PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

We bash back: Pittsburgh Radicals Confront Christian Fundamentalist Rally
by Pittsburgh Antifa Saturday, Sep. 23, 2006 at 9:12 PM
antifa_pgh@yahoo.com

By seeking to merge nationalism, militarism, and Christian identity Dobson and his group are but one in a number of Christian groups working to incrementally seize state power. The ultimate goal they and other Christian Dominionists hold is of a Christian dominated government actively working to create their version of a purified society. The event did not go unopposed.

We bash back: Pittsburgh Radicals Confront Christian Fundamentalist Rally
Report from Anti-fascist bloc at "Focus on the Family"

On September 20 Pittsburghers saw first-hand the growing power of Christian fundamentalism as right-winger James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family Action, mobilized 3,000 for the local stop of his benign sounding "Stand for the Family" rallies. Billed as a mainstream event to talk about Christian values it was in fact an event meant to legitimize the ascendance of the hard right, aid Rick Santorum’s re-election campaign, and mobilize Christian voters in general.

By seeking to merge nationalism, militarism, and Christian identity Dobson and his group are but one in a number of Christian groups working to incrementally seize state power. The ultimate goal they and other Christian Dominionists hold is of a Christian dominated government actively working to create their version of a purified society.

The event did not go unopposed. The following is a report back from Pittsburgh Antifa, a group of local antifascists who organized a pink-purple-black bloc to attempt to disrupt the event and directly confront attendees. Participants included anarchists, radical queers, and allies.

What Happened:

Led by a banner reading "Smash Christian Fascism", thirty activists marched on Mellon Arena, swarming the Gate 3 entrance. Signs included "feed Dodson to the lions", "Fuck Christian Fascists", "Anarchist Lions Against Christian Fascists", and "Resyst Hetero-Normativity, from Reparative Therapy to Assimilation". Security and three police officers' efforts to stop the group were futile as people pushed through to the doors. We eventually moved onwards towards the main entrance at Gate 1, at which point the bloc encountered around ten security guards and one Pittsburgh police officer. From its position around 35 feet from the entrance the bloc attempted to push through, meeting severe resistance. Security grabbed and violently assaulted one person trying to walk around them as they sought to stop forward movement. As an arrest was attempted two activists intervened and a violent confrontation ensued between the bloc and security. The activist was freed while a back and forth over the banner resulted in its destruction. Numerous security attempts to seize a red and black flag pole were successfully resisted. One particularly violent guard, Jim, kneed people in the stomach, punched people in the chest, violently assaulted at least six people, and threatened folks with banter such as "I'm going to fuck you up".

Although unprepared for the level of violence from security, participants did fight back with whatever means available. During the most severe of the fighting and un-arrests Pittsburgh police arrested two activists who'd been caught up behind the rest of the action. No one else realized what had happened until they were sitting down, with masks pulled down, being questioned.

Thanks to a recent decision by the state court system on how to deal with minor charges the two arrestees were released around 30 minutes later with a citation for disorderly conduct. Pepper spray in their possession was returned, a dildo brought as a prop suffered a different fate and was seized by the police- who hopefully made good use of it that night.

As more Pittsburgh police arrived on the scene it became clear the bloc could not reach the gate and participants moved to verbally confront attendees. Generally screaming at and getting in the faces of those attempting to walk in as the goal was to harass attendees as much as possible. This disturbed many attendees, with response including being defiant, embarrassed and avoiding eye contact, or engagement trying to tell the bloc "we're just loving Christians who want to support families" These responses indicated that at least some of the participants were naive or simply unaware of what they were getting into.

One soft-spoken woman approached one protester to say that she wasn’t anti-gay, to which the protester responded by saying even if she wasn't; her attendance at this rally was legitimizing and endorsing the views and efforts of Dobson and company. After conversing about the violence used to protect the event she indicated she'd pray for the protesters' safety, and the protester of course indicated he'd pray for her to stop supporting Christian extremists.

Why we did what we did and what our perspective on resistance is:

Dobson and the rising power of right-wing Christian fundamentalism is a real threat to our personal and collective freedom and safety. These people have a great design for the future of this country and they are incrementally seizing power while the mainstream left neither recognizes the threat nor is preparing to face it. As queer and non-queer radicals of different persuasions the only message we were trying to send is that our years of meekly appealing to others for help is over. We will bash back, we will defend ourselves against those seeking to harm us, we will fight for our personal and collective freedom, and most importantly we are committed to organizing and growing our movements so that our destiny and safety is in our own hands rather than the governments or liberal organizations who claim to be our allies.

Our relationship to the "presence" organized primarily by liberal Christians (although they said they were secular):

There was not a uniformity of perspective within local movements on how to respond to this event. Predominantly mainstream liberal Christians, under the initiation of the SW chapter of the Marriage Equality project, formed a coalition which eventually settled on a variety of events from a candlelight vigil to a forum. The centerpiece of their mobilizing was a "presence" outside the Mellon Arena, which they explicitly stated was not a protest, as they felt presence had a more positive light. Despite their later statements we did in fact start organizing before we were aware of any other efforts.

When we found out about their plans we did not join the efforts because we disagreed with the group over its strategic choices and as a group including non-Christians and Atheists we felt uneasy about what we viewed as the religious connotations. Although they were not explicitly a Christian group the very Christian rhetoric that underscored their approach was alienating to many of us and the focus on state sanctioned marriage equality (rather than on liberation and rights for all) was something we were uncomfortable with.

Mainly though, from our perspective respectful responses were not appropriate given the nature of the event. We did not want our presence to legitimize the 'stand for the family' rally or its message. We did not want attendees to think our opposition was like that of a democrat candidate versus a republican, where it's just about some simple disagreement on policy. That rally was a threat to our freedom and our ability to exist.

Still, we absolutely respected their right to structure their events as they saw fit even if we found their guidelines restrictive of individual freedom, did not bash them in the media, and did not discourage people from participating in their actions. Such a large event left open the possibility of a diversity of tactics.

From the beginning the coalition adopted a fairly hostile attitude towards our organizing, which increased as the event drew nearer. Our main complaints with how we were treated were not about genuine disagreements over tactics and strategies but rather the actions and attitude members of the coalition adopted due to these differences. Basic issues of respect for other groups/efforts and for the movements we are part of were violated.

Entirely inappropriate actions and behavior by members of the coalition included, while not indicative of official coalition positions these actions set the tone for interaction:

- Manipulatively threatening to cancel their entire event if we went ahead with our plans
- Claiming we were putting other people in danger
- Spreading disinformation about us—questioning how many of us were really "gay"
- Manipulatively saying that the fact their coalition made decisions by consensus, and that their meetings were open to everyone, they somehow had a legitimate right to determine how any protest events were structured.
- Warning people about participating in our event

These things unfortunately very much engendered mistrust and have un-necessarily widened age, tactical, and other pre-existing divisions within our communities. Still the important lesson to take is that it is critically important that radicals do no give in to cynical and manipulative behavior by those who should be our allies. We already lack much of the privilege and resources others have, we need not also moderate ourselves to the detriment of achieving our objectives. We've come too far, waited too long, and fought too hard, often just to survive as who we are, to give in now.

Organizational Notes:

Organizationally there was a lot to learn from this event. As a new group made up primarily of individuals from other groups we didn’t have the communication channels, organizational resources, or people connections which would have made our efforts (and the action itself) go a bit smoother. With about 1/3 of participants being generally new to radical protests we lacked the experience of some previous blocs in Pittsburgh on handling conflict. Much of our energy in the preceding weeks, hours of time that otherwise would have gone to planning, was also spent dealing the liberal coalition. Some of the things we hoped to see occur; a pre-event meeting, more brainstorming about chants, back-up plans in case of police violence, all fell by the wayside in the rush to take care of other needs. All in all we feel we did adequate with the resources we had. Hopefully with the connections made at this event, and the lessons we learned, next time can be even more effective.

In solidarity,
Pittsburgh Antifa

You can contact us at:
antifa_pgh@yahoo.com

http://antifa.activeresistance.org

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