Posts by issue number/Posteos por número de la edición

We are one week out, and $9,000 to go, to meet the goal of raising $30,000 by March 31 to get the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian's voice reaching millions. Thank you to everyone who has donated, and who are working to raise funds. 

The situation is urgent with fascism moving rapidly. It could make all the difference if the clarity of analysis and revolutionary vision in Bob Avakian's voice was reaching throughout society.

This week, we want to share a new fundraising letter to spread everywhere you can. Email it, put it under people's doors, print it out to give people on the spot.

We're also going to share a report we received from members of THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity about raising funds in New York. They sum up here a key lesson: "Engage people, persevere and ASK EVERYONE to donate."

Write to us this week with your questions, ideas, what obstacles you're encountering and your positive experience, info@BobAvakianOfficialEverywhere.org

** A letter to raise funds widely:

Feel free to personalize and edit this template:

Dear

Will you help meet the goal of raising $30,000 by March 31 in the campaign to get the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian's voice reaching millions? 

A few weeks ago, Bob Avakian wrote:

"Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate." 

The situation is dire, and moving fast. The vicious, heartless fascist regime is shredding the rule of law, kidnapping dissidents, deporting migrants to the "black sites" of Guantanamo and El Salvador prisons, erasing trans people... and much more... with much more promised.

In his short statement, Bob Avakian (BA) goes on to say: "Even with particular differences, what is happening now with Trump’s fascist rule also involves a terrible momentum that will involve massive, monstrous crimes against humanity, in this country and in the world overall."

And BA puts forward what's needed to defeat this: the determined, sustained mass mobilization of millions. This will not be stopped by supporting those who minimize the danger by refusing to call it what it is: fascism. It will not be stopped by donating to people running for office in a year and a half, if elections even take place then. It will not be stopped just by caring for those around you, while humanity sits in the crossfires.

Too many are unclear about what's happening and what to do. Too few are calling this out, and charting the path forward. But Bob Avakian has been sounding the alarm about the rise of fascism in the U.S. for over 30 years. And no one else, besides BA, has shown so clearly how this fascism is rooted in the system of capitalism-imperialism with its roots in slavery and genocide. Even more, no one else has developed a concrete framework for a whole different way the world can be. In his New Year's message, "2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror," BA says:

We are now at the point where it is more and more urgently necessary to move beyond this whole monstrous system—beyond a situation where people are forced to struggle just for individual survival, with everyone compelled to be in competition and conflict with others, and the masses of people everywhere are chained down by outmoded oppressive relations, while the future, and the very existence, of humanity is increasingly endangered.

And it is possible now to move beyond all this.

In his recent two part interview, BA brings all this alive—giving concrete guidance on what needs to happen now, the basis to defeat this regime, and how human society can be organized on an emancipating foundation. Having watched this interview, a young professor who has studied BA's work said, "The new communism is even more of a breakthrough than I've fully appreciated, this really is a framework for a society that people would want to live in!"

But way too few even know about Bob Avakian's work, and the powers-that-be don't want people to know. 

The National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere is raising funds to break through this, to radically impact society with Bob Avakian's vision and leadership. Through his social media, he is cutting through the noise and distraction with the truth that people need to know. For this to reach millions, we are combining efforts of online advertising and an on-the-ground impact, with a grassroots effort to spread posters, stickers, flyers and more. But this will not be funded without your support—this is going up against the well-funded media mouthpieces and politicians of this system. 

As someone who cares about humanity, whose heart aches at what is happening, and who is in fear for the future, this is work that you need to engage. And your support now can help break this debate open throughout society. Be part of the positive answer to the burning questions of what kind of society we are going to have, and what kind of people we are going to be. Donate today.

best,

PS You can donate to changing what people understand, and raising their sights at BobAvakianOfficialEverywhere.org.

***

** Raising Funds in NYC

A week ago THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in NYC set up a rummage sale outside Revolution Books in Harlem and raised over $700 towards the national fund drive to promote the social media messages from Bob Avakian. 

What to do with all the leftover items? With good weather predicted for this weekend, a couple revcoms pushed hard to do this again in order to reach the $1,000 goal. We set up some clothes racks and a literature table on the plaza outside a main urban library and across from a big Saturday farmers market in a mixed neighborhood full of people from the Caribbean, young people, middle-class intelligentsia, white and Black, bikers and strollers and lots of tourists. 

We got there early to get a good spot. A nearby vendor was selling beautiful handmade clothes, another with sunglasses, and more… a group of Girl Scouts with a bullhorn doing brisk business selling cookies… fundraisers from Planned Parenthood… someone soliciting signatures for the next campaign for NYC mayor. We set up displays, put out revolutionary literature, and figured out how to display a few of our “nicer” sale items.

Check out the reel that was posted on social media to hear a member of THE REVCOM CORPS calling out to passersby, “In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.” And inviting people to check this out. Holding up a copy of the broadsheet We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System, she urged everyone to stop, to come look and to donate. Spread REVOLUTION. Spread @BobAvakianOfficial!  No one was going to get by that table without her inviting them over. 

In about four hours, we raised $288, and scores of people were introduced to BA and THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity. Most significant: More than half of that amount was straight donations—people giving without getting anything at the rummage sale as well as people who gave more than the asking price of an item they were getting. A woman visiting from Argentina gave $50 instead of the $40 price of a coat… a guy donated $40 for two sweaters which was four times the marked price… and more. There’s so much hatred for what’s happening, a lot of fear and a lot of anger. 

People were inspired simply that we were out there, boldly talking about revolution, challenging people to learn about and help spread BA's work, and definitely about the need to stop the Trump Fascist regime. 

The key thing: Engage people, persevere and ASK EVERYONE to donate.

***

Lower the temperature of water, and it will freeze. Do it drastically enough, and you will approach absolute zero—where there is no motion, no life, even possible.

How cold is it in Trump’s America?

Last week, these things happened:

• 238 immigrants were accused without a legal hearing of being members of a Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and flown to El Salvador—against a judge’s orders that they NOT be shipped. The fascist president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele first mocked them, and then shipped them to a dungeon in a remote area. Prisoners are stacked up in bunks on beds of steel without mattresses. For misbehavior, they are put in the worst solitary confinement cells ever imagined, often pitch dark, and where no visitors are allowed. ICE has admitted that many of those deported have no record of arrest, but in a case of classic circular logic says that this fact doesn’t matter because—since ICE claims that they’re in a gang—it would have been only a matter of time before they got arrested. Go here to read the full outrageous story behind this brutal kidnapping, including how even people who had been political prisoners under the Venezuelan regime have been swallowed up in it. Then think about the fact that by the end of the week Trump was so in love with his remote never-see-daylight hellhole that he was threatening to send anyone accused of breaking the window of a Tesla dealership to El Salvador. 
   

• Trump threatened another law firm—this time the powerful Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison firm—with an executive order that would cripple it. The order was nearly identical to one the against the firm Perkins Coie, which we covered last week. That order forbade lawyers in the practice from even entering federal buildings (even though their clients would be on trial in these very buildings!). The Paul Weiss firm, however, is a far more powerful firm with ties high up in the Democratic Party. According to the New York Times, other firms offered backing if Paul Weiss would fight it. Instead, on Thursday, Paul Weiss capitulated. 

  Trump announced that the firm had agreed to do $40 million worth of free work for causes favored by Trump and to end any sort of commitment to diverse hiring and advancement within the firm. Trump then vowed to go after other firms with more such executive orders. This, again according to the Times, “left other firms even more vulnerable to Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign by demonstrating that his intimidation tactics could lead even a powerhouse like Paul Weiss to make public concessions… [F]irms would now face a choice between bowing to Mr. Trump or abandoning their principles or political beliefs to avoid financial calamity.” Many lawyers at these firms are furious at this betrayal; many made their anger known in different ways, with one—Rachel Cohen—going so far as to quit and say why. (Listen here for a report on resistance in the industry and a powerful interview with Cohen on PBS Newshour.)

• Finally, last week we reported how the Trump fascist regime had cut $400 million in funding for scientific research at Columbia University until the school agreed to a list of nine demands. This Friday the school president, Katrina Armstrong, caved in to some of Trump’s demands. Columbia gave over 30 “security personnel” on campus the right to arrest students. They broadened their definition of anti-Semitism to include “certain double standards applied to Israel.” While the school was purposefully unclear about what this means, presumably anyone who criticized Israel for genocide in Gaza without also criticizing genocide going on in Congo or Sudan or Myanmar would be up for expulsion—even though the U.S. stands fully behind the Israeli genocide, and thus makes all its citizens responsible for stopping it! The school also appointed a “senior vice-provost” to oversee the Middle Eastern, South Asian and Africa Studies Department—which most academics think amounts to the “receivership” (control) that the Trump Administration demanded. Trump has not yet announced whether Columbia’s president has groveled low enough to win back the money. Meanwhile, Chris Rufo, the fascist “theoretician” who has led this assault on academia, said, “This is only the beginning.”

And there we have the one sentence of truth to come out of the mouth of a fascist all week: “this is only the beginning.”

The Need—and the Immediate Chance—to Act Together

At the same time, there are increasing voices calling this fascism out for what it is, for where it is heading and how fast it’s getting there, and for what to do about it. In addition to the important stand of Rachel Cohen, the past week has seen powerful messages delivered by Jay Inslee, the former governor of Washington; and Joe Howley, a professor at Columbia.

Readers, this is a time to ACT. How much closer to absolute zero does the political and social temperature have to get before you turn up the heat to high with your words, your deeds, and your public stand? How many more people and groups will be plunged into the deep freeze, before you say NO MORE!! 

Bob Avakian has said, in an important statement, “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate”:

To fully understand what we are dealing with, it is important to dig into why and how this fascism has come to power here and what this has to do with the fundamental nature of the system of capitalism-imperialism and its historical development in this country. At the same time, there is this crucial immediate goal:

Before Trump’s fascist rule can become fully consolidated and carry out even far worse horrors than what it is already perpetrating, it must be defeated through powerful mass mobilization—overcoming all “divide and conquer” schemes, uniting all who can be united, from many different viewpoints and perspectives, in actively opposing, defying and resisting this fascism, in continually growing numbers—moving to quickly involve millions, determined to create such a profound political crisis that Trump cannot govern the country and continue to implement his fascist program, with all its terrible consequences.

In that light, there has been an important call to action from the group Indivisible to demonstrate in Washington, DC and cities around the country on April 5. These demonstrations provide an opportunity to make this resistance broader, deeper and more determined. RefuseFascism.org is mobilizing for these demonstrations with rallies and feeder marches. RefuseFascism.org is also planning regional organizing conferences in New York and Los Angeles and perhaps other areas for Saturday, April 19. There are also the important calls to fight for Mahmoud Khalil (go here), the Columbia graduate and legal resident of this country whom ICE seized in the middle of the night and is now trying to drive out of the country. 

The thing missing now is YOU, stepping forward to rise to these challenges, seize these opportunities, and make these efforts as powerful as possible.

The following research fed into the article Week Nine of Trump/MAGA Fascism: The Fascist Freeze Gets Even Deeper. Focused on the case of the Venezuelan immigrants, it provides a concrete feel for what is going on and exposes the Trump regime’s lies in some depth.

Basic Facts

On March 15, the U.S. deported 238 Venezuelan males on three flights to El Salvador. An additional 23 Salvadoreans were also deported, bringing the total to 261.

Upon arrival the abductees “were marched into armored vehicles, had their heads shaved and were transferred into cells inside El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, known as CECOT.” (See below for more on CECOT.)

The U.S. has released names, but notably has not released ages—it is possible that the group includes teenagers.

Hardened Criminals?

The U.S. initially claimed that the deportees were hardened criminals, but on March 18 ICE admitted that “many… do not have criminal records in the United States,” but insisted that since they were members of a criminal gang, it was only a matter of time: “[M]any of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members removed under the AEA do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time. The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat.” (See ABC News, March 18, 2025, 'Many' alleged gang members deported by Trump didn't have criminal records in the US: ICE.)

Dangerous Gang Members?

But if they do not have criminal records, how does ICE know they are members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), which the U.S. says is a transnational criminal gang that is “invading” the U.S.? ICE claims that it carefully “vetted” all deportees to verify gang membership. But the only actual evidence they have offered are tattoos that they claim are gang tattoos. Already it has come out that many of these tattoos are not “gang tattoos.” And Venezuela’s interior minister reported that “I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one.” (See Reuters, March 21, 2025: Venezuela minister says no Tren de Aragua members among US deportees.)

Here are two of many examples where family or attorneys have come forward with evidence that their abducted family members were neither criminals nor gang members:

Jerce Reyes Barrios is a professional soccer player from Venezuela, a youth soccer coach, and has no criminal record. He participated in two protests against the government of Nicholas Maduro. Afterwards he was abducted and tortured. He fled to the U.S. and applied for political asylum but was instead detained for “investigation” for “suspicious tattoos,” which were in fact tattoos of soccer clubs. He has no criminal record in the U.S. or Venezuela. (See Ryan Grim and Sarah Hay, Drop Site News, March 20, 2025, Venezuelan Professional Goalkeeper Deported to El Salvador Prison, Stunning Family Back Home.)

Andres Guillermo Morales is a citizen of both Colombia and Venezuela and is also here seeking asylum. (His mother is Colombian; he lives in Venezuela.) He has a legal work permit and a job. He has multiple tattoos: his parents’ names, a clock, a star, a bible verse and music notes. Reuters verified that he had no criminal record in Colombia or Venezuela, and was unable to find any evidence of a criminal record in the U.S. (See Reuters, March 21, 2025, Colombian-Venezuelan migrant held in El Salvador has no ties to feared gang, wife says.)

The Center for Terrorist Confinement/Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) Prison

Originally built in late 2022 for 20,000 inmates, the current population is 40,000. Human rights groups are not allowed in to observe conditions. Government-made videos say that inmates get 30 minutes a day out of their cell, and can be kept in solitary confinement cells that are completely dark. Human Rights Watch is unaware of any prisoner ever being released from CECOT!

Since March 2022 (when a national state of emergency was declared), 350 prisoners have died in Salvadoran custody (not necessarily in CECOT). Some prisoners report being beaten by guards day after day. (Above is from Human Rights Watch declaration on prison conditions in El Salvador for the J.G.G. v. Trump case, March 20, 2025.)

According to The Guardian, March 19, 2025 (What to know about the El Salvador mega-prison where Trump sent deported Venezuelans): “The prison has no outdoor recreational space and no family visits are allowed.” Overcrowding is severe; each prisoner has on average 6.45 square feet of space.

President Nayib Bukele’s government is being paid about $6 million to hold the deportees for one year, with an option to renew each year. Speaking of CECOT inmates generally, Bukele’s justice minister has said that officials “will make sure none of those who enter the Cecot ever leave on foot.”

Legal Issues

A Criminal Act

Most of the deportees were deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. It should be noted that this Act has been invoked three times in 177 years, all three during war time, AND, that it was used to incarcerate 140,000 people of Japanese descent, including many U.S. citizens, for as much as four years during and after World War 2. The criminality of this was finally recognized in the 1980s (under Reagan), an apology issued and reparations paid. But, something that is not noted in media coverage is that this criminal law was not revoked at that time.

Declared War or Invasion…

Here is the relevant language of the Act:

“Whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government … and the President of the United States shall make public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies.”

The Act also can be invoked in the event of “invasion.” 

Obviously there is no “declared war” between the U.S. and Venezuela, so Trump’s¹ invocation of the Act leaned on the “invasion” language, and declared that TdA “operates in conjunction with” the Maduro government and “continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of … supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.” (From White House Proclamation.)

However, even this tortured shred of a justification has been exposed as a lie: the New York Times reported (March 20, 2025, Intelligence Assessment Said to Contradict Trump on Venezuelan Gang) that U.S. intelligence agencies had investigated possible ties between the Maduro government and TdA and found with “moderate” certainty that TdA “was not directed by Venezuela’s government or committing crimes in the United States on its orders, according to the officials.”

Shattering of Right to Due Process, Separation of Powers, and the Rule of Law

Due Process: The 14th Amendment guarantees that no one in the U.S. can be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. This applies to immigrants, although it is important to note that it is somewhat of a façade for undocumented immigrants, even relative to other oppressed masses who are citizens. Still, in a nutshell, the U.S. Constitution requires that people have an opportunity to go before some judicial body and argue that the law under which they are being punished does not apply to them, or they did not do what they are accused of, etc. But in this case ICE and the regime are insisting on their “right” to abduct and deport people with no judicial review whatsoever. 

Entering Homes Without Warrants

Recently they have claimed that they can enter people’s homes without warrants, basically if some agent of the executive branch (ICE, FBI, etc.) alleges that someone in the house is an enemy alien, without any judicial review. (See New York Times, March 20, 2025, Administration Officials Believe Order Lets Immigration Agents Enter Homes Without Warrants.)

Separation of Powers (re Congress)

The Alien Enemies Act is an Act of Congress, therefore if the president invokes it, he is required to apply it based on the language of the law, not his own interpretation. As already noted, the current situation does not remotely conform to the language, intent or past usage of the law—it is essentially Trump “rewriting” the law to mean what he wants it to mean.

Separation of Powers (re Judiciary)

As a congressional act, the Alien Enemies Act and its application are subject to judicial review. But in this case, a direct judicial order to halt / return the deportation flights was disregarded, and subsequent efforts by the federal district judge, acting on very standard legal authority, to even find out what happened have been openly stonewalled and gaslighted. Meanwhile, the administration has argued that the court has no right to review the president’s decisions because it is a national security matter and that is solely the domain of the president. The argument even asserts that he has no responsibility to explain or prove WHY it is a national security matter. Additionally, Trump and others have called for the impeachment of the judge and spoken about him in a highly threatening way which in today’s “atmosphere” could easily lead to physical attacks and at any rate amounts to plain physical intimidation.

Implications

In plain language, all of this amounts to the rule of law in every sense hanging by an extremely thin thread. The “thread” is that Trump has not yet openly defied the court’s orders, though he effectively has. Also, there is the possibility that this will end up before the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) and that SCOTUS will rule against Trump. Then he could either accede or defy. Either way, this would be a major earthquake with highly unpredictable outcomes. 

Even interpreted narrowly, any foreign born person, or even a person with ties to another country, can be accused without evidence of being part of an “invading” gang, and, without review of that allegation by any judicial body, deported, including to barbaric Third World prisons, or homegrown concentration camps. And if you add in the factor that Trump insists he can claim a “national security” exemption—without any explanation—for whatever he does, then the above could apply to any person, period. Likewise, both congressional and judicial authority can be disregarded. So this actually would be as sweeping as Hitler’s Enabling Act,² should Trump succeed in fully getting away with these abductions/deportations and defiance of the court. 

On March 18, in the dead of night, with no warning, Israel shattered its ongoing ceasefire with Hamas and unleashed one of its most heinous massacres of Palestinians in Gaza. 

It dropped massive bombs on homes, schools, and shelters where families had taken refuge and most were sleeping. Over 400 people—including some 183 children—were slaughtered that night alone.¹ This was the largest number of children killed in a single day since Israel unleashed its assault on Gaza in October 2023.²

This new surge of Israeli atrocities is continuing, in many ways more ferociously than ever. Israel is declaring its genocidal intent even more brazenly and explicitly than ever. And the U.S. imperialists, now headed by the Trump/MAGA fascists, are broadcasting their complete and total support for these towering crimes against humanity more loudly than ever.

On Thursday, March 20, Trump’s press secretary declared that Trump had "made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay,” and Trump "fully supports Israel and the IDF [the Israeli military] and the actions that they've taken in recent days."  

That night Israel dropped leaflets with this chilling, genocidal message:

To the people of Gaza, after what happened and the end of the temporary ceasefire and before we start Trump’s compulsory plan [to force Palestinians to leave Gaza] which we will proceed with whether you liked it or not, this is the last call for anyone who may share information with us in return for financial support… Reconsider this. The world map will not change if Gaza’s people disappear. No one will notice you. No one will ask about you. 

Neither America nor Europe cares about Gaza. Even the Arab states. They are our allies. They provide us with money, oil, and arms. They only send you shrouds. The game will end soon.

Four Days Later—Overall Palestinian Death Toll Passes 50,000 

By Saturday, March 22, four days after it restarted its assault on Gaza, Israel had killed some 673 people and wounded 1,233 others, the majority women and children. 

This latest killing spree pushed the official number of Palestinians in Gaza killed by Israel since October 2023 to a grim new milestone: 50,021 (along with 113,274 wounded).³

On Thursday, Israeli ground troops re-entered Gaza, invading the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza in half. On Friday, Israel’s military launched a ground invasion in Rafah and pushed into northern Gaza. That same day Israeli troops blew up and totally destroyed the largest and only specialized cancer treatment center in Gaza: the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, in central Gaza.

As this was taking place, Israeli officials were threatening to annex more and more parts of Gaza if Hamas didn’t cave in to their demands.

“It’s basically the most unprecedented, most savage attack that Gaza has witnessed in over a year,” said Muhammad Shehada, a writer and analyst from Gaza. “You have about 200 kids whose lives were extinguished in a matter of seconds. And now you have about 700 wounded civilians that are languishing in hospitals that are dysfunctional because of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.… You have entire families that were extinguished completely, a whole bloodline that vanished from the civil registry…. I have a colleague whose sister, her husband, their kids, their in-laws and their grandchildren were killed in a single airstrike.”

Israel’s Siege Continues to Kill

Israel continues to strangle the people of Gaza—blocking food, medicine, water, and all goods and services, even electricity, from entering. Punishing civilians and denying them basic necessities is a war crime and crime against humanity, and it’s having horrific, deadly results:  

• According to UNICEF, a third of young children in northern Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition: “1 million children are living without the very basics they need to survive—yet again.”
• My Son Cries All Night From Hunger, and I Have Nothing to Give Him: “Due to the aid blockade and the renewed IDF bombardment, food prices have soared, and the threat of hunger is increasing. Residents have limited access to clean water, sewage is flooding the streets, and a significant sanitation crisis is unfolding.” Only one in ten people have access to clean drinking water. The price of sugar has risen by 300 percent and the price of rice by 200 percent. Sewage is flowing everywhere, and everything is covered in garbage.
• Health officials describe the situation in Gaza’s hospitals as catastrophic because of Israel’s blockade and its systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure: “The injured are lying on the ground with blood covering the floors of the hospitals. We are suffering greatly from a shortage of supplies for emergency and intensive care, as well as for surgeries and medical equipment.”⁴

Big Lies and Open Declarations of Genocide 

Israeli and U.S. officials claim that ceasefire negotiations with Hamas had reached a “dead end” and Israel had “no alternative but to give the order to reopen fire.”⁵

These are bald-faced lies. Israel had been breaking its deal with Hamas from the start—continuing to kill Palestinians, preventing agreed-upon aid from entering Gaza, and refusing to even negotiate a second phase of the agreement on the end of Israel’s assault and the withdrawal of its forces.

The actual reason Israel resumed its attack was that it’s aiming to completely decimate Hamas as a political force, and put Gaza much more completely under its thumb. And overall, its goal—as demonstrated by its ruthless destruction of Palestinian society—is to make it impossible for the Palestinian people to survive as a people on their historic homeland, whether through mass murder, exile, imprisonment, even more brutal oppression… or all of the above.

And this past week, Israel and the U.S. have spoken openly about doing just that.

On March 19, Israel’s Defense Minister issued perhaps Israel’s most explicitly genocidal warning to the people of Gaza yet: 

“Residents of Gaza, this is your final warning. The first Sinwar destroyed Gaza, and the second Sinwar will bring upon it total ruin. The Israeli Air Force’s attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step. What follows will be far harsher, and you will bear the full cost.

“Evacuation of the population from combat zones will soon resume. If all Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not kicked out of Gaza, Israel will act with force you have not known before.

“Take the advice of the U.S. President: return the hostages and kick out Hamas, and new options will open up for you — including relocation to other parts of the world for those who choose. The alternative is destruction and total devastation.”⁶

These aren’t just words. In recent weeks, Israel’s Defense Ministry has created a new office to facilitate “voluntary emigration” from Gaza. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, envisions a transfer of 10,000 Palestinians a day, depopulating the entire Gaza Strip within six months. Israel and the U.S. have already asked Sudan, Somaliland and other governments to take the Palestinians.

The U.S. and Israel Are Openly Accelerating Their Genocide in Gaza—It Is Our Responsibility to Stop This World-Historic Crime!

YOU need to join together with others now to stop Israel’s onslaughts against the Palestinian people, and to stop Trump fascism—before it’s too late.

Here is why this is happening.

Here is where to go to join the forces for revolution that are part of the fight to STOP this genocide, to defeat this fascist regime, and to get organized to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism that is the cause of this genocide, and so many other atrocities.

And here is where to go to get to a world where such crimes are no longer possible.

A jury in a civil trial in North Dakota returned a chilling verdict last week in a suit against the environmental organization Greenpeace. Greenpeace was ordered to pay $660 million to pipeline corporation Energy Transfer—because Greenpeace supported the very powerful protests against Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The verdict if actually carried out would bankrupt Greenpeace U.S. The verdict is a further leap towards the criminalization of oppositional speech and protest actions in the U.S. 

Marty Garbus, an attorney who monitored the trial and who has represented well-known resisters and voices of conscience Nelson Mandela, Daniel Ellsberg, Cesar Chavez, and Vaclav Havel, said, “In my six decades of legal practice, I have never witnessed a trial as unfair as the one against Greenpeace that just ended in the courts of North Dakota. This is one of the most important cases in American history. The law that can come down in this case can affect any demonstration, religious or political. It's far bigger than the environmental movement. Yet the court in North Dakota abdicated its sacred duty to conduct a fair and public trial and instead let Energy Transfer run roughshod over the rule of law.”

Greenpeace is a world-renowned environmental organization. They use what they call “non-violent creative confrontation” to fight for environmental causes. Since 1971, they have mounted campaigns against nuclear testing, whale hunting, and the destruction of forests. In 2016 and 2017, they responded to calls from Native people to participate in protests at Standing Rock.

In 2016 and 2017, the battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline drew tens of thousands to the remote Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota. The pipeline, with 500,000 barrels of oil a day flowing through it, would accelerate global warming and directly threaten the land, water and sacred sites of the Standing Rock Sioux people. Greenpeace assisted the protests, but they were not the main organizers.

Although the Dakota Access Pipeline eventually was forced through after Trump became president the first time, the powerful protests delayed it and this cost Energy Transfer some money. But while they sued for damages, the aims of Energy Transfer were not mainly financial but part of a fascist political agenda. Al Jazeera reported: “Energy Transfer’s billionaire CEO Kelcy Warren, a major Trump donor, was often candid about his motivations.

“His ‘primary objective’ in suing Greenpeace, he said in interviews, was not just financial compensation but to ‘send a message’.

“Warren went so far as to say that activists ‘should be removed from the gene pool.’” In other words, killed.

A Travesty of Justice from Beginning to End

The trial was a travesty of justice from beginning to end. Among the egregious violations of basic rights and justice in this case:

- Energy Transfer is one of the 100 largest companies in the U.S. It owns 120,000 miles of pipeline, enabling a fossil fuel economy that is destroying the planet with climate change. This company was laying pipelines on land that was stolen from the Sioux and other Native peoples, destroying the water, the earth, and their sacred sites. In any decent system of justice, their suit against Greenpeace for daring to stand in their way would have been thrown out of court. 

- The trial took place in Morton County, North Dakota, where most people work in the fossil fuel industry or have close ties with people who do. The state Supreme Court turned down Greenpeace’s request to hold the trial in a different county. The request included results from a 2022 survey of 150 potential jurors which found 97 percent of residents said they could not be a fair or impartial juror in the lawsuit. 

- The judge allowed people onto the jury despite ties to the fossil fuel industry. A group of legal monitors observing the trial reported: “Most jurors in the case have ties to the oil and gas industry and some openly admitted they could not be impartial, although the judge seated them anyway.”

- The proceedings were held largely out of public view. Trials in North Dakota are generally live-streamed, but the judge, at the request of Energy Transfer, cut this off. In addition, thousands of documents were sealed and are not available to the public. This is why a group of prominent attorneys and others traveled to North Dakota to monitor the trial and report what happened.

- Attorneys for Energy Transfer claimed Greenpeace directed a “criminal conspiracy.” The truth is that Greenpeace assisted the Standing Rock protests in some very positive ways (like providing nonviolence training), but the protests were organized by Native Americans and gathered over 200 Native American tribes in support, and many thousands of supporters came from all corners of society.

- The suit claimed that the protests were “violent.” The reality is that there was a lot of violence—directed overwhelmingly by the local police and the private security goons the company hired against the protesters. Vicious repression was brought down against the protests, including pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, sound cannons. Protesters were sprayed with water cannons in subfreezing temperatures. Many protesters were seriously injured. 

The legal implications of this very dangerous verdict is, as Greenpeace has pointed out, a threat to anyone who participates in any protest, whether they organize it or not or whether they even agree with all of the aims and actions of the leaders of the protest. It is aimed at Native Americans, at climate and environmental protests, and at any protest that goes against the perceived interests and objectives of the fascists now running America. 

Greenpeace is appealing the verdict. Their legal efforts should be supported. At the same time, and even more important, we must powerfully resist the whole fascist regime. as Bob Avakian says in his important message, “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and completely illegitimate”:

Before Trump’s fascist rule can become fully consolidated and carry out even far worse horrors than what it is already perpetrating, it must be defeated through powerful mass mobilization—overcoming all “divide and conquer” schemes, uniting all who can be united, from many different viewpoints and perspectives, in actively opposing, defying and resisting this fascism, in continually growing numbers—moving to quickly involve millions, determined to create such a profound political crisis that Trump cannot govern the country and continue to implement his fascist program, with all its terrible consequences.

On the weekend of March 15-16, the U.S. launched a wave of air and missile strikes against Yemen, killing 53 people, including 30 civilians, according to reports from the  Yemeni Health Ministry. Along with the bombs came Trump’s Nazi-like threats of more violence to come. After that first murderous attack, Trump vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force like nothing you have seen before.” And he said, “Watch how it will get progressively worse. It’s not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!”

The U.S. attacks are supposedly aimed at the Houthi militia forces (reactionary Islamic fundamentalists who control much of Yemen, and who are allied with Iran and against the U.S. and Israel). The Houthis periodically have used their position on the Red Sea to fire missiles and drones at Israeli, U.S. and other ships. This has had a crippling effect on commercial shipping in that strategic waterway. After a pause of several months, the Houthis began launching these attacks again, and this is what supposedly triggered this new wave of U.S. attacks.¹ 

But rather than focusing on the Houthi forces, the U.S. has explicitly altered its military doctrine to kill more civilians than in past attacks. Two defense officials told the website Military.com that there is “less reluctance to hold off striking targets based on the casualties that may result.” And according to Human Rights Watch, “They've been striking residential areas at night while people are at home, and in at least one case, killed an entire family of civilians.” 

Then on Saturday, March 22, the U.S. attacked the airport and seaport in the coastal city of Hodeida and three other seaports. Yemen, an extremely poor country on the Arabian Peninsula, has been wracked by civil war since 2014. This war has greatly increased the poverty and suffering of its 40 million people, who have endured waves of starvation, famine and disease, and they are highly dependent on imports of food and other aid. Now this new barrage of U.S. attacks on important civilian infrastructure is bound to cause even more suffering.

Not only that, the U.S. is using the situation in Yemen to threaten Iran. Trump said that if the Houthis retaliate against the U.S. attacks on them, Iran would “suffer the consequences.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this, writing on social media Saturday that “Houthi attacks on American ships & aircraft (and our troops!) will not be tolerated; and Iran, their benefactor, is on notice.”

The situation is in flux and the intentions and capabilities of the different warring reactionary forces are not clear. But what is clear is that as long as these reactionaries and the capitalist-imperialist system that spawned them all dominate the planet, the people will continue to suffer and the danger of even more massive and devastating war will loom ever larger. 

As the bombs fall and the rockets fly in Yemen, and the murderous threats of fascists and imperialists spread fear everywhere, the following words of revolutionary leader Bob Avakian stand out more than ever as an inspiring and fortifying guide for the masses of people:

We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.

Imagine you're returning home from dinner with your partner. Without warning, men grab you and demand you get in their SUV. They refuse to produce ID, lie about why they’re manhandling you and won’t tell you—or your lawyers—where they’re taking you. You go from one detention center to another, and within 24 hours you’re in a gruesome prison 1,400 miles from home, unable to speak privately to your lawyers. 

You soon find out that you’re being arrested and possibly deported—even though you’re a legal permanent resident—because you’ve protested the U.S.'s foreign policy. And you begin to imagine a country in which anyone, citizen or non-citizen, whatever their legal status, could be arrested and expelled—or even worse—at any time or any place, simply for saying something the government doesn’t like. 

That is the story of Mahmoud Khalil, arrested on the night of March 8 in front of his wife who is eight months pregnant. He was spirited off to Louisiana in the dead of night, with neither family nor lawyers notified. Mahmoud was a main negotiator for the Columbia University students protesting the U.S. backing for the Israeli genocide in Gaza over the past year and half, and the university’s complicity in that genocide. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is trying to deport him, using a little-known and even less-used obscure provision of U.S. law as his backing—a point we’ll return to a little later.

What is different—and what is inspiring, and has to be pushed forward and linked to massive struggle against the whole Trump/MAGA fascist agenda—is the outpouring of support for Mahmoud. This has included thousands at rallies and in the streets, as well as over 100 arrested with Jewish Voice for Peace in a sit-in at Trump Tower.

16 Days in ICE Detention and Counting

RefuseFascism.org has written that:

Khalil’s arrest is a turning point. It is a leap towards the consolidation of a different kind of country – a fascist America. When the rule of law becomes moot – when what is permissible to speak or do is at the say so of Trump and his minions – that must be the wake-up call for us act as one. When the business of the government is bulldozing the rule of law and cementing a fascist order, there must be no business as usual.

At this writing, Mahmoud Khalil—again, a green-card holding, legal permanent resident—remains locked up in a notorious immigration detention center in Louisiana, 16 days after he was illegally snatched off the streets of New York by ICE agents. 

The struggle to free Mahmoud is a critical battle right now, with potentially enormous impact. If the Trump fascists get away deporting Mahmoud, it could establish their “right” to lock up anyone who opposes them and terrorize others into silence. As Mahmoud wrote in a letter from detention: 

The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.

The Fierce Legal Battle Unfolding

The legal battle around Mahmoud’s detention is proceeding on a number of fronts.

Mahmoud’s legal team won an initial victory on March 10, when Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an injunction preventing the Trump regime from deporting Mahmoud while his case was being heard. 

Instead of charging Mahmoud with a crime, the Trump regime is invoking a rarely cited provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act giving the Secretary of State the power to order noncitizens deported if he or she believes their "presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences...”

This argument is a giant step toward criminalizing and suppressing any criticism or protest against any U.S. actions around the world, and a lawless ripping up of basic rights that are supposed to be guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

Mahmoud’s lawyers initially filed a legal petition arguing that the government’s whole case against Mahmoud should be thrown out because his “detention violates his constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, and goes beyond the government’s legal authority.”¹

On March 19, Judge Furman ruled that this motion should be heard in New Jersey, not in Louisiana as the government argued.² (The Trump regime is continuing to fight to have the case heard in Louisiana, and Mahmoud remains held in Louisiana.) 

Mahmoud’s team has also filed motions to have Mahmoud held in New Jersey, not Louisiana; to have him released from custody while he fights his case; and to prevent the government from further retaliation against him while the case plays out. His team is also separately fighting his immigration case in Louisiana, where an April 8 hearing is scheduled. 

At this writing no hearings have been scheduled in the New Jersey district court, and there is much about this case and how it will unfold that remains clouded in uncertainty, in large part due to the lies, misinformation and stonewalling from the Trump/MAGA fascist regime. 

The Next Weeks Are Critical

Over the next weeks as Mahmoud Khalil’s case unfolds, the struggle to free him must broaden, deepen and become more determined. Campuses need to roil with people standing up for Mahmoud Khalil and against collaboration with the Trump fascist regime.

RefuseFascism.org calls for:

Uniting from many different viewpoints and perspectives, fostering a collective spirit of courage and righteous fury and willingness to make the necessary sacrifices, for the greater good of freeing Mahmoud Khalil and defeating this fascism, we in our millions can become the force powerful enough to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism.

In The Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.

The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

On March 10, two days after the Trump regime kidnapped Mahmoud Khalil, Trump viciously posted, "This was the first of many to come." In the days since, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have gone after a number of students and professors—defying judges’ orders and targeting individuals solely for their political speech and activity in opposition to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocidal slaughter of the Palestinian people. 

Cornell Graduate Student Momodou Taal

Momodou Taal is a doctoral candidate in African Studies at Cornell University and a prominent voice in pro-Palestinian protests. He's a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia with a visa to be in the U.S. legally. Taal has said law enforcement agents "from an unidentified agency" had been seen parked outside his home in Ithaca, New York. This week, Taal's lawyers petitioned in court for a temporary restraining order aiming to prevent his arrest. However, even after their filing, his attorneys received an e-mail from a Justice Department lawyer asking Taal to turn himself in to ICE. Taal said, "Trump is attempting to detain me to prevent me from having my day in court." Taal's lawyers are asking the court to delay his having to turn himself in to ICE.

Judge Blocks Deportation of Georgetown University Researcher

Badar Khan Suri is from India, teaching at and attending Georgetown as a postdoctoral fellow at the university's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. On March 17, Suri was arrested by masked DHS agents outside his home in Arlington, VA, allegedly for “spreading Hamas propaganda.” Suri has spoken out against the genocide in Gaza. His wife is an American citizen of Palestinian descent, whose father was a former adviser to a Hamas leader who was assassinated by Israel in Iran last year. So just because of his speaking out against genocide, and due to his partner's family background, Suri was abducted and threatened with deportation. Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, yet he was transferred to an ICE jail in Louisiana, in danger of being quickly deported. His attorney filed to demand his release the next day, followed by an emergency motion filed by the ACLU of Virginia on the 20th on Suri's behalf. On that day, a U.S. District Court judge blocked his deportation, ordering that Suri "shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court issues a contrary order." 

Doctor at Brown University Deported to Lebanon Against Judge's Order

Dr. Rasha Alawieh is a 34-year-old kidney transplant specialist physician and a medical professor at Brown University. Alawieh is a native of Lebanon and has been in the U.S. with a valid visa since 2018. On her recent visit to Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the U.S. But on March 20, returning from that visit to Lebanon, she was held at Boston's Logan International Airport for 36 hours without explanation. CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) agents claim they found "sympathetic photos and videos" of figures in Hezbollah on her phone. She explained that she had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which was attended by almost 1 million people! Her family quickly filed a lawsuit, and a federal judge ordered the authorities on Friday not to deport her without giving the court two days' notice. But—in defiance of the judge's order—Alawieh was put on a plane to Paris, presumably the first leg of a trip back to Lebanon. On Sunday morning, the judge issued a second order, saying there was reason to believe CBP had willingly disobeyed his previous order. 

Columbia Student Forced to Flee to Canada

Ranjani Srinivasan, a 37-year-old doctoral student from India studying at Columbia University, was targeted by immigration authorities at the beginning of March even though she had no ties to the protests against the U.S./Israeli genocide of Palestinians. She was arrested outside of a protest as a passerby last April and later released. Many months later, she was notified that her student visa had been revoked, without explanation. A couple of days later, ICE agents knocked on her door—she did not open it, which was completely within her constitutionally-protected legal rights. They came back a second time when she wasn't there. She then packed her bags and flew to Canada. The agents came a third time with a warrant, but she was gone. She then found Columbia had withdrawn her enrollment. She says she is being targeted for exercising her right to free speech. The head of DHS, fascist Kristi Noem, bragged that Srinivasan had “self-deported,” and aired a video of her getting on an airplane, implying that this justified what the U.S. government had done. Her lawyers denied this, arguing that her visa had been revoked for “protected political speech” and that she was denied her right to challenge this unjust revocation. 

My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner.  I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.

Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.

Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.

On March 8, I was taken by DHS agents who refused to provide a warrant, and accosted my wife and me as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours—I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza, I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request.

My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January’s ceasefire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.

I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family which has been displaced from their land since the 1948 Nakba. I spent my youth in proximity to yet distant from my homeland. But being Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention—imprisonment without trial or charge—to strip Palestinians of their rights. I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned home from travel. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who was taken captive by the Israeli military on December 27 and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.

I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past 16 months as the U.S. has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand U.S. laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.

While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents Shafik, Armstrong, and Dean Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the U.S. government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns—based on racism and disinformation—to go unchecked.

Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel.  Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension of at least 22 Columbia students—some stripped of their B.A. degrees just weeks before graduation—and the expulsion of SWC President Grant Miner on the eve of contract negotiations, are clear examples.

If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change—leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the frontlines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.

The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa-holders, green-card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.

Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my first-born child.

FREE Mahmoud Khalil NOW!—

PROTEST Thursday March 27

March 27 is the date set for Mahmoud Khalil’s first federal court hearing after being kidnapped by Trump’s fascist Homeland Security/ICE thugs in the dark of night. Khalil is a Columbia University graduate and legal U.S. resident. This must be a day all justice-loving people unite in the streets and public squares, demanding the immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil, declaring:

STOP the Fascist Attacks on the Rights to Free Speech, Dissent, and the Rule of Law!
STOP the Demonization, Abduction, and Deportation of All Immigrants & Refugees!

Khalil’s arrest is a turning point. It is a leap toward the consolidation of a different kind of country—a fascist America. When the rule of law becomes moot—when what is permissible to speak or do is at the say so of Trump and his fascist henchmen—that must be our call to courage and defiance.

When the business of government is bulldozing the rule of law and cementing a fascist order, there must be no business as usual. The future depends on it. 

In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America
The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

@RefuseFascism—Refusefascism.org 

Dates, Times, Places available here, or organize your own!

The arrest, jailing, and threatened deportation of Columbia University graduate, Mahmoud Khalil, for lawful speech and lawful action in support of his beliefs, Must Not Stand. Ordered and celebrated by TRUMP and his Secretary of State, this was nothing less than a Gestapo coming in the dark of night to steal away a political opponent. More arrests have followed.

Khalil’s arrest is a turning point. It is a leap towards the consolidation of a different kind of country – a fascist America. When the rule of law becomes moot – when what is permissible to speak or do is at the say so of Trump and his minions – that must be the wake-up call for us act as one. When the business of the government is bulldozing the rule of law and cementing a fascist order, there must be no business as usual.

When tens of millions of immigrants and refugees face demonization, arrest in the dark of night, detention in horrid conditions, deportation with families torn apart – that is a moment when the humanity, the morality, of everyone is put the test. To stand aside because you are not immediately affected is to lose your humanity and to pave the way for greater horrors. That is the lesson of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.

When universities collaborate with fascist dictates – wiping programs, teaching, debate, and — yes protests — that go against the Trump MAGA fascist program of white supremacy, patriarchy, and xenophobia, then critical thought dies not just at colleges, but soon, all of society. That too is a lesson of Nazi Germany.

THE ARREST of MAHMOUD KHALIL is a TURNING POINT. Should we fail to unite all who aspire to a just society to act now, we will be qualitatively further down the road to a fascist America. Fascism fully imposed is a radically oppressive and repressive form of rule with devastating impact on the people of the world. The rule of law is shredded. Civil and democratic rights are eliminated. Dissent is piece-by-piece criminalized. Truth is bludgeoned. Group after group demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to catastrophe…Is this not what’s happening now? 

Mahmoud Khalil stood up for the Palestinian people who are suffering one of the most devastating bombardments and deliberate starvations in recent history. The ability to continue not only that just struggle, but all the struggles of people here and around the world against this fascist Trump regime’s many crimes, requires a broad unity that recognizes that we have differences in cause and solution to many things, but that in the name of humanity we cannot, we must not, accept a fascist America. 

Over the next 2 weeks culminating on March 27 when Mahmoud Khalil’s hearing is scheduled, our struggle must broaden, deepen and become more determined. Campuses need to roil with people standing up for Mahmoud Khalil and against collaboration with the Trump fascist regime.

Each day should bring more people from all nationalities, races, genders, and all walks of life into the streets and public square. People in every institution – government and non-government need to refuse to cooperate and carry out the illegal and illegitimate orders of the Trump regime, gaining heart from and adding to power of the people in the streets. 

Uniting from different viewpoints and perspectives, fostering a collective spirit of courage and righteous fury and willingness to make the necessary sacrifices, for the greater good of freeing Mahmoud Khalil and defeating this fascism, we in our millions can become the force powerful enough to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism. 

In The Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.

The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

RefuseFascism.org works to unite all who can be united to join in mass, nonviolent protest and resistance in the streets and throughout society, growing to include millions and refusing to stop until we create such a profound political crisis that Trump cannot impose his fascist program or even maintain his hold on power. Join or partner with us today: refusefascism.org.

On March 16, Ken Paxton, the Christian fascist attorney general of Texas, announced the arrest of Maria Margarita Rojas. Rojas, a licensed midwife, was charged with “allegedly performing illegal abortions and practicing medicine illegally,” according to the Houston Chronicle. Both charges are felonies.

Rojas owns and operated three clinics for women in the outer reaches of Harris County (greater Houston) and in neighboring (and mainly rural) Waller County. Most of the people who came to these clinics were Spanish-speaking immigrants. Two people who worked at the clinics face charges similar to Rojas’s.

The law that Rojas is charged under outlaws virtually all abortions in the state of Texas. It puts the body of every woman and girl in the state in the control of lunatic Christian fundamentalist misogynists (woman-haters) like Paxton. It also encourages snitching—by offering $10,000 “rewards” from the state to people who file successful civil charges against alleged abortion providers. When this law was passed in 2021, Revolution wrote, “We need to call this fascist Texas law for what it is: Forced motherhood is enslavement of half of humanity!” 

This law is a concentrated expression of a core part of the Amerikkka that fascists like Trump and Paxton are fighting to shape the entire country to be—a nightmare where women are subjugated to men in all realms of society and life… regarded and used as breeders… and forced to submit to a brutally enforced male patriarchy. Maria Rojas is the first person charged with allegedly violating this law.

Anonymous “Tips,” Stakeouts, Trash Bag Searches… but No Evidence

The circumstances of Rojas’s arrest are absurdly vague. KHOU, a CBS affiliate in Houston, reported that “court documents… reveal how an anonymous tip in January prompted the months-long investigation.” An unnamed woman told the authorities Rojas had directed her to have a “medication abortion.” Investigators from Paxton’s office then began surveillance of Rojas. They “staked out” her home and clinics, and went through trash bags. There is no indication that they found any physical evidence of abortions performed at any of her clinics.

The KHOU report continues that the anonymous source was told by staff members at the clinic that Rojas described herself as a doctor. (She is not, and is not known to have ever promoted herself as one.) Days after Rojas was arrested, CBS News spoke with another midwife, Holly Shearman, who said that she doesn’t “believe it [the charges against Rojas] for one second. I’ve known her for eight years and I’ve never heard her talk about anything like that.” She said Rojas, who is a U.S. citizen, had herself been an immigrant, like most of the women that came to her clinics. Shearman, a white woman, said she thought it was possible Paxton had singled her out for that reason.

“Skyrocketing” Death Rate 

Paxton, a world-class hypocrite, said on Rojas’s arrest, "In Texas, life is sacred.” This bullshit comes from a fascist who is part of a state government that has placed razor wire in the Rio Grande to trap and ensnare desperate immigrants trying to cross the border, including children and entire families. He has presided over the legal department of a state where, as NBC News reported, “The number of women in Texas who died while pregnant, during labor or soon after childbirth skyrocketed following the state’s 2021 ban on abortion care—far outpacing a slower rise in maternal mortality across the nation, a new investigation of federal public health data finds.” Since the law went into effect, data for the state’s maternal death rate has not even been examined by a committee that supposedly has that responsibility.⁶

***

The persecution of Maria Margarita Rojas is outrageously repressive, unjust and illegitimate. She has spent her working life providing a needed service to women who otherwise may have had nowhere to turn. She faces over 20 years in state prison. 

The fascists who control Texas are moving in lockstep with the Trump MAGA fascists to implement the extreme measures of Texas’s anti-abortion law. If they get away with an “evidence-free” conviction in this case, it will be a green light for further prosecutions of people providing essential services to pregnant women in Texas—and a major stepping stone towards implementing such police-state measures across the country.

What Bob Avakian (BA) wrote some years ago rings with profound truth and urgency today:

The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances—this is a powderkeg in the U.S. today. It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms and through extremely violent means. The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement.

Trump and Netanyahu both sent Persian New Year (3/20/2025) greetings to the Iranian people. Like the old folktale of “Little Red Riding Hood” when she says, “What a big mouth you have,” and the wolf replies, “The better to eat you with, my dear” as he jumps up and swallows her, these greetings are a sinister and cynical move by two butchers slaughtering people/children across Gaza that has dire life and death stakes for the people of Iran, the Middle East, and ultimately the world. 

The objective impact and likely intent of these greetings are to fish in Iran’s troubled waters—to appeal to people in Iran resisting the regime’s extreme repression, especially its rising executions of prisoners, including of its political prisoners. The repression continues to be met with courageous though still limited resistance calling for an end to all executions, mainly in a movement led by prisoners themselves and former political prisoners, including in the Iranian diaspora, as indicated in the March 8 statement at the IEC website “War Against Women, Women Against War, A Collective Call.” Israeli and U.S. threats and attacks put Iran’s regime up against the wall and enable it to whip up its own reactionary social base into hyper Iranian nationalism, and to attack anyone in Iran who opposes the regime as “foreign agents” of Israel and Western imperialists. There are those who support Israel and the U.S. as part of the poisonous “might makes right” mentality alongside their (justified) hatred of the dark ages capitalist Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This is a polarization that needs to change in the interest of the people of Iran and the world, as it is a reactionary/harmful “choice” to side with one or the other oppressive and repressive force of Israel/U.S. or the IRI and its so-called Axis of Resistance.

While it is beyond the IEC’s scope to analyze the highly fluid and complex situation unfolding in the Middle East, this 3+ minutes Times of India video (3/19/2025) briefly summarizes some aspects of the extremely dangerous situation in the U.S.’s new strikes on Yemen’s Houthi Islamicists, their response, and the threats against Iran.

Trump has said last week that Iran will be held responsible for anything done by its Houthi ally. There are chilling reports of active preparations for “a major regional conflict with Iran.”¹³

Defiant Actions Mark Persian New Year Celebrations

Raucous crowds, sometimes in the thousands, filled urban streets and rural valleys in Iran in celebrations of the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which defied prohibitions by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). Some videos on social media show crowds chanting or singing against the regime, and clashes with authorities who tried to stop the celebrations in Tehran, West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan.¹⁴

In significant actions, political prisoners chanted or sang inside Evin and Ghezel Hesar prisons, while support actions took place outside the gates of Evin Prison in Tehran (the capital) and Lakan Prison in Iran’s northern Gilan province. 

In front of Evin Prison, Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace laureate who is on temporary medical leave and in imminent danger of being dragged back into Evin, bravely burned a noose outside the prison gates. Here is an excerpt from her statement.

For many years in Evin Prison, we the prisoners used to burn sticks and jump over it and joyously sing-like the rest of the people of Iran and shout: 

"Your redness will be mine and my yellowness be yours."¹⁵
Tonight I decided instead… to burn nooses next to the Evin Prison walls.… I shout: We will not rest till we put an end to the Execution Republic! We will not rest till we free all political and prisoners of conscience! We will not rest till we defeat the Islamic Republic and bring victory for the people of Iran!

From behind those same prison gates, political prisoner Golrokh Iraee issued a hopeful New Year’s message and wrote:

The women of Evin, and the prisoners of Wards 4 and 8, welcomed the New Year with one heart and one mind, singing revolutionary songs and chanting slogans in the prison yard in solidarity with all freedom fighters against tyranny and oppression over the last 120 years, and with the families of the victims.
May we welcome the Spring on the path of, and in memory of, those who —[were] heedless of their own comfort and safety— sacrificed their lives to bring the Spring of Liberation and Equality to the oppressed masses.
Political prisoners must be freed!
1404¹⁶ 2025]—The Year of Revolution to Overthrow this Whole System!
1404 [2025] — The Year to End this Evil Regime!
No to Execution!
#Revolution

In the huge Ghezel Hesar prison in Karaj, where prisoners say thousands are on death row and where the “No to Executions Tuesday” hunger strikes began (now in its 60th week, the strike has spread to at least 38 prisons across Iran), political prisoners chanted “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” "Red flames say no to executions,” “The message of Chaharshanbe Suri is down with dictatorship,” “Khamenei, Zahak, I will bury you under the ground.”¹⁷ They managed to send the audio out to the world via cellphone.

Activists in the Iranian diaspora posted a video on March 17 (the eve of “No to Executions Tuesday” and Chaharshanbe Suri) in which they burned nooses. 

Executions Accelerate

On March 18, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran delivered a report which said, “The pace [of executions] is accelerating with at least 169 known executions identified in January and February alone. Should this alarming rate remain consistent, the total number of executions could exceed 1,000 this year, a chilling threshold that demands a collective global response.” In 2024, at least 975 people were executed in Iran, a 17% increase from the at least 834 executions recorded the previous year, according to a joint report released by the Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM).¹⁸

In the dangerous swirl of the IRI’s executions and bloody repression at the same time as Trump orders deadly attacks and issues threats against Iran and the whole Middle East region, the orientation from the IEC’s Emergency Appeal is more urgent than ever: 

In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran.

From a reader:

University of California Berkeley professors rallied last week in response to the assault on the universities from the Trump regime. T-shirts and prepared signs said, “Freedom to speak, freedom to teach, freedom to learn, for everyone!” Significantly, over 1,000 people came. That included professors, retired professors, some administrators, and many students. Many professors, a number of heads of departments, and several deans spoke at the rally. The speakers called on everyone to stand up for what UC Berkeley has been renowned for—free speech, critical thought, opposition to racial and gender oppression—and some called on the university administration and the UC Board of Regents to do this as well (which they, so far, have not been doing). Some denounced fascism. The head of Gender Studies read the Martin Niemöller poem about the lessons of Nazi Germany (“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist…”), and called on people to stand up and do better than the German people. One speaker from Berkeley Law made the important point that yes, we will fight this in the courts but that the courts are not enough, people have to protest. Another speaker read the famous Mario Savio statement from the Free Speech Movement, and called on people to act in that spirit:

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

A crew from Revolution Books reached out to the people at the rally and distributed hundreds of the flyers with Bob Avakian’s statement “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate,” and flyers from THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity on the March 27 protests supporting Mahmoud Khalil. They brought to people word about the national @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere Campaign—to spread word about how through his social media messages, Bob Avakian is leading people to see how capitalism-imperialism is destroying the future, how Trump/MAGA fascism arose out of this very system, how there is a whole better way the world can be, and how to work now for the revolution that humanity urgently needs. Many of the professors were eager to talk about fascism and what we should do to defeat it.

NOW IS THE TIME WHEN WE MUST RISE UP AND ACT TO STOP THE CONSOLIDATION OF TRUMP MAGA FASCISM. For the lives of people here and around the world we must refuse unlawful and inhumane orders… we must fill the streets and town squares in rising numbers — not stopping until we become millions — not relenting until this regime is no longer able to implement its program.

In the grotesque form of Donald Trump and his vicious conglomeration of Nazi-saluting strategists and shock troops, a fascist regime has come to power. They have learned and hardened from the last eight years, and they are on an accelerated path to remaking the country in their image.

The clock ticks toward the midnight hour. Each minute brings new shocks and jolts. Each second shatters lives.

It is unconscionable and dangerous to act as if fascism cannot happen in America. It is unacceptable to conciliate or accommodate in the name of protecting a few, when each day the mechanisms of fascism are rapidly being hammered into place – locking in a future that imperils all.

That Trump came to power through an election is no excuse. No election, fair or fraudulent, legitimates fascism.

“Fascism” is not a curse word. Fully imposed, it is a radically oppressive and repressive form of rule over the people of this country, with devastating impact on the people of the world. The rule of law is shredded. Civil and democratic rights are eliminated. Dissent is piece by piece criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned. Group after group demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to catastrophe.

Government institutions purged and stocked with MAGA loyalists. Violent vigilante groups – now pardoned. From the halls of power to the streets, fascist foot soldiers are primed and unrestrained to enforce the program of the Trump regime. NO! We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!

This is a fascist regime fighting to make this a country even more ruthlessly ruled by white supremacy – where diversity is the enemy, racism is openly the law, and ethnic cleansing is carried out and celebrated. NO! We refuse to live in a society where the fight for equality of all people – no matter their race, gender, sex, nationality, or immigration status is mocked, vilified, and even forbidden.

A fascist regime fighting to make this a country ruled by virulent macho patriarchy – where women are incubators, LGBTQ people are forced back into the closet, and trans people are erased with targets on their backs. NO! We refuse to live in a country where half of humanity are treated as less than human.

A fascist regime fighting to make this a country ruled by “America First” xenophobia – where the hatred of “foreigners” means terrorizing whole neighborhoods and peoples, tossing millions of immigrants into the shadows and offshore concentration camps and death through deportation. NO! We respect the dignity and humanity of every person no matter where they were born.

Trump threatens to take over weaker countries and effects a foreign policy that heightens the danger of nuclear war. Never forget that Trump has said: “If we have nuclear weapons, why can’t we use them?” NO! NO! NO! We will not allow this fascist gangster regime to destroy humanity.

All this while a leading core of the regime advances a theocratic Christian supremacy – where the Bible is taken literally, and there is no separation between church and state and people’s private lives. NO! We know that the right to believe or not to believe is essential to a diverse and thinking people.

This a regime of anti-science lunacy, accelerating climate devastation and fueling more epidemics and pandemics. NO! And again NO! We will fight with all we’ve got to prevent the destruction of the planet and life on it.

WE DO NOT ACCEPT THEIR FUTURE!

The hour has come for each of us to ask: If we do not act to stop this, what kind of people will we become?

We stand up and fight for a future in which no human being is enslaved, subjugated, or deemed “illegal”… a future in which the planet can heal and people can be fit caretakers of the earth…

There can be no conciliation or collaboration between the world we want and the country they want. We have no common cause with MAGA fascism.

There is a way to defeat this. We, the undersigned, call on the decent people who don’t want to live in a fascist America – who are more than half the country – to courageously rise up as one.

Those who have dedicated their lives to service – to teach children, to heal the sick, to conduct life-saving research – refusing to comply with fascist decrees, backed up by all justice-loving people.

Students and young people whose whole future is on the line making schools and campuses centers of resistance and filling the streets.

Women and LGBTQ people who are furious at being enslaved and erased — bringing their defiance and rage into the public square.

People of color and everyone sick to death of white supremacy refusing to go back, bringing the experience and fury of centuries of resistance into this fight.

Artists, writers, clergy, and legal scholars speaking in many voices to say NO! bringing their voices into the struggle.

With this: Millions in the streets not allowing business as usual when that business is cementing fascist rule with the vilest degrading morality down our throats. MANY VOICES AND BODIES DEMANDING: THE TRUMP FASCIST REGIME MUST GO! With this we can and must create a political crisis in which the Trump regime cannot govern and implement their fascist program or even maintain his hold on power.

Waiting for the next elections will be too late. We cannot rely on the Democratic Party’s leadership who complacently rely on the very norms and processes that the Trump regime shreds by the hour.

NO! We must organize and struggle as we never have before. We must not allow ourselves to be divided and conquered. We must unite all who can be united from many different viewpoints and perspectives, to foster and draw on a collective spirit of courage and righteous fury and willingness to make the necessary sacrifices, for the greater good of defeating this fascism. We in our millions are a force powerful enough to defeat Trump/MAGA fascism.

Let it not be said that when there was still a chance to stop an unprecedented threat to the future of humanity, we did not rise to meet the challenge of our time. Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world see our determination and courage and hear our righteous demand:

In The Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.

The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

Add Your Name Here

Readers’ Corner highlights views that you, our readers, send us on the big questions about making revolution. Questions about building the movement for an actual revolution. Or responses to, and thoughts provoked by, the social media messages from Bob Avakian—the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism. Thinking and questions you may have on other important documents from Bob Avakian (BA) and the Revcoms. As well as reflections on the new communism brought forward by BA, both overall and in relation to the urgent moment at hand. Now especially is a time for collective scientific grappling.

Please send these to revolution.reports@yahoo.com. If your submission isn't reposted, it will still feed into our overall enriched understanding of what questions we should be speaking to.

* * * * *

Noche Diaz is a national spokesperson for the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity

Leo Pargo is a leader of the Revcom Corps in Chicago

On February 1, Noche Diaz and Leo Pargo were part of an emergency protest called by the Revcom Corps, which converged with another protest of mainly Latino youth against the ICE raids being launched by Trump. Together, hundreds of people marched through downtown Chicago to protest mass deportations and the whole Trump/MAGA fascist program.

Right in front of Trump Tower, Noche Diaz spoke from atop a bus stop and led the crowd to chant: “NO! In the name of humanity, we refuse a fascist America! Into the streets, day after day. Do not stop. Make this country ungovernable!”

A swarm of Chicago police, including a Deputy Chief, violently pushed into the crowd, endangering many protesters, and illegitimately arrested Noche and Leo.

The two have since been released and face Class A misdemeanor charges, the most severe type in Illinois law. Noche is charged with Reckless Conduct and Leo is charged with Obstructing an Officer. Both charges carry up to 364 days in jail and a $2,500 fine. As shown in the video, these charges are ridiculous and illegitimate. This is a straight up violation of basic First Amendment rights.

Since Trump’s inauguration, people have been hit with a fascist whirlwind of government purges, attacks on immigrants and trans people, anti-scientific lunacy, and destruction of rule of law itself. There are beginnings of important resistance, but this is nowhere near enough! Noche and Leo not only had a legal right to do what they did, THEY WERE RIGHT! They are doing what everyone needs to be doing right now.

Inspired by the message from the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian that “This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination,” they told the truth, acted with courage, and inspired others to do the same.

Everyone who values the right to free speech, and doesn’t want to see people brutally arrested for exercising that right, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who is outraged about the terror being inflicted on immigrants, and the fact this supposed “sanctuary city” is prosecuting protesters who stand up for immigrants, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who recognizes the grave danger we are facing with Trump/MAGA fascism, and the importance of mobilizing millions to defeat this, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who recognizes that there’s something fundamentally rotten about the current system and appreciates the work of these revolutionary leaders fighting for a positive way forward — and doesn’t want to see them targeted and suppressed — should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Trump/MAGA fascism is being aggressively imposed on this society in many horrifying ways, instilling fear and a pull towards cooperation with government authorities. One of the ways people are being confronted with this is in situations where people are stopped as they go about their daily business at school, work, or shopping for food and necessities. Right now, that is a living reality for people who are being targeted as “illegal” immigrants, based on how they look or talk. But there are other situations that can be equally frightening: like when someone is arrested at or in connection with a political protest, or when someone is being questioned by police when they don’t have any idea what it is about. In all cases, people need to know what is the best way to respond to prevent these government agencies from doing great harm. 

In the popular culture in movies and TV shows, to the ever-present law-and-order shows of one kind or another, and even the news, all trumpet the same theme: if the police want to talk to you, you are already assumed to be guilty—of something. To exercise one's legal rights is viewed as further evidence of guilt; even the most basic right—getting a lawyer to defend oneself from the legal and illegal onslaught of cops, prosecutors and judges—is depicted with a sneer as "lawyering up," as though this shows you must be guilty or have something to hide. 

Sometimes you hear the police reading what’s called the Miranda warning (see box) to a person they are intending to interrogate, stating that you have the right to remain silent and the right to a lawyer. But then everything proceeds as though the person being questioned is showing their guilt by refusing to answer questions and getting a lawyer to represent them.

But in real-life situations, the best advice lawyers give anyone who is being arrested, questioned or contacted in any way by the police is: DON’T TALK. 

It is important for people to know what rights they DO have when agents of repression come sniffing around. And it is especially important to insist on those rights even as they are increasingly coming under attack. 

Bob Avakian has spoken to this point in his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #106:

As we revcoms (revolutionary communists) have made clear in the Declaration WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM: “So long as we are still living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, we will defend people against attacks on their lives and on the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.”

So, what rights based on the U.S. Constitution are supposed to apply whether during an arrest or in any contact with police or government agencies? How should people defend their rights individually and collectively, and what kind of culture is needed to resist the government forces of repression?

The Right to Remain Silent—Don't Talk

When facing agents of government repression (here we are talking about the local police and prosecutors, state or federal law enforcement or various government agencies), the principle of "Don't Talk" is an important legal principle overall, and it is crucial in fighting to protect the various movements of resistance and of revolution from government repression. This principle is stressed very strongly by criminal defense lawyers and civil rights organizations—you have a RIGHT to remain silent.

Many legal rights organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Lawyers Guild (NLG), have published materials to inform people of their rights. The most important thing they all advise is to assert your right to NOT answer questions. 

For example, the following is from a brochure published by the ACLU of Southern California: 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE STOPPED BY POLICE, IMMIGRATION AGENTS OR THE FBI:
YOUR RIGHTS 

• You have the right to remain silent. If you wish to exercise that right, say so out loud.
• You have the right to refuse to consent to a search of yourself, your car or your home.
• If you are not under arrest, you have the right to calmly leave.
• You have the right to a lawyer if you are arrested. Ask for one immediately.
• Regardless of your immigration or citizenship status, you have constitutional rights.

And the National Lawyers Guild advises what to do if an FBI agent or police officer knocks at the door:

Do not open the door. State that you are going to remain silent. Do not answer any questions, or even give your name. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly harmless or insignificant, can be used against you or others. Ask the agents to slide their business cards under the door and tell them that your lawyer will contact them. If the agent or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the information to your lawyer.¹⁹ 

What Harm Can Talking Do?

There are many myths and lies promoted in the dominant culture and by the police themselves which leave people confused and feeling they have no choice but to cooperate. This is absolutely wrong and dangerous to any movements of resistance from among the people. 

Myth #1—Cooperating will make the authorities go away.

In fact, it often does just the opposite. After all, if they size someone up as a "talker" or weak link, they'll milk this person for all the information they can get. They may return with more questions or continue this line of questioning with others.

Myth #2—Talking will prevent being arrested.

The authorities promote the illusion that a person should try to "save their own hide" by cooperating and talking. In reality, as the ACLU and NLG underscore, in many circumstances talking may increase the chances of a person being busted, and may be sealing the case against himself/herself as well as others.

Myth #3—As long as the information provided is harmless, there's nothing wrong with talking.

When people don't know their rights and talk freely to the authorities, this can do great harm—no matter what information they provide.

First of all, because the person doesn't know the full agenda of the authorities, he/she has no basis to evaluate whether or not information is "harmless." Even if the authorities claim to be investigating something that has nothing to do with your politics or political activities (or those of others), appearances can be deceiving. The authorities can and will twist any information to their advantage.

Secondly, the act of talking encourages the authorities to pursue this tactic and go after others.

Finally, and most importantly, talking fuels the government's efforts to eliminate any movements of opposition and dissent, while standing firm and not talking as a matter of principle contributes to building a culture of resistance and defiance.

Myth #4—If I don't cooperate, won't it look like I have something to hide?

According to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),

This is one of the most frequently asked questions. The answer involves the nature of political "intelligence" investigations and the job of the FBI. Agents will try to make you feel that it will "look bad" if you don't cooperate with them. Many people not familiar with how the FBI operates worry about being uncooperative…. (T)hey [the FBI] are intent on learning about the habits, opinions, and affiliations of people not suspected of wrongdoing....

They will do anything to get a person to talk: from good cop/bad cop approaches (aimed at getting the person to "open up" to the more sympathetic cop) to threats and outright brutality. They also use "mind games" such as saying that others have already informed on a person; or even going so far as falsely telling someone a family member has died in order to get the person to let down his/her guard and reveal information about themselves or others.

Any information that a person provides—no matter how seemingly insignificant—can be twisted and used against that person themselves, or against people and organizations who expose and oppose the crimes of this system. The government has a long history of lying about the facts and fabricating "evidence" in order to frame movement activists and revolutionaries. They take intelligence gathered from a variety of sources and use it in the most sinister ways, even including murder. Consequently, there is no reason to be in the least defensive about not talking to or cooperating with authorities.

If a person thinks that he/she can just "bullshit" an agent, this too is a trap. The investigators are trained to be "friendly" and listen to people's stories. To quote a textbook on interrogation techniques, "Letting the subject tell a few lies, and letting him apparently get away with them, is an excellent technique, and works well with many types of subjects. We have seen that lying on the part of the subject works to the advantage of the interrogator...." The NLG has pointed out:

Keep in mind that although they are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and " do not consent to a search." [emphasis added]²⁰

Conclusion

As spoken to throughout this article, as part of trying to beat down movements of resistance and of revolution, agents of the government (police, FBI, prosecutors, etc.) have developed methods to trick, intimidate and brutalize people into giving up legal rights and protections established by the legal system in this country. This basic dynamic and truth needs to be clearly understood, and if various organizations and movements are serious about the challenges they face, they need to grapple with how—mainly by relying on mass movements of the people—to resist such repression.

History has shown that when the decent people refuse to concede the moral authority on what is right and what is wrong, they are better able to withstand repression and continue to develop resistance. If they do not take this approach, they find themselves in a situation where: That which you do not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn—or be forced—to accept. Part of building a culture of defiance and resistance among people standing up against fascism and the crimes of this system is refusing to allow the government to either intimidate or bamboozle people into giving up resistance, and refusing in any way to enter into complicity with such intimidation and repression.

In this context, the legal principles underlying "Don't Talk" take on heightened importance. Those confronted by police agents should not be bamboozled into giving up the legal rights they do have, as this will only lead to strengthening the repressive apparatus of the state, and help to undercut the ability to struggle against the crimes of this system and to build a movement for revolution to overthrow this system and bring about a fundamentally different and much better system. 

“So long as we are still living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, we will defend people against attacks on their lives and on the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. But we need a whole different system, with a whole different Constitution—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—which will provide much greater rights for the people, including the basic right to have the fundamentally determining role in a new society and government whose purpose and goal is to eliminate all exploitation and oppression, everywhere.”

—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM

With outright fascists now coming into positions of dominance in all three branches of government, the above point of orientation from We Need and We Demand assumes even greater importance. As does the following, from Bob Avakian’s talk Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed:

This brings up another important dimension of working for revolution—and opposing the fascists as part of doing that: It is necessary to sharply expose and oppose—and fight to politically and practically overcome—the reality that for white supremacists and fascists generally the Second Amendment, the "right to bear arms," has been regularly upheld and given the backing of the law and the courts, and the support of the police and other institutions of the state; while for Black people, other oppressed people, and generally those opposing the oppression and injustice of this system, the "right to bear arms," even in self-defense, has been actively opposed and suppressed.

This is made graphically clear in the book by Carol Anderson focusing on the Second Amendment—The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. This book contains (yet more!) searing exposure of the depraved violence visited upon Black people throughout the history of this country, and speaks to how the "right to bear arms" has never applied to Black people, and instead there has been the perverse "right to kill" Black people, on the part of the powers-that-be and racist whites generally. This cannot be allowed to continue!

And it is not just around what is represented by “the Second Amendment” that a determined fight must be waged, but around the many ways in which the approach to rights that are supposedly guaranteed to people is applied in a highly unequal way, so that oppressed people, and those acting against the oppressive relations of this system, constantly find their rights attacked, “abridged,” or outright denied and suppressed. In waging this fight, it is important to recognize and, to the degree possible, take advantage of this contradiction: In reality, under this system of capitalism-imperialism, rights and liberties are determined, and limited, in accordance with what serves the interests of this system and its ruling class; but, we are constantly told that, under this system, there is “liberty and justice for all,” and the rulers of this system, or at least some of them, feel it is important to maintain this myth. Again, to the degree possible, this contradiction must be seized on, in waging the fight to defeat attempts by the enforcers of this system to violate what are supposed to be basic rights, in their moves to suppress people rising up against this system and its profound injustice.

But, most fundamentally, this fight must be waged with full awareness, a scientifically grounded understanding, of the essential nature of this system, with the orientation and goal of working toward the overthrow of this system and the dismantling of its relations and institutions of vicious exploitation and blood-soaked oppression and repression.