with ever increasing ferocity and speed.
As Communists, we understand that fascism is but the most naked, most brutal expression of the bourgeois dictatorship. We understand that American fascism traces its roots back not just to the legacy of Hitler and Mussolini, but back further, through the history of the Ku Klux Klan and the genocidal slave regime of the old south; through the settler militias which raped, murdered, and expropriated their way across an entire continent of indigenous peoples. We know that Patriot Front and NSC-131 and all the rest are the inheritors of the legacy of those who, by force of arms and fire and terror, brought down Reconstruction and foreclosed the possibility of a democratic revolution in the Black Belt, plunging millions of ex-slaves back into the most inhuman living conditions and ensuring that the centuries-old regime of white supremacy would continue to rule over the land unthreatened. These forces, working with the support, sometimes open, sometimes cloaked, of the imperialist ruling class, draw their foot soldiers from among the dissatisfied white male suburbanites and put them to work suppressing any movement which threatens the dictatorship of capital and the reign of white supremacy. The more conditions in North America worsen, the more profits dry up, the more the internal contradictions of capitalist society sharpen, the more emboldened these most reactionary of capital’s defenders will become; and, indeed, the more the capitalist bourgeoisie will rely on them to do their dirty work.
The workers, the nationally oppressed, LGBT persons, non-men, and everyone who stands on the side of progress and liberty must stand firm and stand together in the face of the fascist terror. We must turn to community self-defense and self-organization to turn capital’s foot soldiers away from our neighborhoods, our cities, and our childrens’ schools. We must be clear that antifascist street tactics can and do work when deployed by a determined, organized community. This does not mean seeking out and violently engaging the organized fascist right at the first opportunity. Launching ourselves ill-prepared against Patriot Front or NSC-131, challenging them on an individual basis in the streets, or allowing them to bait us into a confrontation that can only happen on their terms, things might satisfy our sense of justice or our immediate desire to engage in the struggle in a real and visceral way, but a rejection of studied tactics won’t make our communities any safer. Worse, when we are unprepared or unorganized and we engage on the terms set by the right fascists, it merely strengthens their resolve and increases their numbers. It is only through superior organization that we can carry the day.
Obviously, we cannot rely on the police to defend us. They support the American white supremacist status quo and many — a great many — individual officers are sympathetic to (or are actually members of) fascist organizations. We must rely on each other, instead.
Talk to your neighbors, organize open and frank public conversations among those in your neighborhood who reject the encroachment of white supremacists into their streets. Develop plans for neighborhood watches in areas targeted by the fascists for propagandizing and recruitment. Educate yourself and your neighbors about self-defense and first aid. Prepare to send defenders to the Planned Parenthoods and mosques and synagogues and protests and marches and anywhere else the fascists dare to show their faces. Strengthen your connections with your community so that you can stand up against the enemy and teach them that the oppressed masses of this country will not be cowed by the fascist terror.
