931 WaPo: neo-communist Antifa thugs attack “No to Marxism” rally. Australian state outlaws Masked Demonstrators

*WaPo: neo-communist Antifa thugs attack “No to Marxism” rally.
Australian state outlaws Masked Demonstrators *

Newsletter published on 20 September 2017

*(1) WaPo: neo-communist Antifa thugs attack “No to Marxism” rally*

*(2) Australian state outlaws Masked Demonstrators*

**

*(1) WaPo: neo-communist Antifa thugs attack “No to Marxism” rally*

**

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-antifa-is-the-moral-equivalent-of-neo-nazis/2017/08/30/9a13b2f6-8d00-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html

Yes, antifa is the moral equivalent of neo-Nazis

Berkeley demonstrations turn violent

By Marc A. ThiessenAugust 30

This column has been updated.

Last weekend in Berkeley, Calif., a group of*neo-communist antifa —
“anti-fascist” — thugs attacked peaceful protesters at a “No to Marxism
in America” rally*, wielding sticks and pepper spray, and beating people
with homemade shields that read (I kid you not) “No Hate.” The Post
reports how one peaceful protester “was attacked by five black-clad
antifa member

Left-wing counterprotesters clashed with right-wing protesters and Trump
supporters on Aug. 27 in Berkeley, Calif. Violence erupted when a small
group of masked antifa and anarchists attacked right-wing demonstrators.
(The Washington Post)

By Marc A. ThiessenAugust 30

This column has been updated.

Last weekend in Berkeley, Calif., a group of neo-communist antifa —
“anti-fascist” — thugs attacked peaceful protesters at a “No to Marxism
in America” rally, wielding sticks and pepper spray, and beating people
with homemade shields that read (I kid you not) “No Hate.” The Post
reports how one peaceful protester “was attacked by five black-clad
antifa members, each windmilling*kicks and punches* into a man
desperately trying to protect himself.” Members of the Berkeley College
Republicans were then stalked by antifa goons who followed them to a gas
station and demanded they “get the [expletive] out” of their car,
warning, “We are real hungry for supremacists and there is more of us.”

The *organizer of the anti-Marxism protest is not a white supremacist*.
Amber Cummings is a self-described *“transsexual female who embraces
diversity”* and had announced on Facebook that “any racist groups like
the KKK [and] Neo Nazis . . . are not welcome.” The protest was needed,
Cummings said, because “Berkeley is a ground zero for the Marxist Movement.”

As if to prove Cummings’s point, the *antifa movement responded with
jackboots and clubs* — because their definition of “fascist” includes
not just neo-Nazis but also anyone who opposes their totalitarian worldview.

And let’s be clear: Totalitarian is precisely what they are. Mark Bray,
a Dartmouth lecturer who has defended antifa’s violent tactics, recently
explained in The Post, “Its adherents are predominantly communists,
socialists and anarchists” who believe that physical violence “is both
ethically justifiable and strategically effective.” In other words, they
are no different from neo-Nazis. Neo-Nazis are the violent advocates of
a murderous ideology that killed 25 million people last century. Antifa
members are the violent advocates of a murderous ideology that,
according to “The Black Book of Communism,” killed between 85 million
and 100 million people last century. Both practice violence and preach
hate. They are morally indistinguishable. There is no difference between
those who beat innocent people in the name of the ideology that gave us
Hitler and Himmler and those who beat innocent people in the name of the
ideology that gave us Stalin and Dzerzhinsky.

The United States defeated two murderous ideologies in the 20th century.
So we should all be repulsed by the sight of our fellow Americans
carrying the banners of either movement, whether they are waving the red
flags of communism or black flags of Nazism. Yet we are not. Communism
is not viewed as an evil comparable to Nazism today. As Alex Griswold
recently pointed out, the New York Times has published no fewer than six
opinion pieces this year defending communism, including essays praising
Lenin as a conservationist, explaining why Stalinism inspired Americans,
and arguing that the Bolsheviks were romantics at heart and that women
had better sex under communism. Can one imagine the Times running
similar pieces about the Nazis?

*My mother and grandfather fought the Nazis in Poland during World War
II, and her family then endured the Stalinist terror*that followed, when
Nazi occupation was replaced by Soviet domination. So forgive me if I
see little moral distinction between the swastika and the hammer and
sickle. Both are evil, and their modern adherents need to be condemned —
especially when they dare to commit acts of violence in our midst to
advance their hateful visions.

Both the left and the right have a responsibility to police their own
movements. In the 1960s, *William F. Buckley excommunicated the John
Birch Society*, widely believed then to be anti-Semitic and a proponent
of nutty conspiracy theories, from the respectable right, and today,
conservatives have a responsibility to do the same with the white
nationalists of the alt-right.

Those on the left have responsibilities as well — responsibilities few
are meeting. On Monday I asked the office of House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) for her statement of condemnation. To her credit,
Pelosi issued a strong statement Tuesday, declaring, “The violent
actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend
deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be
arrested and prosecuted. In California, as across all of our great
nation, we have deep reverence for the Constitutional right to peaceful
dissent and free speech. Non-violence is fundamental to that right.”

Good for her. So why haven’t more leading Democrats done the same? After
Charlottesville, the media rightly demanded that President Trump and all
Republicans condemn the neo-Nazis and the KKK. So where are the calls
for Democrats to condemn antifa — and the brutal public condemnation for
those who fail to do so? If black-clad neo-Nazis had attacked peaceful
protesters at a “No to Racism in America” march in Berkeley, politicians
in Washington would be falling over themselves to express their disgust
— and any who failed to do so would be vilified. But *when
neo-communists commit this kind of violence, they get a pass from the left.*

That cannot be allowed to stand.

*(2) Australian state outlaws Masked Demonstrators*
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-17/rival-groups-stand-off-in-melbourne-as-anti-mask-laws-tested/8954486

Rival groups face off in Melbourne as police test new anti-mask laws

By James Oaten and Andie Noonan

Updated about an hour ago

Hundreds of opposing protesters have been kept apart in central
Melbourne as police test new powers to prevent violence by masked offenders.

Right-wing Jewish activist Avi Yemini attracted about 50 people for a
Make Victoria Safe rally outside Victoria's Parliament, while at least
three times that number gathered opposite a police barrier.

Police arrested at least one person from each opposing group, and one
protester taking part in the "anti-racism" march was taken away for
wearing a mask.

The two groups used loud speakers and chanting in a futile effort to
drown each other out.

Mr Yemini said his protest was rallying against violent crime.

"We all deserve the right to own our own businesses without groups of
thugs coming in and robbing us," he said.

"We want minimum sentencing for violent offenders … we demand no bail
for violent offenders."

He led a chant "black, white, straight or queer, we refuse to live in fear."

Mr Yemeni said he organised a peaceful protest.

"I may not agree with everyone's opinion that's standing here supporting
this cause," he said.

"There may be people here from the right, there may be people here from
the left.

"But that doesn't change the fact that we all deserve to live without
fear in Victoria."

Noelene Nolan, who lives in Melbourne's south-east, said she joined the
Make Victoria Safe rally because she had been the victim of two home
invasions in four months.

"I don't feel safe … I've got an obvious vulnerability with my
disability walker and I want my streets to be safe, she said.

"They may take my items but they won't be taking my peace of mind."

But left-wing group the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism accused Mr
Yemini of promoting a "message of hate".

Kieran Bennett who described himself as an anarchist from the Campaign
Against Racism and Fascism said his group did not plan for any violence
at the rally.

"The rally that we are opposing here today is targeting, in particular,
African migrant youth and other migrant communities," he said.

"The organiser has made very clear on Facebook and in his other public
communications that he sees the issue of crime in terms of African youth
that he wants to see deported."

Far left and far right groups have violently clashed in the past in
Melbourne, including *attacks by masked anarchists*, prompting new laws
that allow Victoria Police to arrest anyone covering their face at a
protest and break up rallies.

The laws came into effect on September 13.