Unions step up to resist Trump agenda
People power is all we’ve got left
Congress is useless. The Supreme Court is useless.
That leaves people power as the last thing standing between Donald Trump and total dictatorship.
And when it comes to people power, nobody wields it better than our nation’s unions.
So the timing was propitious this morning as the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the U.S., launched a "Fighting for Freedom, Fairness and Security Bus Tour" that will crisscross the country “to demand that working people are heard”.
"We're going to make sure our voices are heard loud and clear," Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO president, said at the kickoff event, with the bus in the background.
“This bus tour is not symbolic, it is strategic,” said April Verrett, president of the SEIU. “This bus tour… is about showing them who has the power. And I think the people have the power. We have the power to organize in every corner of this country.”
In a statement on Friday, after Trump signed his devastating “Big Beautiful” budget bill, Shuler said:
The AFL-CIO will make sure that all working people across this country hear the truth about what happened this week in Washington and the dire consequences the bill will have on all of our lives. As part of the labor movement’s year-round organizing, we’ll be talking to workers today and every day—at jobsites and homes, in communities large and small—to make sure they know who sold us out, who is taking our jobs, our health care, our paychecks and our kids’ emergency rooms and parents’ nursing home beds, just so some rich people could get even richer.
Meanwhile, all the same groups behind the May Day rallies — including unions — are gearing up for a huge showing on Labor Day to “demand a world that works for all of us.” Their specific demands:
Stop the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration.
Protect and defend Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs for working people.
Fully funded schools, and healthcare and housing for all.
Stop the attacks on immigrants, Black, indigenous, trans people, and all our communities.
Invest in people not wars.
Fourth of July Protests
The breadth and passion of Fourth of July demonstrations against Trump was breathtaking, spanning from the largest cities to the smallest town.
This year, for many people, celebrating independence called for protest.
In Los Angeles, hundreds gathered downtown to rally against immigration raids and the surge in federal funding for ICE in the new budget bill. Erica Ortiz, 49, was dressed as Lady Liberty in shackles, reported the Los Angeles Times. Jacob Moreno, a high school English teacher, held a sign that called the day a “funeral for the freedom we pretend” still exists. “This situation, this occupation is only going to get worse,” Moreno told the Times. “I’m here to support my students, my community, and ultimately to stand on the right side of history,” he said. Here are some photos.
In Medina, Ohio, about 200 people turned out at Friday’s event, called a “Celebrate America rally”. Kristen Lowther, one of the organizers, told the Medina Gazette: “What we’re doing is actually very patriotic because we’re using our American right to stand up for our country and say, ‘This is not the country that we want.’ I don't know what could be more American than using your God-given American right to raise your voice for your country on Independence Day.” She added: “If you are sitting at home, and you are reading the news or watching the news, and you are terrified about what’s happening, and you feel alone, we want you to know you are not alone. There are way more of us than there are of them. If you feel alone, come join us.”
“Take from the rich, not from the poor,” said a bright-yellow sign at the protests in Muskegon, Michigan. “I'm a mom – soon to be a grandma – and I don't want my kids and grandkids to have to fight for things I thought we already won,” protester Bonnie Lipan told WZZM TV. “It's my first time doing this. I got a little nervous at first,” said Elowyn Dougherty, 9, who tagged along to the demonstration with her mother. “But now I'm getting more into it to help others and to cheer for our freedoms in this parade.”
In Gainesville, Florida, attendees of a “Kick Out the Clown Rally” carried around a papier-mâché caricature of Trump wearing clown makeup. Some protesters wore bright red clown noses. “I woke up feeling terrible about the Fourth of July,” 84-year-old local resident Kathy Kidder told The Alligator. “Everything we learned in our lives is about democracy, and to see all of these things being taken away from us makes Independence Day a farce in some way.”
Some 400 people gathered in Worcester, Mass. "I could no longer be quiet," local artist Kat Hastings told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "I don't usually speak out; it took a lot of courage for me to be here. But people are not being honored, are not being treated equally by the state right now.”
In Louisville, organizers of a roadside protests told WDRB TV they are demanding state leaders step in to stop the potential closure of 35 hospitals across Kentucky, many of them in rural areas, now that the budget bill has passed.
Protesters lined roads in Tustin, California, leading the Laguna Beach Democratic Club to post video and complain about the lack of local press coverage.
In Portland, Oregon, protesters first gathered outside the ICE facility in South Portland, where they had a tense face-off with federal officers, reported KOIN TV. Then they caravanned to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, where 54-year-old Moises Sotelo — a beloved fixture in Oregon wine country -- is being held after being abducted by ICE.
The protest in Houston was officially canceled when organizers failed to get a permit in time, but protesters turned up outside City Hall anyway, reported the Houston Chronicle. Attendees held signs with slogans like "no faux king way" and "real patriots defend the constitution.” Some then made their way to the Make Lunch, Not War event, sponsored by the Women’s March, to eat and participate in a swap meet.
In Dallas, about 150 people gathered for a “We the People, Celebrate the Constitution” protest. The Dallas Morning News reported that after the speakers concluded, “organizers began preparing hot dogs for the crowd, while kids and families grabbed paint pens of every shade, scribbling on a poster that read ‘Democracy.’” “I think the thing that helps people heal when they’re in mourning is to be in community. And today feels like a dirge,” Samantha Mitchell, a leader with Indivisible Dallas, told the Morning News. “This protest is not just for the general public, but it’s for everybody who showed up to the protest to feel more galvanized, to feel like they’re not alone, and to network and build community.”
In Omaha, protesters waved American flags and signs on a highway overpass. “I’m concerned about all of the small hospitals in western Nebraska, and the nursing homes, and the fact that they are going to probably fail and some of them will close,” one demonstrator told WOWT TV. “I’m sad about the fact that children are probably going to go hungry because their SNAP is going to be taken away. I’m most sad about the people that are going to get kicked off of their health insurance plans.”
In Seattle, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit hosted a “Free America 4th of July March & Rally” where protesters danced to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” and lined the sidewalks with signs denouncing Trump. “I was looking for something to do to represent how we feel about this country right now,” Susan Huntley, 73, told the Seattle Times.” And I don’t feel like celebrating this holiday, so I wanted to be with other people who feel like we do.”
Many of the protests were organized by Women’s March, under the banner of “Free America.”
“Protesting gives people a first step to fostering community, especially for folks in rural areas,” the managing director of Women’s March, Tamika Middleton, said in a statement to the New York Times. “Right now, it is the most patriotic thing we can do.”
Elbows Up!
Americans gathered in 18 communities along the Canadian border on Saturday – from Maine to Alaska -- to express solidarity with their northern neighbors
The theme was “elbows up” – a phrase originally coined by Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe that has now become a common slogan in Canada amid Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats.
The CBC reported that hundreds of people gathered in Ogdensburg, N.Y., alone, “singing songs and chanting in support of the friendship between the two nations currently at odds over questions of trade and sovereignty.” They waved across the border to folks in Prescott, Ont., before singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” "I really value the relationship that our two nations have had for decades and decades,” Ginger Storey-Welch told the CBC. “And it's really breaking my heart to see the tensions between our nations. It's just, it's not right."
Over 200 people gathered in Detroit, just across the Detroit River from the Canadian city of Windsor, to wave flags and signs, reporter the Detroit Free Press.
“There is this beautiful symbiotic relationship,” We the People Dissent organizer Isahrai Azaria told the Free Press. “To know there is this friction now that is so unnecessary and is done out of greed of a small group of people, not done for the well-being of our country or Canada. It is so unnecessary, but also to know it is done as a distraction to so many other horrors and other greedy, racist, misogynistic movements that have been made. It’s just infuriating.”
Medicaid Cuts Prompt “Die-Ins”
Hundreds of constituents gathered outside Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s district office in Bucks County for a “die in” protest last Wednesday in a fruitless attempt to get him to vote against the budget bill. Here's an aerial view.
Similarly, protesters in Texas held a “die in” after the bill passed, outside Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s office on July 4.
Good Trouble Ahead
Mark your calendars for Thursday, July 17, the next big national day of action against the Trump regime. The theme is “Good Trouble Lives On,” the spirit is that of civil rights icon John Lewis, and the subject is “the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations”:
The civil rights leaders of the past have shown us the power of collective action. That’s why on July 17, five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.
There’s probably an event near you.
Big Money on the Way
The resistance could have some serious money behind it soon enough.
The New York Times reports:
Some of the country’s largest liberal foundations are quietly working to raise at least $250 million to help civil groups push back against President Trump and what they see as his steady drift toward authoritarianism, according to people briefed on the matter.…
Recipients of the money raised would be nonpartisan nonprofits, not Democratic candidates or committees. The ultimate beneficiaries could include groups or individuals that file lawsuits against the government, provide security and safety for activists, or underwrite news media organizations or nonprofits seen as essential to the functions of democracy, the people said.
ICE ‘Show of Force’ Forced to Retreat
What was intended to be a show of force turned into a mockery of force on Monday. ICE agents backed by the National Guard made a military sweep of MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles – complete with some officers on horseback and others in full battle gear – that accomplished nothing beyond scaring a bunch of kids at summer camp.
The Los Angeles Times reported that “activists with megaphones were able to warn locals at the park before the contingent arrived, according to police sources.”
Once the agents were in the park, they were met with crowds of people screaming “get the f— out!” the Times reported.
After Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass showed up at the scene and spoke with agency leaders, the assault team backed away and drove off to jeers from members of the community.
Putting Their Revolutionary Skills to Good Use
Jose Pagliery, a reporter with NOTUS, published a fascinating article on Monday about what happens when you fire people good at stoking popular uprisings:
Some of the democracy-building experts President Donald Trump fired this year from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department are now reapplying the skills and knowledge they built up over decades to undermine Trump’s power.
For years, these officials were stationed across the globe actively supporting opposition movements in autocratic nations. Now they’ve got time, a network of former colleagues and a growing sense of moral indignation.
Among the tactics reportedly being pursued is “noncooperation”:
They’re building a network of government workers willing to engage in even minor acts of rebellion in the office. And they’re planting the seeds of what they hope could become a nationwide general strike.
The group is called “DemocracyAID.” It has no web presence, but is already hosting invite-only workshops, Pagliery reports. Ro Tucci, who co-leads DemocracyAID and was previously the director of the USAID Center for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, now teaches workshops on what she calls “Authoritarianism 101” and ways to resist it. Her co-leader is another USAID alum, Danielle Reiff.
Right-wing media went nuts over the NOTUS article, with the Daily Caller headlining its response: “Fired Deep Staters Go Full Bond Villain In Effort To Sabotage Trump”. Fox News reported: “Fired State Dept bureaucrats reportedly using their regime change skills to sabotage Trump”.
Lawsuit Watch
A federal court ruled that Trump's "invasion" proclamation banning asylum at the southern border Is unlawful. Judge Randolph Moss found that neither the Immigration and Nationality Act nor the Constitution allows the administration to replace relevant regulations “with an extra-statutory, extra-regulatory regime” to deprive an individual of the opportunity to seek asylum or withhold removal.
A federal judge issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from barring Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood under a provision of the giant budget bill that passed last week.
District Court Judge Amit Mehta wrote that the Justice Department’s decision to cut grants for human trafficking prevention and violence intervention is "shameful," "arbitrary" and “ likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence.” But, he wrote, there’s nothing, legally, he could do about it, so he denied a preliminary injunction.
A new lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups seeks to block the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area. “Since June 6th, marauding, masked goons have descended upon Los Angeles, terrorizing our brown communities and tearing up the Constitution in the process,” said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.
Odds and Ends
Read about how Civic Match, a program that connects outgoing federal workers to state and local government jobs, is expanding to include nonprofit workers impacted by federal grant cuts.
The city of Santa Ana, California, has created a special fund to help families pay for food, rent and utilities when people get abducted by ICE, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Read this profile in the Guardian of Bishop William Barber, and his national movement to end poverty and systemic injustice. “Barber’s battle is both a moral rebellion against Trump’s America and against the deeper architecture of inequality that has survived every administration. His movement doesn’t simply resist a president. It challenges a political theology that weds nationalism to capitalism and cloaks exploitation in scripture. In Barber’s view, Trump isn’t the disease – he’s the symptom of a nation that never fully confronted its sins.”
House Democrats are apparently getting so much pressure from constituents to be tougher on Trump that they’re whining anonymously to Axios about it
Protesters booed Vice President JD Vance outside a San Diego restaurant.
Democrats staged a “science fair” in the lobby of the Rayburn House Office Building on Tuesday to call attention to the critical knowledge the U.S. will lose because research grants have been canceled. Titled “The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants,” the event featured two dozen academic scientists narrating posters depicting what might have been, reports Science Magazine.
Excellent! Who else? 🙃