EPISODE 369： THE ANTIFA FILES PART 3
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Summary
Antifa was founded in the late 1800s in the streets of Berlin, Germany, and spread throughout Europe, and then spread to the USA in the early 1980s. In the early 80s, a group of radical leftist activists known as the "Black Blanks" was formed in protest against the anti-American policies of the far-left in the USA.
Transcript
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ladies and gentlemen welcome aboard to part three of the antifa files antifa america now
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we've been taking you through the history of antifa in europe that's where it originated
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so we went through already the founder of antifa ernst talman who walked you through his entire
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history how he was handpicked by the ussr by the bolsheviks by the soviets to be their man
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in berlin he was the head of the communist party of deutschland in the weimar republic
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he was later imprisoned and executed by adolf hitler we talked about the communism
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we talked about the spanish civil war the communists the antifa that ran there
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the 1960s the 1970s touched on the 1980s with what the red army faction red army faction
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was a kgb sponsored terror organization communist terror organization that operated throughout west
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germany you watch diehard hans gruber those guys are based on the red army faction
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but how did antifa arrive in america i think most people like myself first remember hearing about
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antifa in 2016 the attacks on trump rallies that took place throughout that year
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and then of course january 20th 2017 when antifa conducted a massive attack
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on president trump's inauguration those they never talk about that see i was actually there i lived
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through it and in fact my pre-inauguration ball the night before the deplorable came under heavy
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and so people said who are these people dressed in black screaming chanting attacking us
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well let's walk back let's walk back all of that a little bit
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see when they all dress in black that's referred to as the black block where did the black block
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originate believe it or not the term was coined again west germany a hotbed of antifa activity
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the 70s and 80s between squatters who were bohemians part of this left-wing bohemian group called the
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at the autonomen in german the phrase is der schwarzblock and when the west german police would carry out
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eviction actions against the autonomen the activists would defend their squads by wearing heavy black
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clothing helmets ski masks boots and carrying melee weapons such as clubs projectiles and shields
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they would respond to police officers by constructing barriers and throwing molotov cocktails
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right from the start in 1980 the black blocks of west germany were as militant and violent as those
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that would become commonplace in the united states 40 years later
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the west german police eventually defeated the autonomen with new laws that were passed
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banning the carrying of weapons by protesters and the wearing of helmets and padding during protests
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these laws would likely trouble or likely have trouble getting passed here in the united states
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due to liberal jurisdictions but this predated the rise of the internet and that's what people need
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to understand because the black blocks back then the way that this tactic spread throughout europe and
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then eventually north america was key to the spread of the international anarcho-communist movement
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and believe it or not it was helped along by what the punk scene of the 1980s and this of course was
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everyone who's listened any you know punk rock knows that there was a close association between the far
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left and punk many bands of course were openly political and spread the word in fan magazines and tours
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especially across western europe and then eventually into the united states there was a black block used at least
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once in a protest against the gulf war in washington dc all the way back in 1991 this may have been the
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earliest use of a black block in the united states now there are three types of black blocks there's
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the open block which is a general call that goes out to all interested to gather and act in a single
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block open meetings that are held to discuss goals and strategies the second type is the semi-open block
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this organization takes place in secret between people who know and trust each other but when the
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block itself comes together others in the block in block attire are invited to it and then there's a
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closed block in a closed block the participants prepare in secret they all know each other and they do not
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allow anyone to come in and now black blocks of course will work with affinity groups so we saw this in 2020
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the black blocks would affiliate with the black lives matter protesters of course in 2020 they were all
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wearing masks so antifa was able to seamlessly work into those crowds now in general unlike most paramilitary
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units black blocks are not hierarchical they pride themselves on the decentralized structure mapping of
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course is integral to the black block planning cycle they will lay down staging areas main routes escape route
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locations where the police will mass target uh for violence and spots for resources black block
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participants typically will write down the phone number of legal contacts on their bodies in permanent
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marker they'll cover up tattoos remove identifying piercings they won't carry id uh anarchist literature
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in some cases they're told cell phones must be left to their staging areas um this is of course currently
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now something to really understand there are three tiers to a black block green yellow and red
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the green zone is the sanctuary they are the ones who are sort of your your day trippers your people
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who are there they're just dressed up they want to wear black but they don't want to participate in
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violence then there's your yellow your yellow tier is a pyramid so your yellow or your organizers
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they're the ones directing traffic and then finally you have your reds and the red antifa those are the
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ones that are going to commit actual direct action now i saw this when i used to infiltrate antifa
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meetings myself and we've seen this in other operations that we've run infiltrating those
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meetings in washington dc believe it or not i actually infiltrated the own meeting where they
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were planning to attack my deplorable unfortunately for us because we knew what they were planning
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we had police we had the riot squad we had everyone on standby well that doesn't mean that violence
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didn't take place but it did mean that we were able to keep everyone safe and we duly of course
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reported it to the metropolitan police department of washington dc to the secret service to anyone
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else who was who was willing to listen and the fbi as you can imagine the fbi was very very interested
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in that yeah right so you have to be clear antifa and these black blocks which started all the way back
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in the 1970s they've become advanced they've become sophisticated they know how to operate
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go back and look at the george floyd riots one person runs by a room a display case with a window
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smashes it with a hammer the next person runs up throws in a smoke bomb throws in a cherry bomb
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throws in some other kind of improvised explosive these are operations when they attack someone with
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milkshakes what happens first the milkshake goes into blind like what happened to andy no then the
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rest come in to pummel so he can't identify them understand this is part of their plan
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so the black block was now there in the united states in the early 90s now for various reasons
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antifa antifa targeted and found a lot of purchase and the groups that later became antifa
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in the pacific northwest this all culminated in 1999 at what was called the battle of seattle
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and believe it or not this was an anti-globalist anti-globalization
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protest that turned into a riot why because antifa was protesting i kid you not antifa was protesting at
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the time the accession of china into the world trade organization and the development about of the
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international monetary fund and the world bank now they saw this as arms of global capitalism and
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that's why they were against it from the left but it's actually kind of interesting that when you
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look back at 1999 that back then the washington state uh convention center antifa was actually
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against globalism you'll never hear that today so why seattle and why are seattle and portland so
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heavily associated with antifa where did this movement come from well i talked before about music
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and you can't separate that now of course there was also a connection between punk and metal and
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skinheads and one of the reasons for that uh the pacific northwest targeting is because at the time
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the aryan brotherhood and many other neo-nazi groups were targeting the pacific northwest because
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they were looking at this for the purposes of the resettlement of a white or the establishment of a
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white homeland so they moved from california and other places to the pacific northwest then what do
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you have in seattle you have the outbreak of grunge uh the whole grunge scene explodes there sub pop
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comes out of course nirvana famously kirk cobain obviously an anarchist comes out of all of this and
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by the way i'm not bashing kirk cobain blah blah blah i'm making i'm just i'm just pointing out
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that this is what was going on at the time alice and turnivana's calm down that uh you have this
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whole scene erupting and then on the backs of grunge on the backs of everything else that comes out of
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seattle you have this huge antifa movement that's brought along with it and kirk cobain used to have
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stickers on stage you know throw a rock at a cop punch nazis all that stuff so at the battle seattle
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november 30th to december 3rd 1999 you know kirk cobain had since departed at this point
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these were riots that went on again and again throughout all of this you had people put you
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had protesters through what they called at the time the direct action network anarchists coming in
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from all over washington state all over oregon to conduct vandalism attack police officers try to shut
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down the entire thing this is one of the first places that you saw these types of tactics and of
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course the ubiquitous black block was all over it but the point was to shut down shut down the
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organization shut down the meetings and back then guess what they called in two battalions
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of army national guardsmen to shut down the riots major clashes took place rocks bottles police
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concussion grenades the black block was all over the place in fact some areas of this some areas of the
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battle seattle even took place on the very same ground that years later in 2020 about what 21 years
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later the capitol hill autonomous zone the chas would be set up again in clashes with police and then
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later at the time that mayor jenny durkin ordered the police to stand down and gave up abdicated part of
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her city to antifa and at which point my brother and i decided to infiltrate we went into chas we spent
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about a week there day and night switching uniforms going in and out but those same antifa militants
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had developed from this earlier strain at the battle of seattle there's a movie about this believe it
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or not the battle in seattle you can go check it out by stewart townsend 2007 is when it came out
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now of course it takes you know this you know this take on uh you know the protesters were people
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and uh you know there were other people committing committing attacks etc but point is you can go
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actually go look at this the police had a sense of being besieged and there are there are arguments
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back and forth whether or not molotov cocktails were actually used but for in north america the
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anarchists the antifa there they viewed the world trade center riots the battle of seattle as a
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success because at the time they wanted this discussion to come forward believe it or not of
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anti-globalization you have to understand the numbers involved there were nearly 40 000 antifa
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anarchists and militants that showed up to this thing that doesn't mean that all of them were
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violent but it is a huge piece of america's left-wing lost history and that's what we're trying to
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explain through the antifa files like the spanish civil war like what's going on in rojava
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and syria right now with the kurds these are the type of things that the radical left the far left
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gloms onto and so when they looked at the battle of seattle romanticized it and by the way that led to
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the resignation of the police chief of seattle norm stamper they got a resignation of a police chief
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out of it and so for 20 years really 10 years antifa continued to grow and fester and nest in seattle
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and all of this would come to a head in a decade's time during occupy wall street and we'll talk about
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that a little bit in the next segment because we have to understand that this is why portland and seattle
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and it is ironic by the way a lot of people point this out that just like the white separatists believed
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in the early 1980s about the pacific northwest being this sort of uh you know area of a white homeland or
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whatever they still are some of the whitest cities in america today and though antifa doesn't talk about
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anti-globalization anymore what do they talk about is diversity we need diversity we need more
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diversity diversity is our strength and yet you go and look at any of the antifa in there and guess
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what they're all lily white and they're all looking like a bunch of bio degenerate freaks every single
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one of them and that's why we like posting their mugshots and we will continue coming back up next
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so let's fast forward from the battle of seattle to november 2011 zaccati park new york city
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occupy wall street occupy wall street was one of the first mass movements that we saw in the internet
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era predated maga predated black lives matter but it was very much driven by social media and driven by
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the internet now what was occupy wall street in response to well it was it was in response to
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the global recession the massive bailouts by government of the big banks
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and the fact that you had the rich becoming so insanely richer while the people of the nations were starving
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and that everybody who lived through the global financial crisis
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than you would have been able to to even service your loans
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that's why many people are referring to the millennials
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because so many put off family formation put off home buying
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and occupy wall street was a response to a lot of that
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and so the occupy movement started in wall street in new york city