Charlottesville, US: White supremacist offensive meets furious opposition

16 August, 2017. A World to Win News Service. The following edited material is from the 14 August 2017 issue of Revolution, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (revcom.us)

Hundreds of white supremacist, Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi fascist scum descended on Charlottesville, Virginia on 11-12 August, to hold a "Unite the Right" rally. They came to defend the statue of Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate army that fought to keep slavery alive during the US Civil War, from being removed from a public park. They came to glorify the decades of open subjugation of Black people in this country under slavery and then vicious “Jim Crow” segregation – and to promote the continuation and intensification of this oppression today. And they came to brazenly celebrate the history of Hitler-ite fascism – and step up their fight to help consolidate the American fascist regime in the White House today.

These extreme reactionary forces have been encouraged and emboldened by the Trump/Pence regime, and they've been increasingly active across the country. What we saw in Charlottesville was a major leap in this – some media commentators compared it to Kristallnacht, the night of violence and terror aimed at Jews by Hitler's Stormtroopers in the 1930s. The hundreds of white supremacists came heavily armed. They did a KKK-style torch march through the University of Virginia campus the night before, chanting things like "blood and soil," a Nazi slogan. 

David Duke, a former imperial wizard of the KKK, was at the fascist torchlight march through the University of Virginia (UV) campus on Friday night and was quoted as saying, "We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump" to "take our country back." Many of the white supremacists carried Trump campaign signs along with their Nazi signs. There was a real feeling among counter-protesters that white supremacists are being emboldened by Trump and that they cannot go unopposed, that they cannot be allowed to threaten people and spew their poison.

The white supremacist mob did not go unchallenged. They were confronted by hundreds of counter-protesters from Charlottesville and from nearby and from other areas of the country. There were white middle class people disgusted by the racist fascists. There were Black Lives Matter activists. There were clergy and faith leaders, from near and far, including national leaders Dr Cornel West and Dr Traci Blackmon, and hundreds of church people. At the KKK-style march the night before the main event at the UV campus, a group of students courageously held up a banner saying "VA Students Act Against White Supremacy" in the face of threats and violence by the fascists.

People from Refuse Fascism were in the thick of things, calling on people to carry on the fight against the white supremacists as part of the fight to drive out the whole Trump/Pence fascist regime. Revolution Club members were there, and they brought a banner with a statement of solidarity signed by people from the South Side of Chicago. Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party issued a statement right from the scene in Charlottesville.

One man who had gone to graduate school at UV said, "The statue that people are rallying around needs to come down – it's a sign of ongoing structural white supremacy. It's clear there is a huge mobilization of fascists in this country who are organizing around that statue and what it represents as a central structural principle and it needs to be opposed in every way possible.... That statue was put there as a monument to domination and violence and that's the function it's always served, that's the function it's still serving. Anybody who says it's about heritage is fundamentally lying about that basic truth of why it's there. Because that heritage is white supremacy, that heritage is evil and it needs to be fought."

The protesters were determined to send a message to the world, in word and deed, that people will not tolerate for one second this white supremacist poison. Throughout the day, wherever the white supremacists went in Charlottesville, they were fiercely opposed by different groups of protesters. These protesters on the frontlines represented the sentiments of millions across the country. And many, many more have to actually follow the example of the protesters in Charlottesville and step up and step out in the fight against fascism.

As Carl Dix said in his statement, "What is going on in Charlottesville is a direct outgrowth of the Trump/Pence fascist regime. And it is the outlines of a new civil war in this country. These fascists are serious. And we must wake up and confront them with resistance that is just as serious."

The "Unite the Right" rally was scheduled to begin at noon in the park with the Confederate statue. Hours before the rally, hundreds of fascists marched through the streets dressed in military gear, carrying all kinds of semi-automatic weapons and signs upholding white supremacy, Hitler and the KKK. Counter-protesters on the scene near the park confronted the white supremacists and defended themselves against the violence of the fascists. There were clashes for at least an hour near the park, and there were other confrontations elsewhere. Hundreds of police, including Virginia state troopers in riot gear, and the state National Guard had been mobilized and were in the area, some close enough to clearly see the clashes. They watched as the fascists who were already in the park rushed out to join in the attacks on the counter-protesters. One of these fascists then drove his car at speed right into a crowd of protesters, killing one woman, Heather Heyer, and injuring 19 others, with five people still in critical condition.

By noon, the city declared the white supremacist rally an unlawful assembly and the police then cleared the park. Soon after this the governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency. As the fascists left the park and marched down the street, clashes continued. People chanted: "Nazi Scum Off Our Streets," "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA," and "Black Lives Matter."

After all this, the fascist-in-chief, Trump, refused to condemn the white supremacists and instead talked of violence "on many sides" – an all-but-open endorsement of the racist neo-Nazis. 

This, coupled with the nuclear roulette now being played by Trump with his threats against North Korea, makes it even more starkly clear where things are headed. This IS a nightmare. What must happen now is that many, many more people need to face the depth of the situation and respond immediately by marching in the streets across the country.

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Immediately after news emerged that Heather Heyer had been murdered by a white supremacist, thousands of outraged people in many cities poured into the streets. 
That night, about 800 people joined a demonstration in Oakland, under slogans including "Charlottesville We Got Your Back, Bay Area United Against White Supremacy." Marchers carried signs that read "White Silence Equals Violence" and "This Shit Is Not Okay." Protesters climbed up onto the freeway and shut it down for 15 minutes. One woman told the news, "We have to bring attention to what’s happening in Charlottesville and to show that we will resist Trump and this fascist regime... We will not tolerate white supremacy. So we have to get in the way of people’s normal days, we have to cause a little bit of disruption ... peaceful disruption." Another protester held a sign, "America First = Fascism." Earlier, hundreds attended a silent vigil called by Indivisible in downtown San Francisco.
The next day, 300 people joined in a march called by Refuse Fascism in San Francisco, going from the Mission District, down Market Street to the Civic Center, with die-ins blocking intersections along the way. There were two other protests in the East Bay, an action against police terror and a demo by Hip Hop for Change. Vigils for Heather Heyer were called for the San Francisco Civic Center and downtown Oakland. 
In Seattle, over 1,000 people took to the streets responding to Charlottesville and tried to shut down a white supremacist rally that was being protected by militarized police. The impromptu event was called by RefuseFascism.org. The crowd was very diverse – Black people, white people, Latinos, Asians, LGBTQ people and others. There were young people, old people, families with children, people pushing baby carriages. Many people brought homemade signs. The march went to La Plaza at Olivera Street; then to the ICE Detention Center, where people shouted to those being held inside, "We hear you." It continued to the Japanese-American Museum where people spoke about the threat of nuclear war from the Trump/Pence regime and the anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Nagasaki. 
In Chicago, Refuse Fascism put out a call for people to take to the streets. The march swelled to around 1,000 people as it wove through the heart of the tourist area downtown. As it neared the Trump Tower they took the street for several blocks. They came from Indivisible, the Women’s March, the LGBTQ community, in Black Lives Matter t-shirts, children in strollers with anti-racist t-shirts and children with their homemade signs against hate. Car horns blared in support. Anti-war armed forces veterans from around the country came to Trump Tower after their own march. Huge pictures of Heather Heyer with the word "HEROINE" were brought to the rally.
In New York, chants of "No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA" rang out as hundreds of marchers marched through Manhattan toward Trump Tower, the president's private residence, picking up people and shutting down the avenue before police blocked their path. 
Other actions took place in Houston, Philadelphia, Plymouth (Massachusetts) About a thousand people came out in Syracuse (New York). 
Humanity needs heroes

"I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice." —Susan Bro (mother of Heather Heyer) 

Heather Heyer was a 32-year-old paralegal in Charlottesville, Virginia. When armed, violent Nazis, KKKers and other white supremacists mobilized in Charlottesville Saturday to protest the planned removal of a statue commemorating Robert E. Lee, she took to the streets with hundreds of other counter-protesters to confront and oppose them. A cowardly white supremacist drove his car into an intersection full of counter-protesters, killing Heather and injuring 19 people.

Heather's mother told the Huffington Post there was no question but that Heather would protest the neo-Nazis and others: "She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong, she always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair. Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, a focal point for change. I’m proud that what she was doing was peaceful, she wasn't there fighting with people."

A neighbour in Charlottesville told HuffPost, "She lived her life like her path – and it was for justice."

Heather's last Facebook post before joining the counter-protests was, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." The white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville declared, like the lynch mobs of not so long ago, that they were bringing weapons, and they threatened to use them. Heather Heyer, and hundreds of others, defied the threats and dangers, and she heroically gave her life doing that.

Bob Avakian has written:
There is a place where epistemology and morality meet. There is a place where you have to stand and say: It is not acceptable to refuse to look at something – or to refuse to believe something – because it makes you uncomfortable. And: It is not acceptable to believe something just because it makes you feel comfortable. (BAsics 5:11)

That is a critical principle under any circumstances, but it takes on extreme urgency at this moment. Fascism has direction and momentum. The time to stop it is now. And that will take physical, and intellectual, courage.