Lillian and Mark from the NYC Chapter of Refuse Fascism were inside and outside the Kavanaugh hearings. Here’s what they did, and why:
Lilian: Kavanaugh will confirm Trump as a fascist dictator
I was in the second wave coming in of spectators at the hearing. As soon as another dissident stopped talking I stood up and did my thing. I stood up — I’m not used to doing this kind of thing — there were all these flashbulbs going off. I said “With all due respect Senator, do not let Kavanaugh become a member of the Supreme Court. He will confirm Trump as a fascist dictator. For the sake of humanity refuse fascism.” As I said this the police were hustling me out.
A German Facebook friend of mine said I was on German TV! But I doubt if anyone could hear what I said because the Senators were talking over the activists.
We were all taken to a processing place, a police wagon, and we waited there — I had to miss most of the hearing — I was either waiting to get in or detained. All of us who were detained were all in the same place. We were all pretty high on adrenaline. We were handcuffed for three hours. There was no air conditioning.
Why did I do this? There’s multiple dangers. The danger of depriving us of our rights. And probably the scariest to me is locking down the Trump administration as fascist. For young women of course it’s Roe v. Wade. For women in general, including me, it’s lowering the position of women in general. And the man lied, according to many of the commentators. He lied under oath, and that is very scary, that someone like that would be on the Supreme Court.
Mark:
I wasn’t arrested but I was outside protesting with Refuse Fascism. Basically at the entrance to the building, and then across the street they had a line, kind of a tent thing, and they would bring in maybe 20 people at a time, throughout the hearings. That happened Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Outside the hearing you had a line of women who had traveled – a group from Alaska! from Arkansas! Lots of women from the Women’s March. I brought my guitar, and did my song “Fuck You Donald Trump, New York hates you.” This time I added a line: “Stop Brett Kavanaugh.” I started a chant, “Stop Brett Kavanaugh.”
I talked to a lot of people, specifically on the danger of Brett Kavanaugh. It’s suspected that with his confirmation to the Supreme Court abortion will no longer be legal in the U.S., and that means women will start dying from illegal abortions. So, women are very concerned about their right to do as they choose with their bodies. Roe v. Wade was obviously an issue that brought a lot of women down. And an issue very important to me, and to other people: Brett Kavanaugh is on record saying Nixon could have been handled differently – he seems like a Nixon sympathizer. His sound bite: A president can’t be indicted. So let’s say the Mueller probe takes two years and has everything they need on the man in the White House… guess what? It won’t matter because the Supreme Court decides you can’t indict a president, so you’re still stuck with a fascist.
Where I differed with a lot of people on line, as I was signing people up for Refuse Fascism, was about voting. I was able to turn a lot of people on to the point that the vote actually brought us this problem, and our system of government can no longer be trusted to protect us and provide us with a humane way of governing. But the thing I ran into with people from the women’s march is they are mad, they are ready, and that means fill out the circle and vote. My desire is for people to get in the streets and demand removal. That worked in Armenia most recently, and in South Korea. But people are too comfortable in this country, and born and raised in a country that tells them to go to the ballot box. So I tried to educate people – voting a good process to exercise but we are in control of our lives. Why is it when we have a problem we look to elected officials to solve it for us? That doesn’t make sense. We should be fighting our own battles, and especially now because our future is in danger because of elected officials.
I’ve been in the fight for a long time and it’s good to be part of that. Refuse Fascism was out in Union Square Friday night, and I have to say a majority of people were out there taking selfies and stuff. But our future is at stake here. Look at the environment! In D.C., I met so many amazing people ready to go into that hearing, to go in and raise hell. It was inspiring and rejuvenating.