Look at the headlines from just the past week:
Trump Announces Restart of Nuclear Bomb Testing
Trump Threatens to Invade Nigeria “With Guns-a-Blazing” to Defend Christians
Trump Continues Bombing Boats from Venezuela and Colombia as Death Toll Rises Past 60
Trump Cuts Off Food Stamps for Millions in November, Despite Congressional Authorization of Funds
Trump Grants Over 90% of Refugee Slots to White South Africans
Trump Plan for 23,500-Soldier Domestic “Rapid Response Force” Put in Place
Again: just one week’s worth of headlines. Meanwhile, the terror by ICE intensifies all over the country. Look at these clips from Portland, Chicago and New York.
Congress isn't just shut down, it's 'dissolved,' says Rep. Adam Smith
Meanwhile, Trump keeps the House of Representatives closed for the seventh straight week.
The Challenge We Face
In the face of this madness, people have done good things—important things, courageous things. They have put themselves on the line and shown anger, courage, love and compassion. Millions have shown up for massive anti-Trump demonstrations. All these must continue and grow.
But can anyone deny that we are facing a fascist juggernaut that is moving quickly? Yet many good-hearted people still fail to grasp the speed of the monster. If you are one of them, look again at the list of headlines from just this week. Can you really deny that more—much more—is needed to not just counter that, but defeat it? And soon?
How much time do you think we have—do you think humanity has—before the window closes? Before things are too far gone and too tightly locked down to mount any meaningful resistance?
Yes, you have done a lot. But more is needed… and now. This week, people will come to DC to launch that “more”—to inspire and organize the millions needed to actually drive the regime out. They will march and they will chant and they will say this: “We begin now. On November 5th, from across this nation, we pour into DC. From that day forward, we don’t stop until the regime is removed.”
A Lever to Move Millions
Those who gather will consciously act as a lever to bring forward millions in a compressed period of time. They will by their actions show the way—flooding the seat of power and calling people in the region and across the country to join them. Coming back again and again, amassing in determined nonviolent protest to demand: The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go NOW!
If you are just hearing this now, come. If you have been sitting on the fence, come. There is a whole lot of work and struggle to be done, but there is a real chance to win—not a guarantee, but a chance. [Go here and here for more on how we could truly defeat this fascism.]
Why We Can’t Wait: Refuting the Rationalizations
But—again—too many are still holding back.
Some say, and more seem to be thinking, something like this: “Yes, this is a regime that is moving toward fascism, and that is horrible. But it’s not there yet. We have time to strengthen the neighborhood grassroots resistance to ICE… to block Trump’s attempts to destroy the democratic norms in every sphere of society and to hammer things down further… to ‘rejuvenate’ the Democratic Party with exciting new candidates that really fight for the people. We can keep mounting millions-strong demonstrations every few months that make clear people’s revulsion with Trump. If we do all that and more, then we will have enough strength to win the midterms and start to reverse things and overcome all Trump’s attempts to steal the elections. Yes it’s a dangerous time, a very dangerous time… but there is still space for us to stop this.”
This argument has a profound moral problem. No matter how great the local resistance against aspects of this regime grows, we will lose the initiative and be crushed only by fighting politically on the defensive. This cannot contend with the "muzzle velocity" of Trump fascism using the resources, organization and determination to install an all-out fascist America. Meanwhile, our neighbors are getting snatched up, millions live every moment in terror, and there are uncounted thousands now in the clutches of truly barbaric ICE prisons. To say nothing of the women being criminalized for abortion, the trans kids denied healthcare, the academics fired, and on and on. There is a need—and a moral responsibility—to fight to actually remove this regime, NOW.
But the heart of the argument—the idea that the Democrats can win the midterms and that efforts should go there—has so many things wrong with it, it’s hard to know where to begin. The argument badly underestimates what Trump has already put into place, what he is on track to do and the pace with which he’s doing it. It profoundly underestimates that these fascists feel they are on an existential mission from god to remake all of society on a fascist foundation—rule through open white supremacy, hatred of immigrants, enslavement of women and purging of LGBT people from society, enforced through open violence and terror.
Repressive Apparatus on Steroids
This argument importantly ignores the repressive apparatus now being put into place.
A little over one month ago Trump pulled together 800 generals and admirals to tell them to prepare to “fight the war at home” against the “enemy within.” Last week, word came that Trump has begun to rapidly assemble 23,500 National Guard soldiers to be part of suppressing “domestic disturbances.” He has continued to build up ICE (which is now on a campaign to add 10,000 new agents) and he has brought the even more lawless and violent Customs and Border Patrol into cities like Chicago. While some federal judges courageously stand up against this (braving MAGA death threats against themselves and their families incited by Trump and his minions), the illegitimate fascist-packed Supreme Court continues to validate and enable Trump’s lawlessness 95 percent of the time.
Elections? Trump has filled the elections oversight agencies with those who still deny the results of the 2020 elections. He is moving to outlaw absentee voting, and his puppet Mike Johnson won’t even swear in newly elected Democratic representatives to Congress. Trump’s ideologue and hype-man Steve Bannon has said that ICE will oversee balloting in the 2026 elections. And in any case, Trump has already sidelined and neutered Congress in dramatic ways that make it powerless and irrelevant and the Supreme Court has gone along with and even facilitated this. To take one sharp and horrific example, those who today cannot eat because Trump cut off SNAP (food stamps) will find no consolation in the fact that Congress has actually allotted money for SNAP to be funded in this period and the courts have ordered Trump to release those funds—to no avail. Finally, the war that Trump has declared on “antifa” has as one of its aims the destruction of NGO’s that fund Democrats, and these are already feeling the heat.
Elections for Congress as our saving grace?? Let’s even leave aside the fact that the executive and Supreme Court have together gutted the separation of powers and rule of law. Even if the Democrats somehow overcome the gerrymandering, the massive disqualifications of “minorities” and the poor, the armed intimidation at the polls, the threats against those who fund them, the wholesale changes in the voting rules and the counting, and the certain refusal of Trump to accept any result that would even hint at defeat for MAGA, why would you count on the Democratic Party as an institution to actually meaningfully challenge, resist and actively try to STOP Trump and remove him from power??!? And why would you risk the lives of people here and around the world, and future generations as well, on that wager? (To get into this deeper, see Bob Avakian's social media messages Revolution #125, "Not the courts, and not the Democratic Party: Decent people, mobilizing massively and relentlessly, are the force that must be relied on to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism," and Revolution #137, "Deeper reasons why there is no 'left' version of Charlie Kirk—and why the Democratic Party will not, and cannot, do what needs to be done to drive out the Trump fascist regime—Part 2")
Yes, the Democrats are willing to allow and in some cases endorse the massive demonstrations against Trump. But as an institution, they are locked into limiting any struggle to using the “norms” of this system against Trump, even as Trump rips up those norms day after day.
The Window Is Closing: The Coming Intensification of Repression
Further: the fascists intend to crack down very broadly on all who oppose them. We should take seriously their threats—for these people are serious. The masked ICE thugs on a rampage, the increasing brutality, the arbitrary arrests of any people with a brown skin, the troops on the street—this is becoming normalized and more intense.
But it is about to go beyond that with the campaign Trump has declared against “antifa.” The very fact that “antifa” does not actually exist as an organized entity will enable the regime to label everyone and anyone who opposes them as “antifa” and to do to them what Trump’s right-hand man Stephen Miller has openly said they will do: “infiltrate, disrupt, arrest and imprison” those who oppose Trumpian fascism.
In the eyes of the Millers, Patels, Vances and Noems—in the eyes of Trump—“antifa” is ALL OF US. All who are actively resisting, all who speak out even in just a Facebook post, even those who are doing nothing more than raising funds for the Democratic Party. They have the FBI making this its highest priority. To laugh this off or ignore it is at best terribly—and potentially disastrously—short-sighted and frankly irresponsible. To be blunt, given what is at stake for the whole world, we don’t have the right to NOT take this seriously.
A Moral Challenge and a Political Path to Victory
Clearly, we are up against something that will demand a lot from us. The time really is way too tight—the fascist cancer way too advanced and way too aggressive—to lull ourselves with non-solutions and illusions that things will stay on the current continuum.
Listen to and watch these messages from Bob Avakian:
But there IS a way to win. As we said up top, the vision put forward in the Call to November 5 from Refuse Fascism and open to all paints a picture of what millions in the streets of DC could do. The social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #141, “The Time Is Urgently Upon Us Now—To Drive Out The Trump Fascist Regime!,” from Bob Avakian (BA) goes more deeply into how nonviolently bringing forward a “political earthquake from below” could combine with the deepening but still muted opposition to Trump within the ruling institutions… to actually drive Trump from power. Don’t say it’s not possible until we really put in the effort.
And as things get closer to November 5 and the weeks of struggle it will launch, it is important to conclude where BA does:
The profound reality is this: The massive mobilization called for by Refuse Fascism, and open to all, represents the real possibility—the ONLY real possibility—of actually driving out this fascist regime, and putting an end to the endless horrors it is determined to perpetrate.
Yes, the Trump regime might seize on the mobilization for November 5 as an excuse to bring down further repression. But this regime has already brutally demonstrated that it intends to viciously persecute those it chooses to identify as “enemies,” and to relentlessly repress any actual or potential forces of opposition, within the ruling class itself as well as in the larger society, whether or not they actively resist the regime.
In the circumstances we are now facing, failing to even try to drive out this fascist regime, while there is still a possibility of succeeding, would be far worse than failing in the attempt to drive out the regime. As the Call from Refuse Fascism plainly and sharply puts it: “If we fail to even try, future generations—if they exist—will never forgive us.”
But we may not fail! As dramatically demonstrated by the accelerating juggernaut of the Trump fascist regime—and, on the other side, by the continuing protests and repeated massive rallies and marches against this fascist horror—these are not “normal times.” In these extraordinary times, things can change very rapidly, on a huge scale and with major impact. That can apply not only in very negative but also very positive ways: the repeated outpourings against this regime can be built on and then given the most powerful expression in the mobilization and convergence on DC, November 5, being called for by Refuse Fascism, with an open invitation to all who are outraged by Trump/MAGA fascism.
If this succeeds, it will be a truly historic achievement for humanity now, and something that will contribute in a profound way to the possibility for a far better world for future generations.
And again, if millions are rallied to this Call for a massive, nonviolent but determined mobilization and convergence on Washington DC, beginning on November 5—there is a real possibility that this could succeed.
