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Anthony Burnett, a friend, comrade and collaborator, just published an article in openDemocracy, a splendid and much loved source of progressive ideas and material, to which he alerted me in a mail reading: "Dear Yanis, we disagree but in solidarity!" Since Anthony's article mentions me, along with Jeremy Corbyn, in its subtitle, here I am, responding in the spirit of solidarity, affection and goodwill.
Anthony's article was in response to a petition I gladly co-signed that, in the face of a New Cold War and a collapsing climate, called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, for the aversion of another war over Taiwan, for the de-escalation of the New Cold War engulfing, primarily, the United States and China and, lastly, for a genuine global Green New Deal. That petition, it is perhaps helpful to note, was in the spirit of The Athens Declaration which I, Jeremy Corbyn and Ece Temelkuran issued on 13th May 2022 on behalf of DiEM25 and the Progressive International.
* * *
Dear Anthony,
Whenever you and I debate anything, the hardest part is to disentangle the things we agree on from our genuine differences. So, let me begin by pointing out four of your points with which I agree before homing in on our one major disagreement:
"Any threat to use nuclear weapons is an outrage".
Obviously. Whether it is a panicky Putin who issues such threats, or North Korea, or the United States perpetually refusing to rule out a first strike, we must condemn every nuclear threat and any attempt to normalise nuclear weapon use.
"Invading other countries is wrong... it is wrong for Israel in Palestine's West Bank and Gaza, and it must now be reversed in Ukraine."
Absolutely. This is how I put the same point on 5th March in an article entitled What we must do in the face of Putin's criminal invasion of Ukraine: "When a country or region is invaded, I am overcome by one duty: To take the side of the people facing troops with direct orders to violate their homes, to bombard their neighbourhoods, to destroy the circumstances of their lives. Without hesitation. Unconditionally."
"If [Ukrainian] neutrality were guaranteed by military commitments from outside to safeguard the country's independence in a way that satisfied the government in Kyiv, and did not deprive it of weapons for self-defence, then this would be reasonable."
Agreed. Here is the same idea as I put it in my aforementioned 5th March article: "[I]t must be an agreement guaranteed jointly by Washington and Moscow, guaranteeing an independent and neutral Ukraine as part of a broader agreement that de-escalates tensions with the Baltics, Poland, around the Black Sea, across Europe."
"Neutrality should not prevent Ukraine from joining the European Union if it so chooses (something even Putin's Russia seems to have accepted). This, too, needs to be said."
This is also my position. From the first moment Putin invaded Ukraine, I have been arguing that to stand with Ukraine should mean, amongst other things, a commitment to empowering Ukrainians to integrate, if this is what they want, with Western Europe in the same way that Austria did during the Cold War: militarily neutral but with a boisterous democracy, strong economy, full political independence, and freedom "to truck, barter and exchange" with anyone they want.
You warn leftists, like myself, of the danger that, while discussing Ukraine and the manner in which Russia, the USA and NATO are exploiting the war, we should avoid denying "Ukrainian agency and the commitment of a huge majority of Ukrainians to their country's integrity and independence."
How can I disagree? As a Greek, I have had a gutful of Anglo-European orientalist, weaponised condescension that sought to explain to us Greeks our predicament - with a view to getting us to accept our 'lot'. However, this is not an argument - as I am sure you agree - that we Greeks have never been manipulated by the Great Powers or, indeed, that non-Greeks like your good self should not have an opinion on Greek politics; including your right to tell me that I am wrong on Greek matters or even that I have been led astray. Maintaining the right balance between (A) respecting the agency of those in the eye of some distant storm and (B) defending our right, as internationalists, to treat another nation's war or crisis as our own, is both hard and crucial - as I tried to explain in another article back in March entitled Westsplainers? Or genuine comrades?
* * *
Dear Anthony,
You chide our petition for not re-stating all the points above, focusing instead on the need for a new non-aligned Peace movement. I say 're-stating' because these points were included in the preceding Athens Declaration, co-authored by Jeremy Corbyn, Ece Temelkuran and myself, whose opening lines were:
"We stand with the people of Ukraine, as we stand with every people suffering invasion, displacement and occupation. We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian forces, and a comprehensive Peace Treaty guaranteed by the European Union, the United States and Russia in the context of the United Nations."
Should our latest petition have repeated these points? You think it should. We felt that, since brevity helps drive any petition, it was best to focus on stressing that more war, even if it is just, is not the answer to an endless European war (Ukraine) or to the US-China tensions over Taiwan or the South China Seas shipping routes. Which brings me to the one major disagreement between us.
You are suggesting that the left must consider the United States a fading imperialist superpower which, despite its criminal past (from Vietnam and Pinochet to Iraq and its support of the Saudis etc.), is now democracy's only remaining defender against China, Putin, the Tehran theocracy etc. This is the crux of our difference. I beg to differ both on your diagnosis (that the United States is a fading, weakened superpower) and your prescription (that the left must see the US as an ally against orchestrated misanthropy).
In my estimation, the latest, inflationary, phase of the never-ending post-2008 economic crisis has reinforced US hegemony (and the power of Wall Street) over Western working classes and the developing world alike, while the war in Ukraine has wrecked all remaining hope of a sovereign EU that adopts an independent European foreign policy. As for the idea of the US being our ally against autocracy, my view is precisely the opposite: US policy is actively helping breed monsters to this day (from Putin in the 1990s to Bolsonaro more recently and, now, Meloni's post-fascist government) while - as I am typing this - my comrade Julian Assange is rotting in Belmarsh, at the behest of the Biden administration, for having opened our eyes to US war crimes committed in our name and behind our backs.
I could, of course, be wrong and I am sure you would have interesting rejoinders to offer. Thus, I would very much welcome a debate which would enable me to hear your reaction to my understanding of the New Cold War; for example, that China is too rich a socio-economic experiment to be either castigated as an imperialist autocracy or to be celebrated as a socialist success story; that Taiwan and Ukraine are profoundly different cases (since both Taipei and Beijing have traditionally claimed to represent the 'true' China); that Biden's humiliation by the Saudis is nothing new (Remember how Saddam Hussein, also a US stooge for a long while, bit the hand that fed him?) etc. etc.
* * *
I shall close this letter with a comment close to my heart. It concerns our duty, as friends and comrades, to educate younger progressives on how to disagree with one another. Over the years, painfully aware of the left's tendency to allow disagreements to degenerate into civil wars, I have endeavoured to desist from deploying inflammatory language when referring to comrades' views I disagree with. Comrades like us must take a lead in demonstrating that it is possible vociferously to disagree without speaking of 'betrayal' or painting comrades we disagree with as (historically, analytically, strategically etc.) naive. From this prism, the title and subtitle of your article was, I submit, not helpful.
To end on a high note, and on a belief that unites us, I shall quote approvingly and in full your closing lines: "Our larger aim should be to welcome the emergence of democracy in Russia - maybe the last thing that the Western security establishment actually desires. The alternative is rule by a mobsters international, which would ensure that the world will fry. It is as important as that."
In solidarity, as ever
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Anthony Burnett, a friend, comrade and collaborator, just published an article in openDemocracy, a splendid and much loved source of progressive ideas and material, to which he alerted me in a mail reading: "Dear Yanis, we disagree but in solidarity!" Since Anthony's article mentions me, along with Jeremy Corbyn, in its subtitle, here I am, responding in the spirit of solidarity, affection and goodwill.
Anthony's article was in response to a petition I gladly co-signed that, in the face of a New Cold War and a collapsing climate, called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, for the aversion of another war over Taiwan, for the de-escalation of the New Cold War engulfing, primarily, the United States and China and, lastly, for a genuine global Green New Deal. That petition, it is perhaps helpful to note, was in the spirit of The Athens Declaration which I, Jeremy Corbyn and Ece Temelkuran issued on 13th May 2022 on behalf of DiEM25 and the Progressive International.
* * *
Dear Anthony,
Whenever you and I debate anything, the hardest part is to disentangle the things we agree on from our genuine differences. So, let me begin by pointing out four of your points with which I agree before homing in on our one major disagreement:
"Any threat to use nuclear weapons is an outrage".
Obviously. Whether it is a panicky Putin who issues such threats, or North Korea, or the United States perpetually refusing to rule out a first strike, we must condemn every nuclear threat and any attempt to normalise nuclear weapon use.
"Invading other countries is wrong... it is wrong for Israel in Palestine's West Bank and Gaza, and it must now be reversed in Ukraine."
Absolutely. This is how I put the same point on 5th March in an article entitled What we must do in the face of Putin's criminal invasion of Ukraine: "When a country or region is invaded, I am overcome by one duty: To take the side of the people facing troops with direct orders to violate their homes, to bombard their neighbourhoods, to destroy the circumstances of their lives. Without hesitation. Unconditionally."
"If [Ukrainian] neutrality were guaranteed by military commitments from outside to safeguard the country's independence in a way that satisfied the government in Kyiv, and did not deprive it of weapons for self-defence, then this would be reasonable."
Agreed. Here is the same idea as I put it in my aforementioned 5th March article: "[I]t must be an agreement guaranteed jointly by Washington and Moscow, guaranteeing an independent and neutral Ukraine as part of a broader agreement that de-escalates tensions with the Baltics, Poland, around the Black Sea, across Europe."
"Neutrality should not prevent Ukraine from joining the European Union if it so chooses (something even Putin's Russia seems to have accepted). This, too, needs to be said."
This is also my position. From the first moment Putin invaded Ukraine, I have been arguing that to stand with Ukraine should mean, amongst other things, a commitment to empowering Ukrainians to integrate, if this is what they want, with Western Europe in the same way that Austria did during the Cold War: militarily neutral but with a boisterous democracy, strong economy, full political independence, and freedom "to truck, barter and exchange" with anyone they want.
You warn leftists, like myself, of the danger that, while discussing Ukraine and the manner in which Russia, the USA and NATO are exploiting the war, we should avoid denying "Ukrainian agency and the commitment of a huge majority of Ukrainians to their country's integrity and independence."
How can I disagree? As a Greek, I have had a gutful of Anglo-European orientalist, weaponised condescension that sought to explain to us Greeks our predicament - with a view to getting us to accept our 'lot'. However, this is not an argument - as I am sure you agree - that we Greeks have never been manipulated by the Great Powers or, indeed, that non-Greeks like your good self should not have an opinion on Greek politics; including your right to tell me that I am wrong on Greek matters or even that I have been led astray. Maintaining the right balance between (A) respecting the agency of those in the eye of some distant storm and (B) defending our right, as internationalists, to treat another nation's war or crisis as our own, is both hard and crucial - as I tried to explain in another article back in March entitled Westsplainers? Or genuine comrades?
* * *
Dear Anthony,
You chide our petition for not re-stating all the points above, focusing instead on the need for a new non-aligned Peace movement. I say 're-stating' because these points were included in the preceding Athens Declaration, co-authored by Jeremy Corbyn, Ece Temelkuran and myself, whose opening lines were:
"We stand with the people of Ukraine, as we stand with every people suffering invasion, displacement and occupation. We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian forces, and a comprehensive Peace Treaty guaranteed by the European Union, the United States and Russia in the context of the United Nations."
Should our latest petition have repeated these points? You think it should. We felt that, since brevity helps drive any petition, it was best to focus on stressing that more war, even if it is just, is not the answer to an endless European war (Ukraine) or to the US-China tensions over Taiwan or the South China Seas shipping routes. Which brings me to the one major disagreement between us.
You are suggesting that the left must consider the United States a fading imperialist superpower which, despite its criminal past (from Vietnam and Pinochet to Iraq and its support of the Saudis etc.), is now democracy's only remaining defender against China, Putin, the Tehran theocracy etc. This is the crux of our difference. I beg to differ both on your diagnosis (that the United States is a fading, weakened superpower) and your prescription (that the left must see the US as an ally against orchestrated misanthropy).
In my estimation, the latest, inflationary, phase of the never-ending post-2008 economic crisis has reinforced US hegemony (and the power of Wall Street) over Western working classes and the developing world alike, while the war in Ukraine has wrecked all remaining hope of a sovereign EU that adopts an independent European foreign policy. As for the idea of the US being our ally against autocracy, my view is precisely the opposite: US policy is actively helping breed monsters to this day (from Putin in the 1990s to Bolsonaro more recently and, now, Meloni's post-fascist government) while - as I am typing this - my comrade Julian Assange is rotting in Belmarsh, at the behest of the Biden administration, for having opened our eyes to US war crimes committed in our name and behind our backs.
I could, of course, be wrong and I am sure you would have interesting rejoinders to offer. Thus, I would very much welcome a debate which would enable me to hear your reaction to my understanding of the New Cold War; for example, that China is too rich a socio-economic experiment to be either castigated as an imperialist autocracy or to be celebrated as a socialist success story; that Taiwan and Ukraine are profoundly different cases (since both Taipei and Beijing have traditionally claimed to represent the 'true' China); that Biden's humiliation by the Saudis is nothing new (Remember how Saddam Hussein, also a US stooge for a long while, bit the hand that fed him?) etc. etc.
* * *
I shall close this letter with a comment close to my heart. It concerns our duty, as friends and comrades, to educate younger progressives on how to disagree with one another. Over the years, painfully aware of the left's tendency to allow disagreements to degenerate into civil wars, I have endeavoured to desist from deploying inflammatory language when referring to comrades' views I disagree with. Comrades like us must take a lead in demonstrating that it is possible vociferously to disagree without speaking of 'betrayal' or painting comrades we disagree with as (historically, analytically, strategically etc.) naive. From this prism, the title and subtitle of your article was, I submit, not helpful.
To end on a high note, and on a belief that unites us, I shall quote approvingly and in full your closing lines: "Our larger aim should be to welcome the emergence of democracy in Russia - maybe the last thing that the Western security establishment actually desires. The alternative is rule by a mobsters international, which would ensure that the world will fry. It is as important as that."
In solidarity, as ever
Anthony Burnett, a friend, comrade and collaborator, just published an article in openDemocracy, a splendid and much loved source of progressive ideas and material, to which he alerted me in a mail reading: "Dear Yanis, we disagree but in solidarity!" Since Anthony's article mentions me, along with Jeremy Corbyn, in its subtitle, here I am, responding in the spirit of solidarity, affection and goodwill.
Anthony's article was in response to a petition I gladly co-signed that, in the face of a New Cold War and a collapsing climate, called for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine, for the aversion of another war over Taiwan, for the de-escalation of the New Cold War engulfing, primarily, the United States and China and, lastly, for a genuine global Green New Deal. That petition, it is perhaps helpful to note, was in the spirit of The Athens Declaration which I, Jeremy Corbyn and Ece Temelkuran issued on 13th May 2022 on behalf of DiEM25 and the Progressive International.
* * *
Dear Anthony,
Whenever you and I debate anything, the hardest part is to disentangle the things we agree on from our genuine differences. So, let me begin by pointing out four of your points with which I agree before homing in on our one major disagreement:
"Any threat to use nuclear weapons is an outrage".
Obviously. Whether it is a panicky Putin who issues such threats, or North Korea, or the United States perpetually refusing to rule out a first strike, we must condemn every nuclear threat and any attempt to normalise nuclear weapon use.
"Invading other countries is wrong... it is wrong for Israel in Palestine's West Bank and Gaza, and it must now be reversed in Ukraine."
Absolutely. This is how I put the same point on 5th March in an article entitled What we must do in the face of Putin's criminal invasion of Ukraine: "When a country or region is invaded, I am overcome by one duty: To take the side of the people facing troops with direct orders to violate their homes, to bombard their neighbourhoods, to destroy the circumstances of their lives. Without hesitation. Unconditionally."
"If [Ukrainian] neutrality were guaranteed by military commitments from outside to safeguard the country's independence in a way that satisfied the government in Kyiv, and did not deprive it of weapons for self-defence, then this would be reasonable."
Agreed. Here is the same idea as I put it in my aforementioned 5th March article: "[I]t must be an agreement guaranteed jointly by Washington and Moscow, guaranteeing an independent and neutral Ukraine as part of a broader agreement that de-escalates tensions with the Baltics, Poland, around the Black Sea, across Europe."
"Neutrality should not prevent Ukraine from joining the European Union if it so chooses (something even Putin's Russia seems to have accepted). This, too, needs to be said."
This is also my position. From the first moment Putin invaded Ukraine, I have been arguing that to stand with Ukraine should mean, amongst other things, a commitment to empowering Ukrainians to integrate, if this is what they want, with Western Europe in the same way that Austria did during the Cold War: militarily neutral but with a boisterous democracy, strong economy, full political independence, and freedom "to truck, barter and exchange" with anyone they want.
You warn leftists, like myself, of the danger that, while discussing Ukraine and the manner in which Russia, the USA and NATO are exploiting the war, we should avoid denying "Ukrainian agency and the commitment of a huge majority of Ukrainians to their country's integrity and independence."
How can I disagree? As a Greek, I have had a gutful of Anglo-European orientalist, weaponised condescension that sought to explain to us Greeks our predicament - with a view to getting us to accept our 'lot'. However, this is not an argument - as I am sure you agree - that we Greeks have never been manipulated by the Great Powers or, indeed, that non-Greeks like your good self should not have an opinion on Greek politics; including your right to tell me that I am wrong on Greek matters or even that I have been led astray. Maintaining the right balance between (A) respecting the agency of those in the eye of some distant storm and (B) defending our right, as internationalists, to treat another nation's war or crisis as our own, is both hard and crucial - as I tried to explain in another article back in March entitled Westsplainers? Or genuine comrades?
* * *
Dear Anthony,
You chide our petition for not re-stating all the points above, focusing instead on the need for a new non-aligned Peace movement. I say 're-stating' because these points were included in the preceding Athens Declaration, co-authored by Jeremy Corbyn, Ece Temelkuran and myself, whose opening lines were:
"We stand with the people of Ukraine, as we stand with every people suffering invasion, displacement and occupation. We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian forces, and a comprehensive Peace Treaty guaranteed by the European Union, the United States and Russia in the context of the United Nations."
Should our latest petition have repeated these points? You think it should. We felt that, since brevity helps drive any petition, it was best to focus on stressing that more war, even if it is just, is not the answer to an endless European war (Ukraine) or to the US-China tensions over Taiwan or the South China Seas shipping routes. Which brings me to the one major disagreement between us.
You are suggesting that the left must consider the United States a fading imperialist superpower which, despite its criminal past (from Vietnam and Pinochet to Iraq and its support of the Saudis etc.), is now democracy's only remaining defender against China, Putin, the Tehran theocracy etc. This is the crux of our difference. I beg to differ both on your diagnosis (that the United States is a fading, weakened superpower) and your prescription (that the left must see the US as an ally against orchestrated misanthropy).
In my estimation, the latest, inflationary, phase of the never-ending post-2008 economic crisis has reinforced US hegemony (and the power of Wall Street) over Western working classes and the developing world alike, while the war in Ukraine has wrecked all remaining hope of a sovereign EU that adopts an independent European foreign policy. As for the idea of the US being our ally against autocracy, my view is precisely the opposite: US policy is actively helping breed monsters to this day (from Putin in the 1990s to Bolsonaro more recently and, now, Meloni's post-fascist government) while - as I am typing this - my comrade Julian Assange is rotting in Belmarsh, at the behest of the Biden administration, for having opened our eyes to US war crimes committed in our name and behind our backs.
I could, of course, be wrong and I am sure you would have interesting rejoinders to offer. Thus, I would very much welcome a debate which would enable me to hear your reaction to my understanding of the New Cold War; for example, that China is too rich a socio-economic experiment to be either castigated as an imperialist autocracy or to be celebrated as a socialist success story; that Taiwan and Ukraine are profoundly different cases (since both Taipei and Beijing have traditionally claimed to represent the 'true' China); that Biden's humiliation by the Saudis is nothing new (Remember how Saddam Hussein, also a US stooge for a long while, bit the hand that fed him?) etc. etc.
* * *
I shall close this letter with a comment close to my heart. It concerns our duty, as friends and comrades, to educate younger progressives on how to disagree with one another. Over the years, painfully aware of the left's tendency to allow disagreements to degenerate into civil wars, I have endeavoured to desist from deploying inflammatory language when referring to comrades' views I disagree with. Comrades like us must take a lead in demonstrating that it is possible vociferously to disagree without speaking of 'betrayal' or painting comrades we disagree with as (historically, analytically, strategically etc.) naive. From this prism, the title and subtitle of your article was, I submit, not helpful.
To end on a high note, and on a belief that unites us, I shall quote approvingly and in full your closing lines: "Our larger aim should be to welcome the emergence of democracy in Russia - maybe the last thing that the Western security establishment actually desires. The alternative is rule by a mobsters international, which would ensure that the world will fry. It is as important as that."
In solidarity, as ever
"We cannot quit. We cannot be silent. If we quit, we lose more women," said one mother whose daughter died after being denied care under Georgia's six-week ban.
Congresswoman Nikema Williams joined patients, healthcare providers, and activists—including the mother of a woman who died after being refused abortion care in Georgia—at a Tuesday press conference held a day before what would have been the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and amid fears of a national abortion ban during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term.
"I refuse to stand by while extremist politicians attack our freedoms, our health, and our future," Williams (D-Ga.) told attendees of the virtual press conference, which was hosted by the abortion rights group Free & Just. "Reproductive freedom is about healthcare, it's about dignity, it's about autonomy. It's about ensuring that everyone, every person, has the ability to make the best decisions for themselves and their families without government interference."
Speakers at Tuesday's event included Shanette Williams, whose 28-year-old daughter Amber Nicole Thurman died in 2022 after being forced to travel out of state to seek care due to a recently passed Georgia law banning almost all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a period during which many people don't even know they're pregnant.
"I want to send a clear message to men to get off the sidelines and enter the fight for reproductive justice."
Thurman, who was the single mother of a young son, is one of at least several U.S. women—most of them Black or brown—whose deaths have been attributed to draconian anti-abortion laws.
"She left a son, who every day is confused by why his mother is not here," Williams said of her daughter. "I'm here to be that voice, to fight, to push, to do whatever I need to do to help save another life. Because I never want a mother to feel what I feel today."
"We cannot quit. We cannot be silent. If we quit, we lose more women," Williams added. "In November, following reporting from ProPublica, officials in Georgia dismissed all members of the state's Maternal Mortality Review Committee, which investigates the deaths of pregnant women across the state."
Last September, Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney struck down the state's six-week abortion ban as a violation of "a woman's right to control what happens to and within her body," a decision that made the procedure legal up to approximately 22 weeks of pregnancy. Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Avery Davis Bell, a Savannah mother who had to travel out of Georgia for care after her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition that threatened her own life as well, said during Tuesday's press conference: "I could have been Amber Nicole Thurman. It is important for me to continue sharing my story and advocating for us to be able to build the families we want, protect our lives, and be here for our living children."
Atlanta-area ultrasound technician and abortion care provider Suki O. said during the event that Georgia's ban "has been in place for three years now and it doesn't get any easier."
"To turn women away is the hardest thing for me to do," she added. "How many Black women will die, have died, and will continue to die due to these abortion bans?"
Davan'te Jennings, president of Young Democrats of Georgia and youth organizing director at Men4Choice, told the press conference that abortion "is not just a women's issue, this is a man's issue as well."
"I want to send a clear message to men to get off the sidelines and enter the fight for reproductive justice," Jennings added. "What would it look like for you to have to watch your mother go through this? To watch your sister go through this?"
While Trump has said he would veto any national abortion ban passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, reproductive rights advocates have expressed doubt that the president—a well-documented liar—would actually do so, and warned that his administration could use a 151-year-old law known as the Comstock Act to outlaw the procedure without needing congressional approval.
Critics also note that Trump has repeatedly bragged about appointing three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 2022 decision that canceled nearly a half-century of federal abortion rights.
The Trump administration is also widely expected to revive the so-called Global Gag Rule, which bans foreign nongovernmental organizations from performing or promoting abortion care using funds from any source, if they receive funds from the U.S. government for family planning activities.
Conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation-led coalition behind Project 2025—a blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government—have proposed policies including a national abortion ban, restricting access to birth control, defunding Planned Parenthood, monitoring and tracking pregnancy and abortion data, and eviscerating federal protections for lifesaving emergency abortion care.
While campaigning for president, Trump said he would allow states to monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute anyone who violates an abortion ban. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 12 states currently have near-total abortion bans, and 29 states have enacted prohibitions based on gestational duration.
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," warned the leaders of Popular Democracy.
Since U.S. President Trump's return to office on Monday—at an inauguration ceremony full of American oligarchs—as the Republican has issued a flurry of executive orders and other actions, progressive leaders and organizers have expressed alarm and vowed to fight against his "authoritarian" agenda.
On his first day back at the White House, Trump issued 26 executive orders, 12 memos, and four proclamations, plus withdrew 78 of former President Joe Biden's executive actions, according to a tally from The Hill. Those moves related to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, the death penalty, federal workers, immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, prescription drug prices, and more.
"In the last 24 hours, Trump has passed dozens of executive orders—many beyond his powers," said Popular Democracy co-director Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper in a Tuesday statement. "Yet, not one of them has lowered prices or made life better for Americans. Instead, he's focused on eroding democracy, attacking constitutional rights, and spreading fear, cruelty, and chaos.
"Trump has taken aim at the 14th Amendment's rights of equal protection and citizenship—the fundamental American right to live and participate in our democracy—with an executive order targeting birthright citizenship," they noted, referencing a policy that is already facing legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and state attorneys general.
Announcing one of the lawsuits, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said that "this order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration's overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail."
Mejia and Cooper said that "his ineffective and inhumane executive orders targeting immigrants misuse military power and double down on damaging our communities."
The group America's Voice similarly expressed concern over Trump's "authoritarian notions of deploying the military on U.S. streets," with the group's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas, saying that "this is an attack on American families and our American values. Trump's framing of our nation being 'invaded' coupled with the attacks on birthright citizenship and policies that will throw our immigration system further into chaos show that this is a hateful campaign to justify a nativist agenda that seeks to redefine 'American' and move this nation backwards."
Popular Democracy's leaders also called out various other items from Trump's first day that are expected to face legal hurdles—though the Republican spent his first term working with GOP lawmakers to pack the federal judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, with far-right appointees, so the effectiveness of such suits remains to be seen.
"Trump's rollbacks of critical climate policy sell out future generations to the profit of oil and gas polluters, and further endangers the poor, Black, brown, and Indigenous people who have been at the frontlines of climate disaster," they said. Trump not only repealed various Biden-era policies but also declared a "national energy emergency" to "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels.
Climate campaigners slammed Trump for invoking "authoritarian powers on Day 1 to gut environmental protections," in the words of the Center for Biological Diversity. The organization's executive director, Kierán Suckling, vowed that "no matter how extreme he becomes, we'll confront Trump with optimism and a fierce defense of our beloved wildlife and the planet's health."
"The United States has some of the strongest environmental laws in the world, and no matter how petulantly Trump behaves, these laws don't bend before the whims of a wannabe dictator," Suckling stressed. "The use of emergency powers doesn't allow a president to bypass our environmental safeguards just to enrich himself and his cronies."
The president's attacks on health are expansive. As Mejia and Cooper detailed: "Trump's sweeping changes to healthcare will rip away access for millions, line the pockets of Big Pharma, and undo strides in reproductive rights. They also single out trans Americans, denying them lifesaving healthcare and the right to live freely and authentically."
Imara Jones, a Black trans woman, CEO of TransLash Media, and an expert on the anti-trans political movement, said in a Tuesday statement that "Trump's recognition of only 'two genders' means a war on trans people, as well as any cis person with a gender expression outside of the gender binary."
"This is not political theater, this is the beginning of a potential authoritarian takeover of the United States, one that starts with targeting one of the smallest and most vulnerable groups: transgender people," Jones emphasized. "They seek to erase trans people from public life and want to see if they can get away with it, as a prelude to much more. This should worry all of us."
Another development that provoked intense worry—and even
led the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Studies and Prevention to issue a "red flag alert for genocide in the United States"—was Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth and a key Trump ally, twice raising his arm in what was widely seen as a Nazi salute during a post-inauguration celebration.
Trump's Monday night decision to pardon over 1,500 people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, an insurrection incited by the president himself as he contested his 2020 electoral loss, elicited similar warnings.
"By granting clemency to these individuals, who sought to overturn the peaceful transfer of power, Trump is signaling that political violence and the rejection of democratic norms are acceptable tactics in service to his authoritarian agenda," said Our Revolution executive director Joseph Geevarghese. "This is a direct threat to the foundations of our democracy and the safety of our communities."
The leaders of Popular Democracy highlighted that "undergirding this extreme authoritarian agenda is a claim that Trump has a mandate to act like a despot—no such mandate exists, much less is acceptable to the American people."
"Trump isn't king, but if Congress capitulates, he could be," they warned, just weeks after Republicans took slim control of both chambers. "Popular Democracy is prepared to push back against Trump's assault on our communities. We will stand up against an unconstitutional power grab, and hold our representatives accountable in this fight."
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away," said the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde.
The inaugural interfaith service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday proceeded with the usual prayers and music, but after delivering her sermon, the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde appeared to go off-script and made a direct appeal to President Donald Trump.
Recalling the Republican president's assertion on Monday that he was "saved by God" after a bullet hit his ear in an assassination attempt in July, Budde asked Trump, who was seated in the church, "in the name of our God... to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now."
"There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families," said Budde, "some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals."
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here," said Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C.
Budde's appeal followed Trump's signing of 26 executive orders in his first day in office, with dozens more expected in the first days of his second term. The president signed orders ending birthright citizenship—provoking legal challenges from immigrant rights groups and state attorneys general—and pausing refugee admissions, leading to devastation among people who had been waiting for asylum appointments at ports of entry. Official proclamations declared a national emergency at the southern border and asserted that the entry of migrants there is an "invasion."
Trump also took executive action to declare that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female.
"May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love, and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people in this nation and the world," said Budde in her address to Trump.
The president kept his eyes on Budde for much of her speech, at one point looking annoyed and casting his eyes downward. Vice President JD Vance leaned over and spoke to his wife, Usha Vance, as Budde talked about undocumented immigrants, and raised his eyebrows when she said the majority of immigrants are not criminals.
Trump later told reporters that the service was "not too exciting."
"I didn't think it was a good service," he said. "They can do much better."
Democratic strategist Keith Edwards applauded Budde's decision to speak directly to the president, calling her "incredibly brave."
Budde "confronted Trump's fascism to his face," he said on the social media platform Bluesky.