New Orleanians marched against Trump’s troop deployment two weeks in a row. SLL photo: Gregory E. Williams
New Orleans, Sept. 16 – a crowd gathered across from Jackson Square Wednesday evening to protest Donald Trump’s threats to send troops into the Big Easy as well as the state capital, Baton Rouge.
This rally and march, organized by PSL, took place just one week after a similar one on Sept. 9. A half dozen other groups participated including Unión Migrante and Palestine Youth Movement. At both actions, the crowds were clear: They see through Trump and Landry’s lies.
A PSL organizer named Ed addressed the crowd before marching, saying:
“It’s an occupation by the billionaire class against the working class to further criminalize us. You want to solve crime in our communities?
“Give us universal health care. We haven’t seen a minimum wage raised in decades. Give us the right to form a union. Give us quality education. And until we have a people-powered, people-funded, people-organized economy, the criminalization of our people will only continue.”
He emphasized that even though Trump’s fascist movement is controlling the government right now, both ruling parties are for the rich and against the people. Trump did not create the oppression and injustice in our society, but he took the reins of a racist, capitalist system ready for him to exploit with his cronies.
Ed continued:
“Who passed the 1994 crime bill that swelled up the prisons in the United States? Democratic President Bill Clinton.
“When we look at our own city in the ‘90s, who swelled up OPP [Orleans Parish Prison]? A Democratic DA, Harry Connick Sr., had OPP overflowing. … Democratic President Joe Biden is walking around our country a free man, and he’s a war criminal. …
“And ICE right now is running around empowered. The KKK took off the white sheets and now they’re wearing face masks, terrorizing our neighborhoods! …
“Right now, we have a cancer alley right here, and it’s creating the demise of southern Louisiana. If you’re going to send law enforcement down here, go ahead and arrest all these CEOs of these petrochemical companies. That’s who needs to be arrested.
“What crimes are being committed? The biggest crime in the city of New Orleans is wage theft. And it’s a crime being committed by all of these people in these office buildings and businesses all over the French Quarter. We want to talk about crime?
“Shame! Brothers and sisters, we need to recognize that we have a system that’s oppressing us, and we will continue to organize and resist. …
“There will not be freedom in this country until the capitalist system is abolished. …
“We’re living in a very dark hour right now. Fascism isn’t coming. Fascism is here. But our message to Congress, our message to the President and the Trump administration is that another world is possible, and we’re going to organize to bring it into being.”
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