RefuseFascism Cleveland caravanned on Saturday April 4. 7 cars, each covered with signs:
- “Trump is an American Virus”;
- Provide Personal Protective Equipment for all health workers;
- Ensure health and safety from the virus of all those in jail, prison, or ICE detention camps;
- Immediate release of everyone not convicted of a violent crime, and of asylum seekers and families; Trump/Pence Out Now;
- Provide aid and protection for humanity globally, not just for Americans, based on international co-operation, not competition;
- #OUTNOW; @RefuseFascism.
We drove through a significant part of the city; through a couple of grocery parking lots, 2 housing projects, a big lakeside park, and the downtown jail – keeping the cars very close together, honking continually. People responded with a lot of enthusiasm wherever they heard/saw us. We found a tremendous hunger both to find a way to resist and to just understand what the fuck is going on with the virus. Both these things were really visible in the projects. People hung out their windows, shouted their unity – reading and yelling out the demands, asked for signs. A group of women came out to the cars, volunteered to bang pots and pans on Tuesday.
At the jail, we were able to stay in front of the place for 20 minutes honking and shouting to the prisoners – who joined us by pounding on the windows. This kept up for the entire time we were there. Many people took photos wherever we went and we met and spoke with a couple of health workers who volunteered to go to RefuseFascism.org and sign/circulate the statement. It was a challenge in places we stopped to keep people separated by 6 feet – people wanted to ask questions and wanted to join in. Several people made the point that they don’t trust anything coming from the government (or their employers), don’t know how to protect themselves or anybody else.
We made plans to go back to the projects and to the jail on Tuesday evening during the #TrumpPenceOutNOW day of action to bring pots and pans and call people out. We’re also going to bring signs to give people – and take care to distribute them only while keeping 6 foot distance. We also plan to keep this up at least weekly in different parts of the city so long as it is possible. If the shoots we saw today can be fed and spread the vision of people acting “in place” and in numbers could take root pretty quickly.
We had 7 cars, 5 with just 1 person, 2 with 2 people. We think in cities like this one it could be effective with as few as 2 or 3 cars – determined to make a lot of noise and with a lot of signs.
Car Caravan in Cleveland 3/31
Trump is an American virus, it’s time to break the silence! pic.twitter.com/QjNzMntGa3— Refuse Fascism Ohio (@RefuseFascismOh) April 1, 2020