January 20, 2017 marked the start of the Trump administration. It also launched a new era of uprisings and resistance among the people of the United States and around the globe. Old ideological categories of right and left seemed to be quaking and disintegrating as people took to the streets in numbers and diversity not seen in recent memory to resist the Right’s agenda. People’s World has been in the streets with you these last 100 days. Take a look at what we’ve reported and analyzed:
January:
People wasted no time in mounting street protests of Trump’s inauguration, even as the Right’s coalitions led by figures such as Scott Walker and Mike Pence realigned to push an anti-worker agenda. The Women’s March showed how the administration’s misogynist ideology is bringing together women of all backgrounds and political stripes to fight back. People’s World Opinion Editor C.J. Atkins warned of a global authoritarian trend in the making.
Sen. John McCain had some Iraq war veterans arrested at his Washington office and Rep. Kevin McCarthy locked California Medicare activists out of his office, while leaders of various immigrant communities in Chicago planned to fight Trump’s Muslim ban.
February:
Trump chose to attack labor rights almost immediately by nominating an anti-worker lawyer to head the National Labor Relations Board. And unions sustained a tough loss at Boeing in South Carolina.
But defiance against Trump’s policies was the theme in February, with cities and states moving to lock in sanctuary status and marches and actions all over the country in support of immigrants and refugees, including St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, plus all of California, to name a few. Some people even risked their livelihoods to participate, as our staff writer Michelle Zacarias reported.
Peoples World correspondent Emile Schepers warned that the revised deportation criteria endanger just about everyone in the US, while writer Joe Sims showed how Trump remains committed to Wall St. and a neoliberal policy regime despite his protectionist rhetoric on trade.
Movies and theater also reflected the tumult of the times, as a Sergei Eisenstein film series came to L.A. and a high school theater group mounted an incredible remembrance of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
People’s World writers took this time to reflect on the meanings of some of Trump’s early actions, with contributor Conn Hallinan showing how foreign policy is heading for chaos and Art Perlo finding dark parallels in history between Trump’s deportation orders and the Fugitive Slave Act. Opinion editor C.J. Atkins analyzed the assault on the free press and Steve Bannon’s nationalist agenda, while Native American activist and commentator Albert Bender reflected on the next steps for the NoDAPL movement.
March:
For Women’s History Month, People’s World had three important articles: Social Media Editor Chauncey K. Robinson provided a sharp analysis about why Black women should be supported as the leaders of the resistance to Trump. Michelle Zacarias and Earchiel Johnson documented the ways that transgender people of color are building grassroots power across the nation; and contributor Michelle Kern showed how women are on the march for justice even beyond the January Women’s March.
Labor issues dominated the news cycle in March, and People’s World was there – in New Mexico where workers managed to kill a so-called “right to work” bill; at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in San Antonio, TX, where labor leaders grappled with how to halt Trump’s agenda. Washington, DC bureau editor Larry Rubin analyzed the Trump budget and all of the ways it represents a reverse-Robin-Hood wealth transfer.
In March, too, the voices of people fighting to save our planet from the ravages of climate change rose in protest. As arctic temperatures soared to unprecedented highs, the Native tribes who organized so effectively to stop the DAPL pipeline regrouped to plan a new way forward. And Culture editor Eric A. Gordon reviewed a superb play about the critical role Native peoples play in battling climate change.
Voter suppression also made the news, and People’s World focused on it as a key target for the resistance in both Virginia and Georgia. Trump’s protectionist rhetoric also failed to stop the GOP from killing a measure that would have mandated the use of American steel in infrastructure projects. Neoliberal economic policy won the day again—but the Resistance scored a major win with the killing of the ACHA, Paul Ryan and the Koch Brothers’ inhumane idea of a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.
And finally, Michelle Zacarias took a hard look at the use of solitary confinement as torture in our prisons, interviewing a prisoner still in his twenties who has been held in a solitary cell for years.
April:
In April, People’s World homed in on the human impact of right-wing policies, first with an in-depth look by Roberta Wood at the Department of Homeland Security’s conversion of for-profit jails into holding tanks for women and babies. Contributor Donald Donato commented on the erasure of LGBTQIA elders in our society. But our writers this month also struck more optimistic notes, showing how the idea of single payer healthcare, or Medicare for All, might be having a moment right now; and how Major League Baseball’s opening month gives us a glimpse of how America is at its best when immigrants take center stage.
Beyond:
As we move beyond the first 100 days of the resistance, May Day brings an opportunity to renew our energy to continue fighting. A coalition of unions representing low-wage workers, including hotel, restaurant, and fast food workers, told us that their members will walk off the job for International Workers’ Day. As the fightback continues, you can be sure People’s World will be there to document all that is happening. See you in the streets!
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