A report from Refuse Fascism, Philadelphia
Taking our guidance from the recent directives “to get out to the masses in a mass way – and in a radical, disturbing-the-air kind of way,” we set a plan to hit up the subway and spread out the J15 statement with our local rally information along a major subway route & transportation station. This was new territory to do outreach in (for us) and also location that has a wide reach as a transportation hub to the general western Greater Philadelphia area.
We briefly discussed parts of the ACT UP documentary “How to Survive a Plague” that we had both seen, talking about heroism of individuals and scenes/tactics from that struggle which we admired. We had just recently gone over the new J15 statement but we seemed solid enough around it to be able to shift gears in the way it suggests.
So with that we hit the subway and did lightning-fast outreach from car to car across the line. This was during mid-morning/early afternoon hours, so it was much less populated than during the work commute, but there was still plenty of people (and it definitely gave us more flexibility). We exchanged responsibility for agitation while both focused on getting fliers in hands, getting contact information, and telling people to take this up and spread it everywhere.
Transportation Hub
We slowed it down a bit once we reached the end of the line and handed out fliers outside of the entrance. Many took the statement up, way more than there were disinterested people and with only one or two mumbling disapprovers. Two women asked if they could buy shirts. We were able to point it out online.
The most enthusiastic response was from two kids who just came yelling “Fuck Trump!” excitedly and talking about how much they hated him. They were kind of rushing though so we couldn’t really get into it more deeply, but they did take a bunch of stickers and were stoked to put them up. After about a half hour, we hit the subway again and did a final round.
Conversations
One activist shared a conversation with several people about certain barriers we’re going to run into if we are to actually get to a point of driving them out, such as the state having “all the money, military, chemicals (sic)” etc. Things that we would understand as aspects of the state monopoly over violence. They made a Hitler comparison, and it was countered that Hitler was defeated – even getting into the battle of Stalingrad to show how people are decisive over money.
There was another conversation with a retired man from the suburbs who was really enthusiastic. He was coming from the Clintonite patriotism angle though. We discussed how at the end of the day, she technically did win the popular vote and this added to the regime’s illegitimacy. He mentioned that he liked our shirts, and showed his off. It was one of those that emphasizes the alleged connection to Russia and featured a hammer and sickle on that kind of throwback anti-communist American chauvinism tip that is not too uncommon among liberal types. He was pressed on this anti-communism and he either seemed to not really be too committed to this position (perhaps it just came out of default spontaneity), or it was something he was not willing to talk about. He quickly tried to shift gears away from that topic. In any case, he gave his contact information and said he would commit to sharing the information to his friends & associates. He wanted to buy a NO! shirt as well.
Conclusions
This was an overall enjoyable method with concrete team-building experience, and a good change of pace that could energize the newer activists among us. Through this we can be inspired to think of other ways to “disturb the air” and further apply, master, and learn from these methods.