Wednesday Virtual Forum - COVID: A Case Study with Life & Death Stakes: Science, Epistemology, Conspiracy & Fascism

 

From RefuseFascism.org:   You're invited to join online for the third @RefuseFascism LIVE COVID: A Case Study with Life & Death Stakes: Science, Epistemology, Conspiracy & Fascism Wednesday, December 16, 5pm PT /8pm ET. RSVP AND INVITE FRIENDS Watch on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter The Situation Nearly 300,000 people in this country have died from COVID under a science-hating, genocidally racist, lunatic fascist regime, with the virus now out of control and thousands more projected to die before Trump leaves office. The Trump/Pence regime, the Republi-fascists, and their rabid base spread COVID as a matter of “liberty” – the liberty to infect and kill others.  Trump recovers from COVID with the best healthcare in the world and then tells his overwhelmingly white followers at a campaign rally in Minnesota that they have “good genes.” The regime’s COVID response concentrates many of the features of this fascist program – white supremacy, xenophobia, Christian fascism, and unhinged conspiracy theories. Some Questions How did we get to a point, and why have we tolerated, a regime that has facilitated the deaths of 300,000 people, disproportionately Black and brown people? Is this deliberate mass murder or “collateral damage” in service of a fascist or fundamentalist worldview? How do we wage a society-wide struggle for truth, science, and evidence-based epistemology? Don’t miss an important forum to dig into this and more. PANELISTS: Coco Das, National Editorial Board of RefuseFascism.org. Dr. Phil Rice, Emergency Medicine Physician, Salem, Massachusetts Paul Street, historian and writer, author of Hollow Resistance, Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement, National Editorial Board Refuse Fascism Andy Zee, host of The RNL – Revolution Nothing Less – Show; co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org; spokesperson for Revolution Books. Wednesday December 16 8:00 pm EST / 5:00 pm PST Streamed on RefuseFascism.org / Youtube / Facebook / Twitter Watch and share this important panel discussion. This is the third in a series to dig into the roots of this American fascism.  Previously in this series: November 24:  WHAT JUST HAPPENED: TRUMP, AMERICA & THE DANGER OF FASCISM December 8: Why did 74 million people vote for Trump? What is the danger and what do we do about it? RefuseFascism.org is a movement of people coming from diverse perspectives, united in our recognition that the Trump/Pence Regime poses a catastrophic danger to humanity and the planet, and that it is our responsibility to drive them from power through non-violent protests that grow every day until our demand is met. The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less — Show is a multidimensional youtube show about making revolution and emancipating humanity. It’s about the world and for a radically different world, bringing alive the need for revolution and the new communism developed by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian.​

VIDEO, PHOTOS, PRESS COVERAGE ↓ Dec 12, 2020 Rally and Speak-Out at Black Lives Matter Plaza In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America Trump: You Lost. Get the Hell Out! Two days before electors vote to make Biden’s win official, Trump’s mindless followers rallied in DC behind the fiction of a stolen election. At Black Lives Matter Plaza, away from their rally and in front of the White House, Refuse Fascism called people into the street to declare: STOP Trying to Overturn the Election! STOP Your Murderous COVID Program! STOP Your Dangerous War Moves! STOP Whipping Up MAGA Fascist Mobs! Trump/Pence OUT NOW! Decent people need to stand the hell up and stop what is going on: Trump is attempting a fascist coup! Republicans nationwide are fighting to throw out millions of votes, while Trump’s fascist mobs terrorize elected officials and poll workers. Whether they succeed in overturning this particular election, they are succeeding in normalizing what no one can deny is fascist behavior toward public officials, dissenters and elections, with ominous implications for not just the future but the near-term present. So when his mindless supporters descend on DC this weekend, we will be in the public square saying: NO! In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America! LOCAL & GLOBAL MEDIA While Trump’s fascists march in DC, people see another message: REFUSE FASCISM and other messages of opposition to Trump and white supremacy

A Vicious, Idiotic, and Irresponsible Attack on Communism —The Atlantic Equates Mao and Trump

 

From Revolution / revcom.us:     A Vicious, Idiotic, and Irresponsible Attack on Communism — The Atlantic Equates Mao and Trump... Tossing Truth to the Wind by Raymond Lotta November 30, 2020 | revcom.us   Bob Avakian has recently written: The “liberal” bourgeois attack on communism is, in its own way, as ludicrous and outrageous—crudely in violation of the scientific method and blatantly in opposition to the actual facts—as the fascist mangling of truth which the “liberals” are forever decrying. A flagrant case in point is the November 22 online issue of the liberal intellectual journal the Atlantic. It features a lie-filled article arguing that the great revolutionary leader Mao Zedong subscribed to the same kind of lunatic, conspiracy-theory view of the world that guides Donald Trump. The article is disgustingly titled “Mao’s Lessons for Trump’s America.” Its author is Edward Steinfeld, an MIT professor who purports to be a “China expert.” Like other anticommunist academics bestowed platforms in mainstream print and electronic media, Steinfeld turns history and reality on their head. He recycles the bogus and poisonous narrative that the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 was an exercise in mob terror driven by what is alleged to be Mao’s crazed paranoia. Steinfeld asserts that Mao’s followers, with Mao’s urging, had been “circulating outlandish conspiracy theories about counterrevolutionary plotting and anti-Mao cliques in the highest echelons of the Chinese system.” Steinfeld dismisses out of hand the real danger of counterrevolution in China at the time. He obliterates the real aims and distorts the real practices of the Cultural Revolution. He paints an idiotic portrait of Mao as glutton for violence and “vigilante action.” And he likens Mao to Donald Trump. It all adds up to willful and vicious “mangling of truth” writ large. Let’s set the record straight. 1) The Cultural Revolution that Mao initiated in 1966 was guided not by “outlandish conspiracy theory” but by Mao’s scientific analysis of the complex reality of Chinese society and the concrete dangers facing socialism in China at the time. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to deal with a world-historic problem of communist revolution. That problem was how to keep a revolution aimed at putting an end to all exploitation and oppression on the road to achieving that goal. And how to enable the masses in their millions to understand and grapple with this problem, and wage new forms of revolutionary struggle under socialism to prevent the restoration of capitalism—and to further revolutionize the institutions of society... and their own thinking. You would never know this by reading the Atlantic article. To learn more about the Cultural Revolution in depth, go to You Don’t Know What You Think You “Know” About...The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future. But let’s take in a few essential background facts. In 1949, the Chinese revolution led by Mao triumphed. This revolution drove out foreign imperialism and shattered the old oppressive economic and social order. As Mao put it, the Chinese people had stood up. The revolution established a new socialist state power and economy to meet the basic needs of the people and set out, under Mao’s leadership, to forge new liberatory social institutions and values. But by the early 1960s, a new bourgeois-capitalist class that had emerged within the top levels of the Chinese Communist Party and government was maneuvering to gain all-around power. In the name of achieving more rapid economic growth and higher living standards, they utilized their bases of power to introduce harsh capitalist methods of economic management and discipline... to put education on an elitist and technocratic foundation... to focus resources in the cities at the expense of the countryside where the great majority of the Chinese population lived at the time. They had strength in the military and tremendous influence in key government ministries, like education, culture, and economic planning. These were real and observable phenomena. And by the mid-1960s, these capitalist-roaders, as Mao described them, were moving to seize power. Oh, but Mao, Steinfeld tells us, was inventing enemies and exaggerating threats. Imagine if a supposed scholar of the U.S. Civil War told you that Lincoln was concocting conspiracies by politicians of the South to justify his own ambition. Well, the evidence speaks otherwise. So too with the Cultural Revolution. Indeed, what more proof of the real danger to the revolution do you need than the fact that these capitalist-roaders did carry out a coup in October 1976 soon after Mao died? And what more evidence do you need that once these capitalist-roaders secured power—led at the time by Deng Xiaoping—they did what Mao said they would? They systematically restructured China’s socialist economy and turned China into a sweatshop to world capitalism. The profit-based economy they instituted has led to some of the world’s most extreme wealth and income inequalities, including the profusion of billionaires. The rapid and chaotic capitalist development they championed has led to some of the world’s most polluted cities and rivers. The capitalist-roaders in power dismantled the extraordinary social achievements of the Cultural Revolution—including what in the early 1970s was the most universal, egalitarian, needs-based healthcare system in the world. These are the observable results of the counterrevolution that Mao warned against... but which Steinfeld moronically declares was fabricated by Mao to further his “politics of resentment.” 2) The methods of the Cultural Revolution were liberatory. Mao called on the masses to rise up, challenge, and overthrow these new capitalist forces. Steinfeld makes much of Mao’s directive-slogan issued in August 1966 to “bombard the headquarters” of the capitalist-roaders. But this “bombardment” was political (see my Note below). The main forms of struggle of the Cultural Revolution were mass debate (over policy and the direction of society); mass political mobilization—demonstrations, strikes, political uprisings that led to new and more participatory forms of political power; and mass criticism through newspapers, wall-posters, and public gatherings of authorities influenced by and those in power pushing this neo-capitalist program. These methods of struggle were clearly spelled out in official and widely publicized documents, including the following guidance: “Where there is debate, it should be conducted by reasoning and not by force.” Now acts of violence and killings did take place during the Cultural Revolution. But here is what the evidence shows. First, this was not the main trend of the Cultural Revolution. Second, when things went in a violent direction, Mao and the revolutionary forces condemned and criticized such trends: through statements, directives, editorials, and on-the-ground interventions. A well-documented and inspiring example was at a major university in Beijing in 1968 where political debate and struggle turned violent. With Mao’s backing, a contingent of unarmed workers came on to the campus to bring a halt to clashes among armed students. Third, much of the violence of the Cultural Revolution was actually instigated by the new capitalist forces, especially for the purpose of discrediting Mao. Steinfeld levels the ludicrous charge that as a result of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese society descended into a brute “state of nature.” Again, the bullshit keeps piling up. In fact, as a result of the struggles and experimentation and transformations of the Cultural Revolution, the state of society changed. New systems of governance brought workers and peasants into political life in new and expanded ways... “serve the people” became a measure and motivation of social life and progress... “open door” research brought scientists to the countryside to conduct experiments alongside peasants and to share in their lives... revolutionary ballets dealt with themes of women’s emancipation. Is this perhaps the “tragedy” that the professor bemoans? 3) The idiocy of equating Mao and Trump... when in fact they are polar opposites. Steinfeld thinks he’s clever by half in offering “Mao’s Lessons for Trump’s America.” He’s a fool. Mao Zedong stood for the emancipation of world humanity from all oppression and exploitation. Mao advanced the science of communism, particularly with the theory and practice of continuing and deepening the revolution in socialist society. The notion that Donald Trump... home-grown American fascist who denies reality, attacks science, propounds genocidal racism, and spreads male supremacy and anti-immigrant hatred... the notion that Trump has anything in common with the communist revolutionary Mao Zedong would be laughable to any thinking person with a shred of respect for the scientific method and historical truth. But in the impoverished intellectual climate of today (no small service rendered by the hackery of the likes of Edward Steinfeld), this toxic anticommunist nonsense gets over. Unpacking the spurious and manipulative “method” involved in equating Mao and Trump. First, there is the “trafficking in surface similarities.” Trump speaks of a conspiracy against him rooted in a “deep state”; Mao called out forces entrenched in high positions who were aiming to seize power. So, there you have it, according to Steinfeld... cut from the same cloth. No, you have an utterly baseless and uninformed comparison. Mao made a pathbreaking, scientific analysis that out of the continuing social inequalities and differences of socialist society (like the fact that some people still work mainly in manual occupations and others in the realm of ideas and administration), and the still-existing bourgeois features of the socialist economy (like the sale and transfer of goods, the use of money)—out of this soil new privileged forces are generated. And in socialist society, these forces had their greatest strength, as a new capitalist class, at the top tiers of the ruling communist party and socialist state. Now what the fuck does this kind of scientific analysis have in common with lunatic theories and ravings of Trump, or of QAnon about pedophiles running amok, or with anti-Semitic theories of secret societies and cabals running the world? Second, there is the repeating, the almost ritualistic incantation, of “lurid anticommunist lies.” We hear it all the time: “Mao murdered millions.” We hear it from all quarters in capitalist-imperialist society. And such lies—that’s what they are—become part of the “conventional wisdom” and dominant “intellectual discourse” of society. The reader can go to the Set the Record Straight project at www.thisiscommunism.org for examination and refutation of standard lies, distortions, and misrepresentations about the communist revolution. Third, there is “shoddy and dishonest scholarship” that has cachet and that serves the machinery of lies. See my Note below. Trump and Mao are worlds apart. Think about this. Several months ago we witnessed, and many of us took part in, a beautiful uprising against white supremacy and racist murder by police. Donald Trump denounced this wave of righteous protest, hailed the police, egged on neo-Nazi assassins, extolled monuments to the Confederacy, and dispatched federal police to quash protest. In April 1968, after Martin Luther King’s assassination, Black people rose in mighty rebellions across the U.S. In revolutionary China at that time, Mao Zedong issued a powerful statement of support, declaring that this righteous rising of Black people was “a clarion call to all the exploited and oppressed people in the United States to fight against the barbarous rule of the monopoly capitalist class” and “a tremendous aid and inspiration to the struggle of the people throughout the world against U.S. imperialism and to the struggle of the Vietnamese people against U.S. imperialism.” For all his facile, bullshit analogizing of Mao and Trump, it is Professor Steinfeld who works from a playbook of Trumpian-like “alternate reality” and the “big lie.” *** *NOTE: An example of Steinfeld’s shoddy and dishonest scholarship To make his case for Mao’s alleged “sanctification of violence,” Steinfeld cites a toast Mao supposedly gave in December 1966: “To the unfolding of nationwide all-round civil war.” (my emphasis) Conveniently, Steinfeld provides no source for this statement. Actually, its origin is Roderick MacFarquhar’s and Michael Schoenhals’ 2006 anticommunist screed, Mao’s Last Revolution (p. 155). But when you go to the back of that book for source documentation, you find fuzzy hearsay and all manner of second and third-hand recollections. The authors do, however, acknowledge that Mao approved an authoritative editorial issued in January 1967 that called for: “a year of nationwide all-round class struggle.” Not violent “civil war” but “all-round class struggle”: to overthrow and defeat the capitalist-roaders through the political methods Mao actually called for (and as I have described).   Further Reading *Bob Avakian, Fascists and Communists: Completely Opposed and Worlds Apart *You Don’t Know What You Think You “Know” About...The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future

Donate to Revcom.us where you can follow The Revolution Nothing Less Show and RefuseFascism.org. Watch their panel discussion: “Why Did 74 Million People Vote For Trump?” that was livestreamed yesterday. We’ve worked hard over past months to dramatically change Revcom.us’ look and accessibility, and adding a new online dimension—TheRevcoms YouTube channel with the weekly RNL—Revolution Nothing Less—Show. December 8: Four donations totalling $800 plus $220 raised at a flea market bring our total to $10,476. Donate generously to make a further leap in transforming Revcom.us’ web technology and presence!

Why did 74 million people vote for Trump? - Tuesday Virtual Forum

 From RefuseFascism.org:

You're invited to join online for the next @RefuseFascism LIVE Why did 74 million people vote for Trump? Tuesday December 8 8:00 pm EST streaming on YouTube, Facebook & Twitter RSVP & share The Situation More people voted in this election than in any other election in U.S. history, but 74 million of them voted for a fascist incumbent whose regime has advanced a vicious program of white supremacy, misogyny and theocratic patriarchy, and “America First” xenophobia. 74 million people endorsed locking children in cages, throwing immigrants in concentration camps, and backing the most vicious white supremacy, including vigilante racist and anti-Semitic murderers. A political form of Christian fundamentalism makes up the most organized solid base of this fascist movement. The 74 million include millions deeply mired in a world of lies, crazy lunatic conspiracy theories and a vicious anti-science mindset that has already killed a quarter of a million people from COVID, with the pandemic now out of control. Some Questions What accounts for this? What are its roots and how deep are they? Is it an historical aberration? Will this movement fade away with Trump out of office, or be further filled with revanchist determination? What is the danger and what do we do about it? Don’t miss an important forum to dig into this, and more, with: Michael Coard, attorney and columnist for Philly Tribune, host of WURD’s Radio Courtroom Coco Das, National Editorial Board of RefuseFascism.org Amanda Marcotte, writer for Salon and author of Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Rat-Fucking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself Chrissy Stroop, writer, scholar, ex-evangelical, co-editor of Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church Andy Zee, host of The RNL – Revolution Nothing Less – Show; co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org; spokesperson for Revolution Books. Sponsored by RefuseFascism.org & The RNL Show You've invited to bid on art works & virtual experiences to benefit @RefuseFascism Artists, Designers & Makers - Refuse Fascism through December 20 >> Share the auction New works being added right now! Don’t miss out on supporting RefuseFascism.org and acquiring some pieces (plus virtual classes) for yourself or gifts for your friends & fam. Opening bids $20 to $1300 on a variety of work including: "Fine People on Both Sides" by Robert Russell Tuesday by Jeremy Brustein Venturing into the Fairy Woods (Where the Wild Things Are) by Ursula Korneitchouk Learn to Cook Gnocchi from a Professional Chef Revolt by Dread Scott See much more...   RefuseFascism.org info@refusefascism.org (917) 407-1286

People around the world are counting on you!

 From Revolution / revcom.us:

People around the world are counting on you! Transform Revcom.us’ Web Technology and Presence!   A global pandemic, environmental devastation, tens of millions of refugees driven from their homelands, fascist regimes and enforced ignorance, dark ages patriarchy and toxic gender roles, police murder after murder... On #GivingTuesday donate to the website that brings you a deep scientific analysis of WHY this is happening, how it's connected to the capitalist-imperialist system we live under, and charts the path to a radically different world beyond that system. Have you explored revcom.us recently? There is so much there! * the most radical, scientific, and cutting edge theoretical framework—the New Communism—as well as the collected works of Bob Avakian * new articles almost every day analyzing world events and culture * the Revolution Nothing Less youtube show * a Spanish page and translations of key documents into other languages. * ways to get involved with the movement for revolution * and much more! But all this needs to be become much more accessible, shareable, mobile-friendly, and interactive. We need to raise $20,000 by December 31, and another $20,000 shortly after that. This includes funds needed for professional technical developers, new software, and a new, more secure platform and web server. So sustain or donate generously to transform Revcom.us web technology and presence—in service of transforming the world! DONATE:  https://revcom.us/revolution/subscribe-donate-sustain-en.html Revcom.us is a fully bilingual website, in English and Spanish, and in November, people from 167 countries around the world were able to find and engage the work and leadership of Bob Avakian (BA), who has brought forward a whole new framework for human emancipation—the new communism.

Tues Virtual Forum - What Just Happened: Trump, America & the Danger of Fascism

 From RefuseFascism.org:

Trump LOST but won’t concede Tune in Tuesday 8:00 pm EST for this essential forum: What Just Happened: Trump; America & the Danger of Fascism Co-hosted by The RNL Show @therevcoms @RefuseFascism on  Youtube   Facebook   Twitter       Tune in Tuesday November 24 8:00 pm EST / 5:00 pm PST WHAT JUST HAPPENED: TRUMP, AMERICA & the DANGER of FASCISM Andy Zee, co-host of the RNL Show & co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org, Coco Das, Editor of RefuseFascism.org @Coco_Das Jeff Sharlet, writer @JeffSharlet Indi Samarajiva, @indica, author I Lived Through A Stupid Coup. America Is Having One Now. >> Sights & Sound of Saturday Protests: Trump You Lost -- Get the Hell OUT!

Standing Up to the Fascist Mob in DC: Interview with Sunsara Taylor

 

From Revolution / revcom.us:       Standing Up to the Fascist Mob in DC November 16, 2020 | revcom.us   On November 14, thousands of supporters of Donald Trump, spearheaded by a number of openly fascist forces and greeted by Trump himself, took over the streets in Washington, DC, demanding that the election be overturned. In reporting on that march, the Washington Post wrote that these marchers were met with a group of counter-protestors from Refuse Fascism. Here’s what they described: Then the appearance of counterprotesters sparked bursts of conflict, though they could have become far more violent had police not worked to keep the feuding sides separate. When a small group holding bright orange “Refuse Fascism” posters arrived at the edge of Freedom Plaza, they were almost immediately surrounded by Trump fans shouting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” into their faces.... The women leading the tiny march fought their way up 14th Street, repeatedly breaking out of the crowd, only to be engulfed again. “Trump, pack your s[hit]! You’re illegitimate!” they yelled into their megaphone. One pro-Trump man attempted to gouge the opposition with a flag bearing the president’s name. Another grabbed a woman’s neon orange poster and hit her with it. Sunsara Taylor, a member of Refuse Fascism’s editorial board and a writer for this website, was on the scene. Yesterday Lucha Bright, who was also there, interviewed Sunsara for a firsthand account. LB: Hi, I’m Lucha Bright with the Revolution Club and I’m here with Sunsara Taylor, who’s on the national editorial board of RefuseFascism.org and she’s a co-host for the Revolution Nothing Less Show on YouTube. Hi Sunsara! ST: Hey Lucha, great to be here. Hello everybody. LB: So, Sunsara and I have been running together in the streets of DC and this past Saturday, yesterday. RefuseFascism.org nationally called for protests across the country and here in DC going right up against the Million MAGA March. Do you want to tell us a little bit about why Refuse Fascism called for these protests? ST: So first of all, Donald Trump lost the election. I know we all know that, but he’s refusing to admit that, he’s lying about it and he’s working to overturn that and actually we were just in very close quarters with thousands of MAGA assholes who either refuse to admit or are so deluded by conspiracy and lie-mongering that they actually believe Trump won. So, Trump lost, which was a great victory for the people, and people overcame a lot of obstacles to deliver that electoral defeat. People, especially Black people, overcame misleading robocalls, voter intimidation, long-ass lines in the South—some of them waited 10, 12 hours to vote due to racist voter suppression. There was a lot people had to go up against and did go up against, including in a pandemic, to deliver an electoral defeat to Donald Trump, which was a great victory, and for good reason people poured into the streets and danced in the streets and celebrated about that and felt that a weight was lifted from them. Yet here we are a week later and Trump is still lying about this. He’s actively obstructing the transition, which is costing lives right now, in COVID deaths and in other ways, and he is riling up a base to actually try to overturn this election. So for all those reasons, we felt it very important that we bring our side into the public square to stand on this victory to say: The election is over. Trump lost. Biden won. Trump’s gotta go. But let’s keep in the public square until that victory is cemented, until he’s actually out of the White House. Frankly, all his attempts to undermine the election are themselves grounds for removal. Those are fascist moves. And we shouldn’t be normalized just because it’s Trump and we’ve lived through it for four years. Here is a sitting president who is refusing to concede when he lost and is doing great damage and now whips up thousands or tens of thousands of his most violent white supremacist, thuggish supporters to maraud in the nation’s seat of power and to work to overturn that election. That has to be answered. So we felt it was very important that we go and we counter-protest and stand up against that and rally our side to see this defeat of this fascist regime all the way through until they’re removed from power. LB: Can you just describe what the scene was like here in DC? Who were the fascists that were out? And what did Refuse Fascism do? ST: The streets of DC were filled with every variety of white supremacist, militia-type, conspiracy-minded, QAnon, deranged Christian fascist; I mean we saw hatred organized writ large against Black people, against immigrants, against women. It was an attempt, and I think they gained ground in this, by these fascist forces who actually were put on the defensive, who did suffer a bit of a defeat, they did have the puff taken off their chest when Trump lost that election and when they saw people pour into the streets with all the exuberance and all that joy and all that weight was lifted. This took the puff out of their chest, and they were trying to come back together and reassert their dominance in the public square. And I think they actually made ground in that, including that Trump came through and gave it his backing. So we went in the middle of this. And just so people know, some of these people were chanting “Break out Kyle” talking about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who murdered two protesters for Black Lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who shot them dead in the street. This is the hero of these people. There were Christian fanatic fascists walking thru with signs saying “Women belong in the kitchen.” Just straight up enslavement. There are people that you would say, “What about the children in cages?” and they’d be like, “They belong there. Their parents did something illegal.” I mean these people are... they have no [touches heart]... they’ve got nothing inside of them for humanity. But they were out there and they were filled with a lust for revenge. And so we went right in the middle of the Freedom Plaza area where they were first amassing, and we went early in the day. And we raised the banner Trump/Pence Out Now. We raised signs that said the same. It was a small group of us. We never got our whole group in one place cuz it actually was, it was very... because Trump gave his backing, this mushroomed in size on the side of the fascists so we didn’t all meet up till later. And from the second we did this we were set upon. I mean, these people were incensed. They first started verbally harassing us, and then they were, kind of forcefully, purposefully bumping into us and then within a couple minutes there were hundreds of them surrounding us, grabbing at us, at times you’d have five different big, meathead men with their hands on you, pulling you in different directions, grabbing your sign, hitting you; they ripped up our sound system, they were a mob and they were very threatening. One of the people with us, was a Black woman who, by the time we got through this... and I will say for our crew, our crew was so beautiful, they had such heart. I think the Washington Post described it, at different points the women who led the march would break out of the mob and start chanting, “Trump pack your shit! You’re illegitimate.” Or, “Trump/Pence Out Now.” Then we’d be swallowed again, and then we’d break out again and chant again. But the whole time we kept regrouping and keeping our message together and keeping our people together and our spirit intact. This lasted for two blocks... we were dogged like this, assaulted like this as we marched along, and when we finally got clear and ended up on the other side of a police line through some struggle we had with the police as well, for them to do the semblance of their job and stop a mob assault or at least let us get out of reach of it. When we got through this, this one Black woman who was with us, she was just sobbing, she was inconsolable, she kept saying, “I’m wrong for being Black. I’m wrong for being a woman. My life is in danger every single day. And there was so much hate, that was so much hate they threw at us.” And her eyes were just pouring. Bob Avakian has said there is a direct line from the Confederacy to the fascists of today. They really are the inheritors of the Confederacy. People who have never reconciled themselves to the end of the Civil War. These are the people who would have gathered with their children to watch Black people be lynched and then fought each other to get a souvenir, a piece of the mutilated body or a postcard of that experience. These are people filled with bloodlust and out for revenge and you saw it all day long. At the end of the night, they were marauding. They came thru BLM Plaza, tore up the murals. Tore up the pictures. And like maniacs, lunatic, animal-like shouting and assaulting pieces of wood that say Black Lives Matter on them, wishing they could be doing it to people. So, it was a very heavy experience, to go right up against this like that. But it mattered because this has to be opposed. They can’t be allowed to dominate the public square and the public discourse. And it is shameful that there weren’t more people out there. Everybody who was out celebrating, rightfully so, a week before when Trump lost should’ve been out there standing up there against this. It would have been a world of difference. That amount of hatred needs to stay on the defensive. After we protested in the middle of the mob and then made it in the morning, we went to BLM Plaza near the White House and one of the people we ran into said that when they got off the train at Union Station—they are young and gay and visibly you might guess that—and they were set upon by five of these MAGA fascists with flak vests on surrounded this person, jeering, “Oh you’re gay? You’re a faggot!” They were hurling all these slurs at them and physically domineering and intimidating them. They said, “I just thought to myself, ‘I got to get down to the White House, maybe if I get there I’ll find my people.’ And, yeah, I found my people here.” And the Black woman who was with us, and the others who were with us who were really shook coming through the mob of fascists, when we got down to BLM Plaza and rallied and came back together, people saw it all the way through. They took all that emotion that they felt about what was hurled at them and what the history of that and the threat of that writ large for the future, and they poured it out in their chants and their dance and their song and their sense of standing together. And it actually felt really good to stand up. You know, the idea that you hide from this shit, and you go in your home and you avoid the confrontation. That is a morally compromised place to be and it does damage and because of that, it doesn’t feel nearly as good as standing and being in the face of this and coming through that. And I was so proud of the people who stood up and I know we gave voice to what millions and millions feel, but those millions have to join this because there is actually a fight for the future that is still ongoing. And Trump is still in power and these MAGA fascists are marauding and they must not be allowed to dominate the public space and the public discourse. LB: I was going to ask you what you would say to those who told everybody going into this, there was a whole outcry going into this of, “Don’t go into the streets.” It was all over the internet. “Stay home, you’re gonna provoke these people, you’re gonna provoke Trump.” I think you’ve spoken to that some already, but if there is more you want to say about that. ST: Look, the fascist Trump/Pence regime, a genocidal, racist regime, is still in power. They are unleashing their mobs in the streets. Hiding from that will not make them go away, it will make them stronger. And I’m sorry, if you want to spend more energy—which way too many “woke” people and “progressive” people did—condemning those who stand up against fascists and white supremacists than you want to put into actually standing up against those fascists and white supremacists, you are no different than the people who told the Freedom Riders, “Don’t go to the South. Don’t provoke them.” Who, when they were set upon by mobs said, “Why did you rile them up?” You’re no different than the people who told Frederick Douglass, “Don’t publish your memoir and don’t go on your speaking tour because you might push things too far... we’re getting towards abolition, we just want to go a little slower.” Larry Kramer, everybody loves Larry Kramer today, there’s movies made about him for good reason, he led ACT UP, who led a lot of struggle to wake people up to the AIDS epidemic and get help for people who were dying, gay men especially in massive numbers. But at the time, Larry Kramer was very unpopular and I’m sorry, the verdict is in history and it applies today. There’s always those who say, “Oh, you’re protesting in the wrong way. Oh, you’re protesting at the wrong time.” I actually had someone tell me today that they could come up with 100 examples of how “poorly planned protests” led to less freedom. No, oppression leads to less freedom. Standing up against it leads to more freedom. That’s the way the fucking world works. And even protests that are maybe, poorly planned or not the most strategically thought through, you still put your arms around people who are on the right side. One side is right and one side is wrong. And those who stand up, even when they do it sometimes without the fullest strategic sense, they’re not the cause of oppression! And all the people who blame the victims and blame those who stand up, I’m sorry you are on the wrong fucking side of history on this. And you gotta get over to the right side, cuz a lot of those people, I think they actually do... they are of two minds. They do actually want to see the Trump horrors ended. But for a long time they have been very resistant to doing the hard work and the struggle that is actually required to stop this. And you see that playing out now, too, where they say now we’ve got a victory, let’s lay low. And you know what? With fascists, you don’t lay low. When you get a victory, you take that and you run the table with it. Let’s stay in the public square. Let’s stay on the offensive. Let’s stay saying Black lives matter. Let’s stay saying women are full human beings. Let’s stay saying get the children out of the cages cuz they’re still in fucking cages. Why would you lay low when all that is still going on and they are threatening to overturn your victory? You stand on that victory and you keep going forward and you give space and oxygen to those who have been suffering under it to come join you and stand up and actually fight for and win a different future. That’s what we were fighting for yesterday. That’s what I think people should take from it who were part of it. It was very heroic. It was very important. And that’s what other people need to join with. We need to see it all the way through, get Trump and Pence all the way out of office and then we can have... and many of us will continue to fight for going deeper and getting to the roots of this fascism and all the oppression and injustice that is rooted in this system and the need for a whole revolution and other people will split off and go different ways and we’ll have the freedom and space to have that debate and wage that struggle. LB: OK, well thank you so much, this is a really important discussion and I am so glad we were able to have it. ST: Me too. Thanks, Lucha.   Follow: @TheRevcoms Read: www.revcom.us Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs Why did 70+ million people vote for this genocidal racist, male supremacist, “America First” fascist, Trump? “Is there hope for white people?”: