Washington, D.C., Jan. 20 – Despite below-freezing temperatures and strong winds, a thousand or more people took to the streets today during President Donald Trump’s inauguration to demonstrate that the movement for Palestine and for workers’ and migrants’ rights isn’t going anywhere just because the oligarchy-supporting fascist has now taken back the Oval Office for a second term. In fact, our united struggle for liberation will only continue to intensify against Trump’s plans to enact his far-right billionaire agenda against the working class fully.
That agenda includes but is not limited to: mass deportations of migrant workers, severe repression of unions’ rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and the student intifada, and more reckless spending for the U.S. war machine to further its aggression against the Axis of Resistance in the Middle East, against China and Latin America, and in Ukraine through the U.S.-NATO proxy war against Russia.
The action was organized by the We Fight Back Network, a coalition of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Maryland 2 Palestine, and Anakbayan DC, with dozens of other endorsing organizations including the Peoples Power Assembly and Struggle-La Lucha who were well represented in the streets.
People gathered at Malcolm X Park, a very fitting location for MLK Day, symbolic of the continuous struggle for justice once led by these well-known revolutionaries, all while our fascist government once again used this day to try to reduce both men’s legacies, pushing the myth of their opposition to each other. We know that they both knew that extreme poverty and racism in this country are directly linked to capitalism and militarism. They both also knew that the only way to end these material conditions is for all oppressed workers to unite together and fight back against the ruling class.
During the rally, it was announced that Indigenous revolutionary and political prisoner Leonard Peltier, who was wrongfully incarcerated over 50 years ago for the murder of two FBI agents, had finally been granted executive clemency in one of President Biden’s final acts before leaving office. This surprise announcement brought immense joy and relief to an already fired-up crowd ready to take to the streets.
People marched down 16th Street past various embassies and luxury apartments, much to the disgust of a few Trump supporters straining their necks to make their obnoxious voices heard amongst the roar of those chanting “No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA!” “The people, united, will never be defeated!” and “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution!” to name a few.
While both the MPD and U.S. Park Police encroached on the marching crowd with their bicycles on the sidewalks, other onlookers watched from either their balconies or on the sidewalks, taking plenty of photos and videos. A notable feature that stood out against the various signs and protest art held by the crowd was a large makeshift guillotine smeared in fake blood with a sign underneath that read “COME GET SUM!” an obvious jab at the billionaire oligarchy set to rule during Trump’s second presidency, inspiring the need for revolution against the ruling class.
The march then turned onto Massachusetts Avenue before stopping at the Philippine Embassy, where members of Malaya DC and Anakbayan DC held another brief but energetic rally, which denounced the economic and militaristic relationship between both Trump and President Marcos Jr.’s governments. “We will see that [President Ferdinand] Marcos Jr. will continue to intensify militarization in the Philippines,” said Norynne Caleja of Malaya DC. “We will continue to see the United States bring forth funding for aerial bombings in our peasant communities, in our Indigenous lands.”
The march continued down Massachusetts Avenue before ending at DuPont Circle, where the final and perhaps most spirited rally was held. Speakers emphasized the importance of continuing to organize and build alternative structures outside of the capitalist, imperialist system that has worked exactly as intended: to press the boot further onto the necks of the working class through starvation wages, lack of affordable housing, union-busting, piss-poor education and health care, and insanely high grocery prices.
The struggle for a better future for all is a commitment we must continue to make, and, seeing as we are no strangers to what repression against our movement has looked like under a Biden administration, we must not retreat when the right-wing extremists under Trump launch their all-out assault against us!
We must revive the fighting spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as all the great revolutionaries who precede us, as it is only through the power of the people that we will put an end to this seemingly endless nightmare of capitalism! Long live Palestine! Long live Lebanon! Long live the struggle for liberation! Long live international solidarity! The people will continue to fight back!
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