This past Saturday, Refuse Fascism, working with others, marshaled over 250 people to surround the White House with yellow crime tape. They stood for over an hour, stretching more than a mile, and shouted their demand that Trump Must Go… NOW!

The first thing to say about this demonstration is this: if determination, energy, creativity, fierceness and love were all that was necessary to do that huge task of driving the orange Hitler from power, the four to five hours in the street this past Saturday might well have done the job. 

But as the organizers themselves made clear to everyone, more—much, much more—is needed. The point and purpose of Saturday’s action was to take the next step in building the movement needed to achieve that critical goal, Trump Must Go NOW! 

Imagining What Is Needed… and Working to Make It Real

Andy Zee took the microphone and made a request:

I'm going to ask you to shut your eyes for a moment. That's good. Imagine a sea of people. From here, to the White House, to the Capitol, to the Supreme Court, to every institution, creeping beneath the ground, shaking the ground, getting underneath the Potomac River to those people still in the Pentagon who have some degree of upset about the removal of Black and Latino and women and trans from the forces and are disgusted by the idea of waging war on the soil of America and fighting against the very people who make up this country. We can shake these institutions. Every day, we need thousands of people in the streets of DC. Now, not next year, not waiting to see what's going to happen, but now, the hundreds of you need to become thousands to become millions… 

[E]very one of you is now a leader. And you're not just leading your friends and your neighbors. You're leading the remaining people of conscience in these institutions here. And you are telling them not to comply with the norms of society, but to do what needs to be done to remove the regime. You are telling people who resist ICE, keep it up, but get in the streets of DC at the same time. You are telling people who are feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, keep it up, but get to DC because you are not going to Trump-proof one city. You are not going to Trump-proof one state. The political power of a fascist regime is living across the street that needs to be evicted. 

In fact, there are not just millions, there are SCORES of millions who abhor this regime from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet. More than a few, from all walks of life, have risked their necks going right up against the criminal sadists of ICE. Thousands and millions more have been “showing up” in other ways.

Why We Absolutely Cannot Wait

But the vast majority of those people who detest Trump have not—yet—been won to see that all these outrages are part of a comprehensive approach to transforming society, in a rapidly accelerating way, on an actually fascist basis. Not just “authoritarian”—but fascist. Sunsara Taylor provided the kind of powerful agitation needed to bring that home to people:

We are not in normal times. We are in a time when the fascist tyrant in the White House already incited one insurrection, pardoned the insurrectionists as his number one act on day one of his regime, this week pardoned 77 more of the people who tried to steal the election. His movement has packed election deniers into key state offices to oversee the next elections in 18 states....

Not only do we not have time to wait a year and a half for new people in office, immigrants whose families are being shattered now do not have time. Trans people whose rights are being erased now do not have time. The planet that is being destroyed right now does not have time. Science and medicine that is being dismantled now does not have time. The academy and the universities that are being purged of any discussion of gender and race and the actual fucking history of this country do not have time. The legal sphere that is under attack with law firms being extorted by this regime does not have time. 

So not only do we not have time, you have to be smoking something to think that you can have him respect an election he loses. So we cannot wait for the midterms and we cannot count on the midterms. We have to act now. 

The Challenge to the Sidelines: Get on the Field

Jim Keady put the challenge to everyone who recognizes the fascism in the White House but still does not act to step out of their comfort zones: 

For the people who are not here and are at home today, we hear you… We hear you if we have personal conversations. We see what you post on your Facebook pages, your Instagram posts, threads, smoke signals, whatever you use. We know that you're saying that you believe that Trump is a fascist... We know that you're saying that you believe he's consolidating power, that he wants to crush dissent, weaponize the courts, weaponize our military against our own people in the United States. 

You know this, and you have your reason or your multiple reasons on why you, too, believe that Trump must go now. And if you believe that, if you believe that in your core, you need to ask yourself, if you believe that fascism is currently sitting in the seat of power in our White House, what is more important for you on a Saturday afternoon than saving our republic from that fascist regime?... 

I'm not saying these words to admonish you for the folks who are not here with us today. But it is a challenging invitation from a coach. Coach Keady is telling you it is time to get off the sidelines. 

At the end of hours of marching, those in the crowd who clustered around to not just get organized themselves, but to become organizers of others, began to form the living answer to that urgent call. Plans were made to organize people to come out Monday, November 17 and then the Monday after, as well as to the Remove the Regime demonstration this coming Saturday. These demonstrations, taken together, must build the power of the people to drive OUT this regime.

What will you do?