On the hot humid Saturday of August 18 I headed downtown to Seattle’s City Hall to join others protesting a white supremacy group calling themselves the Patriot Prayer group. As I wandered up and down the block I heard chants like, NO KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. Rows of police lined the street on both sides. Many on the ANTIFA side wore bandanas or what resembled hospital masks over their faces and I realized this was protection against possible pepper spray attacks
I passed another group yelling, All day. Al night. Shut down the alt right while another chanted, We remember Heather Heyer (the young woman who was killed when someone on the fascist side mowed down counter protesters with his car in Charlottesville last year). Later I heard a group chanting, No Nazis, no way. Human rights are here to stay.
On busy 4th Avenue, many cars passed honking their support and giving us the thumbs up sign. Nobody indicated any support for the fascist side.
This fascist movement is something we haven’t seen in nearly five decades. We have a Nazi supporter running the country. Last year he refused to condemn the actions of the fascists in Charlottesville and has mentioned support for labeling ANTIFA a terrorist group. He has encouraged people at his rallies to “rough up” protesters and has also encouraged police to continue “roughing up” suspects. Hate crimes have increased exponentially since he took office as have white supremacy group gatherings. But the anti-fascists outnumber the fascists and we will continue countering hate groups. If there’s a silver lining to this fascism gaining power in the US it’s that people are finally starting to wake up and take to the streets. There needs to be far more, however, if we are going to squash the rising and push it back underground, back to the dark cave where it belongs.
– All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
