HollyMatkinA Washington-based Antifa group took down their web page that boasted about sabotaging train tracks on Monday, after the horrific Amtrak passenger train derailment.
Seventy four people were injured and six people were killed on Dec. 18 when a passenger train barreled off an overpass near Tacoma and crashed onto the interstate below.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation, but it is difficult to ignore the claims one Antifa group made about having sabotaged train tracks and blocked freight trains in nearby Olympia in April.
The Puget Sound Anarchists, an Antifa group based in Washington, bragged about their crime in an article on the It’s Going Down website.
“Early in the morning of April 20th we poured concrete on the train tracks that lead out of the Port of Olympia to block any trains from using the tracks,” the article read.
The anarchists invited like-minded radicals to follow suit.
“This action and actions like it are quite easy to do yourself. This only took a few hours and a little bit of planning,” the article continued. “This action can and has been easily repeated wherever train tracks are. For more info on how to do this check out this explanatory video. Concrete on the tracks is just a start.”
Following Monday’s Amtrak derailment, however, the group’s article suddenly disappeared from the site.
According to their website, “It’s Going Down is a digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial movements.”
The site allows users to post articles in order to “signal boost what people are already organizing in their locality,” but denies that it promotes “illegal, violent, and unlawful behavior.”
On July 28, crowdfunding platform Patreon deleted It’s Going Down’s account amid allegations that the platform was supporting the anarchists’ illegal activities.
It’s Going Down conceded that the article posted by the Puget Sound Anarchists was cited by Patreon as being one of the reasons their account was shut down.
“We don’t allow funds to be collected for organizations that promote, forums that distribute, or anything else that primarily facilitates harmful or dangerous activities,” Patreon said, according to It’s Going Down.
But the liberal website argued that the act of pouring concrete on the tracks wasn’t necessarily dangerous.
“Is stopping a train through the use of illegal tactics controversial? Of course. Is such an act violent, harmful, or dangerous, even if the stated goal is not to injure people or use tactics which could do so? Depends on who you ask,” It’s Going Down quipped.
Despite losing the Patreon platform as an income source, It’s Going Down said it had no intention of abandoning its mission.
“We’re not going anywhere. The frogs may be beating off onto their swastika shaped lily pads over this, but truth be told we were fundraising much more before Patreon, and will continue to do so afterwards,” the site read.