The Trump/Pence Regime Is a Catastrophe for Humanity and Is Stealing the Elections
WE MUST ACT NOW!

October 26, 2020 | revcom.us

 

This is a very lightly edited transcript of the speech that Andy Zee gave at the Refuse Fascism Public Protest-Assembly in Los Angeles on October 24.

You, All of You, All of Us, We, who are gathered here today are the catalysts... we’re the spark plugs, we’re the triggers, we’re the inspiration, and the magnets, and the organizers of what must become hundreds and thousands and millions who take to the streets day after day in nonviolent mass protest... who by our words... and by what we do and say... and what we put on the line, that: “not one more day must this regime of white supremacists, of anti-women and anti-LBGTQ theocrats, of xenophobic torturers of children and families, of police-state bullies and murderers, of genocidal racists and anti-science lunatics who are killing the planet and hundreds of thousands of people by their arrogant ignorance—no longer should they be allowed to rule this or any other country. There ought to be a golf course in hell with a never-ending sand trap for such people.

I want you to leave here today with two points to think about and act on.

First, the Trump/Pence regime intends to stay in power by any and all means, including stealing the election, and should they succeed it will be a catastrophe for humanity. And I do not use the word catastrophe lightly. The recognition of this is what brought you here today.

Second, the second thing you must leave with is that We MUST ACT NOW! Others have spoken of this. We must not wait until the regime actually steals the election, but be in the streets now putting before the whole world the horror that this fascist regime is bringing and the rightness of our cause and acting in every way we can nonviolently to stop it. TO STOP A COUP YOU NEED TO ACT BEFORE IT IS CARRIED OUT. We can defeat this if we dare to face the truth of that, and to organize ourselves to meet this threat. Coups can be defeated. But NOT by pretending they don’t exist. But only by sounding the alarm in ways that people will not ignore and then preparing people’s minds and organizing them to act accordingly.

So, leave here today committed to act in creative ways that provoke masses of people to not turn away from, but be inspired to act themselves and to organize others to join us and to be a part of the mission of the OUT NOW MOVEMENT which is, again, to act together in sustained mass protest to do what? To demand what? Trump/Pence OUT NOW!

We must vote in big numbers, but if that is all we do, the outcome will most likely be disastrous. We need to put our hearts, our minds, and OUR BODIES on the streets.

We have 10 Days. Ten Days in which it is not an exaggeration to say that the struggle over the future of humanity will go into high gear. And that fight has begun.

WE ARE NOW in the MIDST of a ROLLING COUP—A STEP-BY-STEP THEFT—the GRABBING AND STEALING of an ALL-OUT BLATANT DICTATORIAL POWER WITHOUT ANY SEMBLANCE OF DEMOCRATIC OR CIVIL LIBERTIES BY THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME.

This will mean a qualitative change in the world that we, that you, that everyone lives in.

Right now, they are doing everything they can to deny, to purge, to make as difficult as possible, and failing that, to intimidate those who they fear will vote against Trump—Black, Latino, Native American, and many others. If on election night or the day after if Trump is behind, or he loses, the regime has said outright, and they have shown, in what they are actively doing, that they will do anything and everything to complete their coup and to steal the election. They will bullshit—creating the facade of going through procedures of counting votes while in reality they will be working to disqualify votes; they will be sowing doubt and issuing threats from Trump while their thugs take to the streets. Their TRUMP card (and quite literally so) is the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett that’s scheduled to be rammed through the Supreme Court this week, because their plan is to take their disqualification of the votes for Biden into the state legislatures, into the county boards, then take it through the courts they’ve packed with fascists and then go all the way up to the Supreme Court where they have now secured a majority to ram through this election and bring about a theocratic fascist America.

They have packed these courts with judges who want to return outright to the original Constitution which objectively ratified slavery, didn’t consider Black people human, didn’t give women any rights, and in fact justified the theft of the land and the genocide of the Native peoples. This is what “Originalism” actually is.

The theft of the election is not just after Election Day... it is, as I said, underway now.

But, do not think that Trump might not “win” an election that he has already begun stealing. Do not be drugged by these opinion polls. Such a result would still be illegitimate and MUST BE OPPOSED. Fascism—all that has already been experienced, at the pain of cages, at the pain of concentration camps—all that has been experienced over the last four years is always illegitimate.

And fascism is always illegitimate whether it is brought to power by fair or fraudulent means—and it’s already been fraudulent. THIS, TOO, IS ANOTHER REASON WHY REFUSE FASCISM AND THE TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW MOVEMENT ARE CALLING FOR PEOPLE TO BE OUT NOW EVERY DAY!

***

I began by saying that if the Trump/Pence regime remains in power it will be a catastrophe for humanity—perhaps our very survival. The world is in great turmoil now... big power rivalries are sharpening, regimes all over the world are facing acute crises, not the least of which is the COVID pandemic.

It is unconscionable and of acute danger to have a pathological narcissist with no capacity for empathy, who espouses a genocidal racist program to have his finger on the nuclear trigger with the capacity to incinerate the world.

More, this anti-science regime—that will likely soon include a Supreme Court justice who along with Trump and Pence DENIES the SCIENCE of GLOBAL WARMING—would, if they remain in power, foreclose quite possibly the potential of slowing or reversing global warming and thus burning, and drowning, and suffocating life on this planet.

The STAKES are that high. It IS an existential moment for humanity.

THE HEART OF THE FASCIST PROGRAM IS THREE THINGS: WHITE SUPREMACY, THE HATRED OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THE ASSERTION OF THE MOST TOXIC MALE SUPREMACY AND SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN AND DIFFERENTLY GENDERED PEOPLE THROUGH A THEOCRATIC FASCISM AS LAW ENFORCING PATRIARCHY.

I will say this: What we have seen thus far with this regime is but the tip of an iceberg should they remain in power. This is something everybody has the responsibility to contemplate, to think about and to then act accordingly.

Donald Trump is, as the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has said, a GENOCIDAL RACIST. Mike Pence is no different. Mike Pence, and the movement that he leads, takes the Bible literally. This is a Christian fascist movement that would impose a Handmaid’s Tale on the humanity of women and LBTGQ persons. And maybe the sisters over here in those Handmaid costumes [pointing to those in red cloaks] can stand up for a minute. THIS IS REAL... this is who they are... this is what drives the movement that celebrates vigilantes who MURDER people fighting for Black lives, taking to the streets so that Black people are not routinely and wantonly gunned down by police and disproportionately killed by the COVID virus.

What kind of depravity, deliberately as a matter of OFFICIAL POLICY, ORPHANS LITTLE CHILDREN? 545 IMMIGRANT CHILDREN, TORN FROM THEIR PARENTS WHO WERE SEEKING ASYLUM FROM THE HORRIFIC CONDITIONS IN THEIR COUNTRIES THAT WERE LARGELY CREATED BY WHAT THIS COUNTRY DOES AROUND THE WORLD AND IN LATIN AMERICA? And, now they can’t locate their parents? This is not a bad policy, this is not inhuman. THIS IS TORTURE, straight up. On top of the tens of thousands in concentration camps, detention camps, on this side of the border, with even worse and the most horrific conditions on the other side of the border as the regime, in violation of international law and the right to asylum, throws people back across the Rio Grande border, as human refuse.

NO ONE should accept this. There is no election that can or should tolerate this. And to be complacent in the face of this, to fail to act in the streets, to not do more than just vote, is to be complicit and to collaborate with a great crime.

And this is not just invective and drama for a talk; this is real, very real. And it’s going to get acutely real should we fail to act and do what we have to do. AND THIS IS WHY WE SAY: In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!

***

That is what we stand for. Living this is what we must do and what we must be.

We are not standing out here, the few of us today, to look good, for ourselves, for our group. This is not about us. This is about the world. This is about humanity. When stakes are that high you can’t be worried about how few you are, but know that you’re right and that you reflect what people are actually experiencing and feeling deep in their heart but don’t want to acknowledge... that you have to stand on that and maybe people will come out if you continue to fight hard enough. And in any case it is the thing you should do if you are to be a human being.

And, as I said, we are here because Trump Is Already Stealing the Election. We need to vote, but Trump will not be stopped just by voting!

We are standing together to put our hearts and our minds and our bodies to this task, to the cause of planning, protesting, and organizing to drive a regime from power.

I have said that we are in a rolling coup. A coup that is coming to a head through the election. So, what do we do and when do we do it?

Coups... which are the theft of power... are stopped:

[1] when people plan and when they act BEFORE the coup; and
[2] when people act together in the streets, forging the unity and determination through the hard work of waking up a society to what is required in addition to voting;
[3] and, most importantly in so doing—in being out every day—we establish before the eyes of the world the righteousness of our demand. Through our words and most importantly through what we do, we put forward a pole that represents—that concentrates—the reality that millions of people feel and anguish about, and demonstrates in WORD AND DEED what must be done if justice is to prevail and the regime that is bringing a great disaster down on humanity—the people here and all around the world—is removed from power.

This, people must see from what we do. And they must see it now. They must see it going into the election.

And let me ask you this: Is that not what Refuse Fascism did in front of the Supreme Court putting on those Handmaid’s uniforms, and at the women’s marches all around the country? The brutal, women-life-denying Amy Coney Barrett, that Aunt Lydia... And that was put before the world. And what you did, and what the women who are wearing the Handmaid’s uniform out here did, is still sitting in people’s minds. Do not be deterred by what the immediate response is. People are having to live with you representing the reality that is to come. And the same goes for the cages.

The next 10 days really can count to put the pole of TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW! on the map, to compel, to inspire people to see that voting is not enough, to recognize that waiting until Trump actually moves to steal the election will weaken the forces of resistance. To see that if we start acting now, OUR SIDE can gain initiative, we can be “the story” in the news now... rather than Trump’s lying bullshit and his QAnon, COVID-spreading rallies. This is what people need to see. We’re not telling anybody not to go out now and organize people to vote, to help them get to the polls and to make phone calls. But if that’s all you do, the story is these fascists on the news. There’s no heart for our side. All of you here, and what we have done, is giving that heart and that’s seeping into the conscience and consciousness of people. And don’t underestimate the effect of this. And yes, what we’re going to do today is talk about why we’re doing this, how to do it, and how to get prepared for the next 10 days.

We need to awaken and organize hundreds and thousands to act now. We cannot predict what will happen tomorrow or next week that could cause masses of people to pour into the streets. You don’t know that and I don’t know that and the people who say it’s not time don’t know it either. We cannot even say for sure that people will act if and when Trump moves to steal the election. But what we can say, is that if we don’t PREPARE NOW, if we don’t ACT NOW, that will weaken and politically disarm people to understand the enormity of what we face, and why voting alone will not be enough.

The Handmaid’s protests, the cages, the kids’ shoes are all a part of “disturbing the air”—making people confront what is happening in their name... and all of this must be tied back to the demand of Trump/Pence OUT NOW!

We also have to dramatize and we have to act to defend the right to vote right now and not let those thugs who in their camouflage costumes and very real weapons have threatened and murdered people for protesting to demand Black Lives Matter. We cannot allow these people to come out and intimidate and discourage Black and other people from voting. We must not let them sabotage and suppress the vote in counties where people like this live. This too, today, is part of preparing for the kind of struggle that will come should he steal the election.

If and when the Trump/Pence regime with the backing not only of their MAGA thugs, but of the Republicans in state governments and the courts across the country, move to steal the election, our struggle will include protesting and uniting with the demand that they not be allowed to disqualify and deny the votes that are for Biden.

But, the struggle to remove this regime cannot just be reactive to the moves of the Trump/Pence regime and the response of the Democratic Party of Biden to that. We, who represent the interests of people in this country and around the world, must act in our interest, which is that the Trump/Pence regime must go! That is not negotiable. There is no compromise with four more years of a fascist America—for that will be a horror for humanity.

Think about this, this is very important. We cannot just be reactive to what the Trump/Pence regime does and the reaction to that by the Democrats. You saw what that brought in the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The Republicans rushed it through, the Democrats said we don’t have enough votes to stop it, they hardly put up a fight, they raised some questions and did some exposure, and then they said it’s a foregone conclusion. Well, I said this before, and I’m going to say it again, it’s not even in this written speech: but just imagine if there had been 10s of thousands of people in the Washington Mall and in city squares all through that nomination how might have things turned out differently? And I’m going to tell you this. It won’t be any different if he steals the election and they say let’s let this county board decide, let’s let this court decide, let’s stand in front of this place, which we of course should do and force them to be honest, shine the spotlight on them. But if we don’t get out there and fight in our interests, which are the interests of humanity, to demand the Trump/Pence Regime Must Go—they must be gone from power. We must not be just reactive, we will be proactive, proactive for the people of the world.

So I’m going to close where I began. The Trump/Pence regime will be a catastrophe scarcely imaginable.

They are stealing the election now... and we must intensify our efforts and make these next 10 days really count before the election and send a beacon far and wide that now is the time to act and not stop taking to the streets until this regime is gone.

Say with me:

In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.

In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.

Now let’s get busy and get to work.