FRSO Orlando statement on recent neo-Nazi activity
FRSO Orlando condemns the increasing far-right activity seen across Central Florida, including the two recent neo-Nazi demonstrations. The two rallies, one at Walt Disney World and the other at Cranes Roost in Altamonte Springs, were put on by multiple white supremacist neo-Nazi organizations as part of a larger Labor Day mobilization. The plan was exposed by the Anti-Defamation League multiple days before Labor Day, allowing the Orlando community to spread information about ways to fight back.
The Nazi groups waved swastikas, DeSantis flags, and chanted “Jews will not replace us,” a slogan popularized at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. A notable attendee was Kent “Boneface” McLellan, a neo-Nazi who has reportedly traveled to Ukraine to serve with the Azov Battalion, showing how U.S. aid to Ukraine is being used to train and fuel the far-right movement of our own country. “The chickens coming home to roost,” as Malcolm X said.
While both mobilizations combined numbered less than 100 participants, and many traveled from out of state, neo-Nazis across the country are becoming more emboldened to hold public demonstrations and this must be analyzed. This increase in activity should be understood as the Republican Party openly embracing far-right political stances to mobilize their base, combined with the mainstreaming of racist and chauvinist politics by the media.
Organizations of all stripes are coming together against the rise of white supremacist terrorism, as seen following the murder of three Black people in Jacksonville. The people taking away reproductive rights and banning Black education are the same ones cozying up to white supremacists and neo-Nazi organizations.
We join with other organizations demanding that Governor DeSantis condemn these white supremacist mobilizations stoked by his policies and rhetoric. Governor DeSantis attacks teaching Black history in the legislature while white supremacists commit targeted attacks on Black people. This is national oppression in action.
The increasing activity of the far right extends beyond the DeSantis administration. The mainstreaming of far-right organizations and policies should be seen as a symptom of the decline of U.S. imperialism and power. The U.S. empire is in decline and our internal contradictions are sharpening. The time to join the fight is now! frso.org/join