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Indybay Feature

Double Protest in Union Square

by Leon Kunstenaar
Two demonstrations, one to repudiate a would be dictator and the other to protest the US' crimes against humanity at its border, took place in San Francisco
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Photos: Leon Kunstenaar / Pro Bono Photo

Reversing traditional hypocrisy, Trump has celebrated and harnessed the US's two great founding crimes, the Native American genocide and the enslavement of Africans.

He has shown that Fascist Nationalism finds a ready and willing constituency in the U.S. Seventy million people voted for him.

While Trump's managerial incompetence, especially of the pandemic, has allowed Biden's electoral victory, his proudly acknowledged and unpunished gangsterism has provided an identity and role model to the millions of aging white working people abandoned by the Democratic party. They kept this from the pollsters who, once again, failed to detect Trump's appeal.

The Democratic Party leadership remains seduced by the neoliberal worship of the marketplace and therefore lies vulnerable to the next fascistic fraudulent "populist." Those of us on the Left continue our protests.

A protest labeled "Biden's Win Is a Very Good Thing, But the Struggle Is Far From Over " rallied at Powell & Market, San Francisco and marched to Union Square. It was organized by San Francisco's ever active and increasingly mainstream Refuse Fascism Bay Area. They rallied on Market & Powell Streets, danced to some lively music and then marched up Powell Street to join the "Close the Camps" demonstration in progress in Union Square.

This demonstration, " Abolish Ice, Close the Camps, & Free Them All Rally & March," organized by Resistance SF and other local progressive groups, took place on Union Square. Bay Area opposition to ICE has been shouldered by the above groups and also by Lantinx and Asian groups. "Never Again Action", a group that sees the crimes at the US border as the roots of a potential Holocaust, while sending out many eloquent emails and requests for funds, has been largely absent from the streets.

After some strong speeches, with many banners and a brass band, all marched to 111 Taylor Street.

111 Taylor Street looks like an ordinary apartment building but is, in fact, a privately managed prison run by GEO Group. The march halted in front of the building where many called out the outrage.

See all high resolution photos here.
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by Correcting the Record
First, here is the incorrect statement from above:

"While Trump's managerial incompetence, especially of the pandemic, has allowed Biden's electoral victory, his proudly acknowledged and unpunished gangsterism has provided an identity and role model to the millions of aging white working people abandoned by the Democratic party. They kept this from the pollsters who, once again, failed to detect Trump's appeal."

It was not aging white workers in Washington, D.C. on 11/14/20 promoting Nazi Trump. It was young white, mostly male, American Nazis, in their 20s and 30s, in a Ku Klux Klan rally in the middle of Washington, D.C., a city of 700,000 people that is about 50% African American.

In the Bay Area, there was a Trump rally in Danville, CA, Contra Costa County, on November 11, 2020. Danville is a town of 42,000, about 80% white, and very wealthy, where most people earn at least $100,000 a year and own their own home. In other words, they are the managerial class, not the workingclass at all. Here is the description from Wikipedia at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danville,_California:

"According to Business Insider, Danville's 94506 is the 14th wealthiest zip code in America.[23] Danville is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Oakland and San Francisco.[24] Danville also ranks as the 2nd highest-income place in the United States with a population of at least 40,000. It is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area and the United States. According to CNN Money, Danville's 94506 also has the fourth highest percentage of six-figure income earners in the nation, with 78% of Danville households having at least a six-figure income.[25]."

In San Francisco, there is no sizable demographic of white, non-Hispanic workingclass. Yet 56,000 SAN FRANCISCANS VOTED FOR NAZI TRUMP, about 12% of SAN FRANCISCAN VOTERS, up from the 27,000 or 9% who voted for Nazi Trump in 2016. See https://sfelections.sfgov.org/november-3-2020-election-results-summary
These are the rich of all nationalities, mostly white, non-Hispanic, and all adult ages. As they became richer, they became more reactionary.

There is also the DECLINE OF THE WHITE, NON-HISPANIC POPULATION, with a median age of 44, and rising, soon an insignificant minority, and already an insignificant minority in most cities and many states, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and California has a whole. YET, MILLIONS OF OLD WHITE, NON-HISPANIC PEOPLE did not vote for Nazi Trump. Thus, as always, it is a question of class and class outlook, not age or color.

Second, the reason for Trump receiving any votes at all from the workingclass, who are the target of his anti-labor policies, is because labor is only 10% organized. There is an important labor picketline at Macy's at Union Square by the Operating Engineers. ANY PROTEST AT UNION SQUARE MUST SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE PICKETLINE at Macy's as PICKETLINES MEAN DON'T CROSS. Without a strong labor movement, we only go backwards. If you had joined the labor picketline at all 4 entrances to Macy's with these 2 protests, chanting PICKETLINES MEAN DON'T CROSS, Macy's would have IMMEDIATELY SIGNED THE UNION CONTRACT. Only then, will the demands of the above 2 protests be even considered by the ruling class.
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