That’s a gang calling themselves “Libertarians United Against Fascism.” What they’re threatening to shut down, unless they get their way, is the Libertarian Party of Florida’s state convention. And their two demands relating to that threat are designed to be impossible to meet.
There are two demands, one implicit, one explicit.
The implicit demand is that LPF rid itself of the fascists attempting to take it over.
The explicit demand is that LPF bar those of its members deemed fascists by “Libertarians United Against Fascism” (including members of its executive committee) from the convention.
LPF cannot rid itself of the fascists on its executive committee without having its convention.
LPF cannot have a valid convention while barring members “Libertarians United Against Fascism” doesn’t like from participating.
This is not a matter of “Libertarians United Against Fascism” and LPF fighting together against the Augustus Invictus gang.
It’s a matter of “Libertarians United Against Fascism” and the Augustus Invictus gang fighting together against LPF.
I don’t intend to let either of these thug factions win. I’m coming to my party’s convention. Want to stop me? Try it and see what happens, assholes.
IPR note: See our discussion of the Libertarians United Against Fascism article here.
Where is the evidence of threats of violence? If anyone has evidence of threats of violence let me know. Knapp says they are implicit in the piece directed at Florida. They are certainly not explicit, and in fact the piece explicitly says that it only approves of peaceful means. I have seen no evidence that anyone involved has either threatened violence or demonstrated the willingness or ability to bring it. If someone has any such evidence please post it.
There seems to be more smoke than fire when it comes to allegations that bomb threats were involved in cancellation of the PA event as well. What I have been able to determine so far is that Steve Scheetz’s sources at the hotel and the Harrisburg PD have told him that the police could not guarantee the safety of the event given some past actions by Harrisburg Antifa. That could easily be an overreaction on the part of the police and an overabundance of caution on the part of the hotel. Furthermore, more recently I saw something that quoted various Antifascist local orgs on facebook which said that “Harrisburg Antifa” is a rogue operation by fascists pretending to be Antifa.
So, maybe this rogue Harrisburg faction did take the public call script, which contained no threats whatsoever, and added bogus bomb threats to help paint antifa activists in a worse light. But even that is speculation, as once again I still have seen zero evidence of any bomb threats or threats of violence of any kind by the antifascist side in either PA or FL.
I’m beginning to wonder if the same people are behind both sides of this.
The murderous left — and fascists as well as anti-fascists are part of the left — has figured out the best way to shut down the Libertarian Party (and eventually the wider movement) is to send a couple of ringer fascists to a libertarian event, then get the venue (hotel owners, etc) to shut down the entire event by calling in threats of violence.
If we’re not allowed to meet, organizing will be made difficult or impossible. Would the aim be to close us down, or to hold us hostage?
Maybe they use the truncated term “antifa” instead of anti-fascism, because they forgot exactly what it is they’re opposing, given their apparent bullying tactics.