Bringing together militants and the masses
Originally published on February 16, 2017 in Socialist Worker.
Pranav Jani, who helped to lead the thousand-strong occupation of the Columbus, Ohio, airport, lays out the organizing ingredients that made for a successful protest.
ON JANUARY 28, the Palestine Solidarity Group (PSG) in Columbus, Ohio, organized an occupation of the John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) — joining the thousands who occupied airports all over the country to stand up against Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim and racist ban.
The uprising of the airports, which pressured federal courts to halt Trump’s executive order, is a sign of our power. As an organizer of the CMH action, I want to share some of the lessons I learned that day about mobilizing in the Trump era.
FIRST, I learned that this is a time to be bold. People are ready to mobilize, and capable of doing things far beyond what we think we can do.
Who would have thought, even a month ago, that 1,000 people in Columbus would march onto the highway leading up the airport, block oncoming traffic in two directions, shut down one of two roadways into the airport, conduct a defiant rally outside the terminal — and then enter the terminal itself, filling it with the voices of the resistance for two hours?
