Black women have long been the backbone of movements for justice, and they continue to lead the fight for democracy itself, including at the massive rally held by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders on their Fight Oligarchy tour.
On that hot, steamy Saturday, April 12, more than 36,000 people packed Gloria Molina Park in downtown LA, spilling into the streets nearby and crowding onto the steps of City Hall, ready to stand up to a system they feel is being handed over to billionaires. They came to protect a democracy at risk of being sold to the highest bidder and to map out a plan forward not just to block oligarchy but to help pull up everyday working Americans to thrive.
Before the popular Congressional duo took to the stage, many other leaders from local City Council and local organizations all the way up to U.S. Congress members and heads of national labor unions had their say at the “Fight Oligarchy” podium.
Brandi Goode, Vice President of ILWU Local 13, spoke powerfully about 20 years spent battling for fair wages, safe jobs, and the right to retire with dignity. She reminded the crowd that longshore workers kept America going during the beginning stages of COVID-19, only to now face replacement by automation.
“Today, our fight is not just against the greedy companies. It’s against their robots. They’re pushing automation and claiming it’s progress,” Goode told the crowd, explaining that the robots aren’t safer or cheaper. “They’re tools to erase our jobs, silence our unions and hand total control to the billionaires.
“Let’s fight for a future where technology serves us, not replaces us.” Goode said passionately to the crowd.
Georgia Flowers Lee, NEA Vice President for United Teachers Los Angeles, is a special ed teacher who has taught at the same small LAUSD elementary school for 23 years. She shared how soaring housing costs and corporate interests buying rental properties and replacing them with expensive condos and townhomes are driving out families that have lived there for two or three generations, and “I’m pissed!” she said.
Additionally, ICE raids are actively tearing her students’ families apart and causing immense trauma for the students.
“We are the ones who are going to save us!” Flowers Lee declared as the crowd cheered in agreement.
April Verrett, the first Black person to lead SEIU nationally, electrified the crowd:
“This is what power looks like. This, this right here, is what the oligarchs fear the most. They fear us. They fear people coming together across every line they have drawn to divide us.”
She called out the real enemies—corporate greed, racism, and white supremacy—and vowed, We’re not going to sugarcoat it. We’re not going to whitewash it. We’re not going to tiptoe around it. We are going to confront it and we’re gonna take it head on.”
Alongside these dynamic Black women leaders, a diverse lineup of speakers—including City Councilmembers Ysabel Jurado and Eunisses Hernandez, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Pramila Jayapal and AFL-CIO California President Lorena Gonzalez—raised their voices, united by a common cause.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, underscored a theme of many of the day’s speeches about lines of division engineered by oligarchs for decades:
“That is why Donald Trump is not an aberration. He is the logical, inevitable conclusion of an American political system dominated by corporate and dark money. And if we are here to defeat him, we must defeat the system that created him. Money in politics is the hand of oligarchy.
Senator Bernie Sanders, 83 years strong, closed the rally with a clear challenge: “I’m not going to tell you that it’s going to be easy. It’s not,” Sanders said. “We’re going to have to fight them, door to door, workplace to workplace, school to school. We’re gonna have to educate, we’re gonna have to mobilize, we’re gonna have to stand up in a dozen different ways.
“But from the bottom of my heart — and I’ve been to every state in this country — I don’t care whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent, the people of this country do not want oligarchy. They do not want authoritarianism, and they want a government that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.”
This rally wasn’t meant to be a solitary act of resistance or solidarity. It was meant to be a spark, a launchpad to help continue the fight and strengthen bonds between everyday Americans so they can see themselves as neighbors and as vital members of a cavalry.
The fight continues—and Black women, union workers, and everyday Americans are once again leading the way.
The fight continues—and Black women, union workers, and everyday Americans are once again leading the way.
