On the No Kings protest in LA
A wave of enormous protests hit the United States from coast to coast on Saturday. Millions took part in a tremendous show of defiance of Donald Trump and his attempts at crushing dissent.
The Republicans ran a campaign of intimidation in the days before the protests. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, described the No Kings protests as “hate rallies” which would attract “Hamas supporters” and the “Antifa people”.
Texas senator Ted Cruz accused the No Kings movement of being funded by George Soros invoking an antisemitic trope.
But millions of people in the US defied the Trump machine and took to the streets.
The protests kicked off on the East Coast with 10,000 in Atlanta and over 100,000 people coming out across New York City. Homemade placards carried slogans such as, “Democracy not Monarchy,” and, “We fight fascists.”
Eric Fretz spoke to Socialist Worker from the trade union feeder march. He said, “We were supposed to meet up with the main march. But so many people are pouring into the march from all the side streets, it is taking so long.
“There are health workers, education workers and unions which represent mainly Spanish speakers.
“The chants are, ‘Whose Streets, Our Streets’, ‘Who has the power? Workers have the power’ and, ‘The workers, united, will never be defeated’.
“There are some delegations led by union full time staff, and they have Democrat badges, but most people are here with their unions.
“I have spoken to people excited about voting for Zohran Mamdani, but they are also scared about Trump attacking New York if Mamdani wins.”
Protester Beth Zasloff said she was distressed at Trump’s move “towards fascism and authoritarian government”. “It gives me hope to be out here with many, many people”, she said.
Tens of thousands took to the streets in Washington DC, Boston, Miami and Orlando. Crowds, including convoys from retirement homes, chanted, “Hey hey, hey ho, Donald Trump has got to go.”
There were also protests in small towns such as Waxhaw in North Carolina and Harrisonburg in Virginia.
Victor Fernandez, a migrants’ rights organiser, was marching in Los Angeles over on the West coast. He told Socialist Worker, “I guess there are up to 50,000 here and other protests are happening all over the city.
“The United Teachers of Los Angeles have a feeder march of a couple of thousand. And the California Teachers Union and the United Healthcare and the Service Employees International Union public sector union have contingents.
“So much of these protests have been organised online—there is little on the ground organising. The organisers are linked to not-for-profit organisations. And the protests have been supported by celebrities and talk show hosts. They have a lot of pull.
“This time Trump and Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the Senate, have been attacking the protests—I think this is making them more popular.
“In cities like Chicago, where there has been a lot of violence and people have been killed by Ice agents, there will be a big upsurge of support for the protests. And there are strong teachers’ unions in Chicago.
“Even liberals who look to the Democratic Party feel like they’ve got to fight back. And if they can mobilise thousands, then we’ve got to be there to put forward left politics.
“The unions support the protests – they turn out people and banners. But if they really mobilised, they could put hundreds of thousands on the streets.”
Victor added, “Now, the neighbourhood defence committees are creating more permanent networks. There are 600 people in my local group.
“I have been a migrants’ rights organiser for 20 years. I have never seen people organising against Ice deportations in the way they are today.
“There has been a political shift—most people are now pro-immigrant. They want to organise resistance to what they see as fascism.
“These giant protests feed into organisation against Ice, in ways which are not tied to the Democrats and can form the basis of new organisations in the future.
“We can’t beat Trump in the corridors of power—he owns them. But we can beat him in the streets.”
As Victor suggested, the politics of the No Kings movement is very mixed. Some organisers emphasise that they are patriotic Americans defending the constitution. They bragged that the stars and stripes would be flown over the protests.
Those involved in promoting the event include both labour movement and migrant rights groups.
But the Democrat establishment, including Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, also tweeted support. The Democrats want to corral and tame the mass movement, but they offer no alternative to Trump.
The No Kings protests show mass opposition to Trump. Now that energy and huge support must be turned into action to defend migrants from deportation raids, to fight back against LGBT+ oppression and to defend civil liberties.
If the movement was infused with the power of workers, it would have the power to disrupt the repressive machinery of the US state.
Fascists could be in office for the first time since the war
Dominion Society is building links with Restore Britain
Germany is the second largest supplier of arms to Israel
The US is home to 989 billionaires
