On Saturday, July 13th my partner and I woke up at seven in the morning, dressed carefully for the heat, packed sunscreen and filled our water bottles, and headed out on a drive to Hamilton’s City Hall to participate in the “Hamilton For Who?” rally in support of the city’s embattled LGBTQ+ community.
My partner and I went to the rally, met up with friends, listened to music, bought t-shirts, drank water, danced and generally had a good time, as protests go. We also flipped off the violently islamo- and homophobic “Yellow Vest” hate-group which was forced out of the City Hall courtyard by the presence of both the rally and the weekend-long “Camp Chaos Gayz” occupation; making it the first Saturday in months that the Yellow-Vesters haven’t had a city-sanctioned presence at City Hall… which was one of the things the rally had been intended to achieve. We followed up the demonstration with a visit to the Art Gallery of Hamilton with some friends, then an early breakfast-for-dinner date at a diner and drove home in the long summer evening, footsore and sunburnt and feeling very good about the day.
At roughly the same moment I had gotten out bed that morning, Willem Van Spronsen was shot to death by police officers during his attack on the privately-owned and -operated prison for migrants called the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington.
There are a number of conflicting reports that first day and the whole situation is being complicated by the increasing number of competing narratives as time progresses… but as near as I can sort out the bare facts are this:
In the very early morning of Saturday July 13th, 69-year old Willem Van Spronsen, an experienced anarchist and anti-fascist activist, armed himself with flares, molotov cocktails and a home-assembled “ghost gun” AR-15 assault rifle in order to attack the bus park at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma with the apparent intent of destroying the buses used to transport detainees. He managed to ignite one vehicle (possibly his own) before being killed by Tacoma police officers. It is unclear whether Van Spronsen fired on the officers or not, but it is certain that none of the four officers involved was hurt. In the hours after the attack, it became clear that Van Spronsen had sent copies of his final statement (sometimes described in the media as a “manifesto”) to a number of his friends. In it, Van Spronsen declared his intent to attack the for-profit detention center, condemned the political system that supports the existence of concentration camps, said farewell to his friends and family and urged his comrades to arm themselves against the state.
Those are the bare facts, stripped of political bias or interpretation.
But an anti-fascist anarchist was killed attacking a for-profit concentration camp at this time in American history. There’s no leaving it at the bare facts.
By the time I began looking into it — only about fourteen hours after Van Spronsen’s death — there were already a number of competing narratives about his actions. The mainstream media is spreading a narrative where Van Spronsen had attacked the detention center itself, with more right-wing outlets quoting Shawn Fallah, head of ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility, claiming that Van Spronsen was attempting burn down the building and/or blow up a large propane tank in an effort to commit mass murder of the staff and inmates of the entire facility. More centrist takes on the situation included the usual condemnations of “violence” while simultaneously condemning ICE’s policies. One widely spread quote by a friend of Van Spronsen, Deb Bartley, has provided a quick and convenient explanation: “I think this was a suicide. But then he was able to kind of do it in a way that spoke to his political beliefs. I know he went down there knowing he was going to die.”
The right-wing twittersphere immediately went on the offensive (in both senses of the word) declaring Van Spronsen an “antifa terrorist” intent on committing “mass murder”, quickly descending into their usual illogical and internally-inconsistent histrionics, combined with online attacks on Van Spronsen’s music, writing and legacy… including removing a copy of his “audio manifesto” on Bandcamp and replacing it with this insult:
I am unimpressed by this, especially since on the same weekend as Van Spronsen’s attack, neo-Nazi James Alex Fields was given a second life sentence plus 419 years for driving a vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters in Charlottesville last summer. The alt-right is notably silent about condemning Fields’ violence… unless excusing it as an act of self-defence or outright celebrating it. I’m frankly not going to engage with or share any of the pretty disgusting things the alt-right is saying and doing around this account. (If you’re that eager to know what they’re saying about Van Spronsen, feel free to Google it. I hope you have a strong stomach.)
It’s important to note that I am not, myself, neutral or free of bias in my interpretation of Van Spronsen’s actions. I included the above “bare facts” simply because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the bare facts online. Most mainstream media has moved on from the incident. Right-wing media is frothing at the mouth with increasingly virulent condemnations of Van Spronsen and anyone who might dare express sympathy with his actions. And the left-wing online sphere is split between people who view Van Spronsen as a martyr and those who condemn his violence.
Also, a quick aside, there is a small but vocal minority on the left which is claiming that Van Spronsen was a trans person and should therefore be referred to as “she” under the name Emma Durruti. There is conflicting information that this is the case, some of it coming from people claiming to be close friends of Van Spronsen. It appears that Van Spronsen used the name Emma Durruti more as an anarchist nom-de-guerre with the intent of honouring both anarchist writer Emma Goldman and anti-fascist militant Buenaventura Durruti, but not necessarily as a statement of trans identity. Against that, last year a Facebook post was made under the name Emma Durruti specifically referring to Willem Van Spronsen as a deadname. For the record, I condemn the practice of deliberate misgendering and deadnaming trans people; I’ve seen it used all too often as a cruel tactic to deliberately marginalize trans and differently-gendered folx. If it does turn out that Van Spronsen was trans or genderfluid, then I wholeheartedly apologize for misgendering and deadnaming. As with much else about this situation, there is an astonishing amount of conflicting information being disseminated. Until that is clarified, I have made the editorial decision to refer to him as Willem Van Spronsen throughout.
To return to my point, however, I am not neutral in my opinion about Van Spronsen’s actions. In fact, my first reaction — after shock, of course — was admiration. Despite being modulated by further information on Van Spronsen, including his previous arrest at the same detention facility; his membership in the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (described by the alt-right as a “paramilitary organization” in an apparently unironic statement); the existence and domestic violence protection orders regarding his estranged wife (it is worth noting that Van Spronsen’s adult daughter was supporting him in his legal efforts around his divorce and custody issues); that admiration has not faded. I am an anarchist and anti-fascist, and his actions explicitly flow from the same anarchist and anti-fascist praxis.
I write that knowing that I’ll be condemned for “supporting terrorism” or “condoning violence” or whatever else, especially by alt-right trolls. But do I admire his action. Van Spronsen’s final statement, which I encourage everyone to read, has been posted on anarchist website CrimethInc.com and it explains a great deal of his thinking in carrying out this attack, making his motivations explicitly clear: He was taking action against the concentration camps holding migrants which are being operated for profit, and in choosing to take that action he was being –in his own words — “joyfully revolutionary.“
In fact, he repeatedly references joy throughout his writing:
“I’m a black and white thinker.
Detention camps are an abomination.
I’m not standing by.
I really shouldn’t have to say any more than this.
I set aside my broken heart and I heal the only way I know how—by being useful.
I efficiently compartmentalize my pain…
And I joyfully go about this work.
(To those burdened with the wreckage from my actions, I hope that you will make the best use of that burden.)”
The entire document of Van Spronsen’s final message to his friends and family are one of the most moving things I have ever read. Its rhythms remind me powerfully of Allen Ginsberg’s poetry… as does the theme.
I can’t condemn Willem Van Spronsen for what he did. I won’t condemn Willem Van Spronsen for what he did. Knowing that it would be called terrorism, knowing that it would cost him his life, he broke out of the tableau of despair that seems to have frozen all of us in place in 2019. He died trying to strike an admittedly symbolic blow against the concentration camps that the rest of us are apparently unable to stop. He seemed to be trying (and I am not the first to make this comparison) to create a “John Brown moment” in modern American politics; an effort to spark badly-needed mass action on the issue of migrant detention and deportation.
The current US policy on imprisoning “illegal” migrants is quite simply appalling. Overcrowded conditions, indefinite detention, the separation of families as deliberate policy, the denial of food, medicine, soap, and even water… these are not the actions of a civilized people. We call them “concentration camps” and we are not wrong to do so. The actions of the United States both in the detention camps and against migrants is frankly criminal and has been condemned by the UN as illegal. This weekend saw rumours of mass ICE raids and deportations; striking terror into racialized communities across the United States. The day before Van Spronsen’s attack, US Vice President Mike Pence and a number of Republican Senators visited two “migrant detention centres” in Texas — concentration camps, let us be honest — whose conditions have been described as “horrifying” and “horrendous.” Reporters who accompanied the junket described an “overwhelming stench” from overcrowded cages full of men. Pence and the GOP senators refused to speak to the prisoners and left after only a momentary look at the conditions. (Pence later condemned the press coverage of the visit, tweeting that CNN was “dishonest” while simultaneously spinning a false narrative of “families and children and all told us they were being treated well” and blaming conditions on Democrats.)
History will not be kind to the people who have done these things, and it will not be kind to those who turn a blind eye while they are done.
Against this backdrop, I completely understand why Van Spronsen did what he did. Was it suicide-by-cop? Possibly. Was it an act of despair? I don’t think so. Was it “terrorism?” No.
Whether or not his action was successful, it was a worthy effort. I do not believe it was terrorism but I am not at all surprised that it is being described as such; I would call it armed resistance to a growing system of tyranny and inhuman brutality; at the very worst it was an insurrection against a government which seems determined to forfeit its moral legitimacy. I have seen his act favourably compared to the actions of WWII Dutch anti-Nazi Willem Arondeus, and I agree.
Rather than trying to blow up the entire facility, as has been claimed, I truly believe that Van Spronsen’s intention was to damage the transportation infrastructure that enables the United States to dehumanize and imprison non-white migrants and refugees… but to do it without causing loss of innocent life. It seems to fit his character as both an anarchist and a romantic. His daughter, Ariel Van Spronsen seemed to support that opinion on a Facebook post requesting privacy for the family: “I am too deep in emotions and basic logistics to engage in a conversation about it. All I ask is that people remember that he was a human being, with a family and friends who loved him.I believe he carefully planned his actions so as not to harm any innocents… He operated alone, at a time of day (4:00 am, I am told) where no one else would be around. I believe that was intentional. I’m not condoning it. I’m just asking for people to try to chill out about characterizing it. You don’t know even the half of it.”
I went to bed on Saturday night, footsore and sunburnt, after a very successful non-violent political rally which saw the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton come together and do some necessary healing. We have been standing in opposition to violent hate groups, groups who hate our Muslim neighbours and who participated in a violent attack on Hamilton’s Pride celebration; we are standing in opposition to a police force that seems more interested in settling scores with activists than protecting the community; we are standing in opposition to a municipal government that best case sees the harm being done to queer and trans people in Hamilton as an opportunity and at worst is actively encouraging it. We needed that healing, and we’ll need that community spirit going forward because the work isn’t remotely done.
Willem Van Spronsen didn’t go to bed on Saturday night. He was in the morgue in Tacoma.
On Sunday morning my partner and I went to a local farmer’s market and bought fruits and vegetables. We found a new local butcher shop and met my sister and niece for a sushi lunch. We gardened and barbecued and made brandied cherries and ate too much ice cream and… lived. We lived a good day, in a good life, because we are happy and prosperous and the world is set up in such a way as to give us that life.
On Sunday Willem Van Spronsen’s friends and family mourned his death… even as alt-right scum did their best to smear his legacy and skew the online discussion of his actions. On Sunday tens of thousands of migrants suffered in inhumane facilities across the United States — and I can’t seem to find an accurate number of how many people are being detained by the USA at any given moment. I’m not even sure they have one.
The anti-immigrant (read: anti-brown-people) hatred that our American cousins are floundering in is spreading to Canada — or rather, it has always been here and the increasingly open racism across the border is emboldening our homegrown bigots. The Yellow Vests and the People’s Party of Canada are both steeped in anti-immigrant hate and it’s seeping into the Canadian Conservative Party under Andrew Scheer. Last week the Canada Border Services Agency apparently began a program of random ID checks on Toronto’s streets, a move of highly questionable legality. It worries me, as it should worry all Canadians, that these things are happening.
On Sunday evening, after a fine day replete with family and good food and gorgeous weather, I sat on my back deck with a glass of brandy (left over from the brandied cherries that afternoon) and lit one of my infrequent cigars and put my feet up while I listened to an old Pete Seeger album. My phone beeped: a friend had found and sent me a copy of Willem Van Spronsen’s final message.
And I read it while the sun went down, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I wept. For Willem Van Spronsen, and his family, and for all of us in cages and outside them.
We are not yet at the point in Canada where armed insurrection against a corrupt and racist agency is a necessary step. It even could be argued that Van Spronsen’s actions in Tacoma were, as yet, unnecessary. But I understand why someone like Van Spronsen saw the need for direct action, even violent direct action, to fight the growing tide of fascism and racism in the United States.
And I prayed — something I very rarely do — that things never grow so bad in this country that I’m forced to make the same choice that he did.
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