On the heels of Trump’s election victory, roughly 150 right-wing, anti-abortion protesters descended on Boston on November 16. Dressed in business suits and priest robes, the Catholic anti-abortion nonprofit known as Men’s March started the “National Men’s March to Abolish Abortion and Rally for Personhood” at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Allston, a student-heavy neighborhood in Boston, and then tried to march to Boston Common in the middle of downtown.

Socialist Alternative members participated in a 350 strong counter-protest which nonviolently stood in the street and stopped the Men’s March in its tracks. We chanted “Pro-life, that’s a lie; you don’t care if people die!” and “When abortion rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” 

Without the police’s intervention on the side of the right wing protesters, this fightback would have been strong enough to stop the Men’s March, but the protestors had an over-50 strong police escort that acted like their personal snowplow.

The police repeatedly charged into the counter-protestors to clear a path for the far-right, handcuffing and beating up anyone who dared stay near. But the counter-protesters re-formed their ranks each time after several charges by the police, and the Men’s March made little progress for over an hour. Eventually the police formed a bloc at the head of the march and dozens of riot police led the Men’s March with batons out, which was the only way the march was able to reach its destination. Under its own power, the Men’s March could not have continued.

The Far-Right Comes To Blue Cities

Trump’s popular vote victory stunned and demoralized millions of people, and now the far right is waging an offensive to see how far they can push their presence and agenda. Boston is not alone: the far right has shown up in New York, Columbus, and many other cities. The fierce resistance to the Men’s March shows there are many courageous working people and students who have shaken off their demoralization and are ready to stand up to the far right.

Biden and the Democrats’ complete inaction in fighting Dobbs, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and reversed the federal right to abortion, has empowered the far right and disenchanted millions of voters. But in every state where the right to abortion was on the 2024 ballot, it got more votes than Harris! It shows how many voters no longer associate the Democrats with protecting abortion rights, and for good reason. But Trump has no interest in protecting women and queer people, either. By fighting for actual issues that matter to working people, the fight against Trump can mobilize ordinary people who have been disillusioned by both capitalist parties.

The silence of Boston and Massachusetts Democrats in condemning the Men’s March or the police’s brutal behavior speaks volumes and further normalizes the terror of anti-abortion activists. The Democrats’ rightward turn in 2024 is meant to push their own base to the right. Harris’s campaign normalized building the border wall, fracking, building the US military into the world’s “most lethal fighting force” as she bluntly put it, and other right-wing ideas. The Democrats’ turn to the right is part of a larger political shift in Washington toward nationalism and reactionary ideas as the US ruling class prepares for war within the context of the escalating inter-imperialist conflict with China. 

The counterprotest against the Men’s March, if further built on, can show the way forward in resisting Trumpism independently of both parties and through mass action. We need to show that ordinary people will not roll out the red carpet for the far right just because of a Trump election victory against a hopelessly corporate, out-of-touch Democrat.

How Can We Fight The Far Right?

In 2017, 40,000 people marched against an alt-right protest of 25 in Boston that took place just after the far right’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, where a participant drove his car into the counter protest killing left-wing activist Heather Heyer. The huge showing in Boston decisively pushed back the alt-right and far right for a few years. 

Crucial to the mobilization and success for that event was the involvement of unions. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, Boston Teachers Union, and SEIU 509 all participated in the 2017 counterprotest, turning out significant numbers from their ranks to form organized contingents. Key progressive organizations also mobilized their members en masse. Yesterday’s counter-protest against the Men’s March in Boston would have been far stronger if the unions, like in 2017, helped mobilize to defend our streets and communities from the far right.

In order to develop a strong anti-Trump, anti-far right movement, unions and progressive groups have to decisively break with the Democratic Party, which has shown time and time again they are unwilling and incapable of truly stopping the right wing, and are themselves now racing to the right. A mass movement against Trumpism needs to grow on the basis of strong pro-worker demands, and spread into workplaces, schools, and communities across the country. 

This is not a utopian idea. In Britain, tens of thousands of anti-racists held mass demonstrations just three months ago that ended several nights of far-right racist rampage. In 1936, in the “Battle of Cable Street,” Communists and socialists organized with Irish and Jewish workers to mount a 300,000-strong counterprotest that defeated the march of thousands of British fascists under Oswald Mosley and their 7,000-strong police escort, sending British fascism decisively into retreat. Compared to these examples, the November 16 counter-protest was of course small, but a start. It’s clear we will need thousands, tens of thousands, and ultimately millions to decisively stop the right wing.

Far-right ideas must be fought at a societal level. A single street confrontation will not decide the fate of the far right. We need to show that millions of workers, as a critical part of society, do not accept reactionary ideas which divide the working class. We will fight in unity against Trump, the far right, and the capitalist system that spawned them. Join Socialist Alternative to help us do just that!