Fascist Police Power Grows.: Invasion of Washington D.C.

Washington, occupied city: Popular front emerges to fight fascist invasion — rally and mass cop watch this Saturday, August 23 at 6pm

“There is no takeover,” Mayor Muriel Bowser uttered in a press conference on the night of Monday, August 18. By Wednesday evening, the mayor and MPD Police Chief Pamela Smith were smiling and shaking hands with Trump’s favorite pet, Stephen Miller.

The initial invasion of DC, launched last week by President Trump in a naked power grab, flooded DC’s streets with armed federal agents. Their stated objective was to stop crime. In reality, the forces escorted agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement around the city to attack the vulnerable and launch a shock and awe campaign designed to pacify the city through fear. Throughout the week, the nation watched harrowing videos emerge from the District: a disabled immigrant rammed with a vehicle; parishioners abducted on their way to mass; a delivery driver sucker punched on their way to work; homeless folks ripped from encampments and marched to shelters already at capacity; checkpoints erected spontaneously to grow and develop an unaccountable dragnet; messages of solidarity ripped down and mocked; and bystanders threatened with arrest and assault.

Senseless violence. State torture. Force as spectacle. This is fascism. The occupying forces' hit-squad tactics may be overlooked to a certain kind of upper class resident of the city. But there is no escaping the cost of this outrageous terrorism. As increasingly audacious methods of state violence are normalized, nihilism and sadism will grow across the government and society, creating a despondent and sociopathic population. Materially, these wasteful incursions reduce state capacity to address the actual sources of poverty and violence that plague American life. This unchecked rot will spread with time, bearing increasingly high costs to the life of working-class people. This is the nature of all austerity regimes, which require compounding levels of violence and corruption to maintain.

Mutual aid networks, tenant and labor unions, immigrant rights groups, and homeless advocacy organizations rapidly initiated defense protocols to fascist repression. But many were left wondering: where is the DC government? An expose published by the Washington Post answered that question. Despite secret discussions held by the Council, Mayor Bowser, Attorney General Brian Schwalb and senior administrators, the DC government failed to cohere a response to Trump's attack on DC autonomy. Police Chief Smith seemed to disappear entirely, shocking even MPD officers. Although the DC government eventually filed a lawsuit to contest Trump’s formal sequester of the police department, no steps have been taken to functionally limit federal control. Several councilmembers have even mused open collaboration with the occupying forces. On national radio, at-large Councilmember Henderson openly welcomed coordination with the occupying forces. The sacrifice of immigrants, civil liberties, the poor and District autonomy are all seen as fair tributes in the eyes of DC's myopic political elite.

Locally, hope lies in the popular front summoned from DC's working-class enclaves. In reaction to federal assault, organizer networks have formed communication chains to rapidly coordinate neighborhood response to federal attack and intervention. These networks have culminated in ripostes against federal assault, producing several heroic maneuvers over the past week. Just a few spotted:

• Columbia Heights: A rapid mobilization chased ICE out of the neighborhood on Tuesday night. After notice was issued of ICE presence, the community mounted sustained pressure against the officers patrolling our streets, shouting and following the feds until they fled the scene.

• The movement surged to DC Jail to rally support for local activist Afeni, who stood up to police harassment of youth and was pepper sprayed, slammed to the ground, and arrested before being released last Saturday.

• Locals are rooting out undercover agents.

• Vice President JD Vance and Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth were booed and showered with chants of “Free DC” during a craven photo-op at Union Station.

• Several rallies on U Street have demonstrated mass opposition to the occupying forces.

• Behind the scenes, clandestine anti-fascist networks have developed community patrols to identify, communicate and document federal activity.

This federal assault must not be normalized; the time to get involved is now. This Saturday, August 23 at 6pm, comrades and community members will take a stand for our youth and our communities with a rally and cop watch at 14th and U Streets: standing against Trump’s takeover of the city and defending Black youth, immigrants, and the unhoused. Bring signs and noisemakers. Sign up for the mass rally here. Can’t attend but want to get involved in the fight? Fill out this DSA rapid response interest form.

MORE RESOURCES AND ACTIONS: Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, one of the few voices in DC government trying to stop political collaboration with the occupying forces, has created a Federal Enforcement Incident Report form for Ward 4. DC Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid has a hotline for ICE sightings, know your rights materials, and resources for community members. The DC Safety Squad is running We Keep Us Safe Wednesdays, sharing political education information on Instagram and has issued guidance for travel together.

Metro DC DSA statement on ICE harassment of chapter member

Metro DC DSA issued the following statement on Thursday, August 21:

“Earlier this week, DC police collaborating with ICE agents stopped a longtime Metro DC DSA member while he was driving his work vehicle in northwest DC. Falsely claiming the stop was for a vehicle violation, the police racially profiled our member and his colleague, both of whom are Latino landscape workers. They ripped the colleague out of the vehicle and tackled him to the ground, eventually handing him over to ICE, where he remains in custody. A bystander who filmed the incident was also arrested. Our member, a US citizen, briefly filmed the encounter before being handcuffed and eventually released.

Metro DC DSA declares full solidarity with our member, his colleague, and everyone who is under attack from this fascist administration.

The occupation of DC has nothing to do with keeping our city safe. It’s a spectacle intended to obscure the fact that Trump and his local collaborators are destroying the programs working-class people depend on to survive — all for the sake of enriching oligarchs who profit from our suffering. This is a brutal class war on working people waged by the rich and their political puppets.

The law will not protect us. We know that from this most recent outrage, as well as the long history of state brutality in communities across the US. Rights are meaningless without a strong political movement to give them substance. Our safety as a community depends above all on our ability to organize and build solidarity. Our solidarity especially extends to our immigrant neighbors, who are an essential part of our collective working-class family. We call for the abolition of ICE. We call on everyone to actively join the movement to end the occupation of DC, the condition of DC statelessness that enables it, and the predatory capitalist system that underpins them both..."

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Defeat Fascism/Fight for Democracy 
List of opportunities:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cRIJsSJwtF72ckJ8QLQu5cDCGnoeh5OIIjwqRkDKdBg/edit?usp=sharing

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Fight Back Against the Authoritarian /Fascist Coup

What’s a distraction? I’ve often heard some version of “Trump is just doing X to distract from Y.” This is a smart political take in certain political circles. The strategic gist of it is: “Don’t fall for Trump’s trap! Keep your eye on the prize.”

But taken too far, this anti-distraction impulse… distracts us from the real, live fight for our democracy.

Is everything distracting from Epstein? In recent weeks, the argument has been that, whatever Trump is doing, he is doing it to distract from the Epstein Files. I think there’s some truth to this.

Trump has an insatiable appetite for attention, but he wants that attention focused on his strength and power. He’s OK being portrayed as cruel or unreasonable, but he’s not OK being portrayed as weak, ridiculous, or weird.

So, yes, the Epstein Files are damaging to Trump, and Democrats should not let them go. But unfortunately, scheming to hide the Epstein Files isn’t the only, or even the worst, thing Trump and his MAGA footsoldiers are doing.

Epstein is bad. So is our descent into authoritarianism. In just the last week, we’ve seen Trump occupy DC, terrorizing local residents as MAGA governors pledge to send even more troops and James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, promises they’ll do the same thing to other cities.

Meanwhile, as backlash to Trump's agenda grows and we near the midterm campaign season, Republicans across the country are rigging the maps to steal seats in 2026. And unsatisfied by gerrymandering alone, Trump just let loose a tirade against our voting system and issued a meaningless, but threatening, executive order.

Fighting for our democracy is not a distraction. The occupation of our capital city is not “a distraction.” It’s part of the dictator’s playbook. The attempt to rig the rules of the next election is not “a distraction.” It’s a direct threat to the will of the voters.

Some will argue that we should only focus on the issues where we have an advantage, but that ignores the role of conflict in shaping how the public understands an issue. There were people arguing that we should ignore Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles for exactly the same reasons. Does that logic look better now?

Can you imagine if we said:

• “Residents of DC, don’t organize to fight back against your city’s occupation -- you’ll only distract from the Epstein Files.”
• “Texas Dems, don’t break quorum to fight back against the gerrymander -- you’ll only distract from the Epstein Files.” 
• “Pro-democracy advocates, don’t indulge Trump’s bombast about mail voting and voting machines -- you’ll only distract from the Epstein Files.”

We must learn to walk, chew gum, fight for democracy, and talk about the Epstein Files all at the same time. Our descent into authoritarianism demands a response.

So I celebrate Indivisible Danville, in Kentucky, rallying outside of James Comer’s office demanding this proponent of DC occupation face his own constituents. I celebrate the more than 300 rapid response events this weekend in support of the Texas Dems who broke quorum to resist the GOP gerrymander. I celebrate every Indivisible who’s called into their federal representatives’ offices to demand that they support DC. And I celebrate every Indivisible group leader who’s preparing for the next big mobilization (stay tuned)!

Trump is weak on Epstein. But he’s also weak on militarizing American cities, corrupting our voting systems, Ukraine, his blind support for Netanyahu, the economy, jobs, inflation, Medicaid, and healthcare.

By all means, we should keep our eyes on the prize, but that prize is a democracy where we’re all safe and we all have a voice. When we fight back against federal encroachment of our rights, that’s not a distraction -- it’s necessary, strategic, patriotic action.

And if you’re looking for those kinds of actions, read on to this week’s to-dos.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director, Indivisible

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Your weekly to-dos

1. Fight the Trump-MAGA Redistricting Coup from any state with our new toolkit. Trump’s trying to steal the midterms by making his red-state minions rig the House maps. We all have a role to play in the fight for fair 2026 elections; visit our toolkit or scroll down for more info.
2. Join a mass call with AG Keith Ellison about ways states and cities can defend the rule of law. We're joining AG Ellison, a coalition of partner organizations, and brave officials from across the US to lay out how state/local leaders can fight Trump’s takeover -- touching on redistricting, unmasking ICE, and more.
3. Watch tonight’s Solidarity in Action session (7pm ET / 4pm PT) for an expert’s guide to building coalitions. Cristina Jimenez co-founded United We Dream and wrote a bestselling memoir on her experiences as an immigrant and organizer. She’ll share what she’s learned along the way -- and how you can build powerful coalitions.

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 2023.

 

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

by Peter Dreier.

"50 Years After the March on Washington, What Would MLK March For Today?" Washington Post, August 22, 2013.   The March on Washington, where King delivered his great "I Have a Dream" speech, took place on August 28, 1963.  I wrote this article in 2013 to celebrate the march's 50th anniversary.  If he were alive today, King would be fighting for the same causes - peace, women's reproductive health, affordable housing, desegregation, immigrant rights, gun control, and others.  

 Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, "We Still Have a Dream," Sun-Sentinel, August 27, 2023   Black Americans have endured the unendurable for too long. Sixty years after the famed March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his landmark “I Have a Dream” speech, African Americans are on a path where it will take 500 more years to reach economic equality.  Our country has taken significant steps towards racial equity since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s. But growing income and wealth inequality over the last four decades has supercharged historic racial wealth disparities, slowing and even reversing some of those gains. Sixty years without substantially narrowing the Black-white wealth divide is a policy failure. But just as federal policy helped create the racial wealth gap, it can also help close it. The op-ed column by Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins is a summary of their report, "Still A Dream: Black Economic Inequality 60 Years After the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," which looks in detail at the state of that racial and wealth divide and recommends policy reforms that would substantially narrow it within one to two generations.

Peter Dreier. 2023.

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/march-on-washington-for-jobs-and-freedom-2021

 

 

antiracismdsa: Poor People's Campaign- March on Washington

antiracismdsa: Poor People's Campaign- March on Washington:   ‘We Won’t Be Silent or Unseen Anymore’: Poor People’s Campaign To Lead DC Assembly Jessica Corbett  June 17, 2022 Common Dreams Bishop Wil...

Poor People's Campaign. Live. Now ! Washington.

As you read this, thousands of us from California to the Carolinas are gathered on the National Mall, preparing to march on the U.S. Capitol to deliver letters to Congress demanding an immediate end to the policy violence that hurts poor children and families of every color and creed. 

We are faith leaders of numerous religious affiliations, advocates and poor and disenfranchised people who are directly affected by the policies being pushed by the Trump administration and Congress. 

We are the “new and unsettling force” that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called for in starting the Poor People’s Campaign along with so many others 50 years ago.

And people are watching us. 

We have a our own livestream for supporters like you who’ve been with us from the start. Tune in to the action right now!

This campaign isn’t just on the ground. Even from home, you can take part in the event by amplifying it on Facebook and Twitter.

Click the graphic below to share a Facebook post linking to our livestream. And get the word out on Twitter with the hashtag #poorpeoplescampaign. 

This is the moment we’ve been building toward, the start of a new phase in our movement to organize and build power to end policy violence against the poor once and for all. Don’t miss your chance to be part of it.

Sincerely,

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

Charter Schools May be Unconstitutional

Washington State Supreme Court: Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional - A Landmark Ruling

September 9, 2015

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credit - Commonwealth Foundations

• Washington State Supreme Court: Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional - John Higgins (Seattle Times)
• Washington Supreme Court Expels Charter Schools From State Public School System - A landmark ruling - Steven Rosenfeld (AlterNet)

Washington State Supreme Court: Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional

Court Rules Charter Schools Unconstitutional

By John Higgins, Seattle Times education reporter

September 8, 2015
Seattle Times

After nearly a year of deliberation, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday afternoon that charter schools are unconstitutional, creating chaos for hundreds of families whose children have already started classes.

The ruling - believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country - overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

The latest: 2 charters say they will stay open this year despite ruling

Eight new charter schools are opening in Washington this fall, in addition to one that opened in Seattle last year.

It was not immediately known what would happen with the schools that are already running. The parties have 20 days to ask the court for reconsideration before the ruling becomes final.

In Seattle, Summit Sierra, a new college-prep high school, opened Aug. 17 in the Chinatown International District with its inaugural freshman class of 130.

"We will absolutely be here ready for kids on Tuesday," said Executive Director Malia Burns.

School also started Aug. 17 at SOAR Academy and Summit: Olympus in Tacoma. Excel Public Charter School in Kent began Aug. 20, and Destiny Charter Middle School in Tacoma opened Aug. 24. Rainier Prep's first day of class was Tuesday.