Regional Overview
United States & Canada
November 2023

United States: Ongoing far-right militia, militant social movement, and white supremacist training events

Far-right, militant social movement, and white supremacist activities decreased moderately in November compared to October. In Arizona, the Chino Valley Preparedness Team and the Verde Valley Preparedness Team held recruitment meetings. For the first time in roughly two months, at least one patrol by Veterans on Patrol was reported along the border with Mexico. Meanwhile, Proud Boys activity decreased compared to the previous month, with almost all the group’s November activity taking place in California. 

Openly white supremacist activity continued at roughly the same pace in November compared to October. The Goyim Defense League (GDL) participated in an antisemitic demonstration alongside the Order of the Black Sun outside a synagogue in Dallas, Texas. At the same time, the group’s antisemitic fliering declined by roughly half in November, with flier drops reported in California and New Hampshire. The Southern Oregon Nationalists similarly distributed antisemitic fliers across four cities in Oregon, while the Nationalist Social Club distributed fliers in Durham, North Carolina. Meanwhile, Blood Tribe affiliates held an antisemitic rally outside a synagogue in Madison, Wisconsin. Patriot Front activity continued at a steady rate in November, with the group dropping banners, demonstrating on bridges, and holding training events across 17 states. It also participated in a demonstration against abortion.

Neo-nazi ‘active clubs,’ loosely affiliated with the Rise Above Movement, have increasingly organized with multiple active club chapters and alongside other neo-Nazi groups. In Nashville, Tennessee, at least four active clubs rallied alongside White Lives Matter movement affiliates, members of Vinland Rebels, and other white supremacists to promote white supremacy, antisemitism, and anti-Israel sentiment. Active clubs also held trainings and distributed antisemitic fliers in five states.

Back to map

United States and Canada: Israel and Palestine solidarity demonstrations continue while hate crimes spike

Demonstrations related to the Israel-Gaza conflict continued to make up the majority of demonstration events in both the United States and Canada in November, though their numbers declined in both countries compared to October. In the United States, this decline can partly be explained by Thanksgiving, as the week around the holiday saw a marked decrease in demonstrations. By contrast, demonstrations related to the conflict spiked to their highest single-day levels since the conflict began on 9 November as a result of “Shut it Down for Palestine” demonstrations organized across the country. Throughout November, demonstrations in support of Palestine made up a significantly larger portion of events in both the United States and Canada than they did in October. Pro-Israel demonstrations fell by approximately two-thirds, while pro-Palestine demonstrations fell by around a third. 

Though the vast majority of demonstration events related to the conflict remained peaceful, several violent incidents, many of which were antisemitic or Islamophobic in nature, were also reported last month. In the United States, one attack involved a Palestinian-American woman driving her car into a Black Hebrew Israelites building that she mistook for a Jewish school. Other incidents included assaults on Jewish students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio State University and an assault on a Palestinian-American man in Jersey City, New Jersey. On 26 November, a man shot three students of Palestinian descent, who were wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic, in Burlington, Vermont. 

Several violent hate crimes also took place in Canada last month. In Toronto, two Jewish organizations were targeted with incendiary devices and a Muslim taxi driver was sprayed with an unknown substance in an apparent Islamophobic attack. In Montreal, two Jewish schools, which were empty at the time, were also shot at, with one of these schools targeted on two separate days. Also in Toronto, a man used a bike lock to assault several Muslim people outside a mosque.

Back to map

United States: Starbucks workers strike leads to a surge in demonstrations

Members of the Starbucks Workers United (SWU) participated in a one-day nationwide strike on 16 November, coinciding with the company’s “Red Cup Day” promotional event, marking the second annual “Red Cup Day” strike. Workers gathered for demonstrations to protest labor conditions, including understaffing and alleged union busting. SWU demonstrations were organized in just under half of all American states, making up over a fifth of all labor-related demonstrations in November. Nearly a third of these demonstrations took place in the states of New York and Washington, mirroring previous trends of SWU activity since contemporary unionization efforts began in late 2021.¹‘Starbucks Union: Why Are Workers Unionizing Now? What Do Unions Really Mean To Investors?’ Forbes. 19 December 2022

Back to map