RefuseFascism LIVE: For Everyone who feels the urgent need to End the Nightmare of the Trump/Pence Regime: How to Prepare for What Happens on Election Day
You can join this webinar on YouTube (Refuse Fascism channel), Facebook or Twitter (@RefuseFascism).
Election Day is upon us. No one can predict exactly what will happen - What we do know is the air is thick with threats from Trump and his followers that there will not be a peaceful transfer of power. We have witnessed trump declare the vote will be announced election night and lie about the legitimacy of mail in ballots.
Refuse Fascism has for 4 years seen this coming and has a plan that meets the existential challenge of this moment. 4 more years of a regime that imperils the people of the world and the planet itself is not an option. Fascism is NEVER legitimate.
This webinar will feature Sam Goldman from the RefuseFascism.org editorial board and Andy Zee, co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org and host of the RNL show who will present Refuse Fascism’s plan for the election and how you can organize people to be in the public Square on Election night - watching the returns with the RF team and being together for whatever happens. Learn about plans for the publication of the Refuse Fascism Pledge as a full-page ad in The New York Times. $50,000 is needed by Wednesday at NOON.
Join Sam and Andy and bring your friends - no experience necessary - just love for humanity and determination to not stop until they are GONE. Trump Pence Out Now!
Podcast with Andrea Chalupa:
Taking to the Streets Challenges the Dictator's Legitimacy
Writer and filmmaker Andrea Chalupa, co-host of Gaslit Nation podcast, talks with Sam Goldman about the Trump crime family, the crucial need for mass mobilization to stop the consolidation of fascism in the United States, and the critical next few days in the countdown to Nov. 3 and the following week.
"Even in the unlikely event that Trump is defeated by popular and Electoral College margins so large that he can’t semi-credibly contest the outcome, the wannabe fascistic dictator will remain in position to do unthinkable damage for eleven more weeks. The world can’t wait until January 20th, 2021 for the defenestration of this lethal lunatic." (Read on here)
Paul Street is a journalist and author (his latest book, Hollow Resistance. Obama, Trump, and the Politics of Appeasement, was just published by CounterPunch Press), and he is a member of the Refuse Fascism National Editorial Board.
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To Refuse Fascism and everyone who feels the urgent need to end the nightmare that is the Trump/Pence regime:
Election Day is upon us. The atmosphere is thick with threats from the Trump/Pence regime that there will not be a peaceful transfer of power, but rather a theft of the election – a “continuation” Trump called it … in reality, if they remain in power for 4 more years, it will be catastrophic for humanity with a leap in their fascist program.
At the same time, tens of millions of people are flooding to the polls to defeat Trump and they are filled with both hope and dread. The stakes could not be higher, and people feel it.
Refuse Fascism went into this fall calling for people to take to the streets everyday – gathering in the “City and Town Squares.” We struggled hard for people to recognize that facing a rolling theft of the election, and virulent MAGA caravans, rallies, and outright armed intimidation at the polls, requires mobilizing our side, a broad coalition of diverse forces learning, working, and acting together. While most people took to voting for now, and said to themselves and us, “we’ll take to the streets when Trump loses,” Refuse Fascism and those who responded to our call made real impact by “disturbing the air” with cages that people stayed in in Downtown LA, dramatizing what is being done to immigrants in our name. And, all across the country, in the Women’s Marches and during the illegitimate rubber stamp confirmation hearings of the theocratic patriarchal Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Refuse Fascism organized “Handmaids” to dramatize the stakes of this and the Demand: Trump/Pence Out Now!
Now the elections are upon us. While we can’t completely rule out that there will be something that happens that causes the dam to break before the election and millions pour into the street, that is not likely now, and we need to prepare for the momentous struggle if Trump cries the election is a fraud, attempts to shut down counting the votes or in other ways nullify the election.
To do this we have a 2-fold plan:
[1] To continue from now through Election Day and likely beyond with making our central gathering places that are magnets for people who want to act. We should continue to develop creative and bold non-violent actions that disrupt business as usual and wake people up to the reality that Trump Is Already Stealing the Election. We Need to Vote. But Voting Alone Will Not Stop Trump!
[2] We need to be preparing for the 5 Days from Election Day, November 3 through Saturday November 7.
These 5 Days are going to be crucial should, as is likely, the Trump/Pence regime move to steal the election. Trump will demand a winner be declared on Election Night – knowing full well that Democratic Voters who follow the science of how to protect from COVID will have disproportionally voted by mail. They will move to end the counting. Fascist Fox News Network will sow doubt and confusion. MAGA militias and mobs will be in the streets. The first 5 days must not go unopposed. Millions of people must be moved to act. Orders from the regime to institutions responsible for delivering and counting the votes to stop doing so must be ignored and defied. The Demand TRUMP/PENCE OUTNOW! must be everywhere. And it has the potential to resonate even more widely as a demand against the illegitimacy of the regime’s theft of the election.
In this situation – and particularly in these first 5 days … there has to be a clear pole – a rallying cry, an expression of feet on the streets, that is focused on the single demand: Trump/Pence OUTNOW! What will be unfolding before people is that the institution that they wanted to and did rely on – voting – is, like so many other institutions and norms under this fascist regime being torn up and subverted by the regime. In this situation … while it will be necessary and right to join in demanding the votes be counted, simply relying on the “normal processes” of counting could very well “legitimize” a Trump victory, as he and the Republicans have changed many of the “rules of the game” and will do so even more. From its founding, RefuseFascism.org has said that a fascist regime, whether it comes to power by “fair” or foul means, is always illegitimate. This underscores the importance of massive numbers of people acting together in non-violent protest – not just reactive to the regime’s moves or to the Democratic leadership’s calls to “let the process play out,” as Biden said in the debate, but to insist on our demand. Then, the processes and institutions could be forced to respond, to concede to our demand that this regime must go!
Our Plan is this:
Tuesday, November 3: Election Night!
At 6 pm ET, gather together online for a live webinar to watch election projections and returns and hear commentary from Refuse Fascism Editorial Board members. Hosted by Andy Zee and Coco Das. Where weather permits we will watch in the “public square.”
At 9 pm ET, go to the site of daily OutNow protests in the central square for vigils and gatherings to unite, discuss, plan, and organize. And, to be ready to take to the streets.
Wednesday, November 4
This is the day that many groups have called for protests at 5PM. Gather people in the square at 4pm with Trump/Pence Out Now banners and signs and march as a group to other planned protests, with the demand throughout: TRUMP/PENCE OUTNOW!
Thursday, November 5 and Friday, November 6
Stay in the streets to stop a fascist coup and demand Trump/Pence Out Now, with bold creative actions exposing the towering crimes of the Trump/Pence regime and the stakes for humanity if they are allowed to remain in power.
Saturday, November 7
This will be a day of massive protests around the country. A time when we must flood the streets and fill the squares across the country to overwhelm this fascist regime and movement with OUR numbers and heart for humanity.
The hour is late. For over three years, the Trump/Pence regime has brought an unrelenting barrage of insult, injury, and atrocity, with catastrophic consequences for all humanity.
There are times in history when a people must reach deep into their collective conscience and act with extraordinary moral courage to stop the crimes of their government.
There is a way to stop this. We will follow our conscience, sound the alarm, and organize so that it becomes possible for thousands to take to the streets across the country in non-violent sustained mass protest demanding Trump and Pence Out Now, growing to millions, and staying in the streets until our demand is met. This is not the easy road, it requires sacrifice, yet our actions will reflect our love for humanity, in stark contrast to the hate and bigotry of the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and create a serious political crisis for the ruling powers, leading to a situation where this illegitimate regime is removed from power.
WE MUST ACT to make this real. The hour is late, but it is not yet too late.
WE PLEDGE that we will not stand aside while there is still a chance to stop a regime that imperils humanity and the earth itself
These are the stakes: Will more children be tortured, more migrants locked in concentration camps, more white supremacist vigilantes emboldened to "stand by" to terrorize voters, more tens of thousands dying unnecessarily under this science-denying, woman-hating fascist regime? Or will we finally say Enough! and take to the streets, non-violently, with determination not to stop until they are driven from power.
Join us this Saturday, Oct 31, 2 pm, Federal Plaza.
Bring children's and yes, baby shoes to remind everyone of what is being done in our names. And pick up your organizer's kit to bring more people into this movement!
"My Grams was one of those people I loved to make laugh. She was a mighty woman who left an indelible mark on the women in my family. Myself included. I think of her when I fold a fitted sheet or make “Gramma eggs,” our family’s name for “egg in a basket.” Her atoms can be felt in every one of my and my sister’s films and was a huge inspiration for the Oracle in the Matrix trilogy. At the very end of her life, one of the things she said that carries wistful weight in our family’s lore was, she wasn’t afraid of dying, she just wanted to know the rest of the story, to know what was going to happen.
"As we approach the crucible that is the 2020 election, this moment of our potential unmaking, I am at a loss when presented with the idea of what happens if Trump denies the will of the people and refuses to honor a peaceful transfer of power.
"And then what happens?
"That is the question that leaves me tossing and turning in bed at the darkest hours of the morning, my brain in free fall reaching out for purchase, grasping. The strange event horizon of this post-election moment in its unknowableness is unsettling." (read more)
We urge you to read Lily Wachowski's entire essay that appeared today on Lithub.com, and then join us in non-violent protest tomorrow and every day until this fascist regime's rolling coup has stopped and they are driven from power.
I am calling on everyone who hears this to join me Monday in protesting the attempt of the Trump-Pence regime and the Republifascist Senate to implant the Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. Here’s why:
“The rule of law was not openly and formally abandoned altogether, but the 'law' and 'the rule of law' became the same as what Hitler and the NAZIs said it was. Much of what Hitler and the NAZIs did, during their reign of terror and genocide, was 'in accordance with the law'—law that they had reduced to nothing more than their barbaric aims and means, murderously enforced by institutions which had been stripped of any meaning or purpose other than what conformed to and served the NAZI agenda, reduced to nothing more than instruments of NAZI atrocity.
“In the whole of what Trump is currently doing—including his open calls to overturn Supreme Court decisions and precedents (for example, to outlaw abortion and punish flag burning), along with his repeated violations of the law and due process of the law and his insistence that he is the law—we can see the looming shadow of even more overt fascist dictatorship. For that is what fascism is: open and aggressive dictatorship, trampling on and perverting the rule of law, relying on violence and terror, on behalf of the predatory capitalist system and as an extreme attempt to deal with profound social division and acute crises (both within the country and in the global arena).” Bob Avakian, in his August 1st Statement
As soon as Monday night, if her confirmation is not stopped, Amy Coney Barrett could be sworn in as a Justice to the Supreme Court, locking in a firm fascist and theocratic majority on the highest court in the land. This would be a major leap in domesticating the courts and the 'rule of law' into an instrument of fascist atrocity. Immediately, this would provide Trump with another valuable weapon in his drive to steal the elections.
Longer term, there is little doubt that her tenure on the court will see a wholesale assault on the rights and lives of millions.
The Christian fascist movement that reared Amy Coney Barrett and backed her ascension to the Supreme Court has never reconciled itself to the hard-fought social advances of the last fifty years and more. Beneath their gauzy obsession with of the so-called “rights” of the fetus lies a thousand-years-old hatred of women, an Old Testament view that women deserve punishment in the form of forced motherhood and servitude to their husbands and fathers. It is not incidental that during her confirmation hearing Amy Coney Barrett refused not only to affirm the Supreme Court decision that granted women's right to abortion, but even to affirm the decision that granted the right to birth control.
Beneath their rhetoric of “family values” lies a drive to cast LGBTQ people back into the closet and strip them of recently won rights and protections to their families, healthcare, jobs, housing and more. Beneath their talk of “religious freedom” lies their insistence on their “right” to use the state impose their Christian fascist bigotry and denial of science and climate change on the rest of society and world. And pulsing through all of this is the ugly white supremacy that sits at the foundation of this country and has led to a situation where, as the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has analyzed, the Bible Belt in this country has always doubled as the Lynching Belt. Part of the rush to confirm Coney Barrett is to lock all this in place so this can be carried forward regardless of who wins the upcoming election.
More immediately, as soon as Tuesday, Amy Coney Barrett could become part of Supreme Court that acts to put a stamp of “legitimacy” on a fascist theft of the upcoming election.
Trump is preparing violent thugs – inside and outside of power – to enable him to hold onto power regardless of the results of the election. He would rather, however, win outright – or at least with enough confusion and “lawfulness” that he can claim a second term and mandate “legitimately.” He has openly admitted that his rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is to ensure that the Court rules in his favor should the election be contested.
Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer Prize winner who covered the Supreme Court for 30 years (and who I interviewed on The RNL Show), detailed a recent case over whether to count certain late-arriving mail-in ballots in the swing state of Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court deadlocked, 4-4, allowed ballots to be counted if they arrived within three days of the election in order to accommodate the historically high level of mail-in ballots during a pandemic. It is reasonable to expect that had Coney Barrett been seated on the court already, this provision would have been struck down and many valid votes would have been thrown out. We can expect many such challenges in the days ahead. Republicans have an army of lawyers ready to contest ballot any place doing so would be to Trump's advantage.
With Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, Trump could be relieved of the need to outright refuse to leave office in the face of a clear electoral loss. Rather, he and the Republicans hide their theft under their insistence that “we leave it up to the courts,” knowing full well that they've been stacked in his favor. For her part, during her confirmation hearings Amy Coney Barrett gave us every reason to believe she'd be an eager instrument of Trump's election theft, refusing to acknowledge that it would violate the Constitution for Trump to postpone the election, refusing to affirm that armed voter intimidation is against the law, and joining Trump in refusing to endorse a peaceful transfer of power.
With all this at stake – both the long-term consequences for millions and millions of lives and in the near-term ability of Trump to steal the upcoming election – it would be wrong to treat this, even at this late hour, as a “done deal.” There are enough people – millions throughout society, stretching to the powers-that-be – who truly oppose and even hate what Amy Coney Barrett stands for, and can be mobilized, or compelled to move, to STOP this nomination!!
WE HAVE TO ACT, NOW!
In a situation this fraught, no one can say in advance what kind of impact the people can have when we act boldly and with moral clarity. And the more powerfully we act against this, the more we can stamp and render her confirmation as illegitimate if it does go forward – building our strength and creating a much stronger basis to call forward even greater numbers for the greater political battles ahead.
TODAY Monday, across the country, we must go into the streets in protest.
Here in Washington, DC, we will amass tonight at 5:00 pm at the Supreme Court. Many of us will dress as Handmaids, representing and opposing the theocratic nightmare this regime and confirmation will bring. Wherever you are across this country, go to courthouses and public squares:
WE NEED TO VOTE, BUT TRUMP WILL NOT BE STOPPED JUST BY VOTING!
Join the OutNow! Movement & Protest Every Day
Saturday October 24: Join and organize MASS PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES Nationwide To Protest and Demand: Trump/Pence OutNow!
Here is basic schedule for the week ahead
ALL of these activities will aim at recruiting more grassroots organizers AND building for the Assembly on Saturday, Oct 24, 2 pm at Federal Plaza.
Monday: 4 - 6 pmFederal Plaza -Speaker's Corner,
Tuesday: Noon to 1 pm - Evanston Trump/Pence #OUTNOW rally with drums. Handmaids welcome!
Tues 4 pm to 6 pm - Federal Plaza -Speaker's Corner, with drums
Wednesday: 4 to 6 pm, Pilsen! [To be confirmed] meeting at the same intersection (Blue Island & 18th) in front of the market there.
Wed 4 pm to 6 pm - Federal Plaza -Speaker's Corner
Thursday: 4 - 6 pmFederal Plaza -This is the day the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to approve Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court,
and performance where we call out the crimes of Trump's Christian Fascist Wannabe Hit Woman---AUNT AMY---election stealer, climate denier, voting rights suppresser, patriarchal enforcer of women as incubators.
Friday: 4 - 6 pmFederal Plaza -Speaker's Corner,
Friday: 4 - 6 pm Andersonville(To be confirmed)-
Saturday: 2 pm - 4 pm, Federal Plaza Mass Assembly: Trump is stealing the election, we need to vote but Trump will not be stopped just by voting! (See the full statement here)
The hearings on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court opened Monday. Refuse Fascism joined with other groups to protest at the Court at 8 am and engage in civil disobedience at the doors of the Senate. "At stake in this confirmation is not only the tipping of the Supreme Court towards a fascist majority – thereby transforming the highest court in the land more fully into an instrument of fascist atrocity – but this confirmation is part of the fascist coup the Trump/Pence regime is carrying out right now." The Republican Party is barreling ahead with Amy Coney Barrett's installation on the Supreme Court to solidify the Christian fascist majority that will gut the rights of LGBTQ people, women, Black and Brown people, immigrants and all who do not fit their Make America White Again agenda. And Trump has openly declared that he wants his pick installed on the Supreme Court before the election so he'll get a rubber stamp on a second term regardless of the vote count that they are actively suppressing.
Yes, the situation IS urgent and we all must act to wake people up! Join us
* On Thursday, October 15, Refuse Fascism is holding rallies in cities around the country to demand "No Fascist Court! No Fascist Coup!" Join us at 4 pm, Federal Plaza (Adams & Dearborn), Chicago. Facebook event to join, invite, share.
* On Saturday, October 17, join the Refuse Fascism contingent at the Women's March. Meet at 11 am at Federal Plaza!
Volunteers have dropped everything to go to DC for these historic protests, in the midst of a pandemic. They are there for all of us, and they need support from all of us, for Metra cards, meals, a roof over their heads. Please donate whatever you can, every dollar is greatly appreciated!
Sun, Oct 4, 2 pm Federal Plaza, Dearborn & Adams Mon, Oct 5, 4-6 pm, Logan Square CTA stop, Kedzie & Milwaukee Tues, Oct 6, 4-6 pm, Pilsen, 18th & Blue Island Wed, Oct 7, 4-6 pm, Federal Plaza, Dearborn and Adams Thur, Oct 8, 4-6 pm, Hyde Park, 53d & Lake Park Fri, Oct 9, 4-6 pm, Andersonville, Clark & Berwyn Saturday, Oct 10, 2 pm Federal Plaza, Dearborn & Adams
Thursday, October 1, 2020
2 pm Saturday & Sunday October 3 & 4
Federal Plaza, Dearborn & Adams
It’s on: The Struggle for the Future Will it be fascist or, will we act on our conscience?
October 3rd We Begin Non-Violent Protests that Continue Day After Day From Now Through the Elections
United by the Demand: Trump/Pence OUT NOW
We face a rolling coup barreling to a showdown on November 3. The Trump/Pence regime has said and shown that they will not abide by an election they lose.
It is the regime—Trump, Pence, Barr—who have raised the specter of insurrection and sedition. It is the regime that is tearing up the rule of law. It is the regime that demonizes and brutalizes immigrants, Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, women, LGBTQ people, the media and peaceful protesters. It is the regime that opposes science, leading to a country and a plan- et burning and drowning, and to unconscionable unnecessary death and illness from COVID.
We face a critical crossroads. The hour is late, but not too late. Relying only on our voting will lead to disaster. The Trump/Pence regime is subverting the election now and preparing to nullify it. Waiting to act till they do so will be too late.
Trump’s MAGA mobs maraud around the country in water and land caravans; they murder protesters and innocent people by guns and by their cars. They spread COVID. They are inflamed with passionate reactionary intensity. All for the purpose of rousing their followers and intimidating and demoralizing all who should be standing up for justice.
Now we must act. Beginning Saturday, October 3rd, gather and bring your family, friends, and community into the public squares of cities and towns across the country in non-violent protest unified by the demand: Trump/Pence OUTNOW! And, come back in waves, day after day. This is possible. We saw this in June and early July where people came out every day for justice for Black Lives. Now, that struggle, and every struggle, and the lives of millions of people hang in the balance. In our diversity, with our multiplicity of causes and demands we must come together and reach out to others to join us, recognizing that should the Trump/Pence regime remain in power it will be a disaster for every just cause, and most of all, for the lives of peo- ple here and around the world.
We will act on our principles, modeling the world we aspire to in contrast to the bigotry and hatred of this fascist regime. We will act together with creative joy and with the conviction and courage of standing together not only for ourselves but for all humanity.
