A groundswell of activism takes hold in the US: We are a bridge to the future'

"As thousands of ICE agents storm streets, schools and emergency rooms across the country, communities are training up on their rights, recording incidents of abuse and screaming at officers to impede deportations. As opponents of LGBTQ+ rights try to erase queer history and safe spaces, residents have repainted rainbows across crosswalks paved over by officials and are organising their own record-keeping and mutual aid networks."

"The resistance doesn't look the way it did under Trump's first term, when high-profile institutions, the media and congressional Democrats led the charge. That's because Trump's first victory was seen as an aberration by most liberals, said Hasan Piker, a leftwing streamer, so they resisted aggressively from the start. This time around, the Democratic party, the establishment Democrats, are actually dropping the ball, Piker said."

Thousands of ICE agents are conducting raids in streets, schools and emergency rooms across the country, prompting communities to train on legal rights, document abuses and physically block deportations. Opponents of LGBTQ+ rights attempt to erase queer history and safe spaces, leading residents to repaint rainbows over removed crosswalks and to build independent record-keeping and mutual aid networks. Corporations pressured by the right are abandoning diversity initiatives, triggering consumer boycotts that cost millions and sometimes force policy reversals. Movement building is decentralized and led by regular people across urban and rural areas, persisting despite arrest, surveillance and deportation risks.

Read at www.theguardian.com