In grappling with Bob Avakian’s message Revolution #111 and the new call for January 20th from THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity, I was thinking about the experience in helping to lead the Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights chapter in Los Angeles. When Rise Up first kicked off, we would go into restaurants, grocery stores, malls, and other busy areas, with bloody pants representing what happens when abortion is illegal, and the green bandana representing the mass movement that won the right to abortion in Latin America. We would do die-ins, and stand up on chairs doing agitation, calling on others to take part, declaring “OVERTURN ROE? HELL NO!” This became a thing that brand new people took up.

We were small in numbers (usually just a few of us doing this), but bold and defiant. We knew that millions of people did not want Roe to be overturned and the right to abortion to be taken away from young women and girls, but were either going along with it or following the lead of the Democratic Party to just accept this defeat. We are in a similar situation today, with tens of millions who HATE Trump and his whole fascist program, but are right now going along with it (and being led by the Democrats to go along with it). Just like at the beginning of Rise Up, there needs to be a force, small at first, but bold in our determination and righteous anger, to galvanize and challenge those millions who do not want to see this shit go down. And the stakes are even higher now.

The kind of simple disruptive actions we did during Rise Up is something that can and should be recreated NOW, including by people who are very new to this. You can go in busy eating areas wearing bloody pants, or orange jumpsuits representing the deportations, or signs about the attacks on trans healthcare. The point is get bold, get creative, and disrupt business as usual, acting in line with what BA says in #111:

This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism…

This must begin, and begin to gather real momentum, before the scheduled Inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20 (2025). While taking part in protests against this Trump/MAGA fascism, people in all parts of the country need to get together, get organized, reach out broadly and continually call forth broader ranks of people, in rapidly growing bold, active, determined opposition to Trump/MAGA fascism overall, based on the clear orientation of building a massive movement all over the country, with the unifying, fundamental aim of defeating this fascism.”

People can do simple, yet powerful readings of the slogans, standing on a chair in front of crowds of people and meaning it: “NO! In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!” “This whole damn system is rotten and illegitimate! We need and we demand a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system!”

And challenge people to make it real. You can riff on what those slogans really mean to you, and challenge people to not stand on the sidelines and continue to go along with this Trump/MAGA fascism. Go out to the decent people, progressive arts districts, cultural areas with a lot of youth, LGBT areas in your city, areas with a lot of immigrants, on buses and trains, and places where you know this message will resonate with large amounts of people.

Get out copies of “We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System” and the call to BE THERE in the streets on January 20th. Model the kind of courage and conviction that is urgently needed by millions of people in the streets to defeat this fascism. Have people take up picket signs, posters, and stickers of the slogans on the spot to be part of getting the word out all over the city. The point once again is: get bold, creative, and defiant, and call on the decent people to be part of defeating this fascism, while opening up the question of what kind of system gave rise to this, what kind of better world is possible, and how the Revcom Corps is getting organized for a real revolution now. Open up all these questions as you are doing this, and give ways to people to take part on the spot.