The following analysis by Harry Cleaver is worth deep study --- he points the way to how to get involved in the resistance at the right "points" --- I highly recommend this piece which is not all that long
I want to direct the attention of my friends & comrades whose familiarity with the history of fascism (including resistance to it) and contemporary organize against it to those paragraphs below which call for study AND for those with knowledge to share it with those without it. Please do. ........................................ Fascism has arrived Time to organize resistance to the "Iron Heel" that Jack London warned about in 1908, was successfully resisted in the 1930s & 1940s but has finally arrived in the US, i.e., a new Trump Administration backed by fascist republicans. The mandate for us is clear: time to learn everything we can about how fascism has been resisted in the past and ultimately defeated, albeit through a long & bloody process. That includes the quasi-fascism of Soviet-Style state capitalism with all its repressive state apparatus - where most of the resistance was forced underground in covert networks, refusing work for the state and publications circulating news of that resistance. Not all that dissimilar from what would be revolutionaries faced from authoritarian governments throughout the 19th Century. From them too, we can learn. Sadly, despite all the warnings and signs, I suspect most of us have NOT done the studying and learning we need to think clearly about how to organize resistance against contemporary forms of fascism & authoritarian repression. For those old enough to remember, the current situation is also not so different for many of us than the one we faced [in the late 1950s & early 1960s] as the US government set out to replace colonial powers around the world and in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, the Philippines, etc., to open those areas for multinational investment. AND began to move its military to counter independence movements in those areas resisting the replacement of colonial exploitation by multinational [corporate] exploitation. Because we weren't prepared [in the US], we organized - on the basis of the existing Civil Rights Movements and the emerging student struggles over free speech (at Berkeley, Colombia, etc.). An important part of that organizing was intellectual: studying both the motivation and objectives of US imperialism and how past movements had resisted war-making abroad and reaction at home. Time to renew those studies and learn from those few who HAVE been studying such things. Time for them to share what they have learned with the rest of us. Today, without a doubt in the US today the strongest movement of resistance is that of women fighting against the reactionary and, yes, fascist efforts to subordinate them to patriarchal modes of domination & exploitation. THEY are the contemporary heart of the Civil Rights movement. Added to their efforts are those of Pro-Palestinian [anti-genocide] movement, the BLM, resurgent Native American movement, [at least some parts of the resurgent union movement,] the environmental movement & student, parent, teacher and professor battles in schools against the overt subordination of curriculum - all levels from K-12 through colleges to universities - to fascist ideas about what should be taught and what must be hidden, from the history of systemic racism against Blacks, Native Americans and patriarchal repression of women[, gays & trans] to all history of fascism & resistance to it. There will be battles in the courts (not promising) and battles in the streets and battles in every workplace, from factories, through offices to schools and homes. Gear up folks, start strengthening contacts & networks. It ain't gonna be pretty. But start studying and learn and organize! .................................. In solidarity! H. MEEROPOL ADDITION _- one of the key elements necessary to carry that battle forward is the mundane but absolutely essential idea for an ANTI-FASCIST LEGAL DEFENSE FUND ---- don't know if the ACLU is up to it and don't know if there is any organization already capable of being the center (maybe the CCR?) --- but that is necessary and such collections should not be fragmented .... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33377): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33377 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109437868/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
