Washington, DC – On a windy Monday morning, January 20, protesters rallied and marched in opposition to Trump’s inauguration and his reactionary billionaire agenda. Organized by the We Fight Back coalition, organizations united around demands to defend the people’s movements from expected attacks by the Trump administration.

Heating the chill of the air with the fire of their spirits, protesters rallied in Malcolm X Park as speakers from endorsing organizations and coalition partners delivered their message to the crowd.

Coalition members and endorsing organizations included Bayan USA, Anakbayan, Migrante USA, Malaya DC, Kabataan Alliance DMV, International League of People’s Struggle, International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the DC Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (DCAARPR).

Sydney Loving, a leading member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd, “There’s no one that Trump’s administration won’t try to pick a fight with. But we intend to bring the fight to him. Even if we don’t start the fights, we are going to finish them.”

The organizing chair for DCAARPR said, “Unity is central to our struggle, and we must be united against Trump to defeat him and his reactionary agenda.”

“In the Alliance, we do not call ourselves allies,” the organizing chair continued, “We stand in solidarity with each other. Because we recognize that the same forces genociding our Palestinian family, deporting and attacking our undocumented brothers and sisters, and abridging our reproductive rights are the same forces that target, kill and oppress us as Black people.”

After rallying in the park, protesters took to the streets with chants such as “MPD, KKK, IOF, they’re all the same,” “Free Palestine,” and “The people united will never be defeated!”

The march stopped at the Philippine Embassy, where speakers denounced the collusion between the American and Philippine governments to oppress and exploit Filipinos and how the Trump presidency will continue and further human rights abuses in the Philippines.

“Our people should not be exploited,” said Norynne Caleja, of Malaya DC. “Our people should not be killed and our people should not be shipped out of the Philippines just for U.S. interests.”

The march wound up at Dupont Circle with speeches demanding an end to funding war and militarization by cutting budgets from people’s services; unity to protect immigrants and workers from attacks from the Trump administration, and an end to forced migration.

“The education system produces low-wage workers for export to be treated as commodities for other nations,” said Paolo Estrella, of Kabataan Alliance DMV. “Because of this, we see millions of Filipinos who left the Philippines to work overseas as migrants in the United States – who will be impacted by the Trump administration and their [plans for] mass deportations.”

Though the weather was below freezing, the people brought their passion and righteous anger at the billionaire bigots heading into the White House. The mobilization concluded with a call to action for attendees to get involved with and join organizations that will mount an organized fightback against the Trump administration and his reactionary agenda.

“They have the money, the media, and the power,” the organizing chair from DCAARPR said, “but we have the one thing they don’t: us. Our strength is our numbers, and when we are united, there is nothing the people can’t do. It's our job to make them tremble when we roar, all power to the people!”

#WashingtonDC #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #J20 #ImmigrantRights #WomensMovement #AntiWarMovement #Palestine

Chicago, IL – Negative wind chill could not keep the Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda from mobilizing 2500 people to Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago to protest the inauguration of Donald Trump.

In the cold midday sun, protesters rallied at the Plaza, marched to Trump Tower, and then rallied a second time there – all to mark a new phase of struggle that will see the social justice movement face grave dangers in the agenda of Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans.

Over 80 organizations are members of the Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda. They are united around the demands to fight the racist and reactionary Republican agenda; defend and expand immigrant rights; stand with Palestine; defend the right to unionize and strike; stop police crimes; defend women’s LGBTQ and reproductive rights, and defend education and academic freedom.

A number of the forces organizing today’s action led last year’s March on the DNC, including the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and Anti-War Committee. As in the case of the March on the DNC, the coalition is broad, containing forces from across the movement, including those in immigrant rights, Palestinian rights, Black liberation, labor, and more.

A plurality of march attendees were Latino immigrants, including three busloads of immigrant workers from the suburban DuPage County organization, Worker Center of Immigrant Solidarity.

The involvement of immigrant rights groups like Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Mijente is important, especially since the Trump administration’s very first attacks in the U.S. will likely be directed against immigrants.

“We came here in spite of everything, we have paid our taxes, we’ve built our families here, our kids were born here, and we’re not going anywhere!” said Martín Unzueta, executive director and founder of Chicago Community & Worker’s Rights and spokesperson for Mijente.

Other immigrant organizations mobilized as well, including the HANA Center, a Korean American immigrant justice organization; and Anakbayan, a youth organization fighting for Filipino rights and liberation.

In addition to immigrant rights groups, some of the Palestinian rights organizations that led 16 months’ worth of protests against the Israeli/U.S. genocide on Gaza, including USPCN and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Chicago, took part in the march.

With a ceasefire in Gaza reached just last week, Palestinian rights groups have emphasized that such a victory was only the result of fierce resistance on the part of the Palestinian people and their allies across the world, and not the benevolence of Trump, Biden, Blinken, or any other figure in Washington.

“This achievement only belongs to the steadfast Palestinian resistance and the people of Gaza,” said Noura Ebrahim, USPCN member and co-founder of Boycott Divestment Sanctions – Chicago.

Also protesting Trump were Black liberation organizations like CAARPR, Black Lives Matter Chicago, GoodKids MadCity, Chicago Torture Justice Center, and more.

The involvement of Black liberation organizations is also important, given that Trump’s previous presidency saw Black people in the U.S. experience further economic degradation, the intensification of police repression (such as the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor), and more mass incarceration of Black communities. Trump will seek to continue that trend in his second term, though the resistance, as last time, will be fierce.

“We cannot allow Trump to carry out mass deportations of immigrants. If they come after them today, they’ll come after the rest of us tomorrow,” said Frank Chapman, field director of CAARPR and executive director of the National Alliance.

To mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Daryle Brown, a minister at the historic Trinity United Church of Christ greeted the rally with a prayer.

Organized labor is also an essential element of the coalition, with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and CTU’s Black Caucus, United Auto Workers Local 2320, and United Electrical Workers – Western Region among the endorsers of the rally. Many of their rank-and-file members were in attendance.

“Fighting for the rights of oppressed people is not new in Chicago! We stand united here,” said Dr. Diane Castro of CTU.

Other organizations in the Coalition to Stop the Trump Agenda include Anti-War Action Network, Community Renewal Society, Arab American Action Network, United Working Families 50th Ward and others.

#ChicagoIL #IL #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights #InJusticeSystem #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #CTU #Trump #J20 #Feature

Many of the speakers touched on Donald Trump’s incoming attacks on working people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and war mongering against oppressed nations around the world. With MLK Day falling on January 20 this year, speakers also celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy and connected it to the fight against Trump today.

“Trump and his allies in the monopoly capitalist class represent a real threat to the labor movement, as he has already voiced support for a national right-to-work law,” said Alex Carson, a UPS Teamster out of Atlanta. “Georgia and many other states in the South already suffer under right to work laws that threaten union jobs and weaken strikes.”

The rally was organized by a number of organizations including Palestinian Youth Movement, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, and Atlanta DSA.

#AtlantaGA #GA #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #J20

New York, NY – At 4 p.m. on January 20, New Yorkers braved the cold and the snow to gather on the steps of the Brooklyn War Memorial to protest Trump’s presidency and to resist the Trump agenda.

Protesters chanted “No Trump, no KKK, no racist USA!” and “Racist, sexist, anti-gay! Donald Trump, go away!” making it clear that not only did they oppose Trump, but that they opposed the entire agenda that he represents.

Protesters upheld a broad range of demands, including community control of the police, legalization for all immigrants, an end to all aid to Israel, protection of workers’ rights to unionize and strike, and the defense of women’s and LGBTQ rights.

After Shivani Ishwar of NYAARPR started the rally with a round of chanting “When I say people, you say power,” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go!” The crowd heard from speakers from Columbia SDS, Brooklyn Eviction Defense, and FRSO NYC.

The rally was organized by the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) and endorsed by NYU and Columbia Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Brooklyn Eviction Defense, BAYAN North East, GABRIELA NY, from Pratt, FIT, Adelphi, and St. John’s University.

Speaking on behalf of FRSO, Michela Martinazzi said “In New York we have to be especially careful of this Trump presidency, as cop-Mayor Adams is courting Trump to come into New York City to solve ‘the migrant situation.’ Our own mayor is selling us out to the same man that New York state indicted on 34 separate counts!” To cheers from the crowd, she added, “And while I don’t know which battles we’re going to fight next, I want us to take something away from today. We, the people, are resilient. We, the people, fight back! We the people can win!”

Participants left the rally with the knowledge that this fight is not over. NYAARPR and other organizations leading the people’s movements will continue the fight against Trump and the reactionary agenda for the next four years, and until the people win!

#NewYorkNY #NY #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #J20 #NAARPR #NYAARPR #FRSO #BAYAN #SDS

Tallahassee, FL – On January 14, students marched and rallied at Florida State University as part of a national upsurge to resist the right-wing agenda of President-elect Donald Trump. Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) led the march across campus as the afternoon’s classes were ending, showing hundreds of onlookers that Trump’s election victory wouldn’t silence the student movement.

As the march transitioned into a rally, around 15 protesters were watched by a crowd of supporters, observers, and MAGA hecklers, as local organizers declared the need to resist the billionaire’s plans for tariffs, war and mass deportation.

“We have a rapist and a felon in office for the second time,” said SDS member Christopher Sharpe. “Well-known politicians have been spouting blood libel about immigrants and queer people to a cheering crowd. We do not have the luxury of not taking action when our tax dollars are paying for this.”

“The election of Donald Trump represents a failure of the system that is supposed to represent us,” declared Joelle Nuñez of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “Capitalism, as represented by Donald Trump and the ruling class, cannot handle its contradictions. We believe this system must be smashed and uprooted!”

FSU and its president, Richard McCullough, have employed repressive measures against SDS, along with other progressive and identity-based student organizations due to pressure from the university’s strong Zionist lobby and from right-wing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

This was SDS’ first protest of 2025, which marks over a year since the organization was suspended from FSU for one minute of chanting at a meeting of the university’s board of trustees. Recently, the FSU administration unjustly chose to extend that suspension until January of 2026, charging the students with violating the terms of their suspension by meeting in a public outdoor area on campus. Obviously, this legal warfare is part of an effort to silence dissent on campus in the face of an ever-growing student movement.

Delilah Pierre from the Tallahassee Community Action Committee stated, “Florida State University and universities across the South have been attacking activists, expelling activists, deporting activists for saying nothing more than ‘stop the genocide of the Palestinian people.’ Currently, people feel hopeless, they feel despair, they feel afraid of being targeted for their political beliefs, of standing up for what they believe in. If you're afraid of political repression, don't worry, because we stand with you, we fight with you.”

Pierre continued, “It is shameful that this university tries to act as if they care about diversity – as if they care about trans people, queer people, Black people – when every time Ron Desantis attacks communities they just capitulate, they do whatever he says.”

Trump has criticized the Biden administration for somehow being too gentle in its notoriously brutal moves to crush the pro-Palestine encampments which sprang up across the country during 2024’s Student Intifada. Clearly, Trump intends to be even harsher on protesters than Biden, so organizers in Tallahassee and across the country will have to be more dedicated than ever to building the large, strong, and determined people’s movements which the American people will need to stand up to Trump’s reactionary agenda.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #StudentMovement #Trump #J20 #Feature

Chicago, IL – 300 activists, mostly from Latino communities, and many who are immigrants, packed into City Hall this morning to oppose an attack by city council members against Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.

Cook County Commissioner Anthony Quezada kicked off the rally with chants alternating between Spanish and English. “When Black people are under attack, what do you do?” “Stand up, fight back!”

“When sanctuary is under attack, what do you do?” “Stand up, fight back!”

Then in Spanish, “Pueblo, escucha! Estamos en la lucha!” Which roughly means, “People, listen! We’re in the struggle!”

Frank Chapman, field organizer for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), led a chant of, “The people united will never be defeated,” and remarked that the movement here learned this chant from the struggle in Chile in the early 1970s. He explained the importance of the multi-national character of the rally, with immigrant organizations of Latinos, Asians, Arabs and Africans coming together with a Black-led organization such as CAARPR.

Chapman told the crowd, “Donald Trump is on a mission to divide us. This proves he has not succeeded!”

The rally was a response to reactionary members of the city council, Alderpeople Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares, introducing an ordinance to allow the Chicago Police Department to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to terrorize those immigrant communities. This attack is intended to work hand in glove with the agenda of the Trump regime.

Trump hates Chicago, and the feeling is mutual

Donald Trump will take office on January 20. Because he is a racist, he has a special hatred for our city which began when Chicago sent Barack Obama – the first Black president – to the White House. Trump launched the trajectory that brought him to the White House in 2016 by leading the campaign to deny that Obama was a citizen.

Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) knows another reason for Trump’s anger at Chicago. “Students here rejected his racist hate campaign in 2016,” explained Liz Rathburn of SDS. “He tried to rally at UIC in April that year, and when 5000 people confronted him, he cancelled and fled.”

There is a determined mood in the movement here. Despite often brutally cold weather, activists have spread out to working-class neighborhoods around the city, distributing 20,000 flyers and over 1000 posters in English, Spanish and Arabic.

Immigrants and Chicago: Trump’s first targets

As Trump prepares to take power, he says he will carry out severe attacks on immigrants, promising the largest deportation operation in American history. Trump and his “Border Czar,” Thomas Homan, are planning an all-out assault. Homan said his planned deportation of millions of undocumented workers and their U.S.-born children will “start right here in Chicago,” as he threatened local officials to open the city and its county jail to the will of federal immigration agents.

Homan has even declared he would prosecute Mayor Brandon Johnson for his actions in defense of asylum seekers.

Inauguration Day protest bringing upwards of 200 organizations together

Monday, January 20 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In a perverse coincidence, it’s also the day that a white supremacist will be inaugurated president of the country.

To kick off the anti-Trump movement, at 11 a.m. that day, when Trump begins his swearing in, thousands will gather in Federal Plaza in Chicago to protest his agenda.

The January 20th Coalition lists 72 endorsers, but one of those endorsers is the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, with over 100 organizational members. Another endorser is Consejo de Resistencia pro Inmigrante (Pro-Immigrant Resistance Council), which gathers another 40 organizations, mostly Mexican and Central American community organizations.

The demands of the protest are: Stop the Trump Agenda; Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights; Legalization for All; Stand with Palestine; Defend the Right to Unionize and Strike; Stop Police Crimes; Defend Women’s LGBTQIA+ and Reproductive Rights; and Defend Education and Academic Freedom.

Nazek Sankari of the US Palestinian Community Network noted, “We have organizations representing the Black liberation movement, immigrant rights groups, labor rights, anti-war groups, Palestinian groups, voting rights, and environmental groups.”

Solidarity among organizations representing the many fronts of people’s struggles is exactly what is needed to stand up to the attacks coming at us from Trump and his billionaire backers.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Trump #J20 #ImmigrantRights #PeoplesStruggles #Feature

Trump is set to take office at his inauguration in Washington, D.C., on January 20th. From nonsense expansionist land-grabs, to challenging constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, already his outrageous statements come one after another. While some of this is undoubtedly blustering meant to embolden the most reactionary elements of his base, his incendiary rhetoric contains real, material threats. Trump and his thunderdome of billionaire bigots and fools will make every effort at their disposal to pursue their oppressive, reactionary agenda. A look at his appointments to the incoming administration is a preview of the mess that’s sure to come. The message is clear—big business will come first; the planet and the people will come last.

It is critical that organizations representing the many fronts of people’s struggles call for mobilizations. We know Trump is coming for our movements—through attacks on immigration, rollbacks of democratic rights, and assaults on life-saving protections, and attacks on free speech, on campus or otherwise. Over a million people in the U.S. live under Temporary Protected Status, and Trump’s policies, alongside mass-scale deportations, constitute part of a sharp, broad attack on immigrants. His agenda threatens other critical areas, including access to lifesaving healthcare, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights. In his first term, Trump attacked the rights of federal workers and made it harder for all workers to organize by making anti-labor appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, and there is no reason to think he will do any differently this term. Attacks in one area pave the way for attacks on others. There’s too much at stake, and our best defense is to build the broadest possible front against Trump’s reactionary agenda.

We’re under no illusions that Trump will put an end to the genocide in Gaza. The U.S. continues to send billions in weapons to the Zionist regime, including a recent $8 billion package, and Trump has given no indication that this flow of blood money will stop. While monopoly capitalists are getting rich off of this genocidal war, the Palestinian resistance and its allies are continuing their heroic fight against Zionist occupation. We stand in full solidarity with their struggle. Over the past year, massive mobilizations for Palestine have shown that we’re not backing down—we demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel and an end to the genocide.

With all the challenges ahead, it’s natural that some people will want to retreat and quiet down. But silence won’t save us—solidarity will. Now is the time to be bold, defend our communities and unions, bring as many new fighters alongside us as we can as we work to build the revolutionary movement. Inauguration day will mark the beginning of a new period of struggle, and on January 20th, say no to Trump’s agenda and join us in the streets!

Join the FRSO to build the movement against Trump together!

#PeoplesStruggles #Trump #FRSO #Statement #J20 #Feature

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Frank Chapman, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression executive director, on the present political landscape, and the need for the people’s organizations to rally towards an all-out mobilization on January 20. NAARPR branches and affiliates across the country should join up with the call to fight back against Trump’s agenda and show out for Inauguration Day!

Statement on Trump’s victory and need to protest January 20

In all of the post-election analysis and armchair commentaries, there emerges a fundamental truth, and that truth is that both parties are controlled and managed by the rich. Meaning that the people are left with the best election money can buy.

The genocidal war against Gaza perpetrated by Israel demonstrated more than any other issues that when it comes to U.S. imperialism there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans that makes a difference. In terms of warmongering rhetoric, the parties are united.

The Gaza genocidal war was a double edge sword. Perhaps this explains why the margin of victory was such a small percentage. Given this perspective, we do not see Trump’s victory as indicative of the people giving the far right a mandate. On the contrary we see his victory as a manifestation of the fact that the Democrats with respect to foreign and domestic policies have made a right turn. This is particularly evident when it comes to racist and political repression.

The Biden administration did nothing to end police repression, the George Floyd Bill did not move. The late Congressman John Lewis’s Bill on Voting Rights is crickets in the House. The federal death row prisoners continue to seek justice in vain. And pleas for any justice for America’s longest political prisoner Leonard Peltier have fallen on deaf ears. Although Biden has pardoned many convicted felons who were corrupt and clearly guilty, like corrupt Ohio County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and infamous tax cheat Paul Daugerdas. And last but not least, Biden was indifferent to all demands raised by the immigrant rights movement, and continued to allow families to be separated with repression and detention at the border.

So every section of the people’s movement has been targeted by the incoming Trump administration. The agenda has been clearly and unequivocally set forth to increase political repression in regards to Black and brown people and all oppressed people, with regard to women and the LGBTQ+ movement, and particularly with regard to the immigration rights movement.

The opening shot in this war against the people is going to be fired at the immigration rights movement, with Trump declaring that on his first day in office, he will proceed to order, command, and force the deportation of millions of immigrants, including entire families. Him and the incoming administration have projected that anybody resisting these measures, including elected officials such as Mayors and Governors, will be arrested, or confronted in ways not yet revealed. In particular, the Mayor of Chicago has been targeted because Chicago is a Sanctuary City and has a declared position that they will not comply with this policy of mass deportation.

So, while our struggle must continue to build resistance to police crimes, mass incarceration, suppression of the rights of Black and brown people to vote, and the freeing of the wrongfully convicted and political prisoners, that first line of battle coming up in the immediate future on January 20 is to join with and help mobilize and muster all democratic forces to stand up against these proposed mass deportations and to make it clear that on this front and every other front of the people’s struggle, we’re dedicated to organizing and defeating Trump’s reactionary agenda, and all of the policies that flow from it.

All of our branches, affiliates, and supporters should bring out all hands on deck to build for January 20 protests across the country!

#InJusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #NAARPR #Trump #J20

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

As the first step of our national campaign to defeat Trump, National SDS is calling for a national week of action during the week of Trump’s inauguration, from November 20th through November 24th. SDS invites other student organizations and groups to protest the week of January 20th. National SDS encourages our chapters to take up campaigns against Trump’s policies and attacks on education and to demand that their campuses shut down Trump’s agenda. We will be rallying to say, “Defeat Trump’s Agenda!”

Donald Trump is pushing a right-wing agenda that will attack students and our right to an education. His appointment of Linda McMahon as the Secretary of Education is his first step to closing the Department of Education in order to privatize education; this means tanking the quality of public schools in order to deprive them of enrolled students, closing them, and then diverting taxpayer dollars instead to for-profit schools run by or invested in by Wall Street billionaires, including Trump’s former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Grades kindergarten through 12th grade, once free, will now become a luxury and be put up, expensively, for sale.

During Trump’s last presidency, he levied attacks on education and diversity in education, rescinding Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA), appointing conservative/right wing justices to the Supreme Court who overturned affirmative action, and more. He fueled bills to ban abortion and he attacked women’s and reproductive rights everywhere. He carried out deportations, the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, and instituted a ban of immigration to and from Muslim-majority countries. This time around, Trump has made new threats to the student movement, particularly the students who stand with Palestine.

This vindicates the continued need to unite our campuses to carry out National SDS’s campaign to defend free speech. University administrators have been ignoring students’ demands to divest from Israeli apartheid and the genocide of the people in Gaza, and student activists have been hit with suspensions, expulsions, and more, and Trump only promises to deepen this repression further. We invite all student groups and students to join us in protesting Trump and defending free speech on campus.

Trump’s plan to close the Department of Education will restrict education access to the working class and Black, Chicano, and Latino students. Closing the Department of Education would end federal grants, student loans, Title 9 protections for women and LGBTQ+ students, special education programs and protections, English for Speakers of Other Languages programs, resources for students with disabilities, and it would end the enforcement of civil rights and Title VI, which allows for the investigation of racist discrimination in schools. Education would become accessible to the rich and white and no one else. Everyone deserves equal access to education, thus we must fight to defend public education.

SDS demands that university administrators DEFY Trump's attacks on students and education. Universities need to do the right thing by upholding and protecting DEI programs, Ethnic Studies, GWSS departments, LGBTQ+ rights and programs, and increasing enrollment of Black, Chicano and Latino, undocumented students, and Native students. We also demand administrators do not hand over sensitive information about trans or immigrant students. We call on schools to not comply with book bans, bans on students going by the right pronouns or to the right bathrooms, or discipline for parents and teachers who support queer students.

All students have a right to an education that is meaningful and accessible to them, one that meets their academic and cultural needs. No compliance with Trump is the only acceptable option for administrators. If administrations do comply with Trump, SDS’s calls on all of our chapters, non- SDS affiliated student groups, and students at large to defend education and students’ rights by rising up and shutting down campuses across the country.

Fight Trump's Agenda!

No More Deportations!

Defend Education!

Protect Free Speech & Academic Freedom!

Fight for Women’s and Reproductive Rights!

Defend LGBTQ+ youth!

Stand With Palestine!

#StudentMovement #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #SDS #J20

Minneapolis, MN – More than 200 people gathered near South High School in Minneapolis, January 20, to demand a People’s Agenda that immediately reverses the policies of Trump and meets the demands of working people, immigrants and oppressed nationality communities. The protest rally started with the chant, “Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, a member of the MN Anti-War Committee, welcomed the crowd, “The Anti-War Committee and the Climate Justice Committee along with a coalition of many other organizations wanted to join together to say we are not going home. Today, we are in the streets to send a loud and clear message to Biden from day one we need change. We are tired of the status quo and we are here to make demands on Biden. He is making a lot of promises and we will hold him accountable.”

Throughout the rally and march, many groups spoke about these issues and put demands on Biden and all elected officials.

Autumn Lake from the Anti-War Committee emphasized, “One thing is abundantly clear: the U.S. war machine will not stop with the departure of Trump. Biden has already stacked his cabinet with foreign policy officials that are committed to continuing the U.S.’s destructive campaigns of intervention and war. The Democrat’s own legacy of war and intervention continues with the inauguration of Joe Biden. We’re going to stay in the streets and keep fighting for an end to U.S. wars, no matter who is calling the shots.”

“Defeating Trump is a victory for everyone concerned about justice,” said Austin Dewey from the Climate Justice Committee, “but Biden’s track record shows that he is unwilling to make the radical changes needed unless there’s pressure from a strong people’s movement.”

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of the MN chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, rallied the crowd on the importance of staying in the streets, “They [the powers that be] want you to be scared to come out. But we are going to continue to be out in the streets until we get justice for all the stolen lives, until we bring back equality in all of our communities, until we free the wrongfully incarcerated, and until we protect water and our land from corporate greed that continues to rob people.”

With the chant of “Who's streets? Our streets!” the marchers took to the streets, followed by a 50-car caravan down Lake Street to the former site of the 3rd Precinct police building, which was set ablaze during the George Floyd uprising this past summer.

Marching down Lake Street, people chanted, “Take it to the streets and fuck the police! No justice, no peace” and “Too many stolen lives, we refuse to close our eyes.”

Speaking on the need for a people's agenda, David Gilbert Pederson of MN Workers United stated, “As the elites gather in Washington to celebrate the changing of the guard, working-class people all across America are still in the trenches fighting a war against U.S. empire, fighting a war against the COVID-19 virus, fighting a war against greed and austerity, fighting a war against police brutality, against deportations, against pipelines through indigenous lands, and a battle of against horrors of American capitalism.”

Monique Cullars-Doty, representing Black Lives Matter MN, was the last to address the crowd before they marched back to South High School, “It's great to be out here, we have to be out here. The people in power don't care about us, they don't care about people who don't have a voice. We want justice for all the stolen lives. An important thing I do is to work in solidarity and come out to support other movements because we all are connected. We have to remember that. We can't do it alone and you shouldn't have to do it alone. This for all us to get together in the face of injustice. Now that we have Biden in office, we must remember who this man is, a father of mass incarceration. We want our people free.”

As the march was leaving the 3rd Precinct, Jae Yates, one of the emcees and an organizer with Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, said, “Every time I see this place, I remember all of us together, watching it burn. It was a beautiful moment.”

The rally was initiated by the Anti-War Committee and the Climate Justice Committee. It was endorsed by AFSCME 34, AFSCME 2822, AFSCME 3800, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro, Brown Berets MN, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Good Trouble for Justice, Justice4MarcusGolden, May Day Books, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, MN Peace Action Coalition, MN Workers United, MN Youth for Justice, Native Lives Matter, Nukewatch, Racial Justice Network, Students Against Pipelines, Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, Student Movement Activists of South High (SMASH), Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, UMN Climate Strike, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, and others.

#MinneapolisMN #inauguration #J20 #Biden #Harris

Protesters will gather near South High School in Minneapolis at 5 p.m. The list of demands compiled by the coalition highlighted not only the failures and racist attacks from the Trump administration, but also what they see as omissions and shortcomings of Biden’s platform during the campaign.

As one of the protest’s initiating groups, the Anti-War Committee (AWC) called on the new administration to end U.S. intervention overseas. “It's important for folks to come out on January 20 to send a strong message to the Biden administration to pressure for money for human needs, not war. Biden didn't make many progressive promises on the campaign trail, so he needs to hear that we demand peace with justice,” said Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the AWC.

The action comes after a year which saw both a deadly pandemic as well as a mass rebellion against police violence. Organizers said the inauguration marked an opportunity to renew calls for real change that thus far have failed to materialize.

The action was initiated by the AWC and the Climate Justice Committee, and endorsed by AFSCME 2822, AFSCME 3800, Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro, Brown Berets MN, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN), Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Good Trouble for Justice, Justice4MarcusGolden, May Day Books, MIRAC, MN Peace Action Coalition, MN Workers United, MN Youth for Justice, Native Lives Matter, Nukewatch, Racial Justice Network, Students Against Pipelines, Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, TCC4J, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, UMN Climate Strike, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness, and others.

#MinneapolisMN #Trump #inauguration #J20 #Biden

New York, NY—On Jan. 18, several dozen organizers gathered in the below-freezing evening to demand an end to all U.S.-led wars and imperialism.

The event was organized by the different groups in the International League of Peoples’ Struggles as part of the #DaysOfRage. This whole week was marked by different actions by different New York groups as a way a build up to J20, which is this Saturday.

This Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the Trump administration taking office. In this one year, we’ve seen a rise of protests against Trump’s policies of racism, islamophobia, queerphobia, sexism and bigotry. #DaysOfRage is a protest that denounces the Trump administration and capitalism.

The protesters gathered in Union Square handed out flyers listing out events and facts that occurred during the Trump era – such as deploying the Mother of All Bombs in Afghanistan and the approved $700 billion defense budget.

While handing out these flyers, protesters chanted, “From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S war machine!”

There were speakers from several different groups from the ILPS that related war and imperialism back to the struggles they represented.

Mainly, organizers were pushing those passing by to attend the rally this coming Saturday.

The rally ended with a last round of chants, “U.S. imperialist! Number one terrorist!”

The J20 rally is going to be this Saturday, Jan. 20 at 4 p.m. in Grand Central Station.

#NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #ILPS #InternationalLeagueOfPeoplesStruggle #Antifascism #NYC #J20

New York, NY – Organizers gathered at the International Action Center, Jan. 16, for a panel called “After J20: Fighting Back Against Political Repression.” The panel was organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression – NYC (CSFR) as part of the #DaysOfRage. The #DaysOfRage is building towards a final rally on Jan. 20, which is the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of Trump.

The purpose of the panel was to bring up cases of political repression during the Trump era, and how organizers fought back for victories.

The panel was emceed by Michela Martinazzi, an organizer with the CSFR, who began the event by explaining why the event was important in this time. Martinazzi stated, “Because what is political repression? It’s when the state attacks people who are actively organizing to dismantle a system – it’s targeting based on one’s political beliefs and actions. It takes on a different character than other state attacks, such as attacks on gender or race, and therefore must be organized around differently.”

The first speaker was Leilani Dowell from the Worker’s World Party. Dowell gave an excellent and in-depth overview of the case of the Durham Fighters – a group of activists who tore down a Confederate statue back in August 2017. These organizers initially were facing felony charges but, as Dowell explained, through organizing their charges were dropped to misdemeanors. Dowell finished by saying, “Since that statue came down in August, we coined that phrase ‘do it like Durham,’ which is a statement we can get behind. It’s an understanding of militant struggle and never ceasing organizing despite what the racist state put against them. We have to incorporate that in our bodies, souls, and organizing until we tear down the rotten system.”

The next speaker was Christian Valencia, one of the 200 J20 defendants arrested during the Jan. 20, 2017 inauguration protests. Valencia explained the details leading up to the mass arrest of and blanket felony charging of the 200 people.

Talking about the J20 case, Valencia stated, “It’s been difficult because many people have dismissed the J20 defendants as a bunch of people causing trouble and wrecking stuff. And not getting that it’s actually very important, regardless of the politics involved, because that was the first clash between the real resistance, and not the coopted Democrats’ resistance, and the Trump administration.” Valencia then finished by saying, “We can’t really be [engaged] in sectarianism right now because we’re all in the same boat. We’re all fighting against this regime. They don’t care what our ideological differences are. They just care that we’re against them.”

The panel was finished with Jessica Schwartz, an organizer with CSFR, who elucidated on different cases of political repression and the different tactics that were used to win those respective cases. She brought up the cases of the Anti-War 23, Carlos Montes, Rasmea Odeh, the Jax5, and the Holy Land 5. Schwartz stated, “As activists, we must organize campaigns that target laws and institutions that seek to repress us into complacency. As we’ve seen from history, with programs like COINTELPRO, the enemy is always watching and ready to wreck our movements from the inside. However, it is up to us to remain strong and fight back, never cowering in the face of the enemy.”

The panel ended with a brief Q and A and the chant, “When activists are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!”

The final action for the #DaysOfRage is this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Grand Central Station. All the groups who organized for the week of action will be attending and protesting Trump, his administration and the evils of capitalism.

#NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalPrisoners #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #GrandJuries #PoliticalRepression #CSFR #RasmeaOdeh #Antifascism #NYC #J20 #DurhamFighters

Minneapolis, MN – On the One-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, protesters will gather at 1 p.m., Mayday Plaza (301 Cedar Avenue S.), to say “Trump out now! No wars! No Muslim ban!” The rally will be followed by a march to the Republican party headquarters.

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee, states, “It is important for us to protest on Jan. 20 because it marks the one-year anniversary of the start to Trump's presidency and it marks the year anniversary of people taking to the streets all over the country to denounce him as an illegitimate president. We have been protesting throughout this year to say no to his attacks on Muslims, on immigrants, and to his wars. This protest is a way to say that we are not accepting him or his policies of bigotry and war.”

Organized by the Anti-War Committee, the protest is endorsed by AFSCME Local 3800, 320 Members First, Filipinx for Immigrant rights and Racial justice MN, MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee, MN Peace Action Coalition, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar, Veterans for Peace chapter 27, Welfare Rights Committee, Women Against Military Madness.

The Facebook event is here https://www.facebook.com/events/1135311796572226/

#MinneapolisMN #MN #Trump #J20

Tampa, FL – On Jan. 20, 200 students and faculty at the University of South Florida (USF) walked out of their classes to show their anger for the inauguration of Donald Trump. Donald Trump has made it clear that his presidency will be dominated by anti-immigrant, islamophobic, misogynistic, and pro-war policies. The students and faculty that participated in the walkout and rally wanted to send the united message that they will stand against Trump’s bigoted agenda, and with all those affected by it.

The walk-out occurred at 1 p.m. and then the students and faculty gathered in front of Cooper Hall for the rally. The organizers of the event, Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), began the protest with chants such as “Trump says go back, we say fight back,” which referenced Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. These chants were followed by speeches from both students and Associate Professor of History Brian Connolly.

In her speech, Jessica Rauckis of Tampa Bay SDS said, “Trump’s agenda is harmful to numerous sections of our population, most notably Muslims, Latinos, African Americans and LGBTQIA+ folk. Trump's policies also embolden hate groups and encourage hate crimes. Many of these crimes will be directed towards students of these targeted groups.”

Rauckis’s statement was proven correct as the event proceeded. Although there was a large group of progressive students, a crowd of pro-Trump students had also gathered around the rally. They attempted to interrupt and end the event by blocking SDS’ banner and signs with their own, and by shouting pro-Trump chants.

As the rally progressed, the Trump supporters became more agitated. Tampa Bay SDS member and emcee of the event, Noah Peretz, was detained after he was assaulted by one of the agitated Trump supporters. While the police took Peretz, in handcuffs, back to his room on campus and threatened to arrest him if he returned to the protest, the Trump supporter was allowed to be on the sidelines of the rally without handcuffs or similar threats. Peretz was not arrested, but he was punished further.

“The police detained both of us but they referred me to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities where I will be processed for ‘disrupting class’ for using a megaphone. This is a clear act of political repression,” said Peretz.

Despite the disruptions by the Trump supporters and the police, the last speech was given by Tampa Bay SDS member Danya Zituni. Zituni urged students to join SDS and stated that, “It is essential that we as students continue to put pressure on our university administrations to not collaborate with deportations, Muslim registries, or any other form of racist targeting or discrimination. If we organize, we can defeat Trump’s agenda!”

SDS ended the event with the chant, “Trump’s agenda isn’t ours – organize for people power.”

#TampaFL #StudentMovement #SDS #walkout #J20

The protest’s demands include: legalization not deportation, defend DACA, no to the Mexico wall, no to guest-worker programs, no to U.S. wars and occupation, and will urge solidarity with whomever has been attacked by Trump.

Immigrant rights leader Carlos Montes, who is helping to lead the Jan. 20 protest states, “We intend to send a message that each and every attack by Trump will be met with resistance. Trump has made it clear that he is an enemy of the undocumented, of Chicanos, and all oppressed people. We will meet his attacks head on.”

#LosAngelesCA #CentroCSO #CarlosMontes #DonaldTrump #J20