Refuse Fascism: Tell us what you did at the confirmation hearing for Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General today, and why.
Carl Dix: What I did was, I called out what Sessions concentrates, in terms of character of the regime that Trump and Pence will bring if they’re allowed to take the reins of power. Because you’ve got this guy who remembers fondly the days of Jim Crow, who wants to unleash a vicious clampdown on immigrants, and he is being tapped by Trump to be the head of the Justice Department. The guy who is supposed to be in charge of administering justice in this society. And it makes real clear that the injustices that already come down on people will be greatly intensified, like put on steroids. And the ability to fight those injustices is going to be closed in on.
So, looking at that, and sitting as the hearing was opening, and listening to the Senators talk about what a great guy Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was, how there’s no racism in his history. And they didn’t say, he’s moved from his history, they said he was misrepresented in the past, and that he was misrepresented again today. And it was very hard to sit there and listen to that. So the minute that Sessions goes into his opening remarks, I felt like, this has gotta be stopped. This can’t go on without it being called out for what it is. And I stood up and began, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!”
Because that’s what you’re getting. You’re getting the Old South as part of an overall fascist package. That’s what Sessions represents in the Trump regime. And I went on to talk about how everybody needs to flood the streets of Washington D.C. on January 14th, and flood the streets everywhere else, and stay in the streets, refuse to get out of the streets. Night after night. Building our numbers. In order to prevent the Trump regime before it’s started.
And as I was going through this, and the chant of “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!”. And I found out later, that shortly after they dragged us out, another person stood up and called him out, did the chant. We got the website RefuseFascism.org out a number of times, and also added on that Sessions was a pig. A woman yelled “Sessions you’re a pig”, as she was being dragged out. And this went on all day, throughout the hearings, a total of 26 people were dragged out of the hearings and arrested. Disrupting Congress was the charge we got.
Refuse Fascism: Right. There were people from Refuse Fascism, from the NAACP, from Democracy Spring, from Black Lives Matter, immigrant’s rights activists, Code Pink people, with their Ku Klux Klan theater, Howard University students … and all this was all over the news. And I wanted to get your thoughts on what might be reflected here in terms of a wide range of people coming together to actually stop the Trump regime before it can get started.
Carl Dix: That there are a lot of people coming from an array of concerns understanding that this regime represents nothing but horrors. What they do understand is that this regime will mean horrible things. When they processed us in the jail, I decided I should announce something, and gave people a brief rap about Refuse Fascism.
And people were recognizing that they were all being brought into resisting this regime. But people were also recognizing that there was something different. Not taking it as a fait accompli that this regime was coming to power, but that there’s a basis and a potential to prevent that from happening. And people wanted to throw in on that.
So the Howard students were like, ok, “we’re having a meeting tonight”, we talked about mobilizing people to come to that meeting, to come to the Refuse Fascism meeting on Thursday, the Code Pink people were talking about it. And then one of the people there was involved in the DC statehood movement. And he had questions about whether we could succeed, but at the same time he saw that we’re being pushed together. That what Trump has promised to do and begun to do, the regime that he’s assembling is pushing us all together. And we should act together and fight this together, maybe we could stop this. But he wanted to work on that, he said maybe we could stop it, but we should work on it.
Refuse Fascism: No one’s making guarantees, but this is the best chance. So why don’t you just briefly wrap up with what’s next.
Carl Dix: What’s next is actually – the Call to Action from Refuse Fascism, is gonna be published tomorrow morning in the Washington Post, and that’s gonna be an announcement to everybody that the people who’ve been on the ground here, and beginning to impact on this, a lot of whom were in the hearings, are announcing their presence. Putting forward the array of people who are coming together to work to stop this regime before it starts. And it’s a challenge to everybody, and an invitation to get involved in that. We’re having the organizing meeting on Thursday, we’re going out to Howard University and other campuses tomorrow, and reaching to other neighborhoods here in DC.
This is pointed towards Saturday, January 14th, when we are issuing a call to everybody to join us in the streets in Washington. McPherson Square, 4 o’clock, for the first of nightly marches, rallies, taking the message to Stop the Fascist Trump/Pence regime before it gets started into the streets of DC. But not as a one day protest. As something that builds and grows, night after night. Calling others to join us. Going from hundreds to thousands, and from thousands to millions. That’s the plan.
And when you look at the mood out there – there are a lot of people who hate what Trump represents and would like to see him stopped, and who need to have the anguish and the fear and the outrage they feel about everything Trump represents packed into and given a way to express itself and make a difference.
We’re beginning to make the plan we have, and assemble the forces to carry that plan out, that can give people the sense that this could make a difference. To show them that there is a way, and that there are forces acting to make that way, to realize that way, to make that way happen and be real.
Refuse Fascism: Thank you Carl. People can connect with this at RefuseFascism.org or call (917) 407-1286.