Week after week, more federal workers are being fired and more federal funding is stripped away from public services by the Trump/Musk regime. And now the “Trump budget” has begun to take shape.
Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cut funds and fired hundreds of workers at the Federal Aviation Administration. Soon after, Musk’s company, Starlink, was given a contract to manage U.S. airspace. Our tax dollars are going into his pocket.
Mass firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Social Security Administration, and other agencies will have long-lasting effects on the health and well-being of millions of people. Crucial disease prevention, bird flu research, cancer treatments, food programs, and other projects are being dismantled.
In addition, the new budget being proposed by Republicans in the House of Representatives would cut $880 billion from Medicaid and reduce SNAP funding (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) by 20 percent. SNAP provides low-income people access to nutritious food.
This chaos is happening throughout the federal government. Some people say, “we should watch and see if all this makes things better.” But they wouldn’t want to take drugs that are unregulated; or have their infant or young child exposed to people who are carrying measles or other infectious diseases; or fly on planes with no guidance from weather experts. That’s what’s coming. Nothing good will happen in this hot mess.
The Democratic Party’s solution is to get ready for the next elections in two years. That can’t be our solution.
The reality is that no one is going to save us, except ourselves. So, it’s us against Trump and his band of billionaires and the system they represent. And what do we have? It could seem like we have nothing compared to their money and power. But together we are not powerless. Quite the opposite. We outnumber them. It is our work and activity that makes this society function. There are tens of millions of us in the same situation and many are thinking the same way.
Where do we start? We all know people at our jobs, schools and in our neighborhoods. We interact with friends and family and people we share interests and activities with. A lot of people are talking about this. They too are waiting and uncertain, about what to do.
A few people or a small group can begin to do something. We can invite people we know to get together to talk about what is happening and what we can do in response. This can break our sense of isolation. We can go to an event or a protest together, and next time, bring more people. One gathering or protest can turn into a weekly event or into a larger action.
People are organizing now. Federal workers have organized rallies and protests around the country, and we can turn out and support them. Many of us belong to unions. Unions don’t have to be just about our own bread-and-butter issues. They should respond to situations that all workers are facing. And we can go with our co-workers to their protests and other actions.
Members of our communities who are recent immigrants and people who are racially profiled as being immigrants are being targeted by ICE, arrested, imprisoned, and deported. People have organized Know Your Rights Trainings. We can get “Know Your Rights” red cards and get them to people who may be targeted by ICE (available at ilrc.org/red-cards). Some people are organizing to respond to ICE raids. There are weekly demonstrations at Tesla dealers against Musk. These actions and boycotts bring people together, sometimes on a weekly basis and that can lead to larger actions which can have more of an impact.
In 2006, weeks of small demonstrations across the country, in defense of immigrant rights, led to millions of people taking to the streets on May 1, for “Day Without an Immigrant” demonstrations. In South Africa, during the struggle against the brutal apartheid regime, workers across the country organized stay at home strikes which crippled the economy and avoided direct confrontation with the racist military. The Civil Rights Movement was made up of thousands of small actions.
That has been the history of movements large and small. What seems impossible or improbable happens because people decide to act on what they know is right. What each of us is willing to do today shapes what is possible tomorrow. We can make this our time, not theirs! We don’t have to wait for a leader to emerge.
We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.
