After three days mourning November 5, thousands of New Yorkers turned out today in a hastily arranged mass march. Email and text messages brought together people from a wide range of groups, including New York Communities for Change, Climate Defenders, Food & Water Watch, the Professional Staff Congress and other unions, immigrant support groups, trans people & allies, as well as a host of socialist organizations. I’m sure many others were represented but I only mention groups that I could identify.
We gathered at New York City’s iconic Columbus Circle, where hundreds of police were on hand, as well as seven (I counted them) Trump supporters. After singing, drumming, milling about, and making of useful contacts, we set off for a march down Sixth Ave to the main NY Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
All in all, a very uplifting day for everyone with whom I spoke. I heard much sympathy for Kamala but there was a general consensus that Harris’ and Biden’s centrism had failed and this was a time to move left. To quote Bernie Sanders, and several people did:
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right."
My own focus has been on the climate for several years and I am well aware that even faced with a demented denialist, Kamala said almost nothing about the irreversible damage four more years of Trump will do to the complex natural systems that sustain our very existence. Elon Musk imagines he can escape to Mars, but we know this is the only planet we have and “drill, baby, drill” is a slogan for the suicidal.
There are certain to be additional gatherings of activists in New York over the next few weeks, and I am sure they are already happening across the country. If I have any advice, it is to get involved. Don’t drop out. Don’t give up.
Three days of depression over Trump’s win is about all we can afford at this point in history.
