Meeting the LA Resistance Fighters of July 15
Part 3

by Michael Slate

August 3, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

It took courage to be among the hundreds who gathered at Hollywood and Highland, the site of the Trump Hollywood star, to rally and march against the fascist Trump/Pence regime on July 15 in Los Angeles. Trumpite fascists had threatened the marchers in advance—and they did come out to try to intimidate and silence the protesters, and physically assaulted at least two people.

Michelle Xai of Refuse Fascism Los Angeles, the young woman emceeing the rally, called out the fascists in a strong and spirited rap that got right to what was so important and urgent about the protest, and rallied the people forward:

We’re here on a mission to drive out this fascist regime. These people, what are they representing, what are they opposing? When Donald Trump says make America great again, what is he saying? He’s saying make America white again. He wants to go back to the days when there was a separation, when Black people had to use different bathrooms than white people, when they were treated as less than human. We say NO to that, and we are determined to drive out this fascist regime from power. And we are not going to sit back and wait and see. This fascist in the White House has already shown us what they’re gonna do. They’ve told us what they’re gonna do. And we are not gonna be those good Germans who just sat back when there was bodies all around them and just covered their eyes and pretended like it wasn’t happening. No! We are not gonna go back to those days!... We refuse these fucking ignorant fools trying to intimidate us. They came out here to protect a piece of concrete [the Trump star]. If it wasn’t so dangerous, it would be laughable. But these people are serious—this is how fascism consolidates, through these modern-day brown shirts going around and shutting up all opposition while the people in power continue to carry out these genocidal programs against the masses of people. We should not get distracted. We are on a mission to drive out this fascist regime from power, and we’re not gonna back down from that!

There was a moment where the fascists were chanting “USA, USA, USA,” and the crowd responded with “HUMANITY FIRST, HUMANITY FIRST!” The fascists turned strikingly silent, and the moment had a profound effect on everyone involved.

Who were the 400 resistance fighters doing the right thing, marching against the Trump/Pence regime? They represented a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds, and shared a sense of responsibility to humanity to drive out this fascist regime. Revolution correspondent Michael Slate caught up with a number of them, and shared notes on the scene, who was there, and why.

This is the third part of this series; we will add more in days to come, so stay tuned. See Part One here and Part Two here.

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Nanzi was a young—maybe 23-year-old—white woman dressed in a kind of black dance costume. And she wore a black mask that covered the top half of her face. She called herself “Nasty Woman,” and she decided that she really wanted to take on the fascists standing along the sidelines of the rally. She explained that she had work to do and would not be able to talk with me but pointed me to the guy she came to the rally with.

Peter was also in his early 20s and “into Marxism.” I asked him why he came to the demonstration. He answered without hesitation, “The fascism of the Trump regime. I think that capitalism has been destroying our society and all of the planet since its inception. And the Trump regime and its fascism has doubled down on that in a way that is going to very soon prove catastrophic not only for us here in the United States but all over the world. And I think that it is crucially important that everyone in America stand up right now and take a stand. Are you for the destruction and ravishing of this society, of this environment? Are you for the exploitation of the regular working people? Or are you against this? Are you going to stand up and throw off these shackles, throw off this oppressive regime, because it has to go.

“I do think this is a fascist regime. There are 14 characteristics of fascism, and the Trump regime has either used, hit on or has shown a desire to implement every single one of them. If you look at the military budget. Scapegoatism—Trump and Pence are trying to scapegoat Muslims and immigrants. Sexism is a huge part of fascism, and you can see that through his comments on grabbing them by the pussy. And his belittling comments towards women on a daily basis, rating women on their appearance out of 10. Among other things, corporations and suppressing the workers. He has filled his cabinet with Wall Street tycoons and billionaires. Every point down the line it fits in. He is attempting to control the media by belittling and attempting to discredit anything that speaks out against him. So, we have a short span of time. We have a short span of time in which to do something about it.”

I had just asked Peter what he thought it is going to take to end the Trump/Pence regime when Nanzi began calling for him to join her because she was concerned some of the fascists might attack her. Peter went and got her, explaining to her that he had to answer this last question. He jumped into it, joking that it was going to be a short answer but an important one. “As a people we need to transcend that fear and that’s what our music is for, to provide the catalyst to understanding that that fear is misplaced and we need to have reliance on ourselves as citizens."

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Carrie is a 35-year-old Black woman who heard about the demonstration on Facebook and decided to come right away. She explained that she tries to go to all the protests happening these days.

“I came here because I’m tired of Donald Trump. I have children and I want them to be raised in an equal world without hatred and with love and compassion. And I feel like Donald Trump is everything against that. He is actually hateful. My main thing about this administration is that they do everything out of hatred. They want to overturn everything just because they have hatred. There is nothing for the good of the people. It’s just literally everything based on hate and doing everything anti-Democrat. That’s all it’s about in my opinion.”

Carrie said that were a number of reasons she came but “my main thing is the total hatred for human beings, especially basic rights like health care, women’s rights—I feel like they are trying to just go backwards. And gay rights! We’re in a new era, we want to accept everyone, we don’t want to go backwards and I feel like they’re going to set us back very badly.”

I asked Carrie if she thought about the Trump/Pence regime as fascist, and she started nodding her head yes immediately. “I do believe that the Trump/Pence regime is a fascist regime. And I do think it’s important for people to understand that. They have to understand that. That’s why we’re out here marching and trying to get the point across. We are tired of it and we don’t want it to get worse. You know, it can get much worse, basically like a dictatorship. I can see it coming. I think we get them out by sticking by the democratic values and what we democrats stand for and continuing to push for that and after that we have to stick together. Because other than that, he is going to take over and it’s gonna be another whole other type of life that none of us want to live in. As long as we stand together, I know Maxine Waters was starting to try to get him out of there. I really think he’s going to set himself up, to be honest with you, because he makes so many stupid mistakes. So, I really think it’s just a matter of time.

“It’s possible that they will try to make it more severe but I believe in general that the people of America know that this is wrong. He got in there somehow, and I do not think it was legit. Most people did not want him in there and most people are gonna fight to get him out of there.”

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