The following article appeared under the Partisan Defense Committee's Class-Struggle Defense Notes masthead in the print version of this issue of Workers Vanguard. The PDC is a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defense organization which champions cases and causes in the interest of the whole of the working people. This purpose is in accordance with the political views of the Spartacist League.

The Partisan Defense Committee sent the following letter to the Alameda County district attorney’s office on July 10 demanding that charges be dropped against anti-fascist protester Eric Clanton, a former professor of philosophy at Diablo Valley College in the Bay Area. Since Clanton’s arrest, “alt-right” fascists have continued their threatening provocations, appearing at his arraignment hearing on May 26 carrying the Nazi-inspired “Kekistan” flag.

The Partisan Defense Committee strongly protests the arrest and multiple felony charges against Eric Clanton stemming from a rally in Berkeley on April 15th.

At this pro-Trump rally the fascists of Identity Evropa, the Proud Boys and assorted other white-supremacist thugs used clubs, flagpoles and knives in violent attacks on anti-Trump protesters. One internet video clearly showed the leader of the fascist group Identity Evropa punching a woman in the face.

These race-terrorists were met by justifiably angry multiracial demonstrators who sought to defend anti-Trump protesters from physical attack and made clear that fascists are not welcome in Berkeley.

Eric Clanton faces prosecution on four felony charges and a misdemeanor charge that stem from this demonstration. The pursuit of these charges is an attempt to intimidate and silence any protest against a growing fascist movement in the U.S.

It is additionally ominous that there was apparent collusion between the police department and the alt-right—the charges against Clanton stem from the fascists’ doxxing of Clanton on the internet. Clanton and his lawyer, Dan Siegel, have been subjected to harassment, surveillance and death threats.

The Partisan Defense Committee demands: Hands off Eric Clanton! Drop the charges! Hands off anti-fascist protesters!

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(reprinted from Workers Vanguard No. 1115, 28 July 2017)

Workers Vanguard is the newspaper of the Spartacist League with which the Partisan Defense Committee is affiliated.