WASHINGTON—Malcolm X Park, more widely known as Meridian Hill, has long held historical significance as a symbol of Black pride. On Inauguration Day, the wintry, sleeted park was occupied by a collage of movements with a common enemy: the Trump Administration.
“DC is gonna be ground zero today for the new era that we’re going into with Trump’s reelection,” Sydney Loving, a Central Committee member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, told us. “It’s really important here to show out, and to not just let the Trump administration know, but to let everybody on the sidelines [know]. There’s a lot of fear about what these next four years are going to look like, but we’ve learned through experience that keeping our heads down does not save us from repression.”
Omar Flores co-chaired last summer’s Coalition to March on the RNC — whose points of unity covered a range of issues and invited a plethora of progressive organizations to participate, in similar fashion to Monday. He traveled to DC from Chicago, where he works with, among others, the city’s chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
“Now that there are so many domestic attacks happening — obviously we’re not forgetting about Palestine, it’s still at the forefront of everything that we do — but also there’s really other immediate concerns, like the immigration situation, [or] what might be happening to LGBTQ people,” Flores told us as more demonstrators arrived at the park. “These are the types of things that we’re starting to focus on now. And plus, the ceasefire deal. Even though it’s obviously not perfect, and there’s still a lot of work to be done, it’s a huge victory.
So in terms of the politics, it’s starting to shift quite a bit. I also think, even for a lot of liberals, they’re starting to realize the middle-of-the-road type thing and trying appealing to conservatives isn’t a winning strategy. So I think people are feeling pretty motivated to start doing winning strategies, and that means getting out here and taking action.”
The demonstration, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and including organizations from across the country, reached a peak attendance of around 500 despite many canceling due to inclement weather.
A tall, makeshift guillotine on wheels jutted out from the back of the crowd, next to a man wearing a ski mask. He told us the guillotine was his sculpture, meant to draw attention to the wealth disparity in today’s America being greater than in France before the revolution. Across the lawn, pride, Palestine, and Lebanon flags flew next to each other.
One interesting sight was the young man holding a sign with a pro-Palestine message — and a Make America Great Again hat on his head. “Well, I’m a conservative, and I think it’s very sad that conservatives get in such tribalism — I mean, there’s tribalism everywhere, I was just threatened a little bit ago,” he told us. “But I don’t like that we’re just stuck in these boundaries of politics we can’t seem to escape from. I think Zionism is a true threat to America, so I want to stand against it.”
How does that correlate with his identity as a conservative? “Pretty well,” he answered. “As conservatives, we don’t want other countries influencing us to where we can’t take care of ourselves, and you can see with the AIPAC lobby — it should be every Republican’s worst nightmare if they actually care about foreign influence, but apparently they don’t.”
A young woman named Cate attended as a representative of the Sunrise Movement DC, the city’s chapter of a youth-led organization against climate change and systemic oppression.
“We’re fighting for solutions for the climate crisis that also address racial and economic inequality in the United States, and we’re out here because Trump stands for everything we do not,” Cate said. “I was much younger during [Trump’s] first election. I feel more energized now. I feel like I know exactly what solutions we’re fighting for. We know that we need a different type of world in order to thrive and survive. We’re building community while we’re fighting for these solutions. It’s sustaining, I feel a lot less burnt out than I did before. This community out here today reinforces that to me — people are ready to be out here for the long haul, versus the first term’s ‘we just have to get through four years’, but this is a really long fight.”
Megan Romer is the co-chair of Democratic Socialists for America, the largest socialist organization in the United States with more than 92,000 members.
“We think it’s really important that it be known that we are not going to stand quietly by for genocide, for deportation, for an end to trans rights, for an end to workers rights to organize. We’re going to be here, even when it’s really cold and really terrible,” Romer told us. “We’re here for the fight. The working class deserves more, and we’re going to keep demanding it.”
Like many organizations in attendance, DSA’s presence in DC came after a long summer of activism, including at both conventions.
“We were out protesting at the DNC, we were official partners of the uncommitted movement, and said, ‘you need to end this if you want our votes.’ Watching them almost seemed like they wanted to lose. The lack of willingness to connect with the working class over working class issues — which includes international issues!” she said.
“[The DNC] loves to do the ‘you aren’t gonna win with far-left policies’ thing — the reality is, the policies we espouse are incredibly popular among the working class. People want healthcare. They don’t want to have to tangle with their insurance company. They want access to fresh and healthy groceries, they want good schools for their kids — these aren’t wacky issues, this is just providing what workers need. We see them polling very high, and then we watch the Democrats dismiss them.”
Speakers stood on a foot-tall wooden platform alongside two sign language interpreters who took turns in the cold. Complementary hand warmers, PB&J snacks, and hot drinks soothed attendees through the 27-degree cold.
It was a relatively slow start. By 1pm, President Trump had long been sworn in and the protestors, who’d just finished the final speech, were finally on their way to the National Mall, two miles away. Some members stayed behind to clean up the park.
Clumps and lines of DC’s Metropolitan Police were waiting to escort them, seemingly not coordinating much with the large, armored military police vehicles on most corners.
The crowd had dwindled by the time they had halted at the Philippine Embassy, where the speakers began a short program, weaving in demands of justice for the people of the Philippines and activist Brandon Lee. Next, instead of turning back towards 16th Street and the direction of the National Mall, the group veered west towards Dupont Circle, where they continued their programming.
Around 3pm, as it became clear the group would likely not reach the National Mall (Flores later told us the organizers became aware of the Proud Boys’ presence nearby, and in the interest of everyone’s safety, chose not to continue in that direction. Other sources confirm the Proud Boys were marching in DC, but we never crossed paths. They reportedly shared a chant with this progressive coalition: “Whose streets? Our streets.”)
It’s nothing unusual for pop-up vendors to flank[1] the National Mall during a large event, selling unofficial merchandise. They seemed countless Monday. Shirts were on display with figures from Trump to Elon, and many supporters stopped to peruse.
One young man, posted by a National Mall intersection adjacent to the Washington Monument, was calling out his price per shirt: $20. An older woman in a MAGA hat passing by looked at him sideways, and barked, “If I take one, are you gonna give me $20?” The young man looked confused, and asked, “Why would I do that?”
The woman declared “Exactly!” through a smirk and kept walking. “I’m a vendor,” he called after her, looking a little defeated where he sat on a police barricade next to his cart.
As an outdoor celebratory concert wrapped up and spectators were herded through narrow Secret Service exits. Raucous chants and shouts akin to entering a professional team’s stadium went up around the Federal Triangle. Among them: “Daddy’s home” and “Fuck Joe Biden”.
The energy cooled a little as the visitors ventured underground to DC’s metro stations and struggled to make sense of them. Some threw frustrated comments towards staff and law enforcement on the platforms.
There’s not much doubt among the activists who marched Monday that their work is about to look different, and get more difficult. Trump’s first presidency showcased his desire to quash dissent many times. Several times, he has publicly suggested or pushed to deploy the military on U.S. soil when large protests arise.
The unilateral response from the activists: we won’t be intimidated.
“There’s concern, for sure, and we are always making sure we’re being cautious with things like security, information security, security at protests, things like that, but that’s not going to stop us,” said Romer. “We would be betraying the global working class if we didn’t show up, even when it’s hard.”
“We faced repression under the Obama administration. We’re no strangers,” Loving said. “[W]e’re absolutely not scared because we’ve learned that we can beat repression, but we can’t beat it by hiding our faces, hiding our names and going underground. It’s by making our movements even bigger, even broader, and building out that solidarity that we could beat back the charges.
So we’re absolutely not scared. I mean, that’s one of the objectives, [that] they obviously want [to] quiet us down, but they also want to make people watching afraid to come out and raise their voices. So we can’t lead and we can’t bring people around us if we don’t show that we’re not scared, we’re not going to hide, we’re gonna keep fighting, and we can win.”
