How the Biggest Racist Alt-Right Rally of 2017 is Happening…in Berkeley

This article is authored by Northern California Anti-Racist Action (NoCARA). You can read the article with photos and tweets on the NoCARA website and on It's Going Down.

How the Biggest Racist Alt-Right Rally of 2017 is Happening…in Berkeley

Visual ‘Who’s Who Guide’ Of the Racist Right Coming to Berkeley

White nationalists, far-Right militias, pro-Trump bikers, members of the Alt-Right, and neo-Nazis are not only coming to the Berkeley Trump rally on Saturday, April 15th –they are speaking and organizing it. As we will show, full blown white nationalists connected to Richard Spencer and other leading neo-Nazis will address Trump supporters on Saturday, despite the claims of rally organizers that they have no connection to white supremacists or the Alt-Right.

As we will show over and over again, this is a complete and total lie. Even the organizers themselves are connected to the Alt-Right and hold extreme racist and fascist views.

Despite the evidence, many Trump supporters refuse to acknowledge this reality, and on the Left, many people refuse to understand the fascist threat growing outside of their door. It’s up to those of us who see the extreme danger in rising far-Right violence to take note and take action.

Once More Into the Berk My Friends

Here we go… again. After Milo Yiannopoulos and the Berkeley College Republicans were shut down at UC Berkeley on February 1st, local and regional members of the Alt-Right got together and decided to try again on March 4th to hold a public presence. This constellation of “deplorable” Trump supporters and Alt-Right assholes received an aggressive welcome from Bay Area anti-racists and anti-fascists and ended with the right’s lead organizer Rich Black, literally running away in fear and asking his followers to do the same.

Shortly after, Rich Black and his newly-formed group the Liberty Revival Alliance, announced they would come back to Berkeley for a “Patriots Day” rally on April 15th. Black, along with Kyle Chapman, aka ‘Based Stickman,’ hit the far-Right podcast and youtube circuit, doing shows with Alt-Right guru, Gavin McInnes. For the rally on Saturday, they have secured a variety of speakers including Lauren Southern, Baked Alaska, and Brittany Pettibone – all firmly located within the Alt-Right. In addition, this far-right alliance is partnering with other groups such as the Oath Keepers militia and 2 Million Bikers to join their event and provide “security.”

The so-called Liberty Revival Alliance thinks that if they can get away with bringing their fascist and racist political agenda to Berkeley, they can take it anywhere. The group is also using a frequent tactic of the Right to superficially deny their hateful politics by rejecting unsavory labels, or alternatively, hide from the consequences of open fascism by waving the banner of free speech. But we see through this smokescreen, andurge all in Northern California and beyond to converge in Berkeley on Saturday April 15th and deny the far-Right an opportunity to grow and expand their movement that is killing, burning, and bombing it’s way across the US.

Brittany Pettibone

Brittany Pettibone from Gilroy, CA is a white nationalist blogger and podcaster that is growing in popularity on the Alt-Right. She is associated with the infamous neo-Nazi punching bag Richard Spencer and is also a contributor to the white nationalist website that he founded and operates, AltRight.com. Pettibone has been a big supporter of Donald Trump and pushes ridiculous conspiracy theories including “Pizzagate” and “white genocide,” which claims that Jews are driving immigration and are orchestrating the forced extinction of the white race.

Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska, real non-idiot name is Tim Treadstone. Treadstone moved from the far-Right into full blown neo-Nazism – to the point of being attacked by even other people on the Right, including talking heads like Mike Cernovich. When a twitter war broke out between the two, Baked Alaska attacked Cernovich and launched a barrage of anti-Semitic memes and comments to the point that Cernovich kicked Alaska out of the ‘Deploraball’ Trump celebration in Washington DC, replacing him with Milo (which shows where how low Alaska had to go)!

According to Business Insider:

Tim Treadstone, an unabashedly alt-right social media personality better known as “Baked Alaska,” was disinvited from the “Deploraball” after publishing the tweets about Jewish people.

After being cut from the event, which initially featured him as a top guest, he lashed out on Twitter at fellow alt-right leaders, a sign of divide in the white nationalist, neo-Nazi, populist movement that backed President-elect Donald Trump.

Treadstone zeroed in on Mike Cernovich, a similarly prominent alt-right figure known for such remarks as “date rape does not exist,” who was responsible for nixing him from the event.

Treadstone has a history of anti-Semitic tweets. Other alt-right figures, like leading neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, were previously booted from the upcoming party.

“Baked Alaska is not a member of the Deploraball committee and will not be attending the event,” Cernovich tweeted. “We wish him well.”

Soon after the announcement, Cernovich confirmed that Milo Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart tech editor and conservative provocateur, would attend the event instead.

The moves prompted Treadstone to go on a lengthy Twitter rant against Cernovich and Yiannopoulos, capping off with a roughly 45-minute scorched-earth Periscope video in which he called the former “a huge cuck” and “a massive cuck” for side-stepping “the Zionist question.”

Lauren Southern

Lauren Southern in many ways is the Canadian version of Milo Yiannopoulos, and much like Milo, has made a career off of mainstreaming the Alt-Right’s major talking points against “cultural marxism” and “globalism.” Like Milo, Southern attacks the Left, immigrants, Black Lives Matter, refugees, rape victims, feminists, and Muslims.

According to Media Matters

Southern downplayed the prevalence of rape during a Slut Walk protest by holding a sign that read “There is no rape culture in the west.” She went on to comment, “Rapes do happen, but the … vast minority of men and women are rapists.” In response to her incendiary remarks and antagonistic tactics, Southern was suspended from being a candidate for the Canadian Libertarian Party.

Moshe Daniel Quillinan

Daniel Quillian isn’t speaking at the April 15th rally, however he is in the inner leadership circle of the event along with Richard Black and Kyle Chapman.

Daniel Quillinan is based in Berkeley, and used to own a business with his brother. For the past few months, we have observed an escalation in Quillinan’s aggression at the same time that his politics slide ever closer to the extreme Right, as he has come to embrace open fascism. His Facebook posts often include desires to hurt and kill others, especially political opponents that stand in the way of his utopian vision of a society that works first and foremost in the interest of white male property owners.

Quillinan also uses social media to discuss various weapons that he either already owns or wants to. On February 1st, Quillinan harassed demonstrators and even attempted to pull someone’s mask off. On March 4th, he showed up with armor and weapons looking to fight. He got one, and it ended with him in the hospital getting staples in his head. It’s clear that the March 4th event was a point around which Quillinan connected with organizer Rich Black and Kyle Chapman, who he has continued working with. Quillinan also has associations with the Berkeley College Republicans, and is expected to be at the “patriots” rally on April 15th.

Kyle Chapman aka ‘Based Stickman’

Kyle Chapman lives in Daly City and has been making various trips across the bay into Berkeley since March 4th. At Rich Black’s first Berkeley rally, Chapman showed up with weapons including a dagger, folding knife, long stick, spiked ring, shield, and pepper spray. He was arrested and initially charged with up to 6 felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon, however Chapman has yet to be charged. According to Chapman, Berkeley police also commended his actions while he was in custody.

On April 10th, Chapman was in Berkeley wearing his ridiculous costume and eventually got arrested again for assault after he instigated a fight with local youth. Chapman also calls Berkeley residents various names throughout the video, calling them “cowards” and “cocksuckers.” He goes on to argue that April 15th will be a win for “Western men.”

The Alt-Right internet movement has turned Chapman into an overrated meme (Based Stickman) after a short video of him assaulting someone on March 4th went viral. Chapman often encourages his supporters and followers to show up to rallies to fight like he does, and to not be afraid of jail time or injury. The April 15th “Patriots Day” rally will feature Chapman as a speaker.

Chapman’s facebook also shows that he follows, likes, and supports numerous Alt-Right, far-Right, and neo-Nazis groups and pages. The Alt-Right website WeSearcher, connected to Richard Spencer as well, also raised money for Chapman.

Richard Black

Rich Black of Southern California has been the lead organizer for both the March 4th and April 15th rallies in Berkeley. Black’s Twitter picture shows him making the hand sign (which in many ways has replaced the Nazi salute) that has come to be associated with the Alt-Right, and frequently used by Richard Spencer and others in the white nationalist movement. Black has described his own politics as libertarian, a movement that for some time has become increasingly mixed up with extreme far-Right fascists such as Augustus Sol Invictus and the patriot and militia movements.

Some time before the March 4th event that Black organized, he tried to join the local Proud Boys (an Alt-Right group run by Gavin McInnes) and failed. The Proud Boys disavowed Black and his organizing until Kyle Chapman’s internet fame changed their minds. Since then, the Proud Boys have stated that they are planning on being in Berkeley on April 15th in support of Chapman and Black.

Oathkeepers, ‘2 Million Bikers,’ Identity Evropa and Beyond

The far-Right militia the Oath Keepers have stated that they will do security at the event. In their statement they write:

Calling on all Oath Keepers (and all three percenters, military veterans, patriot police officers, bikers, and all other brave American patriots):

Seeking capable volunteers for an overt Oath Keepers security detail to protect people during the “Patriots Day Free Speech Rally” to be held on April 15, 2017, at 12PM PDT, in the Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 2151 M.L.K. Jr Way, Berkeley, CA 94704

Team Leader for the Oath Keepers on the ground April 15 will be John Karriman (Missouri police academy defensive tactics instructor and team leader on both of our Ferguson operations in 2014-2015).

The Facebook page for ‘2 Million Bikers’ currently has over 50 going, and the group plans to ride from Sacramento to Berkeley.

Identity Evropa, a neo-Nazi organization has stated that their leader, Nathan Damigo will be in attendance. He wrote about the event on AltRight.com, the same website that Pettibone writes for and is run by Richard Spencer. Damigo rarely rolls alone, and we expect him to bring around 10 or more members of IE with him, along with a collection of Alt-Right trolls.

The leader of the Asatru Folk Assembly, a white nationalist pagan group in Northern California has also endorsed the action and is attending, as are members of the Soldiers of Odin and potentially members of the Golden State Skinheads(GSS). One member, Jason Kale Cas, is on the “going” list of the Facebook event, along with other neo-Nazi skinheads.

Conclusions

Different sections of the Alt-Right, the militia movement, Trump supporting ‘Deploraballs,’ and neo-Nazis are all coming together in Berkeley on the 15th. This is happening to a degree which hasn’t been seen anywhere else in the country on this large a scale. Regardless of whatever the organizers like Chapman, Black, and Quillian, (whose own politics are racist, Alt-Right, and fascist themselves) say – the Alt-Right and neo-Nazis are coming.

Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes. This is as racist a rally as the KKK, despite a few people of color taking part in live streaming, and even taking part in speaking for groups like ‘Latinos for Trump.’ This “diversity” is a smokescreen.

Will Berkeley be a crucible for a new fascist movement – or will we draw a line in the sand and say, not here, not anywhere.