Since Trump was elected president, we are facing a constitutional crisis, and an emergency situation for humanity. A fascist regime holds the reins of power in U.S., and they have communicated by word and deed that they are determined to cohere America under the banner of open white supremacy, patriarchy, and American chauvinism.
AS YOU READ THIS they are kidnapping immigrants from their homes and workplaces, and forcing them into the shadows in fear of deportation. They are demonizing and unleashing violence against Muslims and leaving refugees to the mercy of the oceans and the imperialist countries that see them as human waste. They are denying health care, food assistance, and the basic right to live to millions of children, poor people, and elderly people. They are propelling women back into the dark ages with their male supremacist agenda, stripping women of the access to control their bodies, reducing them to sex objects and breeders. They are denouncing the humanity of LGBT people, labeling transgender people as “burdens” to society. They are giving the green light to the police to continue to murder Black and Latino people at an escalating rate, with genocidal implications in their white supremacist agenda. They are bombing the people of the world with chemical weapons and threatening all of civilization with a nuclear holocaust in the name of “America First.” They are putting the whole planet in peril by pouring gasoline all over global warming and gutting all environmental protections. They are trying to eliminate the critical investigation of reality and the scientific method, and it is no exaggeration to say that this could lead to the very extinction of humanity if not through the utter devastation of the planet, then through nuclear war.
As part of forcing society to accept the normalization of these horrific crimes, they are going after the universities to crush the concept of truth, critical thinking, and any form of opposition to their program. They play the victims and falsely uphold the banner of free speech, as if it is intellectually productive to debate the legitimacy of their not-so-subtle white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia, etc., as if they don’t have the power of the state to back up their pseudoscience with policy and brute force.
Just look at what is happening in Berkeley. The fascists are targeting Berkeley specifically because it is a beacon of progressivism and radical thought. As the fascist pseudo-intellectuals come spew their hateful poison on the campus, the city and the administration are shamefully collaborating with them by implementing a police-state approach to trample on students’ ability to oppose this. And this must be opposed! We must uphold the legacy of Berkeley by taking up the role that students have played historically in movements of resistance like they did in the 1960s. We must stand with the people of the world and have the audacity to challenge the lies of this regime in the face of repression, to defy the attempts of these fascists to warp reality in their image and confuse people into believing these monsters are the victims.
We hope that by now it is clear that the concept of “apolitical” is but a parasitic illusion. This masked complicity will count for nothing when the impending storm finalizes the destruction of whole sections of people here and around the world. It should also be clear by just looking at the collaborations on the part of the democrats and others that we cannot rely on the channels of this system which put us in this situation in the first place. So this begs the question, what are we going to do in the face of this?
Get organized: the responsibility before all of us is to put an end to this in the only way it can be done – by putting our lives on the line and to mobilize millions throughout society to drive out this fascist regime.
RefuseFascism.org has put out a Call:
“ON NOVEMBER 4TH, 2017 IT BEGINS. We will gather in the streets and public squares of cities and towns across this country, at first many thousands declaring that this whole regime is illegitimate and that we will not stop until our single demand is met: This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime MUST GO!”
Leading up to Nov. 4 and beyond, campuses across the country have to be erupting. The university must be a zone of defiance and civil unrest. It is dangerous and criminal for us to do nothing, in the face of this situation, using the logic of “my studies” or “my career.” This logic leads in a direction of facilitating and being complicit in the horrors this regime is unleashing. Instead, we must declare to the entire world that we are rising up on the right side of history. We must unite with everyone who can be united, with all of our creativity, conviction and courage and raise our voices when the costs are high.
Join the Refuse Fascism National Student Task Force. Read this Call to students, and
email [email protected] with your thoughts on the call and why you want to join the student task force.