Protest march and rally scheduled by P.O.P. for MLK Day

NEWARK, NJ — The new year began just as last year ended, with the People’s Organization for Progress hosting its 48th consecutive “Justice Monday” protest outside the federal building on Broad Street in downtown Newark on Monday, Jan. 2.

P.O.P. Chairman Larry Hamm and protesters braved 10-degree weather outside the federal building Monday, Jan. 9, again calling on the U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to open federal civil rights investigations into the police-involved shooting deaths and allegations of police use of excessive force against unarmed black male suspects in municipalities across New Jersey.

Hamm and company also used the 49th Justice Monday protest rally to announce P.O.P. would be hosting the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. March and Rally for Equality, Justice, Peace and Democracy on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 2 p.m. at the statue dedicated to the slain civil rights leader on the side of the Essex County Courthouse in Newark.

Hamm said this march and rally would be a great opportunity for people to honor King and his legacy and rededicate themselves to the same issues in the United States.

“We call upon people to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday by fighting against police brutality, racial violence, racial injustice, economic inequality, war and the violence in our communities,” said Hamm on Monday, Jan. 9. “We are having this march to honor the work of Dr. King and all of those who fought and died during the civil rights movement and, more importantly, to let people know that his struggle for civil and human rights is not over. Attempts to eradicate the gains of the civil rights movement have been ongoing for the past 50 years. We expect an acceleration and intensification of this effort during the administration of President Donald Trump.”

President-elect Trump is due to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, Jan. 20. Hamm said the likelihood the new Republican president will replace Fishman with a more conservative U.S. attorney for New Jersey would prove reason enough to emulate King in resisting Trump’s agenda to “Make America great again.”

According to Hamm, American “greatness” was built on the enslavement, exploitation and disenfranchisement of blacks and other minorities.

“Our march on Dr. King’s birthday is a clarion call to all people of goodwill that it is time for us to organize and mobilize like never before for the fight that will take place during the dark days ahead,” Hamm said. “The people that President-elect Trump has already appointed to his cabinet show us that they are intent on not just eliminating the gains of the civil rights movement, but they want to roll back the 75 years of social progress since the New Deal. Civil rights, labor rights, women’s rights, gay rights and civil liberties will all be under attack.”

And that’s just for starters, Hamm said, emphasizing that the “Great Recession of 2008” never really ended in economically depressed urban areas, despite rhetoric to the contrary by President Barack Obama and Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He said there are still a lot of people throughout the country “living on the edge” and Trump is threatening to “push them over,” in more ways than one.

“The economic war against the poor, the working class and the middle class will be taken to unprecedented levels,” said Hamm. “(The Trump administration) plans to implement austerity measures that will bring about draconian cuts in vital social services and programs, including Medicare and Social Security. The racism, bias and prejudice that Dr. King fought against has been strengthened by the Trump campaign and his own comments.”

And that, Hamm said, does not bode well for the U.S. progressive movement in the next four years.

  Donald Trump, Essex County Courthouse, Larry Hamm, Martin Luther King Jr., Paul Fishman, People’s Organization for Progress