Hey everybody,
The Refuse Fascism National Tour spent the morning of our third day traveling from Washington, D.C. to Greensboro, N.C. We had some insightful discussions among the Tour group along the way, including a long conversation about several points of Sunsara Taylor’s new article entitled “Why It’s Not Just Right, but Highly Illuminating and Very Necessary to Compare Trump to Hitler.”
We read through the article paragraph by paragraph, and discussed it. We talked about the “legitimating norms” of society and how the ruling class is sharply divided right now about what the values and morality of society should be. We talked about the context for the rise of Trump/Pence fascism—all the economic and social changes of the last decades—and how this is giving rise to different strategies amongst the ruling class about how to deal with different questions like immigration and the role of women. We spent some time also talking about the role of the Christian fascists in the Trump/Pence regime and how this is one area that is a little different from what happened in Nazi Germany.
After a wonderful dinner with our Greensboro hosts, we held a meeting, organized by the local Refuse Fascism chapter, at a nearby community library to introduce the Tour and discuss the realities of fascism that are slowly becoming normalized in our daily lives. One volunteer read some paragraphs from the Call to Action and elaborated on some very important points, including a clear explanation as to why identifying Trump as a fascist is not name-calling, not pejorative, and not just a synonym for a deeply hateful person; rather, this definition of the regime as fascist understands that those in power are seeking to qualitatively change the system. With momentum and logic, they seek to dehumanize and target one group after another, while simultaneously slandering and dismantling the judicial branch, the press, and all dissent.
All of the volunteers shared their own reasons for joining the Refuse Fascism Tour. We provided six entirely unique perspectives, including one volunteer speaking at length about the need for NO! to be at every corner in every city, to unite us all in resistance, and to bring every person who cares about humanity to the movement to drive these fascists out. Another volunteer talked about the importance of each person in that meeting to become one of the thousands who we are organizing to then go on to lead millions into the streets, and yet another Tour volunteer spoke beautifully and passionately about how everyone has something they can bring to the table for our movement. She called on artists to create pieces inspired by resistance and musicians to write songs and bring NO! to their performances, and she asked all of us to join in with all of our hearts, our love, and our creativity. The volunteers all took different approaches when defining the significance of the Tour, but overall we were joined in the singular message of organization, persistence, and ousting this regime through mass resistance.
After our presentations about the Tour, we had time to take questions from the audience that have helped us shape and reshape our approach as we move throughout the South. …. One comment that came up was a message of warning, “Trump is going to clamp down on people like you. You’re asking for trouble.” This is important for us to talk about, and everyone must realize that this fascist regime, like those before it, is strengthening the military and the police state in order to promote fear and hopelessness in the minds of dissenters. We all need to draw the line here; if attacks on Muslims, Jews, women, LGBTQ people, and disabled people are not enough to drive us into action, what will be?
It isn’t going to be easy, but it is possible to bring the millions into the streets, to reject business as usual, and to drive them out of power before it is consolidated fully in their hands. One Tour volunteer spoke in powerful terms about the need to recognize that these are not normal times and that in the name of humanity we cannot accept normality. She challenged each person at the meeting to get involved immediately and to call two friends that night and start a conversation with them about Refuse Fascism, to connect with them now and to stay in touch with us, too. In response to a question about whether resistance itself is enough, another volunteer replied that the message of NO! and the mission to oust this regime can become the united rallying cry in the midst of all the protests we are seeing.
We connected with many attendees, including local activists, a professor who has written a book on fascism, teachers, and visitors all the way from Asheville and High Point, N.C. By the end of our event, we’d gotten contact information from just about everyone and had done a lot of fundraising. Even beyond this, we were so excited to see new Refuse Fascism organizers taking lots of posters, stickers, and Calls to Action with them to distribute at upcoming protests, activist organization meetings, local businesses, universities, and to friends and family.
The organizing meeting went extremely well, and we met several new friends who are ready to become leaders of our movement in Greensboro as well as other cities in North Carolina. After our meeting came to a close, we reconvened with some of the attendees at a local coffee shop to continue our discussion. We spoke with them about their personal experiences and what brought them to our movement, and we shared ideas about how new organizers can strategize in the South, especially when facing hesitance or reluctance when listeners hear the word fascism because they may not fully understand its definition. Two volunteers spoke with a father and aspiring activist about how he can communicate this message with his friends and acquaintances, and we encouraged him to initiate a dialogue with them, to find out what their thoughts on recent events are, and to be ready to discuss both the history and the present moment of fascism in order to instill a full understanding of the urgency of our national and increasingly international crisis and the importance of being prepared to drive them out of office immediately.
As one volunteer noted about our message: “We can break it down, but we can’t water it down.” This is something we plan to keep in mind when we face difficulty in mobilizing cities in the South; we can begin simply, defining fascism point by point, and speaking very specifically about how we can all act, but ultimately we need to make sure everyone we meet comes together under our unifying message of “NO! We must drive them out!” Four years is far too long to sit passively as attacks knock us each down one by one. Trump and Pence are moving quickly to dismantle our human rights. We must all rise up now to adamantly reject and remove this oppressive, hateful, and fascist regime before it’s too late.