Charlottesville organizers ask you to take these 8 actions
Charlottesville is mobilizing to fight fascism and resist white supremacy. Local groups including anarchist people of color, Black Lives Matter, and Showing up for Racial Justice have been on the streets of Charlottesville since the Nazis showed up for their first torch rally months ago, and before then, too. We need you to work with us to defeat fascism. Join us! Hope resides in action.
Here are four specific actions you can do immediately to support Charlottesville. These actions are requested directly from the Black Lives Matter group that is part of our resistance network.
1. Provide financial support for ongoing mental healthcare, trauma counseling, and living expenses for Black organizers as well as victims of violence Friday and Saturday, especially people of color: https://www.paypal.me/blmcville
2. Call the office of Judge Richard Moore of Charlottesville Circuit Court (434–970–3766) to urge him to dismiss an upcoming court case for which there is an August 30 hearing, disputing the ability of the City Council to remove the Robert E. Lee statue that white supremacists are defending. Here’s a sample script:
I’m leaving a message for Judge Moore regarding the upcoming Monument Fund hearing, scheduled for August 30. As someone concerned about community safety, I strongly urge you to join the City of Charlottesville in dismissing this case, which will continue to sow violence in the community. Thank you.
Also email this to Clerk of Court’s: duggerl@charlottesville.org and Chief Deputy Clerk of Court: schmidtd@charlottesville.org and send written mail Subject Line: Re: Payne et al v. City of Charlottesville (Case #CL-17–175): Hon. Judge Richard Moore, Charlottesville Circuit Court, 315 E. High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902
3. Petition the administration at the University of Virginia to publicly denounce white supremacist alumni Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler, revoke their diplomas, and commit to ejecting them from UVA grounds if they ever show their faces there again: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/revoke-diplomas-from-spencer-and-kessler. Until UVA takes these steps, it is complicit in the violence they engender.
4. Petition Mayor Mike Signer and Councilwoman Kathy Galvin to change their votes against removing the Robert E. Lee statue and also to remove all other confederate monuments: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/remove-charlottesville-statues. These changes would signal that they have our backs against white supremacist hate as our elected leaders. Failing that, we ask for their resignation.
The next four actions are for you to organize locally, in your home communities. These actions come from the broader network of anti-racist activists in Charlottesville.
5. Do the research to identify Nazis in your community. Find out who’s doing alt-right or white supremacist agitating, find out where they work, and learn as much as you can about their connections to politicians or police in your town. Use this information to block them from gaining social and political control. Do not allow your community to be a platform for white supremacist fascism.
6. Organize community defense networks to protect and defend each other now. The only reason why more people weren’t killed in Charlottesville on Saturday is that a wide variety of groups, particularly anarchist and antifa groups, protected each other when the police refused to do so.
7. Take down all confederate monuments.
8. And finally, there is a direct connection between white supremacist fascism and everyday white supremacist state policies and practices. Continue to organize to end racial oppression and make reparations, in line with the Vision for Black Lives.
We grieve for Heather. We ache with the Black communities terrorized. We mobilize in memory of the 52% of Charlottesville residents enslaved by the confederacy. We fight for the reparations yet to be made in their name.
Bring your best gifts to this struggle, and fiercely love.
(Cross-posted from Daily Kos.)
