This Nightmare Must End—And Only the People Can, and Must, Help End It! November 4—It Begins!
October 23, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Two weeks ago, the Republican head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said that he worried that Trump had put the world on the road to nuclear war. The Republican head of the committee. Trump meanwhile rejected his own secretary of state’s efforts to negotiate with North Korea, saying that “they only understand one thing” (presumably war), and then he set in motion a chain of events that could break a treaty with Iran and end up with a catastrophe in that part of the world as well. To those who talk about elections: Will there even be a world left in 2018?
This week Trump’s chief of staff, ex-marine general and former warden of the Guantánamo torture chamber, John Kelly, went to bat and defended Trump. But that’s not all: He falsely attacked a congresswoman; he ranted about “the good old days” when the army, religion, and women were “sacred” and where those “sacred” women were not allowed to control their own bodies; and then he refused to take questions from anyone who was not connected to a military family. This is NOT civilian control of the military, this is military dictatorship. And to prove the point, when reporters pointed out to Trump’s press spokesperson that Kelly had lied, she told them it was “inappropriate” to question a four-star marine general! To those who hoped that Kelly and the other generals would prevent Trump from doing anything wrong: Now what?
The reassertion of white supremacy,1 the horrors perpetrated on women2 and on immigrants3 and on gay and transgender people,4 the destruction of the environment,5 the wanton and endless assaults on the very notion of truth... these are almost hourly.
There are millions, tens of millions, who experience this as a nightmare. But way too many of those millions have not heard that there is a way out, there is an answer—that there are mass demonstrations set to begin November 4 to drive this regime OUT... to end the nightmare. YOU NEED TO BE PART OF LETTING THEM KNOW! The stakes right now for humanity are the highest in living memory. Nobody can stand aside.
This weekend took a step toward changing that situation, toward letting people know about this. Supporters of Refuse Fascism got the word out in major cities in a coordinated way and began to impact. This must intensify. Those who hear and resonate to the message must be organized to actively spread the word themselves. The more that people see the materials announcing the 4th show up everywhere, the more that they hear about this on the news (through things like Carl Dix’s confrontation with Jerry Jones over “taking a knee” and more), or through social media... those who right now despair can be won to not just understand the stakes (though that is essential)—they can be shown the way to rise to those stakes. People can get and spread the stickers, the flyers, the brochures of Refuse Fascism; they can learn about and watch the filmed speech of Bob Avakian, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible; and they can hook up with Refuse Fascism... they can get organized for November 4 and the days beyond.
1. For example, Trump’s genocidal refusal to provide the level of aid needed by people in Puerto Rico facing a desperate situation in the wake of Hurricane Maria, even as he rates his regime’s relief efforts there as scoring a perfect “10 out of 10”; and his calling NFL players, mostly Black, who are protesting the police murder of people of color “sons of bitches” and calling for them to be fired, even as he calls the Nazi-KKK marchers in Charlottesville “very fine people.” [back]
2. One recent example: the Trump/Pence regime intervened to block a 17-year-old undocumented immigrant from getting an abortion she needed and wanted, after advocates went through extraordinary efforts to help her get permission for the procedure. Read about it here. [back]
3. In an October 20 speech in Texas, Attorney General Sessions confirmed that Trump is forging ahead to build a border wall, praised the anti-sanctuary cities law Texas recently passed, and reaffirmed other extreme anti-immigrant policies of the regime. [back]
4. As revealed in a recent New Yorker article, at a meeting with a legal scholar, when the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump pointed to Vice President Pence, who was in the same room, and “joked,” “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!” [back]
5. In early October, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, announced that the Trump/Pence regime will move to end the Clean Power Plan, a set of regulations that put some restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide—one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. [back]
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