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Apr 8, 19

Call to Action: Shut Down Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens at UConn

Call to mobilize against Alt-Lite and billionaire funded Turning Point USA in Storrs, Connecticut at UConn. According to Daily Campus, the demonstration on Tuesday, April 9th, starts at 6 p.m. on Fairfield Way.

Charlie Kirk, a far-right pseudo-celeb rich boy, and Candace Owens, a Hitler apologist and anti-black black person, are descending on University of Connecticut tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9, for what they’ve dubbed a “Campus Clash.” The hateful rhetoric spewed by this scumbag duo is reflected in the language used by the New Zealand mosque white nationalist terrorist who killed 50 worshipers last month. Sadly, this hate platforming is nothing new for UConn’s reactionary, white supremacist administration; in November 2017, Lucian Wintrich, a pathetic Milo wannabe, made a stop on his “It’s OK to be white” campus tour (summary of that counter-action here) with the full endorsement of UConn’s admin.

We call on all members of the UConn and Storrs community, students and staff alike, as well as anyone who denounces all forms of fascist organizing, to show up and demand Kirk and Owens be denied their little ego trip. We know what platforming fascists leads to. We know what normalizing hate leads to. We cannot stand by and allow the fascist creep in our communities! Let us protect and defend our community together in the streets!

For some good context, it’s worth revisiting the Wintrich event from sixteen months ago. After getting deplatformed from UMass (CW: link is to a fascist website) following school-wide outcry against his pure hate-speech (drinking milk, a dog whistle for white supremacy, regurgitated west-worshiping bullshit, etc.), members of the UConn campus republicans, who provide a front for recruitment into the far-right Turning Point USA (a common campus tactic throughout the country), eagerly reached out to Wintrich to make a stop in Storrs. With less than a day to organize a counter-demonstration, anti-racists of all stripes showed up in force. Wintrich was swiftly deplatformed, and since that night has all but disappeared from the public eye.

In an unsurprising move that served as a direct insult to the vast anti-racist student contingency who came out to counter the event, UConn’s administration decided to continue its platforming of hate mongers undeterred: Ben Shapiro, an anti-Muslim pseudo-intellectual darling of the far-right, reared his despicable head on campus the next month, and the police presence was embarrassingly massive.

We understand that some self-styled anti-racist student organizations have elected to stay inside and host a meeting in a lecture hall, rather than hit the street. Creating this literal echo chamber will do nothing to counter the fascists nearby. Certainly, educating people about anti-fascism is a key element of the movement–but not at the exact time when there is a fascist event on campus!

Deplatforming works. We must show up, in person, to shut down these kinds of events. There can be no dialogue with fascists–we know their aims! They are driven by hate. They seek the advancement of authoritarianism, the further subjugation of the working class, the suppression of People of Color, immigrants, LGBTQ folks, anyone who doesn’t align with their sick worldview. It’s that simple: they cannot be allowed to grow their movement, in any capacity. The climate of hate in the world is driven by people like Kirk and Owens, and we as members of the community can and must put a stop to their hateful gatherings. No platform for Turning Point USA! No platform for fascists!

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