Before we get into this story, we wanted to say hello to far-right extremists and grifters Andy Ngo, Glenn Beck and the “journalists” at pathetic propaganda site The Washington Examiner – all of whom have recently had a grown-up provide them with a cursory summary of a handful of entries on this very blog and concluded from that that this project = AN EVIL TERRORIST CONSPIRACY!

Pro tip for you lot: real journalists attempt to contact the people they’re writing about, to ask them questions.

Anywho, on to more important matters: while much attention has been (deservedly) focused on community resistance to ICE kidnappings in the US, let us not forget that similar things happen in other countries. For example, this past spring the UK decided an appropriate way to house asylum seekers waiting for decisions on their cases would be to send squads to round them up and haul them off to a prison barge. When the authorities turned up in Peckham with a bus to do so, locals were not having any of it. Opposition quickly surrounded the bus and kept it in place for hours. While this action was highly successful, police tried to punish the locals by laying charges against 44 of the people defending their community. Of course, The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund sent a chunk of change to help defend those charged.

18 months on, here is the tally:
-at least two of the refugees the authorities tried to kidnap & imprison have now been granted full refugee status (there are likely others, but we know for certain of these two cases)
-other asylum seekers, still awaiting a decision on their refugee claim, were rendered homeless by the raids
-of the 44 people charged for trying to prevent the kidnappings, 23 were fully acquitted of all charges; four people pled guilty to their charges; and 12 were found guilty in court.
-NONE of those who were convicted or pled guilty received custodial sentences for their “crimes,” and any costs or fines levied against them were fully-covered, thanks to the fundraising efforts of their supporters & contributions from us & other anti-fascists.
-Of the 12 convicted, two have already filed appeals of their convictions (except to hear more about how to contribute to their appeals soon!).

So: two-thirds of the people charged by police were fully-acquitted or beat the charges in court. Which means that 29 of the 44 accused were charged without any basis for those charges. And of the remaining third who were either convicted or pled guilty, none did prison time and all had their court costs and fines covered.

Had our 44 friends not been able to retain competent legal counsel, the outcome might have been entirely different for them, with life-changing consequences. Fortunately, they were able to retain competent legal counsel, thanks entirely to the generous contributions of anti-fascists around the country and around the world, who would not let them faces charges alone.

This is what solidarity looks like and this is what solidarity can accomplish!

Several antifascists in Augsburg, Germany can answer that question posed by The Clash years ago. You see, after antifa in that city were successful in confronting fascist “identitarian” leader Martin Sellner and his stooges and running them out, police decided this was a “crime.” The cops, excited about getting to cosplay the military, launched a series of pre-dawn raids on the homes of antifascists around the city, smashing in doors and completely trashing the homes they raided. This was all done in support of charges of ” aggravated breach of the peace.”

So, thanks to the barbarians in the Augsburg police, there was an immediate, emergency need to repair and secure the entries of several antifa’s homes. A crowdfunder was set up and the Defence Fund was able to get them to their initial funding goal.

The answer to how you gonna come with they kick at your front door? By calling on your fellow antifascists to stand with you in solidarity!

Alvarado, Texas was named by its first sheriff after the town in Veracruz, Mexico where he fought in the Mexican-American war. It’s disappointing to see that the town continues its violent, colonialist tradition by serving as home to the Prairieland Detention Center, one of the largest ICE holding facilities for the people kidnapped by the agency. Out of all ICE facilities, this history made the protest outside of it, on the night of July 4th, especially poignant.

It’s still unclear what transpired during the protest. ICE of course have put out their own narrative – that their Gestapo agents & supporting police were “ambushed” by armed attackers and that one police officer was injured. But remember this is the same agency that would have you believe that most, if not all, of the people they snatch from our communities are criminals, when we know now that 71% have no criminal record whatsoever. So you’ll forgive us if we take their version of events with a big ol’ grain of salt.

What we do know is that eleven people – many of them well-known community activists – are now facing serious charges in a country currently governed by fascists; fascists that repeatedly demonstrate their contempt for the rule of law. The stakes could not be higher for our friends. This is why the Defence Fund has made a contribution to the crowdfunder established to fund their legal defense. We hope it helps them get the truth out, preferably in a court that has not yet been corrupted by the fascist regime that controls the country.

When London police decided it would be a good idea to charge 44 people who came out to prevent their friends and neighbours from being hauled off to a prison barge and then deported with various fabricated crimes, we wonder what they thought the outcome would be. Did the coppers know at the time that they would be wasting effort, money, and resources attempting to prosecute these heroes? Becuase that’s how it’s played out so far in the courts!

The first five defendants on trial had all charges dropped.
Then the next four defendants met the same result.
And now, as of last week, the next five defendants were acquitted of all charges!

Beginning to see a pattern here? The authorities attempt to kidnap and deport community members. Other community members directly intervene to prevent this from happening. Those intervenors are then hit with fabricated charges with no hope of conviction. When the charges go to trial, prosecutors are forced to admit they lack any evidence, and the defendants are acquitted.

Our latest exonerated heroes had this to say:

“Our actions that day were rooted in compassion and humanity. Our actions were peaceful and proportionate and intended to prevent any further harm being done to the asylum seekers being forced onto that bus. It is our greatest pleasure to stand in solidarity with the immigrant community of this country. We hope to show how we stand by the belief that refugees are welcome here so firmly that if the immigrant community comes under attack by vicious, racist and ultimately unlawful acts we are willing to briefly stop some traffic as an entirely proportionate response.“

While we’re happy the trials are playing out as they have been, facing charges and then having to cobble together the resources to defend yourself in a court of law is disruptive and stressful, to put it mildly. And it’s starting to appear that that is the whole point of the criminal charges. The authorities are less interested in prosecuting actual crimes than they are in weaponizing the criminal justice system to harass and abuse people courageous enough to stand in defence of their neighbours

Sadly, this farce has not yet ended, with many more still waiting for their day in court. If you’d like to help defer the costs involved, you can donate here. If you’d like to help the Defence Fund provide competent lawyers for the next time this happens, you can donate here.

London-based S. is a good neighbour. When his neighbours were kidnapped by Immigration officials who tried to force them into a van so they could be driven to Heathrow airport, forced onto a plane, and then dumped in Rwanda, S. joined others and put their bodies between the van and the road to the airport. Refusing to give any ground, the group stayed in-place until the Immigration officials were forced to concede defeat and take the kidnapped refugees out of their van.

Stinging from the defeat, Immigration cops brutally threw S. to the ground while cameras were rolling, then had the audacity to arrest him, claiming that he assaulted them! With the abundance of witnesses and video evidence available, no one present believed the charges would stick, but this still meant that S. would now have to hire a solicitor to defend him in court.

We wanted to ensure that S. could afford a decent solicitor and sent him funds to make that possible. This investment in his freedom paid off last week when S. was found not guilty on all charges!

Preventing your neighbours from being kidnapped and packed off to another country is the neighbourly thing to do! We’re happy that S. and company proved to be such good neighbours and we were well-pleased to support him.

Paris has seen more than its fair share of fascist violence over the years. From the Nazi occupation of France in the 1940s to the murder of 18-year-old Clément Meric by fascist thugs in 2013 to a series of stabbings and shootings targeting immigrants from 2021-2022 that left three dead and five injured, the City of Light has developed a terrible reputation for violence by bigots and fascists.

In that sense, it is perhaps unsurprising that a mob of about two dozen masked fascists would turn up at a Turkish and Kurdish migrant workers’ centre on the day Young Struggle Paris was screening a documentary about anti-fascism there. Armed with batons and knives, the fascists beat and stabbed their way into the venue, trashing it and attacking the audience, before running off into the night, chanting PARIS EST NAZI!”

While it was heartening to see hundreds of Parisiens in the streets the following week to protest the cowardly attack, marching in the street won’t repair the damage done to the migrant workers’ centre or help pay for the recovery of the man hospitalized with stab wounds after the attack. All told, locals estimate it will take €18,000 to cover everything. A crowdfunder has been established to help cover those costs. The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund proudly made a contribution that we hope goes a long way to undoing the harm caused.

Imagine riding your bike through Berlin streets on a pleasant autumn day when you’re suddenly jumped by armed tactical police while their colleagues ransack your apartment. Then you’re driven off in an armoured van while a press scrum snaps photos, and thrown into a prison cell, where you sit to this day.

That’s what happened to our friend Nanuk in late October. What heinous crime has he been accused of to warrant this heavy-handed action and attention?
1) Supporting an anti-fascist organization between 2018 and 2020
2) A bar fight at a notorious neo-nazi bar in Eisenach in 2019
3) Vandalizing a court building

This in a country that turned a blind eye to a gang of neo-nazis committing multiple murders and terror attacks and which routinely dismisses attacks and conspiracies hatched by far-right extremists as “harmless” (at least until they threaten to violently challenge state power).

Now Nanuk faces the fight of his life – against the German judiciary – and he needs our support! The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund has intervened to support Nanuk’s legal defence via his support team and we encourage anyone who believes that anti-fascism is ALWAYS self-defence to do likewise!