On Saturday, October 19th, the organization Refuse Fascism called for a nationwide announcement to bring hundreds, then thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands of people into the streets week after week until the single unifying demand is met: Trump & Pence – OUT NOW.
At the march in New York, Andy Zee, spokesperson for RefuseFascism.org speaking in front of the image of #OutNow in front of Trump Tower said, “This regime should not go on one day longer, 2020 is too late. We’re not here to follow that routine of assemble, march, go home and live your life. We have to get out and stay in the streets, disrupt business as usual, not only for ourselves but because humanity demands it.”
In Los Angeles, the protest was encircled and repeatedly disrupted by a a gang of overtly fascists Trump supporters. As non-violent demonstrators rallied on the pier, these MAGA fascists charged into the center of the rally assaulting people with fists and potentially-lethal bear mace. All as police stood by and only began to intervene after being pled with by a legal observer and horrified bystanders.
This escalation of violence by fascist thugs against Refuse Fascism comes after the outrageous infiltration of Refuse Fascism by the LAPD (approved at the highest levels), the coordinated persecution of UCLA activists who spoke out against Trump Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, and the incitement by a sitting president at Nuremberg style rallies against the press, the impeachment process, immigrants, demonstrators and numerous other groups targeted by this regime.
This IS fascism in action, attempting to nip in the bud the mass protest that increasing numbers of people see is necessary. After Charlottesville and the murder of Heather Heyer… after mass murders from Pittsburgh to El Paso and beyond, committed in the name of defending “our borders”… after the ramping up of penalties on the state level for free expression and moves on the federal level to investigate as “domestic terrorists” those who oppose fascists… such attacks on the right to assemble cannot be tolerated. A line HAS TO BE drawn. And we all have to draw it.
We, the undersigned, will not sit idly by. We demand that the right to protest be protected and we call on everyone to join us at the next demonstration – this Saturday in MacArthur Park, 2pm to raise our voice in support of its single unifying demand:
Trump/Pence – OUT NOW!