Just over a month into the Second Trump regime, and our country has seen the returning president sign a slew of rapidly implemented executive orders that have initiated everything from raiding and deporting our migrant and immigrant populations in Chicago and nationally, to declaring the legitimacy of only two gender identities, a call that will massively harm our trans community’s ability to access healthcare or even renew their passport under their desired gender, to overturning and removing DEI initiatives across the country, to silencing and punishing oppositional perspectives.
On top of these undeniably fascist implementations, he has also platformed a group of controversial and unqualified political appointments, proposed a block on all federal spending that would negatively affect millions of Americans, and is threatening countless public services. With these moves, and an exhausting amount more, Trump is working to push the United States of America further into the fascist, xenophobic, capitalistic, racist, queer/transphobic hellscape he and his ilk hope it to be.
It is deeply disappointing and infuriating to see how these ideals are being welcomed and exacerbated by those around Trump and those who support him. On the day of Inauguration, billionaire supervillain Elon Musk performed not one but two Nazi salutes during his greeting, before urging German far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) to overcome its past guilt and that, “[they] really are the best hope for Germany, a few days later. Following in Elon’s clown shoe steps, at an anti-abortion rally in Washington DC, Michigan priest, Calvin Robinson, performed a Nazi salute with his closing remarks to raucous applause from the audience. In the last week even, former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon performed a Nazi salute at the culmination of his CPAC speech.
There is continued, undeniable support for this behavior and ideological degradation, and it should be no surprise to those apprised of our country’s history. The USA was founded on a diabolical platform of capitalism and Puritanical/Evangelical Christianity, built by the labor of slaves and indentured servitude, on the ashes of a genocided Indigenous population and has been propagated by the progeny of the perpetrators of these atrocities. And as desperately as the ultra right-wing forces in power try to erase the means to disseminate this history to future generations, they cannot kill the truth, and we cannot let them.
And, it is not all hopeless, there remains a contingent in this country and Chicago, specifically, that is working to counter these efforts. Tenant and labor unions, police accountability committees, mutual aid organizations, political education and action groups, Indigenous resistance groups, Anarchists and Socialists, Palestinian and Arab-Diaspora community networks, immigrant rights groups, queer and disabled theorists, and countless more, are working tirelessly to fight for improvement of the material conditions of all working people in this country.
On the day of Inauguration, in a move to redirect energy around the second Trump appointment, a group of over 60 organizations united to march through the streets of downtown Chicago to demand not only an end to Trump’s fascist agenda, but also to continue putting a spotlight on the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the Middle-East. And it was an undeniable success, there were around 3,000 Chicagoans in attendance despite the temperature being well below freezing. The group marched from Daley Plaza to Trump Tower and they were faced with little resistance, though there were a few stray American patriots and Zionists that attempted and ultimately failed to counter-protest.
Before and since this demonstration, there have been countless other marches, political education forums, pro-Palestinian art benefits, film screenings, organizational meetings, phone banking sessions; the energy and fervor are being rightly directed. But the level of engagement is devastatingly small compared to what it has been in the past. Though there were fewer than half a million protests after Trump’s most recent inauguration, his first term was met with the largest protest in U.S. history with 4.6 million people taking to the streets to show their distaste.
This incredible show of collective force and action was followed by several years of wildly radical acts of protest. There was of course a sect of protest that was in favor of Trump and touted Jim Crow levels of racism and hatred, but they are not of whom I speak. The power that should be remembered and replicated is that of the working people of all states that fought back with creative, courageous, revolutionary means. People were widely sharing tactics for countering state violence; getting arrested for protesting outside the prescribed parameters set by police; spreading recipes for tear gas antidotes; creating organizations that met the needs of their communities. We were organizing in ways that directly disobeyed the laws of this country and we understood this risk and the necessity of our actions.
We find ourselves at a time, where this sort of organization and action is as important as it has ever been. To dream of a better future, together, and then do everything we can to get it, must be our goal. I obviously cannot advocate for everyone to go out and get themselves arrested, or to protest in ways that could bring you harm; not everyone has the capacity, freedom, or privilege to do that. But some of us do. Following the diagrammatic, police-sanctioned march routes has reached its max-usefulness; social media organizing and infographic sharing is no longer sufficient; prioritizing comfort over revolution will get us nowhere. We have to look within, at our pain and dissatisfaction with the world around us, connect it to the collective struggles of our community and act on it, with love, creativity and courage.
Each of us has to come to this conclusion in our own time and through our own means, but time is running short. So let’s get to it! This country won’t stop its fascist march towards total colonialist, imperialist domination. We have to stop it, one step at a time. But it has to start somewhere. Join a political education reading group, attend an organizational meeting, get to know your neighbors, Google an issue that you find troubling and fall down a rabbit-hole of knowledge, join an arts community. You can start anywhere, it just takes a bit of effort. The future of humanity depends on us.
If you’re having trouble getting started, here are a few suggestions. Follow these organizations on social media: @pslchicago; @chicagodissenters; @paliactionsinchitown; @chicagoprotests. Listen to some of these podcasts: Let’s Talk Palestine; Upstream; Inner City Left; Rev Left Radio. Read some of these authors: Angela Davis, Frantz Fanon, Vincent Bevins, Edward Said, Michael Parenti, Judith Butler, Robin Wall-Kimmerer; Mimi Khúc; James Baldwin; Marta Russell; Howard Zinn; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Join some organizations on NEIU’s campus where these issues are discussed; The Independent; Que Ondee Sola; La Mosca; WZRD. This is nowhere near a conclusive list, but it is a starting point. Past that, it’s up to each of us individually to build collective power. Here’s to the revolution!
