D.C.’s fight for self-determination has entered a new stage with Trump’s use of the national guard to militarily occupy the city. But the struggle for D.C.’s autonomy is not new. D.C.’s lack of statehood has long relegated the District to a semi-colonial position in relation to the United States government. D.C. residents are taxed and exploited in service of the national government to which their city is home, but reap few of the benefits of the democracy their labor sustains. D.C. is without federal representation, unable to shape the politics of the Capitol down the street, while those in that same Capitol have the power to veto any law D.C. residents pass through their local government.

D.C.’s self governance was not a given, but had to be fought for and won. Still it remains under constant threat. MAGA forces in Congress have introduced the BOWSER Act to repeal D.C.’s Home Rule Act. There has been bipartisan support for restricting progressive laws passed by D.C.’s Council. The city’s government attempted to revise its Criminal Code for the first time in over 120 years, only to have the decision overturned by Congress and President Biden. This situation has left D.C. residents exploited and vulnerable, exemplified and brought to a new level by an occupying force under direct control of the fascist Donald Trump.

Trump claims that the takeover is aimed at addressing a rise in violent crime. The reality is that D.C. police’ own statistics show that crime is down 26% since last year. In addition, activists in D.C. have long pointed out that D.C. is already the most policed city in the country, with 543 police officers for every 100,000 residents.

The drop has not come about as a result of more money for police and more officers. For many years, D.C. has been over policed without a correlating drop in crime. Rather, more police funding has only led to more violence against our vulnerable communities. More police is a futile strategy for combatting crime. Instead, D.C. residents have consistently fought to address crime by fighting to end the consistent cuts to youth jobs and social programs that address the root causes of crime.

Tell Congress: Stop the military takeover of D.C.!

D.C. myths v. reality

There are two often co-existing but opposing views of what D.C. is in the media and in popular culture. One viewpoint represents D.C. as a soulless city inhabited by Capitol Hill interns and defense contractors who care about nothing but their work. The other stygmatizes D.C. as a lawless city plagued by crime. Both of these views tend to make many outside of our city feel indifferent to the struggles of those who live here. The reality is that D.C. is a vibrant, working-class city, and a progressive stronghold. A historically Black city known as “Chocolate City,” D.C. has been on the front lines of the fight against racism and exploitation.

When white supremacists across the country were attacking Black neighborhoods and Black people on the street during the “Red Summer” of 1919, the federal government denied African Americans’ requests for protection in D.C. Black Washingtonians responded by arming themselves for self-defense against the murderous white mobs. The fight back generated a much different turn of events than the riots that swept across the rest of the country, with the militant resistance fighting off attempts to destroy D.C.’s Black communities. This fighting spirit continued through campaigns against police brutality, against job discrimination, and against encroachment and interference by the federal government.

Additionally, D.C. is the queerest city per capita in the United States, with a long history of pushing for LGBTQ+ liberation. The first openly gay person to run for Congress was Frank Kameny, who ran for D.C.’s shadow representative seat in 1971. He was not only a major player in gay activism, organizing the first picket against homophobia at the White House, but was also an important force in the struggle for D.C. statehood.

Likewise, D.C. was home to its own Stonewall-esque uprising. In November of 1970, during the Black Panther Party’s Constitutional Convention in D.C., members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) of D.C. went to the Zephyr Restaurant and Lounge and were denied service. The GLFers demanded to know whether it was because some of them were Black or because they were gay. The manager refused to answer. They returned with more GLFers who occupied the restaurant with shouts of “Gay Power!” When bar staff started shoving, an uprising broke out, with gay people fighting back. Twelve GLFers were arrested, receiving homophobic harassment from police. The subsequent trial became the first time gays were able to screen a jury on the basis of homophobic violence. D.C. would also be home to the historic ACT UP demonstrations and national marches, in which D.C.’s local queer community had a unique role to play.

In the present, just as in the past, D.C.’s immigrant justice movement has also been on the front lines of struggle. D.C. is a sanctuary city. This status came under greater scrutiny after the City Council passed legislation in 2022 that expanded voting rights in local elections to non-citizens. The leadership of lifelong Communist Party member Arturo Griffiths was instrumental in the campaign for this bill. Significant backlash ensued from Congress and MAGA fascist forces, who seek to overturn this law and create further crackdowns on D.C.’s vibrant immigrant community. This terroristic repression has started to appear as kidnappings and raids on our immigrant neighbors.

D.C.’s takeover is not about crime. It is about punishing and occupying a progressive, Black, immigrant, and queer city for pushing against MAGA’s fascist agenda.

I recount this history not to romanticize our city, but to illustrate a key point: D.C.’s takeover is not about crime. It is about punishing and occupying a progressive, Black, immigrant, and queer city for pushing against MAGA’s fascist agenda. The autonomy, self-governance, and eventual statehood of D.C. represents a direct threat to MAGA hegemony. With the impossibility of a GOP electoral victory in the District, D.C. represents a uniquely positioned progressive force in direct proximity to Trump’s government. When this is clear, the totality of our current moment becomes visible.

Tell Congress: Stop the military takeover of D.C.!

Ground zero for fascist experimentation

While the national guard has been deployed by Trump in other places in response to mass resistance, D.C.’s occupation represents a unique situation. D.C. has no federal power to fight back, no representatives to defend our autonomy, and no apparatus of statehood to maintain our sovereignty. It is a ground zero for fascist experimentation.

Our party has often pointed to Dimitrov’s argument that “The accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one bourgeois government by another, but a substitution of one state form of class domination of the bourgeoisie — bourgeois democracy — by another form — open terrorist dictatorship.” Trump’s plans for D.C. are just that: the replacement of the old semi-colonial management of D.C. under the federal government by the direct fascist governance of our city, complete with blatant terrorism against its residents. Our residents are already being stopped, removed from their cars, and detained at checkpoints set up by occupying military forces.

Trump has both deployed and directed external military forces, and taken over control of our police forces. While the people of D.C. are already resisting and will continue to do so, Trump is trying to set up a fascist playground to test what could quickly become national policy. What plays out in D.C. has serious repercussions for the rest of the country.

The progressive forces of our city — including Black, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ communities — whose history has already been mentioned, are now rendered uniquely vulnerable. Trump is seeking a wholesale takeover of D.C., far past the 30 days of national guard deployment the Home Rule Act expresses. Some MAGA pundits like Benny Johnson are even actively calling for the bulldozing and ethnic cleansing of Black neighborhoods in D.C. These communities, who have fought to shape D.C. into a progressive city, against the encroachment of gentrifying developers, to establish D.C. as an abortion rights hub, and to preserve D.C.’s Black roots, are now at risk of direct oversight and rule by an outrightly fascist president with the most racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ+ government in memorable history.

What Trump is able to do in D.C., Trump will find a way to do everywhere else.

D.C.’s fight against these occupying forces and against Trump’s takeover is a fight for democracy across the entire country. Those not from D.C. should recognize this struggle not as an isolated one, but as one essential to the preservation of what democracy we have in the United States as a whole. What Trump is able to do in D.C., Trump will find a way to do everywhere else.

D.C.’s 700,000+ residents now face this new threat with the same fighting spirit we have always had. But we must have help. Without federal defense of our home, we are relying on our allies across the country to pressure their representatives to demand the immediate withdrawal of the national guard, and to do all that is in their power to stop Trump’s takeover of D.C.

The fight for D.C. is a unique struggle within the general fight to defend the democratic rights hard won by our working class and its allies. It is incumbent upon all progressive forces to recognize the importance of this moment and of this fight. It is everyone’s responsibility to join in the defense of D.C. as a key battle in the Black freedom struggle, in the fight for immigrant justice, women’s equality and LGBTQ+ liberation, and as a defense of democracy as a whole. It is about shifting the balance of forces, strengthening our fight back, and clarifying what must be done in this moment to resist fascism.

D.C. must have its self-determination and autonomy, for the health of our democracy and our movements as a whole.

Statehood now, fascism never!

Tell Congress: Stop the military takeover of D.C.!

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Image: Free DC hosts a press conference and rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza in response to Trump’s announced takeover by Free DC (Facebook)