we were sent the following anonymous submission:

this is a communiqué on the resistance to the
misogynistic christo-fash that tried to march against abortion rights
in our town on 11/16/24.

My personal goal at this action was not to get arrested, but to stop
the fascists from being able to proceed downtown at any cost.
less than an hour after we’d initially gathered at charlesgate park,
we intersected with the so-called men’s march right in the heart of
kenmore square. we had anywhere from triple to 5 times their numbers,
but the pigs by far outnumbered us both.

having these numbers allowed us to, at first, effectively shift and
evade both direct physical confrontation with the fascists and also
avoid being kettled and split up by the cops as they attempted to
break us up into different splinter groups. multiple times, people
who were helping keep eyes on the cops shifted the crowd to form and
reform so that we kept layers of comrades at our backs instead of
letting the pigs sneak up on us.

i don’t want to harp endlessly on the counter-protestors who had come
dressed as literal clowns, as my purpose with this reportback is
largely to detail my confrontations with the cops/the fash and the
repression faced afterwards. i know that this was a large action,
and everyone there came with a plan to use different tactics. i
believe that diversity of tactics is a critical strength, and that
whimsy and creativity lend necessary life and energy to our
movements.

that being said, i was frustrated with the clowns. it felt like they
had joined us from a bygone era; pre-charlottesville, when making fun
of fascists was one of the more effective tactics we could use
against them. but they’re not fucking funny anymore; they haven’t
been funny for years.

the tone of the clowns’ resistance was completely off compared to the
violence that i and many of my comrades ended up facing. we can’t
just be in the streets to embarrass the nazis anymore. we’re beyond
that. it’s life or death now.

you could feel a similar sentiment in the air. the action heated up
quickly as we continued to face off with the men’s march. after less
than half-an-hour at a standstill, the nazis (pigs included), were
getting antsy to be on their way.

anticipating a push, we linked up several layers deep, holding onto
each other in a fluid human chain. at this point i still felt pretty
safe, even as more and more cops in riot gear appeared to be taking
formation too. it looked like they were trying to form a wedge
perpendicular to our line; that they were preparing to try to push
through our line, breaking us up and apart, armed with bikes and
batons.

the vibe shifted quickly at approximately 0030 when i heard one of
the so-called “marshals” of the allegedly autonomous action making an
announcement to our side that “if you didn’t want to get arrested”
you should back up immediately.

the comrades i was immediately with and i strategized in a matter of
seconds that we wanted to stay close to the front and not give up our
position; the more people who left, we knew, the more likely it was
for the people who stayed to get arrested. it felt like by backing
down, we were not only giving an opportunity to the pigs to arrest
people, but actively giving them permission.

after this announcement, it seemed to me that about three quarters of
our side backed up, leaving the rest of us to face off against the
bike cops in riot gear with severely diminished numbers. the clowns,
of course, were among those who quickly decided to cede their ground,
joining the others on the sidewalk.
we stayed tight with everyone who had remained, preparing to hold our
ground as the enemies advanced directly down the street at us. the
energy was high but desperate. i no longer felt confident; by
splitting up, we had already given up our main advantage:
that there are always more of us than there are of them.
i remember bracing my feet against the concrete, every few seconds
trying to take miniscule steps forward to stop myself from losing
ground. i was buoyed up by my friends behind me as the pig directly
in front of me pushed his bike harder and harder into my chest and
sternum. “go home,” we screamed. “give up. we’re not moving!” we insisted
over and over again. “look at yourselves, you’re leading the fascist
march, give up, don’t you feel embarrassed? don’t you feel ashamed?”
our insults to the pigs grew more personal as the confrontation
approached its explosive breaking point.

it took several minutes for the pigs to make their arrests.
our comrades were held for several hours.
i was told the pigs tried dividing them up by gender, but they
couldn’t really clock everyone. our collective gender nonconformity
delayed processing and frustrated the fuck out of the pigs.
unfortunately, it also made the pigs angry, and they took it out on our comrades–
by making them wait longer and longer, denying them the chance to use the bathroom, and subjecting them to repeated, escalatingly invasive questioning, trying to get them to give the pigs the
answers they wanted.

jail is jail. so it was even more important that our comrades were greeted by
the familiar and unfamiliar faces of the jail support team; we had
food and water and the legal support helped them with specific
information and next steps.

by the time our comrades got out, the fascists had already been safe at home for hours. i
don’t think any of them were going home injured, aching and bruised.
they’d made it to parkman bandstand despite our efforts and sacrifices.
all we can do now is keep going; the best plan is to learn from each
act of resistance.

we need a tighter strategy.
we need to give the cops fewer opportunities and openings to pick us
off one by one.
we need to pool our resources for medications like birth control and
make safe, non-legal abortion plans and networks now.
we need to run dearrest trainings and drills, right here in boston.
we need to make honest, individualized safety plans with our affinity
groups so that we know exactly how much we are willing to do and what
consequences we are willing to risk.
we need to be prepared to be in dangerous situations.
we need to know and accept the consequences of resisting.
we need to scare them, and exhaust them and their resources.
we need to bring more people into the fold.
we need to be stronger than they are.
we need to keep pushing.
thanks for reading,
solidarity forever,
see you in the streets.