November 20, 2019
For immediate release
Contact: Mari Matsuoka 323 574 3997
Contact: Larry Everest 202 556 3906
RefuseFascism.org
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Permission to use video footage upon request
Students at UC Berkeley Reject Ann Coulter’s
Nazi Program for Ethnic Cleansing: #OutNow
Refuse Fascism Student Held On Trumped Up Charges and Excessive Bail
Over a thousand students at UC Berkeley came out in fierce opposition to a speech by Ann Coulter. Students marched in a picket line and mass protest at the front door to Wheeler Auditorium for over 3 hours, making entry very difficult for Coulter’s hardcore followers. Hundreds also blocked the back doors to Wheeler. Chants rang out: Trump/Pence #OutNow!
During her speech, when Coulter started talking about Trump’s white supremacist wall, she was disrupted by a student and member of Refuse Fascism who stood up in the audience and called out: “You want to make America white again!” As she was being unjustly dragged out, she yelled: “You are a f–ing racist Ann, you are a f–ing Nazi.”
“This outpouring from UC Berkeley students should be an inspiration for students across the country. These students are fighting for the future up against the virulent fascism of Ann Coulter,” said Atlas Winfrey, of Refuse Fascism. “A parade of fascists are speaking on college campuses across the country building a fascist student movement.”
“Coulter came to UC Berkeley to promote the myths of ‘white genocide’ and spread anti-immigrant terror,” Winfrey continued. “This assault on immigrants by the Trump/Pence regime is the linchpin and battering ram of a broader fascist agenda. Coulter is part of a fascist movement pushing Trump to move further and faster.”
But Coulter’s message and the fascist program she’s fighting for was met with something very different at UC Berkeley.
“Trump’s unleashing racist hate, he’s building up a police state, Trump Pence Out Now!” rang across the campus.
Alex Hernandez, from Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club, LA said, “This kind of mass protest needs to spread, growing broader and more determined. It’s the only way we’re going to stop a Trump/Pence catastrophe. We need to be in the streets, ultimately in our millions, in mass, sustained, non-violent protest until our single unifying demand is met: Trump/Pence #OutNow!”
Another chant in the midst of the mass protest at the doors of Wheeler was “Ann Coulter wants ethnic cleansing, we say no!”
Seven people were arrested. The student with Refuse Fascism who spoke up inside Wheeler Hall was brutalized by the UCPD, now being held on $60,000 bail with outrageously trumped up charges.
Watch a facebook live video of the disruption here.
Refuse Fascism has called for mass meetings Sunday, in major cities across the country, to plan the next steps in #OutNow! Go HERE for full Call. Go HERE for times and places of the meetings.
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