Trump’s recent visits to climate disaster sites underscore capitalism’s failures, while China’s response to the Xizang earthquake shows the way  

President Donald Trump recently visited two U.S. climate disaster sites — Asheville, North Carolina, and Los Angeles. In addition to racist rants against immigrants and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) hires, he also targeted the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). 

Trump said his goal was to shut down the already underfunded agency and pass the problem of disaster relief to the states and local politicians to avoid federal responsibility.

Western North Carolina, particularly Buncombe County, suffered the worst damage and loss of life from Hurricane Helene. Entire villages in Appalachia were wiped out, and 105 of the 230 Helene victims lived in North Carolina. Some residents went weeks without water or power.

People in Appalachia remain cold and homeless

More than four months after Hurricane Helene struck, many residents in western North Carolina remain essentially homeless. They are temporarily housed in hotels and face eviction during a freezing winter. More than 1,600 families lost access to Transitional Sheltering Assistance because FEMA was unable to contact them digitally.

California disaster continues

The Palisades and Eaton Fires in California were contained after nearly a month, but the danger of mudslides remains. To date, 29 people have been reported dead, and victims are still being identified. At least 17,000 homes and structures were destroyed, leaving families homeless and left to fend for themselves. 

Meanwhile, predatory landlords have hiked rents, often violating Governor Newsom’s rather weak emergency decree limiting rent increases to 10% this month.

Health consequences in the region have not yet been fully measured, especially for young children, infants, and older people, whose lungs are more at risk of disease from inhaling poisonous air. The Los Angeles–based Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice has called on the government to convert military production from bombs and guns to manufacturing air purifiers and personal protective equipment (PPE).

While Trump demagogically attacked Los Angeles’s Black Mayor, Karen Bass, he did not condemn price-gouging landlords, multi-million–dollar insurance companies, or profit-hungry utility companies such as Southern California Edison. Residents in Altadena, where 75% of African Americans living there own their homes, have charged the company with negligence and greed.

Trillions to the war machine

Nevertheless, the U.S. government continues to funnel trillions into the war machine, which includes genocide in Palestine. Imperialist war remains the priority for U.S. government spending.

China’s disaster response to the Xizang earthquake

While the Eaton Fire broke out on Jan. 7 in the United States, people in China’s Xizang Autonomous Region (referred to as Tibet in the Western press) suffered a devastating 6.8-magnitude earthquake. What followed in China contrasts sharply with what transpired in the U.S.

China’s President Xi Jinping ordered all-out rescue efforts to save lives. He called for top priority being given to treating the injured, meeting the basic needs of those affected, and speeding post-disaster recovery.

The earthquake struck at 9 a.m. Village representatives from the local government and the Communist Party of China immediately alerted the central government and went door to door to begin rescue efforts — even before specialized teams arrived. Military aircraft from the Western Theater Command took off early that day to set up a command station in Dingri County. Disaster teams, medical personnel, and supplies — including members of the People’s Liberation Army — were already on their way.

A report and video titled “Heroic Rescues After the Xizang Earthquake” from The Point in Beijing, released just 24 hours after the quake, explain the process in depth. What’s remarkable is that these efforts took place at high altitudes, in freezing temperatures, and with limited daylight. Pictures show Chinese rescue teams using drones to light up the area and working around the clock.

More than 14,000 people participated in the rescue efforts, and 46,000 have been relocated and housed. By Jan. 8, the largest highway had been cleared, and hot meals were available. 

The Chinese People’s Armed Police Force’s Xizang Contingent organized a voluntary blood donation drive in response to a critical shortage at the Xizang Autonomous Region blood center caused by the earthquake. 

A new recruit told the Global Times, “As soldiers, it’s our duty to help the people in the disaster area.” About 200 soldiers took part in the drive.

Here are a few videos and pictures depicting the Chinese government’s efforts on the ground:

“A total of 407 people have been rescued and over 30,000 relocated after a magnitude-6.8 #earthquake jolted southwest China’s #Xizang Autonomous Region. Governments at all levels deployed rescuers, funds and relief supplies to the quake-struck area.  Pictures 

Prefabricated housing was assembled in approximately 2-3 minutes by the China Railway Group Limited (CREC).

Workers solidarity is universal

In Gurong Village, Dingri County, 31-year-old village leader Sang Jie sprang into action as soon as the first tremors struck. After alerting the central government, he organized local teams to rescue people by digging them out with their bare hands until professional crews could arrive. A Facebook video from CGTN features an interview with him.

In Los Angeles, Marcia Garcia, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, sprang out of bed after hearing about the fires in Altadena. With her sons, she grabbed buckets and hoses and drove to the historic Black community in Altadena to help. In an NPR interview, she said, “Our values and our principles come first. That’s what our parents taught us. They always used to say, ‘Help others without concern for who they are or why they need help.’”

In western North Carolina, similar stories of heroism and sacrifice emerged. A young boy hiked more than 11 miles through mountainous terrain to reach his mother. Eddie Hunnel, carrying only a life vest and rope, jumped into the New River to save a woman trapped in a house being washed away by the storm. He paid little attention to his own safety, though he later admitted he was shaken when the real danger sunk in. Hunnel was in the area for his son’s wedding.

From China to Los Angeles and Appalachia, ordinary people have shown an incredible capacity for sacrifice and altruism and the ability to work together. Such cooperation and solidarity are key to human survival.

What is missing in Los Angeles, North Carolina, and the United States as a whole is a system that matches our natural ability to cooperate, protect one another, and act heroically when needed — a system that puts people’s needs before profits.

China’s President Xi Jinping summed it up best: “Saving lives is the most important thing.” It should always come before capitalist profits and imperialist war.

Gov. Landry wines and dines the super-rich, promises corporations low wages, tax breaks, freedom to union-bust, discriminate, and pollute

Millions in taxpayer dollars spent to rehearse a military occupation of New Orleans

You’ve worked hard and deserve to enjoy a good game. Come Sunday, get your chips and dip, BBQ, gumbo, beer, and relax.

But read on to see what the Super Bowl extravaganza costs you the other 364 days of the year. As we experience a few hours of entertainment, the mega-wealthy run away with a pot of gold at our expense.

Benson Family Got Rich By Extorting Public Funds

Let’s start with the Saints franchise. The Benson family — first Tom and now Gayle — have followed a playbook of using the franchise to suck up public money. The billionaire Gayle Benson got rich by threatening to take the Saints elsewhere and pocketing the money once the state caved in to her demands for more of our tax dollars. 

If the city owned the team, like they do in Green Bay, hundreds of millions of dollars would return to the city. Instead, the whole state subsidizes Benson’s profits with our tax dollars. The franchise pays no rent to use the Superdome (and the Benson family doesn’t pay a dime for using the Smoothie King Center, either), and they pay no sales taxes on the hundreds of millions in ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise, despite how much they charge for them. 

The state even paid the Bensons $186 million of our money in 2011 to keep the team in New Orleans and another $392 million through 2025. On top of this, they sold a massive office building to Benson for $80 million with real estate tax exemptions (meaning more free money for her), and the loan is guaranteed by public debt. The $138 million renaming fee paid by Caesar’s also goes right to Benson, with no benefit to the city.

‘But Queen Benson gives us turkeys …’  

Benson has managed to convince people she’s generous and good with her turkey giveaways and donations. Don’t be fooled by these publicity stunts. Every bit of her so-called charity is a tax write-off and a photo-op. What she gives is a tiny fraction of what she has taken from us. Meanwhile, reporters recently exposed emails that prove that she and the team management conspired with the media and the former DA Leon Cannizaro to cover for the Catholic Church as it sought to shield clergy from rampant rape and sexual abuse charges. Clearly, we workers have our morals, and the rich — whether Benson, Landry, Trump, Biden, or Musk — have their own. 

The NFL operates the same way. Its alleged charitable activities in the lead-up to the game are nothing but a smokescreen to distract from the fact that it is earning billions from the Super Bowl while giving us next to nothing.

Local Capitalists Get Rich While We Get Nothing

The local hospitality moguls rake in millions from the Super Bowl, telling us it’s “good for the economy,” but none of those profits seem to trickle down to us. Small vendors have been banned. Almost none of the taxes derived from the boost in business go back to the city. Millions are spent to flood the city with cops. Taxes levied at hotels and restaurants are given to unelected private organizations like the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, the Convention Center, and New Orleans and Company. And they claim they can’t afford to fund our schools or to give us workers health insurance, sick leave, vacation pay, or a living wage.

The most recent renovations of the Superdome cost $506 million. That’s on top of $376 million in 2016. Meanwhile, the school board has to beg $20 million. While it’s the Mayor who’s blocking this agreed-upon sum, the City Council, despite its outcry, is complicit. They’ve all wasted millions of our tax dollars on the more than 500 projects meant to impress the luxury yacht owners who have shown up for the Super Bowl. They’re accommodating private planes at the airport while the rest of the city falls apart — literally. How many buildings have collapsed in the last few months? Hell, we can’t even get street lights replaced or potholes filled, but the city can fork over millions to Benson and other elites, expecting us to serve them while we can’t even afford rent.

Governor Landry and President Trump miss no opportunity to wine and dine capitalists with our money

Gov. Landry, who is bought and paid for by corporations and who personally benefits from state funds (our money), is hosting a week of lavish events for some of the richest people in the world. Executives and owners of Amazon, Tesla, Google, Meta, and oil and gas companies, to name just a few, are showing up for the big game, and Landry is rolling out the red carpet. They will all wind up in special suites that cost between $750,000 and $1.2 million, paying tens of thousands for tickets to the game, enjoying special treatment that none of us can possibly afford. Nosebleed seats cost $5,000 a pop. Meanwhile, Landry is pushing for tax cuts for these mega-rich parasites while he raises our sales taxes to the highest in the country. 

He’s especially sucking up to Zuckerberg’s company Meta, giving them special tax exemptions, rewriting laws for them, offering discounted electric rates, and subsidizing their new mega AI data center near Monroe that will use up to a third of the state’s electric capacity, endangering us all in times of crisis, especially during hurricane season. He’s stealing our money to hand over to Meta so they can drain our electricity, destroy the environment (these data centers are major contributors to climate change), all so they can create AI that will steal our jobs or spy on us. 

This is Landry’s plan for Louisiana — loot the state treasury for every cent we pay in taxes to make his pals richer, pay off his stormtroopers, and pocket as much money as he can. Even though Landry and the legislature have already rammed through the increase in our sales tax among many other anti-worker laws, we’ll have the chance on March 29 to reject some aspects of his tax plan at the ballot. Vote no on amendment 2 to reject the tax plan, and vote no on amendment 3 to keep kids from being tried as adults.

Meanwhile, President Trump has decided to attend the Super Bowl this weekend to rub elbows with his billionaire friends. His visit will bring the Secret Service on top of the state police, ATF, FBI, and National Guard who have been patrolling the French Quarter as part of Landry’s racist attempt to, in his words, “bring New Orleans to heel.” 

The armed forces currently patrolling the streets of New Orleans have nothing to do with protecting us. Landry is taking advantage of our grief and fear over last month’s tragic terror attack to test out a military occupation of New Orleans. His sweeps of homeless encampments and constant antagonizing of locals are all part of pandering to real-estate developers and other millionaires he serves. Trump’s attendance at the game is a slap in the face of everyone he has attacked in his first few weeks in office, a display of the luxury he lives in while we are impoverished by his executive orders.

Enjoy the game this weekend, rest, and gear up for the fight we’ve got on our hands. It’s the working class vs. the billionaires. They’ve got their superyachts, jets, and skyboxes, but we’ve got the power of millions if we join together to fight for our right to a decent life.

🟢 Hamas condemned Trump’s statements “in the strongest terms.” “We affirm that these statements are hostile to our people and our cause and will not serve stability in the region. Rather, they will pour oil on the fire. We will not allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our great Palestinian people who have offered rivers of blood to liberate our land from occupation and to establish our Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.”Hamas called on Trump to retract his statements, which they deemed irresponsible and at odds with international law. They called on the Arab League and UN to address these comments.

⚫️ Palestinian Islamic Jihad considered that Trump’s comments, made while receiving the wanted Netanyahu, “are nothing more than a new version of the ill-fated Balfour Promise—where those who have nothing are promised to those who do not deserve it.”

They called the event “a meeting between the war criminal and the arrogant real estate mogul, which epitomized the reality of the American-zionist project in our region.” This project works through intimidation, brute force, and genocide, “flouting all laws, regulations, and the will of our peoples.”

PIJ affirmed that these statements leave no doubt that the US is leading a war of genocide, displacement, and the expansion of occupation. They considered Trump’s plans, from ending UNRWA to seizing land, are a dangerous escalation that threatens regional security.

PIJ concluded: “Our Palestinian people, who have been resisting for over a hundred years, will not succumb to the dictates of Trump or anyone else. His foolish statements will only serve as motivation for us to reinforce our resistance until we achieve our objectives of liberating our land and ending the occupation. Our Palestinian people and their resistance forces are more determined and resolute than ever in confronting these conspiracies, and we call on the Arab and Islamic peoples to stand against this conspiratorial project, which targets all the peoples of our region and portends serious impending threats.”

🔴 The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was similarly direct: Gaza is not a real estate project.

They considered the statements “nothing but an extension of the genocide war waged by the Zionist enemy under the direct American cover, and an attempt to establish a new colonial project based on ethnic cleansing and the uprooting of our people from their land.”

They added: “Gaza is not a commodity in the hands of a war merchant like Trump or anyone else; rather, it is an integral part of historical Palestine, which stretches from Ras al-Naqoura to Rafah, and it is the gateway upon which the forces of colonialism have repeatedly crashed throughout history.”

“Any dream of controlling Gaza is merely an illusion that will shatter against the rock of the steadfastness and resistance of our people, and the fate of any American occupation force in the Strip will be no different from that of the zionist enemy; our people will confront it with all their strength and determination, just as they repelled the zionist aggression.”

“Gaza will forever remain a graveyard for invaders and an oasis of steadfastness and resistance for its free and dignified people.”

The PFLP called on all people to “confront this colonial scheme.” “We especially urge the active forces in the United States to take to the streets and declare their rejection of this new crime, which reflects the true face of American imperialism that colludes with the zionist occupation. Our struggle against this colonial, extirpatory project is the battle of all free peoples who reject colonialism, displacement, and the uprooting of a free people from their land.”

⚪️ Similarly, the Mujahideen Movement strongly condemned the statements of Trump and those around him. They considered the statements to reflect a determination to continue aggression against the Palestinian people. They noted that attempts to obstruct reconstruction serve the zionist agenda. They affirmed that Trump will not achieve what Biden was not able to. “The genocide committed by the Nazi zionists with American weaponry failed to displace our people, and Trump’s threats will not succeed in what their criminal arms failed to achieve.

The Deputy Secretary-General, Dr. Salem Attallah, suggested moving zionist settlers to an American state, as “no zionist invader will ever have our security and safety on our land as long as there’s a people and the determines resistance committed to reclaiming all its legitimate rights.” He noted that the international system has become a tool of American-zionist hegemony and arrogance.

The Movement also noted that Trump’s reception of the criminal Netanyahu represents contempt for ICC decisions, and they rejected his statements that “expose the ugly face of the United States.” They stated, like other factions, that Trump’s plans are a serious threat to the region and world. Yet, they noted that a people who faced American weapons for 15 months will not kneel to American words: “his plans will fail due to the steadfast resistance of our people.”

⚔️ The Popular Resistance Committees saw the statements as embodying American values. They considered Trump’s reception of Netanyahu as a reward for his “fascist entity’s genocide against women, children, and the elderly…with American support.”
They called for popular action rejecting Trump’s statements globally to confront their danger.

Abu Mujahid affirmed that the Palestinian people and their resistance will thwart the goals of the zionist enemy, remaining steadfast and again foiling displacement plans.

“The plan to displace and eradicate our people has fallen and failed under the feet of our displaced people who returned to their land from which they were displaced under the bombing, destruction and war of zionist-American genocide.”

He added that “Egypt and Jordan will not allow the existence of an alternative homeland for the Palestinians…” and that American administrations have not broken the will of the Palestinian people despite their unlimited resources.

Abu Mujahid noted: “If Arab countries refuse to normalize with the zionist entity and submit to the American decision biased towards the criminal zionist entity, and stop paying the billions of dollars with which America finances its aggression against our peoples, then the criminal Trump will not be able to implement his malicious criminal plans.”

“It is time for us, as a Palestinian people, to put aside all our differences and adhere to our unity on the basis of protecting the constants and legitimate Palestinian national rights.”

Via Resistance News Network

https://t.me/PalestineResist/72992

https://t.me/PalestineResist/72993

—

Havana, Feb. 4 — The “gibberish” was formed in Washington. The couple of the moment, Donald Trump and Elon Musk, closed USAID — the United States Agency for International Development, — one of the arms that mask US interventionism in the world, one of the claws of the CIA and other intelligence services to obtain information about other countries and influence their internal and external policies, a tentacle of the State Department to foment dissidence that leads to “regime change” when it is provided, in short: a driving force behind US positions on the world stage.

Musk, the tsar of governmental efficiency at the head of the department created especially for the purpose of bringing order to the administrative institutions of the State and even probably privatizing it, had for days been criticizing the agency on his powerful networks and, although it may seem unheard of to you, he went so far as to describe it as “a radical left-wing psychological political operation”, which is impossible to prove and very difficult to believe even for the most naive earthling, but that is of no importance for the absolute power enthroned in the White House.

In any case, on Sunday, after signing an executive order freezing foreign aid, Trump followed the rhyme and told reporters that USAID had been run “by radical crazies, we will get them out and then we will make a decision”.

USAID is being dismantled by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). With a single stroke of the pen, the police closed its doors and put up yellow tape to prevent employees from accessing the facility, its website was disconnected, as were the accounts of hundreds of its employees and hundreds of fired contractors.

The AP news agency even said that senior USAID officials — the “candorosos” John Voorhees, director of security, and deputy director Brian McGills — were escorted out of the building after blocking DOGE’s access to secure systems and refusing to hand over classified material. But the almighty DOGE accessed it, including intelligence reports, which is something else. They were unaware that Musk had passed sentence: USAID is a criminal organization and it is “time for it to die”.

The Democrats came to the defense of USAID, created in 1961. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said late last week that any attempt to dissolve USAID would be “illegal and contrary to our national interests,” but Trump made it clear to him that he would not require an act of Congress to eliminate it. “I don’t think so. Not when it comes to fraud. There is fraud. These people are crazy. And if it’s fraud, we wouldn’t have a congressional act, and I’m not sure we would have one anyway.”

Senator Andy Kim (Democrat-New Jersey), who was one of the agency’s soldiers, came out quickly to defend it: “Its vindictive way of trying to shut down USAID sends signals to the whole world that we are a nation at war with itself,” and sends a message to adversaries that “the United States is distracted and divided.” “Distracted, I don’t know, but divided, yes.”

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tempered the situation when he announced his appointment of the acting director of USAID: “There are many functions of USAID that will continue, that will be part of US foreign policy, but they have to be aligned with US foreign policy.” If you didn’t understand, the translation is easy, the policy spearheaded by the Trump-Musk duo, and of which Rubio is a devalued underling, has as its ultimate goal “making America — read it carefully: the United States — great again.”

So far they have not spoken, or I have not read anything about USAID’s close coordination with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the spearhead and front for the spy services that works with non-governmental organizations, nor how their alliance with the Pentagon will turn out, where some of their manuals recognize their role in so-called counterinsurgency and nation-pacification operations.

Considering the services provided, I would venture to say that we will soon see the same old boy, with almost identical aims, perhaps with a different name, remodeled and more efficient, to guarantee the hegemony of the USA against an emerging world ready for multipolarity.

For now, a couple of well-intentioned questions: Will they or won’t they leave the budget of more than 50 billion dollars to the whatever-it’s-called, to be fished out of the swamp? Will the generous contributions to the organizations of the anti-Cuban mafia lobby in Florida flow again and with them the allowances to their low level employees in Cuba?

Source: Juventud Rebelde, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English

In recent weeks, a series of prisoner swaps has unfolded between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel, stemming from the Jan. 19 ceasefire deal. While the media spotlight has primarily centered on the zionist captives, those held by Palestinian resistance are most accurately described as prisoners of war, not hostages. In stark contrast, over 9,000 Palestinians remain incarcerated in Zionist prisons, including many elders and minors. 

Since the ceasefire, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been released from Zionist prisons. This is a major victory for the resistance and all the families who can finally welcome their loved ones home. 

High-profile leader released

Several newly released Palestinian prisoners were high-profile leaders in the various resistance groups. This includes Khalida Jarrar, a 62-year-old woman and leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The Zionists held Jarrar in solitary confinement for six months under “administrative detention” — a legal mechanism that allows them to hold any Palestinian indefinitely without charge or trial. Jarrar was freed along with 69 other women and 21 teenage boys, some as young as 12. 

After six years in a maximum security prison, Al Aqsa Martyrs’ commander Zakaria Zubeidi was finally released as part of the ceasefire exchanges. Zubeidi was a crucial figure in the Second Intifada and was set to serve a life sentence before his release. 

Mohammed Abu Warda, a Hamas commander active in the Second Intifada, was serving 48 terms of lifetime imprisonment before his release. Prominent Fatah political activist Mohammed al-Tous was also released after 39 years in a Zionist prison. 

However, it is not only prominent fighters or political leaders who are finally free from Zionist detention. The vast majority of those held in Zionist prisons are everyday people detained solely because they are Palestinian.

For example, Ali Nazzal from Qalqilya finally returned home after 17 years to meet his teenage son for the first time. That’s right. Ali had been in a Zionist prison for so long that he had never met his son. However, due to the Palestinian people’s steadfast resistance, Ali is now reunited with his family. 

Another prisoner who will see the light of freedom after 20 years in a Zionist prison is Palestinian scholar Hussam Shahin. While incarcerated, Shahin wrote two novels about the occupation. Upon his release, he was immediately transferred to a hospital for emergency care as the Zionist occupiers had performed surgery on him without anesthesia while in jail. Shahin is currently resting in a local hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. 

Harsh conditions in Zionist prisons

It should be noted that the released Palestinian prisoners nearly universally described the horrific conditions they experienced in various Zionist prisons and detention centers — reports of starvation, torture, and psychological abuse were common. 

This stands in stark contrast to the accounts of the Zionist captives held by Hamas, who described being treated with respect and kindness. 

The return of the Palestinian prisoners has justifiably filled the people of Gaza with pride and joy. This has been on full display in recent weeks as resistance groups and Palestinian police have marched through the streets of Gaza City alongside the newly released prisoners. 

This pride did not go unnoticed by the fascist war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices. After images of Al-Qassam Brigade fighters marching through the streets surfaced on social media, Netanyahu immediately took to the airwaves to spread hateful anti-Palestinian bile. Netanyahu denounced the Al-Qassam processions as “horrifying” and “shocking.” In fact, Netanyahu briefly halted the entire prisoner exchange, creating chaos and confusion among the ranks of the Red Cross and even the Zionist authorities. 

The enduring spirit of Palestinian resistance

One question for the war criminal: Is it common for a nation not to celebrate its victories in war and the return of its prisoners? Why should the Palestinian people cower in silence at the feet of occupiers and U.S. imperialists? For Netanyahu to attack the very spirit of the Palestinian people — while an individual cannot walk down the street anywhere in “Israel” without seeing IDF propaganda — is the height of colonial arrogance. 

In reality, Netanyahu is simply embarrassed because the prisoner exchanges demonstrate the falsehood of the Zionist assertion that the occupation forces destroyed Hamas. The fact remains that anti-colonial resistance cannot be destroyed, whatever its form. As long as U.S. imperialist-backed occupiers seek to steal Palestine, the people will fight to keep it. 

These prisoner exchanges represent a positive development for the Palestinian liberation struggle and are certainly a victory. With that said, any resistance group will say that the struggle is not over until every part of Palestine is returned to its people – from Gaza to the Jordan River. 

Long live Palestine. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.

Feb. 2 —

“Thank you for so much beauty to fight cruelty”, was a phrase that slipped in, almost a whisper, very early on when the Plaza del Congreso began to fill up for an anti-fascist and anti-racist march in opposition to Milei, which was unexpected, spontaneous and multitudinous.

One million people mobilized in the City of Buenos Aires – according to the organizers – as a result of the fuse lit by the LGBT community. A multicolored ray of light illuminated a day that will not go unnoticed. Is it a turning point? Is it finally a standstill? It remains to be seen whether the summer heat, impregnated in thousands and thousands of bodies, will drop or continue to rise. What is certain is that the march on February 1st was a massive and distinct call that sprang from an anti-fascist and self-convened assembly, and that multiplied throughout the country and the world. February precipitated a weariness and a hunger for change.

“My first march”

At 4 in the afternoon, the march led by transvestites, trans people, gays, non-binary people and lesbians left San José and Avenida de Mayo, a riot of color, the starting point for a political event: “I had never been on a march before, but after the president’s speech I said ‘Enough!’ and I came.” Says Flor – 14 years old – looking at the 14-meter-wide head of the march. There are 50 of them holding the flag with their fingers tightly pressed together, fingers wrinkled with red and black nails. Fingers of trans kids and lesbians. Anti-fascist and anti-racist pride, a beautiful flag, painted the day before on the sidewalk of Bonaparte Hospital. That detail, evidence of what this march was, a confluence of struggles, an intersectoral vibration, a profound encounter to, as Flor said in her first march: “Say Enough”.

“It is vital to install anti-fascism,” says Violeta Alegre, trans activist and DJ. “Now we are certain that it was not installed before, regardless of the progress we have made in human and civil rights. It is important to understand that fascism is not like Mussolini’s, there are other tools that allow it to be reconfigured, through technology and social networks.” She says, just before getting on the truck located behind the head of the march. Music, a montage and voguers – ballroom dancers – applauded: “Unity of all queers, and those who don’t like it, fascist, fascist.We can’t cope, we can’t make ends meet, we defend life against the fascist project, against the fascist project,” they chanted. Behind them, LGBT organizations, feminists and a square full of trade unions, Peronists and leftists. The entire spectrum of the opposition was at the march.

The popular festival without police

The Archbishopric of the City of Buenos Aires asked that the cathedral not be fenced off for the march, Judge Ramos Padilla issued a preventive habeas corpus without anyone asking him to, with the aim of preventing the security forces from intercepting people or transport. The streets around Avenida de Mayo were closed from early on and the street was a popular celebration, with LGBTIQNB+ pride in the air. The march broke the repressive protocols that were applied by Minister Patricia Bullrich throughout 2024.

The call was overwhelming. During the week there was a rumor that it was going to be a march that a large sector of society was going to join, but no one could predict it would be this large. And it became a reality, as happened with the “University March” in 2024 or with the “2×1” march during the government of Mauricio Macri. “There are things that this society does not negotiate,“ says a woman who is holding a camera in one hand and a walking stick in the other. She is sweating and suffering from the heat of the mid-afternoon: ”I am a pensioner, my grandson is gay and he is 13 years old, I am not going to allow this government to do whatever it wants.” ‘Where is your grandson?’ the reporter asks her. “Dancing over there,“ she says.

Anti-fascism in the square

“I think the most interesting thing about this event is that it puts at the center of the debate a policy of profound humanization of the different ways of existing in the world,” says Lucia Portos, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Gender and Diversity of the Province of Buenos Aires. For her it is a commitment to solidarity and to the creation of networks of relationships that challenge the institutional framework and propose the creation of community, unmasking the group of people who use cruelty as a tool,” she explains, adding: ”I believe that today’s march is a turning point that should also lead to a questioning of the logic of democratic representation that is subject to an urgent demand, that of assimilating the priorities set by popular organization and communicate them in order to build a majority that can effectively put a stop to the violence. The governor, Axel Kicillof, also took part in the march with the column from the province of Buenos Aires.

“The joy of having together organized a political event full of tenderness and political determination,” said Marta Dillon, activist, lesbian and feminist. “These people say no to you, Milei, we are not willing to tolerate your policy of extermination. We are not going to let fascism in.”

An unforgettable march that marks a turning point

“Our anti-racist discussion in relation to today’s march, and to this government, seeks to denounce the cuts and the losses in public policies and reparation measures for our communities, historically marginalized and violated due to structural and institutional racism in Argentina,” says Alejandra Pretel, member of afroslgbtiq+ and co-founder of Afrocolectiva, who was part of the anti-fascist assembly:

“For the president’s message to be replicated in the country and in the world is very dangerous,” says Yokarta, a sex worker who marches with AMMAR (Sex Workers’ Union). “It enables them to rape us in the neighborhoods where we work, to bring back the police raids and to arrest me for whatever reason. With that discourse, it’s to see if the police like us or not and that can’t be,” she says. ‘If the president says we are dangerous, then the police are going to take reprisals against us, every time he sees me, because I am a sex worker, a migrant or trans,’ she explains.

Transversality was colored, from the specific problems of the LGBT community to poverty pensions, all in the same march: “It is essential to fight against the hollowing out of health policies, especially those that provide or allow abortion, access to comprehensive health care for LGBT people, HIV medication and hormone treatment,” says Cesar Bisutti, lawyer, anti-prison activist and worker in the gender equity department of the Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires.

The day was a necessary day of beauty responding to cruelty, in the form of murmurs and celebration, with skin in the sun and make-up far removed from the constant tear gases that repeatedly challenge social protest. A stop, a hindrance and a message replicated in the world against the far right. The day after, there will be some relief and now the fuse of fighting back will already be lit.

Source Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English

Despite even allowing U.S. law enforcement to operate in the country, thus undermining its own sovereignty, Mexico is still faced with the prospect of being attacked. If the new administration is already conducting a thorough investigation of the illegal activities of its predecessors, then it should look into the connections of the U.S. intelligence with the drug cartels.