Friend,
Episode 130 uploaded October 17:
The courageous movement in Iran is reaching an incredibly inspiring
new stage that needs to be understood, learned from and supported by
people who care about justice everywhere.
To learn more about the situation, Sam Goldman interviews two experts
on the topic: Jasmin Ramsey, Deputy Director of the Center for Human
Rights in Iran and Sussan Tahmasebi, Executive Director, FEMENA.
Plus: commentary from Coco Das on latest from the Jan 6 hearings and the committee's vote to subpoena Trump.
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Jasmin Ramsey
People have really come out into the streets to call for social and political change at the highest levels of government...I think we should speak out for human rights everywhere. If we as people throughout the world fail to do this one day, there could be a time that there's no one there to speak out for our rights if they ever come to be in danger...
Sussan Tahmasebi
A very central tenet of these fascist movements are control of women's bodies, women's roles and sexuality and deciding what constitutes a family...[the protests] have the participation of so many young people. And I think for those young people, even initially, it went far beyond the hijab. It was about bodily rights and control over their own bodies and bodily integrity...
The January 6 Hearings Will Not Be Enough, In the Name of Humanity We Must Make Real Our Pledge to Refuse a Fascist America
by Coco Das, Refuse Fascism Editorial Board
Thursday, October 13 was what may be the last January 6
Committee hearing. From the testimonies heard, it was clear that Donald
Trump knew that he lost the election, but was determined to remain in
the White House by hook or by crook – to declare himself the winner, to
spread the big lie among his base, to stoke violence, even against his
own vice president, and to use the violence of that day to further
consolidate his brand of 21st century American fascism. Now, no one on the January 6 Committee presented all this as a fascist coup attempt, preferring the
less controversial descriptor “attack on our democracy”, but this is in
fact what it was – a fascist coup attempt -dress rehearsal -ongoing
spearhead for consolidating fascism. The compelling way that the January
6 Committee compiled and presented the evidence is important.
But on its own, or left to the will of voters, it will not be enough.
First, look at recent history. The Mueller report and two impeachments
were not enough on their own to remove Trump from office. Instead, they
became half-hearted showpieces and dead ends to lull people into
thinking there could be an “institutional” solution to the problem of
Donald Trump. But these same institutions will not and cannot correctly
diagnose the problem. Trump is a fascist, the leader of a fascist
movement decades in the making, forged from the very fires of this
so-called democracy, lifted to power through the very mechanisms of this
system, and a grotesque but nevertheless consistent representative of
the most virulent white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia deeply
rooted in the history of this country.
What the committee does grasp, in
its limited way, is that the reign of Donald Trump is also abnormal,
and represents a giant leap of a vicious and revenge-filled movement
strong enough to galvanize a mass base and seize power, to tear up all
the norms and begin to rule in a way that is a significant departure
from the normal form of rule since the time of the civil war. In fact,
these fascists are itching for a new civil war to eliminate and
subjugate everyone they hate – including liberals and the Democratic
Party.
This fascist leap is evident in the way commentators talk about these
hearings. There is no expectation of any real accountability. At the
end of the hearing, the committee voted to subpoena Trump. Besides the
fact that Trump has made it a sport to defy subpoenas, at this late
stage, this vote is mainly symbolic. Over and over you hear commentators
saying the best we can hope for is not accountability but a shift in
public opinion that will become apparent in the ballot box. But this
does not remotely grasp the reality that this country is full of
fascists. Almost half of the electorate, to whom truth and evidence
doesn’t matter.
Truth is what Trump says it is, and the whole point of #TheBigLie is to stay in power despite elections. Another art the Republi-fascists are refining. As Kaleigh Rogers wrote in the FiveThirtyEight: “While past congressional hearings have swayed public opinion,
that largely hasn’t been the case for the Jan. 6 committee. Polling of
Americans before, during and after the hearings this summer showed
negligible movement in opinions on the attack and Trump’s role in it.”
Rogers also demonstrates the deadly logic that grips the Democratic
Party and those aligned with it. She wrote, “And while today’s hearing
might not have changed how people plan to vote, it was a reminder of the
ugly reality of what could happen after they do.”
So despite the evidence, there is no will to actually name fascism,
let alone stop it. Not if it means a society-wide upheaval that might
bring into question the whole system the Democrats also represent. And
too many liberals and progressives are okay with their sights being
lowered again and again. Don’t be deluded. Stopping fascism is going to
require more than lifting one finger to vote. It is going to take real
struggle, fierce struggle, blunt truth-telling, and non-violent mass
opposition in the public square. We have a fight on our hands, and this
fight needs you.
Speaking of fighting, a clip of Nancy Pelosi went viral in which she
says, about Trump marching on the Capitol grounds, “I’m gonna punch him
out. I’ve been waiting for this, trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m
gonna punch him out, I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.” And
look, I can relate. Millions can relate. From the moment he hit the
campaign trail, there has been righteous hatred of Donald Trump, but
this was never channeled into the mass movement against fascism that was
needed to stop him in his tracks. In fact, that fury was suppressed and
diverted by the very likes of Nancy Pelosi.
You know what would have
been better than punching out Trump? Calling people out into the streets
to DRIVE him out, repudiating & publicly refusing the fascism of
his regime instead of normalizing it. On the other side, the mass
fascist movement has hardened in the wake of their January 6 coup
attempt and has won huge victories, including the overturning of Roe v
Wade which has now reduced millions of women and girls to second-class
citizens. To quote from the Refuse Fascism mission statement, the election of Biden has not eliminated the danger, it has only bought some time.
Time that we are quickly losing as we avoid the fierce struggle that
is needed. If this fascism continues to gain ground, it is not only the
people in this country that will suffer. In the name of humanity, all of
humanity, we must make real our pledge to refuse a fascist America.
Refuse Fascism national team
917 407 1286
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