Resistance In The Age Of Trump

March 5th, 2017

Awake Goy

From January 21st, 2017 Women’s March on Washington. Trump was resusted from Day 1. By Mike Coppola for Getty Images.

There were series of mass protests against President Trump before, during and after his inauguration as president. This will be the inauguration of persistent protests, not just against the Trump administration but the system that has consistently put in place governments that represent big business interests and militarism while most people in the US face economic insecurity, and people around the world face US bombings. President Obama broke George W. Bush’s record for bombs deployed creating further hatred for the United States, insecurity and chaos. President Trump, in his first month is breaking Obama’s record for drone attacks. While he talks about detente with Russia, the bi-partisan war hawks in Washington, DC seem intent on preventing anything but conflict with Russia. Trump is a symptom of a failed political system that does not represent the interests of the people or planet. Protests were varied from black bloc to the massive Women’s March and included coordinated blocking of entrances to the inaugural march. In the end, there were more protesters than Trump supporters at the inauguration and Trump controversies because he could not admit the small size of the crowd at his inauguration.

Unite To Change The Status Quo

Silence is complicity, The World is Watching, Trump Inauguration protest by Eleanor Goldfield for Art Killing Apathy

The broad social movement in the United States has been growing since the 2008 economic collapse, most visibly in recent years with the Occupy Movement and then immigrant’s rights, Indigenous, workers’ and Black Lives Matter movements, to name a few. As the inauguration protests, the Women’s Marches and the protests at the GOP meeting in Philadelphia showed this week, the resistance movement seems to be growing exponentially and some are escalating their tactics. We need to focus the movement’s power to achieve real change. The new Health Over Profits for Everyone campaign for National Improved Medicare for All strikes at the heart of a corrupt system. When we put in place a single payer system we will be defeating corporate-domination of government and the corruption that is rife in the two parties. We will be transform from the selfish ethic of profit even if it costs tens of thousands of lives, to working together as a community for the good of each of us. We will be defeating the false idolatry of privatization. Health Over Profits is one plank in the People’s Agenda, which put forward a broad vision of where the nation needs to go and is bases on multiple programs of the popular resistance since 2008.

The Problem Isn’t Trump, It’s Bigger

The awakening of mass protests against Donald Trump’s executive orders and appointments could become a real movement, but it must realize a critically important point: Trump is not the problem, the system is. The illusion of US democracy hides oligarchy. Trump is a symptom of a long-term trend of a failing democracy that is too closely tied to Wall Street and the war machine. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are part of this failed system that does not represent the people of the United States. We are all working to build a mass movement for economic, racial and environmental justice that is bigger than Donald Trump. If we are successful the popular resistance will have a greater and longer term impact than Donald Trump. We have the power if we organize and mobilize to use it. As the extremist actions of the Trump administration are put in place we need to remember that extremism for the wealthy, for war and ignoring of environmental catastrophe is consistent with the actions of all recent presidents and the leadership of both corporate parties. Our task is bigger than Trump, it is the system.

Protest Is Working & Growing

People are recognizing that they have power to protest and resist on many critical issues. Some see the potential for protest at work, such as the resistance and non-cooperation among federal workers. And, many are planning on building toward a general strike, something unheard of in US history. State officials are even talking about protesting by not paying federal taxes. Early in the Trump era, protest is working as the Trump administration is off to a floundering start. The potential ahead is for an even larger resistance movement. The dysfunctional and corrupt nature of the duopoly government will add to protest movements, making the country ungovernable. We can defeat the oligarchy, as currently represented by Trump, but which began long before him, by remaining independent of the corporate parties and fighting for the changes we need. While the parties put the wealthy first, the people’s movement needs to insist that the necessities of the people and planet come before the profits of the gluttonous wealthy.

Being Prepared To Turn Crisis To Our Advantage

With the Trump administration floundering and the movement opposed to him expanding, the resistance movement needs to be prepared for a possible shock doctrine moment, whether intentional or not, that could be used to unify the country around an unpopular president and shut down political dissent. The likely areas of crisis are an economic collapse, a terrorist incident or a major war. If a 9/11 type crisis occurs, we need to use it, not to unify behind the President, but to rapidly explain how the crisis is blow back from failed government policies of both parties, that it is a systemic problem of which Trump is a symptom and that the crisis means the movement must expand and immediately explain how the crisis was caused by US domestic and foreign policy. If we succeed we will advance our cause even in a crisis whether it is self-created, provoked or blow back. We will not only blunt the potential of a Reichstag moment but turn it to our advantage to serve transformation of the nation. If we are to succeed, we must start preparing now. Those who are prepared for crisis, do best when it occurs.