In the past two days, several thousands people across the United States and beyond organised rallies and demonstrations in memory of Heather Heyer, the anti-racist activist killed while confronting white supremacists. Protesters in the USA, Europe and beyond also expressed solidarity with the Antifa actions.
In Charlottesville, VA on the site where fascist James Alex Fields, Jr drove into a crowd of counter-protester, wounding many and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, dozens attended a vigil on Monday organised in memory of the victim, staying long after the end of the rally.
In Atlanta, GA around 500 people rallied to ‘defend Charlottesville’ with banners reading ‘Her Name Was Heather’.
In Oakland, CA the antifa collective rallied behind a banner that said ‘Mourn the Dead, fight like hell for the living’ during a #defendcville solidarity demo.
In New York, a massive demonstration took place as Donald Trump came back to the city.
Other protesters decided to use direct action to show their solidarity. In Durham, NC a confederate statue was taken down while around a hundred people cheered and chanted ‘No Cops, No KKK, No Fascist USA’. They later symbolically blocked roads and halted traffic.
In Minneapolis, MN Hennepin County’s flag was replaced by the anti-fascist action emblem during a solidarity march in the city.
In Europe, antifa collectives also quickly reacted to the murder of one of their comrade.
In Brighton, UK the antifascist group rallied with banners such as ‘Solidarity without borders’ and released a short statement affirming that ‘Antifascism has no borders, as antifascists we stand united against fascism wherever and whenever it rises. The memory of Heather and all those who have died before her, doing what was right, lives on in all of us. We do not forgive and we do not forget.’ Solidarity was expressed in a similar way in Austria with banner drops and smoke bombs.
In Athens, Greece a march will be organised on Thursday. And in Sweden, AFA collectives from across the country released a statement condemning ‘Trump politics [that] attacks the working class, migrants and LGBTQ people. Fascism is by nature violent and attacks us who stand in the way of its progress. We want to send our unconditional international solidarity to the victims and their relatives.’
The Region website reports that solidarity came from as far as the Sinjar region in Kurdistan where Yazidi Female fighters of the Yazidi Sinjar Women’s Units declared ‘As women who have suffered at the hands of Daesh [ISIS] we know well the dangers that fascist, racist, patriarchal and nationalist groups and organisations pose. Once again men of this mind-set, this time in America, have martyred a woman, Heather Heyer, who was resisting against the division and destruction of communities.’
Solidarity took many other forms. On social media, several Twitter and Facebook pages such as ‘Yes, you’re racist’ shared photos of the neo-nazis spotted during their marches and other public actions in an effort to identify them.
A GoFundMe page was set-up to collect funds for Heather Heyer and those wounded confronting the nazis.
All the solidarity actions and statements can be found on the enough is enough! website.
Comments
Callout from a French site
Callout from a French site for a memorial 'graffiti night'
I think these images were before the night of action, haven't seen the new ones, but they should be on facebook