From a RefuseFascism.org Volunteer:

Taking RefuseFascism.org’s Message Into #NationalWalkOutDay

March 19, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Hundreds of high schools all around the country walked out to take a stand against mass shootings and demand gun control, including walkouts in some of the “red states.” In some places it was contentious and people had to defy authorities to walkout.

There was a real sentiment of defiance and determination, joy and loudness and openness to RefuseFascism.org’s message: This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! Many felt like refusing to accept a world where people are fearful to get murdered in their classrooms or to live in fear.

When I first walked by Borough Hall in Brooklyn, there was loud cheering and chanting, and it electrified everyone walking by. Politicians were speaking, trying to rope things into certain bounds, saying, “Yes, protest is good but we really have to get out there and vote.” I talked to students about how right  they were to be out there, but also that they are coming of age in the time of a fascist regime and what this is and what it means, and we have to take responsibility for changing the whole world for the seven billion people on this planet. I told them not to listen to what they tell you, that voting is not how fundamental change is made, it’s made through mass independent action, and we have to drive this regime from power through protest. And as I laid out the content of what is happening, people were like, yes the world is really fucked up.

I recruited youth on the spot to get out an entire roll of stickers with RefuseFascism.org’s message and also to do chants and record videos. Some of them asked me to send them the pictures and videos so they could share them on Instagram. Even when we got this small crew together, it became an attractive force and one kids started yelling and jumping up and down shouting FUCK DONALD TRUMP, FUCK DONALD TRUMP.

  

Later, I went out to Union Square and almost all the high school kids who I talked to participated in the walkout. One young woman who went to a school for children of the UN diplomats said they had done an action in the parking lot of their school but there was controversy because the students really wanted to get out there and march, and felt stifled by not being allowed to. She was from France and she said, we protest there all the time but at the same time, we need to reach those in power to make them listen to us.

Another group of young immigrants didn’t want to talk much but took stacks of flyers and started getting them out with a great deal of enthusiasm. They really wanted stickers but I didn’t have any left.

There were also people who I talked to very briefly who took stacks of flyers to get out at their school tomorrow. Two young women said they were really reflecting during the 17 minutes on how these lives are getting cut short and how sad it was because it seems so unnecessary. So there is also a sobering look in confronting that anytime our lives can be cut short and then the importance of connecting this up with ALL the ways this regime is moving to cut people’s lives short.

  

Even if people get some sense of this in a beginning way and the role they can play in ending this, through mass protest, you can see how people could take a lot of initiative with this. And students are beginning to get a sense of their own power, even if in very embryonic forms and even as there is still a fight from those on top to keep things within a certain bounds, which highlights the importance of the statement from youth and students in RefuseFascism.org which students WERE reading when we gave it to them.

Los Angeles

Someone from the Revolution Club spoke at the rally at Prospect Park and a high school RefuseFascism.org organizer spoke at her school and announced a meeting after school. At first when she began speaking, people listened quietly, but when she started talking about the crimes the U.S. has committed around the world and throughout history – from slavery and genocide to lynchings and the invasion of Iraq, Vietnam, Haiti and other places – the crowd of several hundred students erupted in cheers. It’s not what they came expecting to hear, but when they heard it they felt it deeply. The only bigger cheer she got was when she called on her peers to join her in driving out the Trump/Pence Regime.

We only scratched the surface in reaching some of these youth with the message so we are organizing to get out to the high schools this week to really get the high school students to take up this message en masse and to be spreading it on social media.

I don’t know if everyone in our movement fully gets the significance of these walkouts and why it is important we get out with our full message to all these young people right now, as they are really starting to sense their own power and think more deeply about the world and the future.

I was happy to see great pictures and some video of RefuseFascism.org mixing it up with students in Los Angeles. I know we are smaller than we want and need to be, but really pushing out to these young people right now, uniting with them but also challenging them to broaden their horizons and fight for all the people who are living in the “line of fire” under the Trump/Pence fascist regime, is part of how we TRANSFORM this situation. We should dive into this moment as a part of our overall work to get in a position to drive out this regime by late summer.

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