Arlington, TX – University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) has a bust, and the University Center named, in honor of one of its first Presidents – Ernest H. Hereford. The bust was commissioned in October of 1958, a month before his death, and the center was renamed in his honor in February 1959 by the Texas A&M system. For almost 60 years the bust and center have stood at the University.

But it has come to light, due to research done by Progressive Student Union, that Hereford had principally, intentionally and purposefully created an environment on campus where racism was welcomed and celebrated; where the K.K.K. was an officially recognized student organization; where mock-slave auctions were school-authorized events; and where the Confederacy’s symbols became synonymous with the school, due to Hereford’s sanctioning and drive to make it so.

The KKK, otherwise known as the “Davis Hall Klansmen” or “Kampus Kadet Klub,” was a student organization on campus that existed from 1946 to 1956 during Hereford’s administration. They were heavily featured on the social calendars at the time, calendars which needed approval from his administration. They hosted the ‘KKK Dance’ and ‘KKK Nite Club’ events, but also were in charge of the military balls and the annual homecoming bonfires that were put on by the larger school.

The fact for a large portion of its existence, the KKK co-existed around the Rebel theme developments and the mock-slave auctions. This shows the type of environment that Hereford sought to cultivate and propagate – one that welcomed the Klan’s ideology and the Klan as an institution. While the Klan student group eventually dissolved in 1956 due to uncertainty of continuing it for another semester, the Klan’s ideology would outlive it through the Rebel theme.

The Rebel theme came about when Hereford, personally, began to instigate the change, as he felt the school was not in support of the then football theme – the Blue Raiders. On Sept. 18, 1951 the student body voted in favor of the ‘Rebels’ as opposed to the ‘Cadets.’ But, Hereford began to push a full on adoption of Confederate attire, the Confederate Battle flag, and put the Confederacy on a pedestal of honor. Under him, the Shorthorn, the school newspaper, would post praises about the Confederacy and even boast that one of the school’s founders was a “real Rebel!”

The Rebel theme would far outlive Hereford himself, who died in 1958, by at least another ten years for the Beauregard Battle Flag and 13 years if we specifically talk about the Rebels mascot.

Finally, mock slave auctions were a common occurrence at homecoming under Hereford. They were tolerated, school sanctioned events that, after his death, would become their own events known as “Old South Days” in the 60s. The Shorthorn itself would actively promote these events, as they were official events put on by the school.

Progressive Student Union has been putting up a petition to get the Hereford statue removed, the University Center renamed, and to set up a memorial dedicated to the three men, Ernest Hooper, Jerry Hanes and Leaston Chase III, who forced UTA to desegregate in 1962, as well as those who fought against the Rebel theme in the 1960s and early 70s.

#ArlingtonTX #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #Antiracism #KKK #ProgressiveStudentUnion #UniversityOfTexasAtArlington #ErnestHHereford

Jacksonville, FL – The world watched in horror on the night of July 21 as billionaire casino mogul Donald J. Trump officially became the Republican Party's nominee for president.

Worth an estimated $6 billion, Trump embodies big business and corporate America. Unlike most previous GOP candidates, however, Trump's campaign shocked the country with its open racism and unapologetic xenophobia. Many liberals assumed this would torpedo his campaign. Instead, it helped him win the Republican nomination.

Trump's disturbing blend of right-wing populism has critics on the left and even some parts of the right labeling him a fascist. And on the surface, it's not hard to see a lot of similarities. Trump's calls to ban Muslim immigrants, create a database of Muslims in the U.S. and raid mosques are disturbingly similar to the Nazis' policies against Jews in Germany. Other aspects – racist demagoguery against Latinos, cynical populism directed at the working class, and outright violence against protesters at campaign rallies – bear a striking resemblance to the tactics of Mussolini and Hitler. White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have flocked to support Trump, including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke. Even the man himself keeps a well-worn copy of Hitler's speeches on his nightstand, according to his ex-wife, and sprinkles Mussolini quotes into his insane rants on Twitter.

Most people are familiar with the unspeakable crimes committed by fascists in the 20th century. The word brings to mind images of death camps, dictators, genocide and war, which makes it effective political profanity to throw at strong-arm politicians or repressive policies. But for all the noise around whether Trump is – or could become – a fascist, there's startlingly little discussion about a broader question: What is fascism?

To some, fascism is just a greatest-hits collection of authoritarian traits – extreme nationalism, political repression, rigged elections, etc. Others focus on fascist dictators, like Mussolini and Hitler, and the crowds of people following them supposedly because of their charisma as leaders. While these features existed in fascist regimes, they don't really tell us anything unique. After all, you can find all of these practices in some form in every capitalist country, including the United States.

If we want to understand fascism, we have to go beyond the surface-level horrors. Why did these regimes exist? Who benefited from them? And what is their relationship to 'democracy' and capitalism?

We're often told that fascism is something different and opposed to 'democracies' like the U.S. and Britain, but this simply isn't the case. The state – laws, government institutions, courts, police and the military – exists for one class to dominate another class and rule society. In a capitalist system, the state is a dictatorship of banks and corporations, who control the economy and exploit the working class for their own profit. Their dictatorship can take a variety of forms, from welfare states (Sweden) to liberal democracies (United States) to Germany under the Nazi’s. But whether they hold elections or not, every capitalist state is a class dictatorship of the 1%.

Fascist regimes are also class dictatorships ruled by monopoly capitalists – not by one, all-powerful charismatic leader. Unlike other forms of capitalist dictatorship, however, they enforce their rule through open terrorist violence against the working class, extreme racism and imperialist military aggression against oppressed nations. Simply put, fascism is terrorist rule of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.

The ruling class may prefer one form of government over another depending on time, place and conditions. Such is the case with fascism. The countries that became fascist after World War I experienced deep economic crises and mass civil unrest led by workers and peasants. Banks and big business saw their profits drop due to rising wages, inflation and taxes used to fund public education and social programs. To insure their continued rule, something had to change. Their top priority became imposing harsh austerity measures on the working class – banning unions, rolling back labor laws, slashing important government programs, etc. – at all costs and by any means.

It's more difficult for the 1% to impose their agenda if unions, mass movements and opposition parties have legal rights to fight back. But under a non-democratic arrangement, the ruling class can simply destroy the opposition by force and impose whatever agenda it wants on the people.

That's exactly why Italian big business planned and bankrolled Mussolini's infamous March on Rome in 1922, which brought the Fascists to power. Similarly, German President Paul von Hindenburg – another politician of the 1% – appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933 with the full backing of German industry and finance. In both cases, the ruling class sidestepped the formality of elections and installed fascism from above.

Part of fascism's appeal to the monopoly capitalists is its ability to mobilize a mass base to support its agenda. Importantly, however, fascist movements never won any substantial support from the working class in Germany, Italy, Austria or any other country, despite their best efforts. Instead, they drew their supporters from struggling 'middle class' elements, like small business owners and unemployed professionals. A large segment of former military officers, scarred from the battlefield and unable to find jobs, also gravitated towards fascist politics, along with street gangs and violent criminals.

Fascism accomplished this by presenting itself as radical, 'anti-establishment', and sometimes even critical of big business. They played on real economic hardships and promised to deliver radical 'new' solutions, which turned out to only favor the 1%. This fascist populism was completely cynical, of course. But in a time of deep political and economic crisis, like the post-WWI period and the Great Depression, these movements and parties diverted 'middle class' anger away from the system and directed it against workers, unions, oppressed people and other nations.

Using its base, fascism delivers an army of shock troops for the monopoly capitalists to terrorize the working class. After World War I, Italian workers and peasants launched a wave of strikes, factory occupations and land-takings that shook the power of the ruling class. This revolutionary upsurge, dubbed the 'Red Years', scared the big landowners of the south into hiring Mussolini's paramilitary death squads, the fasci di combattimento, to roam the countryside – burning villages, murdering militants and revolutionaries, and terrorizing peasants. The major industrialists of the north took note and recruited fascist gangs to break strikes, burn union halls, close newspapers and destroy socialist and communist party headquarters.

The same was true in Germany, where Nazi Stormtroopers battled communists and union workers in the streets long before 1933, when Hitler came to power. Similarly in the U.S., plantation owners in the South hired the Ku Klux Klan to repress African Americans after the defeat Radical Reconstruction. Their terrorist methods – lynchings, show trials before all-white juries, and burning crosses – are well-known, even though we seldom hear the U.S. media refer to the KKK as 'fascist'.

Trade unions are among the first targets of fascist terror. Organized labor faces attacks in every capitalist country – fascist or not – because it poses a threat the profits of the 1% and their tyranny in the workplace. However, fascism unleashes open violence and dismantles unions by force on behalf of the ruling class. The Nazis, for instance, shut down all German trade unions less than two months after taking power. Stormtroopers raided union halls and offices, seized their funds and arrested their leaders. Militant workers and communists faced torture and execution, and many were shipped off to die in Hitler's concentration camps.

Although fascist movements developed a mass following among small business owners and professionals, they turned on those same groups after coming to power. Both Mussolini and Hitler oversaw the takeover of small businesses by large corporations in order to further consolidate the wealth of the monopoly capitalists. In Germany, Jewish businesses – particularly retail outlets – were the first targets of Nazi monopolization, which they accomplished through 'legal' decrees as well as outright criminal theft. While German small businesses initially supported these anti-Semitic measures to drive out competitors, they found themselves taken over by monopolies and their wealth doled out to big business and Nazi officials.

Fascism and war go hand in hand. Under monopoly capitalism, also called imperialism, the 1% dominates entire nations and exploits their labor and resources for profit. Military conflicts, like World War I, break out between rival imperialist powers for control of these colonies. Both Italy and Germany had fewer colonies than the U.S., Britain and France after WW I, and with most of the world already colonized, the only way to expand their weak empires was through war. To this end, fascism used its open violence and internal repression to mobilize the country for aggressive military expansion on behalf of monopoly capitalism.

Using fascist ideology and national chauvinism as justifications, Hitler looked towards Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for lebensraum, or 'living space' for German colonial settlers. At first, the ruling class in the U.S. and Britain maintained an uneasy neutrality towards Hitler, hoping he would attack their common enemy – the socialist Soviet Union – first. However, war broke out between these rival imperialist powers when Nazi Germany annexed Poland and began expanding westward into Europe.

At the root of World War II sits imperialist profit and colonial rivalries – not some clash between U.S. 'democracy' and German 'tyranny'. Banks and corporations run all imperialist countries, and whatever conflicts emerge over who-gets-to-exploit-what-nation, their goals and even methods aren't as different as we often hear in movies and media. After all, Hitler based his genocidal designs on the U.S. extermination of indigenous people, which took place in a so-called 'constitutional democratic' country.

Donald Trump's right-wing populism and open racism poses a real danger to the people of the U.S. and the world. However, it's not a fascist danger at this time. The ruling class has yet to line up behind Trump. Nor yet has the Trump campaign developed actual organization capable of winning a presidential election, let alone carrying out fascist terrorism. While Trump supporters have reacted violently towards protesters at rallies, it's not on the same level or scale as the barbaric terror committed by Mussolini's Blackshirts or Hitler's Stormtroopers.

As we consider Trump's racist right-wing populism and the history of fascism, we need to remember that imperialism – whether it's fascist or 'democratic' – is the cause of wars and poverty around the world. Workers and oppressed people defeated fascist imperialism in World War II. Nearly 70 years later, it will take a united front of workers and oppressed people from all nations to defeat imperialism and create a better world.

#JacksonvilleFL #Reconstruction #fascism #Antifascism #Elections #KKK #DonaldTrump #Mussolini #Hitler #Blackshirts #stormtroopers

Savannah, GA – Anti-racist activists are demanding charges be dropped against Joshua Taft, arrested while protesting the Klu Klux Klan. On April 23, over 400 anti-racist activists descended upon Stone Mountain, Georgia to protest about a dozen white supremacists and Klan members.

Police arrested nine anti-racist activists before noon, according to John Bankhead, spokesman for the Stone Mountain Park Police. Eight of the activists were charged by police for wearing hoods and masks with the intention to conceal their identity. Meanwhile, none of the Klansmen or white supremacists were arrested or charged, though also wearing hoods and masks.

The 21-year-old Taft was arrested as he stood near a barricade away from police. Heavily armed and wearing riot gear, police shot Taft twice with rubber bullets and then manhandled the Savannah youth. Taft was sent to DeKalb County jail and charged with aggravated assault. He appeared before a DeKalb County magistrate the following day.

Authorities are accusing Taft of throwing smoke grenades at law enforcement officials, as they stood protecting white supremacists and Klansmen from the anti-racist protest. Despite the accusations made by the police, videos and statements posted on various social media outlets contradict the official narrative. One eyewitness said, “It was not, could not, have been the accused. I am certain it wasn’t Joshua Taft.”

Phoenix Godwin, who protested the KKK at Stone Mountain, saw Taft putting out a small fire. He said, “Taft acted swiftly to end the fire due to his deeply held ecological concerns. Taft was even punched in the face by someone for desperately trying to put out the flames.”

As officers overwhelmed Taft, the crowd chanted, “Fuck the police!” He did not resist arrest. Protesters think police are trying to make an example of Taft in order to discourage future anti-racist protests in the state of Georgia. If convicted, Taft could face 20 years in federal prison.

Activists from across the country are calling for solidarity. Taft was released from jail on a $2500 bond, but faces a long legal process and trial. If you have any information regarding Taft’s innocence or would like to donate for his legal fees, contact freejoshtaft@gmail.com.

#SavannahGA #InJusticeSystem #AntiRacism #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #KKK #StoneMountain #JoshuaTaft

Stone Mountain, GA – More than 400 youth, students, and anti-racist activists protested a “white power” rally by 12 members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Southern Heritage in Stone Mountain Park, Georgia on April 23. The anti-racist protesters marched into Stone Mountain Park chanting as they prepared to confront the police. They successfully closed down the park and forced the cancellation of the “white power” concert originally scheduled for that night.

Law enforcement officers attempted three times to block protesters from marching into Stone Mountain Park, but were ultimately overcome. Over 100 police, National Guard, and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) blocked entrances and protected the Klansmen. Stone Mountain has three Confederate leaders carved into the huge rock face and is where the modern Klan was founded.

“Cops and Klan go hand in hand!” and “When I say ‘cop,’ you say, ‘racist’”, protesters chanted in defiance of the repressive police tactics. Others chanted, “Black Power!” and “One Solution, Revolution!”

The cops made it clear they were there to defend the Klansmen against the protesters, and not the other way around. The cops faced down the anti-racists while wearing full riot gear, including some automatic weapons. By the end of the day, the police arrested eight anti-racist protesters.

Tom Jones from Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) drove to Georgia for the protest, “If we are striving for tolerance, it’s crucial to fight bigotry where and whenever it shows itself. A truly tolerant society doesn’t permit bigotry. It’s great that we rallied here today, to show the KKK that hateful, racist bigots are not welcome anywhere.”

Taina Pantoja of Tampa SDS, “The KKK is one of the manifestations of white supremacy and national oppression in the United States, which we need to combat in order to achieve liberation for Black people.”

#StoneMountainGA #StudentMovement #SDS #Antiracism #Antifascism #KKK

On April 23rd Students for a Democratic Society will be joining hundreds of anti-racist activists at Stone Mountain, GA to counter a planned white power march of the KKK and other white nationalist organizations.

The anti-KKK protest was called by All Out Atlanta, and is now endorsed by a variety of progressive, anti-fascist, and anti-racist groups throughout the south. This protest will be a powerful showing of anti-racist unity in the face of growing white supremacist organizing in the United States.

Stone Mountain is an important symbol to the white supremacist movement, serving as a rallying point for hate groups over the last century. Last year white supremacists rallied in Stone Mountain following the massacre at a historically black church in Charleston by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

The KKK and other racist terrorist organizations can not be allowed to organize freely. They must be confronted with militant action and their organizing efforts must be stopped and disrupted wherever they go. SDS has been committed to the struggle against white supremacy, leading the fight against neo-nazis in Tennessee and struggle against the KKK in Tallahassee. This protest in Stone Mountain is an important step in building the country-wide struggle against white supremacists.

Over the past year the KKK and white supremacist groups have become emboldened by the racist and hateful rhetoric spread by Donald Trump's campaign for president. Students have been at the front lines of the struggle against Trump and his racist supporters. SDS calls on students to continue the struggle against Trump and all racist politicians that are facilitating the resurgence of this far-right racist movement.

SDS calls on students to join us in Stone Mountain, as well as in the streets and on the campuses across the country as we confront the KKK and white supremacy!

#Georgia #GA #StudentMovement #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #PeoplesStruggles #AntiRacism #Antifascism #KKK

Columbia, SC – Facing sweltering heat, and in the face of a massive police presence, about 2000 protesters, including the New Black Panther Party, confronted a Ku Klux Klan rally on the grounds of the capitol building here, July 18. Snipers could be seen at the corner of every building top.

The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was rallying to allegedly defend the Confederate battle flag, upset that it had been removed from the capitol building in the wake of the racist massacre of nine attendees of the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina weeks earlier.

At the KKK rally, speakers employed the tired old ‘heritage not hate’ argument for the Confederate flag – a symbol of racism that was used extensively by opponents of the Civil Rights movement. For their protection, the KIan was surrounded by a phalanx of state police, many in paramilitary gear. Midway through the event, participants in the Klan protest unfurled a giant swastika flag.

About half of Klansmen were dressed street clothes, but another half seemed to be dressed in quasi-uniforms covered in Nazi symbols. As one of these wannabe storm troopers stepped to the edge of an elevated marble ledge and spewed racial epithets at the majority Black crowd, people below spontaneously begin chanting, “Jump! Jump! Jump!”

Shortly after this, a man draped in the Confederate flag was seen walking through the counter-protesters loudly proclaiming, “This flag does not represent hate, it represents heritage. I’m not a racist, people died for this flag,” and so on. Several counter-protesters tried to explain the flaws in his argument, but he was hearing none of it. Later this flag was snatched from his body by a young Black man, who said, “We’re taking this shit back home to burn!”

Shortly after that encounter, this reporter witnessed a cop, hanging from the side of a fast-moving State Law Enforcement Division SUV and dressed in battle fatigues, jump from the vehicle with what appeared to be a shotgun. He then chased an unarmed Black youth, who was able to escape.

Police wound up escorting KKK and Nazi supporters to a parking garage. Counter-protesters followed and continued to express their disdain for the racist groups.

Despite the thick police guard, at least one counter-protester managed to get a jaw-busting punch through to a retreating KKK member. The counter-protester was dragged away by police immediately, and indiscriminate arrests began. Small scuffles and rock throwing took place.

Despite some challenges, the counter protest was absolutely successful, forcing the KKK’s rally to end an hour early. Counter protester Phil Davis of Columbia said, “The fascists were weak today, very weak. The progressives and revolutionaries outnumbered them by hundreds, and they were resoundingly defeated, and let’s hope they don’t come back.”

#ColumbiaSC #PeoplesStruggles #AntiRacism #KuKluxKlan #KKK #SouthCarolina

Tallahassee, FL – Over 100 students gathered at the steps of the Westcott Building on the Florida State University campus, April 9, to protest the Ku Klux Klan. The Tallahassee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) called the rally after recent Klan provocations.

Shivaani Ehsan, a member of SDS said, “We are out here today because we want to fight against the system of white supremacy and capitalism. We want to stand against the growing tide of white nationalism. Groups like the KKK are not to be taken lightly, they have been known to be involved in various police departments and other influential positions.”

The KKK made national headlines last week when two Florida Department of Corrections officers and one former officer, all suspected members of the KKK, were arrested for planning to murder a black prisoner when he was released from a north Florida prison. Last month, the same Klan group passed out hundreds of flyers in Tallahassee neighborhoods as part of a recent recruiting campaign.

After rallying on campus, SDS members led a march through the streets of downtown Tallahassee toward the Florida State Capitol, with chants including “DOC, KKK, how many people have you killed today?” and “Indict, convict, send those racist cops to jail. The whole damn system, is guilty, as hell!” Protesters carried signs including “Crush the KKK – kill fascism” and “Klan out of Tally.”

SDS organizers said they received messages from white nationalist militias threatening to organize an armed counter-protest to defend the KKK. However, no counter-protesters showed up.

“It doesn't matter if they're skinheads, neo-Nazis, white secessionists or even the Klan. Their presence wasn't missed, but I think this definitely sets a precedent for how we will deal with Tallahassee's white supremacists in the future,” said Naomi Bradley with Trans Liberation Front.

The student protesters marched up and stood on the steps of the Old Capitol Building, while members of SDS and other organizations including the Black Liberation Action Coordinating Committee (BLACC), Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Trans Liberation Front gave speeches condemning the KKK and the Florida police abuses and murder.

“I heard a lot of people who say, how can you connect the KKK to the police? And then you see what happens with the Department of Corrections how there's those three undercover Klansmen,” said Regina Joseph, a member of BLACC.

As the rally came to a close, organizers brought out the Confederate Battle Flag. After spitting and stomping on the flag, organizers lit it on fire while the crowd chanted “Klan out now.” The student protesters then celebrated as the flag burned and was ripped apart. SDS organizers ended the rally by promising to continue organizing against the KKK and racism in Tallahassee.

When asked what she hoped they accomplished, Ellena Fisher, one of the student protesters, said, “If there's a white supremacist terrorist group recruiting in my area than out of existential necessity alone I'm compelled to resist. We showed Tallahassee that we will not be complacent in our own torment, by staying silent and allowing the Klan to grow.”

#TallahasseeFL #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #SDS #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Antiracism #Antifascism #KKK #BlackLiberationActionCoordinatingCommittee #BLACC

Students will rally at Florida State University’s Westcott Fountain at 7:00 p.m. and will then march to the steps of the Old Capitol. Representatives from the Black Liberation Action Coordinating Committee, the Center for Participant Education, Trans Liberation Front, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and others will speak on the struggle against racist violence and discrimination.

A leading member of SDS, Zachary Schultz said, “SDS is calling on the people of Tallahassee to drive the Klan out of town. We do not value the rights of white supremacists to spread their hate literature. Florida law enforcement is filled with KKK members and is part of a racist system that needs to be dismantled. We will be marching for an end to white supremacy.”

#TallahasseeFL #StudentMovement #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #Antiracism #KKK