A far-right group’s racist flyers led to dialogue among pro-gun groups in the Pacific north-west. But their alliance may be fragile

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Renewed far-right activism in the US Pacific north-west has led to an unlikely expression of solidarity between leftwing and rightwing pro-gun groups. The question is: can this uneasy cooperation last?

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A dialogue has been established between the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (PSJBGC), an armed leftist community defence group, and Three Percent of Washington (TPW), a rightwing pro-gun patriot movement group. In January, in the wake of a coordinated drop of racist leaflets in and around Tacoma, Washington, that dialogue bore tangible fruit.

The group that dropped the leaflets, Patriot Front, was formed in the aftermath of the murder of a leftwing counter-protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. It split from Vanguard America, the group with whom the murderer marched, following prolonged infighting and feuding.

PSJBGC and other anti-racist groups collected the flyers and dumped them on the doorsteps of Patriot Front members and a local tattoo shop with far-right sympathies. As they did so, TPW posted a surprising and supportive message to its Facebook page.

It read: “ATTENTION PATRIOT FRONT!!! III% is coming for you. Apparently you missed the part about WE WILL DEFEND OUR COMMUNITIES.”

The message also said: “Racists like you deserve no platform. You disgrace the word patriot.”

The TPW leader, Matt Marshall, said the post attracted angry comments and threats from white nationalists.

“It was removed after it was reported due to some of the comments,” he said. He also claimed that the FBI called him regarding the threats and said his group was planning an updated and expanded statement which would include other white nationalist groups.

Duke Aaron, spokesman for the self-proclaimed “big tent” leftist PSJBGC, said he had known the TPW statement was coming.

Before the statement went up, he said, he got a text from a TPW member. When he saw what it said, including the part about no-platforming fascists, he said he “was pretty happy with that. It’s a big shift.”

Over several months “on the opposite sides of the barricades”, offering open-carry armed security at often contentious protests, the groups have achieved a “respectful and friendly” but “limited” and “sometimes challenging” dialogue, Aaron said.

At a pro-open-carry rally in December organised by TPW, members of the PSJBGC who had been protecting a leftwing counterprotest were allowed inside patriot movement lines to talk with the rightwing activists. Aaron said the moment showed that the TPW “is more open to dialogue than other patriot movement groups”.

The groups are both strong supporters of gun rights and criticise gun control. But they differ sharply on other issues. Aaron summed it up by saying: “They get stuck on the idea of individual liberty, while we believe in collective liberty as well.

“The idea of freedom is a contested space, and this makes for challenging conversations,” he added, saying Three Percenters were skeptical about the dangers of private power and tended to believe in the “bootstrap myth” that social disadvantage could be overcome by hard work.

Marshall said the dialogue between the groups had been “productive and useful”, and that both groups were committed to de-escalation and dialogue at political events. He also pointed to issues like “universal healthcare, the church” that they would never agree on.

Their most serious disagreement maybe over the rightwing group’s affiliations.

“It’s not always a friendly conversation,” Aaron said. “We do challenge them on their tolerance of [the Vancouver, Washington-based protest group] Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys, which we consider dangerous entry points to white nationalism”.

In the last week, Marshall has appeared alongside the Patriot Prayer leader, Joey Gibson, in small towns throughout Washington, trying to get counties to pass “second amendment sanctuary” ordnances aimed at preventing the enforcement of gun laws passed as a state ballot initiative.

Gibson and Marshall have also co-organised and appeared at open-carry events. At such events, PSJBGC members have passed out their own leaflets to TPW members, urging them to denounce and distance themselves from far-right groups.

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Aaron sees even the opportunity to have a dialogue as progress and something that not all such groups would be open to.

“They’re not all a monolith,” he said, adding that some on the left mistakenly saw the Three Percenters as a single, top-down organization.

“We recognise strong disagreements and we bring them up,” he said of conversations about groups with whom the Three Percenters fraternise.

“They’ve said from the start that they dislike white supremacist movements,” he said. While applauding the rightwingers’ stance on Patriot Front, he said: “Patriot Prayer is a violent, entry-level fascist organisation who have attacked community groups, meetings and individuals.”

Gibson, the Patriot Prayer founder, has denied to the Guardian using violence in confrontations with leftwing protesters. Aaron, however, said: “If Washington Three Percent want to be taken seriously as a group defending all rights, they have to walk away from violent goons.”