On Nov. 9, 10,000 protesters in San Francisco joined thousands of others across the country to clearly state that Donald Trump is #NotMyPresident. The ANSWER Coalition, which made the call for the action, passed out signs that read “Fight Back Against Sexism, Homophobia, War and Racism.” One of the most popular chants was “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, move Trump, get out the way!”
As we marched through downtown, the Castro and La Mission, all sorts of people approached congratulating us, offering us support and joining the action; an action in which their anger and frustration had public voice. A person approached the mic to let us know that we should tell everyone, “SF didn’t vote for Trump, nor did California, tell people to move to swing states where Trump has power.” The person was in shock at the response: “SF has its own Trumps to fight against.”
As we enter a prolonged period of resistance against a Trump presidency, guaranteed to give rise to dangerous, openly white-supremacist, reactionary organizations, those of us living in “Blue” areas, must not pretend the politics and program that gave rise to Trump are not reflected locally. San Francisco leaders may consider themselves “anti-Trump,” but their attacks against working-class people and people of color show that it is only the “tone,” they don’t agree with. The trajectory of their policies are still anti-poor, anti-worker and anti-people of color.
In San Francisco, the struggle against Trump must lead to unifying and building the movements against evictions, gentrification, police brutality and the attack on the homeless. It must be for a rise in the minimum wage, the protection of sanctuary cities, housing for all and quality public schools. In other words, our struggle is against the system that instills poverty, kicks people out of their homes, and then funds the police to brutalize instead of education and social services.
The Trump program in SF politics manifests itself in the millions of dollars in funding paid by the real-estate developers and tech investors to right-wing Democrats like Scott Weiner and to promote anti-homeless propositions like Prop Q. It is the gentrification and displacement of Latino, Asian, Black and working-class families in the Mission, the Excelsior and the Bayview led by Ed Lee and his administration. It is the complete impunity of SFPD whereby city officials like District Attorney George Gascón do not prosecute killer cops for taking the lives of Alex Nieto, O’Shaine Evans, Luis Gongora, Jessica Williams, Mario Woods and Amilcar Perez Lopez.
The Trump program is strong in the supposed liberal Democratic Party stronghold of San Francisco. Just as we are building a resistance movement against Trump nationally, we also must build a movement that fights his program locally. Next time someone tells you to move or to look elsewhere for the answers to building a real people’s movement, look no further than our city. Join us to fight against the system that gave rise to Trump, which hides behind both Blue and Red, “liberals” and “conservatives,” Democrats and Republicans.
