SAN BERNARDINO, USA, June 10—On the way to the counter-protest against ACT for America, the four of us made a plan: to distribute our communist leaflet and Red Flag, talk to people, keep alert for physical attacks from the fascists and police, and leave before things got out of hand.
There were about 150 people with big US flags and racist anti-Muslim signs on the far two corners near where 14 people had been killed by two ISIS sympathizers.
On the near corners were about 100 people shouting chants like, “No Racism, No Bigotry, No goddamn Muslim registry.” They held anti-fascist and anti-racist signs and passed out flyers supporting Muslims. One sign said that calling all Muslims terrorists is like calling all Christians KKKers.
We had barely started passing out Red Flag and our leaflet when a fascist group crossed to the anti-racist protestors on the corner opposite us. The two groups clashed.
Almost as if scripted, the fascist cops quickly descended in unmarked Tahoes, police cruisers, motorcycles, and horses in an attempt to mislead onlookers into thinking that the cops are impartial and just want to keep order when they are really protecting the racist, fascist, anti-Muslim protest. They would be ready to arrest anti-racists who attack the racists
One of the anti-racist leaders got into a face-to-face shouting match with a racist who crossed the road. He decided to step back so that the police would not have an excuse to arrest him.
We passed out about 75 papers and leaflets. Several people thanked us for being there. There were people asking what fascism means. They asked what communism is. Cuba came up. The Soviet Union. China. North Korea.
We talked about the analogy of capitalism as a weed with deep roots and socialism as those same roots of capitalism that are left over when the green part of the weed is cut off. The weed will grow back. This is what happened in those places. This is why ICWP firmly believes that we have to destroy racism and fascism by fighting directly for communism.
The sides grew. Racists had about 200 and anti-racists had about 150. This was the only ACT rally that day where the anti-racists were outnumbered.
Eventually the racists insidiously started to surround the counter-protestors while the cops watched. Our small group reluctantly backed up to safety and returned home with the resolve to bring many more workers and youth, especially Red Flag readers, with us the next time.
Self-critically, we need to position ourselves better to mobilize and recruit larger numbers of young people who will help lead the fight for communism to defeat these fascists and the system they serve.
We had good conversations and got out Red Flag to genuinely interested people who were excited to know that we and this literature are out there.
The only disappointment was that we didn’t have more people so we could drive the racists away. To disempower them. To scare the shit out of them! To get a taste of workers’ power! AND to have more discussions about what communism really is and why we, the working class masses, need to stand up and fight for communist revolution.
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