Counterprotesters at a 2012 Aryan Nations rally. (Photo by Maggie Winters)

Counterprotesters at a 2012 Aryan Nations rally. (Photo by Maggie Winters)

A group of 22 organizations are planning a large counterprotest against the “white civil rights” rally being held in Washington, D.C. on the anniversary of the violence in Charlottesville last year.

Counterprotester Heather Heyer was run over and killed by an alleged white nationalist, and two police officers died in a seperate helicopter accident.

Jason Kessler, white supremacist and organizer of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, is organizing this year’s event, too. It’s being held at Lafayette Square in front of the White House at 4:30 p.m. on August 12th.

The counterprotest is called Shut It Down D.C., and is being billed as two days of international action August 10-12 and a “mass mobilization” in D.C. the day of the Unite the Right 2 rally.

“This is for Heather Heyer, ICE abolition, open borders, dismantling the prison industrial complex, and ending the settler colonial system. We will confront fascism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and state violence on August 10-12,” reads the Shut It Down website.

On Monday the group put out a series of posters and sticker designs in preparation for the action.

This is not the first counterprotest to pop up after news of Unite the Right 2 broke last month. Within 24 hours of the announcement, local tour guide Tim Krepp organized The REAL White People’s Rally,” a counterprotest to which nearly 300 people have RSVPd. Krepp told DCist last month that he is not affiliated with anti-fascists. “They do their thing and that’s a whole different lane of the pool,” he said.

The organizers of this counterprotest include Black Lives Matter Charlottesville, Black Lives Matter D.C., Maryland Antifa, the D.C. Antifascist Collective, the Frederick Socialists, and others.

More:
White Supremacists Plan To Demonstrate In D.C. On Anniversary Of Charlottesville Rally

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