A Call for People’s Assemblies Toward a United Front against Fascism
As the Trump administration escalates its “cruelty is the point” anti-immigrant policies, amongst other clear fascist shifts, we are placed in the position of having to act boldly and intelligently, and to do so persistently and effectively. We need to look at the moment we are in, and the responsibilities that we have to defend the humanity of all. If we aren’t prepared for the likely bleak moments to come, we risk being overrun. If we come together against this shared threat, we could turn the tables on them.
With new federal funding ICE will soon be the largest “police” force nationwide. Most major cities are threatened with the same occupying force as LA. The need for community defense is immediate, whether violence takes the form of fascist groups like Patriot Front, ICE agents, or their police allies.
Defense alone will never be sufficient. We need to push forward towards a political-economic system that fills everyone’s needs, that ensures peoples’ rights to control the forces that shape their daily lives, that respects and protects the planet we live on and depend on.
We need to help build fighting mass organizations to confront fascist violence. We also need to mobilize bases of support in schools, hospitals, workplaces and neighborhoods. Workers’ assemblies could bring together unionized, non-unionized and unemployed workers to fight on their terms. Rent strikes can be a collective refusal of hyper-exploitative rents, which also strengthens the neighbor as a base for further resistance as social conditions deteriorate.
We feel that popular assemblies are a space where these efforts could develop, but also a space where they could link with each other.
The Need for Popular Assemblies Nationally
This call is issued by people who have separately been developing assemblies in the past year as a core part of our efforts to fight fascism. We are calling on all radical and revolutionary forces wanting to do something similar, to join a national conversation about how to build and expand peoples’ assemblies.
Popular assemblies often arise in revolutionary struggles – to organize popular resistance towards a dual power situation that can challenge the existing order. Assemblies can maximize effective mobilization while also providing a groundwork for organizing specific sites of struggle in a way that is both open and durable – durable enough to coordinate protracted revolutionary activity, but also flexible enough to accommodate changing social and political circumstances. If you agree with this approach and want to discuss efforts to build a popular assembly in your area this is a call for you to get in touch.
We need to do more in this moment than simply try to contest or manage the crisis of capitalism or to prop up a declining settler republic. Our task, whether we’re ready for it or not, is to defeat the rising fascism, and wage a social revolution to create a free and equitable society. This is written for all of those engaged in this struggle, and in solidarity with all of those also trying to devise strategies towards such a victory.
