On Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of people across all 50 US states protested against the fascists in the White House, denouncing massive wealth inequality, the financial oligarchy’s trampling of the Constitution and the escalating attacks on the democratic rights of the working class.
Despite their broad scope and the participation of thousands, major newspapers and television networks ignored the protests. The New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune failed to publish any articles or reports on the demonstrations as they unfolded.
Reports on the demonstrations were likewise absent from the websites of CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN, none of which featured a single article or video on their homepages.
The protests, organized under the banner of the “50501 Movement” (50 states, 50 protests, one day), called on demonstrators to rally at state capitols and other government buildings to peacefully “oppose fascism” and “defend democracy.” Graphics shared by organizers on social media referenced the defense of immigrants, transgender rights, science and other democratic rights.
Prior to Wednesday’s demonstrations, Newsweek reported that organizers of the 50501 Movement had partnered with “Political Revolution,” a political action committee that supports Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and aims to “fundamentally reform the Democratic Party from the inside out.”
Workers and students who protested on Wednesday openly denounced Democratic Party politicians for collaborating with Trump in his attacks on immigrants and for their central role in perpetrating the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
World Socialist Web Site reporting teams intervened at multiple protests to advance a socialist perspective, emphasizing the need to unite the entire working class against not only Trump and Musk but the entire political establishment and the capitalist system.
This post will be updated throughout the day with additional reports and analysis.
Los Angeles students walk out in fifth straight day of pro-immigrant protests
For the fourth day in a row on Thursday, students at multiple schools in Los Angeles, California, walked out of class in defense of immigrants and against deportations. Hundreds of students at at least seven different schools, including Venice High, Westwood and Santa Monica High School, participated in Thursday’s walkouts.
This is the fifth day in a row that protests drawing hundreds or thousands of people have taken place in Los Angeles in response to the fascistic attack on immigrants spearheaded by President Donald Trump, but co-signed by the complicit Democratic Party, which provided Trump the necessary votes to fast-track the Laken Riley Act.
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site spoke with students and workers at the demonstrations.
A college student told the WSWS, “My mom’s family is originally from Japan. We’ve been here since 1905. Both of my grandparents lived in interment camps. My grandfather, he grew up in the Arizona camps and actually my family and I visited Wyoming where my grandmother was interned from the ages, of I think 11 to like 17 or so.
“And all I’ve been able to think about since Trump’s been inaugurated is, ‘it’s going to happen again, isn’t it?’”
Read the full article here.
Hundreds protest in New York City: “We shouldn’t have to live off the crumbs of the rich”
Over 300 protesters gathered outside City Hall in Lower Manhattan Wednesday afternoon. Placards, most of them hand-made, indicated a deep concern about the potential for fascism under Trump. One read, “In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!” Another said, “No Kings!” Other signs supported immigrants: “Immigrants make America great!” and “Inclusion is American!”
Protesters chanted anti-fascist slogans, such as “No Trump, No KKK, No fascist USA.” However, the speakers who led the chants had no discernible analysis of the rapidly unfolding crisis and offered no program to fight against Trump. There was no mention of the Democratic Party’s role and complicity, just a lot of cursing and empty pleas for unity.
Our reporters spoke with a social work student who said she is a socialist. She brought a handcrafted placard which specifically denounced Elon Musk.
“I don’t trust his intentions as a billionaire. I disagree with what he did with Twitter/X in terms of the layoffs and his turning Twitter into more of a right-wing echo chamber. I also find it really scary that Nazis out there can just be openly—Nazis!”
On the role of the Democratic Party, she said, “They’re complicit; they’re not doing anything. I’m not supportive of the Democratic Party; I’m more of a socialist.”
She continued, “I worry about immigrant families. My family are immigrants. I’m Russian. When Trump said he wanted to eliminate birthright citizenship, [he’s] talking about making things extremely difficult for immigrant children. I came here at a very young age, so I didn’t have the privilege of birthright, and I don’t want to see them taking away birthright and put a generation of children through hell, like the hell that I went through.
“The reason why my family came to this country is because of the depression that happened after the fall of the Soviet Union. They have very mixed feelings about [the Soviet Union]. There was a sense of repression—yes—but at the same time, healthcare was free, education was free, and getting some form of child care was free. I don’t believe there has to be an elimination of First Amendment rights in order to achieve that!
“I believe we should live in a world where all these things are accessible for the people. We shouldn’t have to live off the crumbs of the rich—barely even crumbs—like very small, tiny, tiny atomic particles.”
She continued, “In the [USSR], even though there was sexism, women had a lot more opportunities. There were women doctors and women engineers—my grandmother was an engineer—while in America, women of my grandmother’s generation were housewives!”
The WSWS reporter observed that these democratic right were a product of the Russian Revolution.
“Yes, my father has a similar perspective,” she replied. “He’s an immigrant to this country. He grew up in the Soviet Union and saw it collapse. So he’s in this country, and he’s extremely against corporations.”
1,000 protest against fascism in Lansing, Michigan: “The whole immigration thing is a manufactured crisis”
Roughly 1,000 young people and workers protested in front of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing against Trump’s attack on immigrants and basic democratic rights. The demonstration drew a diverse cross-section of participants, including both immigrant and native-born workers, Michigan State University students, high school students, state employees, educators, healthcare workers and retirees.
Protesters carried signs denouncing raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, reading, “No detention camps,” “This coup is directed at you,” “The Constitution, not a king,” and “No one voted for Elon.”
August, a healthcare worker, said, “Fascism is a mechanism, and it’s not just targeting immigrants—it’s anyone who looks like one. People are being harassed at grocery stores; their neighbors ask them for papers. That’s wrong. The whole immigration issue is a manufactured crisis. The so-called drug war put criminal organizations on the same level as governments, ruining people’s environments and forcing them to flee. And then they show up here, and we kick them out. It’s like a global power play and the systematic oppression of neighboring countries.”
Rejecting the claim that immigrants were depleting government resources, he said, “Overcrowded classes are mostly caused by low funding for education. And the idea is to privatize education because it’s easy to teach people things early. I was raised a Catholic, but I’m not a Catholic anymore. Religion is just another tool to control people.”
Asked who was really looting society, immigrants or the oligarchs, he said, “The answer is pretty obvious.” Musk and the billionaires were out to “dismantle” democracy, he said, adding, “There’s no room for business as usual right now.”
Jessica, a paraprofessional in a western Michigan school district said, “My great grandmother lived through the Holocaust. People say something should have been done to stop Hitler. Well, now we’re living through another fascist takeover, and we can’t let it happen again.
“Musk gave the Nazi salute at Trump’s inauguration party. They covered it up and said he has autism and didn’t know what he was doing. I know lots of people who have mental health conditions, but they’re not fascists. He knew exactly what he was doing.”
Jessica expressed agreement with building rank-and-file committees in the schools, neighborhoods and factories to mobilize the working class against the attack on immigrants and all democratic rights.
Commenting on the silence of the Democrats, she said, “The Democrats might be rolling over, but we can’t.”
Tom, a veteran, attended the protest in Lansing and spoke with WSWS reporters. “I was in the United States Marine Corps in Desert Storm, 1989-93. My wife and I have been protesting Bush and the neocons since I became aware of them in about 2001. It kinda took me a while to decompress from, you know, the General Marine Corps.
“We used to live in an area that had a lot of ‘white flight’ and then moved and chose not to live in that kind of area. The poor, the disparity between rich and poor, you can’t unsee it. We live paycheck to paycheck. I’m a stay-at-home dad and worked in the trades and just couldn’t do it anymore. We couldn’t afford childcare. The math just doesn’t work out.
“I’m here because, well, it’s so much more than just Project 2025, it’s the disparity in pay, the whole system is all coming apart. We need to make sure that what comes together after, if there is an ‘after,’ is something that is correct, that serves the people and not billionaires who shouldn’t exist.
'We can do it for the whole world. We let these people running legislation take over and now I think people are having a realization, like, ‘Oh my god, what’s going on?’ In the ‘before’ times [before Trump], people could say there was a little difference between the Democrats and Republicans, but now there’s not even as much of a slight difference. Financially it’s all consistent, it’s all the same for the oligarchs. People who got richer and richer and learned to manipulate the system.”
When asked what he thinks of capitalism, he responded, “It’s gotta go, man. The only thing it has is drive for money. We have to fight, and we have to get the world fixed. We have the technology to fix it, but the billionaires want to break everything.”
Democrats, joined by Democratic Socialists of America members, block socialist Jerry White from speaking at Lansing protest
A notable feature of the Lansing and other rallies on Wednesday was the palpable disgust with the Democratic Party. Hundreds of protesters eagerly took the Socialist Equality Party’s statement “Mobilize the working class to stop dictatorship and mass deportations,” and many came over to the SEP campaign table to buy literature and give their contact information.
There was great interest in the SEP’s call for building rank-and-file committees in the schools, neighborhoods and workplaces to defend immigrant workers and mobilize the working class against both big business parties and the capitalist system they defend.
By contrast, most of the organizers of the Lansing rally, which included Democratic Party operatives and members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), had nothing to offer. Instead, they concealed their own role in facilitating Trump’s return to power. The speakers included several Democratic Party state legislators who had nothing to say except that they planned to introduce legislation to restore Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.
Before the event began, Jerry White, an SEP member and the party’s vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 elections, asked permission to address the rally and was informed that he would be put on the list of speakers. But when it was time for him to speak, Jill Murphy, the former state director of the Democratic Party’s Blue Wave America organization said White would not be allowed to speak.
Several members of the DSA joined Murphy in blocking White from the stage. When he and other SEP members protested this blatant act of censorship, saying there was no such restriction on Democratic Party politicians, Murphy threatened to call the police to have them removed.
Several protesters condemned the censorship of the SEP and denounced the Democrats as accomplices in the attack on immigrants and the working class. One young worker, disgusted with the Democrats’ use of identity politics to cover up their own pro-capitalist and pro-war parties said, “We don’t need any more rainbow flags on nuclear bombs.”
1,000 rally in Austin, Texas: “I feel like [the Democrats] are not doing enough or anything at all”
Around 1,000 people rallied in front of the State Capitol building in downtown Austin, including a contingent of high school students who walked out of classes and marched to the demonstration.
The Democratic Party had little to no direct control over the demonstration, and attendees overwhelmingly expressed disgust at the Democrats’ capitulation to Trump’s attacks. “We have two parties, and one is a con-man party [Trump and the Republicans], and the other are con artists [the Democrats],” one attendee told reporters. Young people, in particular, voiced broadly anti-capitalist sentiments and responded positively to the Socialist Equality Party/WSWS’s call for building neighborhood and workplace committees in the working class to fight Trump.
The rally continued until around 2 p.m., when demonstrators began marching down Congress Avenue. However, they were quickly redirected back to the Capitol grounds by heavily armed Austin police and Texas State troopers.
Socialist Equality Party member and WSWS reporter Tom Hall addressed the crowd. What will stop Trump “is a movement in the working class,” Hall said.
“Trump wants us to believe that immigrants are the enemies of so-called ‘native-born’ workers. But that is a lie. Immigrants are part of the working class [applause]. They are our brothers and sisters. While Trump is beginning his attacks with immigrants, this is only the tip of the spear, to assault the rights of all workers, not just in the United States, but around the world.
“The working class is the most powerful social force in the world. They are the majority of society that creates all of the wealth. Trump represents an oligarchy, a handful of billionaires and hundred-billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos that live at the expense of society [boos].
“The fact that the US political system has puked up someone like Donald Trump into the White House shows the failure of the capitalist system. The Democratic Party is equally responsible [applause]. They are voting for the Laken Riley Act, voting for his appointments. The fact that Trump could find an audience for his right-wing pseudo-populism is because the Democrats were far more concerned with defending their genocide against student protests than they were about warning the public about the danger of fascism in America.
“Even today, they are doing nothing except to try to get out in front of the protests, where possible. What they fear far more than dictatorship is the working class, because the Democrats are also a Wall Street party.
“We are calling for the building of an independent movement in the working class. We call for the formation of neighborhood and workplace rank-and-file committees to defend the democratic rights of immigrants and unite all workers regardless of sexual orientation or national origin. The working class must be mobilized as an independent force [loud applause]. This is the only solution to fascism in America and around the world.”
One protester said she had traveled three hours from the Dallas area to attend. “[Trump’s] first term really seemed like a trial run to see what he could get away with. … He’s president, he can get away with anything. And now it feels like he’s doing much more irreversible damage than the first time around.”
She criticized the Democratic Party’s inaction, saying, “I feel like they’re not doing enough—or anything at all, to be honest. There could be so much more organizing, so much more educating, so much more than any of them are doing.”
She also warned that people were underestimating Trump’s danger. “People aren’t taking Trump seriously enough. I recently heard a translation of one of Hitler’s speeches, and it was eerie how familiar it sounded to any of Trump’s rallies.”
She emphasized the need for mass action. “I believe if we could organize general strikes, if we could organize more protests,” then things would change. “I mean, unfortunately, history has proven that civility is bullshit. It doesn’t get anything done.”
“It’s a class war,” the WSWS reporter replied.
“Yeah, absolutely,” she agreed. “I think [workers] don’t understand the power they hold—how quickly we could stop the means of production. It would only take 3.5 percent of the population to actually stand up to our government to see real change.”
Workers and students protest in defense of immigrants in San Jose, California
In San Jose, two small but energetic protests were held in defense of immigrants and against the Trump administration.
Around noon, a group of 50–75 protesters gathered outside the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building. One protester told the WSWS, “I’m tired of my parents and friends blindly accepting the administration. I’m tired of publicizing police and privatizing profits. I’m tired of my family and friends being singled out as ‘others.’”
Protesters carried signs reading “Fight fascism, defend democracy” and “Our government is not his startup.”
Nick, another protester, told WSWS reporters, “Trump recognizes that the Constitution is an agreement with the people, and force can override that. People want to believe the Constitution can enforce itself, but it won’t.”
Addressing Trump’s attacks on immigrants, Nick added, “This is part of a bigger, long-running problem—the dehumanization of immigrants and homeless people—that Trump is exploiting. I don’t believe it’s right that we have an underclass in America to be used for cheap labor. I came out to see if I can do something.”
In addition to the 50501 rally at the federal building, another anti-Trump protest erupted just a few blocks away in front of San Jose City Hall.
This second protest drew about 50 people, many of whom were young and of Hispanic descent. Protesters carried signs aggressively denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and others with messages such as “Speak for those who can’t” and “Can’t get rid of all of us.”
Washington D.C. federal workers protest attacks on jobs
Nearly 1,000 people gathered on the grounds of the US Capitol on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s assault on federal workers. Hundreds carried signs denouncing the furloughs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
More than 3,000 of USAID’s 10,000 employees reside in the Washington D.C. area and have been affected by the agency’s shutdown at the hands of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and his phony “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).
“Even speaking out right now, who knows what kind of reprisal I might face,” said one USAID contractor, speaking to the WSWS. He explained that organizations like his and the World Health Organization—which Trump has unilaterally severed ties with—play a critical role in preventing pandemics. I fail to understand why people don’t grasp something as basic as that—why they’re doing what they’re doing and not following democratic processes.”
James, who traveled from nearby Northern Virginia, voiced his opposition to the Trump administration and US militarism. Referring to proposed budget cuts, he said, “It seems like they’re targeting the wrong things in the government budget [for cuts] because the vast majority of it is going towards the military and the Pentagon.”
James warned that this vast military spending would eventually be used to suppress domestic opposition. “It’s a lot,” he said, “and it will be turned on the people in America themselves when they protest reductions in their living standards, which Trump’s policies will inevitably produce.”
Despite the entirely peaceful character of the protest and the absence of any counter-demonstrators, an overwhelming police presence surrounded the US Capitol.
200 protest in Annapolis, Maryland: “I think we need a general strike”
In Annapolis, Maryland, just east of Washington D.C., a protest involving some 200 people was held near the state Capitol building. An open microphone was made available, and demonstrators carried homemade signs denouncing Elon Musk, DOGE and Trump.
The state’s official Democratic Party was largely absent from the event.
Speakers from the crowd expressed a range of views. Some called on attendees to “call your representatives” and “talk to your friends and family,” repeating the familiar, impotent appeals associated with Democratic Party politics. In response, one participant shouted back, “Where are the Democrats? Where is Congress? They are useless. We need to organize because they won’t.” The remark was met with enthusiastic approval from the crowd.
Teel, a participant in the protest, told the WSWS, “I’m here for so many reasons: the planet, democracy, immigrants—any one of the issues we’re facing would have gotten me out here today.”
When asked about the way forward, Teel said, “I think we need a general strike.”