text: BackgroundForward Observer has tracked Patriot Front on and off since 2017 and has compiled enough information to write a short book. Patriot Front is a legitimate white nationalist and self-professed fascist group. Around 2017, the group broke off from Vanguard America, another overtly fascist group. Members claimed that Vanguard had poor optics and that the movement needed a better outward appearance, especially following the James Field incident at Unite the Right in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Patriot Front was formed. Since then, the group has been active around the country. Patriot Front members have travelled to a number of Alt-Right events and skirmishes, such as Richard Spencer’s October 2017 speech at the University of Florida, Spencer’s March 2018 speech at Michigan State University, and crashing the Boston Anarchist Bookfair in November 2018. Additionally, members of Patriot Front organized a couple flash mobs in Austin, Texas. One included a march of 25-30 members through the University of Texas campus. (Far Left groups responded via the Autonomous Student Network, a phone/text tree, and the Revolutionary Student Front mobilized a dozen counter-activists in about 15 minutes.) The next day, members of Patriot Front protested at an anarchist bookstore called Monkeywrench Books (image below; Rousseau, center, in short-sleeves and no mask).