Davis, CA, January 13—Several hundred students and workers at the University of California at Davis shut down a planned fascist rally featuring Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos and drug price-gouger Martin Shkreli. This sharp confrontation was a small lesson on the role of the state (the government) in protecting fascists, their capitalist masters, and the whole capitalist system. The Progressive Labor Party wants to destroy this bosses’ government and put the working class in power. That’s communism!
Fascist Yiannopoulos was kicked off Twitter when he led the vile, racist harassment of “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones. He also made a vicious, sexist attack on a transgender student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, leading to the student’s withdrawal from college. Shkreli raised the price of an anti-protozoal medication often used by HIV patients from $13.50 to $750, making money by killing people. Davis College Republicans, the sponsors of this event, claim the rally was about free speech. But there was no interest in debating serious issues, only in racist, sexist, anti-gay, anti-transgender harassment. This fascist event needed to be shut down—and it was.
The role of the bosses’ state in defending fascism was clear as a line of campus police separated the anti-fascist demonstrators from the building and auditorium where the rally was to be held. The cops were met with chants of “Who do you serve? Who do you protect?” and “From here to Mexico, tear down walls!” Other chants targeted the fascism of Milo and Trump (but let off the hook the equally but less blatantly fascist Democrats). The strength of our action was the fierce chanting and militancy against these open fascists.
At 7 PM the administration announced that the event was cancelled. We didn’t believe them and continued our protest for more than 30 minutes—protesting for more than an hour and a half!
A Students for a Democratic Society chapter on campus had been organizing against the event for weeks. A local Black Lives Matter group, Students and Workers Ending Racist Violence (SWERV) brought large contingents to the action. SDS and SWERV members planned to stage some disruptions inside the auditorium where the rally was to be held and passed out whistles, finger puppets, signs, and banners.
At one point some protesters grabbed large plastic barricades that had been placed in front of the police line, pulling them into the demonstration. This had the effect of empowering others to be bolder in approaching and confronting the cops. Our PLP study group is reading Lenin’s The State and Revolution. Now we can combine theory with practice. We learn not just by reading and discussing, but also by doing. We invite workers and students everywhere to join the Progressive Labor Party in study groups, in fights against this sexist and racist system, and in the long struggle for a communist revolution!