The Conservative Trans Woman Who Went Undercover With Antifa in Portland

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How organized are things on the inside?

There are different types of bloc organization styles. The building block of antifa is what's called an affinity group, people you live and work with and trust and know in real life. All the planning is done within that closed bloc, and they don't let everyone know [what they're going to do]. I didn't know that they were going to burn the Portland Police Association when I joined. What they did was put a call out that said, "Anyone show up in black that night at this place, and you can join the action."

That's called a semi-open bloc. The planning is done within the closed group, but anyone who's dressed in black can come join the action. If you know what you're looking for, you can spot affinity groups that are working together. One thing they'll do sometimes is have written agreements with other protest organizations that aren't in black bloc. I know of one from Berkeley that illustrates this: "We agree that to not take pictures of anyone in antifa." It will say that literally in writing, so everyone's working together. It's like a combined arms type thing, almost like the military. They work together and are mutually reinforcing.

What are the basics?

Basically, don't talk about it. Don't photograph people's faces. "What did you see?" "I didn't see shit!" is a chant you'll hear. You can go to websites like CrimethInc. and they'll have a lot of breakdowns of tactics. It's an anarchist website. It's an open-source network insurgency, not so much a chain of command.

People think antifa and they picture people in black. Antifa is bigger than that. Black bloc is a tactic. Dressing in black, it's a tactic. You don't have to dress in black to be antifa. You don't even have to hit the streets. There are people who work in tech, hackers who never hit the streets, and they're still antifa. [The media] play these little word games, "Oh, antifa doesn't exist." Yes and no. It's not an organization where you have to sign up for a membership. It's one of those things where it's just a loose-knit network of people.

Last Edited by DoeJon on 10/30/2020 02:57 PM