The ripping up of societal norms hit a small charter school on L.A.’s middle class Westside this week. The school began enforcing a COVID vaccine mandate as decided by a vast majority of the parents of students there. On Tuesday, six students challenging this in the name of individual freedom showed up unvaccinated and did a sit-in outside when they weren’t allowed into school. The next day something like 20 fascists, unmasked and waving a “don’t tread on me” flag, showed up to protest against the school. They pointed bullhorns at the windows with classes inside, calling the school administration “fascists” and telling the students they were there because they “love” them and want to “protect” them. At least two people showed up in opposition, holding signs in support of the school.
The Revolution Tour wasn’t tuned in to the fascists social media enough to be able to get there while the fascists were there (and we’re working to rectify this!), but were able to get to the school the next morning before class. We went with Bob Avakian’s articles about COVID vaccines, and palm cards of his major new work, “SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility of Civil War – And the Revolution That is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap for This Revolution.”
Students, parents and staff were shaken by the encounter with the fascists. Some wanted to downplay it and didn’t necessarily want revolutionaries at the school either, they just wanted a return to normal.
One student argued that the more we resist the fascists, the more they are going to react and we would be fueling the fire and giving them what they want. She described wanting to not think about all this and just pay attention to school. A comrade responded, “look, ya’ll instituted vaccine mandates which is a good thing to stop the spread of a deadly virus, and these fascists do what they did yesterday. It’s an example that we are not going to be left alone.”
Others were furious. One student saw us and thought at first glance we were the fascists coming back. She jumped out of the car she was being dropped off to school in, grabbed a flyer from us and immediately ripped it in half. When she got clear we supported the vaccines, she apologized and picked up the ripped flyer.
It made a difference to go there, bringing in that there is another force and side of things standing up and with analysis and answers to what needs to be done. And challenging people to confront reality and act on it. After school, there was an atmosphere of people wanting to sort things out and some engaging more deeply.
There was struggle with some students over whether it’s acceptable and just a matter of “free speech” for people to fight against vaccination when this is killing other people. Some already had firmer positions recognizing the harm of this, like one student who had lost two relatives to COVID.
A few handfuls of students were walking around “testing” us to see what side we were on. One came up and asked, “Are you the good people or are you the opps?” Another group went around to each one of us to ask, “do you think Black Lives Matter?” and then, “do you support LGBT rights?” Another group asked, “Do you love Jesus?”
Several students stuck around to talk a little deeper. One was very concerned about the state and direction of society but also unsure what to believe and what to do and how to figure it out. He was intrigued that we were communists putting forward a way to fight to defeat what is happening now and bring forward a new society that could lead to an end to all oppression. Some others read the title of BA’s talk and agreed that revolution is urgently needed. They said that literally some of the fascists who came to the school were part of storming the Capitol last January and they want to stand up against this. With all the students who engaged, we struggled for them to step into the revolution and invited and encouraged them to watch The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show.