The point of contention arose when supporters and members of the Timbers Army, Vancouver Southsiders, and Emerald City Supporters and Gorilla FC began displaying the Iron Front symbol at matches to visibly confront rising acts of violence by openly fascist and neo-nazi groups intimidating and harassing individuals and people of color outside of matches, and at other well known established supporter group hangouts. Previously, Supporter groups had met with MLS representatives in Las Vegas on thursday the 19th, but the toolks had proved inconclusive.

While the name ‘Iron Front’ sounds very fascist in of itself, the history of the symbol is very different. The three arrows, originally conceived for the Iron Front, became a well known social symbol used representing resistance to Nazism, Communism, and the reactionary conservativism around the 1932 election in Germany. Under Nazism, it was used by underground resistance fighters within Germany and later became an international anti-fascist symbol.