sometimes a mystery gets stuck rattling around my head & there's no peace until i get it sorted, which is a nightmare because sometimes you hit a dead end. i've been stalled out on a couple things lately that i wouldn't have imagined were connected until they all came together.
i was stuck trying to ID a man wearing an earpiece at the 2017 torch march, stuck trying to figure out the identity of a man called only "Z" who worked event security for richard spencer in FL, and a little curious about a patriot front flag at a fascist march in poland.
marcel karol stein, the son of polish actress Maลgorzata Zajฤ
czkowska, was a member of richard spencer's event team in 2016-17, a designated platoon leader at unite the right, a member of patriot front, & is involved with the polish fascist group obรณz narodowo-radykalny
using the name zeljko stajnovic, a pseudonym chosen to highlight his pride in his slavic heritage & perhaps avoid the connotations his fascist friends might see in the name stein, marcel stein was an active member of the altright scene in houston in 2016. anarchistfederation.net
when spencer spoke at texas A&M in 2016, the event organizer submitted a VIP list. i see familiar names like joffre cross, atomwaffen leader cameron denton, gainesville shooter tyler tenbrink, aryan circle gang member horace scott lacy. and there he is: marcel stein.
preston wiginton provided this list of names as a 'guest list,' but many of the names on that list were clearly working the event for spencer. joffre cross loomed over any student who stood to ask a question, even assaulting one woman. tenbrink was wearing an earpiece.
oddly enough, UR tied the "zeljko" pseudonym to his real name, marcel stein, back in 2018! but that's all there is, just the two names side by side - no picture, no context, no background on him individually. they're right, of course, but let's dig in. unicornriot.ninja
in addition to 'zeljko stajnovic', marcel stein was also using the names fashoslav (and variations fashoslav dankovic and fashoslav vandal), fashymuscrat, and just the letter Z. he shows up in leaked discord servers for unite the right planning & early patriot front chats
in 2010, the polish tabloid 'fakt' reported actress Maลgorzata Zajฤ
czkowska's son marcel was a US marine deployed to afghanistan. a 2023 article in the women's magazine 'kobieta' says her son returned to the US after high school, but dropped out of college to join the marines.
and it was this prior military service that qualified him for operational roles in the altright - under the name "fashoslav," he was appointed by unite the right organizer elliott kline as a platoon leader for the rally
at the torch march on the eve of the unite the right rally in 2017, there was a clear organizational plan. elliott kline seemed to be calling the shots & communicating orders to a second in command wearing an earpiece.
at a meeting held earlier that afternoon, the man in the earpiece had his photo taken with unite the right rally headliner augustus invictus. when it was posted on facebook, he was tagged in the image under the pseudonym "zeljko stajnovic"
two months after unite the right in charlottesville, richard spencer gave at speech at the university of florida. again, we have leaked planning documents & chats showing an operational plan. according to "operation gator," "task force vandal" includes members of patriot front.
the operational plan shows the same RCO Nick who led a platoon at UTR as a security lead in gainesville. patriot front leader thomas rousseau posted about his guys handling the tickets, which news photos show patriot front members nick brown, dustin allman, & marcel stein doing.
after the gainesville event, nick posted this photo - marcel stein, joseph nicolas brown, and dustin allman sieg heil'ing on the back of dustin's humvee.
it appears the little rubber bracelets stein is wearing in photos taken in both charlottesville and gainesville are these custom pieces of nazi merch created that summer by his friend joffre cross. dudes having friendship bracelets would normally be adorable, but this ain't it.
when UR published a batch of patriot front leaks in 2022, it included this undated photo, but joffre cross being in it helps - he was arrested in 2020 & was in prison until earlier this year, meaning the photo is likely from 2018-2019 unicornriot.ninja
but then i lost track of marcel stein. in 2019, charges in harris county, TX related to a june 2017 arrest for a DUI during which a handgun was found in the vehicle were dropped and i can't find him again after that...
until he attended a pair of far right events in poland in april of 2023. on april 15, 2023 the polish fascist group obozu narodowo radykalnego (ONR, national radical camp in english) celebrated its 89th anniversary. stein and his girlfriend marched with the group in lodz.
two weeks later, stein & his girlfriend tugce attended a conference in warsaw for a book about the death of sergio ramelli, an italian fascist activist killed in the 70s. the author, guido giraudo, was the director of the student branch of the italian fascist party MSI in the 70s
a few weeks ago, a lone patriot front flag showed up in a far-right march in warsaw. just one! a lonely patriot front flag in a sea of green flags held by members of the polish fascist group obรณz narodowo-radykalny
in 2019, a group of patriot front members traveled to poland to participate in the same march. footage of the march, with PF flags waving alongside flags for the polish fascist group ONR, was used in a recruitment video the group put out a few months later in early 2020
but this year, the lone patriot front flag amidst the ONR flags was carried by someone who wasn't even in the mandatory PF "activism uniform." no navy jacket, no khaki pants. the flag and the patch on the baseball cap, though, could only belong to a member of patriot front.
now, unfortunately, i can't tell you with absolute certainty exactly who the man with the patriot front flag in this year's polish nationalist parade was. but i can tell you there is a patriot front member in warsaw who has marched with ONR before.
the man with the patriot front flag in warsaw appeared in photos splashed across telegram channels for white nationalist groups across europe. our homegrown extremists are networking & collaborating with fascist groups around the world.
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