by Speech of the President of YDSA at Florida International University at a Protest on August 21
On Sunday, August 21st, Florida’s far-right Governor Ron DeSantis traveled to Miami as part of his “Education Tour” to rally support for his right-wing authoritarian agenda. Outside the event, progressives organized the “Down With the Dictator” counter-protest where organizers and community members spoke out against DeSantis and the GOP. Judith Chavarria, president of the YDSA at Florida International University, spoke at this protest. The text of the speech and a video recording follow.
Hello everyone,
My name is Jacob-Alexander and I am the President of the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter at FIU.
Working people in this country face a crisis of organization and a crisis of leadership. The Democrats find themselves at an inevitable crossroads between commitments to a status quo that’s no longer tenable and the burgeoning new movements of women, trans people, and students that demand revolutionary change. In short, the Democratic leadership is being tested, and I must say, thus far they have failed. Here we point to the Tampa city-council: this past Thursday they voted on a resolution to decriminalize abortion and refuse to arrest doctors and patients in the event of a state-wide ban. Rather than take a stand against DeSantis, the council lost their nerve and failed to uphold reproductive rights if it came into conflict with state law. A faux resistance which ultimately remains complicit rings hollow; look again to the Democrats at the national level, who hold a powerful trifecta in government yet failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. What good is calling DeSantis a fascist if the walls which separate him from power are paper thin?
It’s not enough to engage the threat he and his project represent by voting once at the ballot box. The right doesn’t just invite its base to show up on Election Day and disappear for two to four years. The Proud Boys and insurrectionists who seek to erode democracy by force, the Moms for Liberty and Christian Family Coalition who flood our school board meetings to dismantle the rights of students and teachers alike, the police unions who resist any accountability for the officers who are first to repress our organizing—the right doesn’t just have a candidate, it has a reactionary movement. We must meet these forces with forces of our own. We need a militant mass movement that puts up a fight for abortion rights, bodily autonomy and trans liberation in Florida and the rest of the country.
I have no illusions about the fact that YDSA cannot do this on its own, but we all stand here now, shoulder to shoulder, ready for something more. Today’s not simply an opportunity to confront DeSantis, to live out a fleeting moment of political rupture—it’s also a chance to build a mass movement that stands against his program at every moment, first and foremost with a state-wide ballot initiative for the codification of safe and legal abortion. We call on all of the major feminist organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women to support a campaign to codify reproductive rights. They have the resources to invite in the masses of people who are right here, protesting in the streets, towards a militant and winnable program where each of us can learn by doing, where we’re not just fighting for one reform, but building the organization we need for this and every other issue.
The rights of trans people to gender affirming healthcare, the rights of queer teachers to teach freely in their classrooms, the rights of students to comprehensive sex education—this is the other side of the far-right attack on bodily autonomy. From the Don’t Say Gay bill to the attempts to ban gender affirming healthcare for trans children, this is where Ron DeSantis has put forward his most wretched policies. These are unavoidably fascist laws from a fascist governor, and any authority that claims to support the rights and dignity of LGBTQ people must necessarily refuse to enforce them, including the mayor, prosecutors, and city-council. Lastly, we must realize that we cannot simply fight to restore the status quo, which was never enough for too many people. So demand Medicare for All, because anything less would be an invitation to drag out the precarious existence of our trans comrades and facilitate fascism’s long march on the body.
From the 7th to the 9th of October, the Women’s March will be converging on Washington in a rare moment of political militancy. It’s thus our responsibility to meet the moment with them and then go far beyond it. We cannot win this battle on DeSantis’ turf; in the courtrooms and the halls of Tallahassee. We must bring this out into the streets.
Thank you.
