With Trump’s stunning victory, we now have to confront an administration of misogynists, or racists, of homophobes, and of white nationalists.
We do not know the struggles ahead of us but we must fight and unite all working people, all oppressed communities, against the coming Trump agenda.
We’ll be meeting at Red Arrow Park, 5 p.m.
We are stronger.
https://www.facebook.com/PeoplesPowerAssemblies/
Tens of thousands protest at Trump Tower in New York City the evening of November 9 to declare: Trump’s not our president!
After the most divisive, racist, misogynist, contentious presidential campaign in modern history, Monica Moorehead for President and Lamont Lilly for Vice President urge everyone to converge in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 20 to protest the inauguration of the next president.
No matter who wins the 2016 election, the people must take to the streets. This election year proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the capitalist system cannot represent the interests of the people. It revealed that democracy under capitalism is a sham.
While Trump and Clinton were fighting among themselves, often like children, Black and Brown people continued to be shot by racist police. Neither candidate ever expressed genuine support for the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, essential in this period of police terrorism.
Clearly Donald Trump has galvanized racist, right-wing, anti-immigrant thugs. These elements have been stoked, and they will not likely crawl back into the gutter. But we cannot give up on all these workers. They have been misled by Trump, and we should struggle to win their hearts and minds.
Misogyny ultimately became a major issue this election season. At the heart of the “Trumpite” sexism against Hillary Clinton is not just hatred of women, but racism that is central to their odious ideology.
These forces are not reconciled to the historical fact that the first Black president was elected. They erroneously fear the “browning of America.” They think migrants are changing the fabric of “their” society and that they steal jobs, when in fact it is the corporations that lay off and shut factories.
The answer is solidarity and unity of all those who work and struggle for a living. Our enemy is not in the factory or the office but in the board room.
Neither Trump nor Clinton have a real program to address unemployment or underemployment. Neither will order the banks to put families back into foreclosed homes or to lower rents. Neither will unilaterally cancel the student debt. Neither will stop anti-LGBTQ laws from sweeping the country.
Trump is a dangerous buffoon. But Hillary Clinton is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Her political history is one of war and intervention. She is responsible, along with others, for the coup in Honduras and for war in Libya and Syria. She is historically aligned with the forces that dismantled welfare and led to mass incarceration.
As the economic crisis deepens, what can we expect? Under capitalism not only more of the same, but an intensification of all the ills that are byproducts of capitalism: war, racism, sexism, islamopho¬bia and the exploitation of all workers.
It is very likely that Hillary Clinton will win the election as she has proven her ability to well represent the 1%. We can be assured that in her first 100 days, there will be an escalation of war.
What’s the solution? Unity in fightback! Only our solidarity can push back the 1%! What matters is not who is in the White House, but in the streets.
We urge everyone – Black, Latinx, Native, Arab, Asian and white, women, trans people and men, young and old, queer or straight, documented or undocumented, people with disabilities, in a union or not, of every faith and belief from around the country – to converge in Washington on Friday, Jan. 20.
Join tens of thousands to present a people’s agenda!
Bus or travel information to Washington TBA
Visit http://www.workers.org/wwp/all-out-to-washington-dc-january-20-to-protest-the-presidential-inauguration/
or call 917-740-2628
Nov. 9 — We’re as angry and shocked as our readers. The polls were wrong. We’re not the only ones who are horrified that a candidate could be elected who boasted of his misogyny and egged on the worst racists while talking trash against immigrants.
But this is no time just to mourn. It’s a time to reaffirm support and militant solidarity with all those who have been the main targets of Trump’s demagogy and hatred: women, people of color, immigrants. That’s the only path toward uniting the working class against its real enemies: the billionaire rulers of this country, including Trump.
The day after the election must become Day One of the resistance.
More information will come out as to who voted and why. Trump tapped into many grievances and used them to get elected, promising anything and everything and directing anger at the first African-American president. Yet both Trump and Clinton were unpopular, and both offered no real solutions to the problems of capitalist exploitation, racism, sexism and war.
Trump did NOT get as many popular votes as Clinton. That shows something about the attitude of the people. But the election system in this country isn’t based on the popular vote. Nor does it give third parties a chance to be heard. (The Moorehead/Lilly campaign of Workers World Party got its revolutionary socialist views heard by being in the streets with the movement including social media.) In addition, many of the most oppressed are prevented by poverty, threats and reactionary laws from voting.
Let’s not forget that earlier this year Bernie Sanders moved large crowds by angrily focusing on the economic problems facing the workers. When he was knocked out of the race, it’s possible that some of his supporters refused to support a grinning Clinton or even opted for an angry Trump.
The danger is not just Trump the person but the misogyny, racism and attacks on immigrants and the LGBTQ communities that his election victory can unleash. His main support comes from white men. Whether they realize it or not, when they voted for Trump they identified not with the working class, in which the majority are now women and/or people of color, but with the ruling establishment.
U.S. corporate culture dishes out fantasy — the fantasy of the strong, rich, white man who can fix everything, from “Batman” to Trump’s “reality” show. The “good” capitalists will provide good jobs for everyone. In this Fox-dominated atmosphere, which extends from films to radio and television to comic books, many bought into Trump’s outright fantasy.
But the promises of the Clinton neoliberals are fantasy, too. The fantasy is that U.S. capitalism can be strong and continue to grow under the right president, one carefully hand-picked by the establishment.
The next four years will bring a strong dose of real reality. The house of cards that is the world capitalist system is already reacting as stock markets tank. They could rebound for a while, and billions will be won and lost, but the capitalist system can never recover its early vigor — and the financiers know it.
It is precisely African Americans, Latinx, Indigenous nations, women, Arabs, Muslims and LGBTQ people who have been in the lead of so many struggles that challenge this system. Trump cannot meet the needs of the vast majority of people in this country. The struggle continues from the grassroots up, and the only answer is to forge the greatest unity of all the movements that fight capitalism and reaction.
We do not know the struggles ahead of us but we must fight and unite all working people, all oppressed communities, against the coming Trump agenda.
We’ll be meeting at Red Arrow Park.
We are stronger.
Presente:
Tragically, Donald J. Trump is the president-elect of the United States of America.1 As we watched state after state turn red, we could not escape the realization that the country was taking a sharp turn for the worst.
To be clear, we’re under attack and we’re scared for our families and loved ones. And we know we must resist, and change the culture that allowed Trump to rise to power.
The stakes have never been higher. We have work to do and we need to be powerful enough to organize and refuse to support Trump’s regime and its heinous agenda.
Our nation faces one of the greatest threats we’ve ever known. Trump represents a clear and present danger for our communities that must be confronted urgently. If left unchecked, Trump will continue to create a hostile and dangerous environment for all immigrants, Muslims, Latinxs, Asians, Native Americans, women and Black Americans—an environment which will result in tragedy.
For those building a movement for social justice, the real question is not what went wrong in the election, but what do we do now? In the face of a government that will force deportations, engage in rabid sexism, cultivate overt appeals to white nationalism and enforce brutal crackdowns on protesters, we have a duty and responsibility to act, to build, and to resist hate, fear, and violence. Planning, discussions, and details will come soon, in the meantime, we will not share your information.
Thank you for all you do and ¡adelante!
– Matt, Favianna, Oscar, Erick, Reetu, Erica and the Presente Action team.
By: teleSUR, http://bit.ly/2eid0kI
teleSUR reached out to several young activists around the U.S. to hear their views on why elections don’t really change things.
The U.S. elections have left millions out of the equation. Many people, especially young people, vow to continue organizing after Nov. 8 and refuse to settle for the antics of the 2016 presidential campaign. Hailing from the East, West, Midwest and South of the U.S., these youth talk about fighting the whole rotten system.
Rebecka Jackson is a Los Angeles-based artist and activist. She works in multimedia, film, theater and dance. She is a member of Workers World Party. Rebecka is currently in production for “Up.Rise. The Film,” a documentary investigation of Baltimore’s police violence.
Nov. 8 brings up a series of questions for voters with good intentions. What is the greater evil — a rapist or a person who has sent armed militants to rape and murder thousands all over the globe? Who is more dangerous — a person who would allow Muslims in the U.S. to be profiled and degraded or a person who gives Israel funding to enforce apartheid?
IN DEPTH:
US Election
We have the progeny of the Klu Klux Klan against a flag-waving war hawk. Ultimately, anyone with the slightest bit of foresight knows the inevitability of either presidency: corporations win, more poor people die.
Under either candidate, the loss of life will likely be in the millions. Neither candidate has hinted at trying to terminate police brutality, oil or coal production, factory farming, cobalt mining or deforestation. In order to keep these industries booming it cost millions of lives and more abject slavery. On top of that, both candidates would need to continue to fuel the war economy. This will cost the world countless lives as the imperialist invasion through the Middle East and the Global South continues.
Activist and organizers are left with one choice — socialism. Both at the ballot box and in the streets. Socialism rises naturally from the people when they have been pushed to the edges of their humanity when they realize how inherently broken the current system is. The elections should only be a tool used to push awareness for socialism through third party candidates. Nov. 8 can only serve as the last mock exercise of a broken oligarchy in its attempt to cover yet another spurious election.
It is critical to join together and reach out to the oppressed around the world who suffer from U.S. imperialist rule. U.S. organizers must learn how to be strong, supportive allies, they must be fully aware of the destruction the next president will indubitably cause. They must learn how to combat and deflect this destruction.
The elections are a meaningless passing of the baton between cronies — all playing for the same team but fighting over the machine’s spoils. The destination is the same.
This leaves activist to clean up the mess from this little pageant. It means standing on the frontlines to defend immigrants, going face to face with their police goons, disrupting business as usual, divesting from their products and showing that we are growing and unafraid.
—
Lamont Lilly is the 2016 Workers World Party, U.S. vice presidential candidate. In 2015, he was a U.S. delegate at the International Forum for Justice in Palestine in Beirut, Lebanon.
The U.S. presidential elections are just a day from being over. The bad news is that many people in the U.S. are finally coming to grips with our feelings of disillusionment, distrust and discontent. On one hand, there’s Donald Trump, an openly racist misogynistic bigot. On the other, there’s Hillary Clinton, a renowned warmonger whose foreign policy decisions have brought death to millions, particularly throughout Central America, Africa and the Middle East. Both are agents of Wall Street and the U.S. corporate elite.
RELATED:
‘I Don’t Vote with My Vagina’: Susan Sarandon on Clinton
In North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, early voting numbers have declined drastically. Several counties and local municipalities in North Carolina are currently being sued by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for voter suppression. North Carolina is the same state that was just fighting against stiffer voter ID laws back in July.
In the city of Charlotte, N.C. community members are still seeking justice for the police murder of Keith Lamont Scott. On Sept. 20, Scott was murdered by the Charlotte Police Department as he sat waiting in his car to pick up his son from school. The shooting, featuring three armed police officers and unarmed Keith Scott, was captured on live video.
There was also North Carolina’s repressive House Bill 2, which isn’t just a “bathroom bill” that discriminates against LGTBQ people; it also prevents local municipalities from increasing the minimum wage.
It’s so important to have all of these struggles represented with compassion and understanding. What is happening here in the U.S. South is not an isolated regional phenomenon. Such disregard for justice, human life and human need, is unfortunately, occurring worldwide. Mass solidarity is the only way that the poor and marginalized are going to create the change we need. That change, starts right here, in the United States.
We know that no matter who wins this upcoming election, we’re going to have to stay in the streets and continue organizing. Nov. 8 will come and go. Unfortunately, state-sponsored violence and police brutality will still be here. Poverty and unemployment will still be here. Racism and anti-Blackness will still be here. Fuck the elections! As activists, we have to stay vigilant and keep organizing.
—
Jefferson Azevedo, a Brazilian immigrant, is a student at Los Angeles Trade and Technical College, where he is the president of the Black and Brown Student Club. He was an organizer with the Southern California Immigration Coalition and is a member of the International Action Center.
This Tuesday, Nov. 8, millions of people will briefly come out of their routine to cast their votes in another U.S. presidential election. Latinx voters — like Black voters — are being used and led to think that the winner of the election will make a significant change in their lives for better or for worse. This event — which Donald Trump, in violation of the rules established by the U.S. oligarchs, declared was rigged — is nothing but a popularity contest to decide who will be the general director of U.S. imperialism and thus continue the exploitation and oppression of people of color, and all people, at home and abroad.
Although many voters and non-voters may disagree, the situation of Latinx people or any other people of color will not improve regardless of who wins this election. If the elections were good for people, they would not exist or be allowed in the U.S. It is a system created to give the impression of an impartial democracy that represents the will of the people, but the question is: What people? Certainly not the economic refugees who come from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world devastated and destroyed by Western imperialism and its agents on the pretext of promoting freedom and democracy.
RELATED:
Sanders: Trump Threat Is Too Dangerous ‘to Sit This One Out’
Certainly not the unemployed youth in inner cities who, instead of filling a job, are filling the prison cells under the schools to prisons pipeline. Certainly not undocumented workers who are forced to leave their homes, risk their lives crossing the desert and suffer many types of physical, emotional or sexual violence, to find a way to make ends meet for their loved ones. It only benefits one type of people: the rich.
Thus, with all the facts pointing to the farce known as U.S. presidential elections, Latinx and all other people must realize that their vote is useless. Instead, the energy and time devoted to this symbolic gesture can be used to build and organize a movement aimed at combating the causes of the problems and injustices that are making their lives miserable.
It must be a grassroots movement in association with all oppressed, poor and marginalized people. Students, trade unions, community organizers, progressive organizations, prisoners, undocumented workers, LGBTQ people and all those that fight against the brutality of the elite security forces, commonly known as the police or armed forces.
The demands of the movement should undoubtedly include a decent wage, amnesty for all migrants, an end to the death penalty, free education, universal health at all levels, housing, an end to all wars and military occupation and an end to the police and their brutality. Will Clinton or Trump do any of these things if elected? If your answer is no, I have another question for you: what’s holding you back from organizing?
—
Danielle Boachie, 28, is from Ghana in West Africa, currently living in Chicago. She’s a graduate student in Women’s and Gender Studies/African Diaspora Studies. As an activist, she focuses on anti- capitalist and anti-imperialist work and is particularly invested in lifting the voices of queer and trans women of color, and Africans both in the diaspora and on the continent.
In the Midwest, the heroic struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, along with other Indigenous peoples, against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline is rooted in the fundamental right of the self-determination of oppressed nations. This fight for access to land and clean water mirrors the dark history of colonial violence on this continent. The U.S. was founded on land stolen from Indigenous nations, and created by the labor of enslaved Africans.
The U.S. government waged a relentless genocidal campaign against native peoples through mass forced migration, broken treaties, and slaughter. Even today, Native Americans are seven times more likely to be killed by police than whites. Current ruling class propaganda simply erases Indigenous people, pretending they do not exist. The Standing Rock struggle has shown that nothing could be further from the truth.
RELATED:
Donald Trump Ad Targets Support of Racist NFL ‘Bros’
It is no surprise that neither presidential candidate of the U.S. capitalist two-party system has shown solidarity with Standing Rock. The Democrats and Republicans will protect the interests of the capitalist class until they are forced by revolutionary struggle to do otherwise. Furthermore, Donald Trump has personal funds invested in the oil companies involved in DAPL, and Hillary Clinton’s campaign has received millions in donations from the same banks that are funding the pipeline. In this election, there is only a “lesser evil” if Native Americans are lesser people, with a lesser right to water and life.
After a cop gunned down 23-year-old Sylville Smith in the North side of Milwaukee, a historic center of the Black community known as Sherman Park, eyewitnesses state that youth in the immediate area rebelled in self-defense against this latest atrocity of police terror.
The Coalition for Justice, a Milwaukee community organization, released the following statement at the time: “What happened last night was not the result of greed or an ignorant display of anger as some have called it, but rather pain and frustration built up from over 400 years of oppression … We are one of the most segregated cities in the United States. We are the worst city for Black children to grow up in. We are a city of inequities, of under-education, of unemployment, of oppression, of drug abuse, of violence.”
Capitalism has left the Black youth in Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere in the state — along with other oppressed people and a growing number of poor and working-class whites — with bleak futures and low-wage or no jobs. Black communities are occupied and beloved family members are gunned down by the police.
As the Coalition for Justice wrote on Aug. 14: “What happened last night was a revolt and an uproar, not just a disturbance. The media has no problem to classify us at thugs … The people are angry. The people are fed up, and the people are demanding their freedom.”
—
Scott Williams is a high school teacher, a social justice union activist, and an organizer with Workers World Party. He organized demonstrations against the Republican and Democratic National Conventions this summer.
Philadelphia is the poorest major city in the U.S., with its majority Black and Latinx communities the casualties of gentrification, police terror, mass incarceration and poverty. Over 200,000 Philadelphians live on less than US$5,700 per year. Thirty-six percent of children live in poverty — a number which has skyrocketed since 2008. Over 30 schools have closed in the last three years, meanwhile, the 11,000 members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers have gone over 1,200 days without a raise.
The Democratic Party runs Philadelphia. They have a virtual one-party dictatorship over local politics. Yet the politicians have no answers for the endless crises facing our people.
OPINION:
Clinton or Trump: America Heads Further into the Abyss
As a young teacher and activist, I am constantly facing a barrage of Clinton supporters who tell me of the horrors of a Trump presidency. Trump certainly represents racism, fascism, and sexism. My union tells me about how “Hillary shares our values.”
I assume that means that our shared values include the importance of dropping thousands of bombs on independent countries like Libya, only to sum up the experience by saying “We came, we saw, he died.” Or perhaps we share her values expressed during her six years on the Board of Directors of Walmart. Clinton loves Wal-Mart, saying in 1990, “I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else.” I assume that she means she is proud of how effectively Walmart exploits its workers here and abroad. To be clear, I don’t share any of these values.
Mass solidarity and struggle is the only way out. On Nov. 1, 4,700 transit workers in Philadelphia launched a massive strike, fighting for dignity, respect and safety at work. These workers have promised to continue striking through the election, damaging the Clinton machine’s voter turnout in a city which votes over 90 percent Democrat. This is the type of independent struggle which is needed. These courageous workers inspire me to keep talking to my coworkers, my friends, and my community members. No matter who is elected, our fight against the racist billionaire class must go on without pause.
