In response to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and other ways fascists are going after the basic rights of Black people and others, the organizers of the 63rd anniversary of the historic March on Washington rallied people to defend the right to vote. The rally was spearheaded by Al Sharpton, featuring Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with dozens of speakers from civil rights leaders and congresspeople to local politicians and youth organizers.

While there were differences among the speakers, the main themes led people in the direction of being forced to accommodate to the fascism being hammered into place. For starters, none of the speakers even sounded the alarm that what we’re up against IS fascism (or if someone uttered the word, it was easily missed). And while a few exposed the “extremism” of the Republicans and the ways they are moving to illegitimately prevent themselves being voted out of power by breaking up districts to undercut Black votes, shutting down mail-in voting and moving to station federal forces at the polls, only one or two gave any hint at the fascist violence associated with this, and none gave any commensurate vision that this is an extraordinary situation requiring an extraordinary response.

Instead, people were called on to vote. To fight back… by voting. To organize… for voting. March organizers drew on the history of the civil rights movement and the slogans like “make good trouble” but with no vision of making any trouble—just vote… while the fascists take away the ability to vote! Al Sharpton called the regime in power racist and bigoted, which is true, but then said those bigots “can’t turn back time” to before civil rights were won—which is definitely NOT true. Speaker after speaker gave empty promises that “we will win,” and there was a heavy weight of religion to the whole event, repeated appeals to God and ultimately relying on God when you can’t see a way forward. The event started with the comments that it doesn’t matter who is president, it just matters that God’s on the throne. In fact, there is no god and Trump sits on the “throne” with his finger on the nuclear trigger!

Several thousand people came, from the DC region and across the country. But it was not widely popularized on the scale of something like the “No Kings” marches (even though the leaders of Indivisible spoke from the stage) and the tens of thousands hoped for did not materialize.

Those who came were people concerned about the attacks on basic rights and the direction of society. There was a significant presence of Black women of all ages, including middle-aged women mobilized through their sororities. A few contingents of students came from HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), including all the way from South Carolina. Busses came from Houston, and others came in small numbers from as far as California. The “No Kings” base of mainly older white people concerned about “saving democracy” also had a real presence.

While some people were in tune with what was coming from the stage, significant numbers seemed to know or have a sense that something more and different is needed. Many were drawn enthusiastically to the Refuse Fascism table and banner, “Back to Jim Crow? HELL NO! Trump Must Go NOW!” A few dozen people donated to get Trump Must Go Now t-shirts and signs to carry during the rally and march. One woman put on the t-shirt on the spot and started passing out the Refuse Fascism flyer and recruited her nephew to help too.

There was also a mainly positive response to the flyer from the revcoms, and 1500 were distributed in the crowd. People reached for the flyer As the Fascists Go After Basic Rights…A TIME FOR HARD QUESTIONS AND REAL ANSWERS when they heard us say this is a message from the revolutionary communists, and when they saw the banners: “This is a Time for a New, Urgently Needed, Truly Emancipating Revolution,” and THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (And Related Questions): INVENTIONS AND DISTORTIONS OF REALITY AND HISTORY—IN THE SERVICE OF REAL AND REPEATED ATROCITY.

People expressed agreement that what we’re facing is fascist attacks that reach back to the Confederacy, and saw the danger in this. Many were inclined to agree that voting cannot fundamentally uproot the oppression of Black people, or the rise of fascism, or deal with the genocide in Gaza or the climate catastrophe. At the same time, they didn’t know what to do with that initially—because they don’t see any other way to make change. Some expressed the opinion that at least voting can open up more space to do… something. (Or in the words of Al Sharpton, can put a “handicap” on what Trump is doing.) People didn’t really know what it means to say all this is rooted in the soil of capitalism-imperialism, what that system actually is and how it functions, and how it could be possible to get beyond this to a whole new system.

But the more they were led to engage those questions, the more they asked what is meant here by revolution—what kind of revolution—the more they got a sense that this is about an actual, real revolution of millions of people to abolish and dismantle one system and state power and replace it with a whole new one. This included some people really hearing and engaging what is said in Bob Avakian’s Declaration of Independence series: “what essentially exists in capitalist democracy is the rule—the dictatorship—of the capitalist class (the bourgeoisie). Voting in this system does not negate, or do away with—but in fact is incorporated within and actually serves—the dictatorship of the ruling capitalist class.”

These engagements opened up the questions of whether it is possible to make and win a real revolution, and why the time we’re in now that’s going to extremes makes it more possible. More than that, they heard about Bob Avakian and the content of the leadership he’s providing that has developed the scientific breakthrough and understanding needed for what kind of revolution is needed, how its possible, and how we really could bring into being a radically different society organized to uproot oppression and exploitation and geared toward emancipating humanity. Several people wanted to know more about this leader and the content of this leadership.

There was also some engagement and struggle on the God-talk from the stage and the need for a scientific approach for real emancipation. Some people not as attracted to revolution were more stuck in a lot of religiosity themselves. Two Black women who stood out as very different than that had been shouting in opposition to Hakeem Jeffries speaking because of his support for the genocide in Gaza. When he mentioned God at the end of his comments, they spoke up again, this time saying “I’m so sick of this God stuff! If there’s a God, he hates Black people!” This was by no means the common sentiment at the rally, but it was in the mix of who was there and what was happening.

People donated to get copies of the Declaration of Independence series and Humanity on the Brink, with about 20 distributed in total. Overall, the revcoms involved summed up a lot of potential to engage with and transform the thinking of people who have very contradictory thinking now.