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A year after neo-Nazis stormed Red Ink trying to stop an annual celebration of The Communist Manifesto, bricks were thrown through and smashed the library’s windows. Options toured Red Ink the day after the attack, saw the homophobic message scrawled onto one of the bricks, and discussed with the library director the history of using anti-LGBTQ hate as a weapon against Leftists and what that means for people today.
When asked about the nature of the attack Raileanu stated “the crude attempt at intimidation that we saw yesterday was amateurish on many counts” and he stated he wasn’t afraid of and Red Ink won’t be intimidated by “people who clearly are disorganized and not very thoughtful about their spelling.”
On February 21, David Raileanu, director of Red Ink Community Library was awoken by a call from the landlord of the building Red Ink resides in. The landlord informed Raileanu that the library’s windows appeared to be smashed and asked him to come down. Raileanu told Options “I came down and you could see glass everywhere — literally everywhere – the two windows had been smashed … so I unlocked the door, came inside, and saw two bricks on the ground.”
Red Ink is a local Leftist non-profit library, filled with books by communist and socialist thinkers. It holds meetings of the Providence Democratic Socialists of America, a communist book club, and other left-wing groups. It is also a space that has a reputation for hosting LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly events including screening movies by local Queer and Trans filmmakers. Options has also spotted Red Ink at Queer and Trans events such as Haus of Codec’s marketplace days.
Raileanu explained that both bricks had messages on them. One Raileanu described as “a message goading us into calling the police,” which he stated was given to the police as a “souvenir.” The other brick was examined by Options and said “commie scumbags” with scumbags scrawled over the half-washed-off homophobic slur f-gg-ts.* Local activists on social media speculated the perpetrators may have attempted to wash off the slur to avoid hate crime charges. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha’s website mentions crimes based on bias against sexual orientation as one of many categories that would fall under the definition of hate crimes.
The attack on Red Ink happened on the one-year anniversary of another attack by a group known for anti-communist and anti-LGBTQ hate and violence – the Massachusetts-based New England chapter of the National Socialist Club (NSC-131). This group isn’t socialist, but actually a neo-Nazi organization. NSC was the focus of a defensive action to defend against them disrupting a drag story time in Fall River and that same day NSC launched an attack on a drag story time in Taunton – barging in and disrupting the children’s event. The group has also been accused of attempting to disrupt the care given to patients at Boston Children’s Hospital after right-wing social media accounts targeted the hospital over its work with Transgender youth.
Raileanu told Options that it had “clear allegories to Nazi Germany, both in their penchant for smashing windows, and their rabid targeting of both communists and the LGBTQ community."
Raileanu did mention that the NSC attack on Red Ink last year was an outlier, with the group often targeting LGBTQ people: “Red Ink seems to be something of a departure for them. They tend to focus much more on their homophobic and transphobic activities. Where they tend to protest Pride events, or Drag Story Hours. They tend to be much more focused on the sexual activity of others than sort of political disagreements.”
When asked about the nature of the attack Raileanu stated “the crude attempt at intimidation that we saw yesterday was amateurish on many counts” and he stated he wasn’t afraid of and Red Ink won’t be intimidated by “people who clearly are disorganized and not very thoughtful about their spelling.”
While Raileanu didn’t witness the incident, Options did ask him to discuss if he was familiar with similar situations in history given the bricks' clear anti-Leftist and homophobic messages. Especially given that the United States was notorious for pushing anti-communist and anti-LGBTQ beliefs in the 20th century, and would frequently combine the rhetoric against the two groups. Terms such as “pinko-commie” have anti-LGBTQ roots and would sometimes even blatantly throw in explicit homophobia as “pinko-commie-f--.” This attempt to discredit Leftists as Queer and the idea that being Queer is inherently discrediting, was also seen in Germany during the lead-up to the second world war.
Raileanu told Options that it had “clear allegories to Nazi Germany, both in their penchant for smashing windows, and their rabid targeting of both communists and the LGBTQ community. The parallels are too close to ignore at this point, that they are adopting the message, the tactics, the strategies of Germany in the 30s to try to replicate some perceived measure of success in 2023.” Yet, Raileanu pointed out that “it is sort of a childish comparison that they are creating here. Obviously, the conditions here are very different.”
Even with the attack fresh in Raileanu’s mind, he didn’t appear shaken at all: “I feel supported. I feel that even in these times of very high stress, Red Ink is not alone.”
Options asked Raileanu if he thought political violence was now the norm. He was quick to point out he didn’t think political violence was normal for all those involved in politics: “Let me stop you right there. Political violence is normalized on the right wing, in fascist circles, for people who believe in the capitalistic control of our society. They believe that violence is the answer. The people who are advocating for a free and just world, one that is built democratically on the principles of justice, fairness, equality, those people are not the ones that are starting violence.”
Raileanu added, “the only times that Red Ink has ever been in the same conversation as violence is when it's been perpetrated by the right-wing and by people who seek to control people through violence.”
Red Ink was able to have the glass cleared out and new windows put up the morning after the attack. The library held its annual celebration of The Communist Manifesto on schedule with State Representative Enrique Sanchez spotted in attendance.
Options will continue to monitor this story and other incidents that appear connected to NSC. At this time, no arrests have been made and no group has taken credit for the attack.
*Editor’s note: Options traditionally follows AP’s guidance when it must publish profanity with the first letter of the word followed by all other letters being hyphenated (a dash for each letter). In this case, Options decided only to hyphenate vowels to avoid confusion with other words.