Protestors at South Station call for Trump’s conviction

By Rin Velasco and Tanisha Bhat

Protesters gathered outside of South Station Wednesday afternoon to condemn the actions of former President Donald Trump and advocate for his conviction in this week’s Senate impeachment trial.

Jade Tisdol — an organizer for Refuse Fascism, one group that helped organize the protest — railed against Trump’s reaction to the results of November’s presidential election in a speech.

“To throw out millions of votes, many from Black voters in swing states, he demonstrated his refusal to accept a peaceful transfer of power by mobilizing his fascist base to carry out a coup,” Tisdol said. “Normally any unsuccessful coup leader would either be in jail or forced to flee the country.”

As Tisdol spoke, activists passed out flyers and, as a part of the protest, a man wearing a Trump mask writhed in a cage — satirizing Trump’s treatment of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Tisdol said Senate Republicans want Americans to move on and forget about the former president’s transgressions.

“What will happen next, he gets away with all this?” Tisdol asked the crowd. “Whatever’s going to happen in the next four years? It’s game on.”

As she concluded her speech, Tisdol led the crowd in an explicit chant against the former president: “F— Donald Trump.”

Tisdol said the rally was a fight against modern fascism.

“We just wanted to make sure that people see we’re out in the streets, wanting to make sure that people know that it’s very important for Trump to be convicted of all of his crimes that he’s committed as a president,” Tisdol said in an interview.

The Senate voted 56-44 that Trump’s trial was constitutional Tuesday. Six Republicans crossed party lines and voted alongside Democrats to proceed.

Tisdol said she did not think Trump would be convicted, but that continued action was necessary. She cited protests in Russia following the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“If he’s not convicted, who knows where this country can spiral off to?” Tisdol said. 

John Harris, an organizer for the Boston May Day Coalition — another group behind Wednesday’s protest — said by disbanding global health preparedness programs like PREDICT in 2019, Trump was guilty of “sabotaging” measures that may have prevented the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We of the May Day Coalition, charge Donald J. Trump with being a saboteur, deserter and traitor in the war against COVID-19,” Harris said to the crowd.

As Harris said Trump betrayed the United States, a man without a mask drove by and yelled out to the crowd, “communists!”

The protesters vowed to give Trump their own “people’s trial” where they would reiterate his crimes and publicly denounce his actions.

“Members of the jury, people in this trial, how do you find Donald J. Trump?” Harris asked the protesters.

The crowd answered back: “Guilty!”

Harris told The Daily Free Press the protest was to denounce Trump’s “crimes against humanity” and call upon the federal government for a conviction.

“We’re calling on the national, the state and all local governments to declare that the rising fascist movement in this country is a threat to the Constitution and our democratic institutions,” Harris said.

Stan Lawrence, a regional organizer with Refuse Fascism, said Trump was the cause of the storming of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, calling it a “serious attempt at overturning the election.”

“If there is not a powerful movement in the halls of Congress, and more importantly, if there is not a powerful movement in the streets,” Lawrence said in a speech Wednesday, “Trump and his followers and others will take this as a green light.”

Lawrence said the protestors also denounced Congressional Republicans such Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Ariz., for continuing attempts to overturn the election even after the Capitol storming.

He also said the Democrats did not take strong enough action to combat Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — a supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories.

“The actions of the Democratic Party and its political operatives constitute nothing less than collaboration with fascism,” Lawrence said. “And it will lead to disaster.”

In an interview, Lawrence said those who voted against Trump cannot expect Biden’s win to be the end of Trump’s fascism and need to protest publicly.

“Unless they do, even Trump’s defeat at the election, that will not prevent this fascist movement from moving forward,” Lawrence said.

Speakers listed what they believe to be Trump’s punishable actions before the crowd shouted for a conviction from inside South Station.

The caged Trump, actually Cambridge local Owen Murphy in disguise, stepped out and removed his mask.

“We need to be theatrical,” he said. “We’re trying to show how horrible these people are, but it’s important for people to kind of have a little fun as they’re doing it. Mockery, just putting it back to them.”