We received the following article from a correspondent in Memphis, who also published this report here. The flyer mentioned is posted here.


Organizing an anti-Klan protest in Memphis, Spring 2013

March 15, 2013

Here for your information are my reflections on the current attempts to organize a united anti-Fascist action against a Klu Klux Klan rally to be held in Memphis TN.

On January 31 of 2013, State Senators Steve McDaniel and Bill Ketron introduced to the Tennessee State Senate HB 553, a bill that would make it illegal for municipalities to rename city parks. This bill has since passed the Senate (March 14th) and awaits Governor Haslam's signature. On February 5th the Memphis City Council preemptively renamed three city parks. Confederate Park is now Memphis Park, Jefferson Davis Park is now Mississippi River Park and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park is now Health Sciences Park. Jefferson Davis was the only President of the Confederate States of America. Nathan Bedford Forrest was a war criminal and the founder of the KKK. These statues were erected in the 1890s, not so much to memorialize any Civil War history in Memphis, of which there is very little, but to found a mythic understanding of Memphis' past as a foundation for the local white ruling class. In response to this symbolic gesture against the racist establishment, the Klu Klux Klan's "Exalted Cyclops" of the North Carolina based Loyal White Knights announced that the KKK would be holding a massive protest rally on March 30 in Memphis TN.

We know that the rise of Fascism in the course of Capitalism's cyclic and deepening crises is inevitable and even encouraged by a segment of the ruling class. We know further that the appropriate response to Fascism is not pacification, toleration, avoidance or negotiation. The appropriate response to Fascism is a working class fight back. It is unlikely that an effective resistance can be mustered to the Klan's rally on the 30th of this month. This undeniable fact is all the more unbelievable given that Memphis' population is 63% black, and that racial inequality remains a deeply engrained aspect of social life here at the center of slavery's legacy.

As early as February 7th the national media was reporting about the planned Klan rally. Simultaneously local interest in a response began to stir. On February 8th a meeting was held at the behest of Richard Lou, a professor at the University of Memphis. Just as Thom Holcomb had done in 1998, Lou presented the promise of a grass roots effort to stand up to the Klan. On the 8th of February consensus was reached to hold a counter protest near the Klan's rally, but not at the Klan's rally, a determination identical to that being reached across town by the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality who further planned to march to City Hall to confront the Klan. This latter initiative was taken at the behest of Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, known for his activism in the Black Panthers movement (more on this later). In 1998 the group founded by Thom Holcomb, Memphis Against Racism, went on to confront the Klan despite admonitions from the Midsouth Peace and Justice Center and the NAACP among others for people to stay home and ignore the Klan. This was not a scenario that the MSPJC was going to permit a second appearance.

It has long been discussed in nonprofit activist circles, and notably amongst the staff of the MSPJC that should the Klan rally in Memphis an event should be organized to draw crowds away from a direct confrontation. And so, on the second meeting of the still unnamed Anti-Klan group, volunteers from the MSPJC made their intervention.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks the MSPJC succeeded in moving the protest from downtown to the once Nathan Bedford Forest Park, a site located within a long walk of downtown and agreed upon by consensus at a meeting on March 1st. The tempestuous meeting in question went on for 3 hours. The days that followed bore witness to rancorous internet correspondences. Consequently an emergency meeting was held on March 6th, a Wednesday evening. The agenda focused on the question of how far from the Klan rally is far enough? Church Park downtown was rejected for being 5 blocks from the Klan rally, and besides, the City of Memphis was spreading the word unofficially that no permits would be granted to anyone other than the Klan within a 10 block radius of the Klan's rally. No one in attendance was too concerned about this clear erosion of 1st amendment rights. Why pick a fight? With so little time left to organize the event, so it was argued, a decision had to be made or nothing could happen. Thus the group was given a "Sophie's Choice:" plan a rally away from the Klan or quietly go home having done nothing with all of their good intentions. Finally, the "emergency meeting" was coaxed into choosing the historic Memphis Fairgrounds. Had their rally been held at Health Sciences Park (ex-Nathan Bedford Forest park), a march from that park to the Klan rally could have connected the two tendencies in at least the form of a united action. The move to the Fairgrounds made this an impossibility. It was clear from this moment that the intention was not to provide a "family friendly" alternative to confronting the Klan, i.e. a way for disabled people and children to participate in an anti-Fascist movement, but rather an intentional sabotage of any potential anti-Fascist movement. The potential for a working class fight back that existed at the first meeting on February 8th had been thoroughly diverted to a self-defeating strategy of hiding one's head in the sand and hoping for the best.

Jacob Flowers, director of the MSPJC, went so far as to send the Memphis Police Department a detailed list of tactics for better protecting the Klan rally. The stated intention was to protect protesters on both sides, but in aiding the police Jacob was aiding the Klan. For those not convinced of the sabotaging role of the MSPJC, consider that they suggested to the cops to protect the Klan by having a double line of police and barricades instead of a single line. Whenever the Klan appears in public, the cops protect them with their weapons aimed at counter-protesters. When Black people protested for their right to vote, the cops worked with and often were the Klan. When the sanitation workers struck in 1968 and people demonstrated for them-the cops attacked them, they did not protect them. History shows that the cops will protect the Klan while attacking all those who demonstrate for justice. A police riot as occurred in 1998 cannot be prevented by having more cops or a double line-that can only strengthen the cops' hand against the demonstrators. Without such police protection, groups like the Klan would in general not be able to spread their hate in public today and thereby give encouragement to vigilante violence. Furthermore, by continually blaming the protestors for the riot in 1998, instead of the over-reaction of the cops, the media has sent the message that any resistance to white supremacy at all is socially unacceptable, and the MSPJC has fed this myth by undermining the anti-Klan movement.

While simultaneously advising the police, the MSPJC was hard at work helping the city distract the world away from the Klan rally. By March 15th, the word "Klan" itself had nearly been expunged from the lexicon. What once had been named "Challenging the Klan's Message" was now "Memphis United." Furthermore, the general assembly was presented with the fact that their event had now been subsumed under the mantle of a larger event organized by the City of Memphis and various civic organizations to distract the world from the embarrassing spectacle of enduring southern racism. This umbrella group was given the dubious moniker "Heart of Memphis." Henceforth the activity of the Memphis United programming committee will be subject to review by the Memphis Music Foundation, and Memphis United's event, once to be held on the spacious green lawn of the Fairgrounds, was to be pushed to the margin. Memphis United would be squeezed in to the Creative Arts Building, leaving the rest of the fairgrounds to vendors and an Easter egg hunt organized by the Mayor himself. The clear discontent expressed by a few in the programming committee was easily dismissed, after all what choice did anyone have? The original meeting on February 8th, and its intent, was white washed throughout this meeting as MSPJC activists repeatedly referred to the meeting on February 15th as the "first" time they had met. There was also no discussion of the fact that Memphis United's action would now be funded by The Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, an anti-worker organization that recently fought an attempt to pass legislation against wage theft.

In all of this can be seen how non-profit organizations derail real struggle against oppression. The struggle against racism is represented and contained, so that an actual material struggle can be comfortably deferred to a receding tomorrow.

For its part, the left in Memphis seems to be unable to summon a serious drive to organize a mass confrontation with the Klan. Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin and the Ida B. Wells Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality, in addition to sounding the call for an anti-Klan protest, also organized an anti-police brutality action on March 16-17 which had a few dozen attendees. I don't know of any signs that this anti-Klan effort is gaining momentum or attracting the broad support needed to stop the Klan. This latter group has yet to hold a public meeting to organize for the event on the 30th and is often ignored and ridiculed by the press. What's more the City of Memphis has made clear that they do not intend to give Lorenzo a license, or allow his group to convene under the Klan's license, without a legal fight.

It is unclear how many anti-Klan protestors will be present, though it is clear that unless things change we will be few. It is equally unclear how many Klansmen will arrive, by bus and under armed guard, to parade their poison in broad daylight. What is clear is that the general social momentum is flowing towards one result: a Klu Klux Klan rally in Memphis TN. that occurs nearly unopposed, and in years to come perhaps completely unopposed. If that day arrives the Klan will have gained social acceptance and a platform from which to build a stronger Fascist movement. If we ignore the Klan the media will not, and neither will their intended audience. We cannot silence them by turning a deaf ear. It is with a heavy heart that I report that Memphis is currently unprepared to muster an adequate defense against the Southern advance of Fascism. Instead of struggling to unite an opposition, we are in the unfortunate position of having to build a movement nearly from scratch, opposed rather than aided by the most influential activist group and under increasing government repression.

It is reassuring that the 30th has been much anticipated by radicals inside Memphis and beyond. Furthermore, there is to be a group of workers from the Teamster's local 984, fresh from their victorious strike against Republic Waste, who will be on hand to face the Klan. A flyer that connects this struggle to the continued fight for fair wages in Memphis has begun to be distributed to the community. Reaction to the flyer has been warm and welcoming.

In Solidarity,

WorkingClassFightBackMemphis

To get involved, please forward your comments and questions to: workingclassfightbackmemphis@gmail.com