April 5, 2025 saw the largest protests against Trump to date. Massive protests led by 50501, the Federal Unionists Network, and other unions and anti-Trump organizations brought millions onto the street. However, on the eve of these protests, social media debates exploded among Black people on whether or not we should go to the protests.

Opinion pieces were published saying that Black people going to protests paints a target on their backs. Others said that protests are an ineffective way to enact change, and pointed to providing community services in impoverished Black communities as the way to take a stand against Trump. Some videos claimed that black people “did their part” by voting for Harris back in 2024, and these protests were on everyone else. On top of general fear and demoralization from the scale of Trump’s attacks, these arguments clearly caught some traction, with a noticeable lack of Black people in the protests nationally.

The majority of Black people are staunchly against Trump. However, he was able to garner support from 20% of Black men in the election, which represented a real and dangerous shift to the right amongst Black men. This shift was made possible by the Democratic Party’s continued insulting strategy of insisting that everything is actually fine in society, while Trump posed as an alternative, with immigrants and trans people as the scapegoat. 

Overall, however, the Black vote stayed loyal to the Democrats, with 92% of Black women voting for Harris in the last election. But supporting the Democrats to fight for the interests of Black working people is a failing strategy. We have borne the brunt of systemic racism, police brutality, stagnant wages, a decline of union jobs, and an increasingly chaotic world of climate disaster, while the Democrats fail to give anything but lip service to the well-being of Black people.

Trump, of course, does not rule with the interests of Black working people in mind whatsoever. In the last five months, we’ve seen attacks on public-sector workers, the gouging of social services, likely soon including Medicaid and SNAP, and the clawing back of civil-rights-era wins and reforms, all of which disproportionately affect black people. Black people need to fight back against Trump, and we have in the past!

Does Protesting Work?

Five years ago, the George Floyd uprising erupted at the tail end of Trump’s first term. It was the largest mass movement in US history, led by young Black people on the streets, with  estimates of up to 26 million people participating in protests in every state. Despite these massive numbers, the movement ultimately failed to yield any significant reforms and was defeated. This isn’t because “protesting doesn’t work,” but rather that the movement did not escalate and use the power of the working class to fight for change. Our power in society comes from the reality that we run it, meaning we can stop business as usual, whether that’s through work stoppages, student walkouts, or all-out strike action to leverage our power. The Socialist Alternative member bus drivers in Minneapolis just after George Floyd’s murder who got their union to refuse orders to transport arrested protesters is an example of what’s needed, then and now. The George Floyd rebellion showed us that protesting alone isn’t enough, and that we need to harness the power of the wider working class to win Black liberation.

One could see the lack of police and arrests around April 5 and some have walked away with the idea that the lower attendance of Black people at the events lead to less police repression. But the reality is that repression is very much on the rise. From arrests on college campuses to the abduction of immigrant activists right off the street, the judicial system has been unable to enforce the so-called “checks and balances” to pump the brakes on Trump’s agenda. State repression most sharply comes out when the movement actually threatens the billionaire class, their politicians, and “business as usual.” Multiracial movements that unite working people pose a real threat to them, but they’re also exactly what’s needed. When struggles are taken up by the wider working class, we can use our power as workers to stop society when egregious attacks on regular people take place.

It isn’t just social media influencers that are pointing away from protests and organizing as a way to fight for the Black community. Liberal Black leaders like Jamal Bryant, a megachurch pastor in Atlanta, are pointing to boycotts of companies like Target to protest their rolling back of DEI initiatives. However, the small dent in profits from a handful of the hundreds of companies that pulled back their DEI plans didn’t make any of those companies change course. Even without ever shopping at Target again, the reality of capitalism means that the next department store is still owned by the same small class of investors and CEOs. Our power as consumers pales in comparison to our power as workers. Trying to change a company’s policy by 10,000 customers not shopping translates to a tiny dent in profits, whereas 1,000 workers not going into work translates into dozens of stores being shut down and profits there halted completely. Boycotts can be an effective strategy, but they must be paired with strong labor struggle and mass protests.

Black politicians on a local level, like New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, have absolutely no regard for the interests of Black working people. As Trump racks up attacks against the working class, Adams has welcomed Trump with open arms in hopes that the president will shield him from indictment. On the other side of the country, Harrell celebrated the “500% improvement” in the number of police hires in 2025. He’s simultaneously clawed back policies that actually benefit ordinary Black people, like rent control initiatives and public housing. The Democratic party can’t and won’t fight for working-class Black people in a real meaningful way because that is a threat to the class they ultimately serve, the billionaire class.

Many groups on the left point to a need to “focus on our own community,” through work like mutual aid and volunteering. Trump’s election has sent a wave of demoralization throughout the Black community, so this turn inwards is understandable. However, the focus on creating networks to survive and get by within the system doesn’t ask how conditions got so bad in the first place and how that can be changed fundamentally. Especially within Black communities, mutual aid serves as a metaphorical band-aid to the bullet wound that continues to divide, underpay, and oppress us: capitalism.

Fight for Black Liberation—Fight Capitalism

The current movement against Trump needs to involve Black people protesting against Trump in order to wield the power of the entire multi-racial working class. But the anti-Trump movement also needs to openly embrace the call for Black liberation.

Protests can enact change if connected to a larger, organized movement, but the role of protests is not just to hold signs and express discontent. Protests need to grow the movement and build pressure on the ruling class, pointing to the power that we have as workers. Movements need actions like walkouts and work stoppages that bring a halt to business as usual. They also cannot be co-opted by the Democrats or Republicans, which are both parties of the ruling class. Working people, including Black people, need a new working class political party.

Ultimately, Trump is the face, but capitalism is the common denominator in all of his attacks. From Black liberation, to trans rights, to public services, the movement needs to widely bring all of these struggles together not only to stand up to Trump and his administration, but to the entire system of capitalism that puts people like him into power in the first place.