Sharply Contending Futures ... A Roundup of May 1st Protests

May 4, 2020 | revcom.us

 

May 1st is a revolutionary holiday, known around the world as International Workers’ Day.

In the U.S., the National Revolution Tour released a communiqué affirming that “On May 1 we declare our determination to overthrow this system through revolution, when the conditions for that revolution have come into being, and to build a world community of humanity without borders, without oppression, exploitation, and all the destructive divisions between people. A communist world.”

RevComs, the National Tour and the Revolution Clubs, joined Refuse Fascism and others in protesting “reopen America rallies” organized by the fascists. Supporters of fascist-in-chief Donald Trump, with his backing, attempted to claim this day with these rallies to roll back and end the social-distancing shut-down measures adopted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

THEY want a blood sacrifice for capitalism. WE are for overthrowing capitalism & building a whole new socialist system based on the new communism developed by Bob Avakian

We are the OPPOSITE of everything these fascist thugs are abt. Live from the streets of Los Angeles #MayDay pic.twitter.com/2CdG0DTLm7

— The Revcoms (@therevcoms) May 2, 2020

The fascist Trump/Pence regime poses an immediate danger not just to aspirations for revolution and, indeed, any hope whatever for a better world, but also an existential danger for humanity. At the same time, this regime is the product of (and its program an attempted resolution to the challenges being faced by) the capitalist-imperialist system.

These particular “reopen” rallies took place in the context of sharply expressed differences among the rulers of this system over the direction of society, including as they manifested over measures necessary to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Fascist forces were on the offensive, given backing by the regime in power, the fascist Trump/Pence regime, and its propaganda organs like Fox (Fascist News Network).

In Michigan, for example, they were brandishing rifles, nooses, swastikas and Confederate flags and went into the chambers of the state capitol to directly intimidate Democratic Party legislators and the Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer. Trump a day later called these thugs “good people”… and the lack of outcry against that was stark: a sign of the growing normalization of an advancing and consolidating fascism.

While most of these rallies were, at the core, organized by fascist forces, white supremacists, America Firsters, etc. others across the country are being linked and drawn into the fascist mobilization to “reopen America”—with a broader draw of people anxious about their economic situations and lacking scientific understanding of the pandemic. There was an ideological common thread of “every person for themself” and its corollary of individual “choice,” of it being each individual's choice and decision to follow necessary measures, including re-opening small businesses, concentrated at extreme in the slogan adopted by the Tea Party, “Don’t Tread on Me.”

As direct political opposition, Refuse Fascism called for protests against the “Reopen America” rallies. NBC News online quoted Andy Zee, Refuse Fascism co-initiator and host of the Revolution, Nothing Less YouTube show, saying, “In a society where Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans are already dying at disproportionate rates, who do you think will be sacrificed in order to re-open America and get the economy going again?” May 1 protests against the Trumpite “reopen America” rallies took place in Los Angeles, Olympia (Washington), San Francisco, Chicago, Springfield (Illinois), Detroit, Cleveland, New York City, and Boston.

In stark contrast to the fascist “reopen rallies” there were other manifestations of protest like retail workers forced to work while not being provided with protection, people demanding a moratorium on rent payments, and those fighting for rights of prisoners, immigrants held in concentration camps, and essential workers like nurses. These included protesters with fake body bags at Times Square in New York City; and nurses who stood in front of the State Center in downtown Chicago and held a banner telling the fascist rally, “Nurses Are Dying. Go Home.”

In Los Angeles, the National Get Organized For An Actual Revolution Tour and the Revolution Club united with the initiative from Refuse Fascism to oppose a fascist car caravan and rally. They stood courageously and with determination against these yahoos who repeatedly threatened and even physically assaulted the protestors. Michelle Xai, a member of the Revolution Club in LA, said, “We were calling out the ignorant, anti-science and whole fascist program backed and unleashed by the Trump/Pence regime that threatens the lives of people here and around the world.” Noche Diaz from the National Revolution Tour said that radically different futures faced off in Los Angeles that day: “In the wake of fascists gathering with guns in Michigan, and as flag-waving science deniers crowded together in locations across the country, the Revcoms stood up in the face of this lunacy with a socially distanced protest declaring: ‘Humanity First, NOT America First’ and ‘Humanity Needs Revolution and the New Communism.’”

Video credit: Talkingstory.com