Hundreds of protesters gathered at noon, Jan. 29, outside of the departing terminals of Miami International Airport to denounce the U.S.’s recent ban on immigrants from countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The crowd grew bigger and more militant throughout the afternoon, despite the pouring rain and chilly weather. Signs and activists were dampened but their spirits were not.

As their numbers swelled, the group crossed the street, passed the police line, and made their way to the entrance doors of the terminal. The protesters held homemade signs and banners that read: “Refugees welcome!” “No ban no wall!” and “Stop the witch hunt against Arab and Muslim Americans!”

The crowd was filled with immigrant families and people of all nationalities, ages and religions. Several families brought their children, including many babies in strollers. They chanted for five hours straight and received consistent approving honks from cars going by.

Activists in Miami feel personally connected to the fight against the Trump agenda because of Miami’s reputation as an international city and because recent comments by the mayor of Miami. Mayor Carlos Jimenez ordered the county jails and law enforcement to “fully cooperate” with the federal government’s anti-immigrant policies. This would strip Miami of its current sanctuary city status.

The mayor’s actions prompted the crowd outside of the airport to chant, “Mayor Jimenez shame on you!” Other chants at the event included, “Aqui estamos, y no nos vamos!” and, “No wall, no registry dump white supremacy!”

Across town, protesters also gathered outside of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. These two simultaneous protests marked the fifth day of major protests against the Trump agenda in South Florida since he won the election. More protests against the Republican agenda of war, hate and racism are already planned for the weeks ahead.

#MiamiFL #US #PeoplesStruggles #immigrantRights #Antiracism #Elections #Elections2016 #DonaldTrump

New York, NY – After days of unrest following the results of the U.S. presidential election, tens of thousands of people continue to flood the streets of downtown Manhattan, Nov. 12, in direct opposition to the new President-elect Donald J. Trump.

The protesters met at Union Square in the early afternoon, swiftly filling 5th Avenue and shutting down traffic as it progressed north. Chants of “Not my president,” and “We are the popular vote” reverberated off the buildings lining over 30 uninterrupted blocks, eventually coming to a halt at the base of Trump Tower as protesters were met by barricades and heavily armed police officers defending Trump’s fortress.

“The last four days of nationwide protests is a small sign of what Trump can expect. There are 20 blocks of protesters here on 5th Avenue angered by Tuesday’s election and, more importantly, ready to challenge the Trump administration. We can expect he’ll follow through on his racist, sexist, anti-worker policies, and he should expect continued resistance,” said Michelle Morris, a progressive activist in the city.

#NewYorkNewYork #US #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #Elections2016

Miami, FL – Over 4000 people took to the streets of Miami Friday night, Nov. 11 to protest the presidential election and President-elect Donald Trump. Like the dozens of major protests that have erupted across the country, this impromptu emergency call to action was issued one day after the election results were announced and immediately spread like wildfire over social media.

The massive march was a denunciation of the racist, anti-women and xenophobic rhetoric and policies put forth by Donald Trump and his campaign, as well as a condemnation of both major political parties’ corrupt practices and collusion with the 1%.

The protest began outside of Bayfront Amphitheater in Biscayne Bay, at the heart of downtown Miami. Even before the scheduled start-time, hundreds of people began gathering at the meetup location, carrying signs that read, “Not my president,” and “The DNC gave us Trump.” By 7 p.m., the numbers had swelled, chants grew louder and louder, and the group left the park and took to Biscayne Boulevard chanting, “The people, united, will never be divided!”

The massive group, led by a banner that read “Dump Trump! No hate In FL!” took over downtown Miami and halted all traffic going in and out of downtown. Cars honked in support, many drivers joining in the chants with their windows lowered. After an hour of marching north on Biscayne Blvd, the group abandoned their original route and took to the MacArthur Causeway, hopping the barriers to stop traffic from both directions.

As protesters marched down the highway for a mile, more and more people joined in. After leaving the Causeway, protesters marched back to Biscayne Bay only to retake another one of Miami’s busiest highways, Interstate 95. Once on the highway, they chanted “Muslim lives matter!” and “We reject the president elect!”

The group marched for miles from 6 to 10 p.m., never backing down, never stopping to rest. The protesters were diverse in gender, age and nationality. People marched for LGBTQ rights, climate change, peace, women’s rights and against racist discrimination. They marched against hate, fear and bigotry.

An attack on the march came from the balcony of a Miami condo building near the I-95 exit to Biscayne Boulevard, from which spiteful onlookers opposed to the march threw several glass bottles down at the protesters from several stories up. The bottles shattered on the street below; a woman and an eleven-year-old girl arm was struck and bruised, causing her to fall to the ground in tears. The height from which the bottle was thrown could have done much more serious damage.

The protest in Miami was one of three major protests held throughout South Florida over the weekend. More protests are planned for the coming days and weeks in South Florida to denounce Donald Trump. Plans are also in the making to converge on the nation’s capital on inauguration day.

#MiamiFl #US #PeoplesStruggles #Florida #POWIR #Elections #Elections2016

She gave a speech denouncing the repressiveness of the police, and then joined the march. They marched through downtown chanting, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” They stopped at every bar and night club so that everyone in downtown could hear them.

The police were being more aggressive that evening, with dozens of police horses and cops with batons. During the protest, there was an argument with a Trump protester near a bar, and the police on horseback rushed to defend the Trump backer. A few protesters were trampled by the horses, one of whom was a young child. The child was smashed into a metal table and injured.

Towards the end of the march, a Trump supporter assaulted one of the protesters. The cops rushed to defend the Trump supporter, and then arrested the protester, charging her with 'disorderly conduct'. While the police only arrested one person, they were threatening to arrest multiple people.

Rachel Dawlish, a student at the University of Houston, said, “The incredible repressiveness of the police is an indication of the brutality that is to come. This is Trump's America: a society ruled by a repressive state that silences all opposition. We refuse to allow Trump's thugs to silence us, and we will be out here every week in order to prepare against the offensive that is to come.”

The protest ended with a unity clap and chants of “All power to the people!” The demonstration was organized by the Peoples New Black Panther Party and Students for a Democratic Society. Students at the University of Houston are planning to walk out next week, and more protests are scheduled.

#HoustonTX #US #PeoplesStruggles #Texas #Elections #Elections2016

Tampa, FL – Over 200 people gathered here, Nov. 10, at the Sam Gibbons Courthouse in downtown Tampa to protest the President-elect Donald Trump. The action was organized by Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Tampa Bay SDS member Tori Stratis led the crowd with chants, such as “No Trump, No KKK, No racist USA!”, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” and “Dump Trump!”

Ellysa Treviño, a student researcher from San Antonio, upon hearing the protest, joined the crowd from a medical convention nearby. “I’m really disappointed that an election campaign that seemed to be a joke, was actually successful,” she said.

Heather Henry of the Tampa Anti-War Committee (TAWC) spoke about Trump’s proposed foreign and domestic policies, saying “Not only is Trump going to send more money to Israel, he is going to put more money towards the growth of our military and our police forces, furthering our militarized presence at home and abroad, and leading to more violence against this country’s own people among others.”

Danya Zituni of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “We need to channel this momentum into organizing, so we can defend our communities and build sustainable movements independent of the political establishment that provided both Trump and Hillary as viable candidates.”

After speeches at the courthouse, the crowd marched through downtown to Curtis Hixon Park, ending the night with speeches from the crowd and chants.

Along with Tampa Bay SDS, the protest was co-sponsored with Tampa Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Planned Parenthood Generation Action. Tampa will continue to fight back against Trump’s racist, sexist, anti-refugee and anti-immigrant agenda.

#TampaFl #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #SDS #US #PeoplesStruggles #Florida #Antifascism #Elections #Elections2016 #AntiTrump

While Trump is an unabashed advocate of capitalism and greed, many of the rich and powerful are nervous about handing him the keys to the White House. They see him as erratic and unfit to run the empire they have built. As for the people of this country, most reject Trump’s reactionary agenda.

Hillary Clinton is a known quantity; she is a faithful servant of Wall Street and a war criminal to boot. An enemy of low-income women, she backed welfare ‘reform’ which plunged millions into deeper poverty. Why do big bankers and financiers host her speaking events and pay her big sums of money? Clinton tells them what they want to hear. From the coup in Honduras to the U.S./NATO attack on Libya – she is a candidate with a track record of leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

If anything shows the bankruptcy of the money-dominated two-party system, it is the presumed candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties – Trump and Clinton. Monopoly capitalism is an exploitive, failed and dying system, whose principal political representatives are worthy of the Jerry Springer show. Both are apologists for police crimes and terror. They have no claim to our respect and support. This is not a call to boycott elections. The point is this: the unelectable Trump is an insufficient reason to organize support for Clinton.

The outpouring of support for Bernie Sanders represented a rejection of the way things are and a yearning for something better. There is a profound dissatisfaction in this country with the billionaires, Wall Street and capitalism. Millions of people are attracted to the idea of socialism. There is the potential for this broad, progressive political current to contribute to a growing struggle against the ruling elite.

Things in the country have changed. Everywhere people are in motion. Every major city, and many of the small ones, have been rocked by protests against police crimes. This country is a prison house for the oppressed – Africans Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, Asians Americans and Native peoples. The spark has been struck and the fight is on for equality and liberation.

When the students of Chicago shut down Trump, they signaled the way forward. Every city the bigot Trump shows his face in, he should be shut down. We are building a movement against everything he stands for.

In the months ahead it is vital that the people’s movements are in the streets, advancing our demands. The billionaires have bought and paid for politicians from the two parties to represent their interests. We need to fight for our own.

The epidemic of police terror, rampant inequality, attacks on our standard of living, and endless wars serve as indictment of a system that is guilty as hell. We can do better than this. A country where things are radically wrong cries out for a revolutionary solution. We need to end the rule of the wealthy, to break the grip of the billionaires. It is not going to happen tomorrow – but in the long run we get what we fight for. Working and oppressed people need the political power and control of the economy to remake society in our interests. Capitalism must go and socialism will set us free.

#UnitedStates #CapitalismAndEconomy #US #Elections #BernieSanders #DonaldTrump #RNC2016 #HilaryClinton #USElections #Elections2016