Dear Friends,                                                                                    Renée Nicole Good

I don’t know what to say, but we must say things, and act … in my city we have had so far two demonstrations at the State Capitol, one in freezing cold and snow (I was at that one, I couldn’t get to the other), both were large given the short time to organize them, also, the number of young people at both was inspiring. Jeanette Vizguerra, just released from 9 months detention in an ICE detention center, spoke to us Friday night.

This is all very good, with similar demonstrations around the country. At the same time, look what’s happening around the country. The entire Trump, MAGA machine, the White House, all “federal agencies”, Republicans in both Houses; and of course all the reactionary media: what are they doing? What they always do, lying, lying, lying. What else? If they did anything else … send out the ambulances, prepare emergency care in the hospitals!

What about the “mainstream” media? They also are doing what they always do – what elected Trump both times – but it’s not the same as with the reactionaries. It’s much harder to answer the question why on God’s green earth are they doing this? For a while I was hung up on this question, back in 2016, say. Some weird sense of guilt … ? No more: this is what they do now, what they did, what they will do in saecula saeculorum: “How can you know that she was intending to run over the agent?” I heard one of them say that to Homan, “Immigration Czar”, under any other administration a convicted felon.

Bothsiderism, the great secret weapon of reaction, the Fifth Column.

So the only thing for us to do is to keep getting out into the streets, and pestering our representatives remorselessly. Those of us in relatively “safe” places – no ICE on the ground – must give every support to the ones actually facing masked, brutal heavily armed “Federal” agents.

Remember: at the moment, the Federal Government and all its agencies no longer exists. Any action by any element of the “Federal Government” must be treated as an action of the Trump crime syndicate.

Establishing the law here is essential: under what conditions may federal agents, in pursuance of the orders of their superiors, be arrested and prosecuted? The chances that the Trump syndicate will withdraw their goons from the streets are negligible. The struggle is in the courts and on the streets. The legal struggle is up to others than me.

On the streets, the struggle, on our side, must be non-violent. Leave all violence to the armed agents of domination. Violence is their thing, not ours. The power of the people is in unity, in mass action: “drops of water turn the mill, singly none” as the old labor song says. But this means that the people must come together and organize. Connect with other people, talk to people, anyone; find local organizations.

Throughout this I’ve avoided talking about the actual event, and for a very simple reason, to think about it is almost unbearable. I have made myself watch the videos, many times, just to be sure. The ones who took them deserve enormous admiration. Imagine if all we had were eye-witness reports, and the statements of the agents.

One of the placards at the demonstration on Friday said: Say her name! Yes:

Renée Nicole Good

Love and solidarity,

            Bobby