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The Proud Boys, led by Enrique Tarrio, arrested today in DC, have built a bridge between the Alt-Right + the Trump wing of the GOP. While they include men of color, their ideology is centered around white hegemony + patriarchy + celebrating violence against 'the Left.' A thread.
After the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, the Alt-Right right collapsed in 2018 admits mass antifascist opposition. Tens of thousands took to the streets and as Richard Spencer explained, the Alt-Right was "pushed off the streets."
Far-Right organizers like Joey Gibson, who had built pan-far-Right coalitions that included neo-Nazis, white nationalists, militias groups, and the Proud Boys, lamented this reality, and pushed for a new street fighting coalition that could fight the Left in the streets.
By mid-2020, the far-Right had found a new sea to swim in, as the Qanon conspiracy theory grew exponentially and new far-Right currents like the Boogaloo boys exploded in a post-COVID world as far-Right rallies were organized in the face of anti-pandemic lockdowns.
Within this new coalition of Qanon conspiracy theorists, MAGA supporters, militia groups, Boogaloo Boys, and neo-Alt-Right currents like the Groypers, the Proud Boys emerged in a leading role. Both within the far-Right + within Trumpian layers of the GOP. https://twitter.com/tripgabriel/status/1141158817817927681?s=20
But before we can understand the threat that the Proud Boys represent: a force which unites fascist street fighting and paramilitary groups on the street with the Trumpian State desperate to hold onto power at any cost - we have to understand the ideology of the group itself.
The Proud Boys were formed by millionaire and VICE co-founder, Gavin McInnes. Long known for his reactionary and racist politics, McInnes also penned essays for white nationalist publications like the American Renaissance, arguing that different races should not live together.
McInnes argued that, "I love being white and I think it’s something to be very proud of. I don’t want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life."
Announcing the creation of the Proud Boys in 2016 in the pages of the far-Right, paleoconservative publication Taki's Magazine, a job that was given to McIness by white nationalist Richard Spencer, the editor at the time, McIness began to conceptualize the Proud Boys as a gang.
Creating a clear group hierarchy and leadership, McIness formulated how prospective Proud Boys could rise up through the ranks of the group by proving their loyalty to the organization; getting tattoos, and ultimately engaging in violence or being arrested.
The group also embraced the writings of paleconservative Pat Buchanan, well known for mainstreaming white nationalist ideas and his relationships with white nationalist ideologues like Sam Francis. His book 'Death of the West' became required reading for the Proud Boys.
Like the Proud Boys, while Buchanan embraced racial politics, he was also willing to work with non-whites to further his cause. In 2000, he picked arch-conservative Ezola Foster as his running mate for President, angering many hardcore white nationalists.
While Proud Boys founders understood that "Western" was merely code-word for "white," by building a brand around "Western chauvinism" and more broadly, around Trump, it gave non-whites a possibly entry point - but more over- plausible deniability to accusations of racism.
Proud Boy recruits of color and potential LGBT members were even told that by joining they agreed to leave criticisms of structural racism and oppression at the door. Coupled with the foundational understanding of McIness that the US was supposed to be a majority white country...
...this shows that while the Proud Boys allowed in and tokenized members of color, they did so only insofar that they embraced a wider ideology that centered around the need for a white patriarchal cultural and political hegemonic order.
It's this reality that on one hand, has allowed Proud Boys of color to embrace racist, reactionary, and far-Right politics, while on the other, allowed the group to form alliances with white nationalists and neo-Nazis, who also have found a home within the rank-n-file.
While on the other, has allowed the Proud Boys to build real relationships with members of the Republican party, even to the point of doing security at Trump rallies in the lead up to the 2020 election. https://weartv.com/news/local/proud-boys-provide-security-at-pro-america-rally-in-milton
And for years, we've seen what the Proud Boys can do in larger coalitions. Unite the Right in Charlottesville was organized by a Proud Boy, Jason Kessler, and members of the Proud Boys attended the event. Augustus Invictus, a Proud Boy leader, was scheduled to speak.
Enrique Tarrio, the current leader of the Proud Boys, also attended Unite the Right, sporting a Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights patch, the "military wing" of the Proud Boys. Here's FOAK announcing they were going to attend the white nationalist rally and Enrique in Cville.
Here's New York Proud Boy Sal Cipolla taking a photo with former KKK leader David Duke at Unite the Right. "Proud Of Your Boy" indeed. Also pictured with Gavin.
Michael A Ramos, a member of the Proud Boys and who's group catchphrase is even featured on his Facebook page, was also sentenced to several years in prison for the brutal beating of a African-American youth during the rally, alongside neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
It has to be understood that violence lies at the center of the Proud Boys entire culture - their entire project is engaging in violence against grassroots movements. This is why they celebrate fascist and authoritarian dictators like Pinochet while cloaked as "libertarians."
This is why they oppose everyone from Black Lives Matter protesters to striking teachers to housing activists - they are Trump's shock troops: ready to attack and even kill their enemies who are struggling to better the lives and conditions of poor and working people.
This culture of violence has even led to the Proud Boys own lawyer, Jason Van Dyke, long known as an open white nationalist, to be caught up in a literal assassination plot involving Proud Boy members, who Dyke was attempt to have kill one of his enemies. https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-proud-boys-lawyer-jason-lee-van-dyke-allegedly-plotted-assassination-of-rival-court-docs-say
Former FOAK and Proud Boy leader Augustus Invictus also has a long history of abuse and violence against his partners and own family. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/augustus-sol-invictus-white-nationalist-history-violence_n_5e4717b3c5b64d860fcac76a
This is the same "libertarian" who argued alongside Richard Spencer that white supremacy needed to be a global fascist dictatorship.
Here's Augustus Invictus at Unite the Right, protected by Proud Boy members of FOAK.
And in recent months, this embrace by many Proud Boys of all out white supremacy + patriarchy, as led to tensions. Former leader of FOAK, Kyle "Based Stickman" Chapman, has called for the formation of the "Proud Goys;" a more openly white power group. https://www.newsweek.com/proud-boys-based-stickman-enrique-tarrio-goys-1546597
Attempts by "Proud Girls" to organize in support of the group as women has also led many Proud Boys to try and push them out of the organization, claiming that they should instead get married and have children - not get involved in fascist politics. https://www.thedailybeast.com/proud-boys-are-at-war-with-their-proud-girls-female-extremist-wing
Posts by Proud Boys on social media show that they view women as only having one role in a patriarchal society: as subservient to men; whose only importance is to have babies.
Moreover, posts celebrating violence and outright murder of the Proud Boys' enemies on social media has even been so extreme that their leaders have received visits from the FBI. https://itsgoingdown.org/proud-boy-leaders-tone-down-after-fbi/
The Proud Boys need to be understood for the serious danger that they are. They've built a cult around violence for white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Alt-Right to exist within - long after they've been driven off the streets - with a complete 'non-racist' makeover.
They've repackaged white supremacy and pro-patriarchy/incel politics for mass consumption by the MAGA crowd, all with the stated purpose of maintaining a white, male hegemonic hold over society and politics.
But moreover, they've been embraced by sections of the Trumpian state and the GOP - who see in them a street fighting force that can attack their enemies on the Left and mobilize for Trump, outside and against the law if needed.
Liberals and Centrists proclaim loudly that we need to "ignore" the Proud Boys and that by doing so, they will go away. While not every event needs a street mobilization to oppose it, to think that we can ignore fascism away is wishful thinking meant to hide cowardice.
The Proud Boys fill a need, both within the far-Right and within certain sections of the Trumpian State. Both need a fascist street fighting force to not only attack the growing social movements from below, but also to potentially fight for Trump to stay in power.
These are material forces that need to be confronted and opposed, and moreover, out organized. If we allow the far-Right to be the only material force offering up a critique of globalization, neoliberaism, and the Democrats - then more of the working-class will be lost.
This in itself is nothing new: the KKK, financed by wealthy ex-Confederates, rose up to push back against the reforms brought on by Reconstruction + to re-solidify white supremacy. Today, in the face of a new wave of Black liberation struggles, the Proud Boys fill the same role.
Organizations like the Klan didn't go away by people ignoring them. For over a century the KKK terrorized, murdered, and assassinated people of all colors who opposed white supremacy, forcing thousands to flee the South to avoid racial terrorism.
Some got organized and fought back. Labor unions like the IWW opposed the KKK, while groups like the Deacons for Defense formed self-defense squads within the Black community.
Then, like today, we must organize in self-defense of our communities. The new KKK has traded in their white sheets for black and yellow shirts. Their photocopied racist tracts for copies of Buchanan books and McInnes podcasts - but the same politics are there.
The same fundamental question remains: will we delude ourselves into thinking that the police or the politicians are going to save us from white supremacist terror? Or will we take matters into our own hands and organize our communities to ensure our own liberation and defense?
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