More than 100 protesters gathered outside the Massachusetts State House on Thursday to oppose Wednesday's violence in Washington, D.C., and call for community action against what many described as a rising tide of "fascism" in the United States.
“If they want a civil war, we are the party for socialism and liberation — and we say we don't need a civil war, we need a class war,” Dorchester-based activist Nino Brown told the crowd. “We need to get rid of not just Trump but the followers of fascism, because America was always a far right country.”
Massachusetts activists from local organizations including Refuse Fascism and Boston Socialist Alternative have vowed to continue protesting every day until President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated.
Toya Chester, an organizer with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, a labor union, urged the crowd to continue organizing long after Biden is in office.
“Trump is just a symptom and a symbol of what goes on in your society every day,” Chester told the crowd. “It's clear that these far-right-wing forces are more organized than ever, and that's why they need to be stopped.”
Following remarks from Trump that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen from us” on Wednesday, thousands of pro-Trump extremists stormed the Capitol as part of a “Stop the Steal” demonstration, falsely claiming that Trump, who lost both the Electoral College and the popular vote, was the true winner.
“I don’t know if anybody in the crowd has illusions in Biden, but I sure don’t like that the Democrats aren’t equipped to handle Trump or the far right,” Chester said, “They've had plenty of opportunities, and they have completely failed. We cannot wait and see if they're going to stand up for us. We have to do it ourselves.”
Before meeting at the state house, a separate protest led by local organizers from Refuse Fascism, a movement formed in response to Trump’s election, held a moment of silence at the Holocaust memorial in the North End.
“People have to understand there's a certain development of history, and people need to understand that history,” Stan Lawrence, an organizer for Refuse Fascism, told GBH News. “They need to look at things like the Holocaust — which was, for younger people, a while back — and realize that it was real. Millions and millions of people died because the German people did not act in a way that could have prevented that from happening. We have those lessons to learn from, and we need to act on them.”
For activist Scott Gilbert, those lessons are personal. Gilbert carries a photo in his wallet of a young Anne Frank sitting beside Gabrielle Dorothy Kahn — Gilbert's mother.
“I carry it with me because it kind of brings it home and makes it real,” Gilbert said. “That's what happened in the Capitol, and that’s what’s happening now, if we don’t stop it.”
Gilbert, a 67-year-old Somerville resident, wants to see a national movement to “move the goalposts” of the political spectrum left after four years of a Trump presidency.
“It's going to take a lot of work, and people have to sacrifice. But part of that is taking responsibility and acting,” Gilbert said. “And as people act, we can change this. It's not a foregone conclusion. I remember living in 1965, during the war in Vietnam, and I grew up with that. I have the advantage of seeing that kind of change can actually happen. Change is very real and very possible. But people have to act to make it happen.”
The crowd marched from the State House to the steps of Boston City Hall, ending with speakers like Blythe Serrano, an 18-year-old UMass student and activist who called on the crowd with a similar message.
“What is the solution to all of this violence, racism and xenophobia?” Serrano asked the crowd. “A grassroots, multiracial, multiethnic movement of students and working people. We need to be organizing in our schools and workplaces. We need to be out in the streets. We need to be on strike every day.”
