If the November election is stolen, occupy the streets

If the November election is stolen  

OCCUPY THE STREETS

No work, No school, No shopping

A Call for People’s General Strike

SIGN ON TO CALL HERE

This may be the first time that a U.S. president has said he won’t accept the result of the vote, indicating that there will be no peaceful transition. This is not an idle threat. Trump has his own paramilitary police, Homeland Security, the support of the most virulent and reactionary police departments, and a myriad of violent, racist, vigilante-type groups. 

At the Sept. 29 debate, after the moderator suggested condemning the Proud Boys, a far-right, violently racist group, Trump declared: “Proud Boys: stand back and stand by,” acknowledging he was their leader. 

Later in the debate, Trump refused to say he would abide by the results of the election. He declined to tell his supporters to remain calm or avoid violence. “If I see tens of thousands of ballots, I can’t go along with that,” he said, urging his supporters to go to the polls and “watch very carefully.”

What can we do if there is an attempted coup, an outright coup or an effort to sabotage the vote?  The people must prepare. 

We are the people: Low-wage workers who are at the frontlines, risking our lives, whether we are grocery workers, bus drivers or Amazon warehouse workers; those of us in the streets protesting for Black Lives Matter and community control of police; those of us in the community facing evictions, foreclosures and utility shut-offs; students and youth concerned with catastrophic climate change and unsafe school reopening; health care workers and teachers sacrificing for our patients and students; Black, Brown and Indigenous communities along with seniors disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.  Our lives are at stake.

We must act to protect people’s rights!  Every vote counts, and we will not accept a stolen election, no matter what form it takes, whether it’s stolen through a Supreme Court decision, the undemocratic Electoral College or violence by the far right forces backing Trump.

If the election is stolen, from Nov. 3, 2020, through Jan. 20, 2021, it will be time for us to be in the streets in such large numbers that the system cannot run. Call in sick! Occupy the streets! March and picket at Federal Buildings, banks and businesses, and other suitable targets in your city, state or county. Organize civil disobedience. Urge your union to prepare for sickouts and strikes.  

Here are some important dates to plan around:

Monday, November 2: Support the call for Black Solidarity Day and International Election Observers.

Tuesday, November 3 (Election Day): Physical voting at the polls. Join local groups like People’s Committees to Defend Democratic Rights or other local efforts to stop any intimidation by right-wing armed groups.  Help escort Black, Brown, Indigenous and LGBTQ2S people and seniors to the polls to guarantee their safety.

Wednesday, November 4: Support the call by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression for a Post-Election Protest for a Peoples Mandate for national day-after demonstrations. 

During this period, paper ballots will be counted. At any point the Supreme Court, consisting of just nine judges, may step in as it did in the 2000 election to undemocratically decide the direction of the elections.  

December 8 marks the end of the “safe harbor” period for states to determine that election results will not be challenged in Congress. On December 14, Electoral College delegates cast their ballots on a state level. On January 6, 2021, Congress meets to count the Electoral College and declare a winner.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021 (Inauguration Day): Regardless of the outcome, we must continue to press for the demands that people need and want — Black Lives Matter, stopping police and ICE terror, health care for all, cancel rent and stop evictions and foreclosures, workers’ rights and safety on the job, jobs or income for all, no war or sanctions.

Please sign onto this call and begin to organize in your area. 

SIGN ON TO CALL

Signed:

Peoples Power Assembly

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice

ICE Out of Baltimore

Youth Against War & Racism

Rev. CD Witherspoon

Peoples Alliance 
Rev. Annie Chambers, Douglas Homes RAB Delegate

Prisoners Solidarity Committee

United American Indians of New England

Mahtowin Munro, United American Indians of New England

Malaya Movement Baltimore

Frank Chapman, Executive Director, National Alliance Against Racism & Political Repression

CODEPINK

Courtney Jenkins, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Baltimore Chapter

Delores Lemon-Thomas, Million Worker March

Clarence Thomas, convenor Million Worker March, former Secretary-Treasurer ILWU Local 10

Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer Teamsters Local 808

Reverend David Carl Olson, Lead Minister, First Unitarian Church of Baltimore * ID only

Baltimore Peace Action

Dr. Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, Matthew Henson Neighborhood Assoc., former President Baltimore NAACP

San Diego Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Fernando Ramirez, Union Organizer U.E. (United Electrical Workers) LA Tenants Union/Union de Vecinos

Bob Brown, Pan African Roots 

Anthony Franklin Parker, Wordsmith & Artist, Rise With A Purpose

Solidarity with Novorossiya and Antifascists in Ukraine

Rhode Island Peoples Assembly

Committee Against Police Brutality, San Diego

Atlanta Peoples Power Assembly

Bonnie “Raven” Lane, Housing Advocate

Bill Goodin, co-founder, Black Men Unifying Black Men

Franca Muller Paz, Baltimore City Council District 12 Candidate

Assistant Professor Robert Birt, Bowie State University * ID only

Leslie Salgado, Friends of Latin America

Struggle-La Lucha

Socialist Unity Party/ Partido de Socialismo Unido

Bmore 4 Border Justice

Anakbayan, Washington D.C.

Berna Ellorin, BAYAN USA

Pakistan-USA Freedom Forum

Women In Struggle/ Mujeres En Struggle

William Camacaro, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York

ILPS (International League for Peoples Struggle) USA 

Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement

Carl Gentile, CPDC

Kyle Durkee,  Local BLM Salem, OR

Charlie Cooper, Get Money Out, Inc., Maryland * ID only

Phil Wilayto, Editor The Virginia Defender

Amadi Ajamu, NY NY Amsterdam News

Will Smyth Jr., Culinary Union Local 226

Jeanie Dubnau, Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood

Roy Fleming, Delaware Activist

Eugene Weixel, Retired DC 37

George Gruenthal, Red Star publishers

Mike Gimbel, Retired Executive Board member, Local 375

Nico Robuccio, AFSCME, Local 503

Keith Brooks, Brooklyn for Peace, UFT, NWU

Bill Bateman, RI Unemployed Council, RI Rosa Parks Human Rights Committee

Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI)

Karen Taylor, MAD Monday

Moratorium Now Coalition

Workers World Party

San Diego Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

Communist Workers League – Bay Area

Tracy McLellaln, CAARPR

Joanne C. Simpson, Freelance writer

Bob McCubbin, author The Social Evolution of Humanity: Marx and Engels Were Right and The Roots of Lesbian & Gay Oppression

Zola Fish, member of the Choctaw Nation and organizer with San Diego Leonard Peltier Defense Committee 

Carl Muhammad, Committee Against Police Brutality San Diego and San Diego Peoples Power Assembly

Regina Russell, Chicago Alliance

Cheryl Labash, writer for Struggle-La Lucha publication 

All African Peoples Revolutionary Party – GC

List in formation adding names and groups hourly


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