National Anarchists at Folsom Street Fair

By on June 1, 2010 in News 19

From Nick Pell at Red Star Times

I was contacted this morning by Bay Area National Anarchists founder Andrew Yeoman. He felt that I had unfairly maligned his group in my recent article on radical traditionalist website Alternative Right. I don’t really want to get into the specifics of our exchange, however, I would now like to present the videos I referenced (but did not post) in my previous article. The event they are protesting is the Folsom Street Fair, which is a leather / BDSM event, not explicitly a gay pride event.

I stand by my claim that harassment takes place on these videos and that the demonstration attempts to target homosexuals. Indeed, Folsom Street Fair is largely (if not predominantly) an event for the gay leather / BDSM community.

As I generally do not feel comfortable presenting fascistic material “without comment”, I would like to say a few things before presenting readers the video:

  1. Why is this event being protested? There are no videos on YouTube of BANA protesting wars that are more harmful to children, nor the proven international conspiracy to rape children within the Catholic Church. Why not? Why this?
  2. Note the signs: “FOLSOM ST. FAIR / BE THERE BE QUEER / BUT LEAVE YOUR KIDS AT HOME!” and “PERVERSION IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE.”
  3. What are the politics of describing the Folsom Street Fair as “child abuse?”
  4. Andrew Yeoman, while getting the troops ready for battle says that the city government is ignoring Folsom Street Fair and “we need to do something about it.” What do you suspect that “something” means? What would BANA do if they had 100 members? 1,000? 10,000?
  5. “Is it unreasonable to think that those who get off on abusing one another might also get off on abusing children?”–AY, ~3:40
  6. One of the “shocking” banners at the Folsom Street Fair is about homosexuality being compatible with Christianity. Who would find this scandalous? Similarly, what are the politics of focusing on a painting of Barack Obama at a leather booth?
  7. Does following a man and his child with a camera and implying that the man is pimping his child amount to harassment? Similarly, does implying that a woman gave her child drugs on camera amount to harassment? Consider the long history of the far-right in relation to using cameras and videos to harass and intimidate the left.
  8. Note the amount of homosexual men and women videotaped. Yes, I think it’s safe to assume that many of the men in chaps and / or skirts are gay. If BANA are not there to harass gay people, why do they spend so much time focusing on them?
  9. Context matters. What does all of this mean in the context of high praise given to Troy Southgate (a veteran of fascist groups such as the International Third Position and the British National Front, as well as the premier worldwide theorist of “national anarchism”) by BANA founder Yeoman?

I apologize to my readers for presenting this information in list, rather than essay form. I suspect that National Anarchism may require more insight and writing than I can give it at the moment. However, I did feel that it was necessary to put this up in a timely fashion. For further information, I recommend the Southern Poverty Law Center’s article on the matter. While I give no political support to the SPLC’s methods of cops and courts, they run good intel on these kinds of groups, detailing all their quirks in an easily digestible format.

, , ,

  • http://danielsieradski.com mobius1ski

    why are you generating clicks for these nazi assholes?

    • http://twitter.com/RedStarTimes RedStarTimes

      I'm not terribly concerned with that, particularly as there is commentary presented along with it. I think that if I were presenting this “without comment” your critique would be valid. However, a number of groups from the SPLC to the ARA Network report on fascist-type groups. I don't really see how what I'm doing is any different.

  • Cerebralcaustic

    What a scathing analysis: far left fringe lunatic with no grasp of reality chastises far right fringe lunatics with no grasp of reality.

    • http://www.facebook.com/AndrewYeoman0907 Andrew Yeoman

      I think Nick raises some valid points but he avoids the whole reason why we went out there: we are opposed to children being allowed into a sado-masochist event. That's all there is to it, the rest of the finer points raised are unimportant compared to that.

      • http://twitter.com/RedStarTimes RedStarTimes

        It is a well-established fact that children are most likely to be abused by a family member. Further, as I have stated in the article, there is a proven international criminal conspiracy to molest children with accessories in the highest levels of the Vatican. Why are you not protesting outside of churches? It's also worth noting (again) that you didn't just go to the event holding your signs and chanting your slogans. You filmed it and made a video that is not just inflammatory, it is defamatory from both a legal and an ethical standpoint. So no, what you say is “unimportant” is indeed very important.

      • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

        Well said…but it doesn't jibe with your production values and knack for carefully selecting tidbits and framing them based on their capacity to evoke a reaction. Fox news may have an internship opening for you. (The “Man points to boy and exchanges money with other man, why?” moment was spectacularly disgusting, since you seem to be making an implication that isn't even supportable by the video you provide…and then depending on the imagination of people to fill in the blanks for you.) Also…I've puked at fairs as a kid…from scarfing snacks all day…not from a GHB bender.

        Second, you're picking an easy target issue to make yourselves cuddly and approachable…which is a disingenuous attempt to garner support among people who normally wouldn't support you at all. By hammering the tiny micro issue you avoid voicing your platform…which is necessary and understandable when we stop to consider what you really bring to the table.

      • E.B. Wolf

        While I would tend to agree that people bringing children to an S and M event is in extremely poor taste (to say the least), why didn't your group approach and engage the event organizers and/or the guy selling kiddie bondage in a civil dialog as to why or if they felt it was appropriate?
        Perhaps you could have done more to accomplish your goal by engaging them and encouraging them to employ a little responsible self-policing to keep an obviously adult themed event restricted to adults?

    • http://twitter.com/RedStarTimes RedStarTimes

      What a trenchant critique: Tired name-calling with no ability to discuss politics. Kudos to you.

  • maceYeoman

    If you even remotely believe in Anarchy and take two fucking steps backwards… off a cliff. The only way to defeat Tyranny is to fucking understand you are not at all capable of telling someone else what they think feel or do. Equality is the top of the fucking list in the battle to end your tyranny. How are the rest of us gonna make it in a dignified manner when people like Andrew Yeoman who clearly have been given a few two many gasps of air wanna grab everyone getting up and make them fall back.

  • 5by5

    Andrew, your group “posits that culturally, ethically, and ETHNICALLY incompatible tribes should be allowed to form separate political authorities?”

    What a charming new wrapper you've put onto the same tired Nazi BS. Maybe Arizona is more your speed, eh? White separatism by any other name… smells as rank.

    I mean, “tribes”? Seriously? Tribalism is what happens in backassward places like Afghanistan, who haven't managed to claw their way out of the 10th century yet. Civilized nations are a bit beyond that… You might want to catch up.

    Also, explain how it is that you can't grasp the difference between the silly fetishes of consenting adults, and the real evil of child abuse?

    And the amateurish propaganda of putting “Parents?” in question marks after every shot where a grown up is with a child is wicked lame. We get your implication, and we also know it's based on nothing but your own fevered imagination. Not to mention that it's far more likely a kid would puke on the street due to stomach flu or a poorly cooked burger, than that his parent gave him drugs, as you absurdly suggested.

    You may not think it is appropriate for your kid to attend that street fair, and you may have a point, but mileage varies on that, just as maturity does. If you don't think it's appropriate for your kids, don't take them there. For example, I don't think that the guy I saw who took his 10, 7, and 5 year olds to see the movie “Se7en” was making an age-appropriate decision for them, because I found that material challenging for adults primarily because of the violence. I would have gotten a baby sitter for them, and seen it by myself.

    But parking your nose into somebody else's business with no frame of reference to their life is dangerous territory, my friend (and hardly something an “anarchist” would do). Generally, I've found that people sexually well-adjusted enough to run about in assless chaps are the LEAST of your worries in regards to child abuse.

    Usually its the creepy otherwise normal-looking schmuck surfing around suburbia with candy, a van, and a bow tie that's the one who's the real problem. Or your local parish priest or fundie minister. Pedophiles tend to try to appear trustworthy to ingratiate themselves to not just kids, but also to sooth parents into not noticing the real harm they are about to engage in. In other words, they cloak their shit, they don't have street fairs, bro.

    And though it should be obvious by now, we'll say it again for the aggressively ignorant among us: pedophilia has not one damned thing to do with homosexuality either.

    Perhaps a bit of sexual education is in order. Homosexuality is an orientation. Pedophilia is a PATHOLOGY, and an icky one at that. And most pedophiles are straight, not gay. A fetish is not abnormal either. Nor does it mean that those who engage in fetishes are automatically child molesters. That is a BIG leap in logic.

  • bored of 'nick pell'

    why do I keep seeing your pointless whining about minuscule right-wing fringe groups popping up here?

  • Andrew

    “PERVERSION IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE.”

    Yes it is.

  • D351

    While I don't see how you can support the presence of children at that kind of event, there seems to be an implied agenda for a supposedly anarchist organization to waste their time protesting it. What's more, what would these supposed anarchists have done? Illegalize the presence of children at the event?… because making things illegal is totally the anarchist thing to do. It seems to me that these “anarchists” are using anarchism as a banner to hide their clearly conservative whining behind, either to distract people from realizing that this is the kind of crap that puritanical old women protest (out of some sad machismist need not to be associated with that image) or to distract people from the fact that this stinks quite thoroughly of “family values” conservatism. Either way, it's a sad waste of protest. Personally (from what I saw), I don't think people should bring their kids to that kind of event. It says something awful about their parenting, and I'd presume, would make more reasonable persons at such an event feel awkward, serving as the worst kind of buzzkill. But I don't think protesting (or involving the law) is a solution to that. People have the right to bring their kids to a public event, and they should keep that right. I just wish people were capable of knowing better. I also wish people would leave their small children and/or babies at home when they go to the movies, the dmv, or any kind of public place where they intend to spend a great deal of time with nothing for the child to do.

    • Jean

      If even those in the gay community refuse to see that there’s something terribly wrong and twisted about bringing ‘infants’, ‘young children’ and ‘teens’ to these events then you ought to have your crazy heads examined. We’re talking about ‘innocent young people’ who should have NO parent in the ways of so-called grownups who ought to know better than this. Men and women having sex and doing sexual and other acts in public and so on, but who it seems could care less about these ‘youngsters’ should feel ashamed of what you’re allowing to go on here.
      You say that heterosexuals don’t understand the gay community, but I guess it’d still be alright with you if some pedophiles joined in with what you were doing by allowing these young people to attend, by molesting and raping them in your very presence??? One last time, getting ‘babies, children, and teens’ involved in what you’re doing is depraved beyond anything even you could possibly imagine, and if you can’t or won’t protect their innocence and stop thinking about yourself only, eventually you will all pay a very very heavy price in the long run.

  • Oneiric Imperium

    Power Electronics, Neo-Folk, and National Anarchist ideas are going to over shadow punk and crypo-Marxist Faux-Anarchism in a few short years. One thing that the SPLC link was wrong on was he comment on regular lefty Anarchists focusing on actions that foster autonomy (Squatting, etc.) while National Anarchism does not. That is simply not the case. I know of National Anarchist squatters in philly and NYC. The whole crew around oneiric imperium & genocide lolita in philly dumpster dives, home brews, field records in abandoned buildings, etc.. We out DIY punk anarchists anyday. We are the future.

  • E.B. Wolf

    While I would tend to agree that people bringing children to an S and M event is in extremely poor taste (to say the least), why didn’t your group approach and engage the event organizers and/or the guy selling kiddie bondage in a civil dialog as to why or if they felt it was appropriate?
    Perhaps you could have done more to accomplish your goal by engaging them and encouraging them to employ a little responsible self-policing to keep an obviously adult themed event restricted to adults?

  • Jean

    If even those in the gay community refuse to see that there’s something terribly wrong and twisted about bringing ‘infants’, ‘young children’ and ‘teens’ to these events then you ought to have your crazy heads examined. We’re talking about ‘innocent young people’ who should have NO parent in the ways of so-called grownups who ought to know better than this. Men and women having sex and doing sexual and other acts in public and so on, but who it seems could care less about these ‘youngsters’ should feel ashamed of what you’re allowing to go on here.
    You say that heterosexuals don’t understand the gay community, but I guess it’d still be alright with you if some pedophiles joined in with what you were doing by allowing these young people to attend, by molesting and raping them in your very presence??? One last time, getting ‘babies, children, and teens’ involved in what you’re doing is depraved beyond anything even you could possibly imagine, and if you can’t or won’t protect their innocence and stop thinking about yourself only, eventually you will all pay a very very heavy price in the long run.

  • https://www.pinchit.com/ San Francisco Street Fairs

     If the bartender is feeding you shots and
    customers are buying you shots, it’s always good to remember that you’re
    responsible for you and that shots should be taken in moderation. You make more
    money when you’re not really drunk and work is alot more fun because you get to
    laugh at all the other drunk people. If you are going to drink, remember to
    always watch you’re drink or just stick with shots, it’s safer because no one
    can drop something in you’re drink. It’s not just a scary story either. It
    really happens.

  • https://www.pinchit.com/ San Francisco Street Fairs

     If the bartender is feeding you shots and
    customers are buying you shots, it’s always good to remember that you’re
    responsible for you and that shots should be taken in moderation. You make more
    money when you’re not really drunk and work is alot more fun because you get to
    laugh at all the other drunk people. If you are going to drink, remember to
    always watch you’re drink or just stick with shots, it’s safer because no one
    can drop something in you’re drink. It’s not just a scary story either. It
    really happens.