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Nov 5, 20

Thousands Take to the Streets As Trump Attempts to Stop Vote Count

In the face of massive State repression, including National Guard deployments, militarized police, and DHS shock troops across the so-called US in the lead up to the election, thousands took to the streets starting on November 3rd, both to oppose an attempt by the Trump administration to launch a grab to stay in power by stopping the counting of votes and also to decry the entire colonial-capitalist State system.

In Seattle, police brutally attacked and arrested several protesters, leaving one person in critical care as of this writing. In Portland, Oregon, over a thousand took to the streets in various marches, with a black bloc of several hundred strong breaking windows out at banks and corporate stores and chanting, “No police, no prisons, total abolition!” Police then declared a riot and National Guard were dispatched to the scene, as snatch vans roamed the streets, attempting to make arrests.

Police also made mass arrests in several cities. In Minneapolis, where in late May the city exploded following the police murder of George Floyd, police ketteled and arrested around 650 people. Meanwhile in New York, police made several brutal mass arrests of demonstrators. In Philadelphia, marchers protesting for Walter Wallace, Jr, a young African-American man killed by the police, joined up with another march demanding that all votes be counted. Finally in Washington DC, protests remain ongoing, with the Shutdown DC coalition continuing to bring people out and into the streets, despite a heavily militarized buildup of law enforcement and the White House fortifying itself against a potential uprising.

In other news, despite a build up of violent pro-Trump actions and attacks in the lead up to the election, few if any far-Right groups mobilized on November 3rd. Despite scattered incidents, by and large, groups of militias and Proud Boys were not seen outside of poling stations. By November 4th however, Trump supporters had descended on a vote counting office in Detroit, demanding that volunteers stop counting the votes, as Trump had begun to push a variety of conspiracy theories in a effort to hold onto the Presidency. Ironically, another group of Trump supporters also converged in Arizona, demanding the opposite: that all votes be counted after Fox News and other outlets had called the state for Biden.

Speaking to this reality of seemingly disorganized far-Right mobilizations and interventions around the election, antifascist researcher and author Spencer Sunshine stated in an interview with It’s Going Down:

With the collapse of the white nationalist faction, the remaining far-Right pro-Trumpist forces have remained comparatively quiet up until now. It may be that they have some lingering attachment to the US patriotism – as opposed to the cult of Trump – and are hesitant to actually disrupt a national election in person. They may be convinced that Trump will win and so there is no urgent need for action. And they may be waiting to see what happens after the results are in. Of course, we hope for their plans will end with a whimper and not a bang, but right now anything seems possible.

Ironically, the only incident involving a organized far-Right group outside of the recount protests that did gain any attention, was when the leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, along with several others, were attacked and stabbed in Washington DC after they attempted to confront a group of youths on the street.

As Trump continues to push a mish-mash of conspiracy theories that the election is being “stolen” and his legal team continues to try and block the vote, the far-Right will continue to push for Trump to remain in office by any means necessary. Meanwhile, financial capitalists are already expecting big profits, as they know Republicans in Congress will block tax hikes and Biden will be a much more stable ruler. For the exploited and excluded however, no matter who becomes President, they will govern over a a country increasingly racked by the pandemic, crippling economic and racial inequality, rising authoritarianism, and a burgeoning ecological crisis.

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It’s Going Down is a digital community center from anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements. Our mission is to provide a resilient platform to publicize and promote revolutionary theory and action.

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