Inaugurating Resistance

Hawaiʻi J20, a group started by students, staff, faculty and members of the wider University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) community, is organizing a ‘Day of Resistance’ on January 20, 2017, to demonstrate their opposition to the inauguration of Donald J. Trump to the Presidency of the United States of America, and they are urging people people from across the state to join them.

“Trump is the harbinger of ever more climate catastrophe, deportation, discrimination, and endless war,” said Nandita Sharma, an Associate Professor of Sociology at UHM. “Trump and his surrogates celebrate a “post-fact” society and openly embrace violence, racism, misogyny, nationalist xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia. We must show that no election could legitimize his agenda. We will not sit idly by as the institutions of democracy are destroyed.”

The group formed with the intention of acting on shared concerns regarding the campaign promises and rhetoric of President-Elect Trump, and the ways in which his transition team has already begun acting on those promises and rhetoric. Hawaiʻi J20 wants to make it clear to the rest of the world that the vast majority of people in the United States do not support his presidency or consent to his agenda. The Day of Resistance will kick off a movement taking to the streets, peacefully but resolutely, to protest the Trumpian agenda and its inherent injustices, to symbolically disrupt “business as usual” and to inaugurate a new era of social activism while standing in solidarity with people in marginalized groups who are most threatened by a Trump White House. Hawaiʻi J20 welcomes all who oppose the Trump agenda and wish to join in collective action.

Hawaiʻi J20’s Day of Resistance will start at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, January 20. The day will consist of the following events:

Throughout the morning, a series of teach-ins and workshops will be held by various organizations and departments at UHM (see website for details)
Noon–2:30 p.m.: A full-scale teach-in will be held at the UHM Campus Center courtyard.
3–4 p.m.: A series of feeder marches will converge at the Gateway Waikiki Park.
Route 1 starts at the UHM Campus Center (gather at Diamond Head steps)
Route 2 starts at Magic Island at Ala Moana Beach Park, Atkinson/Ala Moana (gather at the entrance to Ala Moana)
Route 3 starts at the intersection of Kalakaua and Kapahulu (gather at Honolulu Zoo)
Route 4 starts at the intersection of King and Kalakaua (gather at park at Kaheka/King)
5 p.m.: The main march will take the different feeder groups from the Gateway Park to the Waikīkī Trump Tower, then along Kalakaua Avenue toward the Waikīkī Shell.
7 p.m.: The Day of Resistance will end with a free concert at the Waikīkī Shell, sponsored by the Hawaiʻi Democratic Party.

Endorsing organizations include:

350.0RG-HAWAI`I
AIKEA HAWAII
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
CHURCH OF THE CROSSROADS (PEACE, JUSTICE AND STEWARDSHIP CREATION TEAM)
DEOCCUPY HONOLULU
DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF HAWAI‘I
DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN STUDIES (UH MĀNOA)
DEPARTMENT OF ART + ART HISTORY (UH MĀNOA)
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH (UH MĀNOA)
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY (UH MĀNOA)
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY (UH MĀNOA)
HAWAI‘I INTERFAITH POWER & LIGHT
IDLE NO MORE-HAWAI`I
INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAM (UH MĀNOA)
MĀNOA FACULTY SENATE
OUR REVOLUTION HAWAI`I
SIERRA CLUB
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA LIBRARY SENATE
WOMEN’S MARCH - O‘AHU
WORLD CAN’T WAIT
YOUNG PROGRESSIVES DEMANDING ACTION (YPDA) HAWAI’I

Hawaiʻi J20 and its supporting organizations are demanding the following:

Dump Bannon! Steve Bannon’s appointment as chief strategist and senior counselor to Trump is unacceptable and must be rescinded. Bannon is an avowed supporter of white nationalism, racism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, and transphobia. Steve Bannon must go!

Empty the Cabinet! Trump’s nominees for cabinet appointments are unacceptable. Almost all have histories of attacking or seeking to destroy the departments they have been nominated to lead and cannot be trusted to govern in good faith. While we witness rates of income inequality not seen since the Great Depression, Trump has assembled a cabinet that is at once the wealthiest and the least qualified. We demand a clean slate and expect our elected representatives to vocally oppose these nominees. Threats posed by Trump’s nominees include: attacks on women’s, LGBTQIA+, and reproductive rights (Price); Islamophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant discrimination (Bannon, Flynn, Sessions, Mattis, Kelly); corporate corruption (Tillerson, Mnuchin, Ross, Puzder, Perry, Pompeo, Chao); attacks on environmental safety (Pruitt, Perry, Zinke); destruction of public education and housing (DeVos, Carson)

Investigate the Election Now! Senator Mitch McConnell must immediately appoint a bipartisan select committee to investigate the impact of Russian interference and targeted voter suppression on the presidential election. We demand free and fair elections!

Presidency Before Business Interests! Trump’s significant financial conflicts of interest must be fully investigated and resolved. He must release his tax returns and fully divest his business holdings and place his assets in a blind trust not administered by his family.

A Free Press! A free press is essential to the integrity of our democracy. Trump’s constant harassment of journalists, disparagement of an independent press, and promotion of falsehoods must end.

Protest is Democracy! Public protest (with or without a permit) must not be criminalized and law enforcement surveillance of protestors must stop.