Labor, immigrant, and civil rights groups, along with many who are not affiliated with any such organizations, are expected to turn out in the millions across the country Saturday, June 14, to protest the policies of a president who has plunged the nation into its worst crisis since the Civil War.
The No Kings Day protests are a reaction to what started out as stepped-up and cruel roundups of immigrants by masked ICE agents using secret police-style tactics in Los Angeles and elsewhere last weekend, and morphed into a democratic crisis.
Trump overrode California Gov. Gavin Newsom and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles and is threatening to do so in many other locations—not to protect the peace or civil rights, like President Lyndon B. Johnson did when he sent troops to Alabama in 1965 to block segregationist Gov. George Wallace, but rather to intimidate the population into not exercising their right to peaceful protest.
Groups among labor and its allies that were slow to react earlier this year to Trump’s destruction of liberties and democratic norms are now coming aboard what could well continue beyond June 14 to become one of the largest and most inclusive protest movements in the nation’s history, with defense of democracy at the core of the demands.
The urgency of the moment was further illustrated on Thursday, when Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was thrown to the ground and handcuffed for simply trying to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question at a press conference in Los Angeles. An archival search shows no such incident involving a sitting senator having ever occurred in the history of the nation.
Also intensifying the uprising in defense of basic freedoms was the call this week by the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists on the AFL-CIO leadership to mobilize a massive march on the nation’s capital. Many unions have joined in that call.
“This deployment of tanks and troops in the streets “is beyond peaceful,” the CBTU said in response to Trump’s move to flood U.S. cities with soldiers.
“These are the traditional steps of establishing authoritarian governments. These are the actions of a regime seeking to implement fascist policies and practices….CBTU will not stand down in the face of repression.”
Calls upon all of labor
CBTU is among the organizations calling upon all of labor to join the more than 1,900 peaceful nationwide No Kings Day protests. So are the Teachers/AFT, a cosponsor of the marches.
“The authoritarianism we have warned about is on full, disgusting, and disturbing display,” warned union President Randi Weingarten. “First a mayor, then a congressman, now a U.S. senator. These assaults are offensive to democracy, to the rule of law, and to the idea of America itself, and they must end now.”
Weingarten was referring to the arrest of several public officials by federal officers over the last two weeks—Padilla on Thursday, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., previously.
The tactics mirror what ICE agents have been doing to civilians—assaulting and grabbing people out of cars, homes, schools, hospitals, courthouses, workplaces, and churches everywhere from Sea-Tac Airport to New Bedford, Mass., in order to spread fear and terror.
“If this is what federal agents are capable of doing to elected officials in plain sight, imagine what they’re doing in our communities, our farms, and our schools every day,” Weingarten said.
Videos provide the proof: A television news reporter was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet as she was live broadcasting a peaceful protest; an elderly man was tackled, beaten, and arrested in Santa Ana, California; and a grandfather was kidnapped as he was dropping off his granddaughter at school.
A 21-year-old worker in New Bedford had his car windows smashed while on his way to work; he was then dragged out and carted off. A Machinist who holds a green card was kidnapped in Washington state and has been held in a private prison for the last three weeks.
Moves toward dictatorship
A major indication of Trump’s move towards dictatorship includes a planned massive military parade in D.C. on June 14 to allegedly celebrate the Army’s 250th birthday, but really to glorify himself on his own 79th birthday.
Human rights activists note that the protests tomorrow and the call for a national march on Washington are coming not a moment too soon as the administration rushes toward imposing martial law on the entire country.
The hunting of immigrants is both red meat for the MAGA base and, now, it is clear, paves the way for Trump to move toward the destruction of all remnants of democracy.
He claimed Thursday that he is willing to leave exploited immigrant workers on farms, in the hospitality industry, and in retail. If this is true, he is admitting that the raids have the underlying purpose of satisfying the vicious MAGA base and paving the way for ending the democratic rights of everyone, immigrants and non-immigrants.
Overwhelmingly peaceful
The protests against his assault on democracy have been overwhelmingly peaceful, and the sporadic acts of very limited violence happen mostly in response to violent attacks by either ICE agents rounding up people or law enforcement on the streets. Demonstrations at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles have been overwhelmingly peaceful, including some civil disobedience actions during which protesters submitted to voluntary arrest.
Organizers of the June 14 protests tomorrow urge people to be alert to any attempts to stir up violence. They note that such attempts either serve the interests of or are provoked by MAGA forces determined to crush all dissent.
Among the flood of actions opposing the president’s policies were those of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who reached out to the mayors of 30 cities, alerting them that the sending of troops to L.A. should serve as a warning that they can expect similar takeovers. She said that what was going on in her city is an “experiment being conducted by an administration determined to establish autocratic rule.”
Homeland Security Secretary Noem, during the press conference in which Padilla was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, did not even pretend to cover up the raw political nature of the administration’s militarization of L.A.
“We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialists,” she said.
“Until now, such remarks by a cabinet member would have been unthinkable,” Rossana Cambron, co-chair of the Communist Party USA, who resides in L.A., said. Cambron also warned people not to rely on media images that fixate on one small act of violence, like a burning car, that happens in a very limited corner of a city spread out over many square miles. The distance across L.A. County is equal, at points, to the distance between Philadelphia and New York City.
She urged people to tell the real stories of abuse of immigrants and the peaceful nature of most protests on social media and elsewhere, and said demonstrators should not provoke police, since they could end up being taken out of the struggle entirely.
“Everyone is needed to be part of an ongoing mass peaceful resistance,” she said. “The important thing is to remember we are fighting for the rights of immigrants and everyone else. Individual acts of violence accomplish nothing; collective mass action is what can actually win.”
Trump lost in the courts Thursday when a federal judge ruled that control of the National Guard must be handed back to Gov. Newsom, but an appeals court stayed the action for nine days while it decides the case, leaving the soldiers in L.A. under Trump’s control for now.
He is likely to use the window of opportunity to further militarize big cities in the country.
“Sanctuary cities are a disaster in this country,” Trump said—the theme of Republicans at a House hearing on June 12. “They’re trying to protect criminals…. If we didn’t bring the military in, you would have a disaster” in those cities.
Trump also promised more retribution against dissenters. “These people are agitators, they’re paid, they’re professionals, they’re insurrectionists, they’re troublemakers. They’re all of those things.”
The would-be king and dictator will see what the American people think about his claims when they turn out from coast to coast tomorrow.
As with all news analysis and op-ed articles published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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