Rose City Antifa
Rose City Antifa (RCA) is the oldest antifa organization in the United States, located in and named after Portland, Oregon (the "City of Roses"). Founded in 2007 by a Portland woman, Caroline Victorin (née Gauld), who is married to a Swedish national Johan Victorin[1], RCA sought to bring the principles of Antifaschistische Aktion to the United States.
Contents
Tactics
Following a June 29, 2019 protest where eight individuals were injured, with three requiring hospitalization including Andy Ngo, Rose City Antifa released a statement on its website: "The events of this weekend are what we mean by community defense"[2].
Organization
According to an investigative journalist covering RCA's operations between 2017 and 2019[3]:
Antifa began accelerating their mass organizing in early 2017 as Donald Trump took office. Within a couple months, they had developed a sophisticated system that included propaganda, outreach, operation security, reconnaissance, and group fighting strategies. Despite the mantra claiming there is “no organization” to antifa, I could see their operations clearly took planning, coordination, money, and recruitment. From one riot to the next, their numbers grew and they became better at carrying out carnage on people and property.
Affiliations
The founder of Rose City Antifa is allegedly a member of Timbers Army, a soccer fan club "involved in mainstreaming antifa symbols and ideology in Portland through soccer. The fan club is modeled after European football (soccer) fan organizations and their hooligan social culture. (A representative from the Timbers Army declined to confirm or deny her membership in the group.)"[4]
Training materials
A journalist at James O'Keefe's Project Veritas, using the alias "Lion", was conditionally approved to join RCA and received a welcome email on September 22, 2017 detailing a six-month radicalization and training curriculum, published by Andy Ngo[3]:
Congratulations and welcome aboard! After deliberating as a group, we are excited to invite you to join us as a prospective member! Our orientation will be held at In Other Words (14 NE Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97211) on Sunday November 5th at 10 am. It is really important that you come to this initial meeting so please save the date! Childcare will be provided. Please just let us know the number and ages of the children ahead of time.
The remaining classes will develop a baseline understanding of the strategy, tactics, and history of militant antifascism, dissect various strains of fascism and insurgent white supremacist formations; go over security topics; get training on various specific skill sets including militant direct action and research methods; and explore class, gender, and race issues as they relate to the struggle against fascism. In the next month it may be a good time to think about tightening up your personal security. You may want to adjust your social media accordingly, and read up on security culture. There are many excellent zines out there—and we will go over this subject in person as well—but you may want to look over this basic primer on the topic: http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/atoz/security.php. We recommend installing Tor on your computer (a browser) and Signal on your phone (an encrypted text and call app) if you are able in the meantime. These are both really user friendly so should be relatively straight-forward to install. If you are having a hard time doing this, please let us know at the orientation. We have attached the full syllabus which includes a lot of resources for further study. Don’t be overwhelmed by the length! This document is meant [to be] used as an ongoing reference guide if you are looking for information on specific topics at any point in the future. You are only expected to read the required materials. Those have been isolated and attached in a separate document as well to make it easier to find them. Feel free to get started on gathering those materials before classes start.
Remember you will have six months to get through them all and they are meant to line up with the specific class discussions on those topics so you don’t need to power through everything at once. If you need an accommodation on the readings due for any reason, feel free to let us know. We have members for whom English is not their primary language, as well as members with disabilities that make doing these readings impossible. So don’t hesitate to let us know if you are unable to do them for such a reason. We can see if there are other things we can do to substitute.
The main thing we are looking for is people that are dedicated and will follow through on tasks. So these assignments are as much about assessing that as about learning the material in them. Classes will be held on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month except the orientation at 10 am. The exceptions are the orientation, the guest lecture, and the optional firearms training. Here is the schedule:
Orientation—**Sunday** 11/5
Security—11/18
Intro to Antifascism—12/2
Guest Speakers (Alexander Reid Ross, Shane Burley)—12/16 **7pm** Typologies—1/6/18
Research—1/20
Group Project Presentations, Intro to Workgroups—2/3
Class Issues—2/17
Gender Issues—3/3
Black Bloc—3/17
Recon and Tactical—4/7
\**Intro to Firearms—2nd Saturday 4/14 (optional unless DA) Facilitation and Group—4/21
Final Individual Project Presentations—5/5
We are excited to work with y’all during this prospecting period and are more than happy to answer any questions that may arise before then. Feel free to reach out to us at any time and we will pass along updates, important news, and potential event opportunities as they arise.
In Solidarity, Rose City Antifa
Guest speakers
Alexander Reid Ross, a Portland State geography instructor, was a guest speaker at a Rose City Antifa training session.
Notable members
Luis Enrique Marquez
Born in 1971, Luis Enrique Marquez attended the June 2019 protests in downtown Portland, Oregon. According to journalist Andy Ngo who was also at the protest, "Luis Enrique Marquez looked right at me. The 48-year-old Rose City Antifa member has been arrested so many times at violent protests in Portland over the past few years that he no longer bothers to wear a mask."[5].
Marquez has also been observed with his friends at the CHAZ in Seattle, Washington[6], allegedly crossing state lines to riot[7].
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