Saturday October 18th saw millions of Americans take to the streets across the country to protest the executive overreach of the Republican party and their attempts to erode bourgeois democracy.
In Virginia, VACPUSA attended protests across the state, in Appalachia, NoVA, Charlottesville, and Tidewater. Reports from the streets were disappointing. Not only was turnout much lower, but there was also a striking lack of the sort of revolutionary spirit we found at previous, similar events in April, February, and January at the beginning of Trump’s term.
In NoVA, our analysis is that this event lacked revolutionary spirit because of several competing events among the local orgs. As a club, we split our time to attend the No Kings rally as well as other local, material events. We attended No Kings because we want to help people find organizing homes: marches are good, but the way to improve society requires all the good work that happens between marches. Our Party Comrades handed out dozens of QR code slips linking to local progressive orgs of all stripes…
Of all the codes handed out fewer than 10% went to the link page, and only one person clicked on a link for an org. These data support our on the ground feelings, and shows us that we have a great deal of work to do in Virginia to raise the floor of class consciousness.
Despite all of this, we are encouraged by reports from our Comrades across the states where turnout was huge and revolutionary in tone, and we will keep working towards a better future for all, together
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