Free Talk: Joey Johnson on Flag Burning + Fascism (Berkeley)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Presentation & Discussion at Revolution Books
Weds October 15, 2025 7pm

Gregory “Joey” Johnson Speaks on Flag Burning, Fascism and Why We Should Support Refuse Fascism’s Call to Flood DC Starting November 5th.

Gregory “Joey” Johnson was the defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case in 1989 that ruled that burning the American flag in protest is symbolic speech, protected against government suppression by the First Amendment. Trump has ordered with no legal basis that “anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison.” This is one more Trump/MAGA fascist assault on the basic rights of the people. It is fascism in power forcing blind, knee-jerk patriotism on society.
Here is where things stand as fascism shreds the rule of law:
– heavily armed gangs, masked and with no badges or ID, grab people off the streets and send them to torture chamber prisons half way around the globe;
– the Trump regime sends federal troops against people non-violently protesting these outrages and threatens local and state officials who refuse to go along;
– the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigates and hounds students and faculty who have opposed the genocide in Gaza; – the Department of Justice targets people who dare to criticize or oppose the regime with firing and criminal indictments.

Big questions are posed before everyone: What will it take to stop this ripping away of basic rights, and to defeat this fascism? What will the tens of millions of people who hate this in their bones do to stop it?

Joey Johnson argues that we need a “political earthquake from below”: a mass, non-violent but determined protest that shakes all of society; that the power of student protest has been historically, and is now, a crucial part of mass movements that succeed. He will support the call of RefuseFascism.org for millions to go to No Kings Day protests on Oct. 18, and then on to Washington DC on Nov. 5 to demand “Trump Must Go Now”.

Bring your questions, your thinking, your disagreements and your impatience to change the world!

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.