On June 24, early in the morning, a woman whom a New Yorker reporter called Luisa arrived for her appointment at an abortion clinic in a Texas city. The previous day Luisa had a sonogram at this same clinic. She was told she was less than six weeks pregnant—then the legal limit for an abortion in Texas. The law also required a 24-hour wait before the abortion. Shortly after Luisa arrived at the clinic, the staff burst into tears—the U.S. Supreme Court had just issued its ruling overturning the right to abortion.¹ Luisa was unable to get her desperately needed abortion. A few days later a friend told her of a man who could provide her pills—she didn’t know if he had any medical training or knowledge, but she had nowhere else to turn, so she paid him and took the pills. Without medical guidance, she took the pills wrongly and by the next day her vision was cloudy, and she lost consciousness. She was in pain and bled heavily for two weeks, but she didn’t have enough money to see a doctor, and was afraid that going to a clinic could result in her arrest. Luisa lives in severe poverty, trying to work and raise her children. She never told her boyfriend she was pregnant, because he would have opposed the abortion. She asked the reporter, “But how could I have another child? Not in these conditions.”

On August 30, administrators in a Texas middle school pulled a 13-year-old trans boy out of his class. They took him to a room where an investigator from the state “Department of Family and Protective Services” (DFPS) was waiting. The investigator interrogated the boy for nearly an hour “… on a range of personal questions”: his medical history, a suicide attempt several years earlier, a gender dysphoria diagnosis. His mother later signed a statement saying the boy was left “shaking and distressed.” State investigators had been sent under authority of a directive from Greg Abbott, the Texas’s Christian Fascist governor, to investigate gender-affirming medical care as “child abuse.” It is important to note that DFPS has the power to take children from their parents and to invade the home for unannounced visits.

Taking Down Names, Making Lists

On June 30, Ken Paxton, Texas’s fascist Attorney General sent out an email to Department of Public Safety (DPS) employees. He told them to “compile a list of individuals who had changed their gender on their Texas driver’s license and other department records during the past two years.” News of this didn’t reach the public until it was published by the Washington Post on December 14. According to the Post, over 16,000 changes were identified. A DPS spokesman told the Post that a “manual search would be needed to determine the reason for the changes.…”

It isn’t clear whether Paxton has ordered such a search—yet. It also isn’t clear exactly for what purpose such a list is being compiled. But it is being compiled in a context in which Abbott and Paxton have been “publicly marshaling resources against transgender Texans” and ordering the state to investigate “gender-affirming care” as potential “child abuse.” As Alexis Salkeld Garcia, a trans woman in Austin, told the Post, Paxton’s investigation is “very specifically targeted, and the one person I don’t want knowing about my gender status is Ken Paxton.”

Dozens of anti-LGBTQ laws have been filed for the upcoming legislative session. A truly Nazi-like atmosphere of violent hate against trans people is being orchestrated, enflamed, and mobilized, not just by crazed lunatic bigots, but at the highest levels of political power in the state.

Think about the implications of that. As bad as this shit is now, think about where it could go, for real—if it isn’t stopped.

Fascists in Government Criminalize Humanitarian Work

On December 14, the Houston Chronicle reported that Greg Abbott sent a letter to Paxton to use the power of the state against humanitarian organizations that help immigrants. The order empowered Paxton to “initiate an investigation into the role of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders.”² Abbott's letter also stated, "There have been recent reports that non-governmental organizations may have assisted in illegal border crossings near El Paso. We further understand NGOs may be engaged in unlawfully orchestrating other border crossings through activities on both sides of the border, including in sectors other than El Paso."

Ominously, Abbott gave himself and fellow fascist Paxton an open-ended “blank check” to investigate pro-immigrant NGOs. His letter didn’t name any organizations carrying out allegedly illegal activity, nor did he offer any evidence to support his allegations.

Abbott has orchestrated and spent over $4 billion on “Operation Lone Star.” "Lone Star" is a systematic fascist onslaught of repression, militarization, mass arrests and incarceration, and denial of basic human rights on the area along the Texas portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. A few weeks ago Abbott mobilized rifle-toting Texas National Guard members to face off against impoverished migrants, including children and entire families, as they assembled behind the barbed wire that demarcates the border.

And now this sadistic, cowardly pig is threatening people who try to provide assistance and support to distressed and impoverished fellow human beings at the most vulnerable point of their lives. Why? Because the people these humanitarians are helping are not Americans! Abbott’s repulsive call for “investigating” people who support immigrant rights indicates the extreme measures against migrants that are likely to intensify in the coming months, in the name of “controlling the border.” It also is an attempt to intimidate any people who might dare to provide even basic necessities of life to the migrants.

This must be met with determined resistance. Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, accurately said that Abbott’s statement is an attempt to “criminalize not just immigrants, but humanitarian work in Texas.”

Don’t Rely on the Democrats and Their “Established Norms of ‘Democracy’” to Stop This

Don’t count on the federal government or the Democrats to prevent the cancerous growth of fascism in Texas from metastasizing and spreading everywhere. For one thing, the federal court system,  is increasingly dominated by fascists, and on the Supreme Court they have a super-majority..

More fundamentally, in the face of the relentless fascist blitzkrieg, the Democrats are “playing by the rules” and the normal channels. The Republi-fascists continue to tear up the norms and rules that have cohered the country for 150 years and are moving towards an open, Christian-theocratic fascist form of capitalist-imperialist rule, and the Democrats and liberals weakly call for “unity,” or “clawing back our democracy.” Meanwhile, forces like Abbott and Paxton—and Texas is NOT alone—move forcefully to shatter those norms and put new rules in place. Continuing on the path of relying on the Democrats to act meaningfully against the fascist atrocities and stop the whole fascist agenda from becoming a nationwide reality is, political suicide. Moreover, across the country, dozens of states are taking similar fascist measures, and they don’t intend to stop until they have established fascist domination not just in Texas and other so-called “red states,” but across the entire country and all its institutions.

What is happening in Texas is definitely not staying in Texas.

Bob Avakian, BA, in his important article “This is a Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That is So, and How to Seize on That Opportunity” explains,

The peculiar nature of this country—with its history of genocide, slavery, and continuing white supremacy, and repeated “compromises” that have given disproportionate power (power greater than what is represented by their populations) to southern states of the former Confederacy, and other states with significant rural populations of “conservative-leaning” people—this is another advantage that the fascist Republicans have.

If this battle remains on the terms of this system, not only will there be horrific consequences overall, but this could very likely lead to a triumph for the Republican fascists, which would accentuate and accelerate the looming disaster, for humanity as a whole.

Deep Divisions, Rare Possibilities

The fascist onslaught in Texas is an expression of deep divisions and fierce conflict tearing at this country and its foul, people-devouring system of capitalism-imperialism. But in this same article, BA immediately goes on to say:

But things do not have to—and must not—remain on the terms of this system.…

There is the basis to seize on the rare possibility to make revolution, even in a powerful country like this—there can be a real chance to win—IF, among growing numbers of people who cannot stand to live any longer under this people-killing, spirit-suffocating system, there is the scientifically-grounded understanding, determination and daring to make this a reality.

For a deeper understanding of the foundations of this crisis within this system and for how to actually act on this situation, not just to avert a reactionary murderous outcome but to bring forward a revolutionary emancipating one, we urge you to go to Bob Avakian’s crucial work for this period, Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deep Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War--And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution.