Prague protest against Trump features Romani university student Robin Balog: "Romani people know what oppression is"
Dozens of people protested in Prague, Czech Republic on 14 June against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Those speaking on Jan Palach Square criticized the attacks by the American head of state against the freedom of the press, for instance, and said the event was a peaceful protest against the rise of authoritarianism in the United States.
Robin Balog, a Romani student of psychology, was one of the speakers, calling for courage, empathy, and unified resistance to the system that privileges power and profit over humanity and recalling the historical experience of Romani people with oppression. Protests against Trump, who was holding a military parade in Washington, D.C. that same day, were also being held in hundreds of U.S. cities.
The Prague protest was part of the worldwide protest day called “No Kings”, the aim of which is to draw attention to attacks on human rights and the rise of authoritarianism. The demonstration was organized by Democrats Abroad Czech Republic and the Unitarian Church of Prague.
Democrats Abroad is the official branch of the Democratic Party of the USA abroad. It represents millions of Americans living outside the United States and organizes abroad for compatriots to turn out the vote.
Democrats Abroad currently has branches on six continents; it functions exclusively on a volunteer basis.
“No kings, no tyrants”: Prague says NO to Trump
Those attending the demonstration carried American flags or signs reading “No kings, no tyrants” or “Apathy is not an option, act!”. In their speeches, made mostly in English, invited guests criticized Trump’s assaults on the freedom of the press, for instance.
One speaker said Trump is not just criticizing the media, but has declared war on them. “He has repeatedly declared the media the enemy of the people,” she said.
Such assaults on the freedom of the press are, according to the speaker, an attack on democracy. Peaceful protest poses no threat, it is the people’s voice and a sign of democracy, one of the organizers said in her speech.
“It is our right and our responsibility to ask questions and not stay silent,” the organizer stressed. Other demonstrations held against the military parade that the White House held for the 79th birthday of the President and the 250th anniversary of the creation of American ground troops were being organized by a coalition of liberal and pro-democratic, union activists.
Trump had previously threatened to suppress such protests. “Rather than celebrate autocracy, [Americans are] calling out the corrupt, extremist agenda driving it. From Prague to Pretoria, Malmo to Mexico City, Americans abroad are showing that the real power lies in people standing together,” organizers said in a press release.
The chair of the Democrats Abroad global organization, Martha McDevitt-Pugh, added that resistance to the authoritarianism of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement is growing and will persist: “Courage is contagious.“
Robin Balog’s speech: Romani people know what oppression is
Balog connected the subject of these global protests with his own experience as a Romani person and sharply criticized “power motivated by profit”, which in his view is what lies behind the attacks on the bodies and identities of trans persons and women, the breaking up of families, the criminalization of migration, and the deportations of children. “As a Roma, I would like to express solidarity with the people [of the] Americas. Romani people know very well [what] it’s like… when your fundamental human rights are step[ped] on,” he began his speech.
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“Amid the rise of fascism and tyranny, I want to use this platform to speak for the most vulnerable. Today I want to speak not only about suffering, but also about the system that enables it,” he said.
Balog then connected the historical experience of the Romani community with the global struggle for dignity and equality. He also pointed out specific examples of American failures of policy.
According to Balog, children are being deported from their foster homes in the United States, families there are currently being broken up by immigration authorities, and trans youth and women are losing access to health care. The U.S. Government, in his view, is failing to adopt measures to ensure equal treatment under the law to everybody.
“Capital and the interests of capital have risen above the name of the American nation,” Balog said. He asked whether it is still possible to call the system in the USA a democracy when the criminalization of peaceful protest is underway there.
“Not in our name will we tolerate forced deportations. Not in our name will we normalize the erasure of trans life. Not in our name will we let education be censored,” Balog said with emotion.
Balog reminded the audience that resistance does not have to be ostentatious or even publicly visible. “You don’t have to be the next Greta [Thunberg]. You don’t have to have a massive platform,” he said.
According to Balog, keeping the discourse alive and raising awareness represent forms of resistance. “There might be little we can do alone, but together, we can reshape the world,” he said from the podium.
The key, in his view, is radical empathy. “Let this be clear: We will not look away. We will not submit to cruelty. We will not allow fear to silence the truth,” Balog closed his speech.
The Romani student reminded the audience that the resistance of society is neither isolated nor powerless. “We are not alone. There is strength in our resistance,” he said to energetic applause.
Protests against Trump taking place in many US cities
According to the U.S. media, protests also took place in hundreds of cities in all 50 U.S. states which are being held mainly against Trump’s immigration policies as executed in Los Angeles in particular. Those protests spread from that second-largest American city to other parts of the United States.
The military parade in Washington, D.C. was scheduled to start at 18:30 local time (or Sunday, 15 June at 00:30 CET). The Republican head of state warned that any eventual protests against the parade would be harshly suppressed.
Against the will of California’s Governor, Los Angeles has received as many as 700 Marines and 4,000 members of the National Guard on Trump’s orders, allegedly to respond to protests against Trump’s immigration policy enforcement.
