This weekend’s Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado, was beset by violence as Antifa and other communist groups staged a “counter summit” on the sidewalk outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel where the conference was held. Scores of leftist activists shouted at, intimidated, and even attacked attendees, journalists, and passers-by.
This year’s annual summit was smaller than previous events. While organizers said that was owing to COVID-19, Antifa “protesters” claim the lower attendance is a testimony to their activism in exposing and fighting “Fascism” — a word used by Antifa to describe anything to the right of communism. For instance, while they targeted the Western Conservative Summit — describing it as a “far-right gathering” — many would describe the event as a mixed meeting of conservatives and neo-conservatives.
The “counter-summit” was planned and organized via social media. A Facebook event invited hard-core Leftists to:
Join the Denver Communists, Front Range Mutual Aid Network, WITCH Denver, Front Range Community Defense Collective, Anon Resistance Movements, Anti-Repression Colorado, Denver Action Network, and friends for The Western BLM-Antifa Summit—two days of fiercely jubilant opposition to the Western Conservative Summit!
The event post went on to say:
The Western Conservative Summit, organized by The Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, is a semi-annual far-right gathering and blight on Denver—and our community has a proud history of opposing this breeding ground of fascist networking & propaganda that riles up their reactionary base.
The post also said:
These groups seek to limit our freedom of expression and assembly, the building blocks that working-class and oppressed people need to organize against our exploitation and oppression. Ignoring fascists does nothing to disempower them; on the contrary, fungal infections grow best in the dark. Instead, we combat fascism by confronting it head-on in mass counter-mobilizations that demonstrate the strength of our opposition.
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So, in the very same paragraph in which they are whining about some nebulous somebody somewhere seeking to “limit” their “freedom of expression and assembly” — which they used last summer to burn and pillage their way through more than 200 American cities, costing scores of lives and a billion dollars in damage — Antifa had well-laid out plans actually to limit the the freedom of assembly of conservatives by showing up in large, violent numbers to “demonstrate the strength” of their “opposition.” They do this because they fear the conservative message gaining any ground. That fear is almost palpable toward the end of the post:
Every rally and conference presents an opportunity for fascists to network and coordinate and we know from history what happens when they achieve such coordination. We must fight fascism now or we are doomed to fight a stronger version of it in the future!
At any rate, these bastions of free speech and tolerance descended on the Western Conservative Summit and did all in their power to disrupt the event and prevent people from going inside. As the weekend went on, there were video reports of Antifa thugs assaulting people for videoing their intimidation of attendees and passers-by. They extended that same treatment even to journalists covering the event, going so far as to shine lasers at the eyes and camera of Tiana Lowe, who covered the “protest” for the Washington Examiner.
They blocked traffic (even throwing water bottles at cars), demanded that any guests at the Hyatt who sympathize with their cause to “pee on the floor” of the hotel for “host[ing] Nazis,” laid in wait for conference attendees leaving the hotel, and attempted to bait police officers into a confrontation, chanting “cops and the Klan go hand in hand” and calling the police “Boebert’s b*tch boys” — a reference to Representative Lauren Boebert (R- Colo.), who spoke at the conference.
And while this event does seem to get “Protest Season” kicked off; fortunately, it was far less violent than those of last summer. There were no serious injuries and no arrests (though there should have been). But it is still early in the season.
It is noteworthy that while all of this was going on, Denver’s 2021 Juneteenth Music Festival was taking place a few miles away in Five Points. No one “protested” against the festival; no one denied anyone else the right to express themselves or speak their minds; no one attacked anyone for attending.
Likewise, on Sunday, the city of Denver officially renamed Columbus Park as La Raza (literally, The Race) Park. And while some were understandably upset at this clearly racist move, again, no violence, no denial of rights, no anything to speak of. In fact, as Denver’s CBS 4 News reported, “People packed the park for the official renaming on Sunday afternoon.”
All of this as the Biden administration continues to swear that “white supremacy” is on the rise and represents the “greatest threat” to the homeland.
How is it possible that “literal Nazis” and “White Supremacists” could sit by and allow the Juneteenth Music Festival and the christening of La Raza park to go off without storming in violently and putting a stop to it all?
The simple answer to that question is that Antifa and the Biden administration are both full of the stuff male bovines leave behind; there are no “literal Nazis” in Denver. Or anywhere else, for that matter. In fact, there probably weren’t any figurative Nazis at the Summit; They were all on the sidewalk outside, waving Antifa flags and screeching into bullhorns about imagined injustices.
After all, the very argument Antifa and other leftists use to accuse conservatives of being “fascists” is — as stated in the Facebook event post — that conservatives allegedly “seek to limit” the “freedom of expression and assembly” of those with whom they disagree politically. In reality, it is the leftists who actually do that — with both the political power they harness and by fear and intimidation. Given that reality, it is clear who is behaving as the real fascists.
The leftists were right about one thing, though. (Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.) “Ignoring fascists does nothing to disempower them.” To be more accurate, ignoring (or even exposing) Antifa, their fellow communists, or other enemies of freedom, is not enough to stop them. We must organize and work together — using moral, legal, effective means. That is where this magazine’s parent organization — The John Birch Society (JBS) — comes in. For more than 60 years, JBS has worked to create an informed electorate and hold government accountable.
There is a real fight for the future of the republic happening. Our enemies gain power every day. Your country needs you now. Consider joining the JBS today.
