Trump's Election Might Bring Progressives Together More Than Ever

Jan. 04, 2017

Call me a hopeless optimist, merely, e'er since Nov'due south election, I've been speaking to local progressives and have been discerning signs of promise.

Aye, there remains widespread fearfulness that the violence of the Trump campaign rallies will translate into harmful policies under his administration—policies that will target groups of people and exact violence against them. But, bracing for a rollback of civil rights and civil liberties protections, social justice activists and advocates are organizing with a new sense of urgency.

Out of necessity, Trump's racism, anti-semitism, Islamophobia and misogyny—and his threat to translate all of the to a higher place into policy—are helping reunite past civil rights alliances and overcome their differences. New alliances for social justice are being formed. Suddenly, it seems possible that the current political climate will help vulnerable populations and their allies overcome their differences to forge stronger coalitions than ever.

We've already seen how the immigrants' rights movement has been energized by Trump's election. Cities such as Philadelphia and New York City take defiantly pledged to remain sanctuary cities, refusing to cooperate with federal authorities rounding upward undocumented immigrants for nonviolent offenses. Even the University of Pennsylvania, Trump's alma mater, has emerged every bit a sanctuary for undocumented students past refusing to permit the feds on campus without a warrant.

"Before the election, a lot of our white allies accept been vocally supportive but when it came to being visibly agile, they shied away," says Asa Khalif, Black Lives Affair activist and national organizer. "Simply now, they are office of the groups Trump is attacking. They take been forced to come out in the street. And at present we need to build a coalition with our white allies."

Blanca Pacheco, Banana Managing director of the New Sanctuary Movement, says Trump'due south ascension has fueled the movement. "At present we know what we are fighting against, and when you know the threat you can prepare ahead of fourth dimension," she says.

Pacheco, whose organization is training 1,000 people to disrupt immigration raids, says the new allies joining the cause have made all the deviation. "I recall Trump winning is affecting a totally different department of the population—whites who were sympathetic with Black Lives Thing or immigration," she says. At present, with other threats in the offing—everything from women'southward health to Islamophobia—whites who may in the by have passively been supportive of New Sanctuary's goals have joined the organizing.

Further, the rising specter of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism has brought alliances betwixt Muslim and Jewish groups into focus, including the recent declaration of a Muslim-Jewish Informational Council to fight religious discrimination and protect the rights of religious minorities. For the Jewish community—living with the trauma of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany—the prospect of the regime creating a Muslim registry or rounding up undocumented Latino immigrants has triggered trauma. Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive manager of T'ruah, the Rabbinic Telephone call for Human Rights, said that the nature of Trump'southward appointees raises the specter of attacks on human rights and ceremonious liberties. "Indeed, his administration is probable to make our work much harder, and may even threaten American commonwealth," Jacobs says. "In our response to him, however, we have to overcome differences, grade coalitions with unusual bedfellows, and remain focused on our long-term task, namely protecting the human being rights of all people, including members of minorities."

Meanwhile, Jacob Bender—executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations—says his organization has received numerous offers of back up from outside the Muslim-American customs since the election. The group has been monitoring Islamophobic hate crimes and conducting boondocks hall meetings, educational activity and outreach since the election. "I think the dire situation offers an opportunity for a broad coalition across religious, indigenous and racial groups," Bender says.

Bough notes that his constituency consists of African-American Muslims and immigrant Muslims from the Mideast and Asia. "Just like American Jews have been surprised by the emergence [of Trump], immigrant Muslims who had done quite well in navigating through American society and getting skillful houses in the suburbs are of a sudden seen as the fifth column. It must be a surprise and a shock," Bough says. "To people who grew up in the terror of the Klan in the Due south, it is hardly a surprise."

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The appointment of Steve Bannon equally a senior White House advisor has provided an opportunity for Muslim and Jewish groups to find common crusade, amongst heightened concerns that America is about to enter a new era of authoritarianism and land-sanctioned racism. Jewish and Muslim activists led by the Jewish millennial group IfNotNow, which is opposed to the Israeli occupation, staged a protest confronting a Zionist Arrangement of America'due south almanac gala outcome in which Bannon was scheduled to speak. IfNotNow, which has been influenced past the labor, ceremonious rights, Occupy and Black Lives Matter movements, too organized a protestation confronting a Hanukkah party held by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at Trump's Washington hotel.

"At the near overt level Donald Trump is non what we need," says Todd Wolfson, associate professor at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, and co-founder of the Media Mobilizing Projection. "At a less overt level notwithstanding, this is an opportunity that we must seize. We are divided at our dinner tables, in our communities, in our places of worship, in our cities and across the many identities and strategies through which nosotros organize for a better future." Wolfson argues that organizing needs to cut beyond identities and experiences, the type of efforts being undertaken past the 215 People's Alliance, a Philadelphia-based multiracial collaborative dedicated to fighting for equity and justice in Philadelphia.

And the opportunities for coalition building across demographic groups volition have place in the courts also. Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, says that while his organization is committed to its founding principle of non-partisanship, information technology "has been tirelessly preparing for the potential legal battles that await if President-elect Trump follows through on his campaign promises."

Meanwhile, Asa Khalif, Black Lives Matter activist and national organizer, says that, while white Trump voters need a wakeup call, white allies in the racial justice movement are waking upwards. "Before the election, a lot of our white allies have been vocally supportive but when it came to being visibly active, they shied away," he says. "But now, they are part of the groups Trump is attacking. They have been forced to come up out in the street. And now we need to build a coalition with our white allies."

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and politics make strange bedfellows. Choose your favorite cliché. Merely there is something to it all. If there is a ray of hope amid all the uncertainty, fear and anxiety that this election has created, it is that people are locating old friends and finding new ones, finding common cause and working together.

A poignant instance of the coalitions forming in resistance to President Trump are the massive demonstrations and civil disobedience planned around Inauguration Day. Operating under the hashtag #DisruptJ20, protesters are planning civil unrest on January twenty in Washington when Trump takes the oath of function. The goal is to close down the ceremonies, build capacity for community-based organizations, and fix the stage for ongoing opposition to Trump'south agenda.

And January 21 marks the Women'southward March on Washington. The goal of this diverse assemblage of women with "multiple and intersecting identities" is to ship a message to the new administration that women'south rights are human being rights and cannot be ignored. "The rhetoric of the by election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of u.s.a.…and our communities are hurting and scared," the march organizers state on their website, calculation the march is the first step in unifying their communities and forming new relationships to create grassroots alter.

The Women's March will likewise take place concurrently in 97 sis cities, including Philadelphia. The Women'south March on Philadelphia will be held on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. "For those who can't make information technology to Washington, D.C., this March in Philly is an opportunity to show positive back up and unity for not simply women, but all those feeling they do not accept a vocalization due to the rhetoric of this ballot wheel: immigrants, people of color, individuals with disabilities, the LGBTQ customs, and those of various faiths," said Emily Morse, organizer of the Philadelphia march in a statement. "While women are the focus of the march, our male allies are welcome and encouraged to attend to show their back up, as universal equality stands to benefit all Americans."

They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and politics brand strange bedfellows. Choose your favorite platitude. But there is something to information technology all. If at that place is a ray of hope amongst all the uncertainty, fear and feet that this election has created, it is that people are locating old friends and finding new ones, finding common cause and working together. Although time will make up one's mind how all of this plays out, the specter of Trump's America is waking upwardly communities similar never before, and motivating them to ring together and take activity.

Header photo by Julian Stallabrass via Flickr

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/trump-bringing-progressives-together/

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