I’m increasingly wondering why people in the US aren’t taking to the streets in their thousands.
I’d also like to share a poem by Martin Niemöller, who was a pastor in Germany during the Nazi regime and even supported the Nazis at the beginning:
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me (Martin Niemöller)
As others are pointing out, there are mass protests going on—but I think there’s more to it than that.
The general message of all protests is “listen to us or else”. In the US for the last fifty years, “or else” has been understood to mean “or else you’ll lose the next election”—but it’s becoming clear that this threat has no leverage with Trump, either because he’s confident he can manipulate elections (through whatever means) or because he intends to accomplish his goals in his current term and doesn’t care what happens after that.
So protests need to find some other goal and some other message. Right now they’re looking for other weak points (e.g., Tesla dealerships), but once it’s clear they’ve got a strategy Trump is actually afraid of, the numbers will grow.
So protests need to find some other goal and some other message.
Let’s-a go!
Mamma mia!
Do you know they omitted the first sentence from that poem which has a prominent place on the wall of the US holocaust museum?
Americans are so scared of the C-word.I’m not surprised at all.
Demonstrations have become so predictable that people ignore them now. Politicians know that if you wait a few days they will be forgotten. What you really need to do is shut down the nation like the French rail unions do.
It’s a perfect example of how the media are complicit in the rise of fascism.
There were well over 1000 people at the protest I was at on Saturday…
Next Saturday (April 5) is supposed to be a huge day of protest across the country, notably with a very large demonstration planned for the National Mall in DC. I plan to be at that one.
Out of curiosity what do you do at the protests? Is it just standing around or something more involved?
At the Tesla protests, yes. it’s mostly standing there with signs and chanting. At the one I attend, the dealership is on a major road with a TON of traffic. People line the street on either side stretching for about 1/2 a mile. The first protest had a bunch of people at the front door of the dealership, but police came and arrested one person. Since then, there has always been a police presence right at the front door. The cops tend to leave us alone if don’t go up to the door of the dealership. A couple of times every hour a group will organize to try to block the road. They’ll usually hold the space for about 5 minutes before the police come and force everyone back to the sidewalks. The point here is to challenge authority.
On a broader scale (I attend a LOT of protests), it depends on the protest. At those that are planned and coordinated by a larger organization (think the Women’s March, March for Science, etc) there’s usually a stage with a series of speakers “preaching to the choir” to energize the crowd. There’s lost of people chanting in unison various slogans/chants. Usually there’s a single rallying point where the speeches happen, then there will often be a march from that point to somewhere else. Along the route the crowd shuts down the streets, chants, carry signs, etc. The point here to make connections with like-minded people and demonstrate that there is popular support for whatever issue/concern there is.
At less coordinated protests without a central organizing committee (think the 2017 airport protests, the 2020 uprising) there’s not as much of set “schedule of events”. It’s more of a way for a community to express their collective anger/fear/outrage/etc. The specific goal will depend more on the specific event. For example, the 2017 airport protests were against the first version of Trump’s Muslim Ban. People entering the US from the countries he had tried to ban people from were being held in holding rooms at airports. A large number of activists showed up at airports where those people were being held and the sheer numbers and anger we were expressing got the people working at the airports to let the people go. There were also immigration lawyers who showed up to those protests. When the people in holding were released, they had legal representation right there waiting to support them. The 2020 uprising events were about showing that people weren’t afraid of the police and wouldn’t be silenced by police violence.
At every protest I’ve ever been at, there are always people from various organizations walking through the crowd trying to get people to sign up. Sometimes it’s just collecting names/emails/phone numbers for a fundraising list. Sometimes it’s staffers for politicians raising signatures to get on a ballot, or to get a referendum on a ballot. Sometimes it’s activist organizations trying to get people who might be willing to take further actions.
As virtually every protest winds down, there’s usually a group of people, almost always not affiliated with the “official event” who organize to continue taking action, typically less sanctioned, and dubiously legal actions.
Most protests don’t achieve their immediate goal. That’s how it’s always been. The way we tend to talk about it, any given movement or event has 3 sets of goals: short-term/immediate goals, mid-terms goals, and long-term goals. We usually fail at the short-term goals (although not always). But we’re almost always successful at the medium- and long-term goals. These Tesla protests, for example. The short-term/immediate goal is to shut down the specific dealership we’re protesting at. That has only happened where police presence has been light and where protesters are willing to take illegal action and get arrested (which is always a minority of protesters). This goal has largely been unsuccessful. The medium-term goal is to destroy the Tesla brand so much that the stock price plummets. This is already happening. After the election, Tesla stock prices skyrocketed. Since the protests started, the stock price has already dropped back to where it was before the election, wiping out all that value added since the election. Keep this up, and we’ll hopefully force it even farther down. If we’re lucky, they’ll have to start closing dealerships. The long-term goal is to remove Musk and Trump from power. Obviously, that hasn’t happened yet, but that’s why it’s a long-term goal.
Thanks! That helps a lot!
If 2020 taught us anything at all, it was that despite whatever horrors, challenges, and/or desperate situations, we are still expected to show up for work on time. Don’t want to lose insurance, and most people are like a paycheck or two away from being unhoused, or at least seriously close that it would be near impossible to catch back up. They’ve made it impossible to do anything except show up for work on time.
As more people are laid off, “I gotta go to work” becomes less compelling.
We know. But the point is no one is coming to save you, and things aren’t going to get better on their own.
It is normal… first Social Media desensitizated all of us… by the masses. It is hard to prove now what is true or false… Even “sensible Governments”, left and right are applying techniques that Trump popularized… Look at the EU today! Add that to a fragile real economy (not what you see in the stock market) so everyone is afraid of a bold move and being written into a black list. I used to have a professor in that showed us documents (from FOIA) how, in the 80s, the FBI contacted his employers after his interviews no to hire him because his Communist ideas… Today you would not even get FOIA on that. Imagine now with the technology how a government hostile to you can ruin your life. The best way to survive, put your head down and go as unnoticed as possible.
America is massive
The media is controlled by the elite to not cover demonstrations
They’re getting bigger every week
Also, a lot of people just don’t have time. I don’t mean “they have a busy schedule and don’t want to reschedule”. I mean there is a significant preventative of the population who camper afford to take time off from work.
Many hourly employees don’t have vacation time. And they can’t afford to miss a single day of work. They may even be retaliated against (or at least think they will) for missing work.
America is fucked.
Also, because of the lack of time, they might not even be aware of what’s happening.
Because why would you protest against the president you wanted in.
Bernie the sheepdog and his training puppy AOC are doing their part, fiercely rallying to keep the sheep away from actual alternatives to the Uniparty.
wdym? Every single week there’s protests. Are you part of an org? If you’re part of an org maybe you’ll hear about them more?
I’m very glad that they’re so many protests. I live in Europe and searched the news for protests in the USA but didn’t found information about it, except the protests against Tesla dealerships.
Keep fighting!
There are also Tesla protests growing in Europe (and Canada, and more)! Musk’s influence threatens more than just the US, so we must all step up. The Tesla Takedown protest movement started in the US, but it’s now becoming international. Here’s a map of the latest ones in Europe
Here’s the site with that info along with a guide on how to plan one around you if you don’t see one
because you’re only seeing through a lense that is controlled by capital, and they refuse to show the demonstrations. I went to one yesterday, there were thousands of us and we took to the streets to demand trans rights. I won’t speak to the efficacy of the protests, but they are happening. News of them is just being suppressed.
How many are you?
Fridays for Future mobilized hundreds of thousands to demonstrate for action against climate change.
I can’t imagine they could suppress such demonstrations.
Just genuinely curious - is it like, thousands? Tens of thousands? And why is it not more? And are you saying the media are already so much under control like in Russia or China that any movement can be extinguished before it even can grow ?
What rock do you live under?
Trump has broad aupport.
