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Volume 55 Number 1, January 25, 2025 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
People's March, Washington DC, January 18,
2025
Militant demonstrations were held in more than 80 US cities in over 40 states on the occasion of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. Starting with the mass rally held in Washington DC on January 18, the Saturday before the inauguration, people's marches and inauguration day actions were also held in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, Chicago, Houston and New Orleans as well as other places.
Detroit, USA
US workers and people from all fields of endeavour made known in no uncertain terms their rejection of the measures Donald Trump is taking. With speeches, slogans and placards, they upheld the cause of peace, freedom and democracy. Many demanded new arrangements which put the demands of the people in first place, not those of the billionaire class.
The fight against the brutal wave of anti-immigration raids has also begun to take shape. People all over the United States are opposing the state-organised racist attacks on US workers, all of whom are of immigrant origin, with the exception of the original inhabitants of the land which includes the inhabitants of the 55 per cent of Mexican territory annexed in 1848. This includes the original Mexican inhabitants of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and most of Arizona and Colorado, while Texas had been annexed three years earlier. In return, the Mexican inhabitants of those lands were given US citizenship but continue to be treated as enemy aliens in order to create chaos and divide the US people to keep them from uniting against the anti-social attacks of the narrow private interests which have usurped the powers of the state.
According to reports, the declared modus operandi of the government and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is to target undocumented immigrants starting with major cities including New York, Miami, and Chicago. In addition, ICE is detaining individuals with previous criminal records or those deemed to be in violation of immigration laws. Establishment media are creating utmost confusion about what is legal and what is not. The resistance forces are aware this is aimed at spreading uncertainty in the movements in defence of all to make them vacillate. But as people step up the fight for what is right, this will not succeed. They oppose the brutal treatment of human beings, families, children and workers in every sector of the economy and are actively opposing the campaigns of fear by uniting people in action to defend the rights of all.
Boston, USA
There are some 600 sanctuary cities and jurisdictions in the US, each with its own restrictions on the actions of federal forces. For instance, Chicago will only permit the detainment of undocumented individuals if they are wanted on a criminal warrant by local or federal authorities, if they have been convicted of a serious crime and remain in the United States illegally, or if they are otherwise a clear threat to public safety or national security. These are the pretexts ICE is using to target, detain and criminalise people of colour, "documented" or not. Thousands in working class neighbourhoods are affected along with their communities.
Establishment media reports are repeating that fear has gripped the working class communities and neighbourhoods but they remain largely silent about the people's united fight against the raids. These establishment forces never see the face of the US working class and its fight for the rights of all. They see the society divided into people of colour and those of no colour, those who they deem to be documented and those they deem are undocumented, those they see as criminals and those they do not see at all and so on.
In their dreams, the US working class and people are not fighting, are not defending the rights of all. In their dreams, they are united behind the Trump agenda. In their dreams, human rights organisations and civil liberties organisations are not protesting against abuses, disruption of families and impunity of all kinds.
The People's Agenda
Washington DC, USA
By taking to the streets, during the demonstrations held all over the US, working people militantly staked their claim on society and the rights which belong to them by virtue of being human. They stated clearly that working people must be the ones who set the agenda for the society, not the billionaires, the ultra-rich and their representatives. Many have been steeled in the opposition to the US/Israeli genocide, attacks on LGBT2SQ communities, especially trans youth, and many other struggles waged to humanise the natural and social environment in the past and present.
One of the announced aims of the demonstrations was to launch a nation-wide movement which pledged to oppose the "ultra-right, billionaire agenda". Organisations of the working class and those involved in the fights for peace and social justice which signed the pledge include the Party for Socialism and Liberation, United Auto Workers Local 4811, Palestinian Youth Movement, United Educators of San Francisco, Black Men Build, Democratic Socialists of America, The People's Forum, ANSWER Coalition, US Palestinian Community Network, UNITE HERE Local 2, Artists Against Apartheid, CODEPINK, Los Angeles Tenants Union and Dream Defenders, amongst others.
Their speeches and placards made clear that the people's resistance and mettle is what will define the future.
"Trump is planning to wage war on immigrant families through a brutal mass deportation campaign," said Claudia De La Cruz, who ran on a socialist platform in her campaign for president against both Harris and Trump, on the ticket of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. "We will stand up and say NO to these attacks. Trump is a billionaire, was elected with the help of other billionaires, and runs the government on behalf of the billionaire class. All working people, no matter where you were born, should stand together in solidarity against the billionaire class that wants to rob and exploit us all," she said.
"His real agenda is to destroy workers' rights, deport millions of immigrant families," Brian Becker, National Director of the ANSWER Coalition, said. Calling Trump's "put American Workers First" a Con game, Becker added that Trump plans to "pave the way for a complete corporate takeover by ending regulations to protect the environment, firing thousands of public sector workers, and transferring ever-larger parts of the national treasury to the military industrial complex."
In the opinion of Manolo De Los Santos, Executive Director of The People's Forum, "We can defeat the Trump programme not by following the Democratic Party establishment, but by building a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to billionaires while impoverishing an ever larger section of the population."
(TML In the News, January 22, 2025)