No matter what disclaimer is made by Donald Trump, it has been his campaign of overt racism and white supremacy that has emboldened the KKK/Nazis and others who have re-branded themselves the “Alt-right.” They believe their time has come. “Make America Great Again” and going “Back to the Good Old Days” are understood by the white supremacists just as Trump means them.

The KKK is a terrorist organization. It has been a terrorist organization directed against Black Freedom and Black people since its inception.

It is disgusting that the corporate-owned media is drawing an equivalency between “the violence of the right and the violence of the left.” That only obscures the reality that the fascist and white supremacist movement is the incarnation of violence and terrorism just as it was with their Nazi idols.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation expresses our total and complete solidarity with the brave anti-racists and anti-fascists on the ground in Charlottesville, Virginia, confronting white supremacists. At the time of this writing, one has reportedly been killed and 19 people are in the hospital with very severe injuries, broken bones, after a fascist drove a car at a high speed into the protest. Dozens more have been injured in street clashes.

We salute the thousands who are in the streets, who have put their bodies on the line to say “No pasarán” — they shall not pass. The fascist rally, numbering around 500, was broken up by thousands of counter-protesters and prevented from marching on several occasions. Then the fascists resorted to using their cars. They rammed into protesters who gathered to stop the white supremacists from marching to a majority-Black housing project.

There is no doubt that the state is complicit in this fascist attack, enabling the mobs to roam freely. “The police took no responsibility for the streets, only one park in Charlottesville. As a result, five people are in the hospital,” said Phil Wilayto, an organizer with the Virginia Defenders, who was giving first aid to those injured alongside the local Black Lives Matter and Showing Up for Racial Justice chapters. “We cannot depend on the state to defend us from fascist mobilization. We have to do it ourselves.”

Organized white supremacists represent nothing but terror and violence in the United States. They are not a mere political or ideological current. Wilayto recounted: “These are not the Young Republicans, these are Neo-Nazis. One of their slogans was ‘today Charlottesville, last stop Auschwitz.’”

Their growth poses a mortal threat to Black, Latino, Native, Arab, Asian, Jewish, Muslim and immigrant communities, to women and LGBTQ people, and to the organizations of the working class. Any action to preemptively stop their advance is therefore self-defense on behalf of millions of people nationwide. The liberal hand-wringing about violence “on both sides” — equating fascists with anti-fascists — is the height of cowardice and duplicity, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

It is a dangerous escalation that the fascists would feel the confidence to march with torches and weapons, and without hoods, through a city where they know the vast majority of residents oppose them. Electrified by the Trump campaign and presidency, they are now starting to form more disciplined and armed units. They must be fought every step of the way, through mass mobilization and direct action, and sent back to the shadows from which they came.

The fascist conference and rally was billed as one to “Unite the Right.” While they have considerable ideological and tactical differences, they are coming together in the streets to oppose those who they see as their common enemy. Those on the Left must do the same, forging steadfast unity in the streets — as the heroes and martyrs of Charlottesville did today.