Atlanta, GA – On August 3, a coalition of local activists and community members gathered at Georgia State Convocation Center to protest a high-profile rally for former President Donald Trump and Republican Senator JD Vance.

The demonstration, organized by the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America, was called in response to the extreme right-wing agenda promoted by Trump, Vance and the Republican Party as a whole.

The protesters gathered directly outside the venue, facing off the thousands of MAGA supporters from around the Southeast, as evidenced by the number of people with wearing LSU and Alabama caps, who were unable to secure a spot inside. Police looked on as tensions escalated. Numerous Trump supporters physically confronted activists without consequence, shoving and throwing empty beer cans.

With signs reading “From Atlanta to Palestine, occupation is a crime” and ‘End U.S. aid to Israel,’ activists put special emphasis on opposing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people committed by Israel and the United States. Throughout the event, chants drew attention to Trump’s hateful, genocidal rhetoric towards Palestine and warmongering in the Middle East.

Protesters also voiced their disapproval of Trump’s record on mass incarceration, and his attacks on immigrant, LGBTQ and reproductive rights.

When the red-faced MAGA crowd tried to drown out protestors with rabidly jingoistic chants of “USA! USA,” the protesters countered with “Free free Palestine!”

Inside the center, Trump and Vance welcomed Georgia’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones. Jones’ appearance drew criticism from the protest crowd for his participation as one of the 16 illegitimate GOP electors who falsified documents during the unsuccessful plot to declare Trump the 2020 presidential winner.

Proud conspiracy theorist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congressman Mike Collins – who recently lauded a video of white Ole Miss students terrorizing a Black woman – and former Trump White House Political Director and Congressional-hopeful Brian Jack filled out the five-hour speaking list.

“We’re out here because Trump, Vance, and all these genocide-supporters are not welcome in our city,” said Erica Schneider, a spokesperson for the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

As the march to November and the 2024 presidential election continues, the swing-state of Georgia is likely to be a well-trodden pit stop for both the Republicans and the Democrats. Local activists in Atlanta plan to continue organizing protests and demonstrations to confront both parties and raise a people’s agenda.

#AtlantaGA #AAARPR #DSA #Feature #Trump #Vance #2024Election #PresidentialElection #Atlanta #FreePalestine #Republicans #Republican #GOP

Edina, MN – 50 protesters converged on the Minnesota Republican Party headquarters, November 10, to stand against U.S. President Donald Trump.

The event took place one month after President Trump held a rally in Minneapolis. According to a press release from the Anti-War Committee, “Trump’s lies led to a rise in hate crimes in every county where he held a campaign rally in 2016. Statistics show that hate crimes doubled compared to other counties, and it's because his blatantly hateful rhetoric is designed to incite violence and further racist and xenophobic views. The Minnesota Republican Party not only hosted him but has been silent as he attacked the immigrant and refugee communities that are a part of Minnesota.”

The afternoon began with the crowd holding signs and banners that read “Reject Trump and GOP bigotry!” and “Black lives matter!” Chants such as “Indict! Convict! Send his racist ass to jail! His whole damn system is guilty as hell!” rang loudly, to the dismay of the five Trump-supporters who had arrived to counter-protest the event.

Erica Zurowski from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) spoke out against the injustice facing immigrants in the U.S., stating, “This didn't begin with Trump. We were out here when Obama was in office orchestrating mass deportations, and we'll be here long after we kick Trump out of office!”

“[Trump supporters] claim to support equality and justice for all” exclaimed Haji Youseff, a member of the local Somali community in the Twin Cities. “But you do not look at me as an equal! You look down on me because of my color! Because of where I'm from! Because of my faith! Because of my sexuality!”

Autumn Lake, a member of the Anti-War Committee, closed out the program, saying, “When Trump rallied here, he took aim at our immigrant and refugee communities, themselves victims of U.S. foreign policy seeking refuge in the United States.” She continued, “We stand here today outraged that this call to racist violence was hosted and enabled by the Minnesota Republican Party. We are here to say that racist violence is not welcome in the state of Minnesota.”

The November 10 event was organized by the Anti-War Committee.

#EdinaMN #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #AntiWarCommittee #GOP

During Walker's time in office, he and his cronies in state government were able to consolidate power and authority into the hands of a few reactionary business-class puppets. After taking office in 2011, Walker and his administration immediately went to work dismantling workers’ rights, unions, health care, welfare and public education.

Protests against Walker's attacks on public sector unions numbered 250,000 people as working and oppressed people gathered for rallies and an occupation of the state capitol. Energy from the 2011 uprising was funneled into a Democratic Party recall campaign that failed to unseat Walker or stop his agenda of dismantling union rights. But the mass movements against Walker continued organizing for seven years, raising awareness of the negative impact of his attacks on public schools, unions, oppressed nationalities and working people. These efforts finally dealt Walker an electoral defeat this fall as his opponent Tony Evers ran a successful campaign to fully fund public schools and undo many of Walker's attacks.

In the weeks since the election results came in, Wisconsin GOP lawmakers worked in secret to strip as many powers as possible from the incoming governor. A surprise announcement of the special legislative session in the late evening on November 30 sparked a wave of outrage from the masses of people who had finally rid themselves of the reactionary Walker administration.

Labor groups organized phone-banks in an attempt to sway state senators, or at least make them aware of the outrage of their constituents. More than 1000 people flocked to Madison on the day of the session for the public hearing section. While the hundreds of people who signed up to speak out against these measures waited for their opportunity, still more hundreds more packed the chamber of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC), the hallways leading into it, and the capitol's overflow room. The righteous protesters chanted and banged on the walls, prompting the police to lock the doors to the committee chamber. The people would not be so easily subdued, however, and the police ultimately began removing the most vocal opposition. After the hours-long public comment hearing ended, the masses of people bore the brunt of harsh Wisconsin winter weather and continued to rally in the dark while the JFC voted to approve passing the bill package on to the state legislature.

By the time the dust settled on the morning of December 5, the GOP senate had shifted a long list of powers to GOP-controlled offices and bodies. Lame duck Governor Scott Walker would sign the bills all into law on December 14 before a confused Venn diagram that has since been relentlessly mocked on social media.

With their power grab as law, the reactionaries in government have severely handicapped the Evers administration and further diminished the ability for the masses to participate in the paltry corporate democracy offered to them to begin with.

Some measures include: the restriction of early voting; elimination of the ability of the governor to approve withdrawal from lawsuits, effectively derailing Evers' campaign promise to remove Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act; requiring Medicaid recipients to hold a job while also giving the legislature oversight over any future attempts of the governor to seek waivers for health care; and requiring state health officials to implement a waiver granted by the Trump administration which allows Wisconsin to demand that childless adults must work in order to receive health insurance from a state program designed for the poor. The bill prevents Evers from withdrawing the waiver and from gaining control of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) – a private-public hybrid agency created under Walker which is allegedly responsible for job creation – through new appointments, instead expanding the number of legislative appointments.

The power grab in Wisconsin is not unique. Similar events have occurred in Michigan and other states. This is an attack on democratic rights and the rights of working and oppressed people. This is one attack in a long history of attacks on voting rights for African Americans and other oppressed people. The outrageous voter suppression that occurred in Georgia's 2018 mid-term election is another recent example of the ruling class seeking to undo years of advances earned through the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 60s.

Another major piece of the power grab in Wisconsin is the component that takes away the governor's control over the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC). Walker oversaw the establishment of the WEDC to facilitate the stripping of Wisconsin's environmental regulations, thus making the state more appealing to monopoly capital investment. In other words, the function of the WEDC is not to create jobs, but to make the billionaires who have propped Walker up all the more rich.

In 2017 Walker's WEDC facilitated an enormous transfer of wealth from Wisconsin's working class to the Taiwanese corporation Foxconn to the tune of $3 billion in taxpayer money. The bourgeoisie and their reactionary political representatives in the Wisconsin GOP want to continue to control the WEDC in spite of the democratic will of the majority for a change of direction. The ruling class and their allies seek to prevent Governor-elect Evers from being a conduit of a developing movement toward mass resistance to the continued selling off of the state.

Governor-elect Tony Evers wants to lead the state in a more progressive direction, but has his own ties to big business. He has repeatedly emphasized relying on cooperation, compromise and finding “common ground” with the Republican-dominated legislature. After the unprecedented lame duck power grab it is clearer than ever that the GOP has no interest in cooperating to accomplish any reforms that would benefit working and oppressed people.

At the end of the day, what is happening currently in Wisconsin demonstrates the naked reality of bourgeois democracy: the billionaires can change laws or government structures to their benefit, all while the votes of the majority can be ignored.

In the face of what may appear to some to be insurmountable obstacles, how can we fight back and win? We cannot wait for Evers to bring the fight to the GOP and the billionaire interests they represent. Whether he does anything at all will be entirely dependent upon the progressive forces across Wisconsin. Without a mass movement pushing Evers, little will be accomplished.

While some of the lame duck changes are already being challenged in the courts, we shouldn't hold our breath for those courts to overturn any of the contents of this legislation. The people behind the movements fighting to overturn Act 10, fighting against racist police and immigration policies, against the attacks on women's reproductive rights, on the rights for trans and other gender non-conforming people to exist, and all of the other mass struggles need to hold Evers's feet to the fire.

#MilwaukeeWI #Labor #Wisconsin #ScottWalker #GOP