Solidarity

It’s been seven days since anarchist and activist Cedar Hopperton was arrested for parole violations in relation to the fascist hate-group attack on the Pride festival in Hamilton, Ontario. Ironically, it appears that the very “parole violation” they were accused of — attending a rally that became violent — simply didn’t happen. Several members of the community have testified that Hopperton wasn’t at Pride, knowing that there was the potential for violence by fascists and religious zealots, so they stayed away, intending on keeping their parole in good faith. The Hamilton police, with no evidence, simply told the parole board to revoke Hopperton’s parole and they were arrested. To date, Hopperton has not been given any sort of court hearing or judicial process.

I’m not going to dive too deep into the absolute shitshow that is municipal politics in Hamilton at the moment. There’s plenty of media coverage about it, if you care to study how institutionalized homophobia and racism and impact a community. This post is about the fallout, and how people come together — or don’t — in support of each other.

Since the day of their arrest, Cedar Hopperton has been on a hunger strike. They have not eaten food since the day of their arrest, Saturday June 22nd. The hunger strike is in protest of the injustice of their arrest — one of a number cynical injustices committed by a police force trying to cover up their own failure — and to hurry the process of receiving a parole hearing where they might defend themselves. This process, we have been informed, might “take weeks.” Cedar is paying a high price indeed for their real “crime”: speaking out against the Hamilton Police Service.

Two other anarchists have been arrested for similar “parole violations” in the days after. It wasn’t until Wednesday June 26th that Chris Vanderweide, the infamous neo-Nazi “Helmet Guy”, was arrested on two counts of assault-with-a-weapon. Eleven days after the initial attack… despite neo-Nazi groups repeatedly posting videos of the assault, boasting about the assaults on social media, threatening further assaults, carrying out further assaults, posting videos of those assaults, and so on.

But the arrest of Vanderweide (the only attacker yet charged) has demonstrated something profound when compared to the arrest of Hopperton, and I think it’s worth noting.

On the day of his arrest, Vanderweide posted a note to Facebook:

First, I find this hilarious. Vanderweide has spent weeks leveraging videos of the assaults into making himself a minor alt-right celebrity online. His violence, his threats, his posturing… all trying to make himself the vision of an alt-right “tough guy.” Hell, the guy even put up a Facebook status while the cops came to his door — how’s that for commitment to brand? (I have a mental picture of Vanderweide, crouched in a closet somewhere, thumbs stabbing at the screen, eyes and underwear becoming suspiciously damp… but I digress.)

His post was immediately flooded by online fascists offering badly-spelled support, questionable legal advice, paranoid conspiracy theories and offers of bail money. But there was also this:

And that is absolutely telling.

Another internet tough guy, Yellow Vest neo-fascist extraordinaire Jack Smith, who by his own admission lives just four streets away from the jail… declined marching out in support because he figured he’d be all alone and anyway he just “smoked a fat bong rip of purple indica THC crystals.“

Exquisite.

When Cedar Hopperton was arrested, fifty people marched on the jail that night despite multiple other demonstrations happening around the city and the fact that it was Toronto Pride weekend. Comrades travelled to Toronto to counter a Pegida rally (and were themselves attacked both by police and by Vanderweide and company) and still managed to put together a jail solidarity action on no warning. Other gestures of solidarity for the LGBTQ community and the “Pride Defenders” have been coming forward all week: Statements by the Hamilton & District Labour Council, the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton & Area), the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, numerous local businesses, politicians and private citizens are circulating online. (There have even been statements of support from groups outside the country.) Community organizing and fundraising are ongoing and today, Friday June 28th, has been declared an Autonomous Day of Action in support of the Pride Defenders. People will be doing their own actions across Hamilton… including an early-morning protest at Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s house.

Contrast this with the alt-right’s reaction to Vanderweide’s arrest, which has involved infighting, condemning each other, Vanderweide being kicked out of the [Nouns] of Odin, numerous “bail money fundraisers” (time will show if those fundraising efforts are subject to La Meute-style “administrative fees”) and the pronouncement of various and diverse anathemas. Several Vanderweide supporters did show up to his court appearance yesterday, including a presumably not-high Smith, but they were disappointed by a lack of a bail hearing and claimed a “media blackout” was imposed on them. (The “media blackout” was, in fact, the enforcement of a long-standing law that prevents recording media inside a courthouse. The CBC and other media outlets were able to report on the situation without interference.)

On the Left, people tend to pull together in a crisis. On the Right… well, it looks like the knives come out.

I don’t know Cedar or the other Pride Defenders. I wasn’t there. But I support them and will stand with them because they stood with the community against hate groups. If there was ever a clearer demonstration of the principle of solidarity, I haven’t personally seen it.

Solidarity is a fundamental concept of socialist organizing, and like most truly fundamental concepts it’s both dazzlingly simple and surprisingly complex.

Solidarity is the awareness that your struggle and my struggle are linked. Solidarity is the understanding that if you help me, I help you and we all help each other. Solidarity is the unity of the oppressed against the oppressor. My own introduction to the principle of solidarity was through my experiences with the Industrial Workers of the World, an anarchist and syndicalist union that I joined almost twenty years ago and remain a proud member of today. (I have always found that the principle of solidarity has been eloquently summed up in the IWW’s motto “An Injury To One Is An Injury To All”.)

That’s the simple part: Solidarity is standing together.

The complex part of the principle of Solidarity is understanding that while our support must not be unconditional, great allowances must be made for differences in understanding. I do not, as a white cis-male settler, have a fully nuanced understanding of the struggles that indigenous people face in Canada; but I stand in Solidarity with them, always. I support the actions that Natives feel they must take to defend their culture, their way of life and indeed their literal lives and safety. Does that mean I always fully understand what’s at stake when Native activists block a rail line or seize unceded land? It does not, even though I try and educate myself on why they have taken such an action. But I support it. I understand that such actions are not taken lightly… and they’re taken by people who understand that their actions might have consequences.

I feel like I’m not explaining this as well as I’d hoped. Let me try again: Solidarity is both a simple expression of unity and a deeply nuanced recognition that our struggles are both different and yet deeply connected.

Look at the situation in Hamilton today. As I write this, Twitter is ablaze with discussion about the early-morning protest at Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s home. Twenty “agitators”, as Eisenbeger calls them, showed up on his front lawn, shouting, playing loud music and banging on his door. They left after only a few minutes, leaving his lawn covered in signs that read “The Mayor Doesn’t Care About Queer People, Drop All Charges Against Pride Defenders Now.” A firsthand account by a protester has just been posted, and the mayor himself has tweeted about it.

Discussion on Twitter is… robust. Generally speaking there are two schools of thought: those who support the action because Eisenberger’s inaction and poor leadership, his censoring and silencing of LGBTQ voices and his endorsement and support of police harassment against the LGBTQ community has led the city to a point of crisis and that crisis needs to be brought to the mayor’s literal doorstep; versus those who feel that going to the mayor’s private residence crosses the line from protest to harassment.

Personally, I believe it was a legitimate political protest, especially in light of the mayor’s refusal to hear LGBTQ voices at City Hall. It was noisy, but it was peaceful. Certainly it’s comparable the reports of police harassment of activists and anarchists across the city over the past two weeks. It may have skirted the line, but this action never crossed it, and those people who are condemning it either aren’t on our side or need to learn a bit about standing in solidarity with oppressed people.

That being said, I also have reservations that this will not improve the situation. Eisenberger seems rattled and is unlikely to draw the intended conclusion: that however frightened he might have been this is how frightened the LGBTQ people of Hamilton have been for weeks… and possibly forever. My concern is that that Eisenberger, who has never acted in good faith with the LGBTQ community, will not do so now and will in fact use this incident as an excuse to further crack down on queer people and ignore their concerns.

But I must make it clear: I support those who felt compelled to take this action and I stand in solidarity with them. That doesn’t invalidate my reservations about what they’ve done and the consequences that might come from it… but at the same time, I recognize that these people have their own understanding of the situation and how it impacts them, and that they took this action knowing and accepting that consequences might follow.

Solidarity is not a blank cheque, but neither is it a set of shackles. When I act in solidarity with others, I take on a burden of trust in their actions; When I expect solidarity, I must shoulder the responsibility that others are trusting mine.

#FreeCedar