From RefuseFascism.org:

Presenting Refuse Fascism at a Democratic Club

October 10, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From someone who is taking November 4 out to organizations

We had the chance recently to present Refuse Fascism’s proposal for November 4th—for sustained protests that begin on that date and grow and persevere until the Trump/Pence Regime is gone—at a local Democratic Club. This is in an affluent and highly educated city with an active Democratic Club. The club’s membership is active in Democratic politics and spans those who are more conservative Democrats and Hillary Clinton supporters to Bernie people.

A member of the local chapter was invited by someone he had recently met at a local cultural event and who had themselves been traveling to help campaign for Democrats in states where there have been recent contests. He did a brief presentation on Refuse Fascism and the call for November 4th drawing on the uncanny parallels and lessons from Germany and why we say Trump has assembled a Fascist Regime that is working to consolidate this in America and why the whole Regime must be driven out through non-violent mass mobilization from below. We passed out Refuse Fascism's broadsheet to the audience of 15-20 people.

40 minutes of discussion ensued as people asked questions and debated the proposal and each other since there were very different views among them. Many of the people were receptive and welcomed the proposal on the 4th—with questions about how to organize this in the brief time before November 4th—and wanting to know if we had been able to involve other organizations like Black Lives Matter and Indivisible. People thought the anniversary of the election is a good date to pick for this—harkening back to the Women’s March and the climate now 8 months later. They wanted to know how we were planning on dealing with white supremacists who may attack the march or provoke violence. One person thought we needed to go to DC and occupy Congress.

There were those vociferously opposed to the call for the 4th who thought it preposterous & that the only way is to vote him out—and this was just ginning up people anxieties about Trump and over-inflating the situation. There is not going to be martial law and people should not let Trump get in their head—they should be keeping their focus on local and state elections.

Others thought that it was not out of place to discuss the possibility of martial law raising how many people here—when they heard about the Las Vegas mass shooting said to themselves “I hope it was not somebody Muslim—what would the situation be if this was an act of terrorism?”

People wrestled with the situation and each other—with one person raising that the danger is not just an incident that might precipitate a crackdown of some kind – but the deeper structural problems in our democracy—the shifts in the US population and the fact that soon 70% of the Senate will be determined by 30 percent of the population—as well as all the redistricting and gerrymandering the Republicans have been able to establish—that make it so that we cannot elect the people we want . There was discussion over going outside of the norms and the normal democratic process as needed.

The person chairing the meeting shared their own personal feelings that at the outset she worried this might be more conspiracy theorizing—but that the case the local Refuse Fascism speaker made contained things she could not refute—and thought this had been an important discussion.

There is much to follow up on but our host felt this had been a very productive discussion and one that they’d really not had for months—that this was a time for reflection and re-evaluation about what we are going to do to actually STOP this.

We think this is likely only one example of the kind of agonizing people are doing about the developments in the last 8 months and is a mini micro example of the kind of debate that the Refuse Fascism proposal for the 4th can provoke in society—and more importantly the change in the whole political atmosphere that is not only needed—but that could result from actually succeeding in the plans for the 4th—and putting before all of society the actual and practical and immediate demand for the whole of the Trump Pence Regime to Go. This coming from the people of the US would mean a great deal to all of Humanity!

We think—as we follow up—we should be doing much more and that other chapters of Refuse Fascism should be reaching out broadly and presenting to organizations like this.

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