The National Tour to Drive Out Trump/Pence spent our third day in Atlanta with another busy schedule and many thought-provoking interactions with one of our co-initiators Sunsara Taylor, leaders of Refuse Fascism ATL, new members of our movement, and the broader population of the city. Two Volunteers spent their morning working on solidifying plans for our time in El Paso in a couple of weeks, while the remaining five of us headed out to the historical Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was the congregation of Martin Luther King, Jr. The site was beautiful, and we were excited to start conversations with a new group of people, wondering how their responses might or might not differ from other communities we’ve connected with throughout Atlanta and on the Tour overall.
It isn’t easy to synthesize the outcome of our visit to the church because it was certainly not a uniform experience for each of us. The response was largely positive and encouraging, and one of the church-goers who spoke with a Volunteer outside was present at our Teach-In a few hours later.
Two Tour members participated in the church service, and one was moved by the sermon, which focused on the transformation of the mind in order to bring about real change. In addition to enjoying the prayerful singing, he felt a strong connection with the whole congregation, as he said, “We are all seeking a ray of light. We need a radical change in societal view, a transformation within people’s minds, in order to change the world. This is what we need to bring to people.”
One observation I had elucidates a serious contradiction some Christians are facing. This stems from a conversation I had with three young men coming from the church service, who claimed to have been against Trump and initially seemed to be in agreement with the Refuse Fascism message, yet their firm ideas of the supremacy of Christianity led them to be anti-Muslim. Their lack of empathy was honestly disheartening, but it is an important moment for all of us to consider as we continue having these struggles and conversations.
In the afternoon, Refuse Fascism held a Teach-In, led by Sunsara Taylor, at a local church. It’s so important to note that these enriching Teach-Ins are growing and popping up in cities throughout the U.S., and ours took place at the same time as one led by Andy Zee, another co-initiator of RF, in New York City. Our meeting began with a Tour Volunteer reading the Call to Action beautifully and with intensity.
She was followed by Sunsara, who encouraged us to dive very deeply into the Call, explaining its significance and its ability to address and facilitate understanding of the key question we are all facing with the rise of this regime. She shared with us—and I strongly agree—that this is the best tool of guidance in transforming the way millions of people are thinking so they can act. Imagine if the Call to Action was spread everywhere, the symbol of NO! and a full explanation of why we exclaim it. This would have a dramatic influence on people’s understanding of the urgency and necessity of protecting humanity against fascism.
Trump’s constant lies, she argued, may sometimes seem petty, but his accusations and threats toward “fake news” are extremely alarming. Naming the press as “the enemy of the people” is a blatant attempt at annihilating our ability to find out the truth. The construction of a singular narrative imposed by those in power is a cornerstone of fascism, and the substituting of observable reality with “alternative facts” should shock us all into immediate action, to move us to stop them in their tracks before they succeed in training the masses to blindly accept their lies. These attacks on the truth exemplify the qualitative change from how the preexisting capitalist/imperialist system is governed.
In addition to these shameful and manipulative lies, the Trump and Pence regime is eliminating the necessary separation of powers, either not recognizing or not caring about the unconstitutionality of firing a judge for righteously blocking the first version of Trump’s Muslim ban. This abominable ban also demonstrates the regime’s decimation of the separation of church and state; this separation is meant to protect us from both having a state religion imposed on us and from religious discrimination. It is therefore completely unconstitutional, as well as inhuman and disgusting, to boast about allowing only Christians to enter the U.S. from these Muslim-majority banned countries.
Lately we hear often about increasing instances of hate crimes, such as the shooting of two Indian men in Kansas as the murderer yelled, “Get out of my country!” This indicates growing violence within Trump’s white nationalist support base, but it’s also essential to point out that fascism makes the entire society complicit in violent crimes. This is not just another repressive Republican administration, and Trump is not just a vile narcissist; this is a regime representing KKK interests and poisoning society. If we do not fight against them, we are implying that we condone these horrors. Verbally expressing disagreement is not nearly enough. We all must become organizers and leaders and we cannot stop under any circumstances until we drive them out of office. They are moving faster than an election cycle, and we can’t just wait and see what happens, hoping for the best and not fully expecting the worst. Driving them out of power is the only thing that will stop them.
Sunsara then opened up the floor for discussion by encouraging everyone to share their questions, insights, and organizing plans, and she asked, “What does it mean to organize millions? What can you do that you’ve never done before?” She concluded by underscoring a moving line from the final paragraph in the Call to Action: “Let it not be said that we did not move heaven and earth to drive out this regime.” One question from an Atlanta resident was what he could do right now, as he wants to start taking real action. He asked if he should start writing or calling his representatives in Congress. Sunsara recognized that this may seem, on surface level, like the easier thing to do, but trying to speak through them is not a solution sufficient to address the crushing, consolidating fascism in the U.S. right now. Not only are members of Congress compelled to compromise with the white-supremacist-in-chief and therefore unable to truly protect us, but in our society, she explained, we are all conditioned to believe that we must appeal to the people officially in power in order to enact real change. We think that we the people have no real power, but this is untrue. We must rise up, all of us, in unity and solidarity, and we must recognize our collective strength.
Another interesting question came from a young woman who expressed concern over whether protesting is effective or worth the effort. She shared that, as a woman of color, she felt that she had been resisting and fighting back against oppression for years but nothing had changed, and clearly now the situation is worse. She told us she felt tired from this long fight and wondered what new approaches she could take to be reenergized, asking if there is more than just protesting that she could do to end this racist, oppressive, fascist regime. We have heard these worries before. The fascist regime speaks negatively of and downplays the effectiveness of protesting because of the threats it does actually pose to them, but Sunsara addressed them by saying that this is the most dangerous lie we can believe. The system will push back, but the long history of Black resistance has strengthened us all and has helped to transform society. We must reject this rhetoric and recognize that our resistance truly does have power, especially if we are unbreakably united and working toward the singular goal of ending fascism.
One attendee of the Teach-In, who had heard about the event from a friend, seemed to already have a very deep understanding of the Call to Action and especially of our central and ultimate mission to drive them out. He observed that more and more widespread exposure to our message will help move people toward the same end goal. As organizers of this movement, we should be thinking critically and evaluating with an open mind which actions will have the most substantive impact, but all of these efforts must sustain the mission of driving them from power. We cannot release the responsibility that we all have to one another. We will work to unite anyone who is willing to see the need to end the reign of these fascists, in the name of humanity, before they drop the hammer and stop us. His words really demonstrated to me the success we’ve already brought forth in spreading this unifying message, and it inspired me to keep going in order to bring this insight to even more people across the country.
Another point from Sunsara that really stood out to me was that organizing is not a two-step process; it’s not that we educate people first and then mobilize them toward action. Both of these things come forth together. Our work in spreading the message of NO! is very complex and layered. We encounter different responses and new questions every single day that make us think and readjust and grow. Ultimately, though, when people come to the full understanding that what we are facing is a fascist regime—with all of its threats and catastrophic consequences for the entirety of humanity—they will be drawn to unite with us in driving them out.
During the discussion, we received the question that has come up in most of our meetings and from many people we’ve met on the streets and on campuses. If we do succeed in driving the fascists out of the White House, what comes next? Sunsara’s response was straightforward yet remarkable, as she at first simply stated that if millions upon millions force them to leave, we won’t have a fascist America. In elaborating on this point, she told us, “We need a world without a nuclear holocaust, a world where immigrants don’t disappear, and where Muslim lives are not annihilated.” Again, we are motivated by the painful and realistic foresight of what we are facing day by day. As time goes on, more and more groups are demonized, dehumanized, pushed out, pushed down, and will be murdered. On the Tour, we are able to refocus and reenergize when we face obstacles by taking a step back to remember both what we’re fighting for and against as we refuse to accept a fascist America and reject its reach across the globe.
Following the Teach-In, the Volunteers had dinner with Refuse Fascism Atlanta organizers, as well as two new volunteers—one whom we met at the welcoming celebration on Friday and another we had just met at the Teach-In. We talked about what stood out to us during Sunsara’s presentation and the ensuing discussion, and we also brainstormed some ideas for the possibility of extending the Tour in the future—to Florida, the Midwest, the west coast, and elsewhere—to ensure that millions are seeing and acting upon what needs to be done. We will need these millions to drive them out, and accomplishing this is no simple feat, but it can happen. When we are fighting for humanity and for the planet, we are stronger than ever before. We are so proud to be part of the Tour and to be sharing the empowering message of total rejection and refusal of oppressive fascism in the world.