A CALL TO ARMS: RESISTING INCREASED WHITE SUPREMACIST VIOLENCE

Overnight on Tuesday November 1, vandals set fire to an historically Black church in Greenville, Mississippi. The words "VOTE TRUMP" were found spray painted on the gutted building. That same night, a Unitarian Church in Denver, Colorado was attacked, red paint thrown on the exterior of the building, defacing a large Black Lives Matter banner hanging on the stone facade. This same church was targeted exactly a year ago with a similar attack. Defacing the same church on the anniversary of the first attack sends a clear message to the community that the White Supremacists are organized, entrenched in our communities, and staying vigilant. These two racialized attacks occurring in one night, a mere week before a hotly contested Presidential election largely defined by racially fueled conflict, are representative of a new uptick in White Supremacist violence targeting both people and property.

Muslims have been shot at and beaten. Mosques have been attacked. People of color have become increasingly more targeted for violence at Trump rallies by his supporters. The terrain has only gotten uglier and more urgent as the election draws closer. No matter who wins or loses on November 8, people who care about liberty should be on guard for an increase in White Supremacist violence. Supporters of Trump have already declared that they will "wage revolution" if their candidate loses. Armed protests conducted by a group calling itself White Lives Matter have already demonstrated the tendency for White Supremacists to openly organize mass armed responses.

We can only assume that even if Trump wins, his supporters could reach a fevered pitch and celebratory violence could be well within the realm of possibility.

For those of us who believe in liberty for all people, the time has come to remain truly vigilant. We are calling for all those who firmly stand for liberty and against racialized violence to be ready to respond on election night, and continue to be prepared to mobilize in the days following the election to respond to any White Supremacist attacks or mobilizations that may result. We are calling on working class folks of all backgrounds to be at the ready to help with security at churches, mosques, community centers, day labor centers, and anywhere else that could pose a high profile target for racist violence. Start contacting these places and spaces now. Build relationships of trust with those most vulnerable to racist violence. Offer material support. Organize armed and unarmed community defense circles with friends, family, and co-workers who will mobilize with you on election night and beyond.

We must be ready to respond. It is far past time for us to be organized into tactical response formations, ready to meet the White Supremacist militias and their supporters head on. The situation looks dire, but we must be persistent. True liberty and freedom for all people must prevail.

No matter who wins this election, these campaigns have given a voice and a power to White Nationalist ideologies that already were brewing within our communities. As liberals and leftists have mostly turned their backs on white working class people, the right wing reactionaries have been gladly ushering in our friends and family members to join their flock. We must recognize that much is on the line if we fail. Our work is vital at this moment, and we must continue to offer a clear analysis of how White Supremacy also disempowers and destroys white working class communities and only benefits the rich and those who benefit from a fractured and conflicted working class. As long as people from our white working class communities continue to see people of color, migrants, Muslims, refugees, and others as the enemy, the rich and political elite will sleep soundly as we suffer. Our goals then are two fold: To build massive community defense networks where working class whites aid in the militant defense of marginalized communities, and to at the same time build a white working class movement that is actively fighting the spread of White Supremacist ideologies in our communities.

This is a call to arms. And we need every single person who believes in real liberty prepared to mobilize to fight for it for all people. We will not allow our communities to be used as pawns for billionaires like Trump or political elites like Clinton. We will no longer just watch as white working people march lock step to the beat of the drums of White Supremacy.