The Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Vote PSL campaign were proud to participate in last night’s heroic struggle in Chicago against Donald Trump and against racism.
The Trump campaign has dredged up and mobilized the worst elements of this country’s history — white supremacy, immigrant-bashing and mob violence. What he calls making America “great again” is understood by all oppressed people, and people of conscience, as a return to that ugly past. But last night was not about the past. Last night was a glimpse of the future — a future where young people of all backgrounds lock arms, stand tall and confront the bigots face-to-face: “Here, you will not pass.”
The police and the pundits shake their heads and wag their fingers, but they cannot erase the unmistakeable lesson of last night’s confrontation. That lesson is that the people in motion are the true force of history. The GOP establishment could not stop Trump. The Democratic establishment rhetorically condemns him, but as champions of the status quo, their words can only make him stronger.
But the youth and the working class of Chicago did what the establishment could not — acting together, we shut down Trump and exposed him as the coward that he is. For oppressed people, confronting Trump and his fascistic movement is a matter of basic self-defense.
Responding to last night’s events in Chicago, Hillary Clinton was actually more conservative than the Republican candidates. While Trump’s GOP contenders blamed his campaign for inciting violence, Clinton refused to mention Trump by name and essentially blamed protesters for not being passive.
While Bernie Sanders supporters were a vocal part of the movement confronting Trump in Chicago, we did not see a single Clinton sign or hear a single “Hillary” chant. Clinton rhetorically panders to the historic struggle against racism to garner Black and Latino votes, but when there’s an actual struggle against racism, she’s on the other side. And nothing is as politically clarifying as an actual struggle.
Chicago is just the beginning. Trump, and the racist movement behind him, will undoubtedly find ways to strike back. The corporate-owned media, which has facilitated Trump’s rise, will now say the movement has now “gone too far.” No! Now is the time to escalate the struggle, build the movement, and join organizations up to that task — we say, “create, two, three, many Chicagos!”
Shut down white supremacy! Down with the billionaire class!
