Bi-Coastal Arrest Spree In Defense of
Steve “the Mouse” Mnuchin Claims Four More
UDPATE: Two members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club, LA who were arrested at UCLA last Monday for speaking out against U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and banned from campus, were arrested again this Monday night on UCLA campus for defying this illegitimate ban… and then banned for another 7 days by UC Police and UCLA. They pledge to be on campus anyway on Tuesday, March 6.
We are calling on everyone to join them.
"We refuse to accept this," said UCLA student, Tala Deloria, "we are being ruled by a fascist regime and UCLA is conciliating with this by saying people who speak out against fascists at school events are 'a danger to students' when Mnuchin and the regime he's part of are the ones posing an existential threat to our planet."
They will be on campus on Tuesday March 6, at 2:30 Haines Hall (375 Portola Plaza) south entrance for an event they've organized, a screening of the film of a talk by Bob Avakian, “THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible.”
|
|
Yesterday, Monday, March 5, activists with RefuseFascism.org and the Revolution Club were arrested in Los Angeles and Washington DC for challenging Steve “the Mouse” Mnuchin to debate. This comes on the heels of the widely publicized arrests of protesting students and others during Steve Mnuchin's speech last week at UCLA, footage of which he then begged UCLA to suppress.
RefuseFascism.org denounces this pattern of targeted political persecution of those who dare to speak up and challenge the fascist policies and program of Mnuchin and the Trump/Pence Regime. “The Trump/Pence Regime, including Steve Mnuchin, has no answer to challenge that our activists put to them. Instead, like the fascists they are, they rely on lies and police state repression,” said Sunsara Taylor, spokesperson for RefuseFascism.org.
In Washington, two supporters of Refuse Fascism were illegitimately arrestedwhen they tried to read a challenge to debate directed at Steve Mnuchin in front of the Treasury Building. As of 10:00 pm, the young women have been held for six hours by MPD at the 2nd District. Phone: 202 715 7300.
In Los Angeles, two members of the Los Angeles Revolution Club and RefuseFascism.org, including a student at UCLA, were arrested on UCLA campus in the lobby of a public event. This was six hours after they had posted a video challenging Steve “the Mouse” Mnuchin to debate. These were two of the people arrested during Steve Mnuchin's event last week. The police claim they were in violation of a seven day “ban” on them setting foot on campus, but this claim – like the “ban” itself – is illegitimate.
RefuseFascism.org demands that Steve “the Mouse” Mnuchin show up to debate and answer for his crimes, not send his critics out in handcuffs.
Text of challenge to Steve Mnuchin to debate:
We – the young women from RefuseFascism.org that you were so upset by last Monday at UCLA – challenge you to a debate.
Since the public hasn’t gotten to see the speech that you suppressed due to your thin skin and aversion to people speaking the truth, we want to give you a second chance to defend your cruel life-destroying budget, tax cuts and the fascist regime you’re part of.
Bring your alternative facts and wagon of deadly bullshit, see if you can find a spine, and channel your inner Marie Antoinette. Since you seem so embarrassed, maybe your boss and the fascist-in-chief Trump can give you tips in shameless Nazism.
You seemed so tough gloating about impending nuclear war, but quivered in your jackboots when a 6th grader asked you a challenging question and when we exposed your politics of cruelty and fascism.
But look, we are sympathetic. After all it’s a heavy weight to carry -- installing a fascist regime in the U.S… All the verbal gymnastics required in justifying starving entire countries into submission to U.S. rule through economic sanctions. And there was so much work involved in stuffing so much mass suffering into that tax bill, further impoverishing the already impoverished… but that’s okay, let them eat cake!
If you’re frightened by the fact that we won’t back down in exposing your fascist lies, we promise to instruct the audience to refrain from those intimidating hisses. You can have Mike “Dark Ages” Pence pass out muzzles at the door and Sarah Huckabully Sanders can referee.
We’ll wipe the floor with you in a debate – anytime, anywhere. You’ll be resting on the interests of your band of fascist troglodytes, we’ll be resting on the interests of the 7 billion people in the world.
| 
We'll talk with Raoul Peck, director and co-writer of "The Young Karl Marx," a new feature film that opens this week in the US. The film brings to life a key five-year period in the life of Karl Marx and his great collaborator Freidrich Engels, as they struggle to bring a new revolutionary science into being.
Raoul Peck is an internationally-acclaimed writer and director born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. His earlier films include Lumumba (2000), and I Am Not Your Negro (2016), a documentary about writer James Baldwin.