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Call for a Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc to Confront Christian Fundamentalist rally
by Pittsburgh Antifa
Monday, Sep. 11, 2006 at 10:33 PM
antifa_pgh@yahoo.com
We are calling on our friends, allies, and comrades to join us on September 20th in a Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc as we noisily, angrily, and directly confront Focus on the Family Action's Stand for the Family rally.
WHAT: Direct Action to confront Christian-Fundamentalist Rally
WHERE: Meet at US Steel Plaza, 600 Grant Street, Downtown (near 6th Avenue).
WHEN: 5pm, Wednesday, September 20th. March steps off at 5:30pm - if you're late find us near the Mellon Arena (look for the group clad in black, purple, and pink)
WHO: Pittsburgh Antifa
Contact: antifa_pgh@yahoo.com or visit http://antifa.activeresistance.org
On September 20th, Pittsburgh will be the site of a political rally organized by an organ of the extreme right-wing, the benign sounding Focus on the Family Action (FOFA). FOFA and leaders of Christian Right are gearing up for the November elections by holding three "Stand for the Family" rallies intended to mobilize "Christian voters." They will appeal to nationalist pride, Christian love, and family values while they demonize homosexuality, abortion, feminism, Darwinism, humanism, liberalism, and immigrants as threats to Christian America, requiring an even stronger military to safeguard our values and borders, and to continue the “righteous crusade” against Islamic extremism. These rallies kick off in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, September 20th at Mellon Arena.
Appearing at the rally will be some of the most powerful figures of the Christian Right: Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), arguably the powerful force in the Christian Right today, chief architect of the Christian Right's political strategy to bolster power through legislative gaybashing, and who asserts that "it is our Christian duty to go to the voting booth and to vote our values"; Gary Bauer (American Values and the Campaign for Working Families), who as a member of the Project for the New American Century, lobbied for pre-emptive war on Iraq and support for the Israeli war machine in order to help fulfill biblical prophesies; Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) who says, "Our Founders expected that Christianity -- and no other religion -- would receive support from the government...They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference."
Anti-authoritarians, anti-fascists, and left-wing activists have failed, for the most part, to adequately address this threat and take appropriate steps to counter it. A general conflict is not some far off possibility; it is happening now and we are losing. To the Christian Right, the US is a country at war, with itself as much as some far off Middle Eastern country. As far as these Christian theocrats are concerned, they have to live and operate, for now, in the contaminated environment of a secular, liberal state. They have learned, therefore, to speak in code and utilize a strategy of seizing power incrementally; in school boards, city council, legislatures, corporate boards, and in the minds of a more extreme right-wing youth movement they are nurturing.
This right-wing Christian movement seeks to dominate our minds and our bodies with the power of the state, the authority of God, and the sluice of hate-filled propaganda. How can such a movement be dismissed as anything less than totalitarian? This movement will not stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian church intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at home and rear children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is considered murder, the press and the schools promote evangelical Christian values, public assistance is gutted, and war becomes our primary form of communication with the rest of the world. We must match this threat in a manner proportionate to its seriousness and importance.
Several local and national groups are collaborating on a week of events to counter “Stand for the Family,” culminating in a “Standing With All Families ‘Presence’” outside the rally and a silent prayer vigil a block up the street. This is too narrow a framework for dissent, both in terms of the political issues addressed and the choice of tactics used.
Of key importance to many of these liberal groups is the fight for same-sex marriage. But this fight is the mirror image of the Christian Right's fight for hetero-only marriage and feeds into the same drive for a homogeneous, consumption-based American culture. The Stonewall riot and early gay rights movement was about the right to live an unconventional life unencumbered by the state or the church. To many queers, state- or church-sanctioned marriage contradicts that vision of liberation.
The mainstream GLBT movement of late has sought to exchange freedom for the myth of security, the illusion of protection by the state--including the police and the military, the belief that "equality" is the goal for the movement, and the notion that assimilation can defeat prejudice. We need to recognize that marriage is only a tiny part of a much larger and more pernicious Christian fascist agenda.
We do not desire to be sucked into this moral tug-of-war between liberals and fascists over the vision of what church and state should be. We have to separate ourselves, and our tactics, so as to confront these Christian fascists with explicitly secular and anti-authoritarian goals and messages, and one that connects the dots of authoritarian oppression. If we are to stave off an atmosphere of bigotry that directly fuels violence and intolerance, we need to demonstrate to people at war with us that we are willing to fight back against their hatred and bigotry.
So we call on our friends, allies, and comrades to join us on September 20th in a Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc as we noisily, angrily, and directly confront Focus on the Family Action.
Some of the resistance they faced when they came to St. Louis in the Winter...
by dodo
Monday, Sep. 18, 2006 at 3:17 PM
In the days and weeks preceding the February Focus on the Family/Exodus conference in St. Louis, the church where the conference was to be held was egged and two billboards were permanently modified. Also, a large counter-rally greeted conference attendees asthey arrived at the church on the day of.
Story here: http://www.stlimc.org/newswire/display/1327/index.php
Initial reportback
by Pittsburgh Antifa
Thursday, Sep. 21, 2006 at 3:36 AM
antifa_pgh@yahoo.com
The following is a very brief account of Wednesday's action from the person who has been maintaining the group's site. This person is not representing the group, but is merely trying to let people know what happened. A full reportback is forthcoming.
About 30 people participated in tonight's Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc. We gathered outside the US Steel building bearing signs with anti-right wing, anti-Dobson, and anti-Christian messages, a red-and-black flag, and led by a black banner reading "SMASH CHRISTIAN FASCISM". After departing without incident from the gathering point, the bloc made it's way two block to Mellon Arena. Initially arriving at Gate 3, the secondary entrance, chanting "Fuck Christian fascism" and more, the bloc was confronted by Mellon Arena security guards in red vests telling them to go the sidewalk. Ignoring the order, the bloc proceeded to the main entrance (Gate 1). As we marched up toward the gate led by the banner, we were confronted by several large security guards. The largest and most aggressive, Jim, grabbed one of the PCV pipes being used to hold the banner and snapped it in half. A scuffle ensued as Jim punched and pushed his way into the bloc and he and several other Mellon security guards took the banner and unsuccessfully attempted (several times) to take a red-and-black flag from protesters. Two people were snatched up in the commotion and detained as the rest of the bloc was driven to the curb. Jim punched another stationary protester in the chest as the two were searched and arrested. Because of a new PA law, the two were taken to a nearby police station, cited for disorderly conduct (the citation will be mailed to them), and then released. The bloc remained near Gate 1, taunting and berating rally attendants as fascists, bigots, and homophobes. The liberal "presence" was there as well, though contrary to the organizers' vision of the event, many participants weren't satisfied were signing and standing off to the side of those entering the rally. Several lined up by a crosswalk yelling and chanting at those going inside and several times joined the bloc in chants. Even many of those lined up far from entrants chanted loudly (seemingly in direct contravention of the guidelines put forth by organizers). The bloc left around 7:00 to meet up with our arrested and released comrades.
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