In this episode of the IGDcast, we talked with one of the organizers of #NoNazisAtUF, about the recent demonstrations organized in Gainesville, Florida against neo-Nazi leader, Richard Spencer.
We discuss not only the nuts and bolts dynamics of the day, including how organizers were able to get tickets and get inside the speech, how Spencer shut his talk down early, but moreover how the situation developed on campus, how the University administration worked with the fascists, and the context of the campus spending $600,000 on police in post-Irma Florida.
We also discuss the sort of organizing that went into building a broad coalition, and the problems of working with liberals. Moreover, we discuss how the group dealt with those taking a page from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), who argued that students should ignore Spencer and allow him to speak without engaging in disruptive protest. Lastly, we discuss the attempted murder of antifascists at the hands of neo-Nazis at a bus stop after the protest. Recently, it has come out that these same attempted killers were part of neo-Nazi groups invited by Spencer to help do security on the campus, for the event.
With Alt-Right organizing and outreach still going strong across the US, this interview offers some much needed insight into how people on campuses can come together to organize outside of the confines of liberal notions of nonviolence and respectability, and win. We end by asking where this energy can go, with the understanding that white supremacy is a system of settler democracy, and not just crystallized within marginal Alt-Right groups.
More Info: #NoNazisAtUF, Report Back Here
Music: Deftones