Anti-Fascist and Anti-Trump Group Explains Their Origins and Philosophies

Originally Published: February 18, 2020

Starting in December 2016, soon after Donald Trump was elected, Refuse Fascism began their work against what they describe as a fascist regime. Speaking with Luke Tony, a representative of Refuse Fascism, he explains in detail why the organization does what they do.

“We have to come together and unite around a single, unifying command…this regime must go, must be removed by the power of the people," explains Tony.

The organization began due to the fact that they recognized the election of Trump and his actions are something different – as fascism, described by Tony as “the kind of wholesale demonization of whole groups of people.”

Tony goes into detail as to what Refuse Fascism sees what’s wrong with Trump’s presidency, including the harmful things he has said and done in the past. In one instance, Trump had praised congressional candidate Greg Gianforte for body-slamming a Guardian reporter, Ben Jacobs, who had only asked the candidate about his healthcare policy. Tony went on to say that Trump is an existential threat to humanity.

Refuse Fascism’s beginnings and continuation has one goal in mind which is to get what they describe as a regime out of office. It’s purpose isn’t set in lasting forever, but it will stay for as long as needed.

The organization’s use of protests as a primary force of action because voting can’t always work. Protesting isn’t the easiest road to take, but it’s the necessary one as Tony claims that you can’t vote fascism out.

“[Fascism] can’t be voted out…because what fascism does once it gets its hands on the levers of power, it begins to undermine the normal processes. It starts to stack the courts with judges of its liking,” explains Tony.

Tony cites the impeachment trial and how Trump has called the proceedings as a “coup d'état.” He explains that Trump doesn’t play by the old rules anymore, those have been thrown out the window at this point. For example, the way he uses Twitter to play cat and mouse with the media is something different than any other president.

Trump tends to use the 280 characters of a tweet to spew his distaste or praise for something; it tends to be super personal. Whenever he sends out his infamous tweets, the media goes into a frenzy for a few hours, trying to dissect every syllable. Trump seems to have mastered the art of tweeting, while other politicians tend to want to steer away from the social media platform.

As a non-partisan organization, Refuse Fascism doesn’t have a stance on the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election. Tony explains that putting all of one’s energy, resources and hopes into the 2020 election can be dangerous because there’s no guarantee of anything resembling of a free election nor any guarantee that Trump will abide by the results of it.

Relying on a leader from the Democratic party can be also dangerous. Tony describes how for the past three years, Democrats would be like “No, Trump, you can’t do that” and yet he still does it.

Earlier last year, Democrats had warned Trump against obstruction when it came to Michael Cohen's public testimony for the House Oversight Committee. Trump had told Jeanine Pirro on Fox News that Cohen "should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that's the one that people want to look at." Even though, the Democrats had warned Trump to not to intervene with the investigative efforts of the Congress, he still did so by trying intimidate Cohen about his father-in-law.

Refuse Fascism wants people to “stop being a spectator” and stop watching it all on their screens. They want people to come out and act; they want people to fight for the future of humanity.

Refuse Fascism gets its motivations from all around the world, from places like Chile and Hong Kong. If it can happen everywhere else in the world, why can’t it happen here?