The mobilization of millions of people across thousands of US cities and towns on June 14 and the previous week’s rebellion against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles show an emerging resistance to Trump’s reactionary offensive that is widespread and has deep roots.
By Vince Gaynor
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has launched a global offensive against the working masses and social and democratic rights, along with an attempt to impose a more authoritarian and repressive regime. The active or passive support of the bourgeoisie and its parties, particularly the Democrats’ decision to prevent any mobilization in opposition, allowed him to advance for several months.
However, while a chorus of liberal voices fueled passivity with skepticism, fear, and despair, the International Socialist League (ISL) warned that Trump’s project would inevitably provoke resistance and would not prevail without defeating it. That resistance has begun to take shape, opening the perspective of an open-ended conflict that is just beginning.
No Kings
On June 14, millions took to the streets in at least 2,000 cities and towns across the country under the slogan “No Kings.” Hundreds of thousands marched in New York and Los Angeles, tens of thousands demonstrated in dozens of other cities.
But most significant were the thousands of mobilizations that brought out hundreds or thousands in small cities and towns across the entire country, including the more conservative states. Protests were held in 35 locations in Iowa, 70 in Michigan, and 40 in Arizona, for example. Ten thousand mobilized in Omaha, Nebraska, 5,000 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2,000 in Mobile, Alabama.
The scale and extent of the protests reveal the structural weakness of Trump’s social base, which is significant, consolidated, and on the offensive, but represents a minority. On the other hand, it gives confidence to the majority who oppose Trump and his entire plan.
In many places, radicalized groups of mostly young people also expressed themselves with contingents and break-away marches in support of Palestine and for the dissolution of ICE among other demands. The previous week, thousands of people confronted state repressive forces in Los Angeles and forced ICE to retreat.
The Battle of Los Angeles
On June 5, Trump launched a targeted offensive against immigrants. His order for ICE to increase daily arrests of undocumented immigrants from the 600 it had been making to 3,000 per day led the agency to carry out a series of raids on several workplaces in Los Angeles, the city with the largest immigrant population in the country. They sparked a rebellion.
Rapid response teams sprang into action; in some workplaces, workers organized to defend themselves and expelled ICE agents from their workplaces. Mobilizations ranging from hundreds to thousands followed the ICE operations, gathered at the Metropolitan Detention Center, and faced increasing repression. Latinx communities, led by the young, also came out in self defence and clashed with the repressive forces.
Trump federalized the state’s National Guard and mobilized 4,000 soldiers to the conflict zone. He later added the presence of 700 marines. The Democratic mayor of Los Angeles opposed the military intervention, but imposed a nighttime curfew in the city center, and his LAPD led the violent crackdown that injured dozens and arrested hundreds of protesters.
Nothing stopped the protests and clashes, which escalated over a week until Trump had to back down. On June 12, he ordered ICE to largely pause workplace raids.
It’s a small, partial, and temporary victory in the context of a monstrous reactionary offensive—hundreds of people continue to be arrested and deported every day, and Trump will inevitably return to the attack. But it is significant, because it shows that Trump is not invincible and that struggle is useful. Furthermore, the level of militancy that proved necessary to make him back off in this battle indicates the scale of struggle and level of organization that will be required to defeat him.
Thousands of radicalized activists are undergoing this experience and drawing some of these conclusions. The primary task of revolutionaries is to organize them politically.
The Missing Political Representation
After the disastrous Biden administration and defeat by Trump, the Democrats rolled over. They adopted a position of allowing the new administration to do whatever it wants and wait for it to collapse on its own to come back as the only alternative. To this end, they acted to prevent any opposition to Trump from taking shape in the streets during his first months in office.
But Democrats are aware that resistance is inevitable and are taking action to ensure they will be in a position to control it. Bernie Sanders and AOC have gone back on tour, once again drawing tens of thousands to their rallies. Union leaders organized May Day events. Organizations linked to the Democrats organized first the “Hands Off” and now the “No Kings” protests.
In each case, the turnout was far larger than expected. Additional, a radicalized and militant sector continues to develop that has lost all faith in the Democratic Party.
Thousands of people are expressing this in the massive demonstrations through contingents and breakaway marches; they are the ones who fought and pushed back ICE in Los Angeles; many of them are organized in various movements and organizations. They are the driving force behind the emerging resistance to Trump, which has placed the United States at the forefront of the global struggle against the far right.
It is essential that revolutionaries work to organize them politically with the strategy of socialist revolution and the perspective of a revolutionary party that pushes struggles forward and consistently builds an independent political representation of the working class.
This will be the focus of discussion at the meet-up that our comrades of Socialist Horizon together with Firebrand are sponsoring in Chicago on July 5 at 5:00 PM, at the Socialism 2025 conference.
