Building on Thursday night’s STOP ICE TERROR emergency protest, Long Beach residents united with PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation) Long Beach once again for its National Day of Action protest Saturday at Long Beach City Hall.
The National Day of Action protest focused on protesting the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and ICE’s actions across the United States.
“The truth is that the Trump administration has an approach to its agenda where they’re trying to do as many things as they can at the same time — and that’s intentional,” said Douglas Kauffman, an 18-year organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “It’s intended to make it difficult for activists and community members to respond to it.”
Before the 2 p.m. protest, two Long Beach police officers approached members of PSL Long Beach and asked them to keep the protest contained to the sidewalk, but the protest filled the streets anyways.
Similar to Thursday’s protest, PSL Long Beach led the protestors through various chants such as, “Colonizers; we don’t need them. All we want is peace and freedom,” and “No boots on the ground, no bombs in the air, U.S. out of everywhere.”
Speakers from the PSL Long Beach Chapter, Harbor Area Police Patrol and a volunteer of the Vote Socialist campaign in California gave speeches to protestors. A myriad of issues were discussed at the protest revolving around Venezuela and ICE, including calls against wars abroad, criticizing how the United States sends Venezuelans to torture prisons in El Salvador and the death of Keith Porter by an off-duty ICE agent.
“These protests are not just a bunch of angry people yelling. We were angry but more than that, we are hurt and we’re grieving and we have love for our communities,” said Jay Burnett, a two-year PSL Long Beach volunteer. “If we see what’s happening, if we think that we’re losing our democracy … it’s up to us to say how we can build a better democracy than we had in the beginning.”
Kauffman said the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent was personal for him since she was taken away from her kid, which makes him think about what type of future he wants for his son.
“I have to keep fighting every day to get us there [on the right path] and show him with everything that’s going on. I think that’s the part that makes it the most personal,” he said.
The group went back to the streets to protest at around 3:30 p.m., marching in a circular pattern. As they walked towards East Ocean Boulevard and at 3:45 p.m., they were stopped by police at Pine Avenue.
“The police in Long Beach are more strained. That’s for sure,” Burnett said. “Therefore, we don’t take that as a sense of their restraint, so we can work with them. We say, ‘Okay, let’s take what we can get.’”
Long Beach police gave their demands to protestors using their remote speaker, but the crowd persisted with their march.
“Their [Long Beach police] message is always, ‘Oh, we just want to make sure everyone’s safe,’ but as soon as we make a turn they don’t like, they show up with batons and riot gear,” Burnett said.
PSL is demanding is the arrest of Jonathan Ross and every agent who was there and complicit in the killing of Rene Good, and for hotels to stop letting ICE agents stay in their establishments.
“You won’t let a murderous gang sleep in our hotels, walk our streets, patrol our neighborhood, so why let ICE, which is a murderous gang, do the same?” Burnett said. “It just shows a lack of spine and I need the city to make a strong stand.”
PSL Long Beach hopes to hold a volunteer meeting on Jan. 17 in Downtown Long Beach. Follow PSL Long Beach on Instagram for more information on future protests and events.
