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Submitted to It’s Going Down

On Sunday, January 22nd, the rain greeted us upon our arrival in the Fraser Valley, a sobering reminder how racism precipitates the everyday. 200+ people of different creeds shared the same determination to fight, stand up for what’s right and organise to resist the KKK. The diversity present congealed into a collective spirit. Consciousness serves us best when there are others to relate ours to, as it so often seems. The intersections, and the margins whose outlines we walk amid, brighten these inner senses; to where, we have yet to see.

Vancouver Antifa was present to provide security for this Coalition Against Bigotry demonstration and to stand united with the Sikh community and organisers.

About an hour drive from downtown Vancouver, people gathered inside the Khalsa Diwan Society Sikh Temple (built in 1911) and listened to community organisers talk about the long-lasting resistance to white supremacy. During the open mic, several elders spoke including several Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim South Asian speakers (half of whom were women). People of Canadian European settler descent, an indigenous woman, and a Chinese queer man also spoke. Afterwards, we crossed the road from the Heritage temple to the newer temple for a meal.

The Soldiers of Odin had their Vernon and Kelowna chapters in Vancouver this weekend, to vet their recruits and to look for more members.

Today’s community demonstration against the Ku-Klux-Klan and their distribution of literature to residential areas was overall a success.

As we were about to begin eating, one older man thought that we were the KKK because we were in a bloc and had flags. “I’m too brown to be in the KKK,” was the response he got from Antifa.

The day before, on Saturday the 21st, two neo-Nazi posters were found on a bus stop in New Westminster – the first public distribution of literature in recent months to cross the Fraser River. The literature was spotted around 6th Street and 4th Avenue and featured the web address of a site that calls themselves the online headquarters for “Global Fascist Fraternity” and bears the slogan “Gas the k****, race war now, 1488 boots on the ground!” Two different posters were noticed, one saying “The key for a new Canada,” with the image of a swastika and the other depicting Nazi soldiers confronting men with Kalashnikovs and wearing Keffiyeh scarves, saying, “It’s always going to be us vs. them. Join us before they stomp.”

An Anti-Fascist, Anti-NeoNazi rally is expected to be held on Sunday January 29th at 1pm on 8th & Columbia St.

Tags: Antifa