VENUE: US Consulate
ADDRESS: 1 Sandton Drive (opposite Sandton City), Johannesburg
TIME: from 5pm
DATE: Friday, 20 January
Solidarity with the American working class!
Build a global united working class movement against imperialism and reaction
Friday will see the biggest protests in the United States to ever welcome the inauguration (swearing in to office) of a new president, the billionaire Donald Trump. American Workers, women’s rights groups, black civil rights groups, immigrant organisations and LGBTQ activists will hold protests and rallies across the United States. Protests are planned at embassies and consulates across the world.
In the American city of Seattle, a mass walkout of school and college students is planned. Socialist Alternative, WASP’s sister party in the US has been at the heart of organising these protests. The day after Trump was elected in November, Socialist Alternative was key to mobilizing 40,000 people onto the streets in a number of US cities.
Trump will take office despite losing the popular vote due to the undemocratic electoral system in the US. Not only did Trump lose the popular vote, but nearly half of Americans didn’t vote in the first place, so disgusted where they with the election campaign. There is little support for Trump’s reactionary agenda. In America, just like South Africa, there is an enormous political vacuum. Trump is a warning to the working class across the world of what can happen if that vacuum is not filled with a socialist alternative.
The Workers and Socialist Party is calling on people to picket outside the US Consulate in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Friday afternoon to coincide with Trump’s inauguration ceremony. A period of mass struggle is opening up in America. We call on all those opposed to imperialism and Trump’s sexist and racist agenda to join us and show our solidarity with our American class brothers and sisters. A united movement can defeat Trump and his reactionary agenda!
