NO to TRUMP and his Racism! NO to the War at Home!
Statement from the United National Antiwar Coalition, November 12, 2016
We stand in solidarity with all oppressed people under attack at home and abroad!
We urge full participation in the anti-Trump demonstrations!
In reaction to Donald Trump’s election victory, tens of thousands of people, most of them youth, have taken to the streets across the country in militant protests to condemn the racism, sexism, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant bigotry that Trump represents. Many are fearful, especially immigrants, Muslims and LGBT people. Their rage and that of their supporters signify the movement that needs to be built to end racism, wars and the attacks on working people endemic in the U.S. today.
As thousands have protested, the corporate news media, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other leading Democrats who expected their party to continue in office now tell us we must make friends with Trump, that maybe he isn’t so bad after all.
UNAC planned post-election protests regardless of who won the election. Our view has always been that all social progress – for labor’s rights, civil and democratic rights, women’s rights, immigrant rights and against all U.S. wars – has been the product of working people and their allies among the oppressed mobilizing in democratic, united and massive movements that challenge the institutional powers and parties. In these struggles everyone is needed and welcome.
It was clear from the start that the antiwar and general progressive movements could not win in this election.
On the one hand was the war hawk Hillary Clinton, who has aggressively supported all U.S. military actions during her entire political life. She promoted the mass bombing of Libya, cheered the lynching of its president, supported the right-wing coup in Honduras and called for a no-fly zone in Syria that would put the U.S. military in direct confrontation with a nuclear-armed Russia. Here at home, she supported the 1994 crime bill that led to mass incarceration of the people she called “super predators.” She supported “welfare reform” that took food from the mouths of poor children. She has loyally served Wall Street, sat on the board of Walmart and supported globalization schemes that have cost millions their jobs.
On the other hand was Donald Trump, a racist, misogynist, crooked billionaire who spouted venom toward people of color, undocumented workers, Muslims and women, has a history of supporting anti-labor policies and has raised the specter of the U.S. actually using nuclear weapons.
THE WARS HAVE COME HOME
For years, the 1 percent that runs this country has been ratcheting up its war against working people here at home. Income inequality has never been greater. Wages have been stagnant for many years. Many of the unionized industrial jobs have been automated or moved overseas. Police killings of Black and other people of color has become endemic. The prisons are bursting with workers, most of them people of color, for whom this system no longer has any jobs.
There was no way for working people, youth, the Black community or antiwar activists to win in this election. Clinton represented the establishment. Trump was projected as anti-establishment, but he reserved his fiercest attacks for people victimized by that establishment. Too many were sucked in by his demagogy showing deep divisions, much of it caused by racism. The antiwar movement and all fighters for justice must fight against this racism.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have worked hard over the years to create an atmosphere in which Trump’s racism, Islamophobia and immigrant bashing are acceptable. Under Obama, more undocumented workers have been deported than at any time in U.S. history. Under both Bush and Obama, mosques were infiltrated and Muslims framed in schemes wholly invented by the FBI to brand them as terrorists and justify their wars against Muslim countries. Under both Democratic and Republican administrations, killer cops are left on the streets instead of being sent to prison.
If there is a silver lining, it’s that the electoral system as a whole along with the corporate media have been exposed before millions. As tens of thousands have risen up in spontaneous actions, we can see the future fight-back that UNAC along with many others will help to organize to end this system of exploitation and war.
Join and organize anti-Trump protests!
Stay in the streets to mobilize against war and hate-mongering in all their manifestations!
Come to Washington in January to protest Trump’s inauguration!
NO to the Wars at Home and Abroad!
Money for human needs, not war!
End racism, sexism, Islamophobia & xenophobia!
Support our undocumented sisters and brothers in their fight against deportation & for human rights!