On February 10 students and supporters held a “UW Stands In Solidarity Against Hate” rally at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle. This was to counter the fascist “Freedom Rally” being held there by Patriot Prayer and the University of Washington College Republicans club to, in their words, “…stand up for freedom in a far-left University.” Choosing order over justice, UW issued a letter telling students that there was “… credible information that groups from outside the UW community are planning to join the event with the intent to instigate violence.” and that students should stay away. To further accommodate the fascist rally, the school canceled other events on campus that day including a Black history month event and a fashion show inclusive of all gender identities.
It was in this climate that up to 500 students and supporters rallied and protested against about 75 fascists. This “Freedom Rally” had nothing to do with free speech. It was about suppressing the right of students and others to refuse to accept a fascist America and prevent them from taking responsibility to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power. It was an attack on DACA recipients and other immigrants, Black people and people of color, Muslim students, LGBTQ students, women, critical thinking and progressive faculty. The fascists claimed “free speech” and that they were not racist or white supremacist out of one side of their mouths, while also saying they identified as white nationalists and that diversity was a weakness. A well-known Christian fascist stalker held a sign calling the rainbow flag, being gay, having an abortion, or having pre-marital sex “evil” and calling on people to “turn to Jesus.” A fascist from another Washington state college who was in the torch-bearing White Supremacist rally in Charlottesville was reportedly yelling at the crowd about Heather Heyer, the woman that was killed in Charlottesville. “You shouldn’t have blocked traffic, Heather,” he shouted, according to a reporter from Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger. The same reporter said she was denied a press pass by the College Republican’s lawyer (from a nationally known reactionary law firm) because The Stranger had correctly characterized their rhetoric as extremist. The rest of the mainstream press shamefully promoted a “conservative rally about free speech” narrative, taking zero responsibility for doing any investigative journalism.
Counter-protesters chanted “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Patriot Prayer Has Got to Go!”, “Power to the People, No One is Illegal”, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA”, and “Black Lives Matter”.
One speaker at the Solidarity Against Hate rally, a Refuse Fascism representative, said:
“To resist, and actually drive from power, a fascist regime that is hell bent on consolidating fascism in this country. That is the mission of our generation, to not allow that consolidation. It is an illusion to think that more and more fascists like Patriot Prayer and all their homeys, are not going to become more empowered and aren’t going to come to where the people are living. It is already happening to those who are most vulnerable among us…These are the shock troops that are in the service of a fascist regime, that is going to go after the entire world.”
On the subject of free speech, she said “These fools (pointing to fascist rally), they don’t understand anything about what the constitution actually says about protecting free speech…it has to do with protecting the right of the PEOPLE, to protest against GOVERNMENT repression, against government stifling of speech. And these people (pointing to fascist rally) are WITH the fascist regime that’s in power, they are backed up by the government. And their speech is not being suppressed, it is being amplified! So let’s go out there, and let’s drown them out, with a positive message: We refuse to accept a fascist America, we’re gonna drive out your whole fascist regime, we’re gonna go for your leaders that are in the White House (cheers), hands off immigrants, hands of refugees, hands off Maru Mora, hands off Ravi, hands off Black and brown people, hands off LGBTQ youth… Your courage means something to the people of the world!”
A quote from this speech was aired by a local news affiliate: “Let’s drown them out, with a positive message: We refuse to accept a fascist America, we’re gonna drive out your whole fascist regime!”
The fascist rally itself WAS largely drowned out by peaceful protestors performing chants and noise making, and also holding banners and signs. A few people held and took photos with signs expressing solidarity with targeted immigrants rights leaders Ravi Ragbir and Maru Mora-Villalpando. The fascists did not march as planned.
The police helped the fascists tightly control access to their police-provided barricaded area, but allowed roving groups of fascist provocateurs to come in behind the assembled protestors and start fights. Media reports that police arrested five people. These appeared to be mainly people protesting against the fascists, and included a street medic treating people for tear gas used on people by police.
The counter-rally started off as mainly community members and political groups, but more students began to gather across the next few hours. Although our ability to talk with students was limited due to the somewhat chaotic situation, and some of them making it clear they were only curious bystanders, other students wanted to connect with a movement like Refuse Fascism and expressed seeing it as obvious that it was necessary to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power if there was to be any hope of stopping the growth of fascist rallies like this one. Other political forces who don’t see the Trump/Pence regime as fascist expressed the dangerous illusion that the people are winning and stronger than the fascists because we are the majority–completely ignoring and miseducating students about what it means when a regime with a fascist program has state power. Afterwards, one group of students said they thought it was worth doing, even if some people on our side were arrested, because we had to show other students and people who were too afraid to come because of fear of being shot or injured by fascists, that there was opposition to what Patriot Prayer stood for and being allowed on campus.