American Fascism

chuck

IPCC Study: From Dire Warning to Radical Hope

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Thanks to Mark Hertsgaard who translated the just-released (20 March 2023) scientific language-laden UN “last warning” on climate change danger here: https://coveringclimatenow.org/climate-beat-story/translating-the-ipcc-report-into-plain-english

To which I reply: intentional and radical hospitality, hope, love and vision will prevail on the bedrock of people-to-people, progressive-populist, mass-movement, outside-inside, bottom-up, direct action, civil-disobedience, power-politics. 

We, the 99.9%, have the power over the fascist billionaire class who fund and fuel destruction, distraction and division — through state-corporatism, white nationalism, and religious nationalism. 

The good news is that we’re winning. Most of us just don’t see it yet: the tiny ripples of justice connecting and rising; the arrogant autocrats and pompous plutocrats falling on their swords. 

“The revolution will not be televised, the revolution will not be televised.” (Gil Scott Heron)

Justice for all means justice for ALL.

Anti-Racism Is Not Enough; It Must Be Anti-Fascism and It Must Be Global

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Connecting ourselves across race lines takes dedicated work and practice, intentional focus, self-awareness, other-awareness, radical hospitality, hope, compassion, empathy, and love. (So says the older [63], white, privileged guy raised on racism, capitalism, and the “American Dream”…) Building meaningful relationships across race, class, gender, abilities, geography, faith/non-faith/spiritual lines, and more, requires, well, more effort still. But not that much more. Because, as I’ve discovered, once one barrier is broken, the second, third, fourth, and fifth barriers melt away with greater and greater ease. That’s the beauty — yes beauty! — of anti-Fascism in its highest form.

In a strange and awkward way, Fascism is a gift. It clarifies all that is ugly and evil in the world. (See https://www.americanfascists.us/the-three-cornerstones-of-american-fascism/) The opposite of ugly and evil, the best practiced version of anti-Fascism, is pro-Democracy: radical, bottom-up, participatory, non-violent, hospitable, hopeful, and loving.

Sounds simple, right? It’s not, of course. And it’s one major reason why the American experiment has gone sideways, in reverse, actually, especially during and since the watershed year 1968: Tet (Vietnam), MLK, Columbia U, Bobby Kennedy, Chicago Democratic Convention, and election of Nixon. Globally, events in Vietnam, Japan, Paris, Prague, Mexico City — and in a thousand more locations — reverberated the same, or similar, anti-Fascism and pro-Democracy demands in the streets, only to be crushed by State Power wedded to Corporate Power, Dominant Race Power, and local power (mob, religious, feudal family, land-owning, courts, police, and finance).

So this is why anti-Racism work is vital but not enough; it must be anti-Fascism and it must be global. We fight for universal transformative justice for all citizens, here and around the globe. For an injustice to one is an injustice to all.

Anti-Fascism and Radical Hope: From Magical 2022 to Miracle 2023

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Reflecting on the “miracle” year that was and projecting the “magical” year to come, I am most struck by the radical hospitality, hope, and love of the Cuban people we encountered in the first ten days of December 2022. Part of a Witness for Peace education tour across much of northern Cuba, comprised of 18 truth seekers from Oregon, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New York, the trip broadened my conception of spiritual, personal, and historical connections – and the limitless possibilities that can spring forth from intimate encounters and exchanges within, across, and between cultures.

radical hope

With more to say on the Cuban experience itself in future writings and presentations, my main takeaway from the ten-day tour is the remarkable resourcefulness and resilience of a neighboring island population with whom the United States government has been at war – economically, militarily, and psychologically – since 1960, the year after the Cuban Revolution succeeded in overthrowing the U.S.-backed, Fascist military dictator Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959). Setting aside the ongoing propaganda battle, still firmly planted in the Cold War Era that technically ended in 1991 (!), I know we can learn so much from Cubans’ compassion, hopefulness, and endurance. For me, saying and acting on “radical hospitality, hope, and love” is not enough; it needs to be both an organic, personal commitment and process, as well as an aspirational goal to wrap around the universal transformational justice goals that unite us in common vision, mission, and strategy.

So, I choose to call 2022 a “miracle” year not only because of what Cubans can teach us, but also for what we accomplished at OnePayerStates.org and JusticeforAll.global (including our breakthrough 05/20-21 Denver OPS hybrid convention, and 08/27 and 11/19 Intergenerational Justice Summits), and the Pennsylvania Midterm Miracle that likely spared the Keystone State (aka, birthplace of our Republic, Declaration, and Constitution) from plummeting into American-style Fascism 2.0 (see https://americanfascists.us), similar to Texas and Florida. Through a mostly grassroots, non-partisan, education and voter turnout campaign, our team of door knockers, phone bankers, and texters swept to victory up and down the ballot. That’s the most prosperous election I’ve been a part of in five decades. In addition, the electoral education and GOTV work I did with Andrea Miller and her team at Center for Common Ground, focused on rural BIPOC communities in nine Southern states, helped produce several more miracle outcomes.

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Old Havana, where the spirit of revolution lives on

Last, I hereby crown 2023 a “magical” year, as we continue to translate our electoral successes into policy gold: health and healthcare justice for all! Now that I have moved to the Great Northwest for the foreseeable future – for political (i.e., trailblazing Oregon and Washington universal healthcare campaigns) and personal (family) reasons – I am asking you to double down on your activist and financial support of One Payer States (which extends to the work here and at JusticeforAll.global. So, please consider recruiting and joining folks to volunteer here: https://onepayerstates.org/volunteer/ and to donate here: https://onepayerstates.org/donate/. Much-needed funds will allow us to hire a social media specialist at $150 a month, pay $1000 in annual dues for One-Click Politics (advanced lobbying software), and build a critical surplus to hire an executive director and field director in the coming miracle year. Thank you, as always, for your time and treasure generosity. We. Are. Winning.

Yours in radical hospitality, hope, determination, and love,

Chuck

Chuck Pennacchio

President, https://OnePayerStates.org

Founder, https://JusticeforAll.global

Blogger, https://AmericanFascists.us Senior Consultant, https://CenterforCommonGround.org

From E-Day to Summit; PA to CA to OR to Cuba

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By way of update, the last six weeks have been exhilarating, inspiring, exhausting, grounding, settling, astonishing, and challenging. In service to anti-Fascism, pro-Democracy, and personal growth.

I participated with many others in seven 11/08 grassroots Election Day victories in Western Pennsylvania, completed the second (virtual) Intergenerational Justice Summit on 11/19, packed up and drove 2800 miles to celebrate Thanksgiving with family in Pacifica, California, motored 10 more hours to Corvallis, Oregon, unpacked a 5×8 U-Haul full of books and papers, flew to and toured Cuba from 1-11 December, lunched on a Denver return layover with my daughter and her mom, and then returned to Oregon to resume several ongoing political organizing and writing projects (including this blog).

I have much to fill in and catch up on. And so that’s where the creative work continues: https://americanfascists.us, https://justiceforall.global, https://onepayerstates.org, https:opednews.org, on Zoom, in person, via hybrid, social media, and more. Thanks for coming along on these many adventures. 2023 is going to be a great one for universal, transformational justice!

The “Wishing Tree”

A “wishing tree” native to the Congo, here on a former coffee slave plantation in Matanzas Province, Cuba. Legend says that if you circle the tree three times, then knock on it three times while making a wish (which I did), that wish will come truer. I’ll let you know when it comes to fruition! In the meantime, here’s wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season.

Billionaire-fueled Fascism is on the Nov. 8th Ballot

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Over and over, I hear people say, and read writers scribe: “democracy is on the ballot this year.” Meaning, in most cases: if GOP 2020 election deniers, 2022 election-results-refusers-unless-I-win, and racist-ageist voter suppression champions, prevail, in key state and federal elections, our republic is set up for final collapse with the 2024 presidential contest. It wouldn’t matter if Trump or a Trump-heir runs; they will either win the Electoral College outright or steal the contest through a combination of factors playing out in polling locations, the streets, the congress, and the courts.

What comes next? Think Germany 1919-1933, you know, the history playbook Steven Miller, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone subscribe to. (For a longer treatment of the “stab-in-the-back myth and the fall of the Weimar Republic” and its parallel “stolen-election lie and 01-06-2021 perpetual coup” see https://americanfascists.us, with more to come.) So, on the day of, and in the days, weeks, and months following the January 20, 2025, inaugural, the Trumpist-Fascist dictator-in-chief will formally terminate what remains of our constitution, declaring, something along the lines of: ‘we must suspend our democracy in order to preserve our democracy.’

Of course, it doesn’t need to come to this. But the slide into Fascism will continue unless and until we finally recognize the dominant role of the Billionaire puppeteers at the top of the food chain — using and manipulating every ideological instrument in the Fascist toolkit https://www.americanfascists.us/the-three-cornerstones-of-american-fascism/ — and bring them to heel. The first step must be to reject, up and down the ballot, the Billionaire-funded Fascist party that the GOP has become. (I, for one, am deeply grateful to be able to vote for very good-to-excellent Democrats from my present home in Pittsburgh/Sharpsburg. But right now, in this moment of existential crisis, I would hold my nose to vote for a center-right Democrat.) I recently outlined additional, immediate, personal steps you can take in “10+ Things YOU Can Do to Fight Fascism”: https://www.americanfascists.us/10-things-you-can-do-to-fight-fascism/

Ultimately, however, we need to launch a local, statewide, national, and international grassroots movement to abolish the Billionaire class. The alternative is to continue with the Billionaire class abolishing us: making our planet increasingly uninhabitable, off-shoring one-third of the world’s wealth, amplifying the worst refugee crisis (65+ million people) since the Second World War, grotesquely profiting from preventable diseases and wars, and turning people against one another through scapegoating and fear-mongering, and dark-money-funding white nationalism, religious nationalism, and culture wars.

Whether we are talking about the reckless, destructive, and megalomaniacal behavior of Elon Musk (Twitter), Barre Seid (Marble Freedom Trust), Kanye West (anti-Black Black man), Phil Knight (Nike), or simply the radical accumulation of $12.7 trillion by 2,668 Billionaires — of whom 735 are Americans worth $4.7 trillion — this wealth consolidation creates catastrophic human (and animal and planetary) suffering for the 99.99999771% non-Billionaires, or 7.837 billion homo sapiens.

So when you go to the polls or drop boxes on Tuesday, remember you are casting your ballot not simply for or against candidates and referenda, you are deciding whether or not to support or oppose Billionaire-fueled Fascism. This is the first in a series of opportunities to halt the destructive force of the 0.00000339% Billionaire class. Choose wisely. We’ll discuss next steps and strategy after the 2022 election.

Fascism in America: Can It Happen Here?

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The following video captures the 10/20/22 Battle of Homestead Foundation webinar discussion on American Fascism — its definition, psychology, history, renewed threat, and neoliberal manifestations in the workplace. My colleagues Joe White (retired labor history professor, U. of Pittsburgh) and Michele Hamilton (Asst. Dir. of Shelter Services, Centre County, PA, Women’s Resource Center) did a fabulous job after I laid out how the core characteristics of American Fascism are exploited, funded and fueled by a small group of self-serving Billionaires.

Starting with a brief history of world fascism in the 20th century, the speakers discussed current U.S. fascist movements and leaders and their threat to democracy in our time … and the means by which homegrown American fascism can be defeated. The video was Zoom-broadcast October 20, 2022. https://battleofhomestead.org/

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