The Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL) and others have put out a call for protests on Trump’s inauguration day titled “We Can Defeat Trump’s Extreme Right, Billionaire Agenda!" (the “Call”). While it is positive that people will be stepping out to protest on that day, the analysis and direction put forward in that Call will lead in the wrong direction.

Three big problems:

I. Trump Represents Fascism, Not a Mere “Billionaire Agenda” 

It is true that Trump is supported by many billionaires and that he intends to make it possible for these billionaires to amass even more wealth through even more unbridled exploitation of people all over the world and plundering of the planet—and this is a nightmare. 

BUT that is not the essence of the problem! First off, the Democrats are also supported by many billionaires. Why? Because BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans are ruling class parties—they represent the system of capitalism-imperialism, a system in which a small minority—the capitalist-imperialist class—accumulate obscene wealth through the exploitation and super-exploitation of the masses of people here and especially all over the world. This basic fact points to the fundamental need for a REVOLUTION—the OVERTHROW of this system and its replacement with a radically different and far better system.

But what is it that is unique about the Trump/MAGA regime is that it is full-out FASCIST.

Here is how Bob Avakian, BA, describes fascism:

Fascism is not a “swear word”—or just some kind of negative label to put on your opponent in the course of an election. Fascism, as represented by Donald Trump, is a white supremacist, male supremacist, anti-LGBT, immigrant-hating, aggressively environment-destroying, anti-scientific, religious fundamentalist fanaticism, determined to use the power of the government to forcibly compel obedience to its dangerous and destructive lunacy, and to viciously persecute those who oppose or resist.

Yes, fascism is still the capitalist-imperialist economic and political system, with all the exploitation, wars for empire, insane environmental destruction, and other horrors of that system. But fascism is not some easily defeated “agenda”: it is a qualitative change in the form of capitalist political rule. 

The fascists are on a mission to fully consolidate that, and THIS MUST BE STOPPED.

II. Trump Did Not “Run a Con Game”—He Openly and Explicitly Built His Campaign on Raw Misogyny, Vile Racism, Anti-Scientific Know-Nothingism, Hatred of LGBT People, and the Most Extreme Forms of American Chauvinism

Incredibly, the “We Fight Back” Call says that “Trump ran a con game during the election,” meaning that he hid his real outlook and program. To those who wrote this, we ask: 

Did you even watch the Republican Convention or Trump’s debate with Harris? Did you not hear the calls for mass deportation booming from the Convention floor? Did you not hear Trump and Vance’s Nazi-style lies that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating people’s pets, or read about the wave of bomb threats and other terror that this unleashed against Haitians’ homes, schools, shops? Did you miss the raw misogyny and ugly racism in his attacks on Harris? Or the threats to jail or deport people who protest the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide against Gaza? And what about the lunatic calls to “drill, baby, drill” while the world is simultaneously burning, drowning and suffocating in environmental disasters? In what world was this hidden from Trump’s base?!? Trump made crystal clear what he is all about and what he aims to do!

It might be temporarily comforting to think that Trump “put one over” on people. But it would be better to face facts. Tens of millions of Americans voted for him because they have been conditioned to like that foul shit. It may not be pleasant, but that is reality and we better confront it and deal with it.

By way of contrast with the Call’s “con game” analysis, here is a dose of reality from Bob Avakian on the day after the election:

This election brings out sharply that there really are “two countries” within this country. 

This, in a real sense, is an extension of a fundamental division that has existed since the beginning of the so-called “United States” of America, with its foundation in slavery and genocide—a division which has never really been resolved throughout the history of this country—not through the Civil War in the 1860s, and not through changes that were brought about through the 1960s and in the years following.

As I have said before, there is a direct line from the pro-slavery Confederacy, at the time of the Civil War, to the fascism of today, with its determination to make America once again openly, aggressively white supremacist, male supremacist, and anti-LGBT people.

BA goes on to say that:

One “country” within this country—those who support fascism—demand and celebrate this oppression and madness. 

The other “country” wants an end to this oppression and madness—but there can be no end to it, under this system.

And so long as things are on the terms of this system—and limited within the confines of this system—the fascists will have initiative which decent people cannot have.

(Both passages are from "Two Countries" Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System's Got To Go!… This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination.” Social media message REVOLUTION #102 @BobAvakianOfficial.)

III. The crucial need right now is NOT “a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to billionaires while impoverishing the rest of the population,” but to build a movement of millions that can defeat this fascism, and, to do this as part of bringing forward a movement for a real revolution: a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system.

The Call promises that “we can defeat the Trump program… by building a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to the billionaires while impoverishing an ever larger section of the population.” 

This is just another version of “economic populism”—the notion that you will get “a progressive majority” by focusing on economic needs. This totally misses the horror and terror that is going down, as we showed in point 1, and what the Trump/MAGA appeal rests on at its core, as we discussed in point 2. 

NO. What is needed right now is serious preparation, by building up the organized, disciplined forces for revolution trained in the science and strategy of the new communism, to actually overthrow and replace this system with a far better system. And, a serious fight now—reaching out and uniting all who can be united—to mount the kind of sustained, mass political resistance that creates the level of profound political crisis such that Trump cannot govern the country and implement his fascist program—before it consolidates. Both of these are real concrete goals that must be worked towards, measured against, and accomplished... this is what Bob Avakian is providing leadership for (see "2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And A Profoundly Positive Way Forward In the Face of Very Real Horror" and "The Bob Avakian Post-Election Playlist: A Time for Righteous Anger & Revolutionary Determination—Take the Offensive Against Trump MAGA Fascism… THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM'S GOT TO GO!").

We Revcoms have raised—and we are very seriously building a movement around—two slogans that concentrate the actual road forward: 

NO! IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!

And

THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!

And we Revcoms have the crucial leadership that can guide this movement. If you have any sense of what is really coming down the pike or, if you don't know but have the decency to want to find out, the most important thing you can do right now is to listen to Bob Avakian’s recent crucial, pivotal and game-changing message 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror. 

In this message, BA makes the point that 

[T]his is not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as "legitimate," and staying within the confines of "how things work" under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other "mainstream" ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to "take care of self" as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.

We call on every person of conscience to join together, from all our different perspectives, in taking up this mission.

At the same time, we Revcoms are taking up—and call on you to learn about and join in getting organized for—the only real and liberating alternative to the whole monstrous system that spawned this fascism and so many other atrocities: A real revolution, grounded in the new communism that Bob Avakian has brought forward. Read the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which he wrote. Get into the strategy to defeat these imperialists—one that recognizes the real openings that we could wrench out of this extreme situation—again, developed by BA.

At this extremely crucial time, we urge you, we invite you, we challenge you to join with THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in fighting to unite all who can be united to defeat this fascism and bringing forward a whole new world—and, as you do so, to get deeply into the work of the breakthrough revolutionary thinker and leader, Bob Avakian.