April 1, 2018
Trump’s recent appointment of a team of torturers, war criminals and eager-to-be war criminals – coming on top of more than a year now of the regime’s fascist assault on many different sections of the people as well as many norms and institutions of society – make the mission of RefuseFascism.org more urgent and necessary than ever before.
People all over the world need for us to succeed in, very soon, launching a movement of sustained mass nonviolent protests that start with many thousands and grow to millions and do not stop until the demand – The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! – is met.
To this end, it is of tremendous importance that we now have a new Call to Action. This new Call captures in a single piece the scope and magnitude of the danger we face 14 months into a fascist regime and compellingly puts forward the only way that this can be stopped.
This Call provides a unified understanding and mission around which RefuseFascism.org can go out and struggle to win hundreds, soon thousands, and then tens of thousands and more to the understanding and determination to act together to stop the catastrophe that is the American fascism of the Trump/Pence Regime.
The following are plans for all of us – in different parts of the country and in different ways – to work together to launch this Call with the greatest impact and in a way that builds both greater unity of will among broader numbers of people and, very importantly, greater organization and participation in RefuseFascism.org. This “launch plan” is to provide more detail and direction as to how to implement the first phase of the overall plan for 2018 which chapter organizers received two weeks ago, and which we encourage everyone to return to.
This launch plan includes a “soft launch” of grassroots efforts that begins to get the new call out hand-to-hand and prepares momentum and participation in a bigger launch on April 11, with heightened buzz, distribution, and organizing around the new Call in the two weeks to follow that.
Through this entire period, Refuse Fascism will be spreading our basic message far and wide through the Call and getting out our main slogans (This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! and, NO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America!). This spreading of our Call and slogans will be integrated with three additional things: [1] building organization and raising funds, drawing forward and involving new people through meetings, discussions, watching the film of the talk by Bob Avakian: “The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America – A Better World IS Possible.” [2] through preparing for a month of actions that will put the basic objective and message of Refuse Fascism before the world; and [3] doing all of this in the midst of the swirl of struggle against the regime around the danger of war, the assault on immigrants, and other key fronts where Refuse Fascism intervention would contribute to achieving our objective. Key in this period is stepping out with the Call, the slogans/posters and organizing masses into Refuse Fascism preparing for the struggles to come.
APRIL 11 – OFFICIAL LAUNCH
On April 11, Refuse Fascism came out with a compelling and attractive print layout of the Call to Action available for distribution and “unveiled” it online. There was a 30 minute livestream from NY Meeting that included: a dramatic reading of the call, a presentation of the national plan; and likely a short presentation on the present danger of war (about 10 minutes each), as well as a fund-pitch. The video of this launch is availalble online at the landing page of refusefascism.org.
This event launched what must grow into a much more intense, and wide-reaching effort to mobilize many new people to work together to mass distribute this Call to Action to an even greater range of people over the next two weeks. This should include a movement of readings of the call at pertinent locations – in front of Trump properties, in school cafeterias, from the pulpit, in senior centers, on trains, etc. These should be filmed and promoted through social media (and creative splices of different readings could be created to spread momentum and involvement). Chapters and organizers must plan this well so this becomes both a way to reach many tens of thousands of new people with the Call and a means to concretely organize scores of new organizers to work together with, and become part of, RefuseFascism.org as they do. This must include plans for fundraising on an even bigger scale – both mass fundraising and the development of more significant donations and regular donors.
Mass Campaign to Distribute and Get Organized Around the Call to Action
Here’s what we have set out to do:
Distribute hundreds of thousands of copies of this new Call to Action across the country, creating a grassroots buzz, growing organization, setting political terms, and garnering prominent signatories that can disproportionately shape public opinion.
Fundraising: Major funds need to be raised in this period. Millions are being mobilized to donate funds and time to elections which hold no chance of stopping the nightmare Trump/Pence are imposing. We have to aggressively and boldly go out and win many thousands to very soon become donors – one time donors as well as ongoing sustainers – of RefuseFascism.org, the one organization and movement that is soberly assessing the problem we face and has a plan to move the millions required to stop this nightmare. Donating and raising funds are one of the most important ways of strengthening this movement – enabling us to reach millions more with the funds that are raised and organizing people by winning them to become donors and sustainers and to, in turn, take up fundraising themselves. Fundraising must be woven into every activity we undertake (always shaking the can when going out broadly, for example) and there must be specific fundraising efforts planned and persevered in (phone-banking, fundraising potlucks, bake-sales, targeted outreach to develop higher level donors and sustainers, etc.).
Posters, stickers, t-shirts, hats and more. New materials are available – contact us at [email protected] to order them in bulk, or produce your own from the materials page at this site.
Social media: Unleash a campaign that wields the content of the Call (entering into hot conversations and in its own right) and calls on others to sign it. Show images of posters getting up, stickers being worn and getting out, the Call being mass distributed. Work to involve more and more volunteers met online to participate in spreading this (mass emails should also include regular instructions for spreading on social media). Fundraising intensifies – including by through sales of merchandize online.
Preparations for next phase: During this period, plans also must be developed for – and people organized and won to take part across the country in – forms of political protest and action that project this Call and its mission much more dramatically into society.