“Honestly, our goal was to drive Trump out”

People Stand Up to the Fascist Pig

May 30, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

This past week, thousands of people took to the streets to say: SHUT THE FUCK UP TRUMP! GET YOUR UGLY ASS OUT OF OUR TOWN!

In several cities, there was an outpouring of anger—and joy—as people boldly confronted the police and Trump supporters with a real sense of having right on their side, sending a message to the world that the people will not tolerate, will not allow, Trump to keep spewing his fascist, racist, anti-woman, anti-Muslim poison.

Many of those, including a lot of youths, who are the very ones Trump has been targeting with his ugly shit, like immigrants and the children of immigrants, were a big part of these anti-Trump rallies. People went into Trump’s rallies, disrupted him, called him out and caused huge, defiant commotions that could not be ignored. That put smiles on the faces of many people around the world.

Things got started in a big way on Tuesday, May 24, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when for more than four to five hours some 3,000 people demonstrated at the Convention Center where Trump was speaking. Then things spread to cities in California where Trump held rallies—in Anaheim on Thursday, then Fresno on Friday, and San Diego on Saturday, where there were more than 1,000 people who protested and at least 35 people were arrested.

In Albuquerque, the crowd included students from the University of New Mexico, lots of immigrants, Latinos, Native Americans, some from the Muslim community, and others, including many white people. Thousands rallied outside while others went inside to confront the ugly rally of 8,000 Trump supporters. They repeatedly interrupted Trump, shouting, “Stop the Hate!” Trump, who at so many other rallies has incited physical attacks on protesters and defended his followers who carry them out, called on the protesters to be removed and they were viciously attacked by security and Trump supporters and physically dragged out. This scene—of Trump setting his attack dogs against people—would be replayed at the rallies later in the week.

The anger of the protest in Albuquerque seemed to build as the day went on. There were signs and chants that said, “Trump is a Fascist!” “Fuck Donald Trump!” “Undocumented and Unafraid” and “No human being is illegal.” According to news reports, people broke through the barricades police had set up to prevent protesters from getting near the Convention Center and the glass door at the entrance to the Convention Center ended up broken. TV cameras captured people taking Trump T-shirts that said, “Make America Great Again” and setting them on fire and some people righteously defended themselves against the attacks by the police.

Police and Trump Supporters Attack Protesters

The Albuquerque police attacked people with pepper spray and smoke grenades. Trump supporters also physically attacked protesters, responding like the fascist, racists they are—yelling things like, “Build that wall!” and “Go back to Mexico” and “You’re a wetback.” Protesters said that while they were pushed and shoved by the cops, the police either stood by as Trump supporters attacked protesters or actually facilitated confrontations.

A group of women who are members of KIVA (a Native American student organization at the University of New Mexico) and The Red Nation coalition talked with revcom.us about what they witnessed at the protest. Hope Alvarado, from the Navajo and Comanche peoples, said, “There were actually rocks thrown at one of our Red Nation members [by Trump supporters] and she didn’t retaliate, and her niece was with her, who is also a youth. There were many, many people who were harassed who actually got into physical altercations with Trump supporters.... And the Albuquerque PD itself tear-gassed people and there were like five-year-olds in the crowd when they did this.”

Jennifer Marley, also from KIVA, The Red Nation, and from the Pueblo of San Ildefonso, said, “Honestly, our only goal was shutting it down, driving him [Trump] out of this state. That a white supremacist rally was happening in our city—this city is built on Native land, a city that does not consist of wealthy white individuals and we weren’t going to have the hatred and the violence brought here. And that’s exactly what we got, there were violent people who were there harassing us. And even after the protest there were white supremacist biker gangs harassing people who were still gathered.”

In San Diego, a massive force of riot police was sent in very aggressively against protesters and at least 35 people were arrested. In Albuquerque, three people were arrested inside the Convention Center and only one anti-Trump protester was arrested outside. But now Albuquerque police are madly trying to exact revenge and make more arrests. The next day Trump put out one of his usual lynch mob type calls, tweeting, “The protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals!” Albuquerque police are now saying they’re trying to identify about 30 “thugs” they say were throwing rocks; they’re looking at video and photos in order to identify, arrest, and prosecute people. They’re releasing photos—trying to get people to snitch, offering rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest; and the mayor is also offering $10,000 to try and get people to become rats.

It is right to rebel against reactionaries! And the people must demand all charges be dropped against anyone arrested at any of these anti-Trump rallies—and that no one else be arrested!

Protesting Trump... and More

Among those compelled to join these anti-Trump demonstrations—many protesting like this for the first time—there is a feeling that Trump poses a real danger to the people, especially for immigrant families. One youth at the protest in Anaheim, when asked why he came, said, “Just fuck Trump, you know? I don’t like nothing about him, that’s all. I guess he hates everyone else, like the other races, probably. He makes it seem like it. I think he’s trying to bring minorities down. He’s trying to keep them down, like he’s trying to build that wall and shit, you know? I don’t like the wall, and the whole way he talks about immigrants—I hate it. A lot of my friends were immigrants. He’s trying to break the country up, trying to make it his way, you know? Cause he’s trying to get a lot of Mexicans out. Separating families. He makes it seem like he’s just gonna drive all the immigrants out. This all used to be Mexico, then somebody fucked up and the white people were able to come in and take it. I want to live in a world where everyone’s all the same, like we don’t have [some who are] richer.... Just like a fair world, you know?”

People brought into these protests not just their rage at Trump, but also anger at the oppressive conditions Latinos, Native Americans, and others have faced for generations. A number of people told revcom.us that their undocumented relatives asked them to join the protests. And in Albuquerque, organizers talked about how the ongoing struggle and anger of people against police brutality and murder was a big element at the protest. Juan, one of the organizers of the demonstration, was asked why people turned against the police and said, “I mean, of course they’re upset about the police. There’s a history of police murdering people in Albuquerque that goes back decades. All these people probably know someone that’s been harassed by police so of course there’s a lot of issues with police here, that hasn’t been forgotten. And so when you bring a big police presence where people already are frustrated with the process, of course that’s what’s going to happen. That shouldn’t come as any surprise.”

Rodrigo Rodriguez, from the SouthWest Organizing Project, one of the main organizers of the protest, told revcom.us, “There’s a really strong sense that this guy [Trump] is attacking our communities, that his followers are attacking our communities; the rhetoric that he has brought up has really emboldened a lot of white supremacy, emboldened a lot of white nationalism. And it’s very scary for our folks—people in the undocumented community, people in the immigrant communities, period, have a lot to lose if this rhetoric really takes a foothold on a policy level. And not that it hasn’t already. Obama has already deported more people than any other president, right? The Deporter in Chief. That only intensifies under Trump. And we see this return to shit like Operation Wetback, like Operation Gatekeeper, where they’re going to come into our communities and round folks up and we’re just not going to stand for that again.”

Leoyle Cowboy from the Dine (Navajo) people, and a member of KIVA and The Red Nation, said, “The way my family and my community has been treated by law enforcement has been really violent in a way where I have a family member who has PTSD from that, antagonizing myself and her father. So I know they’re racist, I know they’re violent. And these are things that continuously happen and we’re really tired of it. And I know in the community, everyone is tired of it, too. So us collaborating and being out here and absolutely visible, we have to be. We have no choice. This is our obligation. It’s important that we are standing because we need others to stand. I know they want to stand, I can feel it. In order for change to happen, someone has to take action.”

Rodrigo talked about the history of what this system has done in New Mexico, especially to Native Americans: “This state has a very long history, a very brutal history of colonization, of brutalization, but also resistance. There’s a lot of culture and history that’s very rich, a history of struggle.... But we are a military colony, that’s just the reality folks are living under. There are these Air Force bases, there are the nuclear proliferation facilities, they do the uranium mining out in the Navajo Nation and then they refine and weaponize it at the national laboratories at Los Alamos in Sandia. And then they make weapons, they store them in our mountain here in Albuquerque and then they dump the waste here in Carlsbad. So we have a very long legacy of like colonial powers coming in, subjugating our folks and then selling off the resources. We are one of the most resource rich states, but we’re consistently the most poor, consistently generational poverty has destroyed our communities. So there’s a really tangible sense of pain and fear. So when the Nazis roll into town, then people get scared...”

A System That Needs to Be Overthrown

Trump’s decision to speak in Albuquerque, Anaheim, Fresno, and San Diego was very calculated—these are all places with huge populations of immigrants, Latinos, and in Albuquerque Native Americans. On Trump’s part, these rallies represent a big offensive [in both senses of the word] move. After all his ugly, racist attacks on immigrants and other people of color, he is basically throwing down, saying I’m going to come into where you live and throw my shit in your face. But as the people are showing, they are not going to let this go down quietly.

But in the face of a media machine that continues to give this fascist billions of dollars in free air time; in the face of an election system that says an outright racist and fascist is a legitimate candidate; in the face of the Democrats who refuse to call out Trump for the fascist he really is (and in many cases actually agree with a lot of his program) and have no answer for people but participating in the whole election hustle... In the face of all this, people are taking bold mass action to say NO, this fucker is NOT legitimate, we are NOT going to tolerate him, and he MUST BE SHUT DOWN.

The youth and others who came forward this past week and rose up did a fine thing, and this should be defended—especially against idiots like Don Lemon on CNN, who say “you’re hurting your own cause,” and then channel it to the question of defeating Trump in the elections. Folding up the protests now, backing off in the face of police attacks, and channeling everything into the electoral arena is a recipe for disaster.

The whole Trump thing—the whipping up and organizing of a fascist social base... the radical shifting of the terms of discourse... the demonization of Black people, Latinos, women, disabled people, etc. and whipping up violence against them at his rallies—this is not going to get settled through elections. Trump was brought forward and made a big deal by forces larger than himself, and his fortunes in the electoral arena will be determined by forces larger than himself as well. We cannot bottle up our outrage, our struggle and desire for change, and sink it into the electoral quicksand. The idea that oppressed people, people under direct attack, should just duck their heads and play by the rules of the established channels has a long and dishonorable history.

At the same time, big questions lie beneath the surface. The deeper social dynamics that have given rise to a Trump... the very outrages so vividly exposed by the young people we interviewed... have a cause. They grow out of a SYSTEM. That system arose with the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas and thrived with the enslavement of Africans... that system in the U.S. actually invaded Mexico to seize Arizona, New Mexico, California and other parts of the Southwest in the hope of expanding slavery... and that system has continued those historic dynamics of oppression down to today, adapting them to different times, but never able to give them up, and in many ways making them worse.

That system is capitalism-imperialism, and the fact that an open fascist like Trump has risen to be a serious contender for the top-dog of it today indicates both how vicious that system is, and in what desperate straits they find themselves. At a time like this, we urge those who have stepped forward to check out the party that has an actual program that could overcome this system’s historic injustices as part of a getting to a whole new world... that has a strategy that could actually defeat the imperialists who run this system... and the leadership to get there in Bob Avakian.

There is, in short, a way to get free of this madness. Check it out:

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