“The very things that Trump will target – dissent, solidarity, and resistance – are our greatest strengths”

November 6, 2024, New York – In response to Donald Trump’s apparent victory, Center for Constitutional Rights Executive Director Vince Warren released the following statement: 

We do not have to guess what Trump’s victory means for the country. He has made his intentions clear, as have the authoritarians, fascists, theocrats, and oligarchs who seek to take over the country. They will attempt to retaliate against Trump’s adversaries and purge federal employees who resist this takeover. They will attempt to persecute and isolate marginalized groups, crush social movements, and further encroach on bodily and reproductive autonomy, including that of cisgender women, trans, intersex, two-spirit, and non-binary people alike, as well as accelerating attacks on access to life-saving gender affirming healthcare. With right-wing capture of the judiciary, they will attempt the most audacious hostile takeover in our history, cementing the merger of our government with their corporate power; running the country like it’s a business, deriving profit off of the exploitation of land and people, while initiating a massive upward transfer of wealth. They will partner with those around the world similarly wielding unchecked violence and mythologies of supremacy to consolidate power. Toward all those ends, Trump and his allies will continue to sow fear to try to keep us demoralized and divided. 

In the face of this immense assault on human rights and the hard-won progress of past decades, we must resist the temptation to despair, and we must get to work. The very things that Trump will target – dissent, solidarity, and resistance – are our greatest strengths, and we must use them not only to defend our people and the planet but also to build power in pursuit of justice and liberation.

The challenges ahead, while daunting, are not unprecedented. In his anti-Black racism, brutality, and authoritarianism, Trump is trying to repave a long path that traces back to before the plantation. As has always been the case, our communities and movements that are most under threat will lead the resistance against the inhumanity and again forge progress, but they need our support and resolve; solidarity across communities is essential. Among many other threats, Trump has promised industrial-scale violence in the form of mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants beginning on his first day in office. It will be the responsibility of all of us to work together to prevent this and so many other atrocities.

At the Center for Constitutional Rights, we will stand in solidarity with those in the crosshairs of state power, as we have done since the 1960s when lawyers representing civil rights activists and social movements in the South founded our organization. We will leverage all of our experience and resources to support the communities most endangered by the Trump presidency, in the U.S. and around the world. In order to succeed, what we and all social movements must do is both simple and enormously challenging: we must come together, as never before, starting today. Our strength lies in each other, and, fully realized, it is far more powerful than fascism.