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home1-columns-bg-optrefusefascism-orgLUMPENPROLETARIAT  Leading the charge in preemptive opposition to the looming Trump Presidency, the RCP‘s Carl Dix and Dr. Cornel West are raising a Refuse Fascism banner against the spectre of Donald Trump and continuing neoliberal oppression of the working classes.  Scholars, such as Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean, have discussed the virtues of reclaiming communism and actuating it by reclaiming the political party form, as a source of political power.  All of this political energy and momentum, which is boiling up against Trump can be good for waking the folk up on the left, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, which has come to refuse the two-party system, or the two-party dictatorship.

But it remains to be seen, how this protest campaign spearheaded by the RCP’s Carl Dix and Dr. Cornel West and others will play out, in terms of its influence on electoral politics or business as usual.  Organisers are calling for a week of protest against Trump, starting on Saturday, January 14, 2017.  Anti-Trump protests have been ongoing since the electoral college decided to override the popular vote, which favoured Hillary Clinton.  Based upon past observations, Carl Dix eloquently promotes the RCP line of argumentation, which calls for revolution, the specifics of which are always meticulously elusive.  We do hear incisive and biting critiques of the status quo and the two-party political cartel.  But the specifics of how these protests are expected to affect the existing levers of power, other than moral arguments and supplication, remains unclear.  We don’t hear support for third-parties, nor galvanising the left behind a principled people’s party, nor even calls for any sort of electoral reform.  But one thing is made very clear; that is a complete rejection of the two-party machine.  Perhaps, those who find certain elements lacking in left-wing political campaigns, such as Refuse Fascism, can get involved and help contribute them.

Messina

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REFUSE FASCISM—[c. 10 JAN 2017]

STOP THE TRUMP-PENCE REGIME BEFORE IT STARTS

We Begin:  4 PM Saturday January 14th

Mc Pherson Square, I Street and 14th St. NW

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Take to the Streets

March to the Halls of Power

every day and every night

Jan. 14-20 Don’t Stop

If you can’t come to DC, do it where you are – same time, same idea, going night after night and refusing to get out of the streets. Stop this fascist regime – BEFORE it starts.

“Protestors interrupt Sessions hearing: “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!”

Flash! RefuseFascism.org Co-Initiator Carl Dix & Others Disrupt Sessions Confirmation Hearing
Tuesday morning, RefuseFascism.org Co-Initiator Carl Dix and several other protesters disrupted Senator Sessions confirmation hearing and were removed in handcuffs. Dix was dragged out chanting, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA.” Another RefuseFascism.org protester was dragged out saying: “We refuse to accept a fascist America. We have to be in the streets starting January 14 to stop the Trump/Pence fascist regime from coming to power.” The hearing was disrupted several other times by Refuse Fascism people, and also by protesters dressed as KKK’ers, Code Pink activists with signs “End racism,stop Sesssions,” people chanting “Black Lives Matter,” and immigrants rights activists.

THE CALL

We Refuse To Accept A Fascist America

Read and Sign the Call to Action to STOP Trump and Pence BEFORE they Come to Power.

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

Donald Trump, the President-elect, is assembling a regime of grave danger.  Millions of people in the US and around the world are filled with deep anxiety, fear, and disgust. Our anguish is right and just.  Our anger must now become massive resistance –before Donald Trump is inaugurated and has the full reins of power in his hands.

Should we fail to rise with determination and daring in our millions now to stop this, the consequences for humanity will be disastrous.  We, the undersigned, know in the depths of our beings, the catastrophe that will befall the people of the world should the Trump/Pence regime assume full power.

We therefore CALL FOR A MONTH OF RESISTANCE beginning on December 19th, reaching a crescendo by the January 20th 2017 Inauguration.

Our resistance must spread rapidly to every sphere and every corner of the country. Because we refuse to accept a fascist America, millions must rise up in a resistance with a deep determination such that we create a political crisis that prevents the Trump/Pence fascist regime from consolidating its hold on the governance of society.

The Presidency of Donald Trump is illegitimate.

Donald Trump did not win the popular vote. Not even close, he lost by 2.5 million votes. He won the Electoral College – an institution set up in 1787 to protect slavery.  This legacy of the most brutal oppression of Black people has become the means that enabled the election of Trump and Pence.

More fundamentally, it is the fascist character of the Trump/Pence regime and what they are planning to do which renders it illegitimate and an immoral peril to the future of humanity and the earth itself.                  

Under the slogan “Make America Great Again,” Donald Trump has viciously attacked Mexicans and Muslims, threatening to register and deport millions, closing borders. He incites fear and hate of all who are “different” – nationalities, religions, or gender. He crudely demeans and degrades women, openly boasting about molesting them. He champions white supremacy and whips up a racist lynch-mob mentality. Trump has mocked the disabled. He is a bellicose militarist, who threatens to use nuclear weapons. He openly advocates war crimes — including torture. He vows to pack the Supreme Court with justices who will take away the right to abortion and gay rights. He denies science – calling climate change a hoax and will wreak devastation on the environment. He has attacked and threatened the press and stirred up his supporters to do the same. He has threatened to strip citizenship for constitutionally protected dissent. Trump has utter contempt for facts and the truth, and consistently lies to advance his agenda. As for the rule of law, Trump went so far as to openly threaten his opponent, Hillary Clinton, not only with jail, but even assassination. By any definition, Donald Trump is a fascist.  He has put together a regime that will carry out this  program, and worse.

This is fascism and it is a very serious thing. It has direction and momentum that must be stopped before it becomes too late.

Fascism foments and relies on xenophobic nationalism, racism, misogyny, and the aggressive re-institution of oppressive “traditional values.” Fascism feeds on and encourages the threat and use of violence to build a movement and come to power. Fascism, once in power, essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights. Fascism attacks, jails, even executes its opponents, and launches violent mob attacks on “minorities.” In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and ’40s, fascism did all these things. This is where this can go.  And yes, Hitler himself could “talk graciously” when he felt it would serve his interests and lull his opponents.

In the world today, shockwaves reverberate.  Over decades in the U.S. virulent movements of white supremacy and anti-immigrant hysteria have gained momentum. A narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism has been brought into government and policy at all levels. The Trump/Pence cabinet and judiciary will coalesce all of this and worse at the highest level of power, with horrific consequences. No election, whether fair or fraudulent, should legitimize this. “Reaching across the aisle” only legitimizes that which is illegitimate.

If you work with fascists you normalize the road to horror. You cannot try to “wait things out.” Those who lived through Nazi Germany and sat on the sidelines, looking on as Hitler demonized, criminalized, and eventually rounded up one group after another, became shameful collaborators with monstrous crimes.  Don’t Conciliate… Don’t Accommodate… Don’t Collaborate!

The Trump Regime Must and Can Be Stopped Before It Starts!

This is not wishful thinking but could be made a reality if all who hate what is represented by this fascist regime translate our outrage into massive mobilization to create the political conditions which make this possible.  We are millions. Our only recourse now is to act together outside normal channels.  Every faction within the established power structure must be forced to respond to what we do – creating a situation where the Trump/Pence regime is prevented from ruling.

We call on each and every one who opposes what this regime stands for, and what it will do, to take part in and actively build, this resistance and refusal.  Organize.  Plan.  Act.

The Month of Resistance

Starting 12/19/16, it begins – the day the Electoral College meets to vote in each state: hold a press conference or a protest. Starting now, distribute this Call everywhere and on social media, host house meetings, fundraising events concerts and forums. Everywhere step up the resistance: walkouts from schools and work, protests against attacks and threats on Muslims, women, people of color, LGBT people – all linked to the objective of Stopping the Trump/Pence regime. The struggle must grow.

On MLK weekend, there needs to be massive demonstrations of many thousands in key cities, including Washington. D.C., that grow to millions over the next week,  protests that don’t stop . . . where people refuse to leave and more and more people stand up with conviction and courage demanding:

NO! We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!It’s not enough just to sign this Call – millions, tens of millions of people need to become aware of it in the days and weeks ahead. Print it and distribute it everywhere you go, leave it on buses and trains, in schools, in stores, places of worship, coffee shops … make it go viral on social media … use it as a basis for participating in or organizing activities where you live.

Print This Call, and Spread it Everywhere.

Imam Aiyub Abdul-Baki, Justice Committee, Islamic Leadership Council of New York; Ashton Applewhite, writer and activist; Ed Asner, actor; Bill Ayers, activist educator; Dawoud Bey, artist; Paul Von Blum, African American Studies Center, UCLA*; Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, anti-war activist; Herb Boyd, activist, author, journalist and teacher; Karen Brooks, People’s Music Long Hill Farm The Trouble Sisters; Charles Burnett, filmmaker; Isabel Cardenas, Salvadoran-American activist; Mary Celeste Kearney, Director, Gender Studies, University of Notre Dame*; Kenneth Chamberlain, Jr., son of Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., murdered by NYPD; Margaret Cho, comedian, actor; Kia Corthron, playwright; Chuck D, rapper, author; Joe Dante, filmmaker; Shannon Dawdy, MacArthur Fellow, Anthropologist; Carl Dix, Founding member, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA*; Tom F. Driver, Paul J. Tillich Professor of Theology and Culture Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary*; Brian Drolet, Executive Director, Deep Dish TV*; Alex Ebert, musician; Niles Eldredge, evolutionary biologist; Kurt Elling, musician; Eve Ensler, playwright; Chase Iron Eyes, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe*; Everett Iron Eyes, Sr., Water Administrator, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe*; Dorothy Fadiman, filmmaker; Joan Ferrante, Professor Emerita English, Columbia University*; Charles Gaines, visual artist; Merrill Garbus, Founding band member, tUnE-yArDs; Henry Giroux, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest*; Pastor Gregg L. Greer, Freedom First International, SCLC*; David Gunn, Jr., son of slain abortion doctor, David Gunn, Sr.; David Harris, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, Harvard University*; Lalah Hathaway, singer; Marc Lamont Hill, CNN commentator and professor, Morehouse College*; Phyllis Jackson, Associate Professor Art History, Pomona College*, Former Black Panther; Gregory “Joey” Johnson, defendant in U.S. Supreme Court flag burning case, Texas v. Johnson 1989, Revolution Club*; Erin Aubrey Kaplan, writer and journalist; Evelyn Fox Keller, Professor Emerita of History and Philosophy of Science, MIT*; Robin D.G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at UCLA*; Wayne Kramer, musician; John Landis, filmmaker; Fran Luck, Executive Producer of Joy of Resistance Multicultural Feminist Radio, WBAI*; Peter McLaren, Professor Emeritus Education, UCLA*; Julie Mehretu, artist; Vic Mensa, rapper; Debra Messing, actor; jessica Care moore, poet; Thurston Moore, singer, songwriter, guitarist of Sonic Youth; PZ Myers, evolutionary developmental biologist; Rosie O’Donnell, comedian, actor; Arturo O’Farrill, composer and musician; Outernational, band; Amado Padilla, Professor,  Stanford Graduate School of Education*; Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, Ph.D, Catholic Theological Union*; Eric Perl, Chair of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount*; Michelle Phillips, musician; Jean-Pierre Protzen, Professor Emeritus Architecture, UC Berkeley*; Milton Saier, PhD, Professor of Molecular Biology UCSD*; Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five; Dread Scott, visual artist; Michael Shannon, actor; Matthew Shipp, musician; Danny Simmons, visual artist; Ted Sirota, jazz musician; Judith Stacey, sociologist, New York University*; Bob Stein, Institute for the Future of the Book*; David Strathairn; Sunsara Taylor, writer, Revolution Newspaper*; Michelle Tea, poet and author; Alice Walker, author; Naomi Wallace, playwright; Judith Weiss, marine biologist, Rutgers University*; Cornel West, writer and professor; Saul Williams, poet and performer; Allen Wood, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, Stanford*; Michael A. Wood, Jr.; Rev. Frank Wulf, United Methodist minister; Andy Zee, spokesperson, Revolution Books*; David Zeiger, filmmaker

*Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only

…and more than 6,000 others have signed the Call To Action above.

Add Your Name, Print This Call, and Spread it Everywhere.

Dr. Cornel West and Carl Dix appeared on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor on January 5, 2017.

Learn more at REFUSE FASCISM.

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Project Censored.]

PROJECT CENSORED—[6 JAN 2017] [1] [KPFA station ID by Erica Bridgeman(sp?)]

[Project Censored theme music:  “We Want” by Junkyard Empire]

“Welcome to the Project Censored show on Pacifica Radio.  I’m Mickey Huff with Peter Phillips.

“On today’s programme, we discuss The Making of a Transnational Capitalist Class: Corporate Power in the 21st Century.  We’ll be joined for the first segment by Professor William Carroll to speak about his book on the topic of the transnational capitalist class.  Later in the programme, we’re joined by journalist Sunsara Taylor and activist Rafael Kadaris, of RefuseFascism.org, to talk about the growing resistance against the incoming Trump administration. [2]  Please stay with us. (c. 1:25)

[brief musical interlude]

[Interview with Professor William Carroll is archived here.]

MICKEY HUFF:  “After this musical break, we’ll be back to talk about the incoming Trump administration and resistance growing towards it.  Please stay with us.”

[brief hip hop music break: perhaps, Rebel Diaz – ‘Which Side Are You On?] (c. 26:00)

[Begin interview with activist Rafael Kadaris (of RefuseFascism) and journalist Sunsara Taylor on Refuse Fascism actions against Trump taking the White House.]

MICKEY HUFF:  “Welcome back to the Project Censored show on Pacifica Radio.  I’m Mickey Huff, with Peter Phillips.  On the first part of the programme today, we were speaking with Professor Bill Carrol.  And we were speaking about the rise of the transnational capitalist class.  During that conversation, we were talking about president-electored Trump and the incoming administration.  And we also mentioned, um, crony capitalism and, in fact, even a politically scientific conversation about fascism emerged from that conversation.

“And, in this segment of the programme, we’re going to focus more specifically on the F-word there.  And we are joined by two guests.  Our first guest is journalist Sunsara Taylor.  She writes with RevCom.us.  She is also one of the co-initiators of RefuseFascism.org:

In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America.

“So, we will be speaking with Sunsara Taylor about this latest action, that’s also featured in The New York Times.  And, here, is Peter Phillips to introduce our other guest for this segment.  Peter?”  (c. 27:13)

DR. PETER PHILLIPS:  “Rafael Kadaris is an organiser with RefuseFascism.org.  And he’s part of the Revolution Club.  And he is one of the people, 16 people, who were arrested at the Republican National Convention for ‘obstructing official business’.  They also burned a flag, but they have not been charged with that.

“So, welcome, Sunsara and Rafael.”

RAFAEL KADARIS:  “Thanks for having us.”

SUNSARA TAYLOR:  “It’s good to be with you, Peter and Mickey.”

MICKEY HUFF:  “Well, Sunsara Taylor, let’s start.  You’re one of the co-initiators of RefuseFascism.org.  Tell us.  How did this come about?”

SUNSARA TAYLOR:  “Well, the basic message is, like you said, it’s:

In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America.

“And this came about because, myself and others, we were looking at the—a lot of people didn’t expect Trump and Pence to win the election.  And, if you really wanna count the numbers, they lost by almost three million votes.  But they won the Electoral College.  So, they’re slated to become president of the next regime.

“A lot of people didn’t expect that.  But, once that became the case, we had to really confront: these people really are fascist.  (c. 28:18)

[additional notes/transcription pending]

[snip] (c. 59:59)

Learn more at PROJECT CENSORED.

***

[1]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Project Censored, this one-hour broadcast co–hosted by host Dr. Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff, M.A., Friday, 6 JAN 2017, 12:00 PST.

[2]  Rafael Kadaris is a longtime SF Bay Area activist, based in Berkeley’s Revolution Books.  He is an activist organiser with Revolution Club and RCP (i.e, the Revolutionary Communist Party).

I first met Rafael back in 2007, when I attended, and participated in, anti-war direct actions at Dianne Feinstein’s San Francisco offices.  That action was organised by various groups, including World Can’t Wait.  I was there with fellow KPFA board candidate Dr. Sureya Sayadi, a Kurdish-American physician and social justice activist.  (We also marched down the road to join in another demonstration in solidarity with the Jena Six.)  I stayed in touch with Rafael, and others from RCP, for some years in the late-2000s.  Rafael was always a very sincere social justice activist and a kind and compassionate human being.  Although, we haven’t always agreed on everything, politically-speaking—me, being a so-called ‘third–party‘ advocate, and him, having long-rejected electoral politics—I have always appreciated his, and the RCP’s, far-left political stance.  We need our comrades on the far left of the political spectrum to counterbalance the deluge of far right political messaging, which saturates corporate media across the country, and which—without a far-left counterbalance—perpetually shifts the political center rightward.  Activists, such as Rafael, remind us, that we must always demand the impossible and refuse fascism.

One thing is for sure, Rafael proved to prophetic back in 2007 when he argued, as liberals and progressives salivated at the prospect of an Obama Presidency, Rafael sighed, the Democrats and Republicans fool the people every time.  Yes, but we haven’t had an active socialist or communist party in the United States since the so-called Red Scare.  Since then, we haven’t had any semblance of political diversity in the USA.  But that discussion continues.

[10 JAN 2017]

[Last modified at 16:18 PST on 10 JAN 2017]

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