Group has 'issues' with Marxism, but Antifa 'not terrorist'
Students and community members at Texas State University are outraged after an Antifa group was spotted openly recruiting members on campus.
“Come see us on the #txst quad for the next 4 hrs,” a group called “Athenian Youth” tweeted on February 8, alongside a picture of a recruitment booth adorned with with an Antifa flag, prompting backlash on social media.
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“The terrorist group ANTIFA has been spotted on the @txst campus today recruiting students in order to turn them into students such as the racist monster Rudy Martinez. A change needs to be made and fast,” Mason Holmberg, a member of the university’s College Republicans club, later tweeted.
A picture of several people standing near a small booth bearing both an Antifa flag and the flag of The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, a left-wing revolutionary political and militant group, accompanied Holmberg’s tweet, with one figure appearing to be wearing a paramilitary uniform.
“The fact that this is the same group who spit on a member of the College Republicans with no consequence and face no hostility from us the next day when they pass out their communist propaganda in the quad the very next day just shows who the more mature and accepting party is,” Holmberg continued in a second tweet.
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The Antifa group, however, responded by denying Holmbergs accusations, claiming that “no members of our new group have met any college republicans [sic] yet nor spit on anyone.”
“Also we are not communist, but an anarchist/libertarian socialist organization. We have many issues with Marxists, Maoists, and Leninists. Antifa is also not terrorist,” Athenian Youth added, but others agreed with Holmberg’s assessment.
“Seriously, you have ANTIFA here on campus? These people are criminals and have no business here at Texas State. Unacceptable,” student Noel Aznable tweeted.
Duke Machado, a local community member, echoed Holmberg’s sentiments, thanking him for the post.
“My hometown, San Marcos, has been run by Democrats for decades. Time for a Change! NO ANTIFA!!” he tweeted.
“Duke, since you are anti-anti-fascist, we take this tweet to be your public declaration that you support Nazism and totalitarian fascism. You label yourself a US patriot so that would be by your own account traitorous language. If you do not, then please do rescind your words,” the organization responded.
According to the group’s founding document, called “ATHENIAN YOUTH MANIFESTO,” the group believes in “Libertarian Socialism,” listing their principles of direct democracy, cooperative economics, and community self-defense.
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“We believe in creating a world beyond wage labor,” the manifesto states, and proclaims that modern policing “is an inherently oppressive institution existing exclusively for the benefit of the ruling capitalist class.”
Additionally, the manifesto lists the reduction of “bullsh-t jobs,” “the democratization of finance, investment, allocation of big resources, and political life in general,” and “the elimination of nation-state borders and the equalization of economic abundance” as eventual goals.
Campus Reform reached out to Athenian Youth for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @rMitchellGunter
