We Go Where They Go: the Story of Anti-Racist Action re-captures the story of a massive forgotten youth movement that set the stage for today’s anti-fascist organizing in North America. When Canadian and US skinheads and punks in the 1980s found their communities invaded by white supremacists and neo-nazis, they fought back. Influenced by anarchism, feminism, Black liberation, and Indigenous sovereignty, they created Anti-Racist Action. At ARA’s height in the 1990s, thousands of dedicated activists in hundreds of chapters joined the fights—political and sometimes physical—against nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and anti-abortion fundamentalists. Before media pundits, cynical politicians, and your uncle discovered “antifa,” Anti-Racist Action was bringing it to the streets.

Co-author Shannon Clay will present a brief overview of ARA’s history, focusing on lessons for ongoing struggles for a better world, and dedicate time for Q&A. We will dive into themes including but not limited to political organizing in cultural scenes, movement building, pro-queer and pro-choice feminist politics vs misogyny in movement spaces and throwing things at Klansmen.