Received from RefuseFascism:

Message to Chapters in the Days Before December 14:
Pull Together and Go All Out in This Cause with Great Hopes for Humanity

December 9, 2019 | revcom.us

 

 

December 8, 2019

Chapters and Organizers:

We have five days until our nationwide December 14 protests. We have collectively determined, for good reason, that these must mark a leap in societal impact, numbers of people, and clarity of message and mission that gets forged to carry forward the battle to drive out the regime.

As is laid out well in the flyer for the December Disruptions, the plan for the month, previous guidance, and last week’s #OUTNOW Webinar: the regime is barreling ahead with its fascist program, the Democrats are foreshadowing they will not fight impeachment through to removal (and they continue to fight it on terms that legitimate the heart of the Trump/Pence fascist program), and the accommodation and collaboration of the masses of people who hate what this regime stands for is also advancing. We are in a race to turn this around.

We began something of tremendous significance and made real advances through the five week launch of #OUTNOW, and we must fight forward to make a further advance on December 14. Unfortunately, despite having announced these plans more than 2 weeks ago, we are coming from behind everywhere in the country. Turning this around and making the advance that is needed and possible on December 14 will require going all out all week, with progress being made each day—and we are asking that you send in reports with updates daily.

To serve this advance, we want to speak frankly about a problem: almost nowhere did the chapters fully take up the plans for December 7 to be days of MASS DISRUPTIVE PROTEST. Instead of fighting to bring out masses of people (similar numbers to the protests in the 5 week launch) to together carry out disrupting protest on mass transit (or car caravan) with the message and challenge to join #OUTNOW, chapters mainly planned for the cores to go out and hand out flyers.

In investigating this with as many chapters as we were able to speak to, it seems that—in addition to what we knew would be some dispersal and loss of momentum over the Thanksgiving holiday—many people in our cores are very hesitant about going out and frontally challenging the accommodation and collaboration of the masses of people who genuinely hate everything the regime stands for. There is much more willingness to go out and challenge the fascists than there is to go out and struggle with the people who are opposed to fascism but accommodating. The former is extremely important, but by itself will not call forth the one force that is capable of truly defeating this fascism: the masses of people in their millions. We must take this responsibility—and we must persevere in it!

The unfortunate reality is that most people who should know better, who should be out in the streets raising bloody hell, are instead learning to turn their backs on the people in the concentration camps and on their own consciences. But, the point in recognizing this is not to throw up our hands or proclaim that people are “too far gone.” Precisely the opposite! It is to say that we must go out and disrupt that process of normalization, accommodation, and collaboration. Waiting for something else besides us going out and struggling with them to change the understanding and orientation of these people is not only gambling humanity’s future on something that is very unlikely to develop on its own, it is squandering the biggest way we have to impact and change this intolerable situation!

It is worth noting that, to the degree that some chapters did fight through in the final day(s) to change the character of their December 7 so that they were forms of mass disruptive protest—this was to very great effect. The broad masses of people who encountered our protests were shaken up in a good way, inspired and challenged to stop going along with business as usual while fascism consolidates. And the people who took part were uplifted, forged with greater determination and daring.

With this in mind, we need to use every single one of the next five days to get the word out very, very broadly about December 14 and challenge and struggle with people in a sharp, but also very inviting and welcoming way, to pick a side by stepping out in the streets on December 14 with many others to declare: #OUTNOW! Also, for them to be fighting to spread the word and move others they know to be in the streets that day as well. And all this as part of building up the understanding and forces to carry this forward—persisting in coming back with more and more people again and again until we have hundreds of thousands and then millions and we win our demand: Trump/Pence #OUTNOW!

Three prongs of the plans this week should include:

• Going out very broadly to masses of people, getting the word out, accompanied by sharply challenging people that not taking a stand to be part of driving out fascism is picking the wrong side.
• One or two people in each chapter should be systematically reaching to other organized forces. Again, not just the “usual suspects” and certainly not chasing organizations or movements that have ignored us in the past—but to many we may not yet have reached (students, religious forces, professional orgs, meet-up groups, etc.) and not writing anyone off.
• Reaching back to everyone who was part of the 5 weeks, the recent mass meetings, and even before with RF to themselves turn out and donate, and to work with us to further spread the word (whether by joining mass outreach we organize or by spreading the word to their own friends and networks via email, phone, social media or in other ways).

With that, let’s all pull together and go all out this week in this great cause that carries such hopes for humanity.

From the Refuse Fascism National Team