Press Release
UCLA Protesters Demand Charges Be Dropped—Defy Illegal Ban From Campus
February 26, 2018
Los Angeles, CA
RefuseFascism.org
Action: UCLA Protesters Demand Charges Be Dropped—Defy Illegal Ban From Campus
Day and Time: Tuesday, February 27, at 12 noon
Location: Bruin Bear Statue, UCLA Campus, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angles, CA 90095
Contact: Refuse Fascism—323-946-1742
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Some of the heroic protestors who stood up to Mnuchin, yesterday calling 4 March 1st: WEAR BLACK! Gather and hold 11 minutes of silence for 11 million immigrants. These are our brothers + sisters! Stand with them @revclub_la @RevClubUCLA @RefuseFascism @RefuseFascismLA pic.twitter.com/hkgZvgvZDb
— Michelle Xai (@MichelleXai) February 27, 2018
Steve Mnuchin—U.S. Secretary of Treasury and member of the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist executive branch, was invited onto the UCLA campus Monday, February 26 to give the Arnold C. Harberger Lecture at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Mnuchin was the first person from Trump’s cabinet to be hosted by UCLA.
Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club members joined a range of protesters at the Steve Mnuchin speaking engagement to call out this criminal and to demand the Trump/Pence regime be driven from power by the actions of the people.
I
nside the auditorium where Mnuchin was speaking, one after the other, Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism members, including a UCLA student and UCLA alumnus, spoke out, first declaring that Mnuchin and the Trump regime “is punishing Black and Brown people and is responsible for the misery this system has put people in.” They said Mnuchin “is part of a regime that is hell-bent on consolidating fascism.” They exposed the tax-bill as “targeting people who are most vulnerable,” shouting “this is the politics of cruelty, this is the politics of fascism.” They called out the regime for “attacking people who are in poverty, taking away health care, taking away social security programs…” and declared “people won’t have anything to eat.” “Where is this money to go?” they asked—“to the military, to create more nuclear weapons, to bomb more people around the world.”
They told the crowd, “don’t go along” with this, “don’t be people who normalize or be a part of this.”
After his speech, Mnuchin revoked permission he had given to UCLA to release a video of the event, reportedly to suppress news of the disruptions. But the protests – calling out the Trump/Pence regime – were captured on video by people in the audience, got pushed out over social media video and made it into mainstream TV.
Protesters shouting at Steve Mnuchin, have now stopped lecture. They’re being taken out @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/3hKTw4MeQ0
— Josh Haskell (@abc7JoshHaskell) February 27, 2018
Steve Mnuchin being called on his plutocratic BS at UCLA. Enemy of the people! Foreclosed on 36,000 people and helped pass the biggest corporate tax cut in history pic.twitter.com/VbrkVEmOM5
— Jacob Woocher (@jacobwooch) February 27, 2018
The 3 protesters, all women, were then set upon by UCLA police. The police used excessive force, arresting them on the spot, and either carried or dragged them out of the auditorium. Video footage shows the 3 women, in handcuffs, in the building corridor continuing to be roughed up by the UCLA cops. Then, two men from Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism were vamped on outside the auditorium for chanting “Trump/Pence Must Go.” They too were brutalized by cops from the UCLA police department.
This is an outrage! Here are courageous people calling out crimes against humanity by the Trump/Pence regime and Mnuchin’s active role in Trump’s cabinet which is consolidating fascism and visiting horror on people in the U.S. and around the world. Yet they are the ones brutalized, they are the people arrested.
And now those arrested are being told verbally by UCLA police, while they were in custody, they are BANNED from campus (for speaking out against fascists and the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime).
They will be ON CAMPUS, defying this restriction, at the Bruin Bear at 12 noon Tuesday, February 27.
Tala Deloria, a UCLA student, said: “We understand that what we’re facing is a fascist regime. To quote revolutionary leader, Bob Avakian from the recent talk, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America: A Better World IS Possible, ‘Calling this regime fascist is not an insult but speaks to the terrible reality.’ He goes on to make the point that in the face of fascism, order is NOT more important than justice. This means we have to step outside the confines of protest-as-usual to stop the existential threat to humanity that is posed by this regime through massive, non-violent, determined protest.”
You can see that talk at https://vimeo.com/channels/BATalkTrumpPenceMustGo
Video of UCLA action from twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobwooch/status/968291251006013440/video/1
Video of UCLA action from Channel 7 ABC: https://twitter.com/abc7JoshHaskell/status/968290969442443264