Protesters rally Saturday Credit: Sasha Goldstein
A contingent of anti-racism protesters took to Williston Road on Saturday morning in anticipation of a white supremacist rally along the busy thoroughfare.

In the end, the hate group never showed.

The crowd of approximately 150 people instead held a rally of its own, waving signs declaring support for minorities and immigrants while denouncing the alt-right Patriot Front group.

On Friday, word spread on social media that Patriot Front members planned to assemble Saturday at the Staples Plaza near the Burlington-South Burlington city line. Widely shared posts blamed the group for racist flyers posted around Burlington. Patriot Front claims credit on the internet for posters and banners hung in communities around the country.

A group of counter-protesters began circulating a call to arms, encouraging a peaceful rally of their own.

By 10:30 a.m., the large crowd, armed with signs, banners and even a sousaphone, lined the busy road at the plaza, not far from Interstate 89. Cars honked in support as the crowd waved. Several South Burlington police officers surveyed the scene from nearby.

Click below to see pictures of the crowd:


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Sasha Goldstein is Seven Days' deputy news editor.

17 replies on “Slideshow: White Supremacist Rally Fizzles but Fascist Fighters Show Up”

  1. Hey Sasha – I know there were 150 people there at the end, but there were closer to 250 people there by our headcount. Thanks.

  2. According to accounts that I’ve seen on-line, a small group of 7 or 8 white supremacists instead demonstrated – briefly – at City Hall Park… perhaps to avoid the counter-demonstrators at their previously announced location. Reports were that the small group of neo-Nazis chanted “Blood and Soil” and unfurled a “Reclaim America” banner – before quickly dispersing once members of the public began to challenge them.

    Hard to believe — Nazis demonstrating in Burlington Vermont in 2018.

  3. Man, “NAZI Scum Fuck Off” on a sign that has “International SOCIALIST” right beneath it.

    Beautiful. Somebody totally crushed that political science degree they’ll be paying student loan debt on till they’re 50.

    The Nazi party was socialist.

    Fascism, as defined by Mussolini, is the merger of Big Business and Big Government.

    Which some would view as another form of socialism.

    My suggestion to the sign makers in this case is maybe stop throwing around words like Nazi and Fascist if you don’t have even the slightest inkling what they mean.

  4. ksully the Nazis were “socialists” like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (i.e. North Korea) is “democratic”. Words mean nothing in the hands of liars. In fact one of the first groups they targeted was organized labor and the means of production largely remained in private hands.

    So yeah, maybe you should “stop throwing around words like Nazi and Fascist [and Socialist] if you don’t have even the slightest inkling what they mean.”

    https://www.quora.com/Was-National-Sociali…

    https://t00.deviantart.net/0iF5BctnsUdDlP1…

  5. From Wikipedia:
    As of the 2010 census, Vermont was the second-whitest state in the Union after Maine.

    I hope you are keeping a tally of those Pokemon virtue signaling points.

  6. no report of the anti protestors chants of : “no borders, no nation” ?//

    how many vermonters support these ideals?

    I fail to see how a far left black supremicist group chanting anti american slogans is any better than a far right white supremicist group seeking a white America.

    Neither line up with the ideals we were founded upon as a nation

  7. @phuzz

    Cool, I guess words mean whatever you want them to. I’ll email Merriam-Webster to tell them that they can get out of the dictionary business because apparently there’s no future in it.

    If they want details, I’ll just say “this guy phuzzie told me it’s pointless to define ‘things’ or ‘concepts’ using ‘words’. Everything means, like, whatever you want it to mean. Dude.”

    By the way, I’m having a pretty kick-ass Rutabaga next Friday at my snowshoe. You get a plus one, but only if you bring a pony keg of torx-head screws.

    So to get to my place, you go left at the ziggurat in the road right after the bridge, bear right once you see the octopus and park next to the big purple accordion. Can’t miss it. If you see a bouncy castle, you’ve gone too far.

    There, that cleared everything up.

  8. Lots of misinformed people here equating the very specific National Socialist party of nazi Germany with a political ideology as broad as Socialism. It is possible to borrow socialist ideals from the ideology and still be a predominantly fascist state. Socialism, in principle, is not aligned with racism or exclusion. When done right, you get some of the happiest nations on earth as a result.

  9. ksully, no, words very much have meaning which is why I object to your specious description of the Nazis as “socialist”, which is just false.

    Oh, their name is a shortened term for “National Socialist”? Well, I guess then we should believe them, everyone knows Nazis never lie!

  10. Well now, this is a pretty pickle, isn’t it? Obviously if we see a word in a name, then that word MUST have true meaning, correct? In the case of the pathetic nazis of today or Germany’s failed first half of the twentieth century it seems some “scholars” have seen the word socialist and decided historical investigation must stop right there.

    My question: exactly which industry did the nazis of Germany nationalize/socialize? Because if they weren’t nationalizing swaths of industry, then they weren’t socialists, correct?

  11. Not to make light of the situation but the people in these slides definitely understand the black plight. It’s a good things these 100 or so people had nothing better to do this day.

  12. I’m impressed with the usual aplomb with which the usual trolls derail the topic. Congrats Sully and Snow for your semantic ditherings!

    Back on topic: Nazi cowards are Nazi cowards. Good on the protestors to let them know that hate is not welcome in Burlington.

  13. “Back on topic: Nazi cowards are Nazi cowards. Good on the protestors to let them know that hate is not welcome in Burlington.”

    LOL

    First off- the white supremicist group never showed up. And its seems that they never intended to show up- a rumour led to a bunch of left wing people chanting anti american slogans in what was literally an echo chamber of a protest…
    secondly the group that was alleged to have been rumoured to want to protest is in fact a nationalist white supremicist group- they are not Nazis. What they seek is what has never been- a literal white America…Pretty silly stuff. But its important to at least try and understand what it is you are against. You would do yourself a favor if you did a little research rather than repeating what has become a popular accusation- Nazism…Meh…
    And lastly hate is perfectly welcome in Burlington- so long as it lines up with whatever political ideal happens to be the flavor of the month. I think that was evidenced by this incident quite well- you have a few hundred people who wanted to be outraged so much that they held a protest rally against a phantom group that wasnt even there…
    at least they got to feel a collective sense of superiority as they chanted “no borders, no nation”

  14. I forgot to add the distinct irony of having a group of people chanting anti american slogans such as “no borders no nation” while living in a country that has given them the priviledge to do so as a sole result of patriotic nationalism- the exact thing they are protesting against.

    it would be funny if it wasnt such a sad reflective state of the misinformed and frankly brainwashed state of our citizens (and non citizens..)

  15. Hard to leave this (rally?) alone. I counted the “F” word used six times on signs in the 31 slides shown.
    Apparently the F word is common in discourse with this group of citizens and non-citizens. Speaks to the level of family life and intelligence. Kind of scary.

  16. Why do I get the feeling the “white supremacist group not showing up” was a couple twelve year old kids having fun on the internet, trying to see how many dimwits they could get to come and stand out in the cold?

    Oh and, fighting hate with more hate… Yah, that’s always so effective.

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