Emma Mitchem, 28, paused mid-sentence to glance toward the door of Starbucks every time a new patron came inside. There was an air of caution in this tactical gesture and it served as a constant reminder that she was not necessarily in friendly territory.
“Liberals don’t have to worry about losing friends when they blast their ideas,” she said. Without altering the volume of her voice, she spoke candidly about her event the following day near the Ferry Street bridge in Eugene: the Oregonians for Trump Street Rally. When asked about her motivations for putting on a Pro-Trump demonstration in predominantly blue Lane County, she talked about a “crazy shift in politics, some for the good some for the bad…the bad is what’s encouraging me to go out and be seen, be bold, be brave and not intimidated by leftist, fascist, thugs…basically what we’ll be dealing with tomorrow.”
She was referring to Antifa, or Anti-Fascists: the controversial left-wing group who regularly organize counter-protests for anything promoting the rise of fascism, Neo-Nazism, and authoritarianism in America. They view the rise of Trump and the alt-right as the embodiment of what they stand against. Mitchem finds Antifa’s methods of silencing speakers and using violence, even in self-defense, as hypocritical to everything they allegedly stand for.
“Antifa, they don’t want to listen,” Mitchem says. “They want to just shout, scream, attack, anyone. They don’t want to sort who is actually fascist or not.”
When asked if she was nervous for her safety, she took a moment and responded.
“They are definitely in the works of counter-protesting and trying to shut us down, and that’s not the way to do it. When they start attacking and violently attacking in trying to get people to not express themselves…that is fascism. Any opposing views that’s not theirs [Antifa’s], they’re fascist.”
Mitchem wasn’t putting on this event to change anyone’s mind. She claimed that the demonstration “is a time for Trump supporters, the brave and the bold ones, to come and see there are Trump supporters out there. We’re not going to be silenced or intimidated, we’re not the violent ones.”
No representative from Eugene’s Antifa chapter responded to an interview request prior to the event.
The demonstration took place the next day on Saturday, Jan. 18. There were several dozen Trump supporters lined up on a public median that intersects Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Coburg Road. Many of them wearing red and waving American flags and Trump campaign posters. Several counter-demonstrators slowly trickled in. Across the bridge on the Alton Baker Park side stood several folks in black donning face masks, tactical clothing, and hoodies. These few men and women of Antifa were quietly watching the demonstration unfold, as four Eugene police officers positioned themselves directly next to them.
“We’ve got state power over here watching everything we do and filming everything we do,” a male member of Antifa who wished to remain anonymous expressed about the police presence. “At a moment’s notice they [the police] can move in and beat us without recourse.” Minutes earlier a police officer had approached the man to question him about a black first aid kit strapped to his leg, while many Trump supporters openly carried firearms, including one man with an AR-style rifle without harassment.
“And then,” he continued, “we have people [conservatives] over here who traditionally have police collusion and they get to come out here and do whatever they want and usually don’t get any charges brought against them. There are some exceptions, but by and large they are not targeted, it’s people who stand up against the state.”
When asked why he was there he claimed it was “a responsibility of everyone who believes in open freedom to do and seek life as you choose. It’s a responsibility that everyone should show up and stop white nationalism that’s growing like this.”
For most of the rally, the pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps remained on their respective sides of the median, several folks, mainly men, comingled to seemingly antagonize each other. Two men wearing paramilitary gear and clothing emblazoned with the American flag patrolled the side with most of the counter demonstrators. They expressed that they have been following rallies all over the Northwest to act as de-facto security, and had travelled from La Pine, Oregon to attend this one.
“Beating commie asses when they [anti-Trump demonstrators] get outta line…being pro-American,” one of the men said when asked what brought them to the event. The other man elaborated.
“They call us white nationalists, or Nazis, or whatever. I have a bi-racial daughter, so if someone wants to sit there and call me a Nazi and racist, it’s pure ignorance. They don’t know me. That’s their tactic, to try and get people to think they’re anti-fascist, but we are not fascists. They’re showing up to this event that these people planned, and they [Antifa] showed up to disturb it. All these people want to do is hold up a Trump sign or an American flag, and [Antifa] wants to come and make them feel uncomfortable, and that’s bullshit. That’s why we’re here.”
A woman named Gwen who was part of the Rise Dance Resist dancing group was handing out free chocolates as a sign of good will. “Because it’s the peaceful thing to do.”
Gwen explained it was her “personal belief that [she was] called by Christ to seek justice in the world, and that’s me protecting the earth, protecting women, protecting immigrants, protecting indigenous people, animals, everything.”
As someone who has studied many events and incidents involving antifa (often from multiple angles, often unedited livestreams and so on) I know that to claim that antifa is a “group who regularly organize counter-protests for anything promoting the rise of fascism, Neo-Nazism, and authoritarianism in America”, is inaccurate. The people they accuse of being alt right, neo-Nazis, white nationalists, fascists, etc. are very often (or mostly) nothing of the sort. They usually range from center right libertarian to center left libertarian. There are exceptions, such as the summer of 2016 when antifa and BAMN fought with the Golden State Skinheads who were showing up to an event hosted by the Traditionalist Worker’s Party. Both the GSS and the TWP are actual neo-Nazis who can be seen in photos and videos doing the seig heil and otherwise making it clear that they are on the far authoritarian right (the upper right corner of the political compass). Matt Heimbach, co-founder of the TWP can be heard saying, “Our enemy is the international Jew” on the intro video of the TWP website.
But since a handful of the antifa/BAMN side were stabbed by the GSS in that fight, antifa/BAMN for the most part stopped going after actual far right neo-Nazi types and instead accused moderate people (many who are mild, some who are elderly and/or differently-abled or adolescent, LBGT, Jewish, black, etc. because they don’t stab antifa when antifa attacks like the GSS did.