Protests grow around the country against President Musk and King Donald
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| Hey Charlestown. Is this guy not a dead-ringer for ex-CCA leader Tom Gentz? It's not, of course, but the resemblance is uncanny. - Will Collette. Steve Ahlquist photo. |
To help Rhode Islanders in need, the rally raised a large
amount of food and additional monetary donations for the Rhode Island
Food Bank, which faces State and federal cuts. Six SUVs and
trucks were filled with food.
Indivisible RI organized the event in partnership with Climate Action RI, RI Working Families Party, Black Lives Matter RI PAC, and Reclaim RI.
Here’s the video:
The transcript has been edited for clarity:
Aseem Rastogi: I am the chair and lead organizer of Indivisible Rhode Island. I appreciate you all for sticking with what we’re trying to do and being here—many of you brought friends this time. We have to keep showing up and taking action. This is what we get to do, a privilege in this country.
You showed up today for working people everywhere in this
State. Please look at the donations of food we’ve made for the Rhode Island
Food Bank. That’s what we do here in Rhode Island. That’s who we are.
Today, we’re here for a simple reason: to fight back against
the unlawful, heinous, and disgusting takeover of our federal government and to
give back to our State. Washington, DC, maybe hundreds of miles away. However,
Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies are slashing, burning, and salting every
system. Thousands of federal workers keeping this country going are being fired
at home and across every community. The Musk Administration still withholds
over $125 million in appropriated funds to Rhode Island.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Aseem Rastogi: It is shameful. In Rhode Island,
Assistant Attorney General Rice, in her comments to Rhode Island Federal Judge
McConnell just yesterday, stated that this funding freeze is still in place -
affecting grants and loans for critical needs in infrastructure [the Washington
Bridge], clean energy, Medicaid payments, and disaster relief - among other
things. However, his bank accounts have not been frozen. He’s made billions
more while cutting your services for fun.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Aseem Rastogi: The National Institute of Health and
other research grants remain frozen. Our universities are scrambling to figure
out how to continue their lifesaving research. With impending cuts to the
Department of Education, your children, and your grandchildren’s IEPs and 504s?
No way to enforce those. Student loans and Pell Grants? There goes access to
higher education for working folks.
These funds were and remain appropriated by Congress.
Speaking of Congress, Reps Amo and Magaziner will be here today to speak to
you, and we need them. We need them to commit to using every tool to stop this
madness today.
Here’s the deal: Rhode Island will have their back every
time they show that they have ours. Let me be clear: We do not negotiate with
people seeking to harm those we love and serve. We will not negotiate with
those people. By ignoring the United States District Court of Rhode Island’s
clear order, week after week, Elon Musk and Donald Trump are violating the
Constitution and enriching themselves off your back. This is a Constitutional
Crisis. This country does not have a King Trump or Prime Minister Musk. There
are no kings in the USA.
Audience: No kings! No kings! No kings!
Aseem Rastogi: Here at home, people are losing access
to the necessities of life at an alarming rate. Providence has had the highest
median rent increase in the country. 40% of Rhode Islanders are experiencing
food insecurity, so we have to show up for our community to ensure there is
food on the table for every Rhode Island family. The other day, we learned that
the Rhode Island Food Bank serves a hundred thousand people yearly. Let’s do a
little math. That’s one in 10 Rhode Islanders. Two thousand seniors, about the
size of this crowd right here, rely on federal funding to deliver meals, and
another 600 are on a waiting list. Those funds remain frozen.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Aseem Rastogi: The lack of affordable housing has
increased the rate of unhoused people in Rhode Island by nearly 400% over the
last four years.
This cannot continue, yet here we are with MAGA Republicans
- cowards emboldened by hiding behind Elon and Trump - while privately saying
they’re concerned in the House of Representatives and the Senate aiming to gut
the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - taking food from people - which
would affect 34,000 Rhode Islanders - and gut Medicaid almost completely. Elon
Musk
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Aseem Rastogi: Many of you saw Elon Musk parading
around with a chainsaw on behalf of the United States of America on an
international stage, putting the message out to the world that he is gleefully
responsible for the horrific purges of our federal workforce and services that
are designed to keep us safe and secure, and secure America’s role in the
world. And for what? So Donald Trump can deliver on his promise to his
billionaire buddies that he will give them the biggest tax cut in the history
of this country for buying him the presidency.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Aseem Rastogi: Imagine Donald Trump’s tax cut. A $4.5
trillion tax cut for the wealthiest would be like him going into your bank
account and the bank account of every single person in this country - from
newborns to the most elderly person - and taking $14,000 to deposit it in Elon
Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos’s bank accounts. I don’t know about you,
but I don’t have $14,000 to give these people. And they give nothing back to
us.
I want to discuss Elon Musk. Did Elon Musk found PayPal?
Audience: No!
Aseem Rastogi: No. He glommed on as a Peter Thiel
fanboy. Did he create, design, or found Tesla?
Audience: No!
Aseem Rastogi: The answer is no. He bought it with his
jade mine money and put his name on the documents as a founder.
Did he make Twitter better and safer and protect free
speech?
No. He bought it, changed its name, and made it a cesspool
of propaganda, censorship, and a place for Russian bots to hang out and harass
people.
Does SpaceX make safe rockets that don’t blow up?
The answer is no, but we’re supposed to trust him with our
astronauts’ lives and NASA money from us.
Does a Sieg Heil, a Nazi salute, belong anywhere in
civilized society?
Audience: No!
Aseem Rastogi: Musk did it not once but twice on a
national stage during inauguration festivities and has inspired Steve Bannon to
do the same.
Compare that to anyone in this crowd or who you will hear
today. If we were so colossally, overtly inept, and hateful that everything we
touched turned to crap, do you think they would put us in charge of anything?
Audience: No!
Aseem Rastogi: Of course not. The administration knows
their actions are wildly unpopular, and they would never get this passed
through Congress via legislation. So they’re just going outside the rules to do
whatever they want - which doesn’t fly in America. So here we are with craven
billionaires unlawfully running unchecked through our federal agencies and
sitting in the Oval Office giving press conferences and interviews alongside
the president of the Kennedy Center.
Some of you got that joke. My wife told me it would land.
This is illegal, and we have had enough. Today, we are here
to recognize our collective power in pushing for a stop to it. They have the
power; we have the numbers. Let’s use them.
Wesley Garner, a Rhode Islander recently fired from the Department of Energy: Like many of you since Trump’s second inauguration, I feel despair. His initial executive orders showed decisive plans to dismantle essential institutions. This is not the incompetent mess we saw eight years ago. This is an immediate catastrophic disruption. As a federal government employee, I was in the center of that chaos until I was illegally fired without cause last week. I consulted for the federal government under Trump and Biden for four years. I finished grad school and joined full-time. Last August, I pledged to fight climate change with energy under the flag of the Department of E.
I am a probationary employee - easier to fire only because
I’m new to the role - not to government service. I am as close as you can get
to being a banker for the government. My agency, the Loan Programs Office in
Energy, lends money to build projects that save Americans money on electric
bills. We back technologies - proven in labs - that are too risky for private
banks. We incubate new markets. Our track record speaks for itself. Thousands
of high-paying union jobs were created, hundreds of millions of dollars were
saved in electricity bills, and profits were generated that go directly back to
taxpayers. Last year, we funded two new refineries of sustainable aviation
fuel. Fifteen years ago, we backed an upstart electric vehicle manufacturer. It
calls itself Tesla.
On February 13th, Politico broke the story. My friend, a
senior manager who hires people regularly, learned 30 minutes before me that
they must fire their probationary employees as soon as possible. I called my
wife, sobbing. Teammates flooded my inbox with commendations, hoping some
written documentation of my performance would protect me. It didn’t. That
evening, we received termination documents stating that our contributions no
longer serve the public interest. It’s not a nice thing to say.
We were locked out of our computers overnight. Many never
had a chance to say goodbye to the colleagues we’ve worked with for a long
time. The firings continued into the next morning. 45 people in my office,
about 2000 at Energy, and tens of thousands across the government. Five
thousand more are planned for the Pentagon next week. No severance, no
explanation, no decency. The scope is difficult to measure because they’re
firing the staff who document the firings and hear the appeals.
Rhode Island has 8,500 federal employees and even more
contractors. I don’t know how many were fired with me, how many families depend
on them, or how many future jobs we will lose from projects we can’t build.
I do know our electricity bills will rise. Our team’s
project pipeline has to shrink. Our air will grow dirtier because we finance
fewer clean power projects, like the next-generation geothermal, nuclear, and
batteries that our grid needs. Our nation falls behind as you can’t invest in
the technologies needed to decarbonize our economy and create the high-paying
jobs we need; we surrender our leadership to China, and it isn’t stopping.
China was responsible for 60% of global renewable energy
growth last year and reached peak fuel consumption this past week. Suppose you
truly want to make America great again. In that case, you want government
leadership committed to building transformative infrastructure that trains our
workers, advances our technology, saves our energy, and protects the soils and
seeds our grandchildren will inherit.
That’s why these firings are so devastating. This isn’t a
normal layoff. I’m not special. Those happen. It’s more than that. It’s
illegal. We can only be terminated as probationary employees for poor
performance or misrepresentation, neither of which apply here. It’s also
fiscally irresponsible. The IRS employees alone each generate millions more in
revenue than they cost. They fund essential government services like the
military, the cancer research labs, and their agricultural communities, and
we’re going to be out of the money we use for all that.
And more than that, it’s deliberately cruel. The new OMB
director’s explicit goal, verbatim, is to “traumatize the federal workforce.”
It’s hard for me to respect someone so enthusiastic to cause so much pain.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Wesley Garner: It’s especially painful because this was
my best job ever. I loved my colleagues and our mission. I proudly took a 50%
pay cut because the work mattered. Most federal employees do the same. We’re
happy to take a pay cut. We’re skilled professionals who believe in making
government work for everyone, and now we are fewer.
At first, I was devastated, but the outpouring of support I
have felt since we were fired has galvanized me. I haven’t heard from people in
10 years who are now calling to check in on me. Newly unemployed colleagues
work late into the night alongside me, sharing job postings, organizing a
response, and planning how we will fight this. Suddenly, I’m an activist.
Audience: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Wesley Garner: So how can you fight this? Contact your
representatives, State and congressional. Consider this: Corporate interests
invest millions in lobbying because they know that works. They call our
representatives daily, and while we stay silent, they work to diminish public
resources and community vitality and enrich themselves. Like your vote, your
outreach carries real power in protecting public interests. That’s why we’re so
often told our voices don’t matter. But today, we know better.
Representative Megan Cotter: I’m a working mom, a seafood distributor, and a State Representative from Southwest Rhode Island - Exeter, Richmond, and Hopkinton. With the help of some folks here at the Working Families Party, I won my seat at the State House by defeating a do-nothing Rep whose biggest claim to fame was attending the January 6th Insurrection. We beat him in 2022, and when no one thought we could do it again, we beat him in 2024. I live in what a lot of people think is the most conservative District in Rhode Island. Trump won my District with 52% of the vote, but I did not focus on that. When you get to the heart of it, that’s not what people care about. People care about the things that impact their lives the most. And no matter your zip code or your party, we all want the same things: quality healthcare that does not bankrupt us, good schools, childcare, housing, clean air, green forests and beautiful coastlines, investments in our veterans, teachers, nurses, and schools.
We can fight back and win with real issues, not conspiracy
theories and distractions.
Audience: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Representative Cotter: I’m saying all this because I
ran on these things and won, making the system work for us - not corporations,
lobbyists, or special interest groups. Trump/Musk and their billionaire buddies
are pushing an already broken system even more in their favor. Not for you and
not for us.
We’re talking about cuts to the Veterans Administration that
leads veterans out in the cold, theft of your social security that you have
paid into, cuts to Medicaid for struggling seniors and families, and cuts to
education funding. They want to kick the can down the road on energy policy,
saving you a dollar now and leaving your children and grandchildren the mess to
clean up. They’re hell-bent on increasing your grocery costs from their
self-inflicted trade wars. They aim to distract us and generate fear while they
take money out of your pocket and put it right into theirs. Just like the CEOs
here at Rhode Island Energy who cry crocodile tears about rising costs for
families and then wipe them up with the big bonus checks they get from
successfully ripping you off.
It’s the same old playbook, but I’m here today to tell you
to be bold. Stand up to Trump, stand up to Musk, and stand up to the
billionaires who cry poverty while some of our children are going to school
hungry.
How do we fight back? Right here in Rhode Island, that’s
how. We need State action to protect ourselves from the worst of what’s to
come. Between Musk’s chainsaw tactics and Trump’s Project 2025, defunding
Social Security and Medicaid, Rhode Island is set to lose hundreds of millions
of dollars yearly. That means we and our families will be left out in the cold.
State leaders have dragged too long on taxing the wealthiest among us. We
cannot wait any longer. Starting today, call your State rep and State senator
and demand action. Tell them we must tax anyone who makes over $600,000 a year
in leadership when they talk.
Audience: Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
Representative Cotter: Let them go to leadership and
tell them, “My constituents just won’t quit on this issue.” When you call them,
tell them to be bold and fight for you. With a leadership vacuum in DC, we must
step it up here in Rhode Island. From taxing the rich to protecting Medicaid to
taking on the utility company CEOs, it’s time for Rhode Island to quit playing
around and be excellent.
That starts right here with each one of you. Let’s make real
progress for families. I know this because I’ve lived it - right here - where I
beat an extremist in conservative Rhode Island. When you stand up for families,
when you stand up for working-class people, the people will have your back.
Bring the energy, shut down the grift. Stop the Musk takeover. Take action at the State level, and Rhode Islanders will have your back the way they’ve always had mine.
The speeches from Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo are here.
Representative David Morales: As we have seen day in
and day out, there is an assault on working people happening across our country
between Musk/Trump and their billionaire cronies and the workers. They’re
assaulting working people and the programs that we depend on because, in Rhode
Island alone, we have over 300,000 Rhode Islanders who depend on Medicaid. We
have 200,000 plus families that depend on SNAP to have food on the table.
We have seen a proposal from the federal government to cut
SNAP by hundreds of billions of dollars and to cut billions of dollars from
Medicaid. Let’s be clear: This has nothing to do with “efficiency.” This is a
direct assault - ensuring that our most vulnerable have nothing left. It’s an
assault on our most vulnerable and those who suffer homelessness and food
insecurity.
Audience: Shame! Shame! Shame!
Representative Morales: The question then becomes: With
all of these cuts, trillions of dollars in cuts being proposed and bragged
about overseas, where is that money going? It’s going to pay for tax cuts for
millionaires and billionaires. It will line up the pockets of greedy CEOs who
never have enough.
I want to be clear about how we got here. During the
presidential election, Elon Musk spent $288 million directly and through Super
PACs to influence the outcome. Let me ask you: Is America worth $288 million?
I say, “No.” Our country is priceless. Our country and State
cannot be defined by hundreds of millions of dollars, especially from greedy
oligarchs. Therefore, we need to address the ongoing root of the issue we got
here because of the money in politics. We got here because of the excessive
influence that we have allowed Super PACs to play within our election system.
When these Super PACs invest hundreds of millions of dollars in elections, they
focus on dividing us. They’re focused on using the day’s rhetoric to spiral
fear in our minds. They don’t talk about class issues like we are today.
They’re talking about issues that are focused on division, and they have
hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on propaganda to instill fear.
But we are here today united. United as a community to
recognize that America is worth more than $288 million and that no corporate
lobbyists or PAC can undo the influence of people that show up on the ground.
For that reason, I’m proud to announce that this upcoming week in the
legislature, I will introduce a bill to prohibit Super PACS from engaging in
any election here in our State, whether for local, State, or federal office.
There shall be no Super PAC spending in our elections. There shall be no influence
of special interests interfering with our decisions.
I expect that the Democratic National Committee and the
Rhode Island Democratic Party will adopt these principles and support this
legislation because we need to recognize that the root of the issue is special
interests, money, and division, which are harming our most vulnerable and
quality of life.
No more Super PACs! Save our democracy!
Audience: No more Super PACs! Save our democracy! No
more Super PACs! Save our democracy! No more Super PACs! Save our democracy!
Jackie Anderson: I am the Chair of the Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus and am thrilled to be here. It’s inspiring to see all the people standing in the cold and listening to us up here. I’d like to open with a quote: It’s still Black History Month, so I’m going to quote Martin Luther King Jr., who said, “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.”
And Kendrick Lamar was right. They do not like us.
The mission of the Democratic Women’s Caucus is to help
elect Democratic women to office in Rhode Island. However, if the SAVE Act
passes, I fear it will unfairly burden women voters and, if not completely,
prevent them from exercising their right to vote.
Audience: Boo!
Jackie Anderson: Yeah, boo. If you’re unfamiliar with
the SAVE Act, it’s the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. Its
alleged purpose is to prevent non-citizens from voting. That seems unnecessary
since it’s already illegal in the federal system. If enacted, the SAVE Act
won’t help because we already have laws in place - unless, of course, you’re
trying to disenfranchise women.
80% of women in marriages to the opposite sex have taken
their husband’s last name. I’m one of them. Sixty-nine million women will be
prevented from voting because their birth certificates don’t match any of their
documentation. That seems a little strange. I’m not going to stand back and
become my husband’s property. I was never meant for that. Under this
administration, women will already be fighting tooth and nail for our bodily
autonomy. We cannot allow our constitutional rights to be stripped and gutted
by this administration.
So congratulations because you did an actionable item today
[by showing up.] But what is your actionable item for tomorrow? Call your
Senators. Call your Representatives. Thank you to all the Representatives and
Senators here.
I have to make one more point. I need everybody to take a
breath. I need you to remember that this is a long fight. Four years is a long
time. Take care of yourselves; take care of your community. As an RN for nearly
15 years, I can’t let this opportunity pass to talk about one more thing, and
that is RFK Jr’s assault on mental health. I’m not great at vulnerability, so
I’m going to share this with all of you, my closest friends: If it wasn’t for
antidepressants, that life-saving medication, I would not be here. I wouldn’t
be able to lead the Women’s Caucus. I wouldn’t be able to do my job helping
people every day, and I wouldn’t be a good mother to my children. That is why
we must rise, continue fighting, take breaks when needed, and eat the rich.
Representative Cherie Cruz: I was just told there are some Nazis across the street, so we got to be loud, right? We have to be loud for justice. No Nazis, no peace!
Audience: No Nazis! No Nazis! No Nazis!
Representative Cruz: I’m a mom, a grandma, and a State
Rep in Pawtucket. I ran for office as a working-class person, someone who grew
up in poverty, and with the support of the Working Families Party, I’m here
today, so proud to represent my community and so proud to stand against Trump,
Musk, and their fascism because we’re here to stay.
We are ready to stand up and fight against these
millionaires and billionaires in DC, these bullies who are still withholding
$125 million of our money that we desperately need people in my community and
your communities across the State. We desperately need it to survive.
We needed to fight. My family grew up in severe poverty in
Pawtucket. We relied on places like the George Wiley Center to keep our
utilities on. We relied on places like the Blackstone Valley Community
Action Program (BVCAP) and the churches for our food at the food pantry.
We’re hearing about how they cut the Rhode Island Food Bank funding. We’re
hearing about those cuts as over a hundred thousand people in our State rely on
the Rhode Island Food Bank, and over 2000 are our seniors.
We can’t let anyone go hungry because of these greedy
billionaires holding onto those dollars. We’re talking about a $250,000 cut -
money they just piss away every day - that we need to survive.
There are so many of us. I am going to make a plug to come
together. Go to RIFoodBank.org and start donating now because I want to say
thank you to Trump. Take that money and shove it up your ass because we’re
going to make sure people are fed. We’re going to make sure we’re fed. We don’t
need those bullies.
That’s why I ran because I was sick of people in power who
had no idea what it was like to struggle to survive, to go to bed several days
out of the week without having any food, without worrying about how that next
eviction is the one that’s going to put you out here on the street, or that
bill that doesn’t get paid so we won’t have lights or heat anymore.
I know what that’s like. I’m ready to fight. I’m not afraid.
I know all of you out there aren’t afraid. That’s why I ran. I ran because
these millionaires and billionaires who are trying to hold these resources
don’t have our best interests at heart. What do they know? All they know is the
greedy capitalist playbook - extract money from the working class people until
we’re out here on the streets starving and cold. That’s all they know.
But I know this: we have the numbers and can build
collective power. We’re the workers. I saw, over the last two decades here and
across the country, how this housing crisis has gotten worse. I watched over
those same two decades, the growth of corporations and billionaires taking over
our housing market and the rich getting richer as the working class became
poorer. It’s happening all over the country. I hear the stories and the fear
this Trump/Musk Administration is trying to instill in people, but we won’t be
bullied.
What do we do to a bully? We punch him right in the face.
That’s what I do. We’re going to come right at him. We won’t live in fear. We
can’t live in fear. We have to take that fear and turn it into action. We’ve
got to take that fear, turn it into anger, and turn it into action. Are you
ready to do that?
Audience: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Representative Cruz: Just like the federal government
is cutting the help we need to give tax cuts to the rich - they’re cutting
critical things that people need to survive instead of taxing the rich.
Audience: Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
Representative Cruz: Our State's been struggling. They
struggle to cut taxes for the wealthiest Rhode Islanders and then cut budgets
for RIPTA, our food bank, and school funding to protect the wealthiest
people’s money. That’s what we’re talking about here: Taxes on the wealthy that
can bring us $200 million in dollars. We’ve got the solutions - now we need to
make sure we do what we can to make them act - here in our State and federally
- to do what we need them to do because we deserve a Democratic Party that will
stand up and fight for everyday working-class families.
A Democratic Party that stands up and fights against
corporate greed and the billionaire class. It’s the only way we’re going to
win. We will not enable the rich to have power over us anymore. I need you to
escape this fear and get into anger and action. We have to fight back against
Trump and Musk’s chaos and corruption, and the only way we’re able to beat Musk
is if we keep dark money out of our elections.
I thank Representative David Morales for pledging to take
action against Super PACs. I support and demand that we do that.
I want to pause and look around because we can achieve
something massive today. Suppose all of my colleagues on this stage, fellow
representatives, and senators make this pledge. In that case, it will be heard
by the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and Elon Musk himself. We won’t
let him buy elections. Are we going to let him?
State Senator Tiara Mack: I was elected in 2020 as a proud, formerly low-income Black queer person. I know all about it when someone shows you who they are; believe them. Right now, the billionaire class is stealing from everyday Americans. They would have you believe that this is the only way forward. To have our government protect our people, we must give it willingly to the oligarchs. Hell no!
Audience: Hell no!
Senator Mack: The American government is under siege
from oligarchs. Last time, someone told me that people in the crowd didn’t know
what that meant.
As a formerly low-income Black person, I knew what hunger
felt like at the age of eight when I went to a school building that didn’t
guarantee three meals for every student, no matter what income they had. As an
8-year-old, I knew the harsh realities of eviction and being that close to
being on the streets. As an 8-year-old, I knew the harsh reality of lights
going off because my parents, working paycheck to paycheck, could not afford to
make ends meet and pay electric bills. I knew the harsh reality of water being
cut off.
I know, and Americans know, what a grift is, and they know
when someone is stealing their hard-earned tax dollars to benefit other people
who are not the working people in our State. We’re the working people in this
State. We have so many fights ahead, but I stand here determined and I stand
here hopeful because all across the State, day in and day out, we do the hard
work right here in the Rhode State House, in your local communities, giving to
the food banks, whether you’re a teacher, a union worker in our hospitals
caring for the most needy, or a social worker making sure that anyone who is on
the streets experiencing homelessness in New England during the coldest days of
our month is protected. You are doing the work, and we need more of that.
We see and love you all across our State, and we need that
work to continue. We know what it takes to see dark days in our past. During
Black History Month, as a Black queer person, I know what dark days look like
because it’s written inside my DNA, and I know because of my history and being
taught a history that they are trying to take away from us that we can and we
shall overcome.
I am a living testament that my ancestors were able to make
it out and see Black people elected to the highest offices across our State,
becoming community leaders, and seeing the end of the Jim Crow South. As queer
people, we saw just decades ago when queer people were left out in the streets.
Now, we have medical advances fought and paid for by National Institute of
Health grants that are threatened to be defunded in Rhode Island. We passed
common-sense legislation to make sure that the end of HIV and the spread of HIV
was a reality for Rhode Islanders - limiting the spread. That’s all because we
invested in research and people. The people who came before me saw dark days.
What they did was dig their heels in and get to work in their communities.
Audience: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Senator Mack: We dig our heels in when it is hard, when
it is not hard when it is important, and when it seems impossible. This work is
about all of us coming together daily in ways that make sense for you. Whether
that is going to the food bank, whether it is showing up today on a cold day in
New England, whether that is proclaiming that you will not obey in advance, or
whether that is saying day and day out, we will not succumb to tyranny and
fascists and that there are no kings in America. We have an elected body here.
It’s that audacious hope that assures me that all of the
fights, whether they’re at the federal level or right here in this State House,
we need you to hear our calls as the elected officials who came before me -
whether it was Representative Morales, Cruz, or Cotter or the host of electeds
that we have here - the fights at the federal level are not more important than
the ones that are happening right here in this State House.
Make sure you call your elected officials. While they want
to not tax billionaires, kids in our State go hungry because we do not have
access and a guarantee that their breakfast and lunch are covered in their
school buildings. We need to tax the rich so we can feed our kids.
Audience: Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
Senator Mack: We need to tax the rich so that
homelessness is not a reality because we’ve seen over a 400% increase in people
who are people who are in tents around our communities. We need to tax the rich
because we know that housing is a human right, and right now, there have been
cuts to HUD that threaten the livelihoods of the most downtrodden Rhode
Islanders.
As that 8-year-old who knew what eviction felt like, I know
that everyone here is closer to eviction and homelessness than they are to be
in the class of billionaires who are threatening to take over our government.
That’s why we need to tax the rich. They don’t know what
it’s like to work. They want to defund our government so that your hard-earned
dollars aren’t going to fund high-quality public education for all kids.
Whether or not they have an IEP or a 504 plan, whether they’re in the suburbs
or a rural community, we have a right to education here. We need to ensure that
everybody in our community is cared for.
We need to tax the rich because the promise of America isn’t
just for those who have the bank accounts and the pockets to fund it. The
promise of our democracy and our future is built on the people fighting for it.
Now is right here for the people who dig their heels in daily and say, “I’m
going to do one small action to make sure I know my neighbors and that no one
goes hungry.” In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, there
should be no hunger, no homelessness, and no one who doesn’t feel like their
power is less than someone because they have fewer zeros in their bank account.
The fights that we have ahead of us are not insurmountable.
Come to the State House advocating for common sense legislation that is
research-backed and people-centered. That is what all of you can do. Whether
this is your first time standing outside of this building or your hundredth
time standing outside, we need you to show up day in and day out. Whether it’s
sending an email, posting on Instagram, calling or texting your elected
officials, we will pick up. Many of us are in this crowd, and we will pick up
because we know the urgent call to make sure that Rhode Islanders, no matter
what they look like, no matter what aisle they sit on, or no matter who they
voted for in November, know that the promise of our government is going to be
delivered by the people who look like you, who work like you, who fight for
your unions, who fight for our veterans, who fight for our schools, who fight
to make sure that no one is homeless and who fight to make sure that no one is
hungry.
We know that audacious hope is something we can get because
right here in Rhode Island in 2020, we passed a pathway to a $15 minimum wage.
And we got that on January 1st of this year. We know how to deliver on that
promise right here in Rhode Island because, in 2023, we passed an eviction
piece of legislation that ensures that thousands of Rhode Islanders have more
housing security than the years before. We know what we can do. When we fight
together, we win. And that’s why when they want to instill us with fear when
they want to have their counter-protests, when they want to wave their flags,
when they want to raise millionaires as bigger than men, and when they want to
call people in a position of power kings, we know exactly what to say to them.
There ain’t no power like the power of the people.
I want to close by centering the leaders who came before me.
Powerful leaders saw worse and ugly days in this America, whether they were
fighting against the Jim Crow South or the segregation in the South not too
long ago. The words of Assata Shakur: It is our duty to fight for our freedom.
It is our duty to win. We must love each other. We must support each other
because all we have to lose is our chains.
I hope you all continue to feel grounded in your resolution.
I hope you all continue to feel grounded in the resistance. I hope you continue
to feel grounded in the love and support you have right here in this State,
where you know that your elected leaders, at the State level, are fighting for
you every day.
Thank you, Rhode Island and this beautiful crowd, for
showing up.
Aseem Rastogi: As you’ve heard today, all of us are in this fight with two feet in. We will demand that the Rhode Island Democratic Party pledge no more Super PAC money in primaries here in Rhode Island. We will pledge to tax the highest earners, the top 1% in Rhode Island.
Audience: Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich! Tax the Rich!
Aseem Rastogi: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and their
billionaire buddies are out for themselves and their bottom lines. They want
you to fund all of it. Your data is gold to them and will go to the highest
bidder, but that cannot happen. In their world, with the stroke of a pen or by
writing an email., as we heard from our friend Wesley, they can fire their
workforce whenever they want. They can gut whatever services they want without
oversight because they’re in charge of their companies. They can bust unions
and trample the rights of working people for sport. The way systems are set up
under capitalism that’s their right in the private sector.
Last I checked, that is not how it works in our
constitutional republic in the real world, in the public sector. When public
dollars, public goods, and public employees are involved, they have no right to
do any of this. We are here opposing the unlawful billionaire class. We are the
ones holding this economy up. Our spines have strengthened so we can stand up
for ourselves and show up for each other.
As we close, I’d say there are almost 3000 people here.
Don’t tell me; nobody knew this was happening. Don’t tell me there’s not a
resistance to tyranny and fascism here in Rhode Island. You can’t convince me
or anybody who spoke today that we don’t care about each other in this State.
Thank you to Climate Action Rhode Island, BLM RI PAC,
Reclaim Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus, Working
Families Party RI, and our State and federal legislators for being here.
We are working to build a better, more sustainable, and more
just future for Rhode Island. Thank you for being here and making your voices
heard. This matters. Keep fighting the good fight.
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