Yesterday’s anti-Trump protest was organized and put together as soon as news came out that Trump was coming to Philly to speak. It was short notice, but several small protests were organized and eventually converged in a rally in front of the conference center that Trump was speaking in. Though a number of the protesters were centrists and liberals, the rhetoric of the rally was radical, tying together the many issues of this current administration with broader systems of policing, capitalism, imperialism, sexism, and white supremacy/anti-blackness.
Many had reservations about this protest – about the messaging and the potential of violence and arrest – but we couldn’t not just not show up when Trump was in town. Thankfully, nobody was arrested, and this was one of the few actions in quite awhile where police didn’t escalate the situation with violence. This action, with its moments of militant language, was quite positive, even joyful. As we chanted, “out of the sidewalks, into the streets,” some folks passing by excitedly joined. Flyers with upcoming actions and agit-prop were handed out.
Of course, the new Flyers mascot Gritty was very present – on our banners, signs, and hearts. Somehow, in the past week, the leftists and anti-fascists of Philly have claimed Gritty as their own. And as hilarious and absurd as that is, it actually makes some sense. As George Ciccariello-Maher put it, “Philadelphia is an underdog city. That really impacts and runs through a lot of the politics, particularly the sports spirit throughout the city. So when you see the launch of this mascot Gritty, who is by all accounts a sort of hideous monster, the response from an underdog city is to say, ‘yeah, but he’s our hideous monster and if you don’t love him then fuck you.’”
All that to say, Gritty is basically a queer anti-fascist communist icon. Gritty’s revolution is the People’s revolution. Long live Gritty.
