Nov 10, 2017 03:32 AM
(This post was last modified: Nov 10, 2017 04:20 AM by C C.)
http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-But...SFpNbnBrOA
EXCERPT: This past September 11, a group of activists gathered at Bluestockings, a cooperatively owned bookstore in lower Manhattan, to learn about fighting fascism in Trump’s America. Some of them were members of "antifa," a loose network of activists whom the president had just called out as a threat to the country.
Antifa members have been known for starting fires, punching Nazis, and donning balaclavas. At least one person at the bookstore wore a mask. Shelves bearing labels like "anarchism" and "feminist masculinity" were rolled out of the way to make room for the crowd, but there wasn’t enough space for all the people who wanted to hear Mark Bray speak.
Mr. Bray, a 35-year-old who looks even younger than that, is neither a fire-starter or a Nazi-puncher. He is a lecturer of history at Dartmouth College. His weapons of choice are logic and history, his crisp sentences delivered with the vaguest trace of a New Jersey accent.
He came here to give a lecture, not lead a rally. Yet the audience hung on his words, grateful to a man who has spent the better part of a year becoming a student and teacher of the antifascist movement — and a de facto translator for mainstream liberals wondering what kind of "resistance" they are willing to justify.
[...] In the face of radicalism, Mark Bray argues, radical responses must at least be considered. His work poses a challenge: Do you oppose fascism? If so, you have a duty to study it -- and, once you've done so, to pick a side.
In many corners of academe, antifa has played a villain’s role. The collective has destroyed property on college campuses. One of its best-known tactics — attempting to shut down speakers it deems dangerous — has been criticized as trampling on freedom of speech. Yet many student activists share antifa’s stated goal of silencing white supremacists. Some of those students have sought not simply to protest speakers but to prevent them from appearing on campus altogether.
It’s not clear to most people precisely what "antifa" means, or how it overlaps with terms like "antifascism" and "black bloc." But critics argue that it’s also not clear precisely what counts as fascism....
MORE: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-But...SFpNbnBrOA
EXCERPT: This past September 11, a group of activists gathered at Bluestockings, a cooperatively owned bookstore in lower Manhattan, to learn about fighting fascism in Trump’s America. Some of them were members of "antifa," a loose network of activists whom the president had just called out as a threat to the country.
Antifa members have been known for starting fires, punching Nazis, and donning balaclavas. At least one person at the bookstore wore a mask. Shelves bearing labels like "anarchism" and "feminist masculinity" were rolled out of the way to make room for the crowd, but there wasn’t enough space for all the people who wanted to hear Mark Bray speak.
Mr. Bray, a 35-year-old who looks even younger than that, is neither a fire-starter or a Nazi-puncher. He is a lecturer of history at Dartmouth College. His weapons of choice are logic and history, his crisp sentences delivered with the vaguest trace of a New Jersey accent.
He came here to give a lecture, not lead a rally. Yet the audience hung on his words, grateful to a man who has spent the better part of a year becoming a student and teacher of the antifascist movement — and a de facto translator for mainstream liberals wondering what kind of "resistance" they are willing to justify.
[...] In the face of radicalism, Mark Bray argues, radical responses must at least be considered. His work poses a challenge: Do you oppose fascism? If so, you have a duty to study it -- and, once you've done so, to pick a side.
In many corners of academe, antifa has played a villain’s role. The collective has destroyed property on college campuses. One of its best-known tactics — attempting to shut down speakers it deems dangerous — has been criticized as trampling on freedom of speech. Yet many student activists share antifa’s stated goal of silencing white supremacists. Some of those students have sought not simply to protest speakers but to prevent them from appearing on campus altogether.
It’s not clear to most people precisely what "antifa" means, or how it overlaps with terms like "antifascism" and "black bloc." But critics argue that it’s also not clear precisely what counts as fascism....
MORE: http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-But...SFpNbnBrOA
