Transcript: "By Any Means Necessary" votes to "stop" Turning Point USA
At "tribunal" meeting, "By Any Means Necessary" leaders vote to "stop" Turning Point USA in even K-12 schools, including Berkeley High School
By Any Means Necessary’s Yvette Felarca leads a march at Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, September 5, 2017. Credit: Scott Strazzante/The San Francisco Chronicle
This is the transcript of a meeting of the national leaders and members of “By Any Means Necessary,” conspiring to “stop” Turning Point USA chapters on college campuses and in K-12 schools, including Berkeley High School.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 7:44
I invite other people who are out there that day, organizing with us, and people who are protesting with us to speak as well and to also give people a chance to, you know, ask questions or make your own comments. But the day was and that night, day into night, which was our five hour protest, was just such a success. The turning point of it was, was, as predicted, incredibly lame and kind of like a memorial to the dead Charlie Kirk, more than anything, a lot of praying and watching videos of him like not particularly inviting for maybe a young would be fascist to think that this would be a dynamic organization for them to join, whereas our demonstration was very powerful, has really garnered and been a real shot in The arm for the campus and continued expression of the power of the Bay Area in the anti Trump movement, and just been so important and really a credit to BAMN in our leadership and our organizing. So I want to call on Ronald, who was one of our main organizers on the day, who was really, really great and effective speaking and chanting and leading demonstration, or leading the chance in the demonstration, but who also made a bunch of the class announcements that got like applause and pretty much every, like, literally every class we spoke in. And he’s also a Berkeley alum and an alum of UC Berkeley undergrad and also the law school. So Ronald, are there things you wanted to add or say because of lessons or high points for you?
Ronald Cruz, By Any Means Nexcessary 9:26
Yeah, actually, I’m able to attend a bit longer. I know you gave me this first spot because I can attend a bit longer, and I’d like to hear some other folks first.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 9:41
Thank you. No problem at all. Jose, did you want to say some add some more.
Jose, I think you’re still muted if you’re trying to see
Jose 9:58
Sorry, sorry. You can. Hi everyone. I also like to hear some other people talk. But I mean, I just want to say that, you know that I think for people who are new, welcome, and you know, if you want to get an idea of what kind of organization band is and where we put our focus, I think that this event was a really good example of that, and the points that event has been making, we do think that leadership is really important in the movement, and in these situations is where, when we see why, why that is the case, I think for us, you know, we have a history at Berkeley and around the US, where Ben has existed and has intervened in political movements of direct action. The importance of direct action, you know, we did not think that. Indeed, these are situations where the best thing that we can do is ignore them and not give them attention. As as you know, liberal groups or identity politics type groups or the administration say they’re directly or indirectly to students at these kinds of events. We We also think it’s really important to throw out mass collective power action. And, you know, I think we always go in these type of situations, especially now, with a couple of things to keep in mind. And one is to make sure that we are working together and acting together in these kinds of actions, and that we’re protecting each other and defending each other in action, especially our leaders, that sometimes are targeted, either by police or the right wing, but to avoid any kind of individual acts of civil disobedience, I think that if you look through some of the shortest people have seen in this action, of the people that were arrested were usually because they were acting alone, separate from the crowd, either, you know, some kind of anarchist tactic where you use the crowd as a diversion to to do some kind of small civil disobedience action, or kind of, you know, trying to be, sort of like present yourself as Ultra radical or ultra leftist as kind of acting alone, and because at the end of the day, that doesn’t, it’s ineffective. It doesn’t express the full power of a mass action like this and And anyways, and I think that we, we avoided those things in in that night for the most part, I think by by far, the actions of the students, the energy of the students keeping keeping chance going in an action like this, making interventions on the speeches that you know, Like, Oh, who and Ronald, they’re really great in continually throughout the day, making those kinds of interventions, starting from the organizing on the day on, you know, doing presentations in classroom, announcements, talking to people on campus and kind of having people recognize them, and asserting kind of a different points, like the leadership and asserting why we were there were really, really, really important through the action. And, you know, because I think it’s important that we go into these events, not just kind of thinking that the most important thing is to show up and have numbers, but it doesn’t end there. You know, like these, these events can change very quickly in the moment. You’re always kind of looking for opportunities to, you know, how can we, how can we best intervene from the standpoint of expressing, you know, the full power that our movement has. And anyways, I think that we did that overall. I think that it’s a it’s no coincidence, like we said, why they’re, they’re targeting Berkeley, and this won’t be the last time that that, it will be targeted, and so, but I think that, uh, you know, for new people, I think that this is a really good moment to get involved in the movement, to set Berkeley, as you know, as the center of opposition to Trump and our other college campuses as well, hopefully UCLA as well, because these are where historically, the movement has been strong, and also where the right wing is going to attack first, because we have been strong, and part of the reason why we’re being attacked now. But anyways, I’m just going to stop for now, but I think I might say some more later on. Great.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 14:56
Thanks. Jose oku, do you want to say some do. And thank you very much Hoku for leadership on the day and also speaking to the media as well.
Hoku Jeffrey 15:07
So, you know, I think there’s always a moment. There’s always a moment for Berkeley students, like minority and immigrant students, or women or LGBT, plus students where they they kind of they realize, in what seems to them really shocking, that their so called liberal university administration is really hostile to their interests. And then they have to think about, what are they going to do about it? And there’s some real good stories I remember from past years, but this, I think, was definitely one of those moments for a lot of Berkeley students and and I think it’s really telling like, or actually may back up. I think some of the most like, and I think the students expressing their real anger towards their university administration. A lot was, I think, some of the chance against the police who were basically occupying the whole lower Sproul area in order to make the day happen. Their anger at them. And I think one of the students that was quoted, she even said, like, about how they were, like, closing off a bunch of the university, the campus buildings in order to, like, stage, the private security for turning point and whatever of the other operations the university administration was doing to help Turning Point do their event. Just a lot of anger at that that they’re using campus resources for it, and I think just the fact that we were able to
pull off the counter demonstration so quickly is really telling, because it gives you a real sense of, like, where the movement is at, that that there’s so much anger. And kind of, I was, there was some point I was signing people up, I was talking to people in the crowd, and I there was a there was a bunch of students crowded around this, like, racist white, like, like, religious type that’s always around campus. And they were like, you know, I’ll call it debating. It wasn’t really a debate, because the guy looked pretty intimidated and kind of little bit, like, awkward and and scared and, but I remember this one student who was like, who just started talking? And was like, saying that he’s he was undocumented. Is this Indian student? He was saying he was undocumented. His family was undocumented. And I can’t remember the rest else he said, but just the fact that he was prepared to say that in a setting with a bunch of strangers, and like we just, just meant that he was really not afraid, and, and he, and, I mean not that, you know, I, obviously, I, you know, not, not suggesting that you show your bravery by telling bunch of strangers that you’re undocumented, you know, if that’s you Know, but, but in that setting, or we wouldn’t necessarily tell people to, like, spend your time, you know, having a discussion or trying to talk down some racist, you know, you know, crazy person, but, but in that, in that setting, in that mass action, where there were So many students who came out to take a stand against turning point, it really set the tone of just the, you know, minority and immigrant students, women students, lesbian, gay students, just being unafraid, trans students, just being unafraid and asserting themselves and claiming the campus as their own. And, you know, making clear we didn’t want them there and, and I think we definitely succeeded in that. And you could see the success in part, I feel like, just in the morale of our side compared to their side. Like, whenever you would see their people, they were kind of, you know, you’re Trump supporters, so they’re always, you know, a rabbit bunch. But, but they were very subdued in their rapidness, and whereas our side was, you know, loud and proud and you know, so the last thing I’ll just say is I think, I just think that, what am I trying to say? I think that the strength of the day is just a further demand on BAMN to be to build BAMN and build the leadership for the movement. Because, you know, like I said, we were able to pull off that counter protest very quickly. Right, and it’s a real sign of a movement that’s moving and wants, wants leadership, wants to, wants to fight, and wants to know how and is prepared to do it if you can provide the leadership.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 20:10
So thank you. Thanks a lot. So I would love to hear from you, know, especially any Berkeley students, if this is your first band meeting that you’ve attended. And just like, why you came, why you went to the protest, what you thought of it? Had you been to any protest before? Was this your first one? So I don’t want to put anyone on the spot, but I know I signed up some people and talked to some of you. So like, I don’t know if Reem, if you want to say anything, or Gabriela, or other people, you know, I’d really like to hear from some of the students who were here in the meeting, and to say more about why you came and what you thought about how it went.
Reem 20:59
Hello, everyone. I’m Reem, and a big part of a big reason why I came was for a long time I I really do believe that speech is not just speech like how they usually like to say, like, oh, he was just like Charlie Kirk, for example, he was just speaking, and you guys killed him, or whatever. Speech can turn into incitement and that can turn into violence, the way he always talks about the mentality of like, us versus them, or like how, like fear mongering and a lot of other things, usually, fear can cause people to think that they’re victims, and attacking other groups of people will look like self defense rather than anything else, other than just violence or Yeah, so I really do think people should be more aware of that. People should be aware of how this is not just speech. This is not just people talking. This can turn into violence. This can turn into hate, and in worst case, it can turn into like, genocides, like how we’ve seen in so many different countries, like, for example, a good example is the Rwandan genocide. A lot of people who would study this genocide would call, would call, the primary cause of the genocide was the rtlm radio station, a radio station that was just there that would talk about, talk down on other, another group of people that also live in the in the country, and talk down to them, dehumanize them, and eventually led to full, like 800,000 people dying this. This is how it always starts. And yeah, that’s, that’s all great.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 23:04
Thank you very much, Reem, thanks a lot. We’re so glad you came. And we’re really, really glad that you’re here today with us. You know, I think one of the points that we make a lot in BAMN is how fascism is a movement, it’s and that that as a movement, they’re trying to normalize fascism and those kinds of, you know, threats and intimidation that do move into action. And so I really, really appreciate your point, and really appreciate that you’re that you came. You know, it’s why we can’t just ignore turning point like we have to mobilize against them. So thank you. Other people, are there other students who you know? You’d like to say something just, you know, what you thought of the day, why you came, while you attended the protest, alrighty, please feel free to Say more. If you’d like to later, I’d like to call on other people. If people want to add anything, ask questions. Also talk about what’s happening, kind of in where you are. Because we will have a resolution and a vote. I take I sound, I make it sound like a long resolution. We will take a vote at the end of this meeting on organizing to stop Turning Point for fascist organizing in schools and college campuses as well.
Ronald, did you want to say anything at this point?
Ronald Cruz, By Any Means Nexcessary 24:59
Yeah, I feel like I have a lot of thoughts, but, you know, I’ve been both distracted with some legal work, but I’ll just add that I was just really proud to be part of BAMN and our organization, and how seriously we took giving arming students with arguments, and getting that flyer out everywhere. We did have an occasion where we had a whole lecture hall. It was a classroom course on environmental racism, I believe, and the first few minutes of class were about, we basically announced the events and field questions about the need to protest this event, that professor even came out to the rally, and as well as students, I’m sure, many students, I’m sure, because we’re both, we take very serious...
We’re By Any Means Necessary, We’re a militant organization. But we also are building a mass movement like we take inspiration from Martin Luther King of the need to mobilize a mass movement, isolating the racist, giving arguments to the movement, raising its morale and confidence. And that includes giving, yeah, and also defending ourselves. And I’m very proud that we were very intelligent about how we approached the day and made it as militant as possible. And have also, despite a threat by the Department of Justice, are not,we’re unfazed, and we’re not overreacting to that.
In fact, the statement by the Department of Justice saying that organizations like BAMN act with impunity is actually a confession of how well, an admission of how authoritative we are in the Berkeley community and the success we’re having. So I just wanted to say that, and that the our experience there. I’ve been an activist at UC Berkeley since I was a freshman in 1995 and Hoku, as well, for a similar amount of time, and just this period of time we’re in with people looking for ways to stand up against Trump and fascism. Meant that we were able to effectively lead that day, even though we haven’t tabled much of this particular semester yet, like we were the unquestioned leadership of the day and the people everyone were looking to for leadership. So that’s all I want to add. Just it was a big success. Great.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 27:38
Thank you, Ronald, and later on, I do want us to read through? Pam did put out a press statement in response to the DOJ freak out, which I think is great, so we’ll take a look at that too. So Christo, go ahead.
Christo, NYC 27:52
Hello once again. Congratulations on the huge win over there. I saw it on my over here in New York City. I saw it on some news channels and on, of course, social media, and really on the for the students that were there and if they join, hopefully this meeting, and if it’s the first time, welcome, it’s on YouTube. And this just like a really positive thing. It’s like the feeling of like, really seen injustice, and seeing like, what is wrong and how flawed our systems are, and taking that chance, knowing there’s a protest, and being like, I have a duty to my community. I have this responsibility in going out there and putting yourself in potential danger because you no one knows what’s going to happen. Of course, thank God that everything went well and nothing went over too extreme, as it seems, or I see from the video, of course, taking that chance, it’s a really great way for step to really like, of course, make change, to actually like, make a group and have organization and having a voice, because we were powerful in maths and recently in my school, there was an event to raise funding for immigrants and against ICE raids here, and even though there wasn’t a lot of students at that event, I attended, and I seen a lot of people that I have noticed around my school, and we talked, and people were really motivated through, like, through it was concert. So when singers, you know, talked about, like, you know, fuck ICE and all stuff like, I was really energetic in the crowd, seeing, like, all these young minds there. Really like showed me that I have faith in my school, if not my administration, at least my fellow classmates to do better. So I really do believe in this, that this is I believe we are heading to the right movement of where we’re how we’re shy guys, and we’re targeting so yes, that’s all have to say. Great.
Speaker 2 30:24
Thank you very much. Thanks. Christo Justin,
Justin 30:30
Oh, yeah, I just, you know, of course, in a great, great victory for, you know, Berkeley. But this is really, you know, a model for the rest of the nation and other sleep like with the, you know, normalization of fascism on the attempt of the, you know, capitalist ruling class, not just in the United States, but really globalizing in the parts of the world like this is a great model. And I just, you know, the other thing I wanted to say is that just the way that the university is administration were, was telling people to stay home. And, you know, the and, you know, just, I, you know, we just the, the one thing I really want to say is to underscore the importance of building independent leadership, that character, and, you know, Ban international leadership. And you know, and it’s because, like, it makes no sense after this year of the million strong of our movement, you know, mobilizing across the world just you know, less than a month ago that like the you know, movement flooded The Street to defeat fascism that these you know, turning point, still feel like they can do this. And the only, only, only, only reason why that that, that the reason is because they have a sense that they could, that they have a sense of the weakness of the Democratic Party, of the liberal wing of the capitalists, you know, these liberal politicians and administrations that they can really exploit and that, you know, it’s just so reminiscent of the situation In like Nazi Germany that like it was the mayors, those like, you know, liberal mayors, you know, concede after one after one event, after after another that you know, really let you know The fascist ability to cut through to, to, you know, to bust up unions and, you know, take, you know, take over for elections and all that. And that is happening like there’s no reason why the, you know, the negotiation that is happening right now in the government that is causing the shutdown. There’s no reason why we are not winning those negotiations, because the movement is so strong and and I think that like that, but like that actually is going to be. How do I say it’s some people will say, Oh, that’s so unfortunate. It shouldn’t be that way. We should have government that, like you’ll take care of us and all that. And I think that a lot of it is gone now, like people are thinking about what is an alternative leadership for oppressed people and we and you know, the more that the Democratic Party, these so called leaders, you know, politicians, liberal progressives, you know, are failing to stand up to fascism. The more that people are taking action and that like, the more that, like, you know that they necessitate a leadership that is really thinking, you know, in strategic terms, how to win this class struggle, thinking like our enemies, the Democratic Party, you know, the Trump administration, they have organizations and resources Going around all day long, how to suppress our struggle and maintain the exploitation and oppression of us. Now it’s materializing that for this movement, we are, in fact growing the oppressed and the working class organization to thinking about all day every day. How to win our, you know, struggle and to really, you know, prepare for society that is really, truly for equality, and, you know, based on, you know, like, you know, really prioritizing like needs of the people, and interest in humanity, and not the exploitation, you know, and prioritization of the benefits of of the few. And so I think that like this is what you know, this is what this tribunal is about. This is what BAMN is about. This is what MFJ in Britain is about to be, building the internationalist movement for that leadership.
And I think that, like I have, I have been, you know, in the beginning of this meeting, I was saying that, like I joined, you know, band when I was in, I was in Berkeley as a student, and for so many years I hung up, I hang on to it to build this movement. And I think that like, and I think that like, I have so many struggle, militant struggle, I have never seen something like this. And, you know, I’m, you know, and I think that, like you know, there’s going to be more struggle, there’s more exciting. I really hope that people on this call are going to hang on to us, because I do really believe that if you are dedicating yourselves to be continuing the struggle, learning from both experience, but also from BAMN’s method. We would want to have meetings for those you know, real political education for you know, revolutionaries and movements and so you know, definitely like, hang on to us to be part of this organization. So those are just some of the comments I really want to make, and just really excited to see, you know, the revitalization of our leadership you know, like in our movement now.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 37:20
Thank you. Thanks. Justin. Amy...
Amy 37:28
Yeah, I just, you know, I just also wanted to remind everyone and say that, you know, this is our victory at UC Berkeley is coming just, you know, a couple weeks after we were able to defeat Trump’s attempt to set up federal forces and possibly some big ICE escalation right in between Oakland and Alameda, you know, as soon you know, there were reports came out that, you know, there was some kind of Trump mobilization to the Coast Guard base, and that he had sent 100 Federal officers there or something. And you know, as soon as that came out, hundreds of people mobilized to the one entrance and exit to that island. There was a large demonstration that also took place in San Francisco. And so within a day or two, you know, Trump had announced that that that plan was no longer taking place. So, I mean, one i I just want to say, you know, this is such a critical time for us to organize, because this does show how much the bay area in particular is ready to stand up and fight, and that we can win, we can defeat these forces and beat them back. It also probably means that these people are going to be coming back to target the bay area to try to save some face. So I, you know, I just want to encourage people here that are from the bay to work with us, to continue to organize and get our our bay area, you know, join our Bay Area chapter and keep it going. And also, just to thank our folks from Southern California that were able to come up and made such a difference in our organizing at UC Berkeley, and we hope to have you back soon. So that’s all.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 39:52
Thanks. I want to say a couple of things, and I’d also like to read through BAMN’s response to the news reports about the Trump’s Department of Injustice coming to Berkeley and making threats and investigating Berkeley and everything, because that’s really just a reaction to how strong and successful our protest and our efforts were. That’s what it really is. But I want to just say some things about BAMN and our approach and elaborate on some things that people have already said really well. But BAMN has a long history in the Bay Area, and our leadership has made all the difference through the course of the past decades. We started at UC Berkeley as an organization that we, we built and developed and became an organization specifically because the attack on affirmative action that was taking place in California was attacking not just, you know, historically vital desegregation programs and social equality programs to try to counter institutional racism and institutional equality, but also because those were gains that were won out of the last civil rights movement, and it was really an opportunity to then build a new self civil rights movement to be able to defeat those attacks. And through that, we built just really incredible victories at the Berkeley campus, at the UC regions in the state of California, and also at the US Supreme Court, where we mobilized we had our own independent defense and case at the US Supreme Court to defend affirmative action and we mobilized 10s of 1000s of people across the country at the US Supreme Court that did succeed at that time in defending and upholding affirmative action programs and higher education. And really the key to any kind of our approach to me, the way I like to put it, is kind of twofold, one, that we stand on the truth and we speak the truth to that, recognizing that we need to be our own heroes, and that’s kind of a phrase that we like to sing and ban, because it’s really true. And what we mean by that is that we can’t rely on the Democrats or the politicians the administration, and that, in fact, we’ve got to build independent leadership that’s independent of these university administrations of the Democratic Party. I think that the last period of time, over the past few years, especially under Biden, it’s been especially clear how we’re so right and why we’ve been so right in that method and approach, because to see the Democratic party going in like day after day, funding genocide and defending sending weapons to Israel to carry out genocide in Palestine and in Gaza, to see them normalizing fascism every day under Trump’s first term, and even as he’s rebuilding his movement under Biden. It’s just you know, in seeing these university administrations, starting with Columbia, but also UC Berkeley, carrying out attacks on the free speech rights of students simply fighting to end genocide and to express their support for Palestinians and for victory to the Palestinian struggle. I banned that. That has been proven true every time, and that combined with what other people had said before, and Jose had said, it’s really building a movement that’s independent with independent leadership that’s taking direct action and mobilizing in the streets and on our campuses. And because of that, we’ve been able to shut down fascist recruiting efforts like over and over in the Bay Area and nationally, and most kind of famously, I guess, probably you know, stopping Milo Yiannopoulos and his recruitment efforts for Trump in his first term, and especially stopping it at UC Berkeley, and we’re glad that his career is over, essentially, thanks to vam, and we really hope to make that true with defeating Turning Point and their attacks. So I’d like to just read because it’s been referred to, and I know people probably have seen some of this in the news too. BAMN put out a response to the DOJ threats against Berkeley, and response to the success, the great success, of our rally and our protest last Monday. And I really like this, because I think again, it really gets at our method and recognizing that the reaction of our enemies is a reaction to our successes, to our strength and their weakness. So I’m wondering if someone can read this. It’s not that long to say about three paragraphs. Great. Thank you.
Man reading response to DOJ 45:37
Ben’s response to Department of Justice investigation. November 12, 2025. The announcement by the US Department of Justice DOJ that is investigating UC Berkeley means one Trump and his fascist MAGA movement were completely freaked out by the success of the Anti Fascist rally led by Berkeley students on November 10. Two, they have decided that somebody must be punished, and that doj’s job is to decide who that should be. And three, where the DOJ goes, ICE is sure to follow whoever the DOJ decides will take the fall. It will be based on completely phony, unsubstantiated charges. The DOJ is most likely to blame the UCB administration for the complete failure of turning point fascist recruitment rally in Berkeley. To be fair, the UCB administration did everything it could possibly do to suppress student involvement in the Anti Fascist demonstration, including telling Black, Latino, Latino immigrants and other minority students to stay home and leave campus rather than defend their rights to be on campus and defend themselves and the whole campus against the threat of young fascist gangs. The militarization of the campus led to several buildings being closed, depriving students of access to vital services on their own campus, while providing a defense for of the fascist made in close consultation with fashion, with turning point that involve A small army of police, private security guards and potentially even federal agents. But the reason to focus on the university administration would be that the Trump administration believes that UC is the most likely University cohort who would agree to pay massive amounts of money to Trump to prevent an attempt to withhold even greater sums of money from the Trump administration for research, the most important response by Berkeley students, the campus community and the Bay Area to the DOJ threat is to start organizing our campus, our community, our schools and our neighborhoods to stop ICE raids and in particular, the kidnapping of international students and undocumented students from the Berkeley campus. Monday’s demonstration proved that the Berkeley student body is prepared to rise up and provide leadership to every other campus on how students must act to defend democracy, human rights, free speech, the rights of Palestinians and the rights of The American working class and poor from the endless fascist assault by the Trump administration. This includes recognizing, first and foremost, that the way to defeat Trump is to take action to stop his fascist movement from from recruiting fascist street thugs to attack every progressive game in the nation’s history.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 49:28
Thank you. Hey. So I’d like to hear from people about your ideas and thoughts for next steps. I have a couple of things I want to say, but then I know, like Nicole and other people have ideas too. One, I think we take, you know, in the statement that we just read, it’s clear we take this continued need to mobilize and to defeat Trump and his fascist movement very seriously, and we want to take the lessons from this victory and carry it forward. We succeeded, as Amy said, in turning Trump and ICE around just a few weeks ago. However, it’s clear that they are going to continue to try to carry out their campaign of terror and attacking immigrant communities all over the country. People may have seen that they just sent ICE into, I forget the name, Charlotte, right, in North Carolina, and they’re sending them into Louisiana, and they’re continuing in Chicago and parts of LA, but both LA and Chicago are definitely kicking their ass at the same time. So one idea that we’ve had and have discussed in previous meetings is to really find the most, quickest and effective ways to organize, workplaces, schools, communities and neighborhoods, to be ready to take action to stop and block ICE and in a neighborhood, kind of a town on the fringes or edge of Chicago, and there’s, like been interviews with the mayor and other people in the town about how effective they’ve been at stopping ICE’s attacks on immigrants and that in that little city, like over and over again. Everybody in that city has a whistle, and everybody knows that if you hear the whistle, that means that ICE has been spotted, and to get out and stop them and block them from kidnapping anybody in a workplace or in a school or in a community, and to like Not just warn people to hide if they’re undocumented, but get everybody possible to come out and to block them, just like we saw people in Los Angeles do like over and over for weeks and weeks. And now we’re seeing it Chicago, and we’ve already seen some examples of that in New York City as well. And so, so that’s one, one idea that we’ve discussed, and I think we absolutely should build that and be getting out like, bam, whistles that say, Stop ICE. And, you know, our website at the underneath to like and pass those out with our flyer, set up tables at schools that, you know, give them out to our co workers at workplaces, you know, table in communities, get them out door to door. I think that’s, I like, love that. And I think that’s super, super effective.
The other thing that I think is very important, again, off of what we put out in our press statement, where we end, which is that we’ve got to stop any fascist organizing attempts that continue after this, I just found out that at Berkeley High, there’s a teacher who’s agreed to sponsor a Turning Point group at Berkeley High School, like, ‘What, no, no way.’ And so, you know, I just think it’s super incumbent on us to like work, talk to, obviously, other teachers, but also, most importantly, students to really stop this and prevent Turning Point or any fascist organizing to take place, to try to recruit like, you know, high school thugs to try to threaten students who are, you know, obviously Black or Latino or gay or trans or immigrant or, you know, basically anti-fascist.
And I really, I know it’s possible to stop it, and if we take the same approach that we took to protesting Turning Point last week, to not just ignore this, because then they’ll just go away or, you know, but to also use collective action, and it was crazy, like, find ways to express collectively the power of the movement and not just leave it and hope that the administration will take care of it, because they’re clearly not. They’ve already approved the group. Then it’s super, super important that we do that.
So, those are my two proposals. I’d like us to vote on it at the end of this meeting, I’d like to hear other people’s ideas, and I’ve heard that there are also other things people have heard about, either ICE, but also fascist organizing in other schools too.
So Estria Yeah, go ahead, Stardust.
Stardust 55:07
Oh, sorry. Okay, there we go. Yes, yeah. So definitely, I think the you know, tabling and having the whistle, whistles and like flyers, is great. I feel like the community really, like responded well to when in Dola and some of the other organizations started doing that. I do think, though, that one thing I noticed with endola, which was some of the reasons, like, I kind of there was a little bit of a break, and I didn’t totally kind of want to get involved with them, was because they’re very like about the political leaders and deferring to them for any sort of direction. And there was a lot of like, and I talked to Hoku and Jose about this, there was a lot of like events around the area in Pasadena that were great, but it was like, oh, having the leaders there. And then they had some of the individuals who were detained but were able to get released, you know, through legal action, which was great, but Angela then, kind of like, co opted them as like, Oh, they’re representing us. And standing next to him is like, you know, the city council person. And so it just turned into, like, using them. I felt like, and, and so I definitely think it would be great to stand out from that. Well, which you which, you know, we do and so, and then also, like, having very specific like, how BAMN responds to ICE, because I think BAMN takes a very much more active approach. And we’re not just there to like, Oh, hey, this is wrong. I mean, because at times we just need to stop filming like, and I think a lot of them, a lot of these organizations, are like, Oh, film, take names, call out, you know. But like, when somebody is being physically assaulted, you know, and a gun being pointed in their face, like, we do need to call the community and start asking the community to be more active. Like, if one thing we can do is you divide the ICE agents. When you divide them, they lose all their power. So like, trying to get as many people like you saying out is important, but also, like, we just need to stop. I think we’re we’re now in this area, at least in Pasadena and parts of LA I feel like we’re kind of doing this bystander thing where we’re just filming the abuse happen, and I’m just like, I like, we can’t law enforcement isn’t protecting people. You know, people are dying. You know, they’re doing this to old, elderly people. They’re attacking people in their cars. So, like, as a community, if we all come out and like, I think I really liked who was it you guys posted something about, and I forget who was talking about, about, like, like, creating, like, chains, like human chains, and like, protecting people. Because, like, if there’s 40 people, they’re not arresting all the 40 people, because we’ve seen that happen where they’re like, they they have to back off. But if just one person’s filming, that’s not so I really feel like I want to get the message out. Like, yes, you can film. You can’t help. You can try to post to somebody’s take and try to find their family. That’s not unhelpful. But I think we also need to be, like, able to be more active. And how can we physically protect people if we need I don’t know that’s just my opinion. Because, like, I’m just, I at what point, like, we’re seeing somebody’s face smashed in, like, and I’m just filming. It just feels wrong. You know what I mean. I don’t know so and I don’t know how you all would want to word that or present that, or how you guys, what you think about that, but I do like the idea of you guys and us just being way more active. And we’re not, like, beholden to any because indola was very, oh no violence. They were very about, obviously, you guys aren’t about we’re not about just hurting people. We don’t want to do that. But they’re like, Okay, everybody’s gonna go home after this rally, right? Everybody’s gonna go home. Everybody’s gonna go home like this. I must have said it like 50 times when we were at a rally, and I’m like, fuck that. Like, why are we gonna go home? Like it was just so I think it’s important that we stand separate to like, listen, we’re not about just like, anarchy, right? You guys, that’s not what you we want to do, but we also aren’t there just to make the establishment feel comfortable, you know? So, so yeah, those are just some of my thoughts, but I’m definitely down to kind of help that in my area, which is, you know, talk to hokun and Jose about, um. So yeah, and definitely be separate from them, because, yeah, so, thank you.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:00:08
Thanks a lot, Estria. I really agree with that. You know, BAMN is an independent organization for a reason, and we do defend anyone in the movement who’s on the right side, who’s accused falsely of, you know, whatever bullshit they might be accused of, including anarchists. But I totally agree with you that we’ve got to maintain an independent movement and independent leadership one thing, and then I can call on Justin on, just the documentation, like we tell people to document in order to get it on social media, to tell people where to go, so we can have a mass protest to stop and block ICE, right? But once you’ve done that, get in the street. And one of the things I love there was a video I saw of the kind of immediate emergency response that took place in New York City about a month ago when ICE came in to try to raid, you know, a bunch of probably African migrants who were on, you know, selling stuff on the street. And I heard one of the couple the protesters start yelling at the people who are just documenting and filming. They were like, Stop filming, get in the street, chanting that they’re like, Stop filming and get into the street, which is just and people did because, you know, there were already other people filming it was already getting on social media, like, get out there and help stop them from taking more people, which they did. And instead of grabbing 40 people or 50 people, ICE was only to grab a handful. And the protest from just so many people, especially young people out there, absolutely scared the shit out of ICE. They did the same kind of crap they were saying in in, in Berkeley, and, you know, and they really just had to, it was just their way of trying to save face because they lost. So Justin, I got you
Justin 1:01:58
No, I just, I think it’s, you know. No, I think like, you know, Estria you’re, you know, that’s a good point to to raise. And I think that, like, I mean, obviously, like, you know, I think that like, BAMN, as a leadership part of this mass movement, what we have been really like setting an example, like, like, a cutting edge method and like model, you know? And I think that like, I think that’s the best way to to really distinguish, is like, to to really provide the best like example and method, because so that, like, I think, I don’t know if k would want to say something on this call in from Detroit, because I think that like them from in 2017 when, so 17 That like, sorry, there’s a notification. Is nothing from 2017 when Trump first got into office, we, like, there was starting to be, like, you know, activities of like deportation and ICE like, the kind of, like direct action that we provided that, like, like the raiding of Iraqi refugees, like it hit national news, and that model, like, really, is the seeding of, like, everything that ensue until now. And like, you know what, and I’m going to try to raise is, we do have a newspaper that recorded that period of time of like the development of that community workers and student defense, guard and I think that we, I think that we will really, we will really be willing to wherever people want To. We can go to your schools, campus, organization, or are we have, we can have a separate meeting, or anything like, you know, and really go through that model of like history, like, since we did that, like in even in Switzerland, like a girl was, like, refusing to put on her seatbelt when she was on a plane, when she found out that there was a deportee on the plane, like she got that method from us, you know. And I think that it’s that kind of model of leadership that really, I wouldn’t quite say, set us apart, but is to pull forward as part of the most advanced elements of the movement is pull it forward, to strengthen it. And so I was thinking that way. And the other way that I can make an example is the civil rights movement once one lunch counter sit in happened. And everybody thought saw it. It just spread across like wildfire, and so, and that’s what people are doing now. So, so, yeah, I think so. And I think that like these politicians, if they are like tailing the movement, good, but don’t tell the movement to stop taking action, otherwise you’ll be shunned. So that’s all, I think.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:05:23
Yeah, great. Thank you. Other folks. Nicole, I heard that there’s something going on at high school as to where you work. Did you want to say anything on that? Me, Nicole, I thought so. Sean just said that there’s like,
Nicole 1:05:47
yeah, that’s a miscommunication somewhere. I don’t know.
Stardust 1:05:54
Okay, great, can you hear that? I don’t know. If that’s a,
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:06:02
yeah, I think that. I don’t know where that
Nicole 1:06:04
is, so I don’t there’s some kind of miscommunication somewhere. Yeah, it didn’t come from me.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:06:09
Okay, that’s all right. Well, I think it’s probably been just me, which is a high school close to where I work, which is called Berkeley High School, a Turning Point student club.
Nicole 1:06:22
Oh, I do know. I think someone from Detroit said that there was also in Royal Oak High School near Detroit, they’re trying to start a club like that. And there was a big like protest speak out at the recent school board meeting. I don’t know if anybody in Detroit has any more info on that.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:06:41
Do you want to just say what happened? Was it people spoke out against a fascist or racist club that started?
Nicole 1:06:52
I don’t really know. I think it was Liz that shared in our Detroit group that, yeah, like an actual turning point group is trying to start in Royal Oak High School, and people were speaking against it at the board meeting. We were meeting and want it to be stopped.
Unknown Speaker 1:07:08
Good. Oh, good. I think
Nicole 1:07:10
that’s what I think hopefully, you know, we should definitely be out there flying in Royal Oak or, you know, trying to meet students, right?
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:07:20
Alrighty, other people, other people on both stopping and blocking ice and by getting spreading the whistles and our literature and also mobilizing to school board meetings and in other ways to stop fascist recruitment.
Okay, did people here? Sorry, just going to ask, like for, especially for any new people, too, but were there any like, turning point groups at the high schools that you went to, you know, or groups like that, or you know, have you seen like? Did you hear people also afterwards, like talk about the rally afterwards, or saying things or questions about that. So Reem, I think I’m going to call on you, because you unmuted before, and I’m so glad you spoke. But, um, and we really want to keep working with you. But like, were there these kinds of groups at your high school in Texas? Or, you know, what were people saying before, after the rally, and any questions you’ve got,
Reem 1:08:47
I don’t, I don’t think we had those type of groups, especially because my high school wasn’t really that big.
Stephen 1:08:54
Yeah, we didn’t really
Reem 1:08:55
have groups like that.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:08:58
Good, all good. I’m really, really glad. So I feel like it’s definitely to have a Turning Point group in Berkeley and at Berkeley High School, you know, given how leftwing the Bay Area is, and also Berkeley High as being one of the first racially integrated high schools in the country to voluntarily desegregate the trying to make a point, and I think it’s time for us to make a point too. Hey and thank you. Adam, about the Royal Oak Turning Point USA stuff. So any other I’d like to call the vote, and I will type the proposals in the chat. But are there other questions or ideas that people have, either on anything discussion, on anything that was said today in the presentation, or anything related? Hey, Stephen, you.
Stephen 1:10:00
Yes, thank you. So I got disconnected for a bit there, so I heard like the first 45 minutes, and then it cut out. So if this has been covered, sorry about that. I wanted to thank you for putting all the Charlie curb votes or quotes in there, actually, because, I mean, yeah, we need to. We need to get that out there, because this guy is being held up by the right as like their Martin Luther King, right? He was political leader who was assassinated, but really, that’s where it ends. Like Martin Luther King advocated for peace and justice and non violence, right? Charlie Kirk did not we need to put out those quote quotes out there where he is, you know, suggesting directly or obliquely, you know, violence against various groups of people who haven’t hurt anybody, you know. That’s that goes to show why this guy is not, you know, the equivalent of any kind of assassinated leader on the left, you know. And that’s like not even getting into the debate of whether the assassination was justified or not. You know, like I can see both sides of it, but I’m just not going to have that discussion. It’s like martyrs die for good causes. Okay, that’s not what happened in the case of Charlie Kirk, he was fighting for a bad cause. Whatever you think about his death, he’s not somebody that should be held up as a symbol or someone to emulate. So we need those quotes in there, as obnoxious as it is to even look at them, you know, also I was, I got your your text and your email. I was wondering, do we have any developments on what if anything we’re doing in Washington and when it’s just a question?
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:12:56
We do not yet, but we are going to continue to develop those, and we’ll get those out as soon as we can. Thanks, Steven. I know you were a little over less than a year ago when we were in Washington together before.
Stephen 1:13:11
Yeah, yeah. It’s been a hell of a year.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:13:14
Yeah, it has. Thanks, Steven. Okay. Alex, from our Movement for Justice, sister organization in United Kingdom.
Alex, Movement for Justice 1:13:23
Hi, everyone. It’s been a great meeting. Yeah, I just want to say, and it was so exciting to hear the report and the video, just to let, to let people know that turning point has been organizing in the UK. They threatened to march a couple of weeks ago into Tower Hamlets, which is a Nomani Bengali immigrant community, and the youth, we were calling on the youth to come out, and they actually mobilized, and the police panicked and rescheduled their march in central London, and then all the anti fascists surrounded them, and so they were essentially that was closed down, and then they went to another major city called Sheffield the week afterwards, and that was closed down, and the leader of UK turning point was had a video of him crying, saying he’s given up on London and the other major cities of England. Yes, so it’s great, and I’d just be great with that fly you produced, you know, we want to circulate it with the video as well. You can put the compilation. These people just love that. So I’ll just say, you know, the fights happening all across the world, but I’m so proud, you know, so happy and proud of you guys what you managed to do. Thank you very much.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:14:42
Thank you. Thanks, Alex and thank you to our comrades in England. So any other, any other questions or comments before we vote, I put the two proposals in the chat, yes. Could you put the.
Speaker 3 1:15:00
The flyer for Turning Point USA in the chat again, I lost track of it.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:15:12
Yeah, Adam, if you could do that, that’d be great. And also the link to it as well.
Jose 1:15:18
I actually don’t have the link, okay?
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:15:21
Okay, I think it is Ronald had put it in the chat, so if someone could do that, it’s from the website. We can definitely do that. Steven. Okay, so already, yes, thank you. Thank you. Okay, so anything else before we vote. And anybody can vote in this meeting, including if this is your first meeting, all righty. So I’d like to vote on two things, one, for our next steps that we continue to mobilize to stop and block ICE and to like, spread the whistles, you know, the whistles against ICE. We’re trying to get a bunch made or not made. We don’t make whistles, but we’re trying to get a bunch and order them, but also get stickers to put that put on them. We’ve done some organizing in some workplaces and some neighborhoods, but we definitely want to continue that in schools.
And then two that we continue organizing to stop fascist recruitment in schools where we’re able to do that right by using BAMN’s model, including by sharing our flyer and video and our other materials too.
So any questions before we vote. All righty, okay, I’m going to call the vote of the two together so people can unmute. I’m going to do a voice vote again, because I like those so people could unmute. That would be great again. You’re welcome to vote, even if this is your first meeting. So all those in favor of these proposals, please say aye.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:11
Buddy.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:17:12
Any opposed say nay, and Any abstentions, please abstain. All righty. Thank you so much, everyone.
Man 1:17:29
One last thing I want to remind everybody is that and you guys can all relate to this fighting fascism is in our DNA, because this wave of fascist mobilization. And, you know, recruitment effort is so reminiscent of the wave of fascist attacks on Drag Queen Story Hour, and they’re talking about going after Royal Oak. Oh my god, haven’t we done that already just a few years back? And they did in New York, they did that in California, they did that in Britain. And each single time of our leadership really serves as the, you know, golden example of how to fight fascism. So I think get out there to organize this these coming weeks and, you know, just, don’t get it. So yeah, excellent.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:18:24
And thank you so much everyone for coming, especially a big welcome to our new people. We hope that you continue to work with us and that you join them. Good luck with the organizing this coming week. Thank you very much everyone. We’ll see you again next week.
Solidarity.
Man 1:18:41
Solidarity.
Woman 1:18:42
Solidarity.
Yvette Felarca, By Any Means Necessary 1:18:43
Thanks so much.
Thanks. Thank you.
Thanks a lot.