When Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president in January, we knew he would try to act fast to undo many of President Obama’s policies and enact draconian ones instead. Anticipating a need for aggressive resistance, we created a rapid response operation for these new challenges.

This summer, they tried to take our healthcare, deport millions of immigrants, and give an economy built on the backs of working people to billionaires. As if this weren’t enough, Trump gave support to white supremacy after neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville and killed a protester.

CPD and our affiliates immediately took to the streets against Trump, the Republican Party, and their corporate backers. We fought back against their racist, antidemocratic, anti-immigrant, anti-worker pro-corporate message and policies. This is the story of what we did this summer.

Our fight connects the dots between race, income, and communities. With all we face, we cannot lose sight of that. 

ECONOMY & JOBS

Trump, the GOP and their corporate backers want to slash financial regulation and give massive tax cuts to the wealthy, which would send our economy into freefall. His administration tries to trample the rights of low-wage workers. We fought back.

• CPD, affiliates and allies mounted about 20 actions around the country calling for massive public investment in the country's infrastructure as part of the Millions of Jobs Coalition.
• Our Fed Up coalition lobbied members of Congress to block the appointment to the Federal Reserve of self-described Wall Street lawyer Randal Quarles as Vice-Chair of Supervision and crashed the Fed's elite conference in Wyoming in August to call for the re-appointment of Janet Yellen as Fed Chair.
• Because of organizing by CPD affiliate PCUN, Oregon in August became the first state in the country to turn fair scheduling practices - like giving shift workers their schedule at least a week in advance - into law.

HEALTHCARE

This past summer, the Republicans made repeated attempts to ram through Trumpcare, which would strip more than 30 million of healthcare in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. We mobilized thousands of people to take to the streets and get arrested.

• In conjunction with Housing Works, we launched a nationwide birddogging program that trained 1,783 people in how to confront their members of Congress.
• From June to September, more than 500 people got arrested after occupying Congress offices in Washington D.C. in five CPD-organized civil disobedience actions.
• CPD affiliates mounted hundreds of in-district healthcarerelated lobby visits, protests, and teach-ins around the country, including a whopping 20 vigils held in one day by One PA and Make the Road Pennsylvania in their state.

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

When Texas passed the draconian anti-immigrant “Show me your Papers” SB4 law and Trump announced he would cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the CPD network mobilized to protect vulnerable undocumented immigrant communities.

• CPD affiliates Texas Organizing Project and Worker’s Defense Project led a coalition of community groups to pressure lawmakers to challenge SB4 in court, eventually leading to the law’s injunction.
• More than 100 elected officials, who are part of the Local Progress network, held a protest in late July at the state capitol in Texas against SB4.
• CPD and affiliates, such as Arizona-based LUCHA and Maryland’s CASA, held dozens of actions around the country protesting Trump’s cruel DACA decision in early September. 

HOUSING

The Trump administration proposed massive cuts to almost all federal housing programs, aimed at the poorest families. CPD fought back.

• CPD and CPD affiliate New York Communities for Change convened over 20 other organizations and roughly 1,000 community leaders to stage a day of action on July 12 in 22 cities, including Miami, Denver, and Staten Island.
• We called out the Trump administration for allowing private equity firms, like Blackstone, to buy up affordable neighborhood housing. 

RACIAL JUSTICE

The Trump regime supports white supremacist policies like mass incarceration and the militarization of the police. But Trump made his support for white supremacy even more clear when he blamed “both sides” after white supremacists held a violent rally in August in Charlottesville. We resisted Trump’s politics of hate.

• We released a groundbreaking report in early July that revealed how 12 cities and counties rely overwhelmingly on policing and incarceration spending while under-resourcing less damaging and more effective safety initiatives.
• After the disturbing events in Charlottesville, CPD joined other national organizations in planning and carrying out a 10-day, 118-mile march that ended with a rally attended by hundreds in Washington D.C. in early September.

CORPORATE BACKERS OF HATE

CPD has long fought against the widespread corporatization of our government and public lives. When Trump took office, we knew we had to ramp up our activity against companies represented on Trump’s business advisory council. Earlier this year, we mounted protests against Uber, Goldman Sachs, Disney, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

• In May, CPD together with Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change launched the Corporate Backers of Hate campaign targeting nine private companies who help execute the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-worker agenda.
• In August, CPD affiliates led about 15 powerful actions around the country urging J.P. Morgan Chase to cut its financial ties to private prisons and immigration detention centers.
• The relentless pressure on members of Trump’s business advisory council paid off when the council disbanded in mid-August.

We brought the heat this summer, but we are not done. 

We will carry this momentum into the fall with initiatives like resistancevoter.org. And that will be a springboard into even more dynamic action in the 2018 election year. We will not stop. Every challenge is an opportunity to unite, resist and progress. Join us.

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