40 E 35th St
New York, NY 10016
USA
Please join us for our second meeting. We will have orientation for people who did not attend the first meeting, and break-out group meetings based on the discussions from the first meeting.
Time To Resist next meeting:
Friday, February 10th, 7–9pm
Community Church
40 E. 35th St.
(between Park and Madison)
Contact: timetoresist2017@gmail.com
The Trump administration has entered the White House with promises to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, treat Muslims as security threats to be registered, surveilled, and banned from entering the country, criminalize and defund women’s reproductive rights and healthcare, attack the basic rights of LGBTQ people, gut healthcare services and public education, crack down on dissent, and reinforce white supremacy in the face of growing opposition to mass incarceration and police murders of Black people. Dismissing climate change and environmental destruction, the new administration threatens to roll back what little environmental protections have been enacted in recent years. And Trump, his advisors, and his appointees have arrogantly declared the right of the United States to flex its military might against the people of the world. Already in its short time in office, the new administration has quickly begun turning these threats and promises into reality. Furthermore, Trump’s scapegoating tactics and open espousal of bigotry, all too reminiscent of fascism’s rise to power, have unleashed the violence of organized and everyday white-supremacists who now feel emboldened to attack Muslims, immigrants, Black people, and the LGBTQ community. The question we must all answer is: what are we going to do to stop this?
After the election, far too many of those in power have pledged to find common ground and work with the Trump administration. But all those who declare “not my president” and have taken to the streets know that conciliating with a Trump presidency can only bring about disaster. In that spirit, we aim to build resistance independent of the political process; rather than begging those in power to save us, we will take action ourselves. History, and recent events such as the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock and protests against police murder, prove that the more we step outside of official channels, the greater the power of our resistance. Moreover, the outpourings of protest against Trump’s recent executive orders have already begun to create cracks in the highest echelons of power.
We envision building a culture of commitment to defend those communities coming under attack in Trump’s America. We aim to reach out to those communities, dialogue with them, forge alliances, and build networks that can stand against attacks. We aim to hold public forums and provide resources that enable us all to understand the severity of the problems we now face and the paths of resistance. We see the need to take bold action to prevent a fascistic future, be it by confronting manifestations of emboldened white-supremacists and bigots or by standing in the way of government attempts to round up immigrants and register Muslims. Doing all this will require coming together to share ideas and strategies, developing organizational capacity, and taking history into our own hands.
We encourage you to read Francis Fox Piven’s article, “Throw Sand in the Gears of Everything” in The Nation before this meeting. The article is available here:
https://www.thenation.com/
