Photo / Yashmori
In the past year, the people have taken up both the vote and the mass street protest in record numbers to defend themselves against police violence, racism, and an encroaching police state, and to demand that government meet their needs for jobs, housing, health care, water and more.
The corporate billionaires who run this country have fought to dismantle democracy for decades. That their effort is now intensifying is no surprise, given how the capitalist system is failing people, and that a broad movement for transformational change is rising in response. Today the people’s fight revolves around defending the right to vote and the right to protest.
As the 2022 and 2024 elections loom, key Republican-controlled battleground states such as Florida and Texas have been focal points, and the exclusion of Black voters has been the strategic focus of the attack on everyone’s voting rights. At least 404 voting-restriction bills have been introduced in 48 state legislatures and 25 have already become law. At the same time, 843 state bills have been introduced to improve voting access. At the federal level, the fight is around ending the filibuster in the Senate so federal voting rights legislation, which would block many of the state restrictions, can be passed.
A woman named Catherine recently tweeted her defiance of efforts to restrict the vote by saying, “Let’s do what my grand-daddy said to do, give them The Big Pay Back. Let’s go vote again in big numbers, bigger than before.”
Defending the right to protest is another major front of battle. More than 90 anti-protest bills have been introduced in 35 states. Some include provisions giving immunity to those who kill protesters. The recently passed Florida bill is one of the most dangerous examples of the effort to criminalize protest. Rachel Gilmer, co-director of Dream Defenders in Florida, told Teen Vogue recently that “Under this law, anyone who tears down the Confederate flag could get 15 years in prison — yet George Zimmerman didn’t spend a day in jail for killing Trayvon Martin. The absurdity and injustice of a Confederate flag meaning more than a Black child’s life is absolutely disgusting.”
Bob Lee is a professional journalist, writer and editor, and is co-editor of the People’s Tribune, serving as Managing Editor. He first started writing for and distributing the People’s Tribune in 1980, and joined the editorial board in 1987.
