Received from RefuseFascism.org:

There Is No Santa Claus,
and He Won’t Remove Trump and Pence
DECEMBER DISRUPTIONS
TRUMP/PENCE #OUTNOW!

Proposal for Advancing and Building the #OUTNOW! Movement: December—January 1

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1. Overview

December will be a highly charged month that will present both the necessity to speak and act in response to breaking events, and the opportunity to advance the #OUTNOW! Movement as this is the one program that could actually remove the Trump/Pence regime from power. [1] The impeachment of Trump will be moving to a new stage—with sharpening conflict at the highest levels. [2] There will be a ratcheting up of outrages from Trump and the regime. [3] There will be increased focus on the Democratic primaries in early 2020 which will divert all too many people from actively confronting the sharpening situation with the intensification and consolidation of the Trump/Pence fascist program and rule.

Refuse Fascism is calling for the new and developing #OUTNOW! Movement to make December a month of disrupting both the advance of and, especially, the normalization, accommodation, and collaboration with the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime.

There is no savior coming to stop fascism. There is no Santa Claus. Only the mass, sustained, nonviolent protest of the people across the country can stop this unfolding horror. If in our hearts we want children to have the joy of the holidays, then we must act for all those detained on the border, for all those imperiled by climate change, for all who suffer and live in fear of the danger of war heightened by this fascist regime. We act in the name of humanity for the future.

December must be a month where #OUTNOW! involves many more people and different political forces building on the beginning we achieved with the five-week launch from October 19 to November 16, with the nationwide mass protests on December 14 being the nodal point demonstrating the road that needs to be taken. Our December Disruptions must aim to shake people out of their complacency and complicity—making possible the kind of unrelenting and determined struggle that people around the world are waging.

Refuse Fascism has said that people need to overcome fear and uncertainty and act together with conviction because that is the only way to drive out a fascist regime that has mobilized millions to feel this is their last chance to bring about a white supremacist, xenophobic, thoroughly patriarchal fascist America. Our objective is nothing less than moving, as soon as possible, to when hundreds of thousands and ultimately millions of people take to the streets week after week, and day after day, not letting slander, attacks, or hardship deter our struggle to remove a regime that truly threatens the future of humanity and the planet. Acting together in this way can turn dread into hope. That is the message that we bring and act on for the new year.

2. The Situation

December looks to be a month of sharpening conflict between developing fascism and the interests of humanity.

There will likely be an impeachment indictment in the House of Representatives. Thus far the Democratic leadership has said that they are not going to follow the evidence presented at, nor fight to include all of the top officials of the regime implicated in, the October/November hearings. More, they have conducted these hearings on the sole grounds of national security and the legitimacy of the U.S. electoral process—ignoring the full crimes of the Trump/Pence fascist program, thus legitimating the full fascist program. And, as of now, they seem intent on making impeachment symbolic, conceding in advance defeat in the Senate. This is not just weak capitulation, it will serve to strengthen the grip and momentum of the fascist Trump/Pence regime and its disastrous program.

At the same time, this sharp fight at the top heightens the potential for the struggle of the people to break through and win our demand that the whole regime must be removed from power.

The Trump/Pence regime and their shock troops and fascist media are impassioned and geared up to not only defeat the impeachment, but to also rapidly advance their movement and agenda. They will be doubling down on multiple fronts—from immigration to the climate and remaking the rule of law, while their fascist shock troops are on the move everywhere, including on the nation’s campuses.

The Democratic primaries will be looming with masses of people consumed with that... their eyes and minds diverted from the reality of a rapidly advancing fascism and a potential constitutional showdown over impeachment. The illusions and delusions that the Trump/Pence regime is just a bad swing of the pendulum and that the Democratic Party—even reformed by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren—will stop what is now a fascist juggernaut, has turned all too many progressive people into (perhaps unwitting) normalizers and even collaborators of the fascist regime.

3. The Plan

There Is No Santa Claus, and He Won’t Remove Trump and Pence

DECEMBER DISRUPTIONS

TRUMP/PENCE #OUTNOW!

The objective for the month of December is to make real advances on the following two problems which confront everyone concerned about justice and the future in this country, and which no one has yet broken through on. The #OUTNOW! Movement made important beginning advances in setting the stage, but in December we go to work on bringing forward the people and disturbing the air in answer to these two questions:

How to move hundreds of thousands and ultimately millions into the streets in sustained nonviolent protest in cities and towns across the country?

How to move people from “I support you! thumbs up! good luck!” to taking to the streets and organizing others to do so too?

To these problems, to these tasks, we are calling for December Disruptions that [1] expose and confront the fascist regime’s crimes—where and when they occur; [2] challenge and disrupt the normalization and complicity with fascism and the politics and protest as usual that blinds those who should be in the streets to protest the catastrophe that will be, should the regime remain in power; and [3] inspire and mobilize people to take up the #OUTNOW! Movement.

4. The Key Elements of the Plan

  • All of the elements of the plan will play an important role in addressing the problems posed in the two questions above. Yet, the December 14 protest is a focus that makes manifest the growing advance and momentum towards the kind of movement that is required. To begin, there are three things that should run through the month—by Refuse Fascism, #OUTNOW!, and that many others take up as well.
    1. There must be definite planned protest markers in the plan (December 7 & 14), yet running through the month, #OUTNOW! December Disruptions should encompass, support, and even organize opposition to moves of the Trump/Pence regime and its fascist base. The protests at UCLA in October, at Cal Berkeley in opposition to Ann Coulter, in DC on November 8, and when Trump went to Madison Square Garden in NYC are examples of this. Different forces and organizations all contributed to these protests—some initiated by Refuse Fascism, others by different organizations. This also means supporting and spreading the resistance when government resisters such as the asylum lawyers and staff who have resigned and refused to implement the regime’s policy. It especially means being attuned to major developments, particularly in relation to the impeachment hearings. Responding to turns in the situation where it may require immediate broad mobilization around the country and in Washington, DC—including when and if there is a vote in the House of Representatives to join with the demonstrations called by the  impeachment movement.
    2. All through the month people can and should organize to go out to campaign rallies, town halls, and other places to challenge and inspire people there of the necessity to act now to remove this regime. The focus needs to be on places and to candidates where progressives are. Let’s go out and challenge the assumptions that the normal workings of the system will stop this fascist movement. While #OUTNOW! is not about telling people not to vote, we are saying that putting all your energies into the 2020 election ignores and facilitates the advance of this fascist regime. We have posed: If you will not take to the streets now to demand the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, what will you do if Trump wins or refuses to leave office if he loses? And, we are encouraging people to go out to challenge the underlying way of thinking that since “I am not yet immediately affected, I can just go on with taking care of me and engaging in the painless easy road of supporting my candidate du jour.”
    3. Mass Holiday Fundraising is essential to being able to scale up to the movement that is needed. Materials are available here.

KEY ORGANIZED events

  • Thursday, December 5, 2019

    Refuse Fascism Webinar: This week’s Webinar will have a live New York audience Q&A with Andy Zee on “The catastrophic danger to humanity posed by the Trump/Pence regime, and why that requires nothing less than the determined sustained struggle of the #OUTNOW! movement.” Register here.

  • Saturday, December 7, 2019

    MOVING PROTESTS ON MASS TRANSIT—”Train-ing” to Remove the Trump/Pence Regime. Mobilize mass protests on mass transit. Turn the trains into moving agitation vehicles—scores or hundreds of people board at a major transit stop and then move through the trains spreading the word. Schedule rallies along the route at different stations. Go from Santa Monica to downtown in LA; run the loops in Chicago; go from the Bronx to Brooklyn with rallies in Harlem, Union Square, Barclays Center in NYC. Where there are no trains, organize car caravans.

    Be creative. This is a protest to get the word out broadly and to train new people in spreading the word and to organize for the following Saturday, December 14.

  • Saturday, December 14, 2019

    #OUTNOW! Marches and Rallies: These rallies and marches are the centerpiece of the month. There should be an advance in numbers and breadth of forces. December 14 should build momentum and turn the eyes of society towards the kind of unrelenting sustained protest that we have seen around the world demanding regime change. We should strive for an even broader array of people speaking at these rallies/marches—religious, cultural, civil liberties, political, students.

  • December 15 – January 1; HOLIDAY Parties, dances, film showings, dances, etc.

    After the 14th through New Year’s there should be a diversity of activities to cohere and forge the #OUTNOW! Movement—raising funds, awareness, unity, and organization.

    NEW YEAR’S EVE or NEW YEAR’S DAY—consider creative forms of mass protest and/or parties and gatherings to bring people together to prepare for a new year of struggle.

Working Groups

  • STUDENTS and CAMPUSES

    This is a crucial—perhaps a decisive—element in building #OUTNOW! There is a Dialogue and Teach-In on December 4 at UCLA—“Could it really happen here? Is the Trump/Pence regime bringing American fascism? Is silence complicity”—that will be livestreamed on Facebook. Gather in a dorm, coffee shop, student center, or elsewhere to watch together. This program will be livestreamed via Facebook live by Refuse Fascism. To watch live, go to Facebook.com/RefuseFascism.

    High School Students—spend Christmas week with RefuseFascism: Contact the National Office of RefuseFascism or your local chapter.

    College students and youth: Spend Winter Break volunteering with RefuseFascism. Contact the National Office of RefuseFascism or your local chapter.

  • FAITH TASK FORCE

    The religious communities of all faiths have a critical role to play in stopping fascism. Go here for more information on the Religious Task force... and/or contact the National Office.

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

Received from RefuseFascism.org:

Real Advances, New Leaders, and the Challenge We Must Rise To: Trump/Pence #OUTNOW!
A Report from the Refuse Fascism National Meetings

Read more


Coastal flooding, due in part to rising sea levels driven by global warming, is already having devastating consequences, especially in Asia and the Pacific. Jakarta, Indonesia, 2017. Photo: AP


New York, moving the rally on the subway

 

 

 

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