Just want to thank the Refuse Fascism national office for your advice to focus this 4-day weekend on solving 2 problems:
1) People are agonizing about all the sharpening ways this regime is advancing, and they don’t know about Nov 4 and the plans for protests day after day and night after night—AND their decisive role in this; and
2) We must make significant advances in organizing new people to become organizers for Nov 4, bringing in many more of those who are agonizing and looking for a way to act.
You’re not the only one that feels like this! If we stick together we can change things. This is our world… pic.twitter.com/LlCrdm35m5
— #NoFascistUSA (@RefuseFascism) October 22, 2017
There were only two of us yesterday from the Detroit chapter. We went to the Eastern Market, and went over that advice before we started. We were getting on the same tip, but this made us bolder. We told everyone who was interested that we are using this weekend to blast out and asked them to be a part of it, to take palm cards and the pamphlets, and to make donations. We got out hundreds of palm cards and almost all the pamphlets we had. Unfortunately, I didn’t count the pamphlets beforehand, but at least 150 and probably more.
Some street vendors put cards on their tables. A tour guide with a bus of people from Europe took a bunch. We ran into him later and he said he needed more materials – he had gotten all his out. A woman and her 16 year old daughter took some to get out into their neighborhood, as did a number of other people. One woman was attracted by our t-shirts and thanked us for being out there. She started crying when she talked about the effects of Trump and immediately pulled out $20 when we told her that donations are an important way of contributing. She took cards and pamphlets for her and her husband to get out. A couple of girls who looked to be in their teens, working with a non-profit, sought us out to ask what Nov. 4 is about, and took materials. We’ve also posted a couple of videos on our Facebook page of people, including a man who began agitating loudly. He attracted people immediately. Afterwards one of us overheard someone asking another if they had heard of November 4.
We got three pages of names, but more than that took materials. We promised to get in touch with everyone in the next few days. Most, but not all, were Black
My personal experience was that a lot of the Black people we ran into are deeply, deeply hurt and enraged by what is happening to Puerto Rico, and brought this up.