#jfkterminal4

Airport Shutdowns Confirm - People Power will bring Trump down!

by Sara Flounders, Workers.org

Tonight was a vibrant display of People Power. I was among many thousands of protesters at JFK International Airport in New York City.

Trump’s executive order, a racist ban on Muslims traveling from 7 countries, who are targets of the U.S. military, unleashed a firestorm. News swept the country that passengers from targeted countries with Visas were stopped at U.S. customs and were not permitted to enter the United States. The speed of Trump’s proclamation was intended to demoralize and overwhelm the whole population. The opposite happened!

Every minute of tonight was an incredible, empowering experience! Even going out to the airport other passengers on the platform as we waited for the subway and then on the subway cheered us and shook our hands, took pictures, posed next to us and wished us success. Usually, you only get stony stares or fearful glances if you are on a subway with other protesters carrying signs to a demonstration.

When we switched from the subway to the AirTrain to get out to JFK airport police formed a line to try to stop us. Only people with airline tickets would be permitted through the turnstiles. Our chants of “When Muslim Lives Are Under Attack, What do we do? Stand Up! Fight Back” was picked up by hundreds of people who were stopped. They finally backed down as we all chanted non-stop “Shut It Down! Shut It Down!”

This is when we suddenly realized that we would not just be a few hundred people at the Airport. Many thousands were on their way and were refusing to be stopped. With chants, cheers and raw determination they just swept past the police.

The entire International Arrivals Terminal was overwhelmed by the demonstrators. They lined the railing of the parking garages and blocked the traffic on the roads.

Even while chanting, everyone was also on their phones – texting, tweeting, networking, connecting to friends to hurry out to the airport to challenge Trump’s anti-Muslim Travel Ban.

Information swept the crowds and jumped over social media. Airport workers waved and cheered. The taxi drivers, so many of them immigrants, had called a work stoppage on trips to the airport in solidarity with the actions and against the ban.

The protests went viral! Word came of protests at airports across the U.S. Each protest, each city, its own eruption.

Then Federal Judge Ann Donnelly at U.S. District Court in Brooklyn granted a stay or stop of deportations of all those detained on entry to the U.S. at airports nationwide. This was a legal action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Minutes later Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria VA issued a temporary restraining order to block for 7 days the removal of green-card holders detained at Dulles International Airport.

These rulings are a short legal pause propelled by sudden massive pressure from below.

Today was a giant step in a protracted struggle. The massive protests on January 20 and 21 gave new confidence.

But the lesson of today is that only the power of the people can force the courts to act. It is a valuable lesson. It is becoming increasingly clear to millions of people that voting won’t help them. The whole established order is frozen in crisis. Only massive people’s resistance can take on and take down Trump and his appointed nest of vipers.