On Tuesday, June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court came down with two horrendous decisions.
One decision upheld Trump’s Muslim Ban, which has already significantly decreased the number of Muslims entering the U.S. Between October, 2017 and May, 2018, only about 2,100 Muslim refugees from all countries have been allowed in—about 10% of the rate before Trump.
The other decision ruled in favor of the ability of “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” to lie to women. These are Christian fundamentalist-founded predatory Fake Clinics which seek out women and girls for whom pregnancy is a “crisis” and pressure, mislead, and shame them into carrying their pregnancies to term regardless of their wishes or best interests.
Of course, all this comes against a backdrop of shrieking children torn from their sobbing parents’ arms, locked in iceboxes and cages, or shipped hundreds of miles away. Also against a backdrop where the Pentagon, at the request of the Commander-In-Chief, is working to construct concentration camps that can hold 100,000 migrants on military bases.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Kennedy announced that he will resign, remaining on the bench only through the end of July. The fact that this judge, who was appointed by former US President Ronald Reagan, is now considered a “moderate” speaks volumes about how radically this country has been dragged into full-on fascism. There is no other word for it. The Trump/Pence Regime has been radically remaking the form of rule in this country to one that relies on open terror, unveiled white supremacy and nativism, open misogyny, bellicose threats of war (even nuclear war), and the shattering of norms, civil liberties, rights and protections.
If things continue on the current trajectory, Donald Trump will now be free to cement in place a fully fascist Supreme Court for decades to come.
The danger is profound. The legal right to abortion, which hangs by a thread in most of the states right now, could be the first to fall. But it won’t stop there. Extreme disenfranchisement of Black, Latino and other oppressed people will follow. Evisceration of civil liberties, any protection at all for migrants and refugees, protections for LGBTQ people starting with the right to marry, and enshrining Christian fascist biblical literalist theocracy.
What Kind of a System is This?
In the most fundamental sense, all of this poses the question: What kind of a system are we living in that doesn’t just allow all of this, but that elevates outright fascists like the Trump/Pence Regime into the highest offices of the land? It is the system of U.S. capitalism-imperialism. There is a living connection between the origins of this system in white supremacist slavery, genocide of native people, the bloody theft of half of Mexico and what we are seeing today. There are also profound reasons why this system, which is rooted in global networks of extreme exploitation in a highly volatile world and riven with internal social contradictions around the role of women, Black people, LGBTQ people, and more – has led to the emergence of fascism today. All this is examined deeply by Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, in an extremely precient paper he wrote years ago and in a more recent speech. He has also spoken to how we get rid of this system through an actual revolution and what we can replace it with. Even if one has never considered revolution before, now is time to do so.
What Must We Do Now?
In the most immediate sense, there is this: The people of the U.S. must not allow this fascism to go forward! We must come together in an act that is different from very diverse political viewpoints and outlooks to take to the streets in massive, sustained political protests that do not stop until the entire Trump/Pence Regime has been removed from power. This is not the same as revolution, aiming for the removal of a regime, not the overthrow of the system. This is something that everyone who refuses to accept a fascist America – from those of us fighting for revolution to those who believe that American can still become a land of equality and real freedoms – need to come together to fight for now.
Politics-As-Usual Cannot Meet the Challenge We Face
Many may tell you that this Supreme Court opening and recent rulings mean that we should pour all our energies and finances into the midterm elections. This is not only wrong, it is deadly. There is simply no electoral road to stopping Trump from nominating and confirming his fascist pick. The Democrats do not have the numbers to stop this nomination – even if they wanted that fight. Since three Democrats voted with Republicans to confirm Neil Gorsuch last year reveals the reality that many of them don’t want that fight. For Democrats, order is more important than justice – even if it is the order of fascism.
Democrats have real differences with the Trump/Pence Regime, but as Barack Obama said immediately following Trump’s electoral victory, (in referring to Trump): “We are all on the same team.” Obama was telling the truth! They – the Democratic Party and the Republican fascists – are on the “same team.” That is why, despite all of their differences, Democrats have too often gone along with Trump, capitulated to Trump, collaborated with Trump, and normalized Trump, for over a year.
But their “team” is NOT our team. We have to value justice more than order. We must stand with the immigrant families torn apart and locked in concentration camps. We must stand with women and LGBTQ people poised to lose their rights and be plunged into a real-life Handmaid’s Tale of biblical literalist Christian fascist theocracy. We must stand with Muslims and refugees who are being demonized, brutalized, and sent back to drown in oceans or live amidst brutal civil wars and destruction largely fueled by the U.S. itself. We must stand with Black people and other people of color against the lynch-mob white supremacy being whipped up and unleashed by this regime – including through its open encouragement of racist police brutality and terror. We must stand up in defense of the oceans and air itself, the diverse species and ecosystems, all of which are being threatened at an even more catastrophic level by the rapid pace of Trump’s shredding of environmental protections. Our “team” must be all those whose lives and futures are threatened by this fascist regime – not the Democrats who are seeking “common ground” with it.
This means stepping outside the official political channels and taking responsibility for waging powerful, determined, unrelenting nonviolent resistance from below.
It is possible to drive out a hated regime through massive, sustained, nonviolent protest. This has been done all over the world… very recently in Armenia, in South Korea less than two years ago, and in Egypt before that. Sometimes it has turned out better than others, but one thing is clear: allowing fascism to consolidate in the world’s only superpower – one with a history of genocide and white supremacist slavery and crimes against humanity, one that is armed with nuclear weapons – is not an option.
Millions of us hate what is being done. We must stop squandering our power, our voices, and our ability to change history – we must get out of our comfort zones, out of dead-ends of official politics, and into the streets to raise the only demand that corresponds to the danger we face: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! One way to do this is to join with the RefuseFascism.org contingents marching in this weekend’s Keep Families Together protests nationwide. Another way is to join with – or plan your own – demonstrations across the country on July 7th is to raise the demands: STOP Terrorizing Immigrants and Refugees! The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
Do not underestimate the danger we face, and don’t underestimate our power to stop it if we rise to this challenge.
Sunsara Taylor is an advocate for the New Communism developed by Bob Avakian, a writer for Revolution Newspaper (revcom.us), and a co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org.
To listen to her interview on the June 27th broadcast of Women’s eNew Live, click onto the link below: archives.warpradio.com/btr/
