By David Sole
During his first hours following his inauguration, President Donald Trump managed to offend, antagonize and frighten millions of people across the United States. Issuing a flurry of executive orders, Trump attacked birthright citizenship, challenged the citizenship of Native Americans, threatened the jobs of Federal civil servants, purged the National Labor Relations Board to make it totally anti-labor and unleashed ICE agents, supplemented by military units and the FBI, against immigrants across the nation.
He also attacked Medicaid, ordered the National Institute of Health (NIH) to cease all funding and activities, ordered the eradication of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices in Federal agencies and announced that his regime would only recognize two sexes, removing the X option on U.S. passports. And these were only a few of his reactionary actions.
As might be expected, this reactionary storm was immediately met with resistance. Only one day after the inauguration, 22 state attorneys-general went into U.S. District Courts in Seattle and Massachusetts to challenge Trump’s attempt to strip citizenship from babies born in the U.S. to parents who were not citizens. Birthright citizenship was incorporated into the U.S. Constitution in 1868 with the adoption of the 14th Amendment.
Other reactionary actions by Trump are being challenged in the courts. Congressional representatives are also speaking up against many of Trump’s policies which have no basis in law and have not had funding from the legislative branch.
As reality sets in, organizations around the country are calling their memberships out for protests. In the southwest side of Detroit recently, a first meeting to discuss ways to defend undocumented families drew around 150 people, mostly young, who were ready to take on ICE politically, and maybe physically. On January 20 a standing room only crowd packed St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church for the annual Martin Luther King Jr Day rally in Detroit. The event was billed as a “Fightback Rally” where speaker after speaker blasted the incoming president.
It is worth reprinting the brief comments given in front of Detroit’s City Council at their January 28 public session by Frank Hammer, former UAW Local 909 president, who warned the city’s political leaders:
Donald Trump’s partner Elon Musk gave a Nazi salute last week in a speech applauding Trump’s victory. White Christian nationalists applauded Elon’s gesture mimicking Adolf Hitler…. Trump has already eliminated all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards in the Federal government. Dr. King foresaw this development. 50+ years ago, he stated ‘the segregationist’s goal is the total reversal of all reforms with the re-establishment of naked oppression and, if need be, a native form of fascism.’ To a Council representing a majority Black city, this should be cause for alarm. It behooves each of you to organize citizen anti-fascist committees to educate your districts to the dangers confronting us and making plans for our common defense.
It is certain that court actions, meetings, marches and protests will continue and grow. These will be, at first, scattered actions. As the Trump outrages continue, it will be necessary to unify and coordinate mass resistance.
Many of the labor and human rights have become deeply embedded into the lives and thinking of the vast working class. These are included in many legal precedents, laws and customs of U.S. society.
But court actions may not be fully effective considering the rightwing majority on the Supreme Court. Electoral struggles may be further stymied by voter suppression widely reported in many states. In the end mass protests must be organized, up to and including a General Strike – the only language that the billionaire Wall Street crowd understands.
If Trump is thwarted or restricted in his grab for power by the courts, the states, Congress and mass protest, he, like others before him, could move to consolidate power outside of legal norms. To do so he would have to have a plausible reason to declare martial law and get the military to violate the Constitution. He could have his minions organize a “Reichstag Fire.”
When Adolph Hitler was installed as Chancellor of the German Weimar Republic on January 30, 1933 he did not have the absolute power which he so desperately wanted. He didn’t even have a majority in the congress which was housed in the Reichstag building in Berlin. The Nazis and their Nationalist Party allies counted only 247 votes out of a total of 583 (42.4%). So he called for new elections to be held on March 5, about 5 weeks later.
To prepare for these national elections Hitler met with big businessmen who agreed to finance his Nazis. Using his powers as Chancellor, Hitler banned progressive parties from meeting and outlawed their press. Meetings that ignored the ban were attacked. Firty-one anti-Nazi activists were killed in the month of February.
Pro-democracy government officials were removed from office by the hundreds and replaced with pro-Nazi loyalists. The police were ordered not to interfere with Hitler’s storm-troopers and Hermann Goering set up a police “auxiliary of 50,000 goons.
On February 27 a fire broke out in the Reichstag building. After World War II researchers discovered the documents proving that Hitler’s top officials had organized the arson attack on this government building. The Nazis had a prepared a list of who should be arrested following the Reichstag fire.
With the hysteria whipped up by the Reichstag fire Hitler was given the authority to suspend civil liberties enshrined in the Weimar Constitution. Some 4,000 socialists and communists were immediately arrested – including Members of Parliament who were supposed to be immune from arrest.
Only the Nazi party was allowed to campaign for the upcoming elections. Goering said on March 3 that his Nazi Party would “not be crippled by any judicial thinking.” He added “my mission is to destroy and exterminate.”
Even under these extremely repressive conditions the Nazi Party received only 44% of the total votes! The Social Democratic Party and Communist Party, under severe attack for over a month, still received about 31% of the votes. Even with their right-wing Nationalist Party allies, the fascists lacked the 2/3 majority in the congress needed to pass the extreme legislation they wanted.
To get that 2/3 majority Hitler simply barred Communist and some Socialist delegates from meetings. On March 23 the congress passed the “Enabling Act” that transferred all legislative power to Hitler’s Nazi Cabinet for “four years.” Much worse was to come. [from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shirer, Simon & Shuster, 2011]
No one should have the slightest doubt that Trump, Musk, Hegseth and Company would shrink from any of these power grab moves. It is important that we take the fascist danger seriously before they consolidate their power. A “Reichstag Fire” could easily be organized by Trump – maybe a horrific bombing that their agents carry out but will be blamed on the Democrats or other progressive and left-wing forces. A state of emergency would be declared with martial law. The military – or maybe only a part of the officer corps – is all that would be needed if the other part was disoriented, confused or immobilized.
It is urgent to educate ourselves on this history and potential danger. Organizing must begin right now to defend our rights – and our lives.
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