The 2019 “American Renaissance Conference” has been announced for May 17th through the 19th at Montgomery Bell State Park Inn and Conference Center. This comes after Jared Taylor (its founder) winning a lawsuit against the Tennessee Parks Committee charging an additional fee for the cost of security provided for the event.

At past “American Renaissance” conferences the state’s response to counter demonstrators has been limited to only park enforcement. However at the 2018 Amren the state had provided security screenings, a protest cage and had placed snipers on the roof of the conference building for no additional cost.

*AMREN UPDATE*

Police in M.B. State Park conducting unwarranted car searches on protest goers vehicles. 4th Amendment protections violated despite permit. pic.twitter.com/9ESETZIpoh — JAM CITY ANTIFA (@JamCityAntifa) April 28, 2018

The same tactic of illegally charging security fees for public demonstrations was also applied to League Of The South‘s Elizabethton Tennessee rally. Where the state had informed Micheal Hill that it would be charging a 10% increase to the application fee for whatever extra security it deemed was necessary. This essentially would mean that if Anti Fascists demonstrators were to organize a public counter the state would have the ability to dispatch an army of officers and resources all at the expense of the organizer.

This kind of State-repression is known as the Heckler’s veto, which is a legal right given to protesters to shut down hate speech if the context of the speech is deemed to cause public disarray. Although Micheal Hill was uncooperative with the state’s response to LOS’s rally, Jared Taylor was upset enough to file a lawsuit against the parks committee ultimately winning in the case.

Original link to “New Century Foundation v. Samuel Jared Taylor” : https://goo.gl/8aiT1Q

Analysis

Tennessee is slowly making progress to combat the dying ideas of White Supremacy and racist organizing in its public areas. However the recent election of Marsha Blackburn to the U. S. senate and the “Fraternal Order Of Police“s efforts to stop a “Civilian Oversight Board” should serve as an alarm that there is still a lot of work to be done. Anti Fascist ideas have made progress in the form of legislation, public disruptions and bringing mass media attention to White Supremacist Conferences. To seize on this momentum Anti Fascists must continue doing the ground work of outing local Fascists, continue creating solidarity & support networks, and getting on the grounds when they attempt to make a public appearance.

Several organizations are doing this work and offer multiple ways to plug-in and become involved. Follow us on Twitter & links below for updates & more information.

Twitter – @Jamcityantifa