We cannot misunderstand or underestimate the levels of state capture, economic control and social manipulation we face at this time. These forces have been emboldened and resourced, and they are now using the murder of Charlie Kirk as a catalyst to mobilize massive numbers of young people to claim and move with Christian and white nationalism. The state of Tennessee recently announced a partnership with Kirk’s fundamentalist non-profit Turning Point USA to embed chapters in every high school, college, and university across the state.

As we learn from history, silence does not protect us — and silence endangers even more people when we do not create a stronger counterbalance. This is not a time to retreat or play it safe. This is the time to build a broad base to win.

This is not a moment to be quiet or mild about what is happening in the United States. This is a time to be courageous, to come together, and to act in small and large ways to defeat the consolidation of fascism.

And we need big, bold, broad-based social movements to do it.

The NSPM-7 directive names groups and people who challenge these economic, political and social arrangements as a movement against fascism. As the state offers monetary incentives for turning people in based on loose designations of anti-Americanism and radical gender ideologies, we have a responsibility to invite more people into a broad movement on multiple fronts. We can begin to build beyond a narrow antagonism to Trump as a figure or the Republican party as a group and start to widen our collective forces as people firmly against all forms of fascist control of our minds, bodies, and resources.

In order to build a broader front, we have to invite people from all walks of life into a vision of liberation. We also have to be brave enough to name our position as anti-fascist.

To name our fight as one against fascism allows us to connect the ways in which the economy is being fundamentally rearranged by an unaccountable, unsustainable tech sector of billionaires.

To name our fight as one against fascism puts us shoulder to shoulder with global social movements fighting authoritarianism, apartheid, climate crisis, and violent state repression.

To name our fight as one against fascism allows us to expand our ranks as social movements.

But we have to say who we are. We cannot be afraid to invite people into a politic of dissent and a practice of resistance. This administration is using the notion of antifa as a trap. We avoid it by standing strong and speaking out against fascism, which should not be a controversial position or politic.

We have a responsibility to connect the position of anti-fascism to a positive vision of real freedom and self-determination. We can step proudly into a legacy of movements that fight for justice, dignity, liberation, political participation, body autonomy, ecological sustainability, and economic self-determination. In fact, our connections to historical people’s movements for human rights and power should give us the courage we need. From blocking ICE from public venues, to refusing to comply with unjust laws, to preparing our neighborhoods for climate disasters and resisting military occupations — every action is part of building what we need to survive and win.

Whether we mobilize to demonstrate our dissent in mass street protests, create support for communities facing economic distress and food insecurity, assert our rights in our workplaces and schools, or build preparedness plans for climate crisis, we should claim who we are as part of a broad movement that stands against the fascism growing across the world.

By claiming our politic and position, we can expand our movements to protect our families, our neighbors and future generations. We are stronger if we do it together. Let’s name ourselves as teachers, nurses, lawyers, students, artists, and veterans against fascism.

That is what anti-fascism looks like, and we all have a role to play.

It’s time to be brave, bold, and loud.