Solidarity and Struggle in Lincoln Heights
A People’s Victory Against Fascism
Lincoln Heights organized an armed security group following the Nazi rally on February 7, 2025.
On February 7th, 2025, a small group of fascists attempted to march into Lincoln Heights, Ohio, carrying swastikas and shouting racist slurs. Their goal was intimidation, to project strength where they had none, and to assert their genocidal ideology onto a community with a proud history of Black self-determination and resistance. What followed was a moment of historic significance for the struggle against racism and fascism in Ohio: a swift and decisive response from the people, forcing the neo-Nazis into a humiliating retreat assisted by Hamilton County Sheriff's deputies and the Evendale Police Department. Their flags were burned, their vehicles were left behind in their panic, and their presence was met with the overwhelming force of united community defense.
Lincoln Heights: A Stronghold of Black Self-Determination
Lincoln Heights is not just another town; it is a testament to the power of community-building, mutual aid, and cooperation. Founded in the 1920s by Black workers seeking refuge while laboring in nearby industries, Lincoln Heights became the first African American self-governing community north of the Mason-Dixon Line. When Black residents sought incorporation in 1939, white communities opposed it, fearing economic competition and political autonomy for Black people. The vote to incorporate Lincoln Heights finally passed in 1941, but Hamilton County didn’t allow them to be incorporated until 1946.
From its inception, the community was denied essential public services—electricity, running water, a fire station—by the very officials who had opposed its incorporation. Lincoln Heights residents had to organize themselves to survive, forming their own networks of support in the face of systemic neglect. This tradition of self-reliance continued through the decades, even as economic decline and the fall of American manufacturing disproportionately impacted Black communities.
Policing in Lincoln Heights has been a long and troubled issue. Over the years, responsibility for community safety was passed from one law enforcement agency to another, with each iteration failing the people. The most recent attempt at local policing ended in scandal, exposing Lincoln Heights' first police department as corrupt and ineffective. It was ultimately disbanded, leaving the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in control. The people of Lincoln Heights have long known that they cannot rely on the state for their security—they have had to rely on each other.
It is either sheer ignorance or extreme arrogance that led these fascists to march into such a place. Whether they underestimated the strength of the people or simply chose poorly, the result remains the same: they were driven out.
The People’s Response: Militant and Correct
The defeat of these neo-Nazis was not incidental. It was the result of a long-standing culture of community defense and a refusal to tolerate the forces of white supremacy. Following the failed neo-Nazi demonstration, Black nationalists, communists, anarchists, and working-class people of all backgrounds stood together in the streets to do what local police proved unwilling to do—ensure that fascist goons would not have another chance to harm someone in their community. An armed community defense unit has since been organized, tasked with escorting children to and from school and patrolling the streets of Lincoln Heights for fascist threats. Lincoln Heights has since been a target for racist flyer drops in retaliation, proving the necessity of such a self-defense group.
This is a historical continuity—an echo of the original Black Panther Party, which understood that the only real guarantee of safety for oppressed people is armed, organized self-defense. The Panthers' struggle for community power was met with state repression, COINTELPRO sabotage, and assassination. Today, the same forces that destroyed the Panthers are at work again, trying to equate anti-fascist defense with fascist aggression.
State Repression and the Police’s Role
Lockland School District called for a third party investigation after obtaining security footage of Evendale police escorting the neonazis from the demonstration to a school with children inside. When asked why the neo-Nazis were escorted to the grounds of a public school rather than arrested, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, along with Evendale PD and Lockland PD, either feigned ignorance or scrambled to rationalize their approach. On March 16, 2025, Hamilton County deputies released bodycam footage from the event that clearly shows the state forces prioritizing the protection of genocidal demonstrators over the safety of the community.
Now, in a move as predictable as it is shameful, Mayor Aftab Pureval and local police departments have condemned the armed community patrols and are pushing for a ban on carrying firearms while masked. This is not about public safety. It is an explicit attempt to criminalize the self-defense of a Black community while allowing armed white supremacists to operate with impunity.
This is not a case of incompetence or negligence. It is a deliberate function of the capitalist state, which claims neutrality but always serves the ruling class. Law enforcement does not exist to ensure justice—it exists to preserve the conditions necessary for capitalist accumulation. That means upholding white supremacy, suppressing working-class resistance, and crushing any movement that threatens the existing order. The institution of policing in the United States was not founded on protecting the people—it evolved directly from slave patrols and strikebreakers. We should not be surprised that it continues to serve the same function today: containing, surveilling, and repressing the oppressed to maintain the dominance of the capitalist class.
Betrayal: The Cowards in Our Midst
Some figures have taken this moment to denounce the people of Lincoln Heights. Among them is local Rabbi Ari Jun, who has dismissed the community’s response as “vigilantism.” This is a loaded and particularly racist accusation often used in bad faith against those willing to stand up against their oppressors, like when the FBI under Hoover erroneously labeled the Black Panthers a "terrorist" organization. Jun further suggested that the neo-Nazis “weren’t engaging in illegal activity” despite the fact that investigations are ongoing, as if legality should prevent us from confronting Nazism in the first place. He continued on to say that “physically attacking people for exercising their First Amendment rights is not how we’re supposed to solve disagreements in the United States." These claims, whether made out of historical ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation, serve only to undermine anti-racist and antifascist resistance and shield the status quo from challenge.
Jun, as a Jewish person, is certainly not unfamiliar with the threat of white supremacist violence. There was a particularly disturbing white supremacist assault on a local Jewish cemetery in the summer of 2024, which our party also unequivocally condemned. However, his position ignores that history has shown time and again that relying on the state to counter fascism is a losing strategy. When white supremacists march, they do not only threaten one community—they threaten all oppressed people. The people of Lincoln Heights, understanding the urgency of the moment, responded as any people under attack should: by standing together, refusing to yield, and driving the fascists out.
Criticism of direct action is nothing new from those who would rather preserve order than confront injustice. But history is clear: fascism cannot be debated out of existence, nor can communities afford to wait for the state to intervene on their behalf. The people of Lincoln Heights did what was necessary to defend their home. Anything less than full solidarity with them is a betrayal of that struggle.
To those who insist that “the police are just doing their job” or that “both sides should de-escalate,” we must be clear: State neutrality is a myth. If the police were truly neutral, they would have stopped the neo-Nazis before they marched, not protected them. If the state were committed to safety, it would not be attempting to disarm the very people under attack. The police’s inaction in the face of fascism is not a failure of the system—it is proof of its design.
The Path Forward: Educate, Agitate, Organize
The events in Lincoln Heights must continue to be a rallying cry for all those committed to revolutionary change. The solidarity and militancy that forced the neo-Nazis to flee is the exact same strategy that gives the people the power to dismantle the capitalist system that breeds them. Spontaneous action alone is not enough—we must build upon it with political and historical education, renewed solidarity in the ever-deepening struggle between the workers and the owners, and a level of organization that we haven’t seen in this country in decades. Only through our collective might can we liberate the oppressed masses of the world and build power that can protect that liberation from those who wish to profit from our misery.
We must:
Strengthen community self-defense networks and mutual aid efforts
Reject all state-led attempts to disarm and criminalize working-class resistance, especially among the Black and brown communities of our country
Continue to expose and confront fascists wherever and whenever they appear
Build solidarity across ideological lines among all anti-fascist and genuinely revolutionary forces
Learn from the successes and failures of past movements, especially those of the Black Panther Party, to ensure longevity in our fight
The people of Lincoln Heights set a heroic example.
Now, it is up to all of us to follow it.
Fascism must be crushed. Police repression must be resisted.
The people must organize and stand up against repression.
Power to the people and power to the poor and working classes!