Tag: antifascism

For A Season of Struggle//For A Future Without Fascism: An International Call To Action

From The Outlive Them Network :

For A Season of Struggle: 1/27 – 5/1

FOR A SEASON OF STRUGGLE, FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT FASCISM:

An International Call to Action from the Outlive Them Network

#January27 #Passover5779 #MayDay2019 #YomHaShoah5779

#OutliveThem #LosSobreviviremos #NousAllonsLeurSurvivre #MirVelnZeyIberlebn

This fall, we called for a global wave of action for a future without fascism and a world without pogroms. 18+ cities in 7 countries responded with street demonstrations, banner drops, public proclamations, school occupations, popular education projects, and autonomous direct actions.

Now, Jewish antifascists worldwide are ready to organize for collective self-defense and self-determination, with our ancestors at our backs, our allies at our side, and the fascists in our sights. In the process, we will continue to (re)build an international network of anti-fascist Jews, allies, and accomplices.

Today, the Outlive Them Network is calling for another global wave of action, beginning this month with International Holocaust Remembrance Day and continuing through Passover 5779, and May Day 2019 (which will mark Yom HaShoah as well as International Workers’ Day).

We remember how the West closed its doors to our ancestors, condemning them to die in the ghettos and concentration camps of Nazi-occupied Europe. We recall our peoples’ histories of resistance against those who sought to exterminate us.

We stand in unconditional solidarity with survivors of genocidal violence today, including the asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border, refugees from wars of the West’s making in the Middle East, peoples of African and indigenous descent around the world, and survivors of the Shoah.

In this spirit, we are calling for Jewish antifascists everywhere to take action on the following days. Each will build on the others, culminating in a campaign that aims to strike fascism at the root:  the governments that sanction it, the institutions that bless it, and the businesses that profit from it.

  • April 19 – 27:  Passover 5779 and the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when, with your help, we will produce, translate, and disseminate an Antifascist Haggadah for use at Struggle Seders and street actions.
  • May 1:  May Day 2019 and Yom HaShoah 5779, when we will assemble by the tens, the hundreds, and the thousands to remember our martyrs, reaffirm our solidarity with all peoples in resistance, and recommit to the fight against fascism, racism, and carceral capitalism.

* * * * *

Here are some ideas for actions or activities to get started:

Mark your calendars for January 27, March 8 and 16, April 19, and May 1!

Call your people to action on these dates, in solidarity with the Outlive Them Network and with antifascists everywhere. Attend an assembly, action, or cultural event in your area — or call one of your own. Invite your friends, neighbors, co-workers, comrades, congregants.

Reach out to others on the frontlines of the fight against fascism, against racism, and against anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic violence. Then, together, come up with the strategy best suited to your community.

Share images, stories, and dispatches with your social networks and with #OutliveThem. Write to us with questions, needs, dreams, and schemes.

Be safe, be smart, and be dangerous. We ask that all who answer this call be prepared to support one another in the event of arrest, detention, or repression.

wewilloutlivethem@protonmail.com | @outlivethem | outlivethem.wordpress.com

#January27 #Passover5779 #MayDay2019 #YomHaShoah5779

#OutliveThem #LosSobreviviremos #NousAllonsLeurSurvivre #MirVelnZeyIberlebn

Zine: The Evolution of Identity Politics: An Interview with Eric Ward

Eric K. Ward is currently the executive director of Western States Center. Western States Center’s mission is to connect and build the power of community organizations to challenge and transform individuals, organizations and systems to achieve racial, gender and economic justice. Ward recently went on a speaking tour on “How Anti- Semitism Animates White Nationalism.” Tohuvabohu felt it necessary to reprint this interview  between Tikkun Magazine and Eric Ward, because of the prevalence of identity politics within  leftist discourse and spaces that ignores the nuance that makes up our very existence.

“Ever since his childhood as an African American male, Eric has been a civil rights activist and strategist. He spent 1990 – 2010 working with communities across the United States to counter social movements seeking to use bigotry and hate violence to undermine democratic society. Before joining Western States Center, Eric was the Program Officer overseeing racial justice and civil rights for the Ford Foundation. He was interviewed at our Tikkun office in Berkeley during a brief visit he made to the SF Bay Area. This interview appears in the Winter/Spring 2018 issue of Tikkun magazine.”

A zine  version will appear shortly….

For now, here is the PDF version: ward-interview

International Days of Action: For a World without Pogroms, for a Future without Fascism

From: outlivethem.wordpress.com

Call for International Day of Action against Fascism and Anti-Semitism November 8th – 11th.

Last Friday, a gang of “Proud Boys,” under police protection, staged a violent homophobic assault on anti-racist activists on the streets of NYC’s Upper East Side. This latest attack follows a sharp spike in anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and xenophobic violence around the world since the November 9, 2016 election, from Chemnitz to Charlottesville.

November 9th also marks the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht – the “November Pogrom” in which German nationalists, under orders from the highest levels of the Nazi regime, murdered, raped, and brutalized thousands of Jews and desecrated over 1,200 synagogues.

But today, Jews are fighting back, as we always have. And today, in the spirit of centuries of our peoples’ resistance to racism, fascism, and carceral capitalism, we call on Jews everywhere – together with our allies – to join in a global wave of action to #CancelFascism this November 8-11.

star kerWe are Jews of the Diaspora, grandchildren of the Shoah [holocaust or khorbn], heirs to the antifascist resistance. Today, we say that a pogrom against any of us is a pogrom against all of us.

Our blood isn’t cheap: Violence against our communities will not be ignored. Violence against racial, religious, sexual, and gender minorities will not go unchallenged. Nor will the government that sanctions this violence, the church that blesses it, or the ruling class that profits from it.

On November 8-11, we will sing out and celebrate the survival of our peoples. We will say Kaddish for those who gave their lives in the fight against fascism. We will engage in acts of Kherem and ritually excommunicate those Jews who aid and abet the fascists of our time. And we will march on the institutions, the political parties, and the private businesses that collaborate with their genocidal agenda.

At the same time, we will show the world that the real threat to our security as Jews isn’t our Muslim neighbors, but “Western Chauvinists,” Christian supremacists, and white nationalists – the would-be pogromists of our day.

Starting now and continuing through 5779 and beyond, we will (re)build an international network of anti-fascist Jews and our allies. From the streets where we live to the places we work and play, we will organize to defend all of our communities from those who would exterminate us.

We invite you to join us in the fight: For a world without pogroms. For a future without fascism.

Action Items

1. Mark your calendars for 11/8 – 11/11. Call your own people to action on these dates, in solidarity with this call from within the Jewish community, and with the International Day against Fascism and Anti-Semitism,* using the hashtags #AntiFascistFall #CancelFascism #OutliveThem.

2. Share word of this weekend of action widely. Craft your own call: use or edit our words, images, and resources as you see fit. Come up with the strategy best suited to your ’hood, town, city, and region, and identify local targets for nonviolent direct action.

3. In unity is our strength. Reach out to other groups already resisting the far right and state terror in your area or start your own. Organize an action together. Forge alliances with other oppressed communities that will endure beyond #AntiFascistFall.

4. Document your actions and those of the oppressors. Share images, stories, and reportbacks with your social networks using the hashtags #AntiFascistFall, #CancelFascism, and #OutliveThem. Then share them with us at wewilloutlivethem@protonmail.com. Please include only as much identifying information as participants consent to give.

5. Be safe, be smart, and be dangerous. Consider the needs, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of the people in your crew. Plan lower-risk actions that everyone and their yiddishe mama can participate in. People may or may not choose to plan higher-risk actions. We ask that all who answer this call be prepared to support one another in the event of arrest, detention, or repression.

* This action is in solidarity with but organized autonomously from the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism, observed in Europe and elsewhere since 2013.

This November, we remember. This November, we organize. This Kislev, we fight back.

November 8 – November 11, 2018

#AntiFascistFall #CancelFascism #OutliveThem

wewilloutlivethem@protonmail.com | @outlivethem | outlivethem.wordpress.com