April 5th saw over a thousand protests across the United States attended by millions. The protests demanded “Hands Off!” from the Trump and Musk regime – to end the attacks on unions, social services, government workers, immigrants, trans rights, free speech rights, and more. The Independent Socialist Group mobilized to bring our members and our ideas to protests in Boston, MA; Worcester, MA; Portland, ME; Providence, RI; New York, NY; Washington, DC; and elsewhere. The protests were a show of force demonstrating the opposition from the working class to the anti-worker agenda of the latest billionaire-backed administration. But where do we go from here? Below is the text of ISG’s leaflet distributed at these protests, putting forward ways to build a mass movement against Trump with the power to stop his administration in its tracks.
The Trump/Musk administration is on the offensive against the working class. The wide-ranging attacks on our democratic rights and living standards include mass layoffs of government workers, cutting public services, and cancelling union contracts and negotiating rights for over a million federal workers. Trump and Co. want to privatize the postal service and Amtrak to seize public services and infrastructure for corporate profit. Union-busting, starting with public-sector workers, who are unionized at a higher rate than private-sector workers (32.2% compared to 5.9%), is a deliberate tactic to reduce mass resistance to job cuts, fewer services, and lower wages for all working people.
Assaults on free speech rights, voting rights, trans rights, and immigrant rights are also Trump regime tactics to divide and conquer and divert opposition away from tax cuts for the rich and corporations, but austerity for the working class. The new administration is slashing spending on health care, research, education, and environmental protections, but spending billions on the military, threatening other countries, proxy wars, and genocide against the Palestinian people.
What kind of economic and political system allows so much unchecked power in the hands of a President and a gang of billionaires?
Unions need to unite and organize strike action to reverse the layoff of federal workers. Union leaders say strikes are illegal for federal workers, but public-sector unions were organized and won gains through mass protests and illegal strikes. Examples include the postal workers’ strike in 1970 and the 2018-2019 statewide “Red for Ed” education strikes in West Virginia and other states. Labor leaders will say Reagan’s mass firing of the PATCO, union air traffic controllers, shows our unions can’t strike. But Reagan and the corporations busted the union and broke the law because the larger labor movement refused to fight the mass firing with mass strikes. Union density continues to decline, no matter which corporate party is in power. Lobbying, lawsuits, and trailing the Democrats won’t stop Trump.
We need a united labor movement to lead nationwide protest action against Trump. Union strike action merged with a mass protest movement can bring back federal jobs and defend and extend union rights, civil rights, and government services. We need a mass movement of unions, progressive groups, students, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and anti-genocide activists.
The Independent Socialist Group (ISG) stands for:
- Federal unions, other public and private sector unions, and the AFL-CIO organizing mass protests and strikes to demand the rehiring of federal workers and stopping layoffs and union-busting. An injury to one is an injury to all.
- Unions mobilizing to help build anti-Trump protests at the national, state, city, and community level to fight for union organizing and rights, civil liberties, immigrant rights, and an end to US support for the war and genocide against the Palestinian people.
- The labor movement to immediately put funds and resources to organize a workers’ party, independent of the two corporate parties, uniting working people around union organizing, a $30/hr minimum wage, free healthcare, free education, and other needs.
Independent Socialist Group 