Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE on Saturday morning. His murder has been met by massive and righteous outrage. Alex Pretti gave his life nonviolently defending someone against a gang of fascist thugs, who fired at least ten shots into him. He sacrificed himself rather than see a gang of sadists in uniform beat down a nonviolent protester.
In the words of his parents, “Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact.”
It is on us, on all of us, to go forward.
This Fascism Must Be Defeated
Be clear: fascism is upon us. What else do you call it when not one but two nonviolent and nonthreatening people are shot down in the streets in broad daylight, and not only the law enforcement who killed them, but those in the highest offices of the land rush to prejudge and slander them, inventing outrageous stories that are blatant lies? What else do you call it when career prosecutors and FBI agents resign rather than further pervert the rule of law? What else do you call it when an Asian man is dragged from his home and humiliated and endangered by being forced to stand outside in the cold night in his underwear while agents question his citizenship (and yes, the man IS a citizen)? When agents seize a five-year-old child (also here legally) and ship him out of state into a so-called “detention facility” (that is, a concentration camp)? Or when federal agents pollute crime scenes and stonewall state investigators? This is FASCISM.
Read/listen to this social media message from @BobAvakianOfficial.
There can be no living with this fascism. No “looking toward the midterms” as every week and every day brings new leaps down the road. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi, among other outrageous demands that she has lodged against Minnesota officials, wants the voting rolls of Minnesota—where do you think that is headed?
It is righteous and heroic to organize community resistance to stand against ICE. It is valuable and very important to organize mutual aid for persecuted people who literally dare not walk outside their houses. This must continue and grow. At the same time, the demand that “The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go NOW!” should be taken up by these movements, uniting all who can be united around that single crucial demand to accomplish this urgent mission… before it is too late.
Getting to the Roots and Fundamental Change: Revolution, Nothing Less!
Many have raised the question “where did this fascism come from?” More than a few have talked about “not wanting to go back to what was.” The fact is this: the white supremacy and xenophobia (fear of foreigners) played out every day from the streets of the country on up to the White House, the misogyny and anti-gay hatred stamped all over the murder of Renee Good, the gangster-like threats against and invasions and takeovers of other countries—these are extreme examples of things that have deep roots in the system of this country, capitalism-imperialism. Fascism is a different form of rule of that system—one in which a section of the rulers do away with and/or pervert the rule of law and any legal protections whatsoever and bring the naked violent force of the state down against both the masses and against their opponents within the ruling class.
Times are serious. They demand sacrifice. We are in a time when millions can quickly change their lives, and thousands could be organized into a revolutionary force IF they come to know what we are fighting, where it came from, how to defeat it, and what must arise in its place. To that end:
— Go to revcom.us and @BobAvakianOfficial to get deeper and continuing scientific analysis of the basic nature and dynamics of the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules in this country and dominates in the world as a whole... why this system cannot be reformed but must be thoroughly abolished through an actual revolution... why this is a “rare time” when this revolution is not only urgently necessary, but is more possible... what the fundamentally different and much better system will look like after a revolution... and how to go about seizing the time to actively work for this revolution, in the face of all the real and continually increasing horrors.
— Work together with others to take up the strategic approach of the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity to Fight the Power, and Transform the People—for Revolution: Shaking up the whole country and waking people up to the need and possibility for revolution... waging fierce struggle to break people out of the bullshit ways of thinking and acting… uniting with and mobilizing people to stand up against the injustices and outrages perpetrated by this system... organizing to defend the people from attacks on their rights and lives… raising people's sights to a radically different emancipating system that's possible... developing new leaders who take up the revolutionary road, the scientific method, and goal of the new communism charted by Bob Avakian (BA). All with the aim of achieving the “three prepares”: prepare the ground (the situation in society), prepare the masses of people, and prepare the organized leadership, for the all-out revolutionary struggle.
As BA, the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism has said:
We revcoms are working tirelessly toward the goal of finally putting an end to such monstrous and completely unnecessary ruin and destruction of so many people, here and all over the world. In the interests of humanity as a whole, we are willing and prepared to make the necessary sacrifices—and to call on others to make the necessary sacrifices—to carry out the revolution that can bring about a liberating leap forward on the road to finally putting an end to all this madness and needless suffering and to bringing about a world where human beings can, at long last, move beyond the mere struggle for individual survival, as well as the heavy weight of thousands of years of oppressive relations, and can truly thrive as a world community of human beings, proceeding according to fundamental principles of cooperation, and capable of being fit caretakers of the earth. (from “2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror”)
