WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

A Roundup on the Rise of DIY Fascism

August 23, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Fascist mobs are being unleashed to attack people in every sphere of life—public and private— seeking to lock into place, and enforce, a fascist America. They are being given legal backing to act as agents of the state—legal vigilantes—by powerful figures in the ruling class, on Fox Fascist News and with a slate of new laws in states across the country.

In This Is A Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That Is So, And How To Seize On This Rare Opportunity, the revolutionary leader and author of the new communism, Bob Avakian (BA) said:

The Republicans have become a fascist party—a party based on open and aggressive white supremacy, male supremacy, and other oppressive relations—a party convinced that only it deserves to rule, moving to manipulate elections and suppress votes in order to gain and hold onto power, refusing to accept the outcome of elections it does not win, determined to gut and pervert “the rule of law,” trample on people’s rights, and adopt what amounts to an undisguised capitalist dictatorship, ready to use violence not only against masses of people but also against its rivals in the ruling class.

These Republicans have mobilized a significant section of people who believe, with an intense, irrational passion, that white supremacy, male supremacy, and other oppressive relations (as well as unrestrained plunder of the environment) must be firmly upheld and enforced. They have been driven to a state of vicious insanity, embracing all kinds of lunatic conspiracy theories, along with a crazed Christian fundamentalism, as a response to the threat they see to their entitled (or “god-ordained”) position and their insistence that further concessions to the struggle against oppression will destroy what has “made America great.”

These are the shock troops for a fascist America—they are not “living their values and staying in their lane” but, as BA says, they “believe, with an intense, irrational passion,” that their fascist program “must be firmly upheld and enforced.” And increasingly, they are being given legal and political backing to act as the enforcers.

Depending on where you live, do you want your child to go to school in a COVID-free environment with everyone together taking collective precautions not to spread the disease? No! You want your child to learn the actual white supremacist history of America? Absolutely not. You want to foster a spirit of healthy debate and discussion in your classroom? No! Make anyone uncomfortable or question what they've been indoctrinated to think and you will be recorded, reported and possibly fired. You want your child to have the freedom and space to explore their gender? No, you can be reported for “child abuse.” In Texas, starting next week, you want to have an abortion, or even make a financial contribution towards someone else having an abortion? No, your neighbor can take you to court to prevent that!

This is already causing—and will increasingly cause—major disruptions and shockwaves throughout society. A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized Now For a Real Revolution, from the revcoms, makes the important analysis that

These divisions and conflicts have ripped big holes in the camouflage of this system, further exposing its real nature and the lie that this is “the greatest country in the world,” the “shining light of freedom” and “leader of the free world.” All this is very likely to become more and more intense, tearing apart the bonds that have held things together under this system and further deepening the divisions throughout society, including within the institutions of power. This could lead to something very bad—or something very good, IF we act in the way we need to in these rare circumstances and fight to take things where they need to go.

Illuminating this dynamic, a parent who spoke in favor of a mask mandate in Tennessee schools, after being attacked and threatened outside of a school board meeting, said, “Parents shouldn't feel threatened for their lives walking through a parking lot. That is not the America I know.” While the roots of this fascism are very American, this comment speaks to how this fascist offensive can shatter what people have come to accept as normal in this society.

This is getting fought out in every sphere of life... in education, medicine, social, the workplace and the streets. Here are just a few other examples:

** Rabid and frothing at the mouth mobs of parents and Christian fascist community members have descended on school board meetings across the country—encouraged and applauded by Fox Fascist News as a “grassroots parents revolution.” They are demanding they and their children be allowed to go maskless, with no vaccine mandates in the midst of a major surge of a global pandemic. Some are even demanding that the teachers go maskless. In an incident in Texas, a parent physically assaulted a teacher, tearing their mask off their face. In LA, at an anti-vaccine/anti-mask rally, Proud Boys and other organized mobs of fascists physically attacked counter-protesters and journalists, with one chanting, “unmask them, unmask them all!”

** As part of an unprecedented wave of laws to restrict the basic rights of transgender people and LGBTQ people overall, laws are being debated that would categorize allowing your child to live as a different gender than how they were born biologically, as child abuse. One parent in Texas said, “people could call Child Protective Services (CPS) and accuse you of being an unfit parent simply because your kid was trans. 'We have what we call a safe folder... with letters from therapists, doctors, friends, families.' Essentially, the folder was a compilation of character references in case of an emergency... ' When CPS shows up at your house because some random bigot decides to call, then you have this file.'”¹ As revcom.us wrote last spring, other proposed laws target medical professionals who help trans people: “In late March, South Carolina lawmakers put forward a bill that would make it a felony for medical professionals to provide transition-related care to transgender minors. Conviction could result in up to a 20-year prison sentence for the medical provider. Think about it—20 years in prison for helping youth, many of whom are in tremendous anguish.”²

** As Rafael Kadaris wrote in revcom, “In recent months, Republican fascists have launched a nationwide assault on the right of students to learn the true history of this country. They aim to force teachers to teach a false version of American history—where the foundational role of slavery and genocide is erased, or whitewashed and justified once again, and the big lie of American 'greatness' is shoved down everyone’s throat. And this time the erasure and whitewash has the force of law and the power of the state behind it.”³ School board meetings are being taken over by screaming parents upholding the “greatness of Western civilization” or accusing teachers of indoctrinating their children with “socialist values.” At least 165 local and national groups have formed to shut down lessons on race and gender. White students are being encouraged to record and report teachers who “make them feel uncomfortable about their race,” by teaching the actual history of white supremacy in America—or even opening up discussion and debate about these questions.

** On September 1, a Texas law will go into effect that makes abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy (before most women even know they are pregnant). As part of enforcing a Handmaid's Tale future for women, the law allows private citizens—anywhere in the U.S.—to sue anyone who can be seen as helping a woman in Texas get an abortion. Doctors, nurses, rape counselors, family, friends, donors who contribute to non-profit organizations that help women pay for abortions, even the taxi driver who takes the woman to the abortion clinic! If you “aided and abetted” an “illegal abortion,” you can be dragged into court, facing penalties that start at $10,000.

** Iowa and Oklahoma have passed bills that make it legal for private citizens to drive their car through protests. “Last June, a pickup truck carrying a horse trailer drove through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters on a Tulsa freeway, injuring several people and leaving one paralyzed. The driver, who said he had sped up because he feared for the safety of his family, was not charged.”⁴ This is part of a wave of anti-protest legislation being passed or debated across the country with dangerous repercussions if you are charged—even unjustly—at a protest.

This begins to paint a picture of not just the looming dangers, but the tremendous volatility in this society and underscores the fact that there is, and will be, no “return to normalcy.”

 

1. “Behind the GOP Strategy to Outlaw Trans Youth,” The New Republic, August 9, 2021 [back]

2. “Republi-Fascists Push Wave of Hateful Anti-Trans Laws,” revcoms.us, April 12, 2021 [back]

3. “The Fight Against the White Supremacist Whitewash and Fascist Suppression of Historical Truth. Part 1: Mandatory Lies and “Patriotic” Brainwashing,” revcom.us, August 9, 2021. [back]

4. “G.O.P. Bills Target Protesters (and Absolve Motorists Who Hit Them),” New York Times, April, 2021 [back]

Rabid and frothing at the mouth mobs of parents and Christian fascist community members have descended on school board meetings across the country. Above: Brevard School Board, Florida, August 2021. Photo: Screengrab.