- Would you say Antifa or even yourself
think that violence is justified to achieve these goals?
- Yes.
- Almost all of the people protesting
against the Nazis and Klansmen in Charlottesville
were peaceful, but not all of them.
- Do you ever get tired of hiding your identity?
- What are your thoughts on peaceful protests?
- What's the most extreme thing you've done?
(intense music)
- I have been involved in anti-fascist organizing
and activism for 10 years now, I suppose.
I don't think that any person can speak
on behalf of a group.
So I'm not speaking on behalf of like Antifa as such.
I'm speaking on behalf of sort of myself
as someone who is anti-fascist.
- Hi, I'm Emily.
- Hi, I'm William Casper.
- Like the friendly ghost?
- Like the friendly ghost. - I love that.
- This is my first time hearing about Antifa.
What is it?
- Antifa is shorthand for anti-fascist
and that sort of includes the gamut of the bad isms,
so anti-racism, anti-transphobia,
anti-Islam phobia, anti-sexism.
But I think another core tenant of it
is probably also anti-capitalism.
- Do you consider yourself an organization?
- No.
Antifa is not anything remotely close to an organization.
It's sort of decentralized and autonomous,
and what I mean by that is like
there's no central decision-making body.
In fact, there is no center.
- What do you define a fascist as?
- Someone whose political beliefs and values
and the world they're trying to create
is one of hierarchy and racialized domination,
nationalistic domination and xenophobia.
And not everybody from any specific group
shares exactly the same principles, but.
- Right now, from my perspective, Antifa is being portrayed
as like government enemy number one, right?
Like, "Oh, Antifa is going against America.
"Antifa is destroying the American philosophy,
I guess, the way of life."
- Maybe you feel like this is like a good thing.
You guys wanna be known as like
big top violent extreme dogs.
(Casper laughs) I don't know. You tell me.
- Yeah, totally.
I think nowadays what it is has been
largely defined by the media.
You can't see me, but I'm wearing like full black block.
I'm wearing all black. I have a black balaclava on.
And I think like that is what Antifa oftentimes means,
this militant black clad protester.
- Do you ever get tired of hiding your identity?
- It's kind of fun actually.
Putting on a matching outfit with like
dozens of other people in a street protest,
everyone just becomes a part of this like moving organism
where you can sort of do anything and be anyone you want
and not face the consequences of those actions.
No face, no case is sort of this term
that gets thrown around a lot.
- I guess that's interesting 'cause like with this belief
do you think it allows people to be
more violent without consequences?
- Sure, I mean, it makes it more possible
to use violence to achieve my means or something like that
because I know deep down in my heart and in my soul
that it has to be done.
- Would you say Antifa or even yourself
think that violence is justified to achieve these goals?
- Yes.
Violence has been a part of what it means
to be a human being.
The world that we live in today
with all the bombs and all the guns
and all the starving people and the pollution,
these are all different types of like violences
or something that are happening around the world.
And I think our capacity for violence is sort of like
that which has been taken from us
and concentrated in the hands of the police.
- So you're against the police? Like no police?
- Fundamentally, yes.
One of the most memorable experiences of my life
was like watching the third precinct burn to the ground
in Minneapolis during the George Floyd uprising.
And that was the first time in American history
that that's ever happened.
And within days, hundreds or thousands of police cars
across the country were like on fire.
- You don't think that kind of causes
more fear and irrationalization?
Wouldn't that be against what you are for,
which is like a world where everyone can
kind of come together and be peaceful?
- I think the police sort of serve three primary functions.
One is like to uphold racialized white supremacy,
protect the interests of the capitalist ruling class,
and the third is to like prevent social movements
from being able to change anything.
- So then if like I'm in my house, someone breaks in,
and I'm in my closet or my bathroom, who do I call?
- Hopefully not the cops 'cause they don't really seem
to help with that much.
I don't know. I don't have an answer to that question.
I think there's like a million different solutions.
What do we do when harm happens in our community?
What do we do when people are committing
wrongdoings or whatever?
And I think the answer to that is like
a million different things, but definitely not the police.
(wall thuds) - Hey, Claire.
- Hey, Janine.
Are you enjoying our Ask me Anything series?
- I am, and if you are too,
like and subscribe for more videos like this.
- [Both] Now, let's get back into the video.
- Have you ever broke anything?
- Yes. - What?
Car? - I mean, like...
I'm trying to debate on whether or not
I should even talk about these sorts of things.
- What's the most extreme thing you've done?
- (chuckles) Some of the most intense experiences
of my life were the resistance
against Milo Yiannopoulos in Oakland,
who was a right-wing grifter trying to give
some public talk that was shut down by anti-fascists.
- Like you tried to stop him from talking?
- Yeah, something to that effect,
trying to basically create such a scene
that the whole event has to be shut down.
- So I guess it's fair to say you don't believe
in free speech?
- Well, I don't think that everybody
has an equal microphone per se.
The sort of abstract notion of free speech
is less important to me than the content
of what's being shared.
And if what's being shared is calls to violence
and antisemitism and sexism and racism,
then I don't give a (censored) about
your so-called free speech.
- Do you think it would be okay to punch a Nazi?
- Hell yeah. Yes, absolutely.
We should not seed an inch to those bastards.
And when they have the gall to step out
of their mom's basement or whatever,
we do not give them space in our communities
to share their disgusting and toxic
and unforgivable opinions.
- What are your thoughts on peaceful protests?
Do you believe in it?
- I think a lot of the sort of like
proper channels of change working within the system
like begging the people in power to make a decision
that doesn't (censored) everybody over,
a lot of that stuff is really degrading.
So we're begging them to change the world
when really we're the ones,
us, you the person watching this YouTube video,
are the ones who have the power to change the world.
- What's something you wish people knew about you?
- Wow. No one's ever asked me that question before.
You know, I'm looking for love in the world
in all sorts of forms.
Love is the (censored) answer.
Loving each other, loving ourselves, loving the world.
And obviously, it's not always...
The world's a sad place sometimes.
- I didn't expect you to say
you were looking for love in the world.
For some reason, that made me emotional for a second.
I guess I'm wondering like how do you reconcile
the two talking about love a lot
but then also being part of a group that condones violence?
- Yeah, that's a heavy question. Thanks.
The world is becoming increasingly uninhabitable,
targeted communities just continue to be targeted,
racialized violence happening in the world,
gendered violence.
And for me, for love to be able
to truly proliferate in this world,
so many of these systems need to be torn down
and so many new ones need to pop up in their place.
And I don't know what those new ones are,
I don't have an answer for everything.
But I know that the way that this world is right now
is just not conducive to love.
- How do you engage with individuals
who don't see eye-to-eye with Antifa
or have a very violent reaction to the word?
- That is a very good question.
I think it's one that people have been trying
to answer for a long time:
"how do we communicate across difference?"
Another reason why I don't always think
showing up in full black block garb is the most strategic
is because it makes people assume a lot about you.
I put on this mask like less than 1% of the time
or something, you know? - Oh really?
- So many of us are doing so many different types
of community organizing work.
There's so much more to like building an anti-fascist world
than just fighting against fascists.
- What is something that you love about yourself?
- One thing I love about myself is that I care.
I care about things.
My heart gets warmed when I see people in contact
with their capacity to be however they want to be
in the world, to do whatever they want to do in the world.
I'm trying to do that too.
I'm trying to come into contact with my source energy
or whatever to self-actualize and it's really hard.
It's (censored) hard.
- Yeah, I appreciate your answers.
It seems like you really took some time
to think about some of those.
- I may not agree with like everything you stand for,
but I think I agree for the most part
like just being like a liberal person.
I think we both can say that we want the world
to be like a better place.
- I'm not a person with like very strong political views.
My beliefs are do whatever makes you happy
as long as it doesn't hurt other people or yourself.
Everybody can be happy without harming others
(laughs) at the end of the day.
- Yeah.
- You're a decent human being and a cool guy.
- Well, thanks. - Casper the friendly ghost.
- Right back at you. - Thank you.