Nazi Boneheads in Southeast Portland

before retreating with the bullk of his buddies into a large black SUV of unknown make/model.

Congratulations to those who will not sit idly by while nazi's try to slide back into our scene and community. I am hearing from people here and there that these nazi goons are showing up more and more places around town. I think everytime it should be reported and if pictures are available they should be posted, as well as what kind of vehicles the offending scum are driving. Keep your eyes and ears open!

With your description of the vehicle they retreated in, it appears to be a
government vehicle -- most likely a Ford.

It has been public knowledge for some time now that the skinheads and other
similar christian groups are police officers in various states, and the
Homeland Security has begun hiring these groups to maintain security and
protect the empire from "terrorists."

This is only the beginning..........................

The only description I see of the vehicle is "Large Black SUV", and you're able not only to psychically determine that it was a Ford, but a gov't vehicle? Put your aluminum foil hat back on, man.

Anyone have links to additional info about this? Blogs, anything?

How about you remove the stick out of your ass. I think the first comment could possibly be true...Unless they're just rich little skinhead kids. The government is known to have provacateers that inflatrate peace rallies or any group that oposess what the government is doing. The provacateers will show up at rallies and try to provoke people in the crowd to be violent or say threatening things. They'll usually go as far as throwing stuff at the cops to provoke police action againt the crowd. It happens all the time, so what's going to stop me from thinking that agents didn't come in and start this? If you can come up with a plausable explanation of what could have happened, I'll be open to your opionion.

I think of them as Queen Beatrix's brownshirts. I was warned they were coming here soon by a druggie/informant type person I met in the park. She talked a little about dirty cops and the mass infiltration of gangs from california. Just sayin'. I thought she was a little to speeded up but I think she knew what she was talking about.

the u.s. government promotes bigotry and religious repression, think back, only certain religions are permitted to hold services in the military, king georgeIII has declaired that "athiests" are not citizens, the "supreme" court has declaired the certain groups can be held under arrest indefinatly! please deport me to the united states that i swore to defend. please!!!

Could this be related to the NSM rally they're planning in Olympia for July 2-4? Their website (nukeisrael.com) suggests they're trying to bring like-minded idiots from faraway states to oppose "white genocide," whatever the fuck that is. 20 of them showing up at a U.S. Bombs show suggests some kind of deliberately planned harassment/ publicity stunt. I remember there were a few attacks reported in the mainstream press that happnened out by Gresham a year ago when there was some sort of Nazi picnic going on out there. This is, uh, troubling. Anyone know more than me?

I have been posting for over a year that the Fascists under Negroponte will fund hate groups. We need to wake up to this and take real actual. Mass education about hate! Mass education of the death squads under Negroponte. Mass education of witnessing and taking appropriate actions! Mass education of self defence!

Before the immigration issue and before Katrina I was predicting turning up on the war against the people:

"Bush's second cluster of four years is manifesting itself as a continuing reign of terror on the people. Placing Negroponte as intelligence czar will begin the death squads that the local police will either be bought off by (Giusto would be such the official to embrace that) or the local police be out gunned by what will "appear" as vigilante groups and skinhead gangs (who will secretly be funded by Negroponte's opperatives). Sounds fictious? Sound like "liberal" propaganda. Just wait. Wait until the debt collectors take your car and house away. Wait until the cost of living rises beyond the salaries of the filthy shallow yuppies. Wait until oil prices cause the price of transportation of people, food and other products to reach a level will make the cost of living unliveable for those with two part time jobs. Wait as the states of Oregon and Washington go bankrupt while trying to give a sense of protecting its citizens basic rights while the Federal government privatizes everything to Bush's fascist elite.

So we stand on the edge of an overt police state and within a society that will outwardly be the victim of corporate predators.

What does a terrorist look like? Well. They do not look like you and me, right? They well are foriegners or do not dress nicely or can not afford a car or wear anti-American propaganda. The terrorist wear black, masks themselves and refuse to give ID when asked. Wait is the hip teenage anarchists or the riot cops. I confuse who is who. Oh wait the anarchists are unarmed.

So who are the terrorists riding our buses? Arabs? Muslims? Sikhs (because they wear turbans)? Maybe those teens? Maybe hippies? Maybe the homeless? Maybe the black clad anarchists? Maybe black people? Maybe Mexicans? Since the US has decided that E.L.F. and A.L.F. are terrorists I guess Mr Bernie Giusto would chose them first."

 http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2005/04/315619.shtml

DO SOMETHING NOW!!!!

My thanks to whomever put the fist (or boot or whatever...) in the nazi bonehead's face.

In general, I'm not going to be too critical of anyone taking those actions.

But anyone who has dealt with more than one neo-fascist or with neo-fascist groups and organizing should understand that fascism can't be beaten one fist or busted-up bonehead at a time. Nor can fascists be defeated when people have silly (at best) ideas about who they are and what they are doing.

Three years ago a Portland resident, Elinor Langer, published a book about the neo-fascist movements in the United States and, in particular, their organizing efforts in Portland in the early 1990's. That book, One Hundred Little Hitlers, was acknowledged by most of us who have studied and fought neo-nazis to be an essential work.

It is readily available in the Multnomah County library and area libraries. At the time of its publication in 2003 Langer participated in a number of public forums, gave radio interviews and promoted it around the country. As well, a number of reviews of the book appeared in local and national print forums.

Unfortunately, most of the contributors to this particular discussion seem unaware of the book and of the history of nazi bonehead organizing in Portland. Thus they make a lot of incorrect assumptions and insult those who challenge them. It is only fifteen years since the high point of bonehead organizing in Portland, yet it could as well be a hundred years.

Langer's starting point was the murder of Mulugeta Seraw and the growth of neo-fascist organizations in Portland and the U.S. from small gangs into a movement of tens of thousands. She documented how white working class youth, mainly in Southeast Portland, were drawn towards racist ideology and then towards neo-fascist groups, even while they were rejecting 'official' society and participating in what became punk culture.

Anyone reading the book would understand several things: First, this was not -then or now- a 'government plot' or in any way desired by the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush administrations or any of their underlings. Second, these weren't 'rich little skinhead kids'. Third, the bulk of the racist skinheads in Portland, which was the center of the organizing in the U.S. for a period of time, were from Portland and the surrounding suburbs.

We never needed to import 'nazi gangs', since there were hundreds of boneheads in the Portland area, though some California individuals came north and subsequently got their asses handed to them. There are still plenty of local boneheads in 2006, though many of them have grown their hair and covered their tattoos with long-sleeved shirts.

And finally, most of the nazi punks liked the music. They liked racist punk music, but they were also drawn to punk culture as a whole. And they also viewed it as a recruiting ground for their groups. I was there when over a hundred racist skinheads, male and female, in full regalia turned up for a Fugazi show in Portland.
No, they didn't get in.

Langer's book is still worth reading, especially for those who would understand that successful fascist groups in the U.S. will probably not look like the Italian fascists or German Nazis. Nor will they be cartoon fascists like the NSM. Those who do not understand how Tom Metzger and David Duke transformed themselves into serious political threats will be ill-equipped to take on the Washington or Oregon versions of Duke and Metzger.

She does not fully explore how the fascists were driven out of Portland, in spite of the lackluster efforts of the FBI, the Portland police and the local political establishment, who were mainly interested in attacking radical anti-fascist organizing. We should not expect everything in one book. The history of how a coalition of lesbian, Black, punk and community groups in Portland destroyed the neo-fascist organizing remains to be written. But that is what happened.

So here is my plausible explanation of what happened at Sabala's. And no, I wasn't there that night.
A group of local neo-fascists got together and decided to listen to some bands. As with the Fugazi show, just because they showed up doesn't mean the bands are down with their politics. Though the boneheads have thrown a number of music shows in their own Portland-area garages and halls in the last ten years, they felt bold enough to venture forth as a group.
They got there and, because they're nazi punks, sooner or later one of them provoked a fight.
When they got on the losing end they left, probably since many of them have past criminal records. (And, if one of them just got out of prison, they were certainly going to leave fast).
Yes, some of them have union jobs and probably can afford SUVs.
Was this NSM? Almost certainly not. NSM would be lucky to organize 20 people in one place if they were giving out $100 bills for free.

My apologies to Nonmouse for the insults and general silliness tossed in her/his direction. Though the Bush administration is a group of genocidal criminals, that doesn't mean that they orchestrate every fistfight in the country.

Those who want a fuller understanding of the history of struggle against racist and fascist groups in the Northwest, beyond what is contained in Langer's book, can contact the Center for New Community in Chicago, which has the records of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, the leading group in the 1990s opposing racist and neo-fascist groups in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Those who want to talk with people who actually drove the nazi punks out of Portland; well, those people mostly still live in Portland. Ask around. Learn your own history. Don't believe anything that appeared in the Oregonian at the time, except for a few op-ed pieces.

Now will someone go ask Sabala's when they're going to make it impossible for open nazis to show up at events? That was the reason that the nazis never got into the Fugazi show - because local punk organizers got Portland clubs to ban all open displays of nazi, neo-fascist and racist gear.

PS just a final note to those who believe that most nazi punks are police officers and such. If that is the case, then you should come up with an explanation for why so many members of the various neo-fascist organizations are still in Oregon and Washington prisons doing hard time.

Where's the Guardian Angels when we need them?

Seriously, though, this is just a good reminder that fascism is still there. That Nazi's ARE trying to weasel back into public view, though most who aren't in jail are afraid of going. I think it's really only a matter of time before there's some fucking Fascist Rally takes place down at Waterfront.

Yes the Boneheads may sometime have a rally in Portland, but there have already been fascist rallies on the Waterfront they are called Republican and Deomcrat rallies.

What is more scarier the fascist in the blantant "I am a dumb skinhead" look or the middle class fascist that accepts Amerikan Imperialism and the mass murder of innocent civilians? I guess at least if you hit a skinhead over the head with a baseball bat then the media might say a Nazi was attacked, but hit a middle class war supporter over the head and you are the one labelled cruel.

Just a reminder: the main organizer behind all the recent NSM nazi activity in Olympia is Jim Ramm (aka Matthew Ramsey). He lives in Tualatin, OR. He has been present in Olympia every time the NSM has shown up here, including this past Sunday.

What bothers me most about nazi skinhead problems both here and in other cities is the fact that most people would rather form groups or converse about solutions rather than taking action to the streets.
The reality of the situation with neo nazi thugs is that they only respond to physical confrontation which most people are too afraid to do.
Two years ago when a gnag of nazis came into town beating up homosexuals and homelesss people (and ultiamately stabbing a black man) the punks and skinheads were the only ones who I saw confronting the issue.
It's strange how our culture gets pigeonholed as possesssing the attributes of apathy or nihilism yet in these situations we are the only ones willing to put our safety on the line to fight these assholes.
These people thrive on physical violence and the task is not easy, but writing a zine and standing on the periphery is.
Many people will write on a computer about these these things or form ARA's or whatever but I haven't seen any action by anyone besides those involved in our scene. Reality is a frighteneing thing and these people are for real and they will be around more and there will be attacks. The question is, what are you willing to do about it?