Olivia Rowland, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation said, “Trump is a billionaire, was elected with the help of other billionaires, and runs the government on behalf of the billionaire class. Like all the politicians – Democrat or Republican – Trump will say anything to get elected. He ran a campaign promising to stand up for working people against the powerful elite. But the policies Trump is planning to implement, and the people who he is appointing to implement them, show that his real agenda is to redistribute even more wealth from the bottom to the top.” 

Organizations across the city have endorsed and convened the Columbus action, including: ANSWER Coalition, Columbus Education Justice Coalition, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, American Muslims for Palestine Columbus, Starbucks Workers United, Black Men Build Columbus, Gateway Film Center United, Jewish Voice for Peace Columbus, Columbus Democratic Socialists of America, Pan-African Community/Campus Organization, Veterans for Peace Local #183, Artists Against Apartheid, Erase the Space, Resource Generation Ohio, and local bands Cellar Dwellar and Northern Shores. The action will be held in the historic Trinity Episcopal Church on 125 E Broad St.

The “We Fight Back” day of protest was initiated less than one week after Donald Trump won the November election. The initiating organizations issued the following statement: 

“Trump ran a con game during the election. His real agenda is to destroy worker’s rights, deport millions of immigrant families, and pave the way for a complete corporate capitalist takeover by ending regulations to protect the environment, firing thousands of public sector workers, and transferring ever-larger parts of the National Treasury to the military industrial complex. He is 100 % behind Netanyahu’s genocidal war against the Palestinian and Arab people. 

The Trump victory in the 2024 election represents the complete failure of the Democratic Party to stop the rise of the ultra-right. In fact, they have contributed to it by adopting much of the program of the extreme right while embracing endless war. Instead of responding to the needs of the people, both the Democrats and the Republicans have moved further and further to the right. Trump’s agenda is the culmination of this right-ward spiral, and his administration will move to make major gains for the billionaire class at the expense of the millions of everyday people in the US and across the world. 

But we can defeat the Trump program. Not by following the Democratic Party establishment, but by building a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to billionaires while impoverishing an ever larger section of the population.”