CHICAGO ANTI-FASCISTS DISRUPT APPEARANCE BY DAVID IRVING

At the same time, a group of masked anti-fascists stormed into the restaurant through the rear kitchen entrance. This militant action further disrupted Irving’s presentation, as tables were knocked over, food was thrown and
Irving’s literature ripped and scattered. Irving himself was struck with a chair!
Number 268, September 2000

CHICAGO
ANTI-FASCISTS DISRUPT APPEARANCE BY DAVID
IRVING

ON Tuesday, September
19, [2000] the internationally despised Holocaust denier and historical revisionist David Irving was scheduled to speak at a secret meeting in
Chicago regarding “Truth in
History.”

The topic of Irving’s scheduled appearance is ironic, given that his reputation as a historian was thoroughly shredded by a judgement
placed against him in a British high court earlier this year. In this case, where
David Irving’s beliefs and “evidence” were placed on trial, the judge found that

“Irving has for his own
ideological reasons persistently and
deliberately misrepresented and
manipulated historical evidence; that
for the same reasons he has portrayed
Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable
light, principally in relation to his
attitude towards, and responsibility
for, the treatment of the Jews.”

For the past 15 years, David Irving has pushed doctored historical evidence exonerating the Nazis from the extermination of Jews during World War II.
He has peddled his ideas to the extreme right, consistently making appearances and speeches on behalf of fascist and right-wing groups in a number of countries, including the US, Canada and
Germany. According to the British courts:

“The content of his speeches
and interviews often displays a
distinctly pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish
bias.”

There is no question that David Irving is an apologist and proponent of fascism.

A short time before David Irving was scheduled to speak in Chicago, the progressive right-wing monitoring group the Center for
New Community (CNC) learned of the event and put out a call to anti-fascists around Chicago to respond and protest.

This rowdy protest was blocked from getting in the front door, but the highly visible and loud presence drew crowds of onlookers from the surrounding neighborhood, restaurants and workplaces.

At the same time, a group of masked anti-fascists stormed into the restaurant through the rear kitchen entrance. This militant action further disrupted Irving’s presentation, as tables were knocked over, food was thrown and Irving’s literature ripped and scattered. Irving himself was struck with a chair! The antifas withdrew from the restaurant before police arrived, and no arrests were taken.

The protest outside the restaurant continued for 45 minutes, before it left the area in the face of a growing police presence and escalated police threats. The entire night was undoubtedly a victory, as it showed that anti-fascists could organize on extremely short notice to disrupt a clandestine fascist affair and hand them a lesson they won’t soon forget.

The
anti-fascists themselves were a diverse
bunch, including religious activists,
Jewish students, Latino punks, white
anarchists and class war skinheads.

The action was also successful because it incorporated space both for activists who merely wished to make a presence and expose the affair as well as militants who wished to take direct action and attempt to shut it down. Both played their part, and delivered a message that fascists will not be allowed to secretly spread their lies and organize without being directly confronted and opposed.

Relevant links:Freedom
SiteCenter
for New Community

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