From a Refuse Fascism activist in Philly |
The objective of the Refuse Fascism Contingent in the Philadelphia Pride Parade was to raise a singular unifying demand that the Fascist Trump/Pence Regime Must Go. We aimed to unite all who could be united under that banner, bringing people off the sidelines, turning people into organizers and training people to be leaders on the spot, and making clear to everyone there that the only solution is mass sustained protest day after day until they’re gone. We did just that. We arrived at the parade as a group of six people. On the basis of the message “NO! We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America –Trump/Pence Must Go” we grew our numbers more than 10 fold.
On the way to checking in with the Parade organizers, a crew of four young radicals recognized us and helped us transport all our gear. We had some good quick discussions with them and three of them started circulating the Refuse Fascism Call to Action right away. This was just the start of bringing people into this movement in meaningful ways on the spot – something that characterized the whole day. At the Check-in, we put together our banner reading: “No! Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime” with “RefuseFascism.org” on it and raised it high into the air, announcing our presence on the way to our designated spot. Some folks had come to the parade anxious to connect with us after marching with us last year. We had also phonebanked through many of our contacts that we’ve collected, prioritizing those who we met at last year’s Pride Parade, the Trans March, the Trans Health Conference, and Outfest and we met up with a couple of those folks. Before the parade started we distributed maybe a hundred stickers, and sold 8 or 9 of the Indestructible Protest Signs, calling on people to dig deep in their pockets to support the work of Refuse Fascism. A couple of other contingents took some of the signs as well to be part of their own display.
Around this time another Refuse Fascism organizer was setting up a table we had reserved in the festival at the end of the parade. There she sold T-shirts and signs and stickers to connect people with this message and raise money to fund the work that Refuse Fascism has set out to do.
By the time we started marching, we had a solid crew of 10 that stuck with us the whole march. We had discussed our chants and agitation beforehand and decided that we needed everyone we met to hear and see this central demand – and so we decided that instead of varying the content of our chants, we would chant “Trump/Pence Must GO” in two different rhythms to keep people engaged and hyped. To a lesser extent, we used the NO! Chant and variations on No Trump/No KKK/No Fascist USA! Pride parade viewers were consistently called on to join the Refuse Fascism Contingent. Dozens of people grabbed signs, stacks of stickers to distribute, flyers to pass around, and dragged family and friends in to march with us. As our banner and signs saying, “No! Drive Out the Trump/Pence Regime” over the new rainbow flag were held high for blocks you couldn’t even hear the contingents’ chants as thousands of spectators whistled, screamed, raised fists and drowned us out with support. Some of us were passing the call to action out as quickly as we could to people on the sidelines. But considering the crowds in this section were about 10 people deep we started throwing small stacks towards the back of the crowd on either side, using the wind to disperse them. We weren’t sure if this would work but people started jumping up to get their hands on it. We kept doing this until we ran through about 1500 copies of the call with our next mass meeting info on them, about 5 blocks in. People were hungry for this message.
After about 2 blocks, the crowd thinned just barely but enough that we could be heard with our loudspeaker over the cheering. This is when we were able to start really getting people to join us. We were able to mix in agitation with our chanting and people came into the streets in groups of two and three, took up signs donating for them right away, and starting chanting with us. This was very powerful for many young participants for whom this was their first political act. At a time when so many people have normalized .
After a few more blocks, we had reached a solid crew of about 25 and the Parade began to stop and go. We were able to catch our breath, reorganize our materials, and get people signed up during the pauses. We also now had a chance to “practice” our performance for the Judges, which more importantly meant performing for the crowd. We had everyone take a knee with a fist in the air and we did a call and response:
In the name of humanity!
We refuse to accept!
A Fascist America!
This nightmare must end!
The Trump/Pence regime must Go!
You are needed!
Join us!
Refusefascism.org!
And then we rose to the call and response: Trump/Pence must go! Trump/Pence must go!
Shortly, we turned the corner onto Market Street where the parade spread out and we could see the judge’s booth. We practiced a couple more times, interspersed with chanting and agitation. At one point one of the agitators approached a crowd of high-schoolers watching the parade and asked them “do you want to get rid of Trump and Pence?” They screamed “Yea!” We responded “How are we gonna do that?” The kids were sorta stumped – they didn’t know what to say. So we said “by getting y’all and everyone you know into the streets, let’s go!” and motioned for them to join us. And they did! We peaked at approximately 60 people as we approached the judge’s area. Here we gave the performance with stunning clarity and determination and with power. As we rose up chanting, two people came out in front, pulled out a Trump flag, held it up for everyone to see, and then tore it apart with their bare hands. People went crazy.
The crew that we had gathered was multinational, overwhelmingly young, from all over the city and surrounding area, and many joined in as groups. Throughout the course of the day there were two people who had a problem with us being there. One woman told us to lay off the mic because “this is Pride, not a protest.” People corrected her with enthusiasm – not only did Pride grow out of outright rebellion, but when we’re facing a fascist regime consolidating power, we gotta get loud and out a stop to this! Later, another man came up to one of our organizers and said “well, ya know, some of us gay men like Trump.” He said this to say that we shouldn’t be so strident, that we shouldn’t think we speak for everyone. The organizer wasn’t going to back down from that, announcing to the crowd that “this guy says he supports Trump!” He promptly ran away with his tail behind his legs as people booed him. In this place, in this moment, the leadership we provided hit people in their souls. We modeled the kind of unapologetic, righteous expression of rebellion that needs to sweep across this country and it was contagious. For many, it was like a switch flipped on their face when they saw us and saw our demand. Once people let themselves feel that for just a minute, it leaves a lasting impression. But it was more than just saying Fuck Trump. It was the recognition that people are getting organized to actually drive him out that I think hit people, and it challenged many of them.
As we marched towards the end of the route, a Refuse fascism representative got on the mic and told everyone who joined us that they were all organizers now, talked about how we need people organizing every school, every neighborhood, every suburb, even Delaware. We told people that everything they need to get started is on the RefuseFascism.org website. And to sign up and be in touch with the local chapter. We had people call out back to us when and where our next mass meeting was. At this point the rain finally started and we finished strong, chanting all the way to the festival at the end of the parade.
This was a good day. The demand that “Trump/Pence must go” reached tens of thousands of people in a powerful, memorable way. More than a hundred people cycled through our contingent at one point or another getting in the street, often for the first time, to support this demand. But we can’t ignore that there was much more that could have been done. While we enlisted people in meaningful ways, we need to expand our organized core. Especially in regard to getting people signed up and gathering donations we had the capacity to harvest only a fraction of the support we had garnered. And due to lack of funds beforehand, we had only been able to print 2000 copies of the call to action for both the parade and the festival. We went through the allotment for the parade before we were halfway done.
When we arrived at the end of the road, Westbrook wannabes were gathered outside the festival with their bullhorns and police escort. It was telling that the police willingly protected their rights to speech and assembly while the beginning of the march they had tackled and arrested a young woman for trying to burn a “Blue Lives Matter” flag. People were already there chanting “fuck you” to these Christian fascists. When we arrived we started a chant of “drown out the fascists” and we in fact did drown them for a while as we got more sign ups and tried to talk to some of the folks who marched with us. And after creating this wall of sound and signs blocking the fascists from hearing and from sight, bringing more and more people up to the police line, they decided it was in their best interest to pack it up and go home. We won this small battle using the only power we have – people in the streets refusing to accept fascism. Now we have to take all this forward to win on the largest scale and drive the fascist Trump/Pence Regime from power.