Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/commitment-and-process-of-building-movement-for-revolution-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Commitment and the Process of Building a Movement FOR Revolution

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

People need to be serious in whatever commitments they make—they need to follow through on such commitments—and we should set and struggle for this to be the standard and the actual reality. But getting involved in the movement for an actual revolution has a specific dynamic that differs, say, from joining a sports team or a music group. We should not demand “zero to sixty” right away—or, in any case, try to force a leap, rather than winning people to it as part of an overall revolutionary process. What we need to be building is a continually developing mass movement for revolution—yes, an actual revolution—with a vibrant “Ohio,”* through which exponentially growing numbers of people can be actively involved and continue to advance (not all, but many of them) through the dialectical interplay of contributing and learning in continually increasing dimensions. As for those who do reach the “advanced end” of this “Ohio,” again this raises the question of their becoming not only part of the Revolution Club but also making the further leap to becoming part of the communist vanguard; but here again as well, the question of commitment should not be approached (even if in a somewhat “backhanded” way) from the negative, defensive position that amounts to: “We have had people make commitments and then not keep them, and then disappear (‘ghost’) on us; so we are going to make sure you don’t (can’t) do that!” Rather, we should proceed with the recognition that commitment, while it involves and requires (repeated) leaps along the way, essentially corresponds to and is grounded in what aspirations have been awakened, or brought forward, in people, and what they are coming to understand is required in relation to that. So, again, while we do need to have a serious attitude with regard to people making and carrying through on commitments, this must be commensurate with what their understanding and sentiments are at a given point, and most essentially must be in the context of and contribute to the broader mass revolutionary movement that they are part of (or becoming part of) and, while not involving any tailing, should proceed from what they themselves have been won (yes, won through struggle, even at times sharp struggle) to see as a necessary and essential contribution to the revolution.

* The “Ohio” refers to the Ohio State marching band’s practice of marching in such a way as to spell out “OHIO” when viewed from above; in this process, band members who begin the first O, then move through the other letters of the word until they are at the last “O”. The point is that there is an analogous process involved in building any kind of progressive or revolutionary movement, in which people “move through” various levels of understanding and commitment, though this is not (“in the real world”) quite so linear and in lockstep as the Ohio State marching band!*

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/457/how-we-can-win-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

September 19, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

To Do This, We Need To Know:

Why we need an actual revolution.
What we need to do now.
How we could defeat them.

Why We Need An Actual Revolution

An actual revolution does not mean trying to make some changes within this system—it means overthrowing this system and bringing into being a radically different and far better system.This system of capitalism-imperialism cannot be reformed. There is no way, under this system, to put an end to the brutality and murder by police, the wars and destruction of people and the environment, the exploitation, oppression and degradation of millions and billions of people, including the half of humanity that is female, here and throughout the world—all of which is rooted in profound contradictions built into the basic functioning, relations, and structures of this system. Only an actual revolution can bring about the fundamental change that is needed.

What We Need To Do Now

To make this revolution, we need to be serious, and scientific. We need to take into account the actual strengths of this system, but more than that its strategic weaknesses, based in its deep and defining contradictions. We need to build this revolution among those who most desperately need a radical change, but among others as well who refuse to live in a world where this system spews forth endless horrors, and this is continually “justified” and even glorified as “greatness.”

We need to be on a mission to spread the word, to let people know that we have the leadership, the science, the strategy and program, and the basis for organizing people for an actual, emancipating revolution. We have Bob Avakian (BA) the leader of this revolution and the architect of a new framework for revolution, the new synthesis of communism. We have the Party led by BA, the Revolutionary Communist Party, with this new synthesis as its scientific basis to build for revolution. We have the Revolution Clubs, where people can take part in and powerfully represent for the revolution in an organized way, as they learn more about the revolution and advance toward joining the Party. We have the website of the Party, revcom.us, and its newspaper Revolution, which sharply expose the crimes of this system, scientifically analyze why it cannot be reformed, and give guidance and direction for people to work in a unified way for revolution. We have the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA and adopted by the Party’s Central Committee, which provides a sweeping and concrete vision and “blueprint” for a radically new and emancipating society. People in the inner cities, and in the prisons, students, scholars, artists, lawyers and other professionals, youth in the suburbs and rural areas—people in all parts of society—need to know about this and seriously take it up.

Those who catch the worst hell under this system, and those who are sickened by the endless outrages perpetrated by this system, need to join up with this revolution. Thousands need to get organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution. We have seen the potential for this in the protests that have taken place against police brutality and murder, and other ways in which large numbers of people have gone up against the established authorities and the political “rules of the game.” But this needs to be transformed, through struggle, into revolutionary understanding, determination, and organization. The organized forces and the leadership of this revolution must become the “authority” that growing numbers of people look to and follow—not the lying politicians and media of this oppressive system—not those who front for the oppressors and preach about “reconciliation” with this system—not those who turn people against each other when they need to be uniting for this revolution. While many people will do positive things in opposing the crimes of this system, we need to approach everything—evaluate every political program and every organized force in society, every kind of culture, values and ways of treating people—according to how it relates to the revolution we need, to end all oppression. We should unite with people whenever we can, and struggle with them whenever we need to, to advance the revolution.

While awaiting the necessary conditions to go all-out for revolution, we need to hasten this and actively carry out the “3 Prepares”: Prepare the Ground, Prepare the People, and Prepare the Vanguard—Get Ready for the Time When Millions Can Be Led to Go for Revolution, All-Out, With a Real Chance to Win. We need to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution—protest and resist the injustices and atrocities of this system, and win people to defy and repudiate this putrid system and its ways of thinking, and to take up the outlook and values, and the strategy and program of the revolution, build up the forces for this revolution, and defeat the attempts of the ruling powers to crush the revolution and its leadership. With every “jolt” in society—every crisis, every new outrage, where many people question and resist what they normally accept—we need to seize on this to advance the revolution and expand its organized forces. We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers to isolate, “encircle,” brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to “encircle” them—by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.

All this is aiming for something very definite—a revolutionary situation: Where the system and its ruling powers are in a serious crisis, and the violence they use to enforce this system is seen by large parts of society for what it is—murderous and illegitimate. Where the conflicts among the ruling forces become really deep and sharp—and masses of people respond to this not by falling in behind one side or the other of the oppressive rulers, but by taking advantage of this situation to build up the forces for revolution. Where millions and millions of people refuse to be ruled in the old way—and are willing and determined to put everything on the line to bring down this system and bring into being a new society and government that will be based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. That is the time to go all-out to win. That is what we need to be actively working for and preparing for now.

How We Could Defeat Them

“On the Possibility of Revolution” is a very important statement from the Party, which is posted on revcom.us. It sets forth the foundation—the strategic conception and doctrine—for how to fight with a real chance of winning, once a revolutionary people in the millions, and the necessary conditions for revolution, have been brought into being. Now is not yet the time to wage this kind of fight—to try to do so now would only lead to a devastating defeat—but ongoing work is being done to further develop this strategic conception and doctrine with the future in mind, and the following are some of the main things the revolutionary forces would need to do when the conditions to go all-out to make revolution had been brought into being.

• When the revolutionary situation is clearly emerging, rapidly transform backbone forces of the revolution into organized fighting forces in key strategic areas, carry out the necessary training, obtain the necessary equipment and provide for the basic logistical needs of this revolutionary fighting force to start the all-out fight, while preventing the enemy from crushing the revolutionary forces at this crucial juncture. Back up these core fighting forces with millions more organized into powerful “reserves” for the revolution.
• Initiate actions throughout the country, accompanied by a bold declaration to the world, which make clear that there is an organized force determined to defeat the forces of the old order and bring into being a new, revolutionary system. Upon completion of these initial actions, quickly regroup forces for “follow-on” actions and maintain the momentum of the revolution.
• Counter the enemy’s superior destructive force by seeking to fight only on favorable terms, and actively avoiding decisive encounters, which would determine the outcome of the whole thing, until the “balance of forces” has shifted overwhelmingly in favor of the revolution. Utilize equipment captured from the enemy in ways that fit the fighting strategy of the revolution. Build up political and logistical bases of support, in key strategic areas, but do not attempt to openly control and govern territory, until the necessary “favorable balance of forces” has been achieved.
• Maintain the initiative—or, if it is temporarily lost, regain it—through surprise and maneuver. Fight in ways the enemy does not anticipate. Carry out actions to keep the enemy off balance, disrupting the concentration and utilization of his forces and contributing to their disintegration. Always conduct operations and act in ways that are in line with the emancipating outlook and goals of the revolution, and turn the barbaric actions of the enemy against him—to win greater forces for the revolution, including those who come over from the ranks of the enemy.
• Combine strategic direction and coordination for the fight as a whole, with decentralized actions and initiative by local units and leaders. Relying on mass support, the intelligence this provides for the revolution and the denial of intelligence to the enemy, counter the enemy’s efforts to find, fix and annihilate revolutionary leadership and key fighting units. Rapidly replace forces and leaders that are lost—continually train and deploy new forces and leaders.
• Correctly handle the relation between this all-out fight and the situation—including the character and level of revolutionary struggle—in countries to the south (and the north).
• When the “balance of forces” has shifted in favor of the revolution, conduct operations aimed at achieving final victory, while continuing to “calibrate” these operations so that decisive encounters are still avoided until the forces of the old order have been brought to the brink of total defeat—and then fully, finally, rout and dismantle the remaining enemy forces.

All this depends on winning millions to revolution in the period that leads up to the ripening of a revolutionary situation. The chance to defeat them, when the time comes—the chance to be rid of this system and to bring something far better into being—has everything to do with what we do now. Everyone who hungers for a radically different world, free of exploitation and oppression and all the needless suffering caused by this system, needs to work now with a fired determination to make this happen, so we will have a real chance to win.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK, ORDER HERE

See excerpts HERE

Pre-publication PDF of this major work—including the appendices—available HERE

Insight Press has announced that in addition to the print book, THE NEW COMMUNISM is now available as an eBook at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble and other retail and library websites.

Points of Attention for the Revolution

The Revolution Club upholds, lives by and fights for the following principles:

1 We base ourselves on and strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism. We do not tolerate using the revolution for personal gain.

2 We fight for a world where ALL the chains are broken. Women, men, and differently gendered people are equals and comrades. We do not tolerate physically or verbally abusing women or treating them as sexual objects, nor do we tolerate insults or “jokes” about people’s gender or sexual orientation.

3 We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages. We do not tolerate insults, “jokes” or derogatory names about a person’s race, nationality, or language.

4 We stand with the most oppressed and never lose sight of their potential to emancipate humanity—nor of our responsibility to lead them to do that. We work to win people of all backgrounds to take part in the revolution, and do not tolerate revenge among the people.

5 We search for and fight for the truth no matter how unpopular, even as we listen to and learn from the observations, insights and criticisms of others.

6 We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.

Now is the time to spread these messages to all of society

"HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" is a companion to the Message from the Central Committee of the RCP, USA posted on www.revcom.us on May 16, 2016.  Get "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” together with “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” out everywhere.  Now is the time to spread the word to all of society.

Download "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" HERE (36”x24” PDF): ENGLISH  | ESPAÑOL.  Download “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” HERE (17"x 22" PDF): ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL.  Our suggestion is that they be printed on white bond paper and posted together in the appropriate ways all over the place. Here’s a rough picture of what this could look like.

“HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution” now in booklet form!

Printing Instructions:
The PDF of a booklet that includes “HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” and the “Points of Attention for the Revolution”is now available. This booklet is 16 pages long. The size of the laid-out pages is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". It can also be printed 6" x 9". There are two layouts here. 1) One is a single PDF with 16 consecutive, individual pages. 2) The second is a printer's spread; that is, the first spread is page 16 and page 1, the second is page 2 and page 15, etc., so that when it prints and is folded, the pages will be in order. Printers can tell you which layout they need. Readers should make plans for printing this 5 1/2" x 8.5" booklet, raising money, and getting it out in the tens of thousands everywhere as soon as possible.

ENGLISH:
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, single pages
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, printer spread

SPANISH:
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, single pages
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, printer spread

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/366/what-is-an-actual-revolution-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

What IS an Actual Revolution?

December 22, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

An actual revolution is a lot more than a protest. An actual revolution requires that millions of people get involved, in an organized way, in a determined fight to dismantle this state apparatus and system and replace it with a completely different state apparatus and system, a whole different way of organizing society, with completely different objectives and ways of life for the people. Fighting the power today has to help build and develop and organize the fight for the whole thing, for an actual revolution. Otherwise we’ll be protesting the same abuses generations from now!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/empire-of-exploitation-world-of-misery-and-revolution-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

An Empire of Exploitation, a World of Misery,
and the Revolution Humanity Cries Out For

by Raymond Lotta

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Of all the tyrants, oppressors, and empires in human history, the U.S. has this distinction: None has caused more misery and carried out more screaming injustices against the people of the world. And none has more massively and systematically propagated myths of “greatness” and “exceptionalism”: America the “leader of the free world”... the “shining city on the hill”... the spawning ground of innovation, where you can “just do it.”

On the backs of oppressed humanity!

The rulers of the American empire have slaughtered and plundered their way to the top position within the worldwide system of capitalism-imperialism. This is a system of global exploitation driven by the competitive pursuit of profit and more profit and its law of survival: expand or die. It is a system of political and military domination, and of murderous rivalry among the imperialist powers themselves.

If we could look at planet Earth from above with an economic and social telescope, we would see a landscape marked by staggeringly high peaks of controlling wealth and power, by vast valleys of exploited and impoverished humanity, and by a deep faultline between the rich capitalist countries and the oppressed nations of the “Global South.”

The imperialists proclaim that their free market opens “ladders of opportunity” for the “less fortunate” on the planet. Unadulterated bullshit. The whole structure of the world system is based on the howling and widening division between haves and have-nots. In 2017, 42 individuals had the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity—that’s 42 billionaires and 3.7 billion people. And 82 percent of the wealth generated globally went to the top 1 percent!¹ Markers of a capitalist world in which, as Karl Marx described, wealth is concentrated on one end and misery and agony of toil on the other.

Globalization, Supply Chains, and Super-Exploitation

The imperialists hail a “brave new world” of 21st century globalization. What kind of world is this?

Look in Bangladesh, the second-largest garment manufacturer in the world. More than 4.4 million people, mostly women, work in 3,000 garment factories. The current minimum wage is 32 cents an hour (about $68 a month), one of the lowest manufacturing wage rates in the world.² This is where retail giants like Walmart, Target, H&M, and others flock to “source” their clothing for racks and boutiques—FYI: “source” is business jargon for contracting out the savage exploitation of millions of human beings whose lives count only in so far as they can be profitably exploited.

These garment factories are links in global supply chains. Local suppliers must turn around new designs and meet massive bulk orders quickly—and keep lowering costs under threat of losing their contracts to cheaper suppliers in other countries, like Vietnam and Bangladesh. And so: 14-hour work days seven days a week, criminal neglect of safety, and the push to produce and produce. And so in 2013 the worst industrial “accident” in modern history: 1,100 workers killed and 2,500 maimed and injured in Bangladesh when a building that housed factories filling orders for Macy’s, Nordstrom, and others collapsed. A basic human need, for clothing, is met not by directly and rationally organizing an economy to meet that need—but through a system of profit that requires “factories of death.” If your shirt could speak, what would it say?

Look in Thailand. With the backing of international financial institutions, Thailand has built up a huge seafood export industry that provides much of the shrimp for U.S. retail chains and restaurants. It’s a convenient arrangement for U.S. capital. You see, subcontracting enhances profits and “flexibility.” It frees U.S. capital of the “burdens” of environmental, safety, and labor regulations. You see, Thailand’s highly profitable seafood industry employs thousands upon thousands of slave laborers: migrants, children, the disabled, and desperate.³ Costco, Whole Foods, the list goes on, conveniently plead, “We just didn’t know.”

Look in Mexico, and the savage legacy of the NAFTA economic treaty. No, you fucking liar Trump, the U.S. was not “had” by Mexico. The U.S. engineered NAFTA to sink its claws more deeply into Mexico and to more tightly integrate Mexico into America’s empire, facing new competitive challenges in the world. NAFTA pried Mexico open to U.S. agribusiness, which flooded Mexico’s markets with cheap corn and beans... wrecking the livelihoods of peasants who used to grow that food... which forced millions from rural communities to migrate to Mexico’s cities and squalid shantytowns to compete for industrial jobs... driving down industrial wages, which are now lower than at the start of NAFTA.

These conditions are a magnet for U.S. firms. They set up auto factories and high-tech sweatshops producing auto and computer parts, airplane components, and consumer electronics, employing workers at one-sixth to one-ninth the wage they would receive in the U.S. This feeds the beast of U.S. capital.

Look in Apple. Somehow, for all its technical wizardry, the iPhone is missing an app for the blood that courses through its production. Some of the tin it contains might be mined in Indonesian mud pits that frequently cave in. The tiny circuits in the phone couldn’t function without coltan—a mineral mined in Congo, often by children as young as 10. The phones are assembled in factories in China that are run like prison compounds. For years, the iPhone was assembled at a factory employing 450,000 workers. Starting in 2010, workers who were reaching the breaking point over low wages, unbearable work hours, relentless productivity drives, toxic fumes, and rampant workplace injury decided to protest... by carrying out (or threatening to carry out) suicide jumps from the rooftops of the factory.⁴ How telling that Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, is the icon of successful enterprise in America.

This IS the World We Live In...

80 percent of world trade flows through, and one in five jobs worldwide is linked to, global supply chains. These vast, interconnected networks of exploitation are the backbone of the imperialist world economy.⁵ They cheapen the cost of the raw materials and parts that enter into production carried out in the U.S. The low-priced consumer goods produced by super-exploited workers in the “Global South” cheapens the cost of labor power in the U.S. Out of these production networks surplus value (profit) is siphoned, concentrated, and distributed upward and upward to the imperialist banks, investor groups, and firms like Walmart, GM, and Apple.⁶

These grids of production are also the invisible foundation of the “consumer society” of the rich capitalist countries—so utterly irrational and so utterly wasteful that if everyone in the world lived as Americans do, it would take the resources of four or five Earths.⁷

All this is the “dirty little secret” of that “brave new world” of globalization. It is an imperialist world in which 2.3 billion humans (nearly one in three worldwide) still lack access to rudimentary toilets or latrines; 150 million children are trapped in child labor; and 65 million (the highest number since World War 2) have been forcibly displaced from their homes and homelands by war, poverty, persecution, and the effects of global warming.⁸ This system is a horror for humanity.

And it is imperiling Earth. In their endless quest to expand and cheapen production, the imperialists plunder resources; pollute water and air; tear down forests; poison soil; and pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The U.S. military, with its monstrous methods of warfare to enforce global domination, consumes more oil than any other institution on the face of the planet.⁹ The imperialist system has put the planet on an insane trajectory of environmental devastation.

But It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way... We Can and Must Make Revolution

Think about it: the interconnected labor of hundreds of millions of people across the planet is organized not to meet basic human and social needs but for the accumulation of capital. Think about it: wealth that is socially produced is seized and privately controlled by capitalist owners... to serve new rounds of profit-making. Think about it: the liberating potential of new technology to free people from unnecessary toil, to help address the environmental emergency, and other great problems... is turned into new nightmares of exploitation, control and surveillance, and genocidal war-making.

Think about it: there is no fucking reason why this system must keep going on... except for the fact that the imperialists hold power. The basis exists to organize society and economy in a radically different and emancipatory way. The technology, the scientific and broader knowledge, the productive forces overall, especially the people themselves, hold open the possibility of enabling basic human needs to be met and opening up the possibility for humanity to move beyond exploitation, suffering, and scarcity and create a shared abundance.

But the profit system stands as the barrier to that.

Take malaria. Hundreds of thousands of children die each year in Africa of this disease—but pharmaceutical companies, with their vast research capabilities, have not rushed to develop a vaccine. Why? Because as the New York Times business pages calmly explain: “there is no money to be made from a vaccine for poor children who could not possibly pay for inoculation.”¹⁰ WTF! This is absurd, this is cruel; this is totally unnecessary.

Or take the crisis of decent and affordable housing in U.S. cities. This could be easily solved. The materials and resources exist; countless numbers of socially committed architects and urban planners want to contribute their know-how to a better world; there is a vast reservoir of basic people in the oppressed communities who are locked out of jobs or whose skills are not utilized, and millions of young people burn with a desire to change the world. But under this system, people and resources are not brought together and people are not mobilized to solve the housing crisis—because profit rules and housing is an object of investment and global speculation... while 6,300 people are evicted from rental households every day in the U.S.¹¹ This is absurd, this is cruel, this is totally unnecessary.

Humanity can free itself of exploitation and suffering. But to realize that potential, this system needs to be overthrown. And there is a way to prepare to do that today that is set out in HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution.

Another world is possible. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, provides the vision and framework for a liberatory, planned socialist economy that serves the betterment of humanity and aims to overcome the great divides between those who mainly work with their hands and those who work in the realm of ideas, between women and men, different regions and nationalities; that protects the ecosystems of the planet; and that is oriented to advance the world revolution to uproot all exploitation and oppression... and emancipate all of humanity.

We Need Revolution... This System Needs To Be Overthrown... Another World Is Possible

1. Reward Work, Not Wealth, Oxfam International, 2018.  [back]

2. “Why Won’t We Learn from the Survivors of the Rana Plaza Disaster?,” Dana Thomas, New York Times, April 24, 2018.  [back]

3. Thailand: Forced Labor, Trafficking Persist in Fishing Fleets, Human Rights Watch, January 23, 2018.  [back]

4. Brian Merchant, “Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city,” The Guardian, June 18, 2017.  [back]

5. UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2013: Global Value Chains; International Labour Organization, World Employment and Social Outlook 2015: The Changing Nature of Jobs Supply chains (sometimes referred to as commodity or value chains) take two forms: a company like GM builds parts plants, etc., in other parts of the world; or a company like Nike subcontracts production to other companies, which subcontract to others, and they subcontract to others, etc.  [back]

6. The ability of the U.S. government to run up deficits and finance growth—this too is linked to the agony of super- exploited labor in the bowels of the new industrial zones of the Third World. You see, China pours massive earnings from the export of goods manufactured in its sweatshops into bonds and debt sold by the U.S. Treasury. The workings of this system combine financial parasitism with elementary brutality.  [back]

7. See Global Footprint Network.  [back]

8. Sanitation: Key Facts, World Health Organization, 2017; Child Labour, International Labour Organization; Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2016, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), June 2017.  [back]

9. U.S. Military and Oil, Union of Concerned Scientists,  2012.  [back]

10. “Lifting the Patent Barrier to New Drugs and Energy Sources,” Eduardo Porter, New York Times, April 12, 2016.  [back]

11. Eviction Lab.  [back]

Permalink: http://revcom.us/avakian/science/24ba-science...forces-for-revolution-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/point-of-orientation-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Point of Orientation on Korea

Updated June 12, originally published June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Last week major conflicts erupted between the U.S. and its principal imperialist allies. This week Trump has begun negotiating with North Korea. While the outcome of these negotiations is totally unpredictable, the possibility of things going toward heightened U.S. aggression and even war remains very real.

In such a time, the words of HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution have particular relevance, especially the following:

With every “jolt” in society—every crisis, every new outrage, where many people question and resist what they normally accept—we need to seize on this to advance the revolution and expand its organized forces.

In addition, fighting for an internationalist orientation among the broadest masses of people will be of utmost importance. The slideshow of quotes from BA on internationalism should be used creatively as part of waging that struggle, on social media, on the walls, and wherever people directly interact.

Right-click and choose "Save link as" to download this animated GIF for social media:

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/504/korea-pop-quiz-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Before You Think Trump and the U.S. Now Have Peaceful Intentions in Korea, Take This Quiz and See How Much You Really Know!

Updated June 12, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

1. How many Koreans, and how many American troops, were killed in the Korean War, 1950-1953?
   1. About 100,000 U.S. troops, and about 1 million Koreans
   2. About 1 million U.S. troops and about 1 million Koreans
   3. About 450,000 U.S. troops and about 1 million Koreans
   4. About 650,000 U.S. troops and about 2 million Koreans
   5. About 60,000 U.S. troops, and over 3 million Koreans

 

2. True or false: U.S. warplanes dropped more bomb and napalm tonnage during the Korean War than they had during the entire Pacific campaign of World War 2.

 

3. If the number of Americans killed in the Korean War was proportional to the number of Koreans, how many Americans would have died?
   1. 1,000,000
   2. 5,000,000
   3. 25,000,000
   4. 45,000,000

 

4. What percentage of buildings in North Korea, over one story high, were destroyed by U.S. bombing by the end of the war?
   1. 20%
   2. 40%
   3. 60%
   4. 80%
   5. 99%

 

5. Which country used chemical and biological weapons on Koreans during the Korean War?
   1. North Korea
   2. South Korea
   3. The United States
   4. China
   5. The Soviet Union

 

6. After the surrender of Japan in World War 2, in response to overwhelming demands by nearly every political force in Korea for an independent and unified country, which of the following represented U.S. policy?
   1. President Truman admonished U.S. military commanders to stop sending him “messages from representatives of self-styled governments which are not recognized by the Government of the United States” who were appealing for U.S. support for Korean independence and reunification.
   2. The U.S. National Security Agency assessed that Koreans were not ready to choose their own government due to the “political immaturity of the Korean people.”
   3. U.S. intelligence documents reported that if open elections were held, “Almost all Koreans are leftists by current US standards, and not even the conservative parties can be considered defenders of traditional capitalism… Soviet policies might therefore be expected to have great popular appeal in Korea.”
   4. The 1948 elections in South Korea staged by the U.S. should be branded as having “strong popular support” even though, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, “they were boycotted by almost all organized parties except two of the large extreme rightist groups,” and the fact that “moderate factions ... joined with the Communists in boycotting the election on the ostensible grounds that the election would tend to perpetuate the artificial division of Korea....”
   5. All of the above.

 

7. True or false: In 1958, the United States installed hundreds of nuclear weapons, battlefield tactical weapons, and short-range warheads on missiles in South Korea, and kept them there until 1991 when they were replaced with missiles the Pentagon thought presented less threat of contaminating South Korea in the event of a war.

 

8. The Bodo League Massacre was the greatest massacre of civilians in the Korean War. Which of the following describes the nature of that massacre?
   1. The Chinese brutally murdered between 100,000 and 200,000 captured U.S. and South Korean POWs.
   2. The North Koreans rounded up and killed between 100,000 and 200,000 pro-Democracy dissidents.
   3. The U.S.-backed government in South Korea massacred between 100,000 and 200,000 civilians it suspected of being communists or communist sympathizers.
   4. Between 100,000 and 200,000 ethnic minorities were forced march to their death in the Soviet Union because their loyalty to the North Korean regime was suspect.

 

9. True or false: The United States has pledged to never be the first country to launch a nuclear attack.

 

10. Any decision by President Trump to launch a nuclear attack on North Korea would require which of the following:
    1. Authorization by Congress
    2. The agreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
    3. A review by the Defense Intelligence Agency
    4. All of the above
    5. None of the above

Turn in this test to the person who gave it to you, or send your score and your school to revolution.reports@yahoo.com, and we will tabulate and report back on how well American students have been educated as to the actual reality. 

Answers and Sources

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/546/pardon-our-analysis-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Pardon Our Analysis*

June 9, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Giving Trump “credit” for pardoning the unjustly imprisoned 63-year-old Alice Johnson (at the request of Kim Kardashian)—while the machinery of mass incarceration is being ramped up, while he simultaneously continues to attack Black athletes for daring to protest, while children are being torn from their parents by ICE, and while 100 other things hurtle us down the road to full-out fascism—is nothing but giving “Massa” credit for sparing one slave a whipping so as to “prove” his fairness and benevolence. It is nothing but giving Hitler credit for “easing up” on the attacks against Jews before the Berlin Olympics (to change the “optics” of that event to normalize Nazi Germany) while the machinery of death is assembled, greased, and put into gear. Everything Trump does is in the service of clamping down fascism, period. Beyond its obvious intent—and apparent success—in creating confusion and distracting attention from what’s really happening, this move in particular is part of his campaign to normalize the notion of Trump pardoning people at his imperial whim—something he is doing to set things up for pardoning his henchmen and himself, if it comes to that.

But instead of exposing the cynicism, crude manipulation, and danger behind this move of Trump’s, instead of sounding the alarm, people like Van Jones, Linda Sarsour, and others have used their platform and “cred” to call on people to give credit (!) to Trump for “doing something good.” This stance is beyond idiotic; it is a betrayal. It misleads people, it lowers their guard, it befuddles them—in short, it does damage, incalculable damage, to what is badly needed, which is recognition of just how dangerous this regime is. And it is a crude political calculation—the reduction of Trump to a “normal politician,” all the better to justify channeling people’s outrage into the “normal” and utterly ineffectual (and deadly) channels and confines of the system that brought forward (and is now controlled by) Trump and Pence, and which Jones, Sarsour, and the rest either have gotten or are stepping down the road of wanting to get in on.

Finally: The fact that Trump is now calling on NFL players and other professional athletes to submit names of “friends” who should have pardons shows even further the cynicism of the deal being offered: stop your demonstrations during the anthem (in other words, shut the fuck up and betray your principles and the masses of people), and I’ll help your friends! And it also reinforces the notion that Trump’s pardon power is and should be unlimited and Trump himself floats above the rule of law altogether.

Shame!

*With appreciation for the late, great Gil Scott-Heron, who did a song called “We Beg Your Pardon (Pardon Our Analysis).” [back]

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/dear-jeremy-scahill-yes-democrats-are-part-of-problem-stop-pretending-they-can-be-part-of-solution-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Dear Jeremy Scahill: Yes, The Democrats ARE Part of the Problem—So Stop Pretending They Can Be Part of the Solution!

by Sunsara Taylor

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In the May 30 episode of his podcast Intercepted, Jeremy Scahill provides damning exposure of the horrific leap that the Trump/Pence regime is making in relation to truly sick and vicious treatment of immigrants—now literally tearing infants and children from the arms of their parents. Refreshingly, Scahill reminds listeners that it was under Obama that, among other things, deportations hit an all-time high and that children in detention were routinely abused—kicked in the head, threatened with death, strip searched and molested until they screamed, imprisoned in dog kennels, and more.

In this way, Scahill gets at something essential: BOTH the major parties of this country—both the Democrats and the Republicans—are guilty of towering crimes.

But then abruptly, Scahill’s “reasoning” drops off a cliff.

Despite admonishing his listeners that “We have to go to the root,” he proceeds to do the exact opposite.

Instead of saying another word about “the root,” Scahill champions the completely surface level delusion of solving these problems through a “new generation of candidates running for office,” especially those challenging “establishment Democrats.”

But if Democrats are part of the problem—which they most definitely are!—then how the hell does “retaking” the Democratic Party hold any chance of solution? It doesn’t!

It is revealing that Scahill never even attempts to explain why or how retaking the Democratic Party will lead to stopping any of this. Instead, he does a huge setup and switch: After powerfully exposing Trump and the shared guilt of the Democrats, he substitutes what should be the goal of stopping this nightmare with the “goal” of retaking the Democratic Party.

Scahill also never attempts to explain—or demand that his guest, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is part of this “new generation of candidates,” explain—how any of her campaign promises to “abolish ICE” and “reimagine” U.S. immigration to not be rooted in “racial exclusion” could actually be fulfilled. How could that be done without ripping up the entire social fabric of white supremacy? Without redrawing the blood-soaked borders of this country that were carved through conquest and theft of land? Without ending the military aggression, brutal exploitation, and environmental destruction that has driven millions to cross borders in a desperate search for survival? How could any of this happen under the mode of production of capitalism—where everything, even the survival of human beings, the bonds between parents and small children, and the future of the planet itself are “external” to the demands of the drive for profit and global domination and the need for a repressive state to enforce that with whatever level of brutality it deems “effective”?

The truth: All this is completely unrealistic within this system. But it IS possible through overthrowing this system and replacing it with a radically different system through an actual revolution.

So, let’s really go to the root: The Democratic Party is a ruling class party. It represents the same system of U.S. imperialism as Trump and the Republicans—a ruthless system based on worldwide exploitation which has dropped nuclear bombs on civilians, set up torture “black sites,” and staged more than 100 unjust coups, invasions, and occupations in every corner of the world. The fight between the Democrats and the Republicans has only ever been about how to pursue these imperialist interests.

And here is something else Scahill refuses to confront: Right now, the section of the rulers in power, the Trump/Pence regime, are moving rapidly to hammer into place a qualitatively different form of imperialist rule: fascism. Once consolidated, this American fascism means not only going forward with all-out genocidal ethnic cleansing, imposing vicious Christian fascist theocracy, and ramping up violent white supremacy. It also means shutting down all space to oppose them both from below by the masses of people and even from within the halls of power. When was the last time a U.S. president made a rallying cry of locking up his ruling class political rivals—even going so far as to hint about their assassination? As horrific as the “normal” workings of imperialism are for billions, it’s important to understand how qualitatively more horrific fascism in the world’s only superpower would be for humanity—including the potential destruction of human life on this planet through nuclear war and/or environmental destruction.

The only way to put an end in a lasting and fundamental way to all of these horrors is through an actual revolution that overthrows this system and replaces it with a radically different system rooted in a different economic foundation, a radically different relationship to the people of the world, radically different social relations and values, and a radically different form of rule. This is the New Socialist Republic in North America as concretized in a constitution authored by Bob Avakian. Fighting and preparing now to get in position to make—and to have a real chance at winning—this revolution when a revolutionary crisis emerges is what everyone who truly wants to deal with this problem at the root needs to join with right now. A good way to get started is to read and spread the strategy for revolution and visit www.revcom.us every day.

As a key part of getting to a far better world there is the immediate imperative to STOP fascism by joining with the movement RefuseFascism.org to drive out the Trump/Pence regime through mass independent political resistance outside the official political channels which created this nightmare. This is not the same as revolution—but it does require going far outside the bounds of the whole Democrat-Republican routine that has only ever been a three-card Monte game for the masses.

Instead of feeding people the very harmful illusion that this problem can be solved within the confines of this system and on its terms, I urge Jeremy Scahill and all those who recognize that the Democrats truly will not save us to join in earnest in waging this struggle now while seriously engaging the vision and strategy for an actual revolution.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/organizing-on-the-spot-some-experience-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Organizing on the Spot – Some Experience

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

We were out at an intersection in a neighborhood that is mixed Latino and Black, with youth coming out of high school and middle school and many others either shopping or coming from work. This is a place that has been very contentious for the Revolution Club. On the one hand, we've faced open attacks from reactionary vets who want to attack the revolution and celebrate America and their own role in carrying out the dirty work of this empire, and also from some students from nearby Catholic school who were staunch about putting it all in god's hands, and not wanting to hear anything from people who were not talking about god. On the other hand, this is also one of the places we have found where many people stop, listen, and think deeply about the agitation of the club, and there have been some people who've engaged seriously. But we also found it is a place where our efforts to organize people has been very ineffective. While this is still very much a work in progress, there was a different scene we had the last time we went there which seemed to have some elements to learn from, so I wanted to share this experience and some thoughts on why.

First, while we actually had a smaller crew than we often have at this spot, I think we had a larger presence. In addition to working on sharpening up our spoken agitation, and wrestling with the role of that in bringing forward and organizing people, we had a much bigger visual presence. We had all 5 of the “5 Stops” panels set up together (accordion like) in front of the agitator's box. I think it's worth noting that these panels, too, are a form of visual agitation, that synergizes with the spoken agitation when used well.

That is the other point, the visual agitation does have to be wielded as well. Just setting them up may draw some attention, but they actually can play the role of an organizing tool in how they are wielded. For example, we had several instances where people were not just stopped by the spoken agitation, but also where the agitator walked people through or called on people to themselves look through all 5 of these “stops”. At one point there was also an example of a young Black man who came up and initially was put off by the idea that non-Black people were speaking about things affecting Black people. Some comrades had a round or two of struggle to re-set terms, and he seemed to honestly be listening, but couldn't get out of some of this. After just setting some terms with him around “for whom and for what” and getting serious about revolution, the challenge to him was to just read through the 5 Stops, because we are talking about how to END those through actual revolution, not who gets to speak about what. This changed a lot of the terms, and broadened things up to what is happening to humanity and how we deal with THAT, and this guy ended up staying with us and spending about 90 minutes summing up with us and 3 others who joined us that day on the spot where we talked a bit about HWCW [HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution], questions of sacrifice, leadership, and watched the video BA Through the Years - 1969, 1979, 2003.

The second thing I wanted to identify was the role of a team on a mission working together. The agitator does some heavy lifting in terms of bringing out core message and challenging/inviting people to be enlisted in the rev, and both giving people a sense of what they can do now, and how this fits in with HWCW and what WE need to do now to work for revolution. However, what the team does is still essential and needs more attention and thought beyond just signing up those who are drawn to the agitation. On this outing, a number of people were not only talking with individuals who were stopping, but they were drawing out their questions and then bringing them up to the agitator, where those questions could be part of a whole scene. Some questions that came up were “How do you actually end the mass incarceration?” and “Why are so many people caught up in killing each other?” and “What does it mean to join the revolution?” Of course the answers to these questions are important, but I wanted to highlight the aspect of making people's questions mass questions in this way, putting them to everyone else listening, and then speaking to them. The other thing we were able to do is at one point there was a Black man who had joined us on the spot and spent the whole time standing with us and helping to reach out to people and hold signs and even getting on the mic, and a very young Latino man stepped forward wanting to get into the revolution. In addition to having an exchange with the agitator and the young Latino, we had both him and the man who had been running with us talk with each other on the mic about stepping into the revolution together, and the agitator highlighted the importance of this on the mic. This even made the question of what are YOU going to do a mass question, and highlighted the positive steps people were taking.

At the end of this outing we were able to sit down with about 4 people who had met us right there on the spot and spend some time talking and summing up, as described above. There was probably more we could have done with that, but this too is something I think is an example to build on. There's more to the details of what happened that day, and the different people who stepped into things in different ways, but I wanted to highlight some reflections and thoughts that I thought could contribute to everyone working on this.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/rev-club-sights-and-sounds-june-6-11-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

June 6 – 11:

Sights and Sounds of
Building a Movement for an ACTUAL Revolution

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revolution Club Chicago:
Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution

 

 

 

Family members at a press conference after the police murder of Maurice Granton Jr.

The New York Revolution Club at the Puerto Rican Festival, June 9, distributing HOW WE CAN WIN and organizing

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/act-now-to-support-joe-veale-and-3-members-of-revolution-club-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Act Now to Support Revolutionary Leader Joe Veale and 3 Members of the Revolution Club Chicago Arrested by the Police

June 10, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On Saturday, June 9, Joe Veale and three members of the Revolution Club Chicago were arrested by the police at a street festival, near the neighborhood where the police murdered Maurice Granton Jr., shooting him in the back as he ran from them. Joe Veale and the Revolution Club members were speaking to the festival-goers about this criminal murder by police and about getting organized for revolution, and were targeted by the police for that message. Joe Veale is a long-time revolutionary leader from the Bay Area in California, a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party who was part of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.

Joe Veale and the three Revolution Club members are now released from jail, and all are charged with trespass. One Club member who was bruised on the arm by the cops was charged with resisting/obstructing police.

The Revolution Club Chicago says here are things you can do right now:

• Join or run with the Revolution Club. Call us at 312-804-9121 or visit our office at 1857 E 71st St., Chicago, IL Tuesday-Sunday 3 pm-7 pm.
• Connect with the Revolution Club on Facebook and Twitter by following @revclubchi—this will also be where updates, announcements, and plans will be posted.
• Share posts, video, etc. on social media. This is a great way to spread the word and involve more people.
• Go here to donate for legal expenses, with a note saying "For Joe Veale and the Revolution Club."
  (This page was created for legal expenses for another Revolution Club member, Maya, facing an outrageous felony charge, but is being updated to reflect these latest arrests.)
• Call Kimberly Foxx, Cook County State's Attorney at (312) 603-1880 and demand that charges against Joe Veale and the Revolution Club be dropped.
• Send letters and statements of support to: revclub.chi@gmail.com.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/546/revolution-club-chicago-responds-to-police-murder-of-maurice-granton-jr-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Revolution Club Chicago responds to police murder of Maurice Granton Jr.

We Need to Fight the Power, and
Transform the People, for Revolution

June 9, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On June 6, Chicago police carried out another act of terror and murder, shooting Maurice Granton Jr. in the back as he was RUNNING AWAY from them. People came up yelling in anguish in the face of the murdering pigs, and the pigs massed up to threaten them. Maurice was taken to the hospital, but was either already dead or died very soon after. Then, in the hospital waiting room, the family and friends of Maurice continued to be dehumanized and traumatized. They were made to wait for hours with no information released about whether he was dead or alive and then they were FORCED OUT of the waiting room and the hospital because they were demanding information! Some of his family who were at the hospital said they only found out he had died when the news started reporting it. Maurice, nicknamed “House Party” among his friends and loved ones, was only 24 years old, and the father of two young daughters.

The pigs are saying Maurice had a gun and they put out a 30-second video to criminalize him and justify murdering him, claiming it shows him sitting down holding a gun before the pigs even came up on him. Again, THEY SHOT HIM IN THE BACK AS HE WAS RUNNING AWAY. Everything about this shows the wanton and arbitrary murder carried out by these pigs for no reason other than to terrorize the masses. Everything about this cries out the need for revolution, for overthrowing this system and replacing it with one where, as Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution, says, “[I]f we had state power and we were faced with a similar situation, we would sooner have one of our own people’s police killed than go wantonly murder one of the masses. That’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re actually trying to be a servant of the people. You go there and you put your own life on the line, rather than just wantonly murder one of the people.” (from BAsics 2:16)

The Revolution Club Chicago put out a call for volunteers to join in going out to the street where Maurice was killed, to do what is said in the strategy for revolution, HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution:

We need to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution—protest and resist the injustices and atrocities of this system, and win people to defy and repudiate this putrid system and its ways of thinking, and to take up the outlook and values, and the strategy and program of the revolution, build up the forces for this revolution, and defeat the attempts of the ruling powers to crush the revolution and its leadership. With every “jolt” in society—every crisis, every new outrage, where many people question and resist what they normally accept—we need to seize on this to advance the revolution and expand its organized forces. We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers to isolate, “encircle,” brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to “encircle” them—by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.

A number of people responded, including three people who have stepped into the revolution in the last few weeks, and met up with the Revolution Club outside the train station near where Maurice was killed. As we were getting there and beginning to talk to people, we heard rumors that there was something going on, and later heard that a friend of Maurice’s had just been shot in violence among the masses.

The Revolution Club team posted up and agitated over the bullhorn about the outrage of the pigs murdering Maurice and about the way this system has people fighting each other, and how this is the same shit they do to people all over the world. We drew out how this is all only because of how THIS SYSTEM works and how there is a battle plan and leadership and organization to overthrow this system at the soonest possible time and replace it with a new socialist republic, and NOW IS THE TIME to go to work on shaping the conditions that would make that possible, hundreds and thousands getting organized now and influencing millions for revolution.

Everyone on the Revolution Club team was heartbroken at the murder of Maurice and serious about connecting people up with this revolution. We continually used HOW WE CAN WIN as orientation for the team—with some people before we went out, with others wielding it as we were out together, and then again with everyone afterwards when we summed up together. And we were getting it out to people and using it in our agitation and conversations.

Some of Maurice’s friends and family began to gather near where we were as the time got closer for the vigil to start around the corner. We joined together with them and some people spoke out powerfully, expressing their pain and fury. Then we all went over to the vigil that was organized by some activists and organizations that are part of trying to reform the police.

After their press conference and the release of balloons in honor of Maurice, the Revolution Club team grouped up all together and a spokesperson delivered a message to the vigil: that we were there with them against this intolerable murder, that this will not end without a revolution to overthrow this system, that we are preparing and getting organized now to get in position where millions could be led to do that, and that everyone there can and needs to be part of doing that. People clapped in response to that message and then some came up to find out more.

After the vigil, people were hanging out together for awhile and we stuck around to be there with them and talk further with people. The pigs were passing by periodically and a lawyer volunteer who had come to the vigil was hanging around too, conscious of the fact that the police might try to do something to people after the media and organizations were gone.

When everything was done, the Revolution Club team went a little ways away and sat down together to sum up. A couple of the new people on the team commented that they were glad we decided to stick around longer and stay with people and talk to people, that it was important to let people know we were really there with them and not just leaving when the news cameras leave.

One person was pretty emotional and talked about how this brought back memories of when his cousin was killed by the police. He was also observing that a number of the young people out at the vigil who were friends of Maurice were not that serious. He commented that our approach has to be to leave aside the people who aren’t serious right now, and push forward with the ones who are—and he pointed out that when he was teamed up with one of the Revolution Club members talking with people, they had met someone he thought was more serious and that the Revolution Club member has a way to get back to her.

At the end of the night, we made sure everyone was up on the importance of the upcoming Sunday showing of the film of Bob Avakian’s speech, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, making plans with people for themselves to be there but also to spread the word and work to get others there too.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/454/la-revolution-club-in-response-to-attacks-lies-slander-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the RCP

Do you know anyone else—any person or organization—that has managed to bring forth an actual PLAN for a radically different society, in all its dimensions, and a CONSTITUTION to codify all this? — A different world IS possible — Check out and order online the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).

A Statement from the Revolution Club, Los Angeles, in response to attacks, lies and slander being spread by an array of opportunists and counter-revolutionaries:

August 30, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We base ourselves on and proceed from the fundamental, scientifically-grounded understanding that police brutality and murder, mass incarceration and the overall oppression of Black people, Latinos, and other oppressed peoples (the essence of which is captured in the first of the 5 Stops: “STOP—Genocidal Persecution, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality and Murder of Black and Brown People!”), as well as what is concentrated in the others of the 5 Stops*, cannot be eliminated under this system, and only an actual revolution can bring about the fundamental change that is needed (and if any of the various opportunists et. al., want to argue that all this can be eliminated under this system, let’s hear it!). We base ourselves not only on this scientifically-grounded understanding of the problem but also the solution—the science and the political strategy and program, that is needed to overthrow this system and bring into being a radically different and far better system, based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—and the leadership that has brought this forward: Bob Avakian, the new synthesis of communism, and the Revolutionary Communist Party, which has this new synthesis as its scientific basis for carrying out the revolution that is needed (and, if any of these opportunists have a different solution, which will actually deal with the real problem, again let’s hear it!). 

Yes, such a revolution—and, for that matter, meaningful resistance to the injustices and atrocities continually spewed forth by this system—will require self-sacrificing struggle on the part of everyone who is serious about going up against and finally putting an end to these outrages. We should all recognize that horror upon horror will be visited upon the masses of people, here and throughout the world, and the very existence and future of humanity will be threatened, so long as this system continues to rule and dominate the world. We should all cast away any illusions that ending the oppression, degradation, and destruction perpetrated by this system can somehow be achieved without great struggle and real sacrifice—that somehow “safe spaces” can be found within the confines of this monstrous system.  We should all be oriented and prepared to make the necessary sacrifices that are required to bring an end to this madness.

For our part, we seek to unite all who can be united in fighting the monstrous crimes of this system (as concentrated again in the 5 Stops), even as we, once again proceeding on the basis of the scientifically-grounded understanding of the problem and solution, work to have all this contribute to the actual revolution that is urgently needed—an approach which is concentrated in the formulation: Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.  At the same time, while we seek to unite with all who genuinely oppose and resist the crimes of the system, as for those opportunists who are intent on preserving this system and carving out a niche for themselves within it—and those who try to treat oppression and the fight against it as something they have a “right” to “own”—we will never go along with their attempts to dictate who can be involved in the fight against this system and its crimes, and how that fight has to be waged. To go along with that would do great harm to the masses of people, here and throughout the world, who are brutally oppressed by and suffer terribly under this system. Where such opportunists go beyond mere attempts to dictate the terms of things in this way, and engage in vicious lies and slanders about those who understand the need for and are actively working for an actual revolution—and especially where they attempt to carry out physical attacks on the revolutionaries—we will not tolerate this, and we will expose this and those who carry it out as doing the dirty work of the enemy and serving not the people but this oppressive system and the murderous forces who rule it. It is the fundamental interests of the masses of humanity, here and throughout the world—their need for a radical, emancipating revolution—that has to set the terms and be the standard, and not the petty inclinations and ambitions of those who are determined to obstruct the development of this urgently needed revolution.

*The Five Stops:
STOP—GENOCIDAL PERSECUTION, MASS INCARCERATION, POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE!
STOP—THE PATRIARCHAL DEGRADATION, DEHUMANIZATION AND SUBJUGATION OF ALL WOMEN EVERYWHERE, AND ALL OPPRESSION BASED ON GENDER OR SEXUAL ORIENTATION!
STOP—WARS OF EMPIRE, ARMIES OF OCCUPATION, AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!
STOP—THE DEMONIZATION, CRIMINALIZATION AND DEPORTATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS AND THE MILITARIZATION OF THE BORDER!
STOP—CAPITALISM-IMPERIALISM FROM DESTROYING OUR PLANET!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/a-week-of-rachel-maddow-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

A Week of Rachel Maddow...How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ronald Fucking Reagan

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has a reputation as one of the liberal/progressive media’s hardest-hitting truth tellers. So last week, we at revcom.us decided to take a close look at a week of her shows. Did she expose this system’s most intolerable outrages—wars of aggression, the oppression of Black and Brown people, the degradation and subjugation of women, the assaults on immigrants, and the destruction of the environment—the outrages concentrated in the 5 STOPS which are now being greatly intensified by the Trump/Pence regime? ¹

No! She focused your attention away from these outrages. She obscured Trump/Pence fascism. But she did direct your attention to Trump’s connections with Russia, the Mueller investigation, and how Trump is weakening America’s global dominance!

In other words, she spent the week building support for the moves of one faction of the rulers—grouped around the Democrats—to deal with the upheaval caused by Trump’s election and maintain their system, the very system responsible for one horror after another.

On Monday Trump unleashed a racist tirade against the Philadelphia Eagles football players, there are near daily outbursts of open racism against Black and Brown people just for living their lives, and the vitriolic reassertion of white supremacy is at the core of the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist agenda. But Maddow didn’t cover this, and never uttered the words “white supremacy.”

Also on Monday, the Supreme Court made religious bigotry and anti-LGBTQ discrimination the law of the land, and women’s reproductive rights have been under sustained assault. But Maddow didn’t do any segments about those outrages.

The U.S. is now waging wars in at least seven countries, is threatening Iran and may escalate its involvement in Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen, but Maddow’s only mention of recent or current wars was the “information warfare” reportedly waged by Russia in the 2016 election.

Russia, Russia, Russia. Mueller, Mueller, Mueller.

What did Maddow talk about? Out of the 220 minutes she was on air this week, she spent over half her time—123 minutes—talking about Russia! How Russia had interfered in the 2016 election. How Trump allies (and probably Trump) were involved. How Russia was America’s enemy. How Trump is soft on Russia. And how Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is getting to the bottom of this. She mentioned “Russia” more than 79 times; “Manafort” (Trump’s former campaign manager) at least 88 times, and “Mueller” some 44 times. Oh, and the word “fascism”? Never mentioned. Not once.

Compare these 123 minutes on Trump and Russia to the 12 minutes she spent on the barbaric terrorizing of refugee children and their families!

To be fair, Maddow did do two segments on Trump’s EPA head Scott Pruitt. But she didn’t expose him for criminally accelerating the global environmental crisis threatening humanity’s future; she went after him for using his office for personal gain. “He’s about as swampy as you get,” she said, turning this existential threat to humanity into an opportunity to jab at Trump for not delivering on his promise to drain the swamp! (What, it would be good or justifiable if Trump did deliver on his fascist promises?)

Is Trump Just a Russian Stooge, or Is He an American Hitler?

What Maddow is doing here is insidious and reactionary!

She’s covering up the ugly white supremacy at the core of American society and how its forcible reassertion is at the core of the Trump/Pence fascist agenda. This is what got Trump elected—not Russia, whatever it did or didn’t do in the election—and this is what Trump is doing with his racist tweets, as Bob Avakian details in his talk THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible.

Maddow is peddling one dangerous delusion after another. With one Russia/Mueller related news item after another, delivered with breathless urgency night after night, Maddow is training you to see Trump as a corrupt Russian stooge—and not mainly as the racist, misogynist, xenophobic American Hitler that he is, which is WHY he poses such a danger to humanity. She radiates confidence that Mueller’s investigation is digging up dirt and will surely take care of Trump.² And in segment after segment on the primary elections, she’s promoting the illusion that electing Democrats in November will “change everything in terms of power dynamics on Capitol Hill.” In other words, that “the system is working”; which it is, if by that you mean that it is disarming and confusing people whose better impulses would lead them to uncompromisingly oppose the Trump/Pence regime.

In fact, at most, electing Democrats may result in a few minor changes or reforms, which would come nowhere close to stopping Trump/Pence fascism, much less ending this system’s most devastating nightmares.

The effect of Maddow’s bullshit is to pacify and paralyze people at the very moment they should be filling the streets in outraged protests to stop the consolidation of fascism and demand Trump/Pence Must Go!

For her—and the ruling class liberals in the Democratic Party for whom she basically speaks—opposition to Trump must remain within the confines of what is good for this system. Again, the last thing they want is to uncork the kind of mass political struggle that could actually lead to Trump/Pence being removed from office and lead as well to a process where millions of people are drawn into real political life and to larger questions of what caused this fascism, how is it related to this system we live in, and what must be done to fundamentally change this society.

Is the Problem That Trump Is Squandering America’s Global Dominance?
Or, How Rachel Maddow Longs for Ronald Reagan

In short, Maddow is training you to see the world through the eyes of the predators who run America’s empire, in particular those who see Russia as one of their biggest global rivals. One way she’s doing this is by framing her critique of Trump in terms of whether or not he’s squandering U.S. great-power interests and weakening America’s global dominance! (One of her segments: “Trump seen as threat to Western alliance, likely delighting Putin.”)

Maddow began her Friday night show with a gushing remembrance of a speech Ronald Reagan had given on that date in 1982 to the British Parliament, in particular Reagan’s announcement of a bellicose offensive against the former Soviet Union (by then an imperialist power). Here’s Maddow, waxing eloquent:

This day in 1982 Reagan went on to give an absolutely blistering critique of the USSR. This wasn’t the evil empire speech, but that speech he gave in British Parliament, 1982, was equally as blunt and even as provocative toward Russia. One of the things that Reagan denounced the Soviet Union for in that speech was them giving covert political training and assistance to Marxist-Leninists in countries all over the world. Just went after the USSR. It was a very aggressive speech. But then he announced what amounted to an American counterpunch against Soviet efforts to promote communism around the world. He announced an American-led international effort to promote democracy—small d democracy—around the world.

So we have some questions for Rachel Maddow. Since you praise Ronald Reagan’s “American counterpunch” against the Soviet Union, we’re wondering if you support his murder of 15,000 people in Nicaragua by the Contras (whom Reagan—correctly, in fact—compared to the “founding fathers”) and the slaughter of 150,000 in El Salvador and Guatemala? After all, these were key elements of Reagan’s “counterpunch.” This was in fact part of his promotion of “democracy” as well. How about fomenting and supporting the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in general and Al Qaeda in particular through Reagan’s “counterpunch” in Afghanistan? And what about Reagan taking the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, not just once but repeatedly? Do you support all that? And what about Reagan’s other “achievements,” like refusing to recognize AIDS when thousands were dying, railing against abortion, legitimizing the Christian fascists, and escalating racist terror and mass incarceration in the name of fighting drugs?

Maddow may believe that America SHOULD be the world’s number one imperialist power, that it should adopt a warlike posture towards rivals like Russia, and that political figures should be judged on the basis of how warlike they are in protecting America’s “interests” (interests that mean the grinding up of billions of people in the imperialist machinery every day, including millions of children). Or she may think hitting Trump for being soft on Russia is the most opportune way to build support for the Democrats. But either way, her stance is bankrupt, morally and politically.

After all, suppose Trump—who is nothing if not “improvisatory”—should decide to suddenly oppose Putin and clash with him militarily over Iran, say? Suppose Trump’s negotiations with North Korea go badly wrong—as well they might—and he undertakes to go to war, which would quite likely involve nuclear weapons and quite possibly endanger human life altogether. Would Rachel Maddow even oppose this? And if she even somehow had the impulse to do so, on what basis would anyone listen, after she has so fostered the mindless patriotism that initially kicks in whenever one of these presidents decides it’s time to go kill in the name of America?

How DO We Stop Trump... and Get to a Radically Different and Far Better World?

It IS in fact extremely urgent—and it is still possible—to drive the vile Trump/Pence fascist regime from power, but that’s going to take breaking out of the Russia-Mueller-Democratic Party narco-stupor Rachel Maddow is peddling night after night, facing the reality that this is American fascism, and joining with others in the great struggle to drive this regime from power through massive, sustained, nonviolent political protest and resistance.

More than that, this imperialist system that Maddow sets you up to celebrate and, yes, fight and die for—this is NOT the best of all possible worlds. Elsewhere in this issue—in Raymond Lotta’s article on empire, in the whole section on American Crime, in other places as well—we go into the history of the system and its underlying dynamics. Particularly in the pieces by Bob Avakian—the film THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, but also here and here you can find out how this system’s dynamics gave rise to this extremely dangerous situation. And still more, you can find out—here and here—how that system could be overthrown and what could replace it.

Look at where Rachel Maddow’s logic has led her, and where she is trying to lead you. Then think about—and get with—the alternative.

1. The 5 STOPS are:
STOP Genocidal Persecution, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality and Murder of Black and Brown People!
STOP The Patriarchal Degradation, Dehumanization, and Subjugation of All Women Everywhere, and All Oppression Based on Gender or Sexual Orientation!
STOP Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!
STOP The Demonization, Criminalization and Deportations of Immigrants and the Militarization of the Border!
STOP Capitalism-Imperialism from Destroying Our Planet!  [back]

2. For why Mueller's investigation isn't the answer, see "While You Were Being Led to Fixate on Pennsylvania’s Election, Trump’s Fascist Juggernaut Barreled Ahead," March 19, 2018, revcom.us. [back]

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/546/scotus-sanctions-bigotry-pride-means-fighting-back-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

As SCOTUS Sanctions Bigotry, Pride Means Fighting Back

by Eva Sahana | Reprinted from CounterPunch

June 9, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The month of Pride should be a time of celebrating love, sharing our beautiful differences and embracing our shared humanity. Yet today the Supreme Court issued a ruling that targets and dehumanizes LGBTQ people, preventing us from living our lives free from discrimination and hatred. We’ve lost the right to buy wedding cakes, soon we’ll lose our right to healthcare, and untold horrors will come for us—and millions more around the world—if this continues. I’m not going to be forced into the shadows, so I am PROUD to share that I’m pansexual and wouldn’t want to be any other way.

Growing up Catholic, I was taught that homosexuality was a grave sin, a disgusting transgression, an unnatural and harmful phenomenon. And I really believed this. As a young teenager, as I found myself developing a crush on a girl in my geometry class, I started internalizing this homophobia. I truly, fiercely hated myself for feeling the way I did, never told anyone the truth, and constantly lied to myself, hoping I could “pray the gay away.” Changing this self-hatred and pain took years of questioning and challenging myself, breaking from that oppressive religion entirely, and opening my eyes to the reality: human beings are diverse and beautiful in so many ways, and my life would fall so short if I didn’t wake up and appreciate the captivating world before me.

As I’ve grown and transformed, I have loved people of all genders, and I’ve been so grateful to be surrounded by a small community of people who love and support me for who I am, and who respect all people, regardless of differences. But I’ve come to see that homophobia and anti-LGBTQ bigotry are lurking around every corner—from those who openly slander and shame us, to those who are silent when we’re denied our humanity.

In the Handmaids Tale, as the show sheds light on the process of Christian fascism consolidating power, a character named Emily tells another professor, “They can’t scare us back into the closet.” But they did. And if we don’t stop the fascists targeting us, they can do that here. These vile ideas aren’t just some old bigots’ opinions: they’re enforced by the most powerful military/police state on the planet. We know that police all over the country target people of color and LGBTQ people, and we remember Roxana Hernandez, a Honduran trans woman who recently died in ICE custody at the border. Pride itself originated as a righteous retaliation against police brutality. And now, the Trump/Pence regime is using the court to ramp up state-sanctioned bigotry across the country, while unleashing storm troopers on the ground to terrorize us. If they continue on this trajectory, dehumanizing us and stripping away our rights and protections, the horrors that could come down on us are almost unimaginable.

When we won the right to marry those we love, lots of us thought things would keep getting better. But they’re becoming so much worse, so much more dangerous than most currently realize. The recent Supreme Court ruling legalizes bigotry under the guise of “freedom of religion”, which has come to mean freedom to discriminate. At the same time, the Trump/Pence regime has a plan to revoke an Obama-era rule that prevented doctors from refusing healthcare to transgender people. When asked about gay people, Trump “joked” that Pence—who supports torturous “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ children—wants to hang them all. Meanwhile, they’re tearing hundreds of children from the arms of their parents at the border, and decimating all of Yemen—leaving a million with cholera and 18 million starving. How much worse can it get? I don’t want to find out.

This is why I’m part of a movement that doesn’t rely on the people in power to save us; they won’t. But there are so many of us on the right side of history—people we sit next to on the train, the guys at our bodegas, the old woman in the park, the kids playing on the basketball court—who share our outrage and our pain, who don’t want to see what happens next. I’m calling on everyone who feels moved to act to join the organization Refuse Fascism as we work to bring millions of us together in the streets to end this nightmare and drive out Trump, Pence, and all of the other anti-LGBTQ, pro-war, extremely racist, misogynistic, fascist members of their regime. Building this movement is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but in the face of genocide, nuclear war, and the devastation of our amazing planet, nothing could be more meaningful.

Remember that Pride has always been about resistance! Let’s make this one count.

Eva Sahana is a volunteer on the New York City steering committee of RefuseFascism.org. She is dedicated to driving out the Trump/Pence regime through mass, nonviolent resistance in the streets. Contact her at evasahana7@gmail.com.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/546/five-things-you-need-to-know-in-light-of-the-upcoming-supreme-court-abortion-case-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Five Things You Need to Know in Light of the Upcoming Supreme Court Abortion Case

by Sunsara Taylor

June 9, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A decision is expected soon from the U.S. Supreme Court on a challenge to a 2015 California law that requires anti-abortion fake clinics (so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”) to disclose that they are not medically certified. The law also requires all licensed clinics that provide ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, and advice on birth control to post information about affordable abortion and contraception services offered by the state. The Supreme Court case, called NIFLA vs. Becerra, is the result of a challenge from the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, who claim that the government is violating their “right to free speech” by requiring them to promote medical services they do not approve of, namely abortion.

Here are five things you need to know about this case and the overall attack on abortion it is part of.

1. Fake Clinics Exist to Coerce Women and Girls to Bear Children Against Their Will

There are close to 4,000 fake clinics (so-called “Pregnancy Crisis Centers”) around the country. There are only 780 real abortion providers!

These fake clinics have been set up with only one purpose: to lure vulnerable women and girls for whom pregnancy is a “crisis” into what appears to be a supportive medical clinic, only to be plied with coercive anti-abortion shaming—and very frequently bald-faced LIES—aimed at pressuring them to bear children against their will. They do this even if the women come in looking for an abortion, even if they are in abusive relationships, even if they have no ability to support a child and don’t want one. These “clinics” are completely illegitimate, predatory, and ought to be shut down.

2. Being Prevented From Systematically LYING to Women to Deprive Them of a Basic and Fundamental Right Is NOT a Violation of “Free Speech”

Just as it is not a violation of the First Amendment for the government to regulate the labels on food products or what a lawyer must tell a client about their rights, it is not a violation for the government to regulate information provided by “Crisis Pregnancy Centers.” These regulations are not restrictions on speech, because they are required for the protection of the rights of the people being spoken to.

The right of women to decide for themselves when and whether to bear children is at the core of whether women are considered fully human. Without reproductive freedom, women cannot enter freely and fully into all realms of society.

3. This Lawsuit Is Just the Tip of a Theocratic Fascist Remaking of All of Society

This lawsuit is just the latest of a growing tsunami of Christian fascist assaults seeking—and succeeding in—twisting the law into an instrument of a Dark Ages theocracy. As revealed by Katherine Stewart in a recent New York Times op-ed, there are now “more than 70 bills before state legislatures” as part of a nationwide legal blitz by extreme Christian nationalists. Meanwhile, Trump has appointed a record number of federal judges. One of Trump’s judicial nominees said trans children are part of “Satan’s plan.” A judge Trump appointed compared abortion to slavery. Many reject the science of climate change. One championed laws that were later overturned for suppressing the African American vote with “surgical precision.” This means that the federal courts that hear this tsunami of legal challenges will be even more hostile than what exists now to women, LGBTQ people, Black people, science, and to the separation of church and state.

4. There Is No Legislative Path to Stopping This Juggernaut—The Regime Must Be Driven From Power

The 2015 California law that requires fake clinics to disclose their lack of medical licenses is part of a relatively new strategy among the pro-choice movement to pass legislation aimed at protecting the rights of women.

But while these laws are just, the larger picture is clear: abortion continues to be increasingly more difficult to access, more dangerous to provide, and more stigmatized than ever. Clinics are being forced to close. Women are being forced to go to desperate measures to secure abortions—often traveling hundreds of miles, going deep into debt, enduring sexual degradation to come up with the funds, losing their jobs, and more. Many are simply being forced to have children against their will. Meanwhile, Christian fascists are using every branch of government to lock into place a Dark Ages theocracy that chokes off what few rights remain.

Only through massive and sustained political struggle that steps outside the bounds of politics-as-usual and reverses this whole direction can this assault be stopped. Right now, this means joining with RefuseFascism.org in getting prepared to launch the kind of sustained massive nonviolent movement of protests that can drive the whole fascist Trump/Pence regime from power.

5. We Do NOT Need to Live This Way—We Need to Get Organized for an Actual Revolution!

Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the RCP

Do you know anyone else—any person or organization—that has managed to bring forth an actual PLAN for a radically different society, in all its dimensions, and a CONSTITUTION to codify all this? — A different world IS possible — Check out and order online the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).

A system that puts the lives of half of humanity up for debate, a system that legislates and mandates Dark Ages ignorance and enslavement, a system that has brought forward the vile misogyny and disdain for humanity that is concentrated in the Trump/Pence regime, a system that sanctions all this with so-called “legitimacy” of its laws and its courts is a completely illegitimate system. It is also completely unnecessary. The very fact that these filthy fundamentalist predators have to peddle LIES and shame women and hound abortion providers and the rest reveals that oppression of women is something that must be enforced—and this system will keep on enforcing it until it is overthrown and cleared away and replaced by a radically new system.

A blueprint for this new, and much better, system is embodied in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, the architect of the new communism. This new economic system, the new social relations it will foster, and the whole new legal and political system that will guide it will be a revolutionary framework that not only guarantees women’s full reproductive freedom starting Day 1, but goes to work at digging up the roots of all forms of misogyny and patriarchy as a key part of emancipating all of humanity all over the world. This is what all those who hate what is being hammered down by these fascists need to join with and make real.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/memo-to-the-lying-racist-and-hypocrite-in-chief-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Memo to the Lying-Racist-&-Hypocrite-in-Chief:

Trump is now trying to make a big deal out of offering a "pardon" to Muhammad Ali

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Number One: In no way, shape, or form does Muhammad Ali need your pardon. You have the blood of Black people dripping from your jaws and now you want to pose as some kind of savior? You insult and demonize those who stand up, you attack and threaten Black communities around the country, you step up and rev up the whole racist program of mass incarceration, you gut even the paltry laws and measures that have been taken against discrimination in every sphere of government, and you think this is gonna cover that up.

Listen, fool: Muhammad Ali fought his case to the Supreme Court—and backed by the public opinion of the world at large, and Black and young people in the U.S. in particular, who supported his righteous refusal to fight for imperialism—he won a unanimous reversal of his conviction. And contrary to your moronic remarks, Ali was not “unpopular”—except with the backward racist chumps of the day like yourself (then and now).

Number Two: When he refused induction, Muhammad Ali said the following:

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

The thrust of Ali’s statement was righteous. Today you, Trump, viciously attack, blackball, and threaten those athletes who dare to take up Ali’s spirit and speak out in protest. What disgusting hypocrisy for you to now try to steal Ali’s mantle!

But you knew that, right? Your real point and purpose was never about “justice denied” but misdirection, confusion, and deception in the service of white supremacy and imperialist chauvinism. Nobody should fall for it.

Number Three: By the way, Trump—or really, NOT so by the way—given what a lying racist sack of shit you are, it should not be surprising that you STILL claim that the Central Park 5 were guilty, despite having had their convictions long since overturned in court after serving long years in prison for a crime they never committed. And let people remember very clearly now that at the time of their trial—as juveniles—you demanded the death penalty for these wrongly accused and railroaded Black and Latino teenagers.

How is it acceptable for someone like this to still be ruling from White House? Is it not time, and past time, to drive him out with massive nonviolent political action?

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/american-crime-case-39-the-palmer-raids-of-1919-1920-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Case #39: The Palmer Raids of 1919-1920

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Bob Avakian has written that one of three things that has “to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better: People have to fully confront the actual history of this country and its role in the world up to today, and the terrible consequences of this.” (See “3 Things that have to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better.”)

In that light, and in that spirit, “American Crime” is a regular feature of revcom.us. Each installment focuses on one of the 100 worst crimes committed by the U.S. rulers—out of countless bloody crimes they have carried out against people around the world, from the founding of the U.S. to the present day.

THE CRIME

In the wake of the 1917 Russian Revolution and following World War 1, revolutionary movements and organizations spread throughout the world, including in the U.S. Beginning November 1919 and continuing into 1920, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched the Palmer Raids: massive raids targeting immigrants, communists, socialists, radicals, and anarchists. Their stated targets were “the Reds”—anyone suspected of sympathy with the Russian revolution or membership in any communist or anarchist organization.

As federal agents flooded into meeting places, workplaces, and homes across the country, they viciously beat and arrested everyone they found. Raids were carried out in more than 50 cities. There are no official statistics of numbers of people rounded up in these raids, but estimates range from 4,000 to 10,000.¹ The raids were led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover (later the FBI director). These raids represented a major escalation of the government’s repressive apparatus and took place in the midst of the “Red Scare,” a campaign to whip up mass hysteria, hatred and violence directed at immigrants, revolutionaries, and radicals.

Although there was no legal basis for most arrests, and most people arrested were later released, many people were deported and many more were held for months without charges. People were beaten and tortured, lives were ruined, and families were torn apart.

One arrested person later said:

[W]hile I was teaching [a class in] algebra and Russian, an agent of the Department of Justice opened the door of the school, walked in with a revolver in his hands and ordered everybody in the school to step aside; then ordered me to step towards him. I wear eye-glasses and the agent of the Department of Justice ordered me to take them off. Then without any provocation, struck me on the head and simultaneously two others struck and beat me brutally. After I was beaten and without strength to stand on my feet, I was thrown down stairs and while I rolled down, other men, I presume also agents of the Department of Justice, beat me with pieces of wood which I later found out were obtained by breaking the banisters. I sustained a fracture of my head, left shoulder, left foot, and right side.²

When the U.S. entered World War 1 in April 1917, the Espionage Act was introduced into Congress and enacted within two months. This act prohibited interference with military operations or recruitment, insubordination in the military, and support of U.S. enemies during wartime, and it was specifically used to stop opposition to the war and other radical activity.

The Espionage Act was amended in May 1918 with the Sedition Act, which specifically prohibited many forms of speech, including “any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States ... or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy.” This was followed by the Immigration Act of 1918, which laid out broad “offenses” that would be cause for deportation of “aliens,” including membership in or affiliation with any anarchist organization or organization advocating the overthrow of the government.

The government used this group of laws to carry out massive arrests of antiwar and radical activists during the war, to attack radical organizations and, through banning use of the postal system, to shut down many radical newspapers like The Masses that had been major voices against the war. The Espionage Act was upheld by the Supreme Court in March 1919 and established a precedent of “clear and present danger” to the government as the basis to suppress free speech.

In June 1919, Palmer established the Radical Division under J. Edgar Hoover. By the end of 1919, this division had reportedly collected 60,000 names of people “under suspicion,” and the stage was set for the Palmer Raids.

Led by Palmer and Hoover, the DOJ carried out the first of the raids on November 7-8, 1919—consciously set to start on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The raids were carried out in over 15 cities and were aimed at the Union of Russian Workers and Russian immigrants generally. One of the raids was at the Russian Peoples House in New York, a community center for Russian immigrants where the Union of Russian Workers had a small office. The building was ransacked, and everyone in the building was rounded up, beaten, thrown down stairs, and detained. Most had no connection to the Union of Russian Workers, which had become mainly a social organization for Russian immigrants. Several different people gave accounts of the brutality of their ordeals:

I was struck on my head, and ... was attacked by one detective, who knocked me down again, sat on my back, pressing me down to the floor with his knee and bending my body back until blood flowed out of my mouth and nose.

They took me to a room in the basement of the jail with a cement floor, cement walls and an iron door. The room was pitch dark, and the only means for lighting or ventilating it ... was a small hole in the door. The floor of this room was hot and the walls were very warm to the touch. I stayed in this room for thirty-six hours.... I was given one glass of water and one slice of bread.... Since my release ... I have been unable to secure employment, being informed wherever I apply and state my record that persons under suspicion of being bolsheviks³ are not desired.

I ... applied for a pass to see a friend, Mike Lozuk, who was arrested on the 8th day of November, 1919, at a meeting place of Russians in Bridgeport [Connecticut]. ... As soon as I appeared ... I was searched and immediately put under arrest and questioned by an agent of the Department Of Justice. Six men, I presume agents of the Department Of Justice, questioned me and threatened to hang me if I do not tell them the truth. In one instance, an agent ... brought a rope and tied it around my neck, stating that he will hang me immediately if I do not tell him who conducts the meetings and who are the main workers in an organization called the Union of Russian Workers. This inquisition lasted fully three hours, after which I was again threatened to be put into a gas-room and suffocated unless I gave more particulars about other men in the Union of Russian Workers.

The major newspapers, tipped off in advance by Palmer’s agents to promote Red Scare propaganda, sent reporters to cover the raid. According to a New York World report, after the raid, the building looked “as if a bomb had exploded in each room.”⁴ By the next morning, Hoover had sent reports of the raid to newspapers across the country, leading to headlines such as: “REDS HAD PLANNED TO BOMB FIFTH AVE. STORES” and “PLOT TO KILL HIGH OFFICIALS, TAKE PROPERTY, END RELIGION.”⁵

While information on mass opposition to the raids is difficult to find, according to Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice (issued by a group of people in the legal arena in May 1920), a mass meeting of protest was held the day after the November 7 raids in New York at Madison Square Garden.⁶

The second round of the Palmer Raids was aimed at the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party, where the DOJ had undercover agents. These agents were instructed to organize meetings on the night of January 2, 1920, so the raids could round up as many people as possible and records could be seized at the same time.⁷ Raids were carried out in at least 33 cities and dozens of small towns.⁸

Those arrested in the raids were tortured, beaten, subjected to public humiliation, and, in Boston, paraded through streets in chains. Some were held for months without charges in solitary confinement or with little food, no sanitation, and no medical care.⁹

The Report Upon the Illegal Practices describes the raids in the city of Detroit on January 2, 1920 in which 800 people were arrested in raids on the headquarters of the Communist Party and other locations. They were imprisoned for three to six days in a dark, windowless, narrow corridor in the city’s Federal Building, with one water fountain, one toilet, no food for 24 hours, and no communication with family or attorneys. They were “so closely packed that they had to step over one another’s bodies to move about at all.” Three months later, there were still 450 people held.¹⁰

After the January 1920 raids, the Department of Justice sent out form letters, cartoons, and other propaganda material to newspapers across the country to be used by the press to create public opinion in support of this repression.¹¹

To protect their undercover agents, the DOJ relied on getting people who had been arrested to confess to being communists or anarchists or to name other people. This was undercut by an article which had been printed in many radical publications in October 1919. This article popularized the right to an attorney for immigrants caught up in raids, and also advised people to say nothing to authorities when arrested.¹² Prior to the 1920 raids, DOJ rules said that arrested persons were supposed to have the right to a lawyer at the beginning of their arrest. Just three days before the 1920 raids, the rule was changed so legal representation did not have to be provided until “later” in the arrest process.¹³

While the Espionage, Sedition, and Immigration Acts provided a legal framework for the raids, the DOJ actually had no legal authority to carry out raids and roundups of people for deportation. The official legal authority for enforcing immigration laws and issuing arrest warrants for deportation belonged to the Labor Department. But DOJ agents arrested thousands of people without warrants. In fact, DOJ agents were instructed to telegraph Hoover to obtain warrants from the Labor Department for individuals after they were arrested.^14,15

As the violence and extralegal acts committed during the raids became widely known, there was opposition even from elements of the ruling class. In May 1920 a group of prominent lawyers, judges, and law professors signed and published the Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice. The authors clearly stated where they stood and what worried them: “We make no argument in favor of any radical doctrine as such, whether Socialist, Communist or Anarchist. No one of us belongs to any of these schools of thought.... No organizations of radicals acting through propaganda over the last six months could have created as much revolutionary sentiment in America as has been created by the acts of the Department of Justice itself.”¹⁶

The report exposed illegal and unconstitutional acts that the DOJ had committed in the raids in violation of democratic and civil rights. It reprinted instructions given to DOJ agents to set up meetings on the date of the January 2 raids and reproduced propaganda pieces the DOJ sent to the press. Principally, it reproduced firsthand accounts of people arrested and violently treated in the raids. The report documented six ways the DOJ violated the U.S. Constitution in the raids: 1) cruel and unusual punishments; 2) arrests without warrant; 3) unreasonable searches and seizures; 4) use of undercover “agents provocateurs” (agents who incite others to engage in illegal activity); 5) compelling persons to be witnesses against themselves; 6) propaganda by the Department of Justice.

THE CRIMINALS

A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General from 1919 to 1921, was the architect of the brutal raids in November 1919 and January 1920. Palmer came into office as a liberal Democrat—he supported women’s right to vote and workers’ right to strike, and he released some people previously arrested under the Espionage Act. After a string of bombings in spring 1919 attributed to anarchists, Palmer, acting on behalf of the ruling class, went after everyone considered to be a communist, anarchist, socialist, or other radical with a vengeance. He later blamed Congress for not acting quickly enough against “the Reds” and, after the raids, stated, “I apologize for nothing that the Department of Justice has done in this matter. I glory in it.”¹⁷

Edgar Hoover was appointed in 1919 by Palmer to head the Radical Division of the General Intelligence Unit, whose goal was to monitor and disrupt the work of domestic radicals. Hoover played a prominent role in organizing and orchestrating the Palmer Raids and their aftermath. He manipulated the press to create public opinion by feeding propaganda and press releases before, during, and after the raids. Hoover became the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), established not long after the Palmer Raids. He remained FBI director and continued the mission of going after communists until his death, attacking progressive and radical causes and people, including the vicious repression done under COINTELPRO in the 1960s and 1970s. (See American Crime series on FBI-Chicago police assassination of Fred Hampton, FBI-COINTELPRO targeting of the Black freedom struggle and COINTELPRO-FBI targeting of the New Left.)

Woodrow Wilson. As U.S. president, Wilson held ultimate responsibility for the actions of the Justice Department and the Palmer Raids. In the 1916 presidential campaign, he urged that legislation be passed against people who displayed disloyal behavior and said that they had no right to civil liberties because of their behavior: “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him [referring to German-American, Italian-American, etc.] carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic.”¹⁸ He sent 13,000 troops into Russia after the revolution there to intervene in the civil war with the intention of destroying the socialist revolution and of dragging Russia back into World War 1. During World War 1 he established the Alien Enemy Bureau in the Department of Justice to arrest and jail allegedly disloyal foreigners without trial. He pushed through Congress the Espionage, Sedition, and Immigration Acts, which broadened the criteria for deportation.

The media was a major factor in whipping up anti-immigrant, anti-radical and anti-Russian Revolution sentiment. The press enthusiastically and prominently published propaganda from the DOJ that incited public opinion against communists, radicals, and immigrants.

THE ALIBI

In the immediate post-World War 1 period, the U.S. was wracked by a tremendous amount of upheaval in response to rampant inflation and the lack of jobs for veterans returning from the war. 1919 saw major strikes in the steel, coal, and meat-packing industries as well as hundreds of strikes throughout the country. Almost four million people were on strike in 1919, and there was an average of 200 strikes per month. Early January 1919 saw a general strike in Seattle of 60,000 workers which paralyzed the city’s normal services for about a week. The nationwide U.S. Steel strike of September 1919 involved over 365,000. Historians describe this upheaval as raising new demands and revolutionary language inspired by the Russian Revolution.¹⁹

The summer and early fall of 1919 also saw more than two dozen Black communities targeted by vigilante attacks by white mobs. For the first time, the press acknowledged Black people’s resistance in fighting back against these attacks, and at the same time tried to demonize the resistance—for example, a headline in Chicago read: “Reds Try to Stir Negroes to Revolt.”²⁰

As all this was going on, in May and June 1919, there were attempted and actual bombings, attributed to anarchists, at the homes of several prominent capitalists and government officials, including Palmer. These bombings became a nodal point in ratcheting up the propaganda war to whip up “anti-red” and anti-immigrant sentiment. A headline in the New York Times on June 8, 1919 declared: “RUSSIAN REDS ARE BUSY HERE—Workers’ Union Has 500 Agents Spreading Bolshevism in the United States.”

During the period following World War 1 and the victory of the 1917 Russian revolution, speeches from the highest levels of government and editorials and articles in the press charged immigrants, labor radicals, communists, socialists, and anarchists with plans to overthrow the government by force in the near future. Immigrants were especially demonized and targeted as threats to the U.S. The government used the anarchist bombings of 1919 to create public opinion and justification for the raids, even though the raids targeted a wide spectrum of people, not just anarchists.

Palmer justified the raids in an essay he wrote in February 1920, “The Case Against the ‘Reds’”:

Like a prairie-fire, the blaze of revolution was sweeping over every American institution of law and order.... It was eating its way into the homes of the American workman, its sharp tongues of revolutionary heat were licking the altars of the churches, leaping into the belfry of the school bell, crawling into the sacred corners of American homes, seeking to replace marriage vows with libertine laws, burning up the foundations of society.

In a December 1915 address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson stated in part:

There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our Government into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought it effective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue.... I urge you to enact such laws at the earliest possible moment and feel that in doing so I am urging you to do nothing less than save the honor and self-respect of the nation. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out.”²¹

THE ACTUAL MOTIVE

The early 1900s were marked by tremendous labor unrest and massive radical and antiwar activity in the U.S. Many working people, including many immigrants, were followers of socialist, communist, or anarchist parties. While the U.S. emerged from World War 1 as a rising imperialist power, the most significant change in the world following World War 1 was the Russian Revolution—the first time in history that a communist revolution had triumphed anywhere in the world. In the wake of this revolution, radical and revolutionary sentiment grew even stronger in large parts of the world as well as in the U.S. The growth of revolutionary movements in many countries, the widespread wave of support for revolution and the influence of revolutionary ideas sent fear of revolt and revolution into the rulers of every capitalist country.

As a major imperialist power, the U.S. rulers could not allow the spread and growing influence of communism. The federal government needed and began to forge a centralized repressive apparatus. The Palmer Raids, along with suppression of dissent, violation of constitutional rights, illegal arrests, and widespread propaganda against “un-American” activity and ideas, were all part of the campaign to consolidate this apparatus and crush communist and radical opposition.

REPEAT OFFENDERS

The legal basis for the Palmer Raids, the Espionage Act, is still in effect and being used. Daniel Ellsberg was indicted under the Espionage Act for release of the Pentagon papers. It has been used, or threatened to be used, against Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Reality Winner, among others.

Key Sources:

Books

Ackerman, Kenneth D., The Young J Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties, Carroll & Graf, 2007.

Hoyt, Edwin P., The Palmer Raids 1919-1920: An Attempt to Suppress Dissent, The Seabury Press, 1969.

Preston Jr., William, Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933, 2nd edition, University of Illinois Press, 1994.

Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, The National Popular Government League, May 1920.

Articles

“Espionage Act of 1917,” Wikipedia.org

“The Case Against the Reds,” A. Mitchell Palmer, The Forum, February 1920

 

---

1. The only official numbers released on numbers of people rounded up were released by the Department of Justice as of midnight January 2, 1920: 2,585, citing numbers by city and/or state. One source estimates up to 5,000 rounded up in that January raid. No additional official statistics were ever released for either the November or January raids. No solid numbers are available for the November raids other than 211 seized in New York at the Russian Peoples House, all but 38 being released by morning, and as many as 1,000 were seized the following day, with most released without charge. U.S. Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana claimed that 10,000 people were rounded up. And some sources state that 6,500 people were ultimately released without any charges.  [back]

2. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, The National Popular Government League, May 1920. All firsthand accounts from the raids are drawn from this report.  [back]

3. “Bolsheviks” refers to the Bolshevik Party, led by V.I. Lenin, who led the victorious Russian Revolution in 1917.  [back]

4. Ackerman, Kenneth D., The Young J Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties, Carroll & Graf, 2007, p.116.  [back]

5. Ackerman, p.121.  [back]

6. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, p.18.  [back]

7. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, pp.39-40.  [back]

8. Ackerman, p.180.  [back]

9. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, Affidavits 1-1c, 2-2f, 5a, 5b and 9.  [back]

10. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, pp.22-23.  [back]

11. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, p.66.  [back]

12. Preston Jr., William. Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903-1933. 2nd edition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. pp.214-215.  [back]

13. Preston, pp.212-217.  [back]

14. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice, p.44.  [back]

15. Preston, pp.210-211. There was no Immigration Department or ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in 1919. A. Mitchell Palmer himself, in “The Case Against the ‘Reds’” (The Forum February 1920, p.4) defends how the DOJ and the Department of Labor came to work together illegally:

Although this law [Immigration Act of 1918] is entirely under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, it seemed to be the only means at my disposal of attacking the radical movement. To further this plan, as Congress had seen fit to refuse appropriations to the Department of Labor which might have enabled it to act vigorously against the “Reds,” I offered to cooperate with the immigration officials to the fullest extent. My appropriation became available July 19, 1919. I then organized what is known as the Radical Division [headed by Hoover].  [back]

16. Report Upon the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice pp.3-4.  [back]

17. Hoyt, Edwin P., The Palmer Raids 1919-1920: An Attempt to Suppress Dissent, The Seabury Press, 1969, p.55.  [back]

18. Schmidt, Regin, Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943, Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2000, p.74.  [back]

19. PBS film American Experience: The Bombing of Wall Street, 2018.  [back]

20. “First Red Scare,” Wikipedia.org.  [back]

21. “Espionage Act of 1917,” Wikipedia.org.  [back]

 

 

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/200-armed-federal-agents-and-police-terrorize-immigrant-workers-in-ohio-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

200 Armed Federal Agents and Police Terrorize Immigrant Workers in Ohio

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On June 5, in the largest workplace raid in over a decade, 200 heavily armed immigration agents and other police carried out a terrorist raid on over 300 immigrants, mostly from Mexico, at a flower and nursery center in Sandusky, Ohio. Some of the agents and police were armed with AR-15 automatic rifles, and some wore bulletproof vests, and they came with canine units and a helicopter hovering overhead. Like Nazi storm troopers, they grabbed, cuffed, and searched everyone, eventually taking 114 workers away in buses to a detention center. Some were scheduled to be deported that day; others are threatened with multiple felonies—including aggravated identity theft and impersonation of U.S. persons.

One Mexican man who works at the center with his daughter described the scene:

They were very, very rough.... A bunch of cops came running into the warehouses, pointing guns at people. Everybody was scared. They tied everybody’s hands up with black zip ties. Even we (my daughter and I) were tied up even though we’re U.S. citizens.... But it doesn’t matter where you are or who you are or where you are from. We are supposed to be treated like humans. We shouldn’t be treated like animals. Everybody was running, and they were throwing dogs on the people and pointing guns. That’s ridiculous. That’s too much. (Emphasis added.)

He said that when people tried to take pictures and videos with their phones, the police “started pointing their guns at us again” and took phones away. What scared him the most was when he and his daughter were separated; all he could think about was the young Guatemalan woman shot in the head by an agent at the south Texas border two weeks earlier. Dozens of children of people who were seized were left stranded at day-care centers or with babysitters. The trailer park where hundreds of Mexican workers’ families lived for years soon became a ghost town, with so many families having fled. The Trump/Pence regime has again shown utter depravity toward human beings they demonize as “criminals” and “animals.”

The acting director of ICE announced last year that 2018 would see four to five times as many workplace raids as in the past. They kicked off their offensive in January by raiding 98 7-11 stores around the country and making 21 arrests. Another highly publicized raid was carried out two months ago at a meat processing plant in Tennessee, with 97 arrests. These raids are meant to send a message to businesses to stop hiring undocumented workers. And to the immigrants, a different message is being delivered: Even your ability to work to support yourselves and your families—here and in your homeland—is under threat.

Day by day, the Trump/Pence regime is increasing its threats and terror toward immigrants. Their poisonous propaganda that immigrants are a danger to the country is aimed at whipping up hatred that is putting immigrants in intensifying danger—and isolating them so these fascists can commit greater crimes against them without broad outrage. There is mounting fear among immigrants that their children could be snatched away while they are at work or while their children are at school.

These vicious anti-immigrant attacks are a key link and battering ram in the Trump/Pence regime’s moves toward consolidating fascist rule. “Making America White Again,” the real underlying meaning of "MAGA," the rallying cry mobilizing tens of millions of Trump’s white supremacist supporters, goes hand in hand with their message on undocumented immigrants—and really, ALL immigrants of darker skin: “You are NOT Americans, you don’t belong here—expect to be treated that way.” This is a program of ethnic cleansing: aiming to deport immigrants in record numbers; creating an atmosphere so ugly that others will be convinced to leave; and increasing the dangers facing those seeking to come to this country across the southern border.

Remaining silent or relying on the system itself to do the right thing, as the fascists march ahead in this monstrous direction, is complicity in crimes against humanity. This fascist regime must be STOPPED, it must be DRIVEN OUT—with our sights set on nothing less than a world that welcomes people regardless of their place of birth!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/546/scotus-ruling-colorado-cake-shop-case-is-major-step-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in the Colorado Cake Shop Case Is a Major Step in Embedding Anti-LGBTQ Bigotry into Law

This Outrage Is Intolerable—It Cannot Be Allowed to Stand!

June 4, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On Monday, the “highest court of the land” gave official endorsement to bigotry and hate against LGBTQ people. In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado cake shop owner who had refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, in violation of a state law barring discrimination based on “race, sex, marital status or sexual orientation.”

Six years ago, David Mullins and Charlie Craig went to a baker in a Denver suburb to order a wedding cake for a party they were planning in celebration of their marriage. The Christian fundamentalist owner of the bakery, Jack Phillips, outright refused, saying that making a cake for a gay couple would violate his “religious beliefs.” Mullins and Craig filed a successful complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, beginning a legal battle that has now culminated with the Supreme Court ruling on Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

In his majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy declared that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had acted with what he described as “clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs that motivated” Phillips. Kennedy aimed particular fire at one commission member, quoting the commissioner saying, in part, “Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the holocaust...we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination.”

What does it say that in the year 2018, the overwhelming majority of the U.S. Supreme Court harshly attacks a true and indisputable statement about how religion has been used to justify immense horrors (see, for example, in relation to slavery in the U.S., Bob Avakian’s Away With All Gods!, in particular the section “The Bible Belt Is the Lynching Belt: Slavery, White Supremacy and Religion in America”)—while praising a hateful fundamentalist bigot for his “sincere religious beliefs”?!

It points to the fact that the upholding of “traditional family values”—with the subjugation of women, persecution of LGBTQ people, and other oppression that come with it—has been and continues to be an integral part of the system we live under, the system of capitalism-imperialism. Time’s up for this thoroughly rotten and monstrous system—it needs to be overthrown through an actual revolution!

And now, this system has brought forth a fascist regime that includes, as a key component, representatives of a powerful Christian fascist movement that has been working for decades to achieve their vision of re-cohering society under draconian religious fundamentalist norms and morality, including open demonization and persecution of LGBTQ people and Handmaid’s Tale-like clamping down on women. They have their sights on building an American theocracy—an undisguised white Christian nation with laws based on a literalist reading of the Bible, along with an aggressive, nuclear-armed “manifest destiny” imperialism around the world. If the Trump/Pence regime is allowed to succeed in consolidating its rule, this would bring unimaginably greater horrors down on humanity than what the U.S. empire has already carried out since it came on the world stage.

The Supreme Court’s cake shop ruling included some words claiming to reaffirm gay rights protections. If anyone is consoled and given hope by this, taking it as a sign that “maybe we can continue to rely on the system to do right”—that is a dangerous illusion. Look at what has been happening: The Trump/Pence regime has taken steps to legitimize discrimination against transgender people. Trump "joked" that Pence wants to hang all gay people. A Department of Justice lawyer argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prevent an employer from firing someone because of their sexual orientation. A Trump nominee for a federal judgeship is on record as saying, “Guess what? I attend a conservative Baptist church. We discriminate, all right. On the basis of sexual orientation, we discriminate.”

In the Supreme Court cake shop case, the Trump/Pence regime filed a brief for Phillips, stating that “Forcing Phillips to create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs invades his First Amendment rights.” And now, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision that embeds anti-LGBTQ ignorance and prejudices into law, enforced by the state. The implications of this decision are far reaching and ominous. It could open the floodgates to all kinds of state-sanctioned discrimination against LGBTQ people, using religion and “free speech” as justifications—and it is a green light to stepped-up anti-LGBTQ discrimination and violence throughout society. The same anti-LGBTQ laws could also be used to justify vicious and cruel discrimination against Muslims, against people who speak Spanish, against Black people, and others.

All this must not just be opposed—it must be STOPPED!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/supreme-court-says-yes-to-trump-pence-demand-that-immigrant-teens-have-no-right-to-an-abortion-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Supreme Court Ruling Lets Stand Trump/Pence Policy Denying Detained Immigrant Teens the Right to an Abortion

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On June 4, the Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that women are incubators, not full human beings. It said YES to the Trump/Pence Regime’s request to reverse a lower court’s decision to let an undocumented teenager get an abortion.

The 17-year-old, known as Jane Doe, was in an ICE detention camp last year when she found out she was pregnant and adamantly wanted an abortion. Fetuses are not babies, and there was no reason to stop her from getting an abortion. But the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) cited its policy of not “facilitating” abortions for minors in immigration detention, and refused to release and transport Doe to get an abortion. The ORR is headed by Trump-appointed Scott Lloyd, a fanatical Christian fascist, who says he believes immigrant teens in custody have no constitutional right to abortion.

This ominous decision by the Supreme Court will have concrete implications for a whole group of refugee and immigrant women. In 2017, there were at least 420 pregnant unaccompanied minors in custody, including 18 who requested abortions.

The ACLU sued the Trump administration in federal court, challenging the government’s policy, and Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order last October to allow Doe to get an abortion. Chutkan also approved the ACLU’s litigation as a class action suit – which meant her ruling would apply to every undocumented minor in federal custody seeking an abortion. Before the Trump/Pence Regime could file an appeal, Doe got an abortion.

The Supreme Court has now vacated Chutkan’s decision, saying the issue is moot (irrelevant) because Doe got an abortion. Some say this ruling on such a narrow technicality won’t have real impact. But the fact is, the high court did not uphold Chutkan’s decision to let Doe get an abortion. That is what the Trump/Pence Regime wanted, and the ORR’s anti-abortion policy remains in effect.

Even more importantly, this ruling feeds into overall effort to ban abortion. It is part of decades-long (successful) efforts to force abortion clinics to close down in the face of harsh and unreasonable restrictions and a barrage of anti-abortion state laws. All this is being propelled with even more strength under the Trump/Pence Regime, which has appointed antiabortion officials to top positions at the Justice Department, Health and Human Services, and other offices.

The ACLU lawsuit is going forward, but the Trump/Pence Regime is fighting this and could use the Supreme Court decision to argue the suit should have never been approved. The case could end up before the Supreme Court, which has an anti-abortion majority. A Supreme Court ruling against the lawsuit would set an even more dangerous precedent, affecting the lives of all women and girls.

These efforts to outlaw abortion underscore the fact that the subjugation of women has been and continues to be an integral part of the system of capitalism-imperialism. And now, this system has brought forth a fascist regime that includes, as a key component, representatives of a powerful Christian fascist movement that has been working for decades to achieve their vision of re-cohering society under draconian religious fundamentalist norms and morality, including hammering down, even more forcefully, the oppression of women.

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/cheers-to-robert-deniro-for-declaring-fuck-trump-at-the-tonys-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Cheers to Robert De Niro for Declaring "Fuck Trump" at the Tonys

June 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Robert De Niro came on stage at the Tonys on Sunday night and said: "I'm going to say one thing: FUCK TRUMP." He held up both fists through a prolonged cheer. After thunderous applause, a standing ovation, and lots of looks of thrilled shock... he added: “It’s no longer ‘down with trump’ it's FUCK TRUMP.” Cheers to De Niro! We need much, much more of this. We need it in the culture—and we need it in the streets!

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/the-US-has-no-right-to-threaten-Korea-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/ripping-children-away-from-their-parents-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

Permalink: http://revcom.us/a/547/protests-across-country-denounce-cruel-separation-of-immigrant-children-from-parents-en.html

Revolution #547 June 11, 2018

From “The Ripping Away of Children From Their Parents Is a Crime Against Humanity and Must Stop NOW!”: “The outrage against this crime must continue. That outrage must be transformed into actions against this that grow in mass and force until this does STOP. And these actions must be built into a movement to drive this fascist—yes, fascist, face it for what it really is—regime from power.”

Check back at revcom.us for continuing news on the protests.

From large metropolitan areas to smaller cities and towns, people are taking to the streets in righteous outrage and protest against the Trump/Pence regime’s vicious, inhuman policy of tearing immigrant children from their parents.

Below are updates by date.

Wednesday, June 27

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On Wednesday, June 27, anger continued to boil over the torture of migrant children and the threats to lock whole families up in concentration camps, as well as the Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump’s bigoted, xenophobic Muslim Travel Ban. 

Occupy ICE protests that began in Portland, Oregon on June 17, have continued to spread in other cities around the country, including today at the ICE headquarters in Washington, DC. Organizers of the Women’s March have called for non-violent civil disobedience in DC on June 28 against family detentions. At the Northwest Detention Center outside of Tacoma, Washington, protesters are reporting that police have outrageously attacked this non-violent occupation and “noise rally” and are attempting to disperse it.

In Seattle, people gathered at Central College Plaza where RefuseFascism.org activists demanded “NO Muslim Ban, NO Concentration Camps—Refuse a Fascist America!” In Baltimore, people went to city hall to stand with Muslims and immigrants and demand: #NoMuslimBanEver.

"Shut down ICE!" rang out this afternoon between the buildings in front of the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington DC as protester marched in the street. #DetentionisSeparation #KeepFamiliesTogether pic.twitter.com/9dGA5X6AGN

— Lauryn Gutierrez (@GutzyLo) June 27, 2018

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Tuesday, June 26

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Tuesday, June 26: In Los Angeles, ahead of a speech by Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions, members of the clergy blocked the street in front of the U.S. Attorney’s office. They were arrested, handcuffed, and taken away by the police. Later, outside the hotel where Sessions was to give his speech, Associated Press reported that “As the attorney general's motorcade arrived, the crowd chanted, ‘Nazi, go home.’”

In Portland, the occupation of the ICE facilities there continued, with the ICE office still shut down—as continuous protests at ICE facilities in other cities across the country were inspired by the Portland action. The protestors in Portland have removed the U.S. flag from the front of the ICE building and replaced it with a banner saying “Refugees Welcome.” Meanwhile, federal agents gave protestors fliers threatening “arrest and prosecution in federal court” if they continued their blockade.

A profusion of protests has developed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today 1,000 people held a 12-hour protest at the Richmond Detention Center, and a call for 24-hour protests starting June 30 was announced. Protests were held in San Jose, San Francisco, and Concord. At 9 pm a protest and light projection was held at the San Francisco Federal Building against the Supreme Court decision on the Muslim ban.

Clergy in Los Angeles blocked street ahead of Jeff Sessions speech. Photo: Twitter/@cgrey307

 

Light Projection June 26 at San Francisco Federal Building. Photo: special to revcom.us

Light Projection June 26 at San Francisco Federal Building. Photo: special to revcom.us

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Sunday, June 24

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Sunday, June 24: Several hundred people demonstrated in Tornillo, Texas, the site of a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint and a temporary shelter for children who came across the border with no adult or have been taken away from their parents. People chanted, “Free the children now!” Some people drove many miles to attend; some came by plane from places like Milwaukee and Los Angeles. In the crowd were some well-known people, including director/producer Rob Reiner; actors Mira Sorvino, Lena Dunham, and Amber Heard; singer Sia; and co-founder of the United Farm Workers Dolores Huerta. Heard posted an Instagram photo of herself holding a sign that says: “Apartheid was legal. Holocaust was legal. Legality is a matter of power, not justice.”

A hunger strike that started the day before continued near a federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas. Organizers plan to carry out the hunger strike for 24 days—to represent the roughly 2,400 children who have been ripped away from their families at the border. People will fast for 24 hours and then hand off to another protester. Celebrities participating include LeVar Burton, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen.

More than 300 gathered near a Republican representative’s office in Glen Allen, Virginia, to protest the government’s treatment of immigrants. In Detroit, Michigan, protesters began occupying an ICE office and plan to stay 24 hours a day until June 30, the day of nationwide protests against Trump’s war on immigrants. In the second straight day of protests in Verona, Virginia, 250 gathered for a “Stop Torturing Children Rally” outside the center where immigrant children are being held. One protester said he didn’t learn about the rounding up and imprisoning of Japanese Americans until he was out of high school, and, “They’re building internment camps right now. I’m horrified.”

Photo posted on Instagram by Lena Dunham from protest at Tornillo, Texas, June 23. credit: @lenadunham

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Saturday, June 23

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This bus carried immigrant children housed at the McAllen, Texas center. It was obstructed by our protests as we demanded immediate and safe reunification of children with their families. #freethechildren pic.twitter.com/nqprxjhQuX

— Leo Lopez III M.D. (@llopez8121) June 23, 2018

Saturday, June 23: Thousands of people were out in the streets from New York City to San Diego, including “Occupy ICE” actions at ICE facilities inspired by the protesters in Portland, Oregon, whose protests forced a temporary closure of their facility.

In McAllen, Texas, a couple of miles from the border, a rally was going on outside the ICE detention center when a bus transporting immigrants tried to leave. Protesters got in front of the bus to prevent it from moving, formed a human chain and started chanting “Set the children free!”

“Occupy ICE” protesters began camping outside of an ICE office in Manhattan, NYC, to block the loading dock where vans bring immigrants in and out of the building. In downtown Los Angeles, more than 60 people camped overnight in tents outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, and shined lights into the building to let the immigrants detained inside know about the protest. Earlier protesters had tried to block the loading dock area before being pushed back by police.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, at least 300 people protested outside a casino where Trump was attending a fundraiser for a Republican senator and speaking at the Nevada GOP convention. Protesters set up animal kennel cages on the sidewalk—symbolizing the cages immigrant children are being held in. Hundreds rallied near a Homestead, Florida, facility where immigrant children are being held. Protesters chanted, “No baby jails!” in Fort Worth, Texas, where the state Democratic Party convention was going on.

In Tampa Bay, Florida, protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a movie theater, questioning her support of Trump’s immigration policies. This was at least the third time recently protesters confronted Republican officials in public places—including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. About 200 protested in Champaign, Illinois, at a hotel where ICE agents were reportedly staying.

In San Diego, thousands protested outside the Otay Mesa Detention center, waving signs that said, “Abolish ICE,” “Keep families together,” and “Free the kids.” In Chicago a crowd of about 600 people, including many families, marched and rallied protesting Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies. The police began attacking members of the Revolution Club Chicago, who were part of the march, but in the face of opposition from people in the community, the cops backed away (see “At Chicago "March for Families" Against Attacks on Immigrants Revolution Club Attacked AGAIN by Chicago Police”).

Chicago

 

OCCUPY ICE EVERYWHERE ✌️#protest #losangeles #DTLA #ReuniteTheFamilies#KeepFamiliesTogether #AbolishICE #shutdownICE #OccupyICE #occupyICELA #OccupyICEeverywhere #ReuniteFamiliesNow #noICE pic.twitter.com/wvhXtjf49C

— beeimacat (@ldeufel) June 23, 2018

Massive #Indivisible protest in San Diego outside ICE HQ
Crowd chants "No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!" Our beautiful diverse city says NO to Trump's America#FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/pHTTja5Td3

— Indivisible SanDiego (@SDIndivisible) June 23, 2018

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Friday, June 22

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Friday, June 22: In Houston, several hundred people protested outside an immigration center which was being prepared to hold children, demanding it be shut down before children are brought there. Members of Refuse Fascism were there, targeting the Trump/Pence regime as a fascist regime that needs to be driven out through nonviolent mass political protest. In Baltimore, Maryland, CASA de Maryland organized dozens of protesters outside the Ordnance Road Detention Center where immigrants are being held. In downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, people lay down in the street, blocking traffic. Among them were DACA immigrants. Six people were arrested for obstructing traffic.

Houston, TX

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Thursday, June 21

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Thursday, June 21: In Washington, DC, in a protest organized by an interfaith group fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants, dozens of children wrapped in Mylar blankets—like the ones issued to immigrant children in concentration-camp detention centers—laid down on the floor of Capitol Hill. The protesters demanded an end to the Trump/Pence regime’s “zero tolerance” policy targeting all people crossing the southern border without documents, including those applying for political asylum, with arrests.

In Portland, Oregon, officials announced they were shutting down the ICE facility temporarily because of the “Occupy ICE” protests that began earlier in the week and have continued 24/7. There were protests at other ICE offices and facilities across the country, including Refuse Fascism activists and others blocking the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, and 300 people at the Louisville, Kentucky, office.

In New York City, hundreds of people called out by different Jewish groups and synagogues protested at Federal Plaza, and a silent vigil was held outside a detention center in Harlem where kids taken away from their parents are being held.

A couple in California who has started a campaign on Facebook, aiming to raise $1,500 to help toward legal expenses for immigrant families who are being torn apart, said that as of Thursday evening over $17 million in donations have poured in since last Saturday.

 

Portland, Oregon, June 20, where people have surrounded the ICE office for two days. On June 21 officials announced they were temporarily shutting the ICE facility due to "Occupy ICE" protests.

June 20, evening, protesters meet children transported to La Guardia Airport in NYC after being separated from parents.

 

June 21, protesters blocking door of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Photo: Twitter/@kylegrillot

Happening now in NY: silent candlelight vigil for children in processing in Harlem after being separated from their families at the border. pic.twitter.com/mgdJmdgZHG

— #TrumpPenceMustGo (@RefuseFascism) June 22, 2018

Washington, DC June 21

WATCH: About 70 children lay on the floor of Capitol Hill, wrapped in Mylar blankets similar to the ones being given to migrant children separated from their families. https://t.co/b0eJzvzP3r pic.twitter.com/mHEONZxWeY

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 21, 2018

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Wednesday, June 20

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On Wednesday, June 20, protests against the Trump/Pence regime’s vicious policy of separating children from their parents continued across the country, from Bangor, Maine where 150 people demonstrated at a Republican Congressman’s office, with one woman holding a sign “Evil Hitler Separated Families.  America?”, to Phoenix, Arizona, where immigrants’ rights advocates squared off against pro-Trump bigots.  In Chicago, dozens marched in Refuse Fascism’s “El Silencio es Complicidad #FamiliesBelongTogether” protest in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Another RefuseFascism.org protest—Stop Ripping Kids Away From Parents—took place in Honolulu at the Federal Building.  

There were protests in Providence, Rhode Island, Baltimore, Maryland and Raleigh, North Carolina.  Thirty people gathered in Westborough, Massachusetts.  In Portland, Oregon, people maintained their weekly vigil outside an ICE office.  In New York City, a coalition of groups organized a World Refugee Day rally and march to “Stop the Refugee Ban, Save Asylum and Defend Temporary Protected Status (TPS).”  In Grand Rapids, Michigan, people protested Bethany Christian Services for accepting children snatched from their parents with signs reading "No profit for kidnappers," and "End the contract.”

As we write this, protesters have gathered at La Guardia Airport in New York Tuesday night to meet children being flown to the area.  As the facilities are being identified—in Harlem, Long Island, New Jersey, people have gathered in front of them to protest.

Significantly a number of the protests went ahead after Trump announced his new Executive Order (see further analysis of the Executive Order) and new protests against the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist assault on immigrants and refugees have been announced.   One person in Duluth, Minnesota tweeted they were so outraged they were organizing a protest themself against Trump, who’s speaking there tonight.

In another significant development, over 100 Microsoft employees posted an open letter demanding the company “put children and families above profits,” and end its work with ICE.  “As the people who build the technologies that Microsoft profits from, we refuse to be complicit.”  At other Silicon Valley tech firms employees have also been circulating emails and supporting protests against Trump’s assaults on immigrant families. 

Chicago, June 20

Join us! #TrumpPenceMustGO pic.twitter.com/KYGkX5GgHX

— RefuseFascismCh (@RefuseFascismCH) June 20, 2018

Rhode Island, June 20, at steps of Rhode Island statehouse

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June 14 through June 19

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On Tuesday, June 19, Refuse Fascism organized protests in several cities around the country: at Union Square in New York City; in Philadelphia—where Pence was at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association and a march to the ICE office in San Francisco.

In New York City, people marched from Union Square to the Manhattan immigrant detention center. In the protest outside the San Francisco ICE headquarters, several hundred people, including immigrants, activist, and tech workers, blocked a section of the street at one point. People chanted, “Stop taking the children.” An immigrant addressed the crowd, saying, “We are the people who wash your dishes, wash the underwear and give the food to the children.... We are not criminals. Trump is the criminal. We are all human beings.”

In El Paso, several hundred protesters from New Mexico and Texas marched to the ICE processing center. At one point people went into the street and blocked traffic. Several religious forces spoke at the rally, including Black clergy and Muslims. One minister told the crowd, “We are morally outraged because a nursing child has been ripped from the arms of her mother, we are morally outraged because a father whose child was torn from his arms committed suicide in prison.” Members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas talked about the physical and mental suffering being inflicted on these children.

Protesters gathered in Palmdale, in southern California, outside the office of a Republican congressman to oppose the ripping away of children. About 80 people, including DACA immigrants and their families, gathered to set off on a caravan to other Republican politicians’ offices to denounce the family separations.

On Monday, June 18, protesters left shoes outside the ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles to symbolize the children being snatched away and terrorized by the government. In New Orleans, dozens demonstrated outside of the Convention Center where Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions was speaking. About 100 protesters rallied in New York City, organized by the Asian American Federation of New York, against the ICE arrest of a Chinese immigrant who had been in the U.S. for 20 years, during a green card interview.

There were #FamiliesBelongTogether rallies in dozens of cities last Thursday night, June 14. In Los Angeles, hundreds marched from MacArthur Park to the immigrant detention center downtown. Many of the marchers were people who are undocumented themselves. And many were teachers who have seen firsthand how ICE raids and deportations have split apart children and their parents.

 

You are not alone #FamiliesBelongTogther #FamiliesBelongTogetherLA pic.twitter.com/MMNiixf3cc

— Anna Maltese 🏹 (@MalteseAnna) June 15, 2018

pic.twitter.com/do0w0M7oMM

— Anna Maltese 🏹 (@MalteseAnna) June 15, 2018

"At the detention center in downtown LA where immigrants are being detained. We waved our phones at them, and they waved what looked like reading lights back at us and flipped the lights on and off in their rooms." @MalteseAnna

Los Angeles, California

On the other side of the country, in Philadelphia, hundreds gathered at the ICE office, and Refuse Fascism activists led a reading of the pledge to refuse to accept a fascist America.

Yellow bracelets worn by marchers in many places

Yellow bracelets worn by marchers in many places

In Huntington Village, New York, dozens gathered wearing yellow bracelets to show solidarity with immigrants. Immigrants being prosecuted and put in prison camps by the government for crossing the border are reportedly being made to wear yellow bracelets—reminiscent of the way Hitler’s Nazi Germany forced Jews to wear yellow stars, political prisoners to wear red triangles, and homosexuals to wear pink triangles. About 80 people gathered in Greenville, South Carolina, for “A Vigil for Families Torn Apart,” where one participant said, “We want to bring attention to how quickly we’re moving away from just basic values of human rights and decency.”

On Friday, when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to speak in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on “law enforcement and immigration,” Refuse Fascism and some 150 others greeted this point man for the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist attacks on immigrants with shouts of “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” and “In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!”

Over the weekend, protests took place in several cities in Texas, the state where thousands of children are imprisoned. A Father’s Day march began in El Paso and ended in Tornillo, where several hundred protesters spoke out about the tent city where immigrant children are being detained. There were also protests on Sunday, June 17, in the state’s capital, Austin. In McAllen, hundreds demonstrated outside the “tent camp,” i.e., open-air concentration camp, that was just set up to house immigrant children who have been ripped away from their parents.

McAllen, Texas

Some 200 held a Father’s Day protest at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, the largest immigration center in the New York/New Jersey area, where many immigrants are detained for extended periods under horrendous conditions.

It is 102°F at 5 pm in Tucson, but hundreds of people have turned out to demand the end of separation of families at the border. #FreeTheChildren #FamiliesBelongTogether@maddow@IndivisibleTeam pic.twitter.com/okVzsrtpUt

— Justice Alliance (Indivisible SAZ) (@Indivisible_SAZ) June 15, 2018

Tuscon, Arizona

Norwalk, Ohio

San Jose, California

Orlando, Florida

Hundreds and hundreds of us protesting family separation at Boston ICE #KeepFamiliesTogether pic.twitter.com/U07mcJCDAH

— UniteBlue (@ManMet80) June 17, 2018

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Philadelphia, June 19, where Pence was at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association

In LA Tonight: Protesters leave children's shoes on the steps of the detention center. Act now. This is a crisis. #TrumpPenceMustGo #TrumpConcentrationCamps
Find an action near you: https://t.co/cVmiL2ZaE9 pic.twitter.com/m1gKs9hCcz

— #TrumpPenceMustGo (@RefuseFascism) June 19, 2018

New York

.@RefuseFascism to the Detention Center downtown. #KeepingFamiliesTogether #KeepFamliesTogether pic.twitter.com/UTCyvJrwv2

— Gili Getz (@giligetz) June 19, 2018

Protest outside New Orleans Convention Center as Jeff Sessions addresses sheriffs pic.twitter.com/fUwOBcYwRs

— Matt Sledge (@mgsledge) June 18, 2018

Tuesday at SF ICE HQ. Keep it up. Shut it down. We must grow. Don't stop! Stay in the streets!
Drive out this fascist regime. #endfamilydetention The assault on immigrants is a crime against humanity. pic.twitter.com/ArUQrtUJ7g

— ★ Revolution Books ★ (@RevolutionBksB) June 20, 2018

There's ~50 people here holding signs like "MELT ICE" (and a big banner painted like a wall) in front of arriving workers. #FamiliesBelongTogether pic.twitter.com/4CANgLBQAZ

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) June 19, 2018

Austin, TX

Brooklyn, New York. Credit: YouTube/Sandi Bachom

San Francisco, California

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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