On Saturday November 17, a contingent of Ironworkers and other union members joined in protests against a fascist rally that targeted women who dare to speak up against sexist harassment and abuse. The heavy police presence deployed by Portland’s Democratic Party government menaced anti-sexist protesters, arresting half a dozen and shoving us off city sidewalks with riot clubs and an arsenal of lethal weapons, protecting the small band of fascists. CSWP fights in the unions to break with the bosses’ Democratic Party, and for union-based workers defense guards to lead mass worker/black/immigrant mobilization to sweep the fascist scum off the streets. We distributed the following leaflet.
PDX #HimToo Nov. 17 Event Is a Fascist Provocation
Mobilize the Power of Labor to Defend Women’s Rights!
On November 17th, a group calling itself #HimToo wants to use Portland as a platform to intimidate and harass women. Make no mistake: the sponsors’ talk of “men’s rights” and a “war on men” is in fact a battle cry for an attack on women by ultra-rightist, racist and outright fascist forces. Class Struggle Workers – Portland calls on labor and all defenders of democratic, union, immigrants’ and women’s rights to mobilize against this dangerous provocation.
The public face of this bogus “movement” is one Haley Adams, who is a YouTube figurehead for Joey Gibson’s fascistic “Patriot Prayer” outfit. She has been a constant presence at its rallies since it came on the scene in Portland on 29 April 2017. That same event was attended by Jeremy Christian, the Nazi who only a few weeks later murdered two men and nearly killed a third who came to the aid of two young Muslim women he was haranguing on a MAX train. These people are dangerous.
Adams was described just as a “Portland resident” in an article on #HimToo by National Public Radio, which has more than once given fascists a platform for their racist filth. In fact, she is a hard-core racist who put up a video of herself firing an automatic rifle to celebrate “white pride month.” Two weeks later she marched on June 30 with neo-Nazis while wearing a helmet with the slogan “It’s okay to be white.” The co-leader of the November 17 #HimToo event is Quincy Lee Franklin, a disciple of the white supremacist “Hell Shaking Street Preachers.” At a January 2018 march in Seattle he was spewing violent misogyny, yelling that “some women deserve rape.”
The #HimToo hashtag spread on the Internet around the Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. It was claimed that this all-round reactionary was supposedly the “victim” of #MeToo feminists, yet Kavanaugh’s record shows him to be a virulent anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-abortion bigot and sexist pig. The real aim of the #HimToo hatefest not to counter false accusations of sexual abuse, but to put women back “in their place.” Several Patriot Prayer thugs and their local Proud Boy allies have been charged with domestic violence, cyberstalking and assault against women.
Contrary to its lying propaganda, #HimToo crew is not defending free speech, due process or those unfairly accused. They are provocateurs who pose a clear and present danger to the rights of women, and a physical threat to all defenders of the oppressed. Class Struggle Workers – Portland calls to fight sexism and defend the rights of women. CSWP has mobilized labor defense of abortion rights and opposes discrimination against gays, lesbians or anyone on the basis of their sexuality. Today we call to bring out the power of labor to stop this woman-hating mob and defend women’s rights!
Class Struggle Workers - Portland 