Three showings in one week done in a way that shows the potential to do many, many more

Developing a MOVEMENT of Showings of the Film of BA’s Talk, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!...

April 30, 2018

After doing showings in a Caribbean immigrant community and a showing to an African immigrant organization over the winter, this week there were three showings in churches in different parts of the city. Our approach was centered around discussing and working with the ministers and their congregations, confident that this film speaks with science and passion to the big questions that are deeply troubling to people about the Trump/Pence fascist juggernaut—where did it come from, what does it represent and what can and must we urgently do to stop it?

Proposals to these churches were not aimed mainly at getting a space for us to use to organize a showing in their community—but to engage their congregations and people in their larger networks with this film. One showing was entirely organized by the people in the church, and in the two others there was a combination of engaging the congregations AND some outreach to people broadly from the neighboring communities. Through this, a number of people came to the showings AND important connections were made with two other ministers and others in their communities, opening doors for a number of other showings of various kinds, as well as for mobilizing people to drive out this fascist regime. There were knotty problems to resolve with each, but they were resolved, leading to successful showings, though each had a very different character. Here is a brief summary of each...

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“There needs to be a transformation in people’s thinking…”

“She dug into the challenges we face with people, this ‘comfort zone’ that millions who despise Trump don’t spontaneously want or feel the necessity to rupture out of yet, and she agreed with BA’s remarks on the GTF in relationship to this...

“[Watching the BA Q&A segment on “If successful ... who will step in to take the reins?”] opened up a conversation about a better world. She said, ‘It is very hard to be scientific’ when it comes to applying science to society and people. ... We have encouraged her to [read more by and about BA]...

“She said that in watching the film, and fighting to drive out the regime, there can be and needs to be ‘a transformation in people’s thinking’ and made clear she felt ‘the jackboots are coming’ and committed to taking up Refuse Fascism’s new call and upcoming plans.

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—Correspondence to Revolution

“The opioid of entrepreneurialism…”

After watching the clip from the BA film on the direct line from the Confederacy to these fascists, he said that the civil rights struggle had been ‘pushed down’ by the Southern Strategy and said that this whole line of ‘you can make it in society—you just need to be an entrepreneur’ was horrible because ‘then that becomes the goal and nothing changes’ and that down to today Black people continue to be murdered by police. He called the ‘entrepreneurial’ thing ‘an opioid’... that the powers ‘call for Black people to be entrepreneurs but then there is Alton Sterling selling his CDs and he is murdered by police.’...

With regard to the film, he said BA is saying step out of your comfort zone... the Doomsday Clock is at one minute to midnight, everybody needs to be involved...

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—Correspondence to Revolution

Understanding “why people are afraid…”

“One response had to do with what she called her own ‘lack of patience.’ She said BA is ‘very good at explaining WHY we want to do what we need to do.’ She emphasized there needs to be broad work ‘amongst different classes.’

“She was outraged by the attacks on the immigrants. ‘We can’t let them make these laws on them, and then follow them up with laws on others and then laws for all of us. I won’t be a nurse for the immigration authorities.’ She talked about how her city is being challenged as a sanctuary city—‘This is Los Angeles, LA County; I refuse to be a nurse in Nazi Germany or work with any doctors who do that.’

“She spit out ‘America First’ ... Whose lives matter? In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse To Accept a Fascist America—that goes beyond borders... In the Name of Humanity, that is what we are here for.”...

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—Correspondence to Revolution

Is the U.S. a Force For Good?

“‘[I]t’s obvious, but it is amazing that people aren’t talking about the need for Trump and Pence to go.’...

“She got more deeply into the concept that the U.S. is a force for good in the world. She said, ‘If it is a force for good [and said initially that she thought there was that side, potentially]... but there are things quite the opposite: wars, being on the wrong side of things... the U.S. has committed real atrocities... most know about it, but they don’t think about it—it hasn’t always been a force for good.’

“She recalled that she’d seen a PBS show recently about the civil rights movement. And described the brutality, the water hoses....

“She said that the ‘Democrats follow the system... OK vote... but it is “deeper and more urgent”’ and reiterated that there is so much damage already done.”...

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—Correspondence to Revolution

Risks, Sacrifice and Decisions

“He told us that he was supportive of what Refuse Fascism is doing. He said that he himself had been active with the struggle against the School of the Americas. During the meeting there was a time where he said: ‘Wait, hold on a second, if Refuse Fascism comes here, it could put the church in a spotlight and make things more difficult for our undocumented parishioners.’

“We pulled out the BA film right then, and answered his question that way, showing him the Q&A on minorities. This was the best answer we could possibly give―a real, comprehensive, and challenging answer, including about risks and sacrifices, and about what it is going to take to drive out this regime (and different levels on this question of the undocumented). The pastor watched carefully.

“There is more to learn about what the pastor thought, but it was off of this that he made a firm decision to host Refuse Fascism at the church and to promote RF as a group that should have an office at the church.

“His decision could have been different, but as I shared this experience with others, I really felt we could not lose: if they said No!, everything was honestly on the table and put forth and we’d made our best argument by showing the clip from BA and opened up the conversation and struggle over what humanity is confronting; and if they said Yes!, we had made a more solid ideological foundation from which to work with the church and its leadership.”

—Correspondence to Revolution

“What’s it going to take for people in the room to take up Refuse Fascism?”

“[One person] said he thought that left groups and progressives were more interested in fighting among themselves than against the enemy. He said that he had reservations about BA coming into the screening, but that the Talk had challenged some of his preconceived ideas. He said that he was getting a much different vibe in the Talk and it was very important to dig more into this particular question of what BA means to unite broadly...

“‘What’s it going to take for people in the room to take up RF?’ When we posed this question, the responses were the two big ‘hows’—how do we mobilize millions of people into the street around this core demand and how would this lead to getting rid of the regime?”...

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—Correspondence to Revolution