From RefuseFascism.org
There is Only One Guarantee
July 7, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Is your protest going to be big? Will it bring out all the groups and the people that need to come out? Will it lead to something better? Will it be safe? Will it succeed?
These are some of the questions people have asked, in various ways, as we spread the call for July 15th nationwide protests. These questions have probably occurred to most of us at one time or another. Will this work? Is there an easier way, a better way? Am I risking too much for too little? Some even go on to tell us why we won’t succeed. They say, Americans are too passive. Things aren’t bad enough yet. What you’re calling for is too extreme.
Here is a hard truth. As much as we hope for success, as much as we work day and night to mobilize the thousands and ultimately millions of people that can defeat this fascist regime, we don’t know that all of the planned July 15th demonstrations (now in 14 cities) will be as big as they need to be. No protest since the Women’s March has been able to guarantee that. We cannot guarantee that fascist thugs won’t show up to these demonstrations and attempt to surround us, as they did at the impeachment march in Austin, Texas on July 2nd. We cannot guarantee that all the major organizations will endorse what we’re calling for. We cannot guarantee that these demonstrations will change the momentum of the resistance, which has been pulled in many different directions so far.
Every one of us is being called on to make hard decisions right now, knowing that these decisions have repercussions beyond our immediate spheres of influence, beyond, even, our own lifetime. We should not make them lightly. But our decisions should not be based on what everyone else is doing, or on what is most likely, in our minds, to succeed. Our decisions should be based on what is true and what is right. Without that, all we have is self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you have read the entire call for the July 15th demonstrations, if you agree that it is an accurate reflection of what is already happening and what is further being threatened against immigrants, against Black and Latino youth, against women, against the poor, the elderly, the disabled, against LGBTQ people, if you are indeed raging at the emboldened racist xenophobia in the name of America First, if you are inspired every time you see people rising up and resisting, and if you can imagine the power of people flooding the streets to say we refuse to spend one more day accepting a fascist America … that is what your decision should be based on. Not a wish for others to step out first. Not a promise no one can deliver.
Think about the future that Trump and Pence are promising. A future in which the environment is past the tipping point of being able to sustain life, in which women have no rights to control their own bodies, in which LGBTQ people are forced back into the closet, in which people of color are terrorized by white nationalists, in which the poor, sick, and disabled have no safety nets and are left to fend for themselves, in which there is no free press and there are no checks and balances. We can and we must stop them from cementing this nightmarish future right now.
Is our success guaranteed? Of course not. But if we don’t set our sights higher, we will continue to accept the unacceptable, and if we don’t make the choice, as individuals, to do everything we can to form this united front to drive out this regime, there is a guarantee of failure, and with it an intolerable future for humanity.
No one who is building this movement should be making empty promises. But if we are all compelled to make our decisions based on what is true and what is right, there is a chance, a great chance, that we will succeed. And in the course of this we might find that we don’t need any saviors. We don’t need things to get worse before they get better. We don’t need the perfect conditions to act. We don’t need to impose limits on what we can achieve. All we need is ourselves and each other, throwing in together and coming out that much closer to the future we want.
July 15 Protest and Demand: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!
Find the protest near you. Facebook.
Get a free email subscription to revcom.us:
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.