U.S: Trump and the establishment declare war, but the rebellion continues

By Luis Meiners International Socialist League - USA

The Monday in the afternoon, on the seventh day of protests that turned into rebellion and reached at least 140 cities around the United States, Trump spoke from the White House gardens. In the background, the voices of the immense protest were heard, and noise of the police repression. In a brief statement, Trump introduced himself as the president of "law and order" and called for "dominating the street" with an "overwhelming presence of the security forces", and threatened to deploy the army to do so.

Trump's speech is clearly belligerent. Bible in hand, campaign against the radical left, anarchists and antifascists whom he blames for the protests. It has even threatened to declare "antifa" as a terrorist organization. In his speech on Monday he maintained that he will invoke a law of insurrections of 1807, that it would give him authority to surpass the state governments in the deployment of federal forces to face acts of rebellion. This law was used in 1992 in front of the protests unleashed in Los Angeles after the acquittal of the four policemen who had brutally beaten Rodney King.

Despite criticism from Democrats of his speech, they have been putting into action those same words in the cities and states that govern. There they have deployed the national guard and established curfews to give free rein to the nightly repression. In New York State, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo urged New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, also a democrat, to mobilize the entire city police force that has around 36 thousand agents. De blasio, For his part, he blamed the protesters after a police vehicle struck a crowd..

Democrats have also made a speech to criminalize social protest. After two days of protests, the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of Minnesota, both democrats, They maintained that the protests were no longer about George Floyd and that they were driven by "out-of-state agitators.". The Democratic mayor of Atlanta had a similar speech after the protests in that city.. The policy of discrediting the protest is the necessary discourse to justify the brutal repressive escalation.

This repressive escalation has generated at least 4000 arrests across the country. And it also produced the murder of David McAtee, a black man from 53 year old. He was killed by shots fired by the police when he was dispersing a crowd together with the National Guard.. At the time of shooting, the policemen did not have their body cameras activated.

If anything has been demonstrated in the last week it is that both Republicans and Democrats are the guardians of capital, and they do not hesitate to deploy all the force at their disposal to defend those interests. Perhaps the most pathetically clear manifestation of this have been Biden's statements calling on the repressive forces to "shoot the knees" and not kill, as a way to differentiate yourself from Trump.

The rebellion continues

The repressive response has not yet managed to stop the development of this historic movement. In recent days we have seen how stocks continue to grow, reaching at least 140 cities. The image of the White House surrounded by protesters as Trump spoke has traveled the world. And international solidarity also grows, increasingly important in the framework of the repressive escalation. Solidarity actions have been developed around the world.

Despite the smear campaign and the repression, the protests have immense support in the general population. In a survey conducted between the 31 May and 1 of June, he 54% of people claimed to support the protests, against a 22% that rejects them. He 55% believes that police violence is a bigger problem than violence against the police, while a 30% have the opposite opinion. He 43% has negative views of Trump's response to the situation while a 30% rate it positively.

A new moment has undoubtedly opened in the United States. As the fight grows, polarization will also grow. Resisting government authoritarianism is essential, fight for freedom and against the prosecution of detainees. As well as mobilizing against any attempt by Trump to deploy repressive forces.