Unmasked by Andy Ngo

Author:Andy Ngo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2021-02-02T08:00:00+00:00

Bookstores

Using a radical bookstore as a front for extremist antifa training isn’t unique to Portland. In fact, a whole network of bookstores and “community centers” exist for this purpose. The most well-known one is the Slingshot Collective. On its website, visitors can view all affinity spaces broken down by continent. I recommend readers check out the website to see which extremist spaces may be in operation in their state or city.312

In Other Words was part of this network before it shut down. While it’s not surprising that radical far-left “bookstores” exist on the liberal coasts of the United States, red states aren’t immune. In fact, one of the most important regional antifa hubs is in the American South.

Firestorm Cafe and Books, a “worker-owned” far-left bookstore and meeting space in Asheville, North Carolina, is the Southeast’s mecca for anarchists. Some of the books they proudly display in the front of the shop include Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and also the Antifa Comic Book by Gord Hill. And like In Other Words, it does not have a sustainable business model. But that’s by design. Selling books does not seem to be the primary purpose of the bookstore. It is a space for comrades to meet one another and to be introduced to extremist ideologies. Firestorm has a “Sustainers Program” whereby people commit to giving donations each month. In Other Words sustained itself for years through large donation drives but ultimately ran out of fuel once it lost its sweetheart deal with Portland State, which for many years gave the store a monopoly on selling feminist textbooks to students.

Asheville stands out in the Southeast for its leftist politics, hippy character, and arts scene. That type of political climate allows Firestorm to operate with public support, but some residents have been trying to raise the alarm about the bookstore’s alleged role in a growing crime wave.

In November 2019, concerned residents spoke at a meeting for the Council of Independent Business Owners in west Asheville. The residents accused Firestorm of using its needle exchange program to bring in criminality and vagrancy in an effort to “reverse” gentrification.

“It’s no accident, in my opinion, that you’ve got a bookstore fronting for an act of anarchy executed through the needle exchange program,” said John Miall, a city employee, at the meeting.313 Antifa’s glorification of crimes and chaos is part of its ideology. They believe in destabilizing communities in order to delegitimize the authority of the local government. In turn, they set up their own “mutual aid” programs as alternatives to fool the public into believing the state is ineffective in meeting their basic needs.

Beyond the Southeast, another prominent bookstore in the Slingshot Collective is Wooden Shoe Books in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inside the shop, it has a large mural on the ceiling showing black people in chattel slavery being abused by whites. The shop operates as a 501(c)(3) charity and heavily promotes donation links on its website. A friend who visited the shop was recommended Bray’s Antifa handbook by staff.

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