YOU SAY YOU HAVE PRIDE, BUT YET YOU HIDE! KEYSTONE STATE 'SKINHEADS' HOLD LEIF ERICKSON DAY EVENT IN PHILADELPHIA SECRETLY TO AVOID ANTIFA

Anytime we are given the opportunity to quote Warzone in a headline, you know we are in a good mood, and nothing puts us in that mood more than a bunch of scared little Nazis doing everything they could to tip toe around the opposition and hold a shell of a rally they once promoted proudly, but can’t without having to deal with said opposition. They so know they lost!

One People’s Project

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Keystone State “Skinheads” (KSS) held their annual “Leif Erickson Day Celebration” the best way they could – by not letting anyone know they were having it.

On Monday, a photograph of 16 persons, many of whom known associates of the neo-Nazi organization, posed on a pavilion in Fairmount Park, which overlooks the statue of Thorafinn Karlsefni on Boathouse Row, where the event is regularly held. The photograph suggests their numbers were far fewer than past year’s outings and it came two weeks after the actual Leif Erickson Day on Oct. 9. In another departure from past rallies, this year was not promoted publicly. It is believed this was held on Saturday Oct. 25, as Facebook postings from participants leading up to the rally suggested.

The lack of promotion and the clandestine approach to organizing meant that there wasn’t the kinds of opposition that was seen in year’s past, most notably the kind seen last year, when the attendees were met by over 200 counterdemonstrators that prevented them from even reaching the statue. It was the largest opposition the event faced since 2007, the first year KSS came out to Boathouse Row, and reportedly was a major factor in how this year’s event was organized. That also meant however that organizers could not generate the kind of support and participants they once had. This tactic was anticipated by the local anti-racist group Antifa Philadelphia who recalled how they similarly approached the 2010 rally in an article posted last week on the group’s website regarding Leif Erickson Day and the Oct. 18 anti-immigration rally in Moosic, PA that KSS participated in. The 2010 event followed the first time opposition met KSS at the statute one year earlier.

“It is worth noting that in one previous year KSS did not hold their event, and then threw together a quick photo op in Fairmount Park after Antifascists called them out,” the article read. “It is irrelevant whether a handful of Nazis manage to secretly converge at a statue for a half an hour.  The fact that KSS is not able to openly organize or rally and are forced to maneuver in secret is in itself a victory that makes it clear that Philly will not be safe territory for fascists.”

Over the past year, rallies and articles by maintream media and antifascist groups in Philadelphia, including Antifa Philadelphia and One People’s Project, spotlighted the activities of KSS, which included two protests in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Tacony where the group was based ultimately put pressure on the group and many of its members left Philadelphia entirely, including Bryan and Patricia Vanagatis, who’s home on Dittman Ave. was seen as the reputed KSS headquarters before their move last summer to Highspire, a town just outside the state capitol of Harrisburg and where some of the attendees reportedly met up.