We Are the New Resistance

In the past twenty-four hours, Bruce Springsteen spoke for the first time about the inauguration of Donald Trump. He said:

“… our hearts and spirits are with the hundreds of thousands of women and men that marched yesterday in every city in America … who rallied against hate and division and in support of tolerance, inclusion, reproductive rights, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, the environment, wage equality, gender equality, healthcare, and immigrant rights. We stand with you. We are the new American resistance.”

Over on this side of the world, we may not be the “American” resistance, but we can still be the resistance.

Since, Trump’s election, we’ve heard a lot about how we should “give him a chance”, to “see what he’s going to do.” Well, it’s now mere days after the election and we’ve already seen what he’s going to do. His administration has removed web pages from the official White House website related to civil rights, climate change, and LGBT issues. Hours after taking office, he signed an executive order beginning the repeal of the Affordable Care Act that will strip millions of Americans of their health insurance. And his press secretary’s first act was to blatantly lie to the American people about the numbers in attendance at the inauguration (a lie that was later described by another Trump lackey as “alternative facts”, adding another terrifying piece of 1984-speak to the language).

We may not have the power of the Presidential office – or of the American Senate and House of Representatives – but we are not powerless.

We can march. Estimates put the number of people who attended the #WomensMarch at three times the amount who attended the inauguration.

To quote Bruce again, we can “bear witness and testify”. Writing blog posts, sharing information on social media. We can highlight the injustices this administration perpetuates, expose their lies, and disseminate the truth.

We can satirise. As we’ve seen time and again, if there’s one thing Trump (like all demagogues) can’t stand, it’s satire. Write your jokes, spread your memes, expose him for the thin-skinned charlatan that he is.

Marching, speaking out, sharing information, satirising – these are the weapons in our arsenal.

We are the new resistance. And the fight has just begun.