Standing Up Against Trump’s National Emergency & Calling Bullshit on American Chauvinism and Unprincipled Attacks on RevCom

February 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From the Revolution Club, NYC (@NYCrevclub)

On Friday, February 15, the night Trump declared his illegitimate National Emergency, the Revolution Club of NYC went to a rally called by the Democratic Socialists of America and Cosecha, an immigrant rights group. About 80 people turned out. Speakers denounced the fear that immigrants live in. Some also argued against Trump’s wall from an American chauvinist perspective, emphasizing that the $6 billion for the wall could be better used for education, housing, health, and other things “that could help this country.”

The organizers wouldn’t let us speak, and in this situation of a relatively small rally, we didn’t feel like it was necessary to throw down over this. Instead, we joined the rally and talked to all kinds of people passing by.

When the rally was officially over, we raised our voices and spoke about why we were there and drew forward people who were more serious. A smaller but good crowd, some from the rally as well as some who were just passing by, gathered to listen. We agitated about how Trump’s declaration of emergency is an escalation of fascism, but also went hard at the delusion of the “Blue Wave,” “Women’s Wave,” and the Democratic Party in general. It hasn’t stopped anything—but it has got people sleepwalking as this nightmare intensifies.

We went right up against the imperialist chauvinism of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). We called out how, by placing their focus on health care, education, and housing for people in the U.S., they are just fighting for a bigger share for Americans of the wealth America extracts through vicious exploitation and plunder from the sweatshops of Bangladesh to the starvation in Yemen to the mass rapes and civil war in Congo and beyond. In contrast, we are fighting for—and what humanity needs—is an actual revolution to overthrow this system of global imperialism and bring about a radically new world for all of humanity.

This got under people’s skin in a good way. Some folks came up after and commented on really being hit by the idea that DSA was just fighting for a bigger piece of America’s imperialist plunder. There was a lot of meat to what we said, and some good calling out of bullshit in a way that connected—some folks (including some from the rally) listened raptly for 15-20 minutes and were clear that while we were in unity with standing up against the wall and war on immigrants, we were calling bullshit on the harm of some of the “solutions” being proffered.

We got into how it is the system of capitalism-imperialism that is destroying people’s homelands and forcing them across borders—through global networks of capitalist exploitation, through unjust wars, through environmental destruction. This cannot be solved under this system. The fascists have a genocidal “solution” to it and they are deadly serious and gaining momentum. But the Democrats are also a ruling class party of American empire. Not only are they conciliating and capitulating to Donald Trump and his fascism—refusing to take on his Hitler-like dehumanization of immigrants—they have also played a hideous role in militarizing the border, in criminalizing and deporting immigrants, and in making people’s homelands dangerous and unlivable in the first place.

We hammered at the truth: Only an actual revolution that overthrows this system can bring about a world without borders and where everyone—no matter where they were born, the color of their skin, their gender or sexuality, or their language—is treated as a full human being. And we got into how big a deal it is that BA has developed the scientific approach, the strategy, and the vision and plan for an actual revolution and a new society on the road to real emancipation. We promoted the upcoming “You Think You’re Woke... But You’re Sleepwalking Through a Nightmare—The System Can’t Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown! Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour.”

All this was controversial—not surprising—as well, and some debated this with us afterward, but in a good way (do we really need leaders, isn’t that part of the problem—and in an earnest way, and moving through the struggle). We also did the Mighty Mighty RevComs chant and some masses joined in.

After a while, one of our crew pointed out that we were being listened to very deeply and we should call on people to come and get organized with us, get connected, make sure this went somewhere—so we did.

After the rally, Cosecha NYC posted an unprincipled attack on us on Facebook claiming we had interrupted several times and tried to drown them out (lies easily disproved by their own livestream of the event). We called on them to retract this dishonest statement, but also took this as a further opportunity to clarify the differences that had played out at the rally over political program and outlook and challenged people to break with their American chauvinism and get into the real revolution. Shamefully, they deleted our response repeatedly. But we posted it on our own pages and are sharing it here.

From Cosecha NYC:

Thank you all for coming out tonight in solidarity, rallying against this so-called national emergency and rallying to fight against all walls, and all border!

However, we noticed that Refuse Fascism (also known as Revolutionary Communism) did not come in solidarity with Movimiento Cosecha and specifically attempted to upstage our messaging. They came in an hour early to try to draw people to their rally rather than ours, tried to interrupt us several times, and tried to force themselves into our program. They were not part of our coalition and we specifically asked them to step back; they outright disrespected us and tried to drown us out.

Cosecha is an immigrant-led movement organizing for immigrant rights; our politics are for the people, and we will not be co-opted. Thank you again to all the people and organizations willing to work with us in good faith, and we are excited to continue the fight in the future.

*****

The Revolution Club NYC response (deleted repeatedly by Cosecha NYC, but posted on our pages):

This is false. Speaking for the RevComs, we joined your rally in unity. We asked to speak and were denied with the inane rationale: “This is OUR event.” As if anyone owns the struggle against oppression. Whatever. We joined the rally with everyone else. Never disrupted. (As your own livestream posted above shows.)

AFTER the rally was completely over, we raised our voices to those who chose to listen.

We said Trump’s State of Emergency and Racist Wall are a leap in asserting a FASCIST America that can only be stopped through massive struggle by the people from below to drive out the regime.

We called out the delusion and moral bankruptcy of relying on the Democratic Party—whether outright or by putting fresh “woke” faces on top of this same imperialist system. The Dems are part of the PROBLEM—a ruling class party (Bill Clinton began the militarization of the border, Hillary Clinton backed the coup that drove so many more to flee Honduras, Obama was the Deporter-In-Chief). DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) is just for more spoils for those inside the empire at the cost of blood, exploitation, and misery around the globe.

The system can’t be reformed, it must be OVERTHROWN. As such, we got into the strategy, the scientific approach, and the leadership that exists in Bob Avakian who has developed a new communism and authored a Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

We heard snarky bullshit from some about this, but weren’t surprised. Avakian is the most radical revolutionary on the planet who has a highly developed approach to get to a world WITHOUT America. We know some at the rally prefer the “USA! USA!” chanting Ocasio-Cortez and are allergic to real revolution. If that is you, have the courage of your convictions and make an argument. Don’t make up LIES.

Still, many were not so jaded and stuck around, listened intently, and dug into things deeply as the night went on.

Final point: While we actively work with Refuse Fascism (RF) and deeply support its mission, we are NOT synonymous. There are many—and need to be more—people in RF who were there who are not RevComs and it is tremendously disrespectful to them to treat them like they don’t have their own volition and didn’t participate in their own way tonite. They came to the rally in unity and did their thing and righteously so.

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