From the Refuse Fascism Advisory Board
Updated: May 15, 2017
editors note, June 8, 2017:
The statement below, written by the Refuse Fascism Advisory Board in mid-May, provides an orientation towards Trump’s firing of former F.B.I. director James Comey, and the ensuing Senate hearing, that remains vital and relevant. Refuse Fascism will continue to provide analysis of this situation as it develops.
We are at a pivotal moment. The sudden firing of FBI Director James Comey on May 9th, shocked the country and the world. Editorials in major papers and magazines, commentators on TV, and prominent political figures called it a constitutional crisis. The NY Daily News front page shouted: “Coup de Trump.” Rolling Stone wrote: “the creeping sense of terror you’re feeling in the wake of the president firing James Comey is entirely appropriate.” This is, as Refuse Fascism wrote, “an ominous and dangerous escalation of the Trump/Pence Regimes moves to consolidate fascism.” Subsequent utterances and actions from the Trump/Pence Regime and their supporters have only deepened the danger and the alarm.
Now More Than Ever – We Need to Act in the Interests
of Humanity
The question posed to every person concerned about the future, and to Refuse Fascism as an organization whose mission is to drive the Trump/Pence Regime from power as the only way to meet our responsibility to humanity to refuse fascism, is this: Will we do everything now to lead masses of people who are alarmed and outraged to act with determination to take to the streets to demand that this regime be ousted from power? Will Trump’s despotic firing of James Comey, who was leading the FBI investigation of whether or not Trump’s election campaign committed a crime or an impeachable offense – a firing that is a stark rejection of the rule of law, be a crack in the wall through which the outrage of masses of people pours forth?
Millions of people who have been angered by and even protested the Trump/Pence Regime have just received a huge jolt – a shock of the lengths the regime will go to. This regime is fascist. They have shown again and again and now very acutely that, as Refuse Fascism’s Call to Action states: the Trump/Pence Regime “fully intends to shred political and social norms with catastrophic consequence,” and that, “Fascism is not just a gross combination of horrific reactionary policies. It is a qualitative change in how society is governed.”
This is the time to act. If not now, when? The case must be put before masses of people to move beyond upset and anger, to break out of channeling their desire for change into pleading with those in power or looking to elections two or more years in the future. This is a time for RefuseFascism.org to lead masses of people to act with audaciousness to demand that Trump and Pence, and their whole illegitimate regime, be ousted from power.
There can be no compromising with a fascist regime. They will not listen to reason or the rule of law. Trump summarily firing Comey reveals that if the law or institutions or anyone in a powerful position stands in their way, these fascists will knock them down. Trump, Pence, Sessions, the whole regime has told you that this is what they intend to do. And, they just did it again – in spades. If these fascists are not driven from power, they will rewrite law, get rid of their enemies, prohibit dissent, and remake society in ways beyond what people imagine possible.
Waiting things out, banking on a special prosecutor, or that the 2018 midterm elections will deal with the grave danger that is the Trump/Pence Regime will have disastrous consequences for humanity.
What matters now is what masses of people do: acting together with determination and creativity, expressing outrage and anger, taking to the streets with the spirit of no business as usual and demanding that this regime be driven from power. In dealing with the extraordinary, we must rid ourselves of ordinary thinking. The RefuseFascism Call to Action needs to get before hundreds of thousands of people now. The RefuseFascism “NO!” already seen in protests around the country needs now to be everywhere – including everywhere in the face of the fascists and those Democrats who accommodate them.
Start with those you can gather and go out and grow. Make a Statement. Reach out to organizations. Do not underestimate the power of the people when we struggle with courage and conviction.
At a protest in front of Trump Tower in NYC the night after Trump fired Comey a man in the crowd called out that people should protest against Trump: “every day until he’s gone.” We are taking up his call in many different ways – out in the streets, in town halls, and in the halls of power, make it known that masses of people are gathering, determined that Trump and Pence Must Go. This is the only way that this fascist regime can be stopped. Driving these fascists out will require millions of people taking to the streets day after day, and night after night, demanding it. Every act of resistance today must be aimed at creating the conditions for and organizing for that single unifying objective.
In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America
DRIVE OUT THE TRUMP PENCE REGIME!!!