Radically Different Futures Politically Facing Off

An Interview with Noche Diaz of the National Revolution Tour

May 4, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Editors’ note: On May 1, the National Revolution Tour and Revolution Clubs in different cities joined a call by Refuse Fascism to confront the fascist-organized “reopen America” rallies. As we note elsewhere, this was a critical political battle to take up, from the standpoint of the immediate danger confronting humanity with the fascist Trump/Pence regime and from the more fundamental need to sweep this system away through revolution. Below, Noche Diaz of the National Revolution Tour describes the experience of the Tour in Los Angeles, excerpted from remarks in a phone interview with revcom.us right after the protests.

Q: Tell us what happened today in Los Angeles, at the protest against the “Open America/California” rally.

Noche Diaz: First of all, it was around the country that these rallies were happening. What was called for and happening in LA today was being mobilized around the country and unleashed by the Trump/Pence regime and the whole fascist movement. So what happened was at the City Hall building... there were hundreds of these people, all decked out in American flags and American flag pants and shorts and hats and all that, as well as shirts saying things like telling California governor Newsom to “suck mine” with an arrow pointing downward. “Trump 2020” flags and shirts were also there. The misogyny was on full display, as it was last week, people holding signs saying things like “Who do I have to screw to get a haircut.” And chanting things like “USA, USA,” “Build the wall,” “Go back to your country,” all this stuff.

The revcoms entered into all that. We were kind of cut off from going closer to where some of that was happening at the City Hall. So we went into the street which was not blocked off, and confronted a caravan of fascist thugs who were driving around trying to spread this hateful and anti-scientific crap around the city. Almost immediately, we were descended upon by a lot of these clowns and were being pushed around, harassed, threatened, and actually physically assaulted. They tried to and actually did take down one of our banners, but it was immediately taken back. There was actually ripping up of smaller posters, and actually pushing and trying to provoke people into fistfights. Some of it was particularly aimed at myself, because they were very agitated by anybody talking to the press and saying something different than what they were there to say. Also, the people holding the banners were constantly harassed and jostled, pushed around.

Q: Can you say a little more about who was among the group that went up against the fascists?

Noche Diaz: There were about two to three dozen people, as I recall. We were obviously very outnumbered. But there was spirit and determination... we understood that, look, a lot of people are in this whole fascism denial that’s just as dangerous as climate change denial. A lot of people don’t want to confront this, they don’t want to look at what this actually is. In fact, one of the people who came with us, this person that we in the Tour met in the period leading into the lockdowns—a young student who’s from an immigrant neighborhood, goes to one of these community colleges. We’ve engaged with him over phone calls. He’s very new, in other words—and very attracted to the actual revolution that BA is talking about. He knew what he was coming to today. He had a sense of what it is we were confronting, how dangerous they are. But he was actually physically disturbed and shocked by how vicious and how ignorant and rabid and foaming at the mouth these people actually were when you look at them in real life. You have a sea of American-flag-waving people, 95 percent white. There were, particularly among those who wanted to come in our faces and harass us, one or two Latinos. But the crowd was overwhelmingly white. And it was shocking for this young man. So it cuts to... we understand that a lot of people are standing on the sidelines and don’t want to confront this—partly because it’s scary to confront, partly because of the fact that you do look at that, and it’s all a sea of American flags... this fascist shit is so synonymous and coupled together with that.

So it was very ugly, very vicious—and that’s exactly why we needed to be there. Because right at that moment, right there, radically different futures were clashing. The future they’re fighting to bring into being—a fascist future, which rests on and is empowered by the history of this country. And then the future that we were there to represent, on May Day. Which is a whole different world—not a different or a “better” America but a world without that. Basing ourselves on the new communism that Bob Avakian has developed, with a strategy for revolution and a Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America that actually brings alive the fact that we could live a whole other way. There’s a need to actually confront the dangers of what we’re facing and act together.

Refuse Fascism was there, and everyone who refuses to accept a fascist America needs to act together now. There were people there who oppose the fascist future, but want to return to their idea of how things should be or how things could be, while keeping the system we have intact. OK, we can debate and discuss that while we’re uniting, but we need millions, and millions more like that, those who oppose fascism and willing to act on that conviction and understanding.

But again, we’re coming from the fact that a whole other world is possible. We need to drive out this fascist regime as soon as possible. But also the system that’s given rise to this putrid, visceral hatred for humanity that was on display, the gross ignorance and white supremacy and misogyny that was on display—all of that concentrated in the future they’re fighting for. And that’s exactly what we’re fighting to put an end to, through the revolution we’re fighting to make.

So again, a couple of dozen people, in the face of all that jeering and snarling and all that shit, people stood strong and made clear why we were there. It is an example for people. Look, we understood the danger and risks involved in going there, which were twofold. One is the viciousness of the fascists that we were there to confront and call out. But also the fact that these people actually don’t believe in basic science, and were there to oppose the measures that were being taken to prevent the spread of this virus and the loss of life caused by it. And as you would expect from people like that, they did not care about social distancing. They were spitting in people’s faces—spit talking. It’s dangerous. But it’s actually more dangerous if these people are allowed to seize the initiative further and shape the direction of the future. That’s why they’re being called out into the streets by the fascist regime. That’s why you have Trump saying these people need to be listened to, governors need to make a deal with them, how they’re “good” people.

Q: On the Tour’s livestream, you were making the point that these people aren’t just simple “concerned citizens” worried about their economic welfare—but these forces are backed from high levels, up to Trump.

Noche Diaz: Yeah, this is organized, unleashed, mobilized by Trump and funded by the whole apparatus of the fascist movement that Trump is very much an active part of... And it is consistent with that to oppose science and any attempt to preserve life and prevent the further spread of the virus—all that is consistent with their overall fascist program. They are using, in some of their talking points, the economic hardship that is real, it is affecting people broadly—in order to try to legitimize their anti-science and anti-immigrant shit—again, chants like “Build the wall,” “Go back to your country” at this rally have nothing to do with coronavirus and its effects on people’s lives. Not a single one of them was there to raise the demand to open the prisons and detention centers and release people who don’t need to be contained under these dangerous conditions that could spell a mass death sentence. Again, this is nationally coordinated and organized, and tied to the White House.

.#ReOpenAmerica rallies not only risked lives by violating social distance, they were shocktroops for Trump's white supremacist fascist America.

RevComs counter-protested, representing for science, humanity, real revolution.

Which side r YOU on?

Watch: https://t.co/Ua8qzb5zCL pic.twitter.com/whANzbpjXE

— The Revcoms (@therevcoms) May 1, 2020