Thread: Shutdown of Minutemen & No Borders March

http://www.libcom.org/newswire/print.ph ... 02/3382849

Shutdown of Minutemen & No Borders March
Posted under Anti-Fascism by antifa on Sunday October 02 2005 @ 09:56AM BST
The Minutemen Project is a grouping of various armed anti-immigrant, white supremacist, and nationalist vigilante factions that sprung up recently in Arizona, and two months ago were invited to California by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Communique & Reportback on the Sep. 16-18 actions to Shutdown the Minutemen--Confrontation with and disruption of the Minutemen/No Borders March

Released by the organizers of the actions’ Bay Area contingent:
Anarchist Action-San Francisco
Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minutemen

The Minutemen faction FBP canceled their patrol because of direct action and opposition.

The Minutemen Project is a grouping of various armed anti-immigrant, white supremacist, and nationalist vigilante factions that sprung up recently in Arizona, and two months ago were invited to California by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their stated aim is to patrol the U.S./Mexico border and stop “illegal� migrants and “terrorists� from crossing the border into the U.S, and they have extensive ties to neo-Nazi and “Aryan� power groups. They have been actively patrolling the border with guns, threatening, detaining, harassing, and trampling the human rights of migrants attempting to cross. Already they have murdered two migrant workers in cold blood.

One such faction, The Friends of the Border Patrol, announced earl this Summer that they would monitor the stretches between San Diego's Border Field Park and Calexico starting September 16, the same date as Mexican Independence day. When they showed up on the weekend of Sep. 16-18, they were met by hundreds of direct action protestors confronting them, marching against borders, and disrupting their operations. The FBP leadership announced that they were forced to stop their patrols, at least for the week, if not for good. The actions were organized by a wide array of groups, organizations, and coalitions (about thirty) fighting for immigrant freedom in Calexico, Mexicali, San Diego, San Francisco and the South Bay, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, and other places. These included: Genta Unida, O.r.g.a.n.i.c. Collective, La Tierra es de Todos, The o.r.g.a.n.i.c. Collective, Anarchist Action, Bay Area Coalition to Fight the Minutemen, Blast Furnace Radio, Pittsburgh, PA, ABC Melbourne Australia. Anti-Racist Action LA, San Diego Renters Union, Peninsula Anarchist, Collective, San Diego Indymedia, El Laboratorio de Integracion Plastica "La Gargola", Mexico City, Anarchists in Mexicali, Mecha from Bakersfield, and others.

In San Diego, The Friends of the Border Patrol’s training session was shut down early in the morning of September 17, by a group of around 50 protestors yelling “No Borders, No Racists, No Classes, No Nationsâ€?. The FBP members were primarily middle-class, white, and male. The protesters blocked off the entrance to the Scottish Rites Center for a period of time, where the FBP training session was located and destroyed the FBP’s registration table and flag. Anti-racist protestors got up in the FBP’s faces, shouting and screaming. Physical clashes broke out between the fascists and the anti-racist protestors after a few of the vigilantes began to physically attack the protesters, including one who tackled and jumped a protestor. Then the policeâ€â€

With enemies as good as this at getting their messages into the hearts of the voting public and accepted by them as policy who needs friends?

What is needed in this sort of situation is not more men to go oppose the people who interfered with the meeting and wrote the above article. It is cameras so that the general public can see what the opposition is like and vote to pass policy against them.