“You don't need to be an anarchist to want to live:” Armed Community Defense in Trump’s America

Abstract

Community defense is a leftist group practice by which leftists and marginalized people arm themselves against fascist disruptions and threats, often in the form of standing in between protests and militia counter-protesters. This thesis represents the first large-scale multi-group interview-based analysis of community defense. Drawing on more than twenty interviews, it expands an emerging and limited field of scholarship. Existing narratives conflate leftist community defense with right-wing militias. I disrupt this conflation by laying out the long history of community defense organized by and for marginalized people, with special attention to armed resistance by communities of color. The paper then outlines the conflation of community defense with militias on the right, which it characterizes separately, as initiators of violence. I present evidence from the field which reveals that, unlike right wing groups, community defense’s only goal is to disrupt fascism; this makes it anti-fascist countermovement. I argue that community defense should be considered a group practice within that antifascist countermovement, rather than a distinct ideology. Evidence from my subjects reveals that community defense groups conceive of their efforts as meeting immediate survival needs; they are not pursuing an articulated vision for the future world, beyond the broader left-wing visions of equality and collective freedom. Instead, I show that community defense fits the model of mutual aid. The ultimate finding, drawn from interviews, site visits, and analysis, is that community defense may be understood as a significant and compelling possibility for local resistance to civilian right-wing violence, particularly threats by militias. The thesis concludes with recommendations to strengthen communities against political violence and avoid discriminatory response by the state.