From a Refuse Fascism activist in Philly |
We’ve been working on making a breakthrough in organizing students into this movement for a while. We set our sights on Temple University and have been doing pretty consistent outreach for a couple weeks, during the 4-6 rush between classes to reach the most amount of people as possible. We learned some things this time around, and we have the basis to make a leap.
We had a crew ofthree core members and someone who is newer, who is also a student on campus and ran into several of her friends during outreach. We set up an iPad & bluetooth speaker to play clips from the Video of a 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!, which did most of the agitation for us. To complete the stage, we taped up a Trump/Pence Must Go poster on a light post next to us.
This time around we were getting out the Refuse Fascism Call to Action, urging students to sign up, and asking for donations (it was #GivingTuesday). We didn’t have really substantial conversations to speak of. Most interactions were people expressing basic agreement with the demand. Two people passing by thought we were pro-Trump (just from seeing his name) and were like “Hell no!” But their friend turned to them and explained the “must go!” part and said they would come back around later to get calls (something else to follow up on).
One guy stopped to talk about “what is fascism?” with an organizer but from what I gathered it was from a pretty disingenuous standpoint. We ran into a supporter who had written a speech for a previous rally but couldn’t make it, and so we discussed how we were planning an Open Mic night and that we should keep in touch. One woman bought a poster & a sticker and venmoed us a donation (we’ll follow up to make sure it went through). She had expressed that Democrats getting the House might be providing some relief, but it honestly didn’t really seem like she even believed what she was saying, and in any case she clearly wasn’t hopeful about that. [Editor’s note: a timely resource:Two Defining and One Take-Home Point from the 2018 Midterm Elections).
Several students signed up, but not a whole lot (perhaps everybody should have had a clipboard during this type of outreach, instead of just one.)
Clips from the TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! film were turning heads. The new organizer noted that it was typically when they heard Bob Avakian saying something about white supremacy, nuclear weapons, immigrants, or Christian fascism. This drew them into what we were doing, rather than driving them away. People would express exasperation with the situation we’re in, and speaking about one of the many outrages that are going on. It was really important that we were bringing the fuller & broader understanding that was concentrated at the Call to Action, and most importantly, the way out this that it details.
Afterwards, we were trying to think of a place to sit down, sum things up and make plans. A lot of our discussion was focused on the Democrat collaboration with the regime that is going on right now. The newer organizer gave us helpful advice on the best places to connect with students (important to know – because otherwise the campus is locked down pretty tight.) We went over what we accomplished and the plans we were trying to make, and how we really needed to make a breakthrough and get a lot more students into this – hopefully by having a Temple chapter. We settled on a spot to use as an organizing space for now, and set plans to do outreach to the student contacts we’ve gathered for an informal meeting there in December (during “study days” where students don’t have class, and before finals.)