The fascist attacks in Charlottesville, Va. have raised the need for a mass street movement to show the people’s resistance to the right wing. Los Angeles answered the call two weeks in a row—initially in solidarity with those injured and killed in Charlottesville, and the week following to protest a fascist rally scheduled the week following.
No Cops, No KKK, No Fascist USA! The people rally against fascism
August 12 marked a bloody escalation of reactionary violence in Charlottesville, Va. Within hours of the attack, activists and progressive organizations across the nation mobilized and hit the streets to protest the spreading of white supremacy, condemn police for their blatant siding with the fascists and show solidarity with the brave anti-racist and anti-fascist activists of Charlottesville.
In Los Angeles, a rally to support those fearless people was called in the afternoon; within two hours, over 250 people were gathered at the headquarters of the LAPD in downtown Los Angeles, chanting “No justice, no peace!”, “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “No cops, no KKK, no fascist USA!”
Many members of the Los Angeles branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and other member organizations of the ANSWER Coalition joined the crowd of activists from groups as diverse as Af3irm, United Teachers Los Angeles, the American Indian Movement and many others to denounce the white supremacist, patriarchal capitalist system that breeds hatred and
violence; all of this directly in front of police headquarters, which represents the state that upholds such hatred and violence.
“There’s a tight-knit group of organizations in LA that work with one another,” said Jolene, an organizer with Af3irm. “This group has expanded over the years through the anti-war movement, immigrants’ rights movement.”
It was through the collective effort of these groups, explained Jolene, that the rally was able to come together in such short notice and achieve such great success. She continued, “We needed to stand up for the activists who were putting their bodies on the line in Charlottesville. Not to protest wasn’t an option.”
Of course, the numbers at the rally were not entirely made up of organized political activists; many outraged people simply walking on the street noticed the rally and joined in, greatly bolstering the size of the action and proving that fascist violence and police complicity are issues that concern all people. Many passing in cars driving by the police headquarters honked their horns in support, or stopped and yelled words of encouragement through their windows.
One such person from the street handed out candles to the crowd as the protest went on into the evening and the sun set. When asked his opinion on the people’s response in the wake of the white supremacist escalation, he responded, “The only way that we are going to move forward as a country is if we understand that we are all infinitely connected with and responsible for each other.”
“There’s power in being organized,” explained Jolene of Af3irm, as the rally began to conclude. “People mistake activism as being spontaneous; in actuality, it is important that people join organizations. It’s through organization that we are able to mobilize hundreds of people to rally for justice in as little as two hours.”
Venice Beach: Mass mobilization silences the fascist right
On Saturday, August 19, an anti-fascist demonstration was held in Venice Beach, California.
This was set in motion when earlier in the week, fascists announced their plans for a protest at the Google Headquarters in Venice. Their rally was going to be in support of a misogynist Google employee who penned a sexist screed and was eventually fired, claiming that the company and its diversity policy were “anti-white male.” This reactionary demonstration had been scheduled to take place at nine Google campuses across the U.S.
In response, several activist groups called for a counter-protest to drive their hate-filled message out of Venice Beach.
The anti-fascist rally was organized by the Defend Movement, Build the Peoples’ Democratic Workers’ Party and the Venice Resistance – all organizations willing to stand up against Trump and the national shift toward the far-right.
Soon after the announcement of a counter-demonstration, the fascists decided to cancel their rally. In celebration of the victory over the far-right, the organizers decided to still hold the event. At least 500 protesters of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds came out to spread message of unity in the face of fascism.
Several members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Los Angeles branch attended, adding their voices to the crowd, leading chants, and spreading the message of socialism as an alternative to Trump’s fascism.
The march traveled several blocks, chanting along the way. Chants of “Up, up, up with the people! Down, down, down with Trump!” and “Say it loud, say it clear – racists are not welcome here!” rang across the streets, as onlookers lined the blocks.
Several blocks down, the march concluded so that the rally could begin. Speakers delivered powerful messages to the masses, ranging from the fight against gentrification in Venice to anti-capitalism and anti-fascism.
Speakers included ANSWER Organizer Andrew Nance as well as Jim Lafferty, a retired member of the National Lawyers’ Guild and an ally of the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition here in Los Angeles. Many individuals, Lafferty included, spoke to endorse the People’s Congress of Resistance. The Congress will be convening in Washington, D.C. September 16 and 17 to create a Congress which truly represents the masses, not just the rich, white and bourgeois.
Finally, the Coalition for Community Control of the Police led the march toward HBO in order to protest the new show “Confederate.” The protesters voiced their concerns about broadcasting a show about a world where the Confederacy was allowed to continue their slave-holding reign of terror in the South as a separate nation. With the deep wounds of white supremacist violence still fresh for millions across the nation, this show comes off as an inappropriate ploy for ratings and attention.
What brought so many people from not only Venice or California, but from the nation as a whole to this rally? In the words of Darrell, a protester at the rally, it was simple: “Freedom for all, no oppression for anyone.”
“Liberals love to point out racial violence by explicit racists, but they ignore all the racial violence in the city, caused by evictions, homelessness, and poverty,” said John, a young protestor.
No matter what motivated these hundreds of anti-fascist protestors to Venice, there was a unified message that fascism will not be allowed in any corner of the U.S. From Charlottesville to Boston to Venice Beach, the masses stand united!
