Hundreds Stand Up to Fascists in Berkeley
Revolution Books Attacked—AGAIN!—This Time by Official Pigs
| Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
On Saturday, August 5, hundreds of people came out in Berkeley to stand up against the pro-Trump, MAGA-moron, white supremacist, fascist “No to Marxism” rally.
The Revolution Club Bay Area and Revolution Books were out there organizing people into the revolution, and bringing the message straight up in the face of these Nazi anti-communists: No to fascism! No to white supremacy! No to capitalism! No to imperialism! YES to Marxism! YES to the New Communism! This system can't be reformed, it must be overthrown!
Revolution Books Berkeley has been attacked more than 10 times by fascists like these (including threats by fascist thugs in March to burn down the store). On Saturday, the store boldly set up a “Revolution Books Without Walls” display in MLK (Civic Center) Park, where the fascists planned to hold their rally. The display included important works of Marxist theory and featured Bob Avakian’s work that put communism even more fully and firmly on a scientific foundation—the new synthesis of communism.
Protesters had come to the park to confront the Nazis. After a scuffle broke out between some fascists and anti-fascists, riot cops moved in en masse, brutalizing anti-fascist protesters and then charged the Revolution Books area, tearing its banner and stomping all over the books and emboldening the fascists to do the same. So after repeatedly being attacked by the fascists, this time Revolution Books was outrageously attacked by the Berkeley police!
But Revolution Books, the Revolution Club and some 100 others stood their ground and remained in the park for hours—surrounding and hounding the 30-some fascists, preventing them from having their rally. Some of the Nazis wore T-shirts celebrating the fascist generals in Argentina and Chile who murdered and tortured tens of thousands in the 1970s. Whenever they would spew their shit, people would drown them out with chants of “Remember Heather Heyer! Charlottesville Never Again!” and “1, 2, 3, 4 Slavery, Genocide and War—5, 6, 7, 8 America Was Never Great.”
A member of the Revolution Club told revcom, “It was interesting, people were also taking up our ‘Yes to Marxism’ and ‘Yes to the New Communism’ chants in opposition to these Nazis and their ‘No to Marxism’ rally.”
Refuse Fascism joined with a group of some 500 activists who held a “Sweep Out the Fascists, Festival of Resilience” protest, which Revolution Books also endorsed. They gathered at nearby Ohlone Park and the plan was to march to MLK Park, but a massive mobilization of police from all over the Bay Area—with guns, batons, tasers, and gas grenades—blocked them. The pigs lobbed smoke canisters and shot rubber bullets into the crowd and arrested over a dozen anti-fascists using a bullshit emergency city ordinance banning “weapons”—which included things like having picket signs or wearing bandanas.
Then, even more outrageously, the Berkeley police “doxxed” everyone they arrested—most all of them anti-fascists—by publishing their names, pictures, and the cities they are from, setting them up for further attack by fascist trolls. Adding insult to injury, the Berkeley pigs then posted a call on Twitter—really directed toward fascist snitches—for people to send them photos and videos of anyone who committed “crimes” during the protest.
Afterward Revolution Books, Berkeley issued the following statement:
Revolution Books Stands up to
Fascist "No To Marxism" Rally—
Police Stomp Book Display
August 5: a second “No to Marxism” rally was called by fascists in MLK Park in Berkeley. These are the fascists who have been attacking Revolution Books for over a year. Spawned by Amerikkka and unleashed by the fascist Trump regime, these racist, anti-immigrant, misogynist, anti-communists came to spew their garbage in the center of Berkeley! Hell No! We need to make Berkeley a Fascist Free Zone as part of the determined struggle of millions taking to the streets to drive out the Trump/Pence regime. The epidemic of white supremacy—official and “unofficial”—must be stopped. This means Revolution—Nothing Less! This system cannot be reformed, it must be overthrown!
So we took dozens of books—important Marxist classics, and featuring Bob Avakian's even more scientific and revolutionary re-envisioning of Marxism—the new synthesis of communism, books on science, immigration, police brutality & mass incarceration, books on imperialism and on the true history that America Was Never Great. We produced lots of free materials to pass out—including the pamphlet HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution. And we called on people to join with us:
No to fascism! No to white supremacy! No to capitalism! No to imperialism! YES to Marxism! YES to the New Communism! This system can't be reformed, it must be overthrown!
We set up our Revolution Books Without Walls display right in the middle of the park, before the fascists showed up.
And they did show up, protected by a massive police presence. After a scuffle broke out between some fascists and anti-fascists, riot cops moved in en masse, brutalizing anti-fascist protesters and then charging the Rev Books area, stomping all over the books—and emboldening the fascists to do the same. This police attack on Revolution Books Without Walls is outrageous and we call on everyone to stand with our store.
We give props to everyone who came out to oppose the fascists today—many more people should have shown up—and we call on people to donate what you can to our bookstore so we can continue to be everywhere we NEED to be, with the literature people need to understand, and to change the world. Come into the bookstore or donate online to this intellectual, political and cultural center of a movement for an actual revolution.
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