US, Call for a Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc to Confront Christian Fundamentalist rally in Pittsburgh

WHAT: Direct Action to confront Christian-Fundamentalist Rally
WHERE: Meet at US Steel Plaza, 600 Grant Street, Downtown (near
6th Avenue).
WHEN: 5pm, Wednesday, September 20th. March steps off at
5:30pm - if you're late find us near the Mellon Arena (look for the
group clad in black, purple, and pink)
WHO: Pittsburgh Antifa
Contact: antifa_pgh@yahoo.com or visit antifas.activeresistance.org

On September 20th, Pittsburgh will be the site of a political rally
organized by an organ of the extreme right-wing, the benign sounding
Focus on the Family Action (FOFA). FOFA and leaders of Christian
Right are gearing up for the November elections by holding three
"Stand for the Family" rallies intended to mobilize "Christian voters."
They will appeal to nationalist pride, Christian love, and family values
while they demonize homosexuality, abortion, feminism, Darwinism,
humanism, liberalism, and immigrants as threats to Christian
America, requiring an even stronger military to safeguard our values
and borders, and to continue the “righteous crusade” against
Islamic extremism. These rallies kick off in Pittsburgh on Wednesday,
September 20th at Mellon Arena.

Appearing at the rally will be some of the most powerful figures of the
Christian Right: Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), arguably
the powerful force in the Christian Right today, chief architect of the
Christian Right's political strategy to bolster power through legislative
gaybashing, and who asserts that "it is our Christian duty to go to the
voting booth and to vote our values"; Gary Bauer (American Values
and the Campaign for Working Families), who as a member of the
Project for the New American Century, lobbied for pre-emptive war on
Iraq and support for the Israeli war machine in order to help fulfill
biblical prophesies; Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) who
says, "Our Founders expected that Christianity -- and no other
religion -- would receive support from the government...They would
have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including
paganism, be treated with equal deference."

Anti-authoritarians, anti-fascists, and left-wing activists have failed,
for the most part, to adequately address this threat and take
appropriate steps to counter it. A general conflict is not some far off
possibility; it is happening now and we are losing. To the Christian
Right, the US is a country at war, with itself as much as some far off
Middle Eastern country. As far as these Christian theocrats are
concerned, they have to live and operate, for now, in the contaminated
environment of a secular, liberal state. They have learned, therefore, to
speak in code and utilize a strategy of seizing power incrementally; in
school boards, city council, legislatures, corporate boards, and in the
minds of a more extreme right-wing youth movement they are
nurturing.

This right-wing Christian movement seeks to dominate our minds and
our bodies with the power of the state, the authority of God, and the
sluice of hate-filled propaganda. How can such a movement be
dismissed as anything less than totalitarian? This movement will not
stop until we are ruled by Biblical Law, an authoritarian church
intrudes in every aspect of our life, women stay at home and rear
children, gays agree to be cured, abortion is considered murder, the
press and the schools promote evangelical Christian values, public
assistance is gutted, and war becomes our primary form of
communication with the rest of the world. We must match this threat
in a manner proportionate to its seriousness and importance.

Several local and national groups are collaborating on a week of events
to counter “Stand for the Family,” culminating in a
“Standing With All Families ‘Presence’” outside the
rally and a silent prayer vigil a block up the street. This is too narrow a
framework for dissent, both in terms of the political issues addressed
and the choice of tactics used.

Of key importance to many of these liberal groups is the fight for
same-sex marriage. But this fight is the mirror image of the Christian
Right's fight for hetero-only marriage and feeds into the same drive for
a homogeneous, consumption-based American culture. The
Stonewall riot and early gay rights movement was about the right to
live an unconventional life unencumbered by the state or the church.
To many queers, state- or church-sanctioned marriage contradicts
that vision of liberation.

The mainstream GLBT movement of late has sought to exchange
freedom for the myth of security, the illusion of protection by the
state--including the police and the military, the belief that "equality" is
the goal for the movement, and the notion that assimilation can defeat
prejudice. We need to recognize that marriage is only a tiny part of a
much larger and more pernicious Christian fascist agenda.
We do not desire to be sucked into this moral tug-of-war between
liberals and fascists over the vision of what church and state should be.
We have to separate ourselves, and our tactics, so as to confront these
Christian fascists with explicitly secular and anti-authoritarian goals
and messages, and one that connects the dots of authoritarian
oppression. If we are to stave off an atmosphere of bigotry that directly
fuels violence and intolerance, we need to demonstrate to people at
war with us that we are willing to fight back against their hatred and
bigotry.

So we call on our friends, allies, and comrades to join us on September
20th in a Pink-Purple-and-Black Bloc as we noisily, angrily, and
directly confront Focus on the Family Action.