#RefuseFascism.org rally and march McPherson Square DC Thursday night

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John Packard of the Revolution Club of Bob Avakian and #RefuseFascism.org held events everyday during the week at McPherson Square in DC at 4pm. I was there for the one on Thursday. Protestors gathered in increasing numbers as darkness descended on the park. The mission of #RefuseFascism ,,We therefore CALL FOR A MONTH OF RESISTANCE beginning on December 19th, reaching a crescendo by the January 20th 2017 Inauguration. Our resistance must spread rapidly to every sphere and every corner of the country. Because we refuse to accept a fascist America, millions must rise up in a resistance with a deep determination such that we create a political crisis that prevents the Trump/Pence fascist regime from consolidating its hold on the governance of society. The Presidency of Donald Trump is illegitimate. Donald Trump did not win the popular vote. Not even close, he lost by 2.5 million votes. He won the Electoral College – an institution set up in 1787 to protect slavery. This legacy of the most brutal oppression of Black people has become the means that enabled the election of Trump and Pence. More fundamentally, it is the fascist character of the Trump/Pence regime and what they are planning to do which renders it illegitimate and an immoral peril to the future of humanity and the earth itself. We therefore CALL FOR A MONTH OF RESISTANCE beginning on December 19th, reaching a crescendo by the January 20th 2017 Inauguration. Our resistance must spread rapidly to every sphere and every corner of the country. Because we refuse to accept a fascist America, millions must rise up in a resistance with a deep determination such that we create a political crisis that prevents the Trump/Pence fascist regime from consolidating its hold on the governance of society. The Presidency of Donald Trump is illegitimate. Donald Trump did not win the popular vote. Not even close, he lost by 2.5 million votes. He won the Electoral College – an institution set up in 1787 to protect slavery. This legacy of the most brutal oppression of Black people has become the means that enabled the election of Trump and Pence. More fundamentally, it is the fascist character of the Trump/Pence regime and what they are planning to do which renders it illegitimate and an immoral peril to the future of humanity and the earth itself. https://refusefascism.org/we-refuse-to-accept-a-fascist-america/
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Rex Tillerson, who worked for Exxon for most of his career and was made it’s President in 2004, was reported by journalism students from Columbia University in NYC to have covered up it’s own Climate science since the 70’s that did show a rise in C02 levels caused by Fossil Fuels. 2015, the hottest on record, was also the year ExxonMobil was caught in a more than three-decade lie. Internal documents revealed Exxon knew that fossil fuels cause global warming in the 1970s, but hid that information from the public. Now it turns out that Exxon isn’t alone. A new exposé from InsideClimate News reveals nearly every major U.S. and multinational oil and gas company was likely aware of the impact of fossil fuels on climate change at the same time as Exxon. A report done by Neela Banerjee Washington-based reporter for the Pulitzer Prize-winning InsideClimate News. Her latest exposé is titled “Exxon’s Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s, Too.”
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#RefuseFascism activists holding banner at McPherson Square in DC. McPherson Square is named for Major General James B. McPherson, a leader of the Union Army during the American Civil War. An equestrian statue honoring him is the focal point of the square. The bronze statue was cast by Louis Thomas Rebisso, an Italian born American sculptor, out of a captured cannon and rests on a granite pedestal. The statue was dedicated on October 18, 1876. – See more at: http://www.downtowndc.org/go/mcpherson-square#sthash.jfwM7nxG.dpuf
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Speaker and long time member of the Revolution Communist party of Bob Avakian who also refused to serve in the Vietnam War, Carl Dix addressing the crowd in McPherson Square stating, “We have called this Trump/Regime out for what it is. It is a Fascist regime with a fascist agenda. Donald Trump is an American Hitler”.
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One protestors beliefs.
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The march is underway towards China Town and a visit to the Trump Hotel in DC where protestors engaged with DCPD to get through a fence protecting the hotel and keeping people out. The protestors eventually broke through the police line protesting outside Trump Hotel.
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Stop in Chinatown DC to get the message to the crowd of people and attract others to join the march.
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Activists spelling out the word, ILLEGITIMATE to describe their idea of a Trump/ Pence administration.
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One of the International indigenous students with Standing Rock speaking at the #RefuseFasicsm.org protest in Chinatown DC. One of the students led an indigenous chant for the crowd.
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Self Expression with Guy Faux masks.
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Protestors confront police protecting what they feel is a Fascist regime that made it’s way into the White House.
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Burning a hat that reads Make America Great again after confrontation with police and breaking through the police line moving towards the National Press Club building.
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John Packard, who just came back from Standing Rock helping the water protectors, again outside National Press Club covered in milk from having been maced in the face by DCPD. “NO TRUMP, No KKK No FASCIST USA”, was the chant heard repeatedly throughout the night. I interviewed John Packard and he told me the Water Protectors at Standing Rock are still being “shot with pepper spray and rubber bullets”. He said, “THE FIGHT IS REAL OUT HERE. If you don’t know what’s going on, DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT TOUCHES YOU TO COME OUT HERE AND JOIN. GET OFF THE SIDELINES AND GET IN THE GAME. No Trump, No Pence, this stuff Don’t make no Sense.”
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Not an easy pill to swallow.
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What the country has become. Nothing gets in the way of Corporate Addiction to “profit”. $ backed by nothing and created of out Debt.

Under the slogan “Make America Great Again,” Donald Trump has viciously attacked Mexicans and Muslims, threatening to register and deport millions, closing borders. He incites fear and hate of all who are “different” – nationalities, religions, or gender. He crudely demeans and degrades women, openly boasting about molesting them. He champions white supremacy and whips up a racist lynch-mob mentality. Trump has mocked the disabled. He is a bellicose militarist, who threatens to use nuclear weapons. He openly advocates war crimes — including torture. He vows to pack the Supreme Court with justices who will take away the right to abortion and gay rights. He denies science – calling climate change a hoax and will wreak devastation on the environment. He has attacked and threatened the press and stirred up his supporters to do the same. He has threatened to strip citizenship for constitutionally protected dissent. Trump has utter contempt for facts and the truth, and consistently lies to advance his agenda. As for the rule of law, Trump went so far as to openly threaten his opponent, Hillary Clinton, not only with jail, but even assassination. By any definition, Donald Trump is a fascist.  He has put together a regime that will carry out this  program, and worse.

This is fascism and it is a very serious thing. It has direction and momentum that must be stopped before it becomes too late.

Fascism foments and relies on xenophobic nationalism, racism, misogyny, and the aggressive re-institution of oppressive “traditional values.” Fascism feeds on and encourages the threat and use of violence to build a movement and come to power. Fascism, once in power, essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights. Fascism attacks, jails, even executes its opponents, and launches violent mob attacks on “minorities.” In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and ’40s, fascism did all these things. This is where this can go.  And yes, Hitler himself could “talk graciously” when he felt it would serve his interests and lull his opponents.

In the world today, shockwaves reverberate.  Over decades in the U.S. virulent movements of white supremacy and anti-immigrant hysteria have gained momentum. A narrow, intolerant, and political form of Christian fundamentalism has been brought into government and policy at all levels. The Trump/Pence cabinet and judiciary will coalesce all of this and worse at the highest level of power, with horrific consequences. No election, whether fair or fraudulent, should legitimize this. “Reaching across the aisle” only legitimizes that which is illegitimate.

If you work with fascists you normalize the road to horror. You cannot try to “wait things out.” Those who lived through Nazi Germany and sat on the sidelines, looking on as Hitler demonized, criminalized, and eventually rounded up one group after another, became shameful collaborators with monstrous crimes.  Don’t Conciliate… Don’t Accommodate… Don’t Collaborate!

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The Illuminator projecting messages outside the National Press Club in DC on Thursday night where hundreds marched in the streets calling to stop the Trump/Pence Fascist regime Before it starts.

We Refuse To Accept A Fascist America

 

 

Author: Cat April Watters

On a Truth Diet! Purging myself of all the LIES from Society.