Phoenix DSA Statement on the Attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021

Phoenix DSA calls for a people’s impeachment of President Trump that centers the working class as the agent of democratic socialist change. Concretely, we call for a mass mobilization of organized labor to work with DSA in fighting for a democratic socialist program and to join in our demand for Trump’s immediate impeachment and removal from office.

Trump’s incitement to violence of white supremacist rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — many among whom were prepared to kidnap, hold hostage and potentially assassinate elected officials — represents a dangerous escalation of the Trump administration’s anti-democratic tampering with the 2020 elections and his pandering to the far right. Although the mob was unsuccessful in seizing power, their forces have clearly become stronger, more threatening to people of color and more desperate to keep Trump in power by any means necessary with each passing day that Trump remains in office. We hold no sentimentality for the “hallowed halls” of Congress, but we oppose Donald Trump, the Proud Boys, and Q-Anon for the threat they pose to the oppressed masses and the working class, here and around the world.

It is vitally necessary that we hold not only Trump accountable but also every elected official who had participated in and/or encouraged the attack on January 6. We further demand that our Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly support and act swiftly on this call for impeachment.

However, Phoenix DSA recognizes that the united multi-racial working class holds the true power to transform society along democratic socialist lines, and that ultimately we cannot rely on the same capitalist, historically white supremacist institutions of the United States political system to save us from capitalist, white supremacist oppression. For instance, some police at Capitol Hill cooperated with Trump supporters to breach the perimeter. Members of Congress helped to reconnaissance the building. On the other hand, when in June Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated at Washington, D.C., police and military forces were prepared to smash left-wing dissidence.

Ultimately, neither the impeachment process nor any of the capitalist politicians can defeat Trump or Trumpism, even if Donald Trump is removed from office before January 20. Only a class-based solution, which exposes the deadend of Trump’s white supremacy, can lead the US working class out of this impasse. That is why it is essential for us to continue building a mass working class movement that is capable of challenging capitalism, and to link this movement with organized labor in order to mobilize on a mass scale around democratic socialist demands.