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(Uri Thier)

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Just over five years ago, when Leah McVeigh moved to Astoria, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, one of the first things she noticed about her apartment building was the dangerous intersection next to it. There were so many car crashes, she told me, that she learned to identify the sound of one: Theres this specific crunch. And then quiet.1

There seemed to be an accident every week, and the constant honking suggested that there were dozens of near misses every day. It was so dangerous that she bought a large first aid kit to keep in the apartment. She also called the citys 311 help line to request that a traffic light be installed, and when that didnt work, she attended her community board meeting to see if they could help. Nothing changed, and McVeigh concluded that shed done what she could. I had to live my life. I had to go work. Ive kicked the tires, and Ive only lived here six months. Surely someone in this neighborhood has been trying to deal with this for years, she said.2

But one rainy night in September 2020, McVeigh heard that familiar, dreadful crunch and quiet. She ran down into the pouring rain in her slippers and found a delivery worker on the ground with a line of blood trickling from his mouth. You could tell, as soon as you got there, that it was not going to go well for him, she said.3

McVeigh watched him die. She decided then that getting the intersection fixed would be her raison dtre. This man was deeply loved, she told me. His friends and family brought a band to play a funeral brass section at the intersection. They put up a poster at the site of his death and lit candles almost every night for the next six months.4

McVeigh e-mailed every legislator at the city and state level, telling them, I need this intersection fixed. I dont have the emotional capacity to watch another person die in front of my house during Covid-19. This is too hard. But every elected politician she reached out to either didnt respond or told her that they couldnt do anything to help.5 Current Issue

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That changed last January, when Zohran Mamdani, one of six democratic socialists to win state office in New York, became the assemblymember representing Astoria. He hosted a Covid-19 town hall meeting over Zoom, which McVeigh attended. He said a lot of good things, she told me, and he invited participants to volunteer with his office to help deliver constituent services to their neighbors. This work entails assisting hundreds of constituents who reach out to the assemblymember with practical needs: an unmet unemployment claim, a complaint to the city that has not been addressed, or dozens of other unique problems. McVeigh thought, Maybe this is how I will not only get my traffic light, but I can also ensure that others dont have the same experience that I did.6

She got involved with Mamdanis team in March, and with the help of another volunteer, his office made sure a traffic light and pedestrian signals were finally installed at the intersection by the end of that summer. The corner by her apartment building, once raucous with honking, fender benders, and worse, has gone quiet.7

This is sewer socialism in action, and it highlights how local, socialist governance can be responsive to ordinary people rather than to the corporate and political elite.8

Making the light: Leah McVeigh in front of the traffic light that she and the rest of Mamdanis team made sure was installed. (Uri Thier)

Sewer socialists was the nickname given to the democratic socialist mayors who ran Milwaukee for most of the first half of the 20th century. They built parks, playgrounds, libraries, water treatment plants, and the nations first municipal public housing. There were also socialist mayors in Reading, Penn.; Schenectady, N.Y.; Berkeley, Calif.; and dozens of other cities. But Milwaukees mayors were the best-known. In fact, Mayor Daniel Webster Hoan was featured on Time magazines cover in 1936. The article noted that the Marxist mayor was in his sixth term despite the united opposition of the citys Republicans, Democrats, bankers, and landlords. Hoan, Time wrote, remains one of the nations ablest public servants, and under him Milwaukee has become perhaps the best-governed city in the U.S.9

Milwaukee was a stronghold of the Socialist Party, particularly the wing that believed the best way to advance working-class power was to run a functional government that delivered basic services. But many from the partys more radical wing derided this type of incremental reform. Sewer socialism was their term of scorn for the incrementalists. Emil Seidel, the citys first socialist mayor, responded:10

Some eastern smarties called ours a Sewer Socialism. Yes, we wanted sewers in the workers homes; but we wanted much, oh, so very much more than sewers. We wanteda chancefor every human being to be strong and live a life of happiness. And we wanted everything that was necessary to give them that: playgrounds, parks, lakes, beaches, clean creeks and rivers, swimming and wading pools, social centers, reading rooms, clean fun, music, dance, song and joy for all.11

Todays Eastern smarties include a caucus of democratic socialists in the New York State Legislature who have adopted many of these ideas. So often, Mamdani told me, people like to malign leftists as if we live in the clouds. But we should also live in the sewers.12

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A growing number of socialist politicians have organized their offices to deliver constituent services. But what makes their approach distinct is that theyre doing this by activating community members, developing leaders, and building organizationsand thus transforming the political terrain of their districts. While local political machines have often traded constituent services for votes, democratic socialists have turned that model on its head by using the delivery of services to build power outside of their offices. Through contact with constituents, theyve introduced people to grassroots organizations, trained volunteers, and connected people with resources and information.13

Politicians ranging from US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to state assemblymembers like Mamdani in Queens and Phara Souffrant Forrest in Brooklyn have developed significant volunteer bases out of this work, and in so doing, they are building infrastructure that can outlast their time in office. As Mamdani told me: Our role is to ensure that people have the tools that they need to create the world that they deserve, outside of what we do for them, and long after we leave.14

By building volunteer networks and local organizations, explained Ayat Husseini, the community liaison for Mamdanis office, theyre showing residents how socialist governance connects to communities and grassroots movements. We can use constituent services to empower volunteers and constituents, she said. They learn about the system, learn to resolve their issues moving forward, but also resolve their neighbors issues and develop tight-knit communities that can navigate systems and bureaucracies.15

Mapping change: Zohran Mamdani, center, and his staff analyze a map of Queens. (Uri Thier)

Mamdani and his staff of four (three full-time, one part-time) have spent the past year working with tenants and unemployed people, doing outreach in mosques and churches, and lending support to grassroots campaigns. Like other socialists in office, Mamdani describes himself as having one hand in legislation, one hand in organizing, and one hand in constituent issues.16

That may sound like one too many hands for a single person, but his staff and volunteers help in each of those categories. When I stopped by the offices constituent services volunteer meeting this past October, Mamdani sat to the side for most of the evening while his team ran the agenda. Mamdani, who had turned 30 that week, was wearing a dark suit and was uncharacteristically quiet. If he looked tired, I later found out, it was because he had begun a hunger strike earlier that day, in solidarity with New York City taxi workers who were seeking debt relief. The following week, still on hunger strike, Mamdani announced a major organizing victory: The states Department of Environmental Conservation had rejected a proposal that hed worked to defeat, which would have built a fracked gas power plant in Astoria.17

But many of the day-to-day functions of Mamdanis office are not the flashy accomplishments that find their way into headlines. Mamdani and his staff respond to hundreds of constituents every week, answering e-mails, phone calls, and tweets. Its not unusual for the office to receive 100 e-mails and 30 phone calls in a single day. During the first 10 months of Mamdanis tenure, more than 480 of these conversations became active casesan average of 11 cases per week. Some types of cases were all too common: a wave of people not receiving their unemployment checks at the height of the states lockdown, for instance. Others were unique: a security guard at risk of losing his job because his license had expired and his attempt to renew it was stuck in a bureaucratic limbo. Many were somewhere in between: tenants complaining about negligent landlords or traffic issues like McVeighs intersection.18

Mamdani and his staff were quickly overwhelmed by the volume of cases, particularly as the pandemic pummeled New York City and the inquiries became dire. So they set about recruiting and organizing volunteers. The first cohort that spring, which included McVeigh, fluctuated between five and 20 active volunteers. They learned to answer calls and e-mails, log information, and follow up where they could. McVeigh took the lead in helping to organize them. Im a bit of a systems thinker, she said. She worked with the staff to tighten an initial loosey-goosey approach with schedules, processes, and clear expectations for volunteers.19

She also met Sean Rowden, who had agreed to volunteer after the office helped him with his own unemployment case. He happened to have a background in urban planning and transportation and knew the liaison at the Department of Transportation. He helped resolve McVeighs traffic light case.20

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Mamdani and his staff have tried to use every point of contact with constituents to democratize and build power within the district. During Ramadan, their food distribution activities culminated in an iftar where religious leaders, community members, and local climate activists shared a meal, prayed, and discussed the struggle to stop the proposed fracked gas plant. When a constituent contacts the office to say I dont have gas or My landlord wont repair the holes in my walls, Mamdanis staff often end up finding out about other issues that they can help resolve.21

Tenant activist: Adriana Alvarez is working with Mamdanis office to organize her neighbors against their landlord. (Uri Thier)

Thats how they met Adriana Alvarez, who was born and raised in Queens. In 2019 Alvarez, her partner, and her two daughters moved into a rent-stabilized apartment. They quickly found out that there was no working stove, and when they called Con Edison to turn on the gas, they were told it wasnt possible, because the buildings gas pipes were not installed according to city regulations. The landlord refused to do anything about it, so in March 2020 Alvarez took him to court. There she learned that a standing order to address the issue already existed. To this day, nothing has been done to correct it. In fact, the only thing that came out of the court case was that Con Ed shut off the gas to the rest of the building as well.22

Alvarez didnt know the people in her new building when this began. But her neighbor across the hall, Hacene Layachi, seemed to know everyone. He suggested that she go to a nearby food pantry where hed met some organizers who might help. As it turned out, the organizers were Mamdani supporters and members of the Astoria Tenants Union. Mamdanis campaign had been running food distribution during Ramadan and had enlisted the ATU to hand out flyers.23

As Alvarez and the ATU identified other neighbors issues, Mamdanis office got involved. Not only had the tenants gas been shut off indefinitely, but years of negligence also meant that door locks and security cameras were broken, leaks were left to fester, garbage was everywhere, a mouse infestation hadnt been addressed, and many tenantsthey learned after some diggingwere vastly overpaying on their rent.24

Now Alvarez, Layachi, and their neighbors have begun to organize, and theyre bringing a building-wide legal case against the landlord. In the past, tenants occasionally passed each other in the hallway but had barely known one another. Now, Layachi told me, were like a family. We help each other out, we talk outside, we know about each others kids.25

Layachi is a natural organizer, who recently helped unionize his workplace. But Alvarez said shes never done anything like this before. When I asked her how it felt, she said, Its like a breath of fresh air. I didnt know how many people in my building didnt want to speak out because of their status. It sounds ignorant, but as a citizen, I never really thought about it. It feels good to know that were working together now. That they know that their neighbors have their back.26

Neither Layachi nor Alvarez consider themselves political or have an opinion about democratic socialism. Its just really good to work with people that have your best interest at heart, Alvarez said.27

Its exactly this principlethat socialist governance is just good governancethat appeals to volunteers like McVeigh and Rowden. Both told me that they have socialist leanings, but they appreciate the seemingly apolitical nature of providing constituent services. Theres something powerful about neighbors helping neighbors, McVeigh said.28

Rowden has been skeptical of the Democratic Socialists of America and of political activism in general in an age of Twitter wars. Everythings online; everythings national scale. And it feels insubstantial, he said. But with constituent services, because youre dealing with real people in real circumstancesyour actual neighborsyou dont have the luxury of retreating into bubbles and hive minds.29

The more that Mamdanis office can develop leaders, whether as volunteers or as tenants organizing their buildings, the more institutional knowledge can be built to outlast the tenure of individual politicians. We care very deeply about democratizing information, Mamdani said. I think that stems from the fact that we are socialists, and socialism is in many ways the extension of democracy beyond the ballot box. It is in this sense that socialist governance is not only good governance; it has a broader goal of transforming the way people understand and relate to the government. The reason that I ran for office, Mamdani continued, is to change the relationship between people and the state, to shift what people believe they deserve from the state, and to help them understand the structural problems and the role that they can play in challenging those structures.30

As Kaarthika Thakker, Mamdanis communications coordinator and constituent services liaison, explained: The ultimate goal is to identify and develop leaders and to give people the tools and knowledge to be able to have tenant association meetings, regardless of who is in office, to understand what your rights are and what you can demand from your landlord, your candidate, your government. The ultimate goal is to have that sustain itself and live within the neighborhood and not within our office.31

Democratic socialist politicians like Mamdani dont have it easy. Not only are they opposed on the ballot (often by candidates with nearly bottomless resources), but once theyre in office, theyre stymied by limited resources and the enormous scale of the challenges their constituents face.32

We are preaching a gospel of abundance within conditions of austerity, Mamdani said. Constituent service work exists only because the system is not working efficiently. If people were able to resolve their issues with government agencies directly, they would have no need to call us.33

To get constituents engaged, Mamdani and his staff must convince them that it is possible to make changein their own lives and in their communities. When they organized thousands of residents to write postcards against the fracked gas plant, they made it clear: You can do this. You have the power to stop this plan.34

But when you light the fire of possibility in someone, Mamdani cautioned, you have to do so responsibly and not give them a sense of hope when actually theres no way to help them in this situation. For every constituent that Mamdanis team helps, there are many more who dont know to reach out to his office or whose problems are beyond the ability of a single office to solve. Behind each negligent landlord, for instance, is an entire system of real estate development, predatory lending, and gentrificationwhich requires legislation and class-based struggles to effectively overcome. Delivering constituent services not only gives Mamdani opportunities to empower residents; it also informs his legislative priorities, such as a good cause eviction law to protect renters, a bill to ban all new power plants, and legislation that democratizes the processes in the most engaged state agencies.35

Political education is also important in the long run, Mamdani said. When we talk to our constituents, we try to be honest with them about the political and systemic challenges. There are many obstacles that are unseen, and you need to know them. Because if you dont connect the dots in politics, it seems like you can never achieve change. And thats what they want you to think.36

Sewer socialism in New York is in its beginning stages. How far it will go and how much it can achieve remains to be seen. For Rowden, despite his skepticism about political activity, the work thats happening in Mamdanis district is a North Star for the movement. If youre a socialist, part of the project of getting people on board is showing people the goods, he said. Thats the benefit of getting your fingers in the dirt. What were doing here is where the hope lies for socialism to grow.37

Read the original:
When Socialists Govern - The Nation

Anne Hidalgo, the socialist candidate to become the next president of France, is meeting the press at the Jean Jaurs Foundation in central Paris.

Jaurs, an historian and socialist leader who lived in late 18th and early 19th century Paris, is considered one of the founders of what would become modern French socialism.

But, now, Hidalgo may be presiding over the party's collapse.

She is not used to being such an underdog.

In 2020 she was elected mayor of Paris for a second six-year-term in an alliance with the Greens. And she's become something of an international superstar for having done so much to make her city a model for a greener and cleaner urban future.

Paris has carved up roads to squeeze in bike lanes and trees, opened routes along the banks of the River Seine to cyclists and pedestrians. By 2024, a huge chunk of the heart of Paris will be car-free. By 2026 more than 170,000 trees will be planted across the city, and by 2030, 50 percent of the city is set to be covered by planted areas.

And as a presidential candidate, she's insisted that she's the only candidate who can unite the French left.

Yet the evidence suggests otherwise.

In the run up to the first round of voting in April six other leftist candidates are running and four of them are beating her in the polls. Hidalgo is garnering a meagre two percent of the vote (according to a 22 February 22 Ifop survey).

Mainstream French newspapers have described her as unelectable, a dying star, and the most frequent question she faces is, why doesn't she drop out of the race?

"I am confident that the dynamic will change," Hidalgo told Euobserver at the Jaurs foundation event in early February. "People know that I am a doer and stand by my word," she said.

That may be part of the problem: her marquee policies have earned her contempt and admiration in equal measure.

There are many French voters in rural areas where there are long commutes with high levels of dependency on cars. And they do not share Hidalgo's cosmopolitan outlook and environmentalist priorities.

In many cases these are regions where the Yellow Vests protest movement of 2018 gained traction after president Emmanual Macron, in an early misstep in his presidency, moved to increase fuel taxes.

Hidalgo says Macron fumbled that fuel tax decision. But she stands by the "absolute necessity" of acting on fossil fuels and she says that allowing "cars to keep destroying the environment and our citizen's lungs would be a crime."

Hidalgo, who was born in Spain and became a naturalised French citizen at age 14, also continues to vaunt traditional leftist ideals that include actively fighting bigotry and xenophobia.

"I do not believe in abandoning our ideals," she said. "I defend social justice and solidarity. Anti-migrant, wall-building positions are not compatible with me."

To be sure, Hidalgo is not solely responsible for the party's downfall.

In the 2017 presidential election, Socialist candidate Benot Hamon scored only 6.2 percent in the first round of voting.

And during president Francois Hollande's presidency from 2012 to 2017, the French Socialist Party already was fracturing into sharply polarised radical left and more centrist wings.

Hamon was supported by leftist socialists, while the centrists backed then prime minister Manual Valls a strong proponent of law-and-order and other policies more commonly associated with the right wing of politics.

Valls had presidential aspirations, too. But when he crashed out of the socialist primaries in 2017, he refused to support Hamon. Valls instead opted for Macron, a former socialist minister, and his start-up pro-European party, La Republique En Marche.

Valls, who was also born in Spain, then left France, unsuccessfully running for mayor of Barcelona. He now is back in Paris and unapologetic about his choices.

"C'est fini, there is no future for a party with outdated ideas," Valls said of the French socialists under Hidalgo. Europe needs to protect itself and "not be afraid of walls and barbed wire," Valls, who was speaking at a bistro in central Paris, told a small group of journalists.

Now Valls seems to be open to a position in the government that emerges from the April presidential elections, where currently Macron is a strong favourite to prevail for a second five-year term.

"France needs to look forward, and of course I would like to contribute in one way or another," said Valls.

To be sure, social democracy has been strengthening in other parts of Europe, such as Spain, Portugal, Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

And those signs of rejuvenation also help to explain Hidalgo's stubborn optimism.

Hidalgo says she takes particular inspiration from Spain where her counterparts in the country's socialist party, the PSOE, are governing in coalition with the anti-austerity Unidas Podemos alliance. She also looks to the German SPD, who are in a coalition in the federal German government with the Greens and liberals.

"We know that many voters want a just, green and feminist leadership," she said. "This has been shown locally and regionally in recent years, where Socialists have a stable support."

"Everyone seems eager to put a nail in the coffin of the Socialist Party but we are here to stay," she insists.

But Valls, the erstwhile prime minister and socialist hardliner, says those models, particularly in Spain, are far from ideal if the French socialists are seeking to rebound.

"A reasonable French Left would take inspiration from the Social Democrats in Sweden or Denmark, a bold left who dares to take measures against migration," said Valls.

When asked if left voters perhaps abandoned the Socialist party because its policies were no longer left at all, but centre-right, he shakes his head.

"The left needed to be reshaped," he said. "I do not believe La Rpublique en Marche is solid either," he said, referring to Macron's party.

"Only the future holds the answer for the French left," he said.

More:
What just happened to Hidalgo and to French socialism? - EUobserver

Recently, some of the countrys most prominent conservative politicians spoke in Orlando, Fla. at the National Conservatism Conference. The dangerous rise of socialism and the overreach of our government quickly took center stage. I was shocked to hear Republican senators argue that the solution to socialism and big government is more government. Especially, greater government control of social media. We need to tread lightly when we work to rein in the platforms that serve as a digital venue for free speech and democratic values across the world.

The Florida legislatures plans to regulate social media platforms are very concerning to me. I understand the frustrations felt by my fellow Republicans toward overzealous tech firms. Still, those regulations will also extend to social media platforms that we love, such as Truth, the new platform that President Donald Trump designed for people like us that believe in freedom.

We only need to look 90 miles off the coast of Miami to see how social media can be used to foster democracy and fight extremism. For more than six decades, the socialist Castro regime has ruled Cuba. They cemented their power by expanding the government and controlling the narrative with state-run media. However, recently Cubans have used social media platforms to promote democracy and push back on Castro-era Communism.

Last summer, Floridians watched on their phones and laptops as Cuban democratic activists took to Twitter to share their grievances against socialism and Communism. Cubans turned to social media in a country where news is tightly controlled and crackdowns against government criticism are common. They coordinated and organized online to protest socialism and to demand democracythe Cuban government could only quiet the protests by shutting off access to the internet.

Cuba is not the only country where activists have used social media to share democratic ideals and coordinate protests against oppressive governments. Protesters in Hong Kong used Facebook and Twitter extensively in their efforts to resist the Chinese Communist Party. In 2011, a viral Facebook post sparked the sentiment that ejected Hosni Mubarak, the autocratic leader of Egypt, from power.

I do not oppose laws and regulations that govern social media companies. The CEOs of social media giants like Twitter and Google have asked the federal government to rework and modernize the legislation that protects privacy and free speech online. Unfortunately, legislatures across the country, and here in Florida, have proposed a series of bills that would regulate tech firms and remove an effective tool that promotes freedom.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio argued at the National Conservatism Conference that people do not want a woke socialist America. It leaves them with no voice in our politics and no answers to their problems. Rubio is right. As the daughter of Cuban immigrants, I know firsthand just how dangerous socialism and government overreach can be and that the freedom we have to spread ideas and quick communication through the use of social media are the best tools we have to protect American ideals and stop extremism.

Originally posted here:
When It Comes to Social Media We Have to Get It Right InsideSources - InsideSources

Abortion protester in a scene from Progressive Socialism, the new production of K. Piroto.| Photo: Bigstock

)

According to producer K. Piroto, who gave us this exclusive interview directly from his home in Belford Roxo, in Baixada Fluminense, the story of Progressive Socialism repeats some elements known to fans of the franchise, such as the search for utopian equality through violence as explicit as possible.

The novelty, according to K. Piroto, is due to the use of a new technology, called Diversity, which he ordered from the famous Ideology Studios. Thanks to advances in science, nowadays everything is much easier. In the days of National Socialism we had the radio, trains and Zyklon B, but today we have the Internet and cancel culture. So everything is much cleaner and more subtle. The fans will love it!, predicts the always optimistic K. Piroto, creating suspense, but not too much.

There is still a lot of speculation about the stars who will star in Progressive Socialism. One sure name, however, is that of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. For now, we are also working on the search for an L, a G, a B, a T, a Q and a + capable of telling this beautiful story of intolerance disguised as tolerance, says K. Piroto, putting his hands to his mouth. as soon as you realize you gave a spoiler of whats to come. Asked if it is possible to have a Brazilian, Brazilian or Brazilian in the cast, K. Piroto says yes, for sure, but does not reveal names.

K. Piroto takes advantage of the relaxed moment in the interview to give more details about the production. Details that this journal publishes with total exclusivity. For example, anyone who thought that after the dramatic finale of Marxist Socialism Communism had died buried under the rubble of the Berlin Wall will be in for a surprise right in the opening scenes of Progressive Socialism. Communism is our big star. Our great reference. I couldnt leave him out of this one, says K. Piroto. The script is still being finalized, but the idea is, at the beginning of the story, to show Communism disguised as the Common Good. With that, I hope to attract a younger audience, says the millennial producer.

)K. Piroto, however, rules out using Swastika, the star of the controversial National Socialism. Times are different. And we know that the Swastika is not in a good phase, he says. The idea is to use the ideals and values that marked National Socialism, but employing less stigmatized symbols. There are many possibilities. Perhaps the Carbon Footprint could make a romantic pairing with Communism. Why not? What counts is creativity, says K. Piroto.

At ease in your mansion, in the At the end of the interview, an animated K. Piroto says, with his unmistakable accent, that he has a revelation to make to Brazilians. Im working with Embrafilme partners on a totally green-yellow production, he says, and then bursts out laughing. I lie, oh, of course I lie. For am I not the King of Lies? The truth is that the production is red too, he says, showing his fangs.

With the provisional title of A Vingana da Jararaca, K. Pirotos hope is to cause a lot of destruction and death around here, in a version that would condense the narratives of Marxist Socialism, National Socialism and even Progressive Socialism. The partnership with Pet Produes is taken for granted. As far as I know, our legion of lawyers even managed to obtain funding via the Rouanet Law, says an excited K. Piroto. Unfortunately, it wouldnt be his first successful production here.

See the original post here:
From the same producer of Marxist Socialism and National Socialism, here comes News Release India - News Release India

In Providence on Sunday an event to mark the 174th anniversary of the publication of the The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels was underway at Red Ink Community Library when a number of self-identified Nazis, holding a red swastika flag, began banging on the windows screaming obscenities.

Due to the publication of The Communist Manifesto, February 21 is celebrated internationally as Red Books Day and the Nazis apparently came in response to this event which was advertised on Facebook. Video from both inside and outside Red Ink Library shows nearly two dozen Nazis wearing masks to hide their faces.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza made the following statement:

Providence is home to diverse people, cultures, and ideas and our city has no room for hate-filled actions meant to intimidate and cause fear. My administration is committed to making every resident feel safe and protecting the rights of people who are gathering peacefully. Anyone with information regarding the incident last night involving a swastika flag is encouraged to contact our police department.

Update: Uprise RI has the Providence Police Department report from the incident last night:

On Monday February 21st 2022 at approximately 18:40 hours, District 8 and 9 received information and were advised a group of Neo Nazis were proceeding to the Red Ink Community Library (130 Camp Street) to interrupt the individuals who were inside attending a reading.

At 1845 the District 8/9 cars proceeded to 130 Camp Street. While responding dispatch advised police they were receiving calls for an active disturbance. Upon arrival we observed approximately 15-20 subjects (from the Neo Nazi group) standing outside and striking the front window of the Red Ink Community Library with their hands. As soon as all of the District 8 and 9 cars arrived on scene with the overhead emergency lights on, the Neo Nazi crowd began to disperse. Moments later the crowd of subjects walked to their vehicles parked on adjacent streets and left the area. Police did not observe any damage to the building.

Car-282 (Ptlm. Lugo) remained on scene until 2015 hours to ensure no further disturbances.

Sergeant Groot was on scene.

Body Worn camera was activated.

During the last few minutes of the reading, as can be seen on the Facebook livestream, one can hear the Nazis chanting, rattling the windows and screaming obscenities.

You commie piece of shit! shouted one Nazi. You fucking commie piece of shit! Commie Scum! Shut your goddamn mouth you fucking whore! Commie Scum off our streets!

Video taken of the Nazis from inside the library and posted on Twitter show a clearly visible Nazi flag.

Neighbors alerted the police. After a short time six Providence Police Department vehicles arrived and the Nazis dispersed. See here.

The Black Lives Matter RI PAC responded in a statement:

There is no greater threat to Rhode Island than nazism and white supremacy. Yesterday evening, an organized group of Neo-Nazis that have established themselves throughout Rhode Island terrorized Red Ink Community Library in Providence Ward 3.

Candidates for Providence City Council Ward 3 have responded to the event:

Im saddened and disgusted to learn about the events that took place on Camp Street last night, said Bradly VanDerStad. Our city is better than this. Domestic terrorists have no place in Providence.

Bill Bartholomew did an excellent interview:

Ward 3 Democratic Committee

We, the Ward 3 Democratic Committee, are extremely disturbed that a group of self-identified Nazis, holding a red swastika flag, banged on the windows and screamed obscenities outside of the Red Ink Community Library at 130 Camp Street in the Mt. Hope neighborhood on Monday, February 21, 2022. We condemn the intentions and the actions of this group of Neo-Nazis in no uncertain terms; such hate-filled and intimidating behavior is unacceptable in our community. One of the wonderful aspects of Ward 3 is the variety of ideas and diversity of cultures represented within it. We stand with everyone who embraces acceptance, civil rights, and love over the fomenting and agitation of fear, white supremacy, racism, hate, and violence.

NeverAgain Rhode Island stands in solidarity with the Red Ink Community Library and residents of Mount Hope

We spent Sunday afternoonrallying outside an I.C.E. processing facilityunder construction in Warwick to call attention to Americas cruel immigration policies, and the culture of othering and dehumanization that leads to genocide like the Holocaust.Then on Monday night, ideological remnants of the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germanyattacked a leftist libraryin the heart of our community. When we sayNeverAgain is Now, we mean nowthe forces of white supremacy and antisemitism will remain until we defeat them.

Martin Nimollers infamous 1946 confession begins with, First they came for the Communists/And I did not speak out/Because I was not a Communist. We know how his story ends, and the lesson within it is clearall of us must speak out, before there is no one left.

ICE is cloaking its brutality in bureaucracy, but last night we saw the cruelty and malice of this ideology on full display. Their processing facility is just one stop on the road to camps, to deportation, to disappearing from ones home. It is a necessary mechanism in the machine of genocide. The machine doesnt stop, will not stop, until every component is dismantled.

These struggles are all connected.The same hate groupthat targeted and harassed our comrades at Red Ink Library last night have also advocated calling ICE to target and abduct immigrants, in addition to taking hateful action against socialists and Jews.

Please join our allies and Mount Hope community members tomorrow afternoon at Billy Taylor Park on Camp Street at 4pm to stand up against the hatred and bigotry that is the fuel for this machine of genocide.

You can alsodonate to Red Ink Community Library.

In solidarity, NeverAgain Rhode Island

Congressman David N. Cicilline (RI-01) released the following statement:

I am absolutely sickened by the image of a swastika waving in the streets of Providence. Hate groups like neo-Nazisand white supremacists have no place in our city,said Congressman Cicilline. Groups like these and the hatred they spew have too often led to terrible violence. The rise of neo-Nazis, white supremacy, and antisemitismin our country is not something we can afford to ignore.This hatred and last nights attack are a scourge on our community, and we must all condemn it in the strongest terms.

This group of Nazis may be the Rhode Island chapter of NSC-131, the same group that has been holding banner drops on highway overpasses from north of Boston to at least as south as Cranston Rhode Island. More information on NSC here.

Note: After this story went to press, Uprise RI received an email taking [minor] fault with the title, which includes a line from Martin Niemllers First they Came for the Socialists.

The poem that many know as beginning with First they came for the socialists, did not begin that way. It really started with First they came for the communists.

Our red-baiting American leaders in the mid-20th century, who wanted to paint Communists as never-a-victim-always-a-terror changed the poem to make it a more palatable one to our McCarthyist society at the time, focusing just on Socialists, erasing the fact that Communists were killed by the Nazis for their views as well. For Communists to ever be victims was unacceptable, even if it was historically true.

I apologize for going on at such great length, but just wanted to send this your way in case it is relevant to any follow-up articles. People still like to play this whole Socialism I dont like, but its okay, but COMMunism, thats gotta be out of bounds game, and my hope is that all of us together can fight back against that.

Heres an article (a bit lengthy, unfortunately) that explores this editorial choice, and the anti-communist reasons behind it.

Uprise RI has made an Access to Public Records Request to the City of Providence for the police body cam footage.

Read more here:
Nazis interrupt book reading in Providence: First they came for the socialists... - Uprise RI