Member Spotlight: National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Director of Mass Defense Xavier T. de Janon spoke with Protect the Protest about the NLG network of lawyers, law students, and legal workers’ work to protect social movements and activists. Learn more about NLG at www.nlg.org.
Please introduce yourself and tell us what your role is at the National Lawyers Guild.
My name is Xavier T. de Janon. I use he/him pronouns, and I'm based in Charlotte, North Carolina. I work at the National Lawyers Guild, which has its office in New York City. At the NLG, I am the Director of Mass Defense. In this role, I oversee our Mass Defense Program from the National Office, which provides support to protestors, movements, and folks who are aligned with our values across the country.
Most of my work is with our members: our legal workers, law students, attorney members, and their chapters. But I also provide educational resources to the public and collaborate with other organizations in developing and equipping them with educational materials.
What is NLG’s mission? What does the organization do, and why?
NLG’s mission is to create a network of members – lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers – to protect social movements. We believe that people come before property.
The organization is pretty expansive, and most of our work happens through local chapters. Our members are the heart and soul of our organization, and our chapters mostly remain autonomous and decentralized in their work. What the chapter in New York City does is very different from what the Louisiana one does, and very, very different from what our recent Alaska chapter does.
The NLG has so many different sides of it, but it is on the mass defense side that we are a part of Protect the Protest.
How does your work overlap with the fight to stop SLAPPs? Why and how did you come to be a part of the Protect the Protest coalition?
Anti-SLAPP work is central to my work as Director of Mass Defense, and protest defense in general. Many people who get SLAPPed are the activists and organizers that our program and our members are supporting.
Often in movement support work, we deal with criminal charges. That is like the bread and butter of protest defense in this country. But with the opposition getting more creative with lawsuits, now SLAPPs may follow, proceed, or happen at the same time as criminal charges. Sometimes people don't even know they're being SLAPPed when they get named in unusual or confusing civil notices or lawsuits.
Protecting protest is at the center of my role. NLG is a part of this coalition because we are helping members and other people dealing with attacks on their freedom to dissent.
Why are our first amendment rights important to the National Lawyers Guild’s work?
The First Amendment includes the right to protest, the right to assemble, the right to free speech. This is a lot of what we support and work on. There are other protections constitutionally, like the right to be free from warrantless seizures and the right to counsel, for example, but our focus is the constitutional guarantee of being able to speak up and have your voice heard.
NLG is also proud to exercise First Amendment rights and speak on topics and issues that other organizations and individuals won’t or can’t speak on – because of their funding or their stakeholders. For example, we speak on unjust application of terrorism labels or extreme charges against protestors. So not only are we helping the people protesting, but the organization really tries to represent constitutional rights in our messaging, with our communications, and the way we speak out publicly.
What work undertaken by the Protect the Protest coalition has been most meaningful to you – personally or as a representative of your organization?
I think the way that Protect the Protest stepped up when there was that very frivolous lawsuit in Chicago against many Protect the Protest coalition members – as well as many organizations who were not a part of the coalition. For me, that was the reflection of how powerful this coalition can be: conservative right wing people tried to sue a bunch of defendants for a very autonomous, decentralized action in Chicago for Palestinian Liberation, and it failed. The lawsuit was dismissed and we are awaiting a determination on sanctions against the lawyer who filed it. Protect the Protest responded quickly in the background, so defendants had lawyers, people were lined up, everyone was in collective defense.
Additionally, as I mentioned before, at NLG when we go public, we speak our mind and represent our core values on important issues. And Protect the Protest has helped us be strategic in our communications. Sometimes when we and other organizations have been ready to talk about something, the coalition has stepped in and encouraged us to wait until the right moment. And that coordination is so important, especially for legal cases
What are you looking forward to or what gives you hope in the fight to stop SLAPPs?
I'm looking forward to more organizations overcoming their fear of losing funding or credibility, and stepping up against this increasingly fascist government. What gives me hope is how courageous people are, that they do get SLAPPed – normal, regular people taking action that is so effective, that they suddenly get sued for thousands of dollars by corporations. I want more organizations to do that too. This is a moment where groups and organizations need to be brave. I hope that people keep protesting, assembling, gathering, and speaking out.
What are some known ways of fighting back against fascism that have been successful in the past?
As movement folks, as organizers, we have to communicate to and bring in people for whom the concept of fascism is maybe a bit newer. Like, what does it actually mean to not obey in advance? What does it actually mean that if they come for one of us, they come for all of us?
Based on my knowledge of anti-fascist organizing – which is mostly from Latin America and North Africa – having networks, community, and people you can lean on is how fascism is defeated. Most of the resistance to fascism comes from our own networks, communities, and political relationships. Because if the federal government comes to your door, and you don't know who to call or who to lean on, or what group to ask for help, then you might be disappeared, or you might have no ability to advocate for your rights, or you might face a situation where no one even knows you're missing.
So you actually beat fascism with each other, by leaning on each other even more. And I don't mean that in the feel-good we-gotta-build-community way. I mean, who can you actually trust if something were to go wrong? We need networks that are aligned politically and socially. I think this is how communities grow to defeat fascism at the systemic level.
In terms of organizations, institutions, corporations, companies, etc., the goal of fascism is to silence everyone, to get everyone in line. A lot of that is through penalties, criminalization, fines, loss of status, and so on. And so if organizations believe that what is happening with the government is wrong, and they want to conscientiously live up to their values, they have to speak out. They have to refuse to be silenced.
It's not easy. It’s risky. It takes courage, but I know all across the country there are working class people who will take the risks anyway to help chip away at this monster that's trying to take over.
Can you tell us in your own words, based on your knowledge, what is Antifa?
“Antifa” stands for anti-fascist, and all that anti-fascists want is no fascism. It's pretty simple. What’s confusing is that, in this country, anti-fascism means pro-democracy – in United States history, pro-democracy movements and forces are anti-fascist by definition. It’s pretty absurd that this political belief system of not wanting a fascist ruler is being criminalized under this administration, but of course maybe that's indicative of where this administration wants to go and what it wants to build.
What is also confusing to me is that how the government defines as “Antifa” is filled with contradictions. In the Prairieland case, in one of the charging documents, they say that “Antifa” involves anarchist and/or Marxist beliefs. For people who don't know much about political ideologies, anarchism and Marxism tend to be in conflict sometimes. In fact, in this country, anarchists and Marxists tend to disagree a lot – on theory of change, on tactics, on the future. So even as the government has defined this amorphous “Antifa organization,” it doesn't even describe something that could be real.
Is there a call to action or something you want readers to be aware of regarding the moment that we're in?
Any legal workers, lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers – and also community members that want to become legal workers or help with this anti-oppression work – should join the National Lawyers Guild and get involved with their local chapter. That's where the fight against fascism starts: with your community and the people around you. Our chapters are doing so many amazing and inspiring things, especially against the increasingly repressive and expanding ICE raids. Local connection is where I push people to go, because that's where so much of the work is happening.
