NOVEMBER 21ST, 2016
Since the election results came out, Nov 8th, thousands of high schools and university students are walking out of their classes and campuses, and marching through the streets to protest the result of the election. The night of the election more than 50,000 people protested in Oakland, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and other cities.
By Florence Oppen.
This has become a daily routine of insurgency and the most startling example was the huge march, that was led by the Latino community and working class families in Los Angeles led a 100,000 protest on Nov 14th. This popular and grassroots mobilization against a Presidential electoral result is absolutely unprecedented in the United States.
Under the slogan “not our president” black and brown youth, young workers and students across the country are sending a very clear to Trump, and also to the Democratic Party: this will not be “business as usual”, we do have a very different vision of the kind of democracy we want, and we are not going to remain silent when our labor rights, our democratic rights and our communities are viciously attacked. This is why student assemblies at the University of California and many high schools are calling for a massive protest on January 20th 2017, the inauguration speech of Trump. This is why thousands of women have pledged to march in Washington and all over the country on January 21st.
The Democrats and Liberals are Telling Us “to Give Trump a Chance” and “Work With Him”
At the beginning of the Democratic Party primary process in 2015 and early 2016, there seemed to be some tension between the so called “progressive” wing of the Democrats (Sanders and Warren) and its neoliberal hawk side (Clinton). But after the Democratic Party Convention, Sanders not only stopped his opposition to Clinton, but he disciplined all of his base that wanted to vote for the Green Party or independent socialist alternatives and pushed for a blind support to her formal rival.
Now that Trump has been elected (due partially to the failing political and economic program of the Democratic Party millions of workers rejected), Clinton, Obama, Sanders and Warren are asking all of us to accept passively the result of the elections. The Democratic Party is working very fast and hard to normalize Trump’s proto-fascist and white supremacist presidency and is offering to “work with him” in some areas of his program.
On November 15th and after meeting with Trump, Obama argued that “it is important to give him the room and the space” to apply his program and try it out.[1] In a speech to the AFL-CIO Warren implied that Trump might be willing to work to “increase economic security of workers” and that he “will put aside [their] differences’ and “work with him to accomplish that goal”.[2] Same with Pelosi who is willing to “work together” with Trump for the “good” side of his program, like investing in infrastructure.[3] Sander’s just said that “If Mr. Trump has the guts to stand up to those corporations,” “he will have an ally with me.”[4]
The Democratic Party and the liberals want to enforce the electoral result to defend the current bourgeois democratic regime against workers and youth who massively said on Nov 8th that they reject the current regime and the rule of the 1%. They want us to suck it up and wait until 2020 to change our fate. And we say NO!
We Don’t Agree With the Democrats: “The Kids Are Right, We Need to Fight!”
The youth protesting in the streets is not questioning the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency on the liberal and bourgeois-democratic basis: it is not about reforming the electoral college, or asserting the “popular vote” against the electoral college mechanism, given that Clinton did win the popular vote. They are questioning the rule of the 1% altogether, and they are saying that Trump IS the most brutal expression of the 1%, regardless of its 60 million voters (out of 231 million voters) might think.
The youth and working families protesting in the streets are manifesting their fierce opposition to the many attacks and threats Trump launched during his campaign. As the ACLU summarized, Trump promised among other things:
- A mass deportation force to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants
- ban the entry of Muslims and institute aggressive surveillance programs targeting them
- restrict a woman’s right to abortion services
- reauthorize waterboarding and other forms of torture
- change our nation’s libel laws and restrict freedom of expression
These are not only clear violations of the U.S. Constitution (of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments), as the ACLU points out, they are also a full blown attack to working people.[5] And young people, especially young students and workers and people of color, and many women and LGBTQI youth are saying: we will not wait and see, we must organize now a broad and truly democratic resistance to prevent Trump from applying any of these attacks and build a real political alternative for working people, undocumented and communities of color in this country.
Students are saying: we do not need to accept white supremacy, violent attacks, mass deportations, bullying and a massive curtailment of our democratic rights. On the opposite we need to unite and fight back. And we, as revolutionary socialist we say: yes, the kids are right, we need to fight!
Let’s Make J20 and J21 a Success! All Workers Should Join the Protests With Their Demands
Several community groups and student organizations have called for massive protests, walkouts and strikes on January 20th, for the inauguration of Trump and January 21st when the Million Women March in Washington has been called and several cities will echo with local demonstrations.
The students of the University of California and some unions are putting forward a call for action, that goes beyond the distorted “fuck Trump” portrait of demonstrations by the corporate media. Students, workers and communities of color have a lot to say to Trump and to whoever wants to normalize his presidency. We have concrete demands we are organizing to fight for: free public education, make the universities and schools sanctuary campuses, end all deportations, expand and defend abortion rights and Planned Parenthood, divest from Israel, fossil fuels and private prisons, defend and expand union’s right by defeating “right to work” legislation, and oppose any form of racism, sexism, homophobia and Islamophobia.
In North Dakota the Native American nations and tribes still continue their fierce opposition to the North Dakota Access Pipeline (#noDAPL), and they are joined everyday my more union folks and youth. Their opposition to Obama, Pentagon and the major oil corporations is going to be another source of resistance to Trump, who does support fossil fuels, the oil cartel and the military-industrial complex.
We need to make those protests, walkouts and strikes big, we need to unite the struggles, we need to organize workers in their unions, workplaces and neighborhoods so they can participate with their demands and send a very clear sign to Trump: you may have won this election, but we hold the power in this country, worker power, and you have not defeated us yet!
All Out on January 20th and 21st!
No to the DAPL!
Let’s Organize in all high schools and college campuses! Let’s organize in all unions and workplaces to come out on the 20th and 21st!
Let’s say no to deportations, racism, Islamophobia, sexism, homophobia and the curtailment of our democratic rights!
Trump is not our President, We Have the Power and Another Vision For This Country!
***
Notes:
[1] http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/obama-news-conference-donald-trump-transition/
[2] “Let me be 100 percent clear about this: When President-elect Trump wants to take on these issues, when his goal is to increase the economic security of middle-class families, then count me in,” the Massachusetts senator said. “I will put aside our differences and I will work with him to accomplish that goal. I offer to work as hard as I can and to pull as many people as I can into this effort. If Trump is ready to go on rebuilding economic security for millions of Americans, so am I, and so are a lot of other people — Democrats and Republicans.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/10/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-vow-to-work-with-t/
[3] “As President-elect Trump indicated last night, investing in infrastructure is an important priority of his,” Ms. Pelosi said Wednesday. “We can work together to quickly pass a robust infrastructure jobs bill.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/10/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-vow-to-work-with-t/
[4] http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/17/politics/bernie-sanders-donald-trump-allies/index.html
[5] http://usuncut.news/2016/11/18/aclu-publishes-full-page-open-letter-in-ny-times-for-trump-and-its-spectacular-image/