On the 14th of October, a march against the IMF and World Bank split into two units. Cops followed the main march featuring Code Pink’s “tank.” So many cops dedicated themselves to keeping that march off 18th st that it served as bait, allowing the other crew to set up on 18th st and force delegates at the AM plenary to run a gauntlet or protesters. That event was soon cancelled, leaving protesters with victory.

The Code Pink “tank” in front of DAR Constitution Hall while delegates have to run the gauntlet at the back door

Sit-in blockades on the sidewalk. Cops pulled them into the street but it just kept coming

Video-a special education teacher slams Gov Youngkin’s hateful anti-trans policies

On the 13th of October, Arlington County Public School students defied threats from Fascists and met with the school board to condemn VA Governor Youngkin’s vicious anti-trans student policies. They demanded that Arlington hold the line and stand up to this MAGAt governor and the hate he is spreading as much as possible.

Editor’s note: Nationally an incredible wave of hate has been spreading against LGBTQ folks as a whole and especially against trans people. In the wake of Dobbs and spreading abortion bans, religious extremists and hard Fascists have decided trans people are next. These hatemongers now control most of the GOP and think they can literally vote down the right of LGBTQ people to exist.

Already in Texas parents of trans kids are effectively fugitives from so-called “child protective services.” A single doctor visit can out them, as can refusing that doctor visit. Florida (home of DeSantis and “Don’t Say Gay”) is close behind except for not yet targetting parents as well as transgender children and teens. Outright talk of “protective” roundups and camps was invoked by two Arizona GOP operatives, one of them (Kari Lake) a candidate for public office. Just last weekend a drag queen story hour in Silver Spring, MD was assaulted by Proud Boys, who are to Donald Trump as the SA(Nazi stormtroopers)were to Adolf Hitler.

There are real fears in many places that pogroms and concentration camps could be coming, especially if Trump retakes the White House or DeSantis is elected or steals the 2024 election. The spreading wave of hate has the ugly feel of Germany in the late 1920s or early 1930’s.

https://jweekly.com/2022/08/30/libs-of-tiktok-is-fueling-a-pogrom-against-trans-youth/

On the 13th of October, the G20 (20 richest nations reps) attempted to hold a press conference in a ballroom on the 20th st side of one of the IMF’s buildings in DC. Outside, protesters pounded drums, blew whistles and air horns, and even rang cowbells. The noise was so loud protesters were issued ear plugs-and it was admitted the noise interfered with the pres conference.

Protesters on their way to the press conference

Earlier protest demanding the World Bank stop funding Ethiopia’s war in Tigray

On the 12th of October, climate and Indigenous centric protests against the Fall 2022 meetings of the IMF and World Bank began. First up was an evening bike ride from Murrow Park in front of the World Bank to DAR Constitution Hall. Plenty of cops were there but there was seemingly no other activity in or around the building. The G20 Climate and Energy Ministers were supposed to be having a fancy dinner there but seemed to be absent, presumably due to the presence of protesters.

On the eve of the IMF and World Bank’s Fall 2022 meetings, Code Pink got inside the World Bank’s headquarters and dropped a “Cancel All Debt” banner before being escorted out.

On Indigenous People’s Day, the 10th of October, Declare Emergency and fifteen Indigenous activists from Minnesota sat down on the Capitol Beltway in almost the same place protesters had blocked it on July 4. The road was blocked nearly an hour. Again many were arrested.

Declare Emergency is demanding that President Biden declare a national climate emergency(as he ALMOST did a while back), and then back it up by halting all fossil fuel extraction on federal and indigenous lands.

In Minnesota, Enbridge wants to ram the Line 5 tar sands pipeline through some indigenous lands and and where they cannot they have diverted around one reservation but are endangering the water supply there by crossing the same river. All this is so Canadian tar sands “oil” can be refined and exported globally. Like the defeated Keystone XL that was intended only for export other than to the US, Line 5 literally has “nothing to do with the price of gas” at US gas stations. Even if it did, part of that “price of gas” would be paid by people who don’t even drive but have to drink poisoned water after a tar sands spill.

Line 5 has to do with the price of gas elsewhere in the world-and with the income of Enbridge’s investors. It has been estimated (years ago) that if all road subsidies were ended, the price of all wars fought over oil included, and all environmental harm from burning gasoline were included in the price at the pump, gas would sell for over $20 a gallon.

One of a great many Indigenous People’s Day events was held on the Mall in Washington DC near 3ed st SW.

So-called “Columbus Day” is NOT, and as Jay Winter Nightwolf explained at the rally, that was not even his real name. Instead of celebrating a rapist and murderer who was almost halfway around the world from where he thought he was (as lost as is possible), more and more folks now celebrate Indigenous People’s Day in October.

Chasing away Fascists/MAGAts/fash media/theocrats

Protest at Kavanaugh’s house as all 6 antichoice “justices” get home demos same night

Update Oct 8, late night: Simultanious protests held at homes of all 6 antichoice Supreme Court “Justices”

On the 8th of October, the Women’s March returned to Capitol Hill for another mass march against SCOTUS’s decision to scuttle Roe Vs Wade and permit about half the US to ban abortion outright. At least two groups of counterprotesters and several far-right media teams(notably the Daily Signal) were driven away by more militant protesters.

One protester was arrested but released shortly later, it is possible this arrest (by Capitol Police) was intended as a diversion to pull protesters away from the fundamentalist Christians.

The Women’s March was held exactly one month before the 2022 mid-term election. Many fear that this election may be the very last chance to keep the US from turning into a dictatorship led by Trump or DeSantis. This is due to the large number of pro-Trump candidates for state Secretaries of State, who certify election results. Trump bragged in a speech over the weekend that “we get our country back” meaning that the GOP could never again be defeated, if these thugs get into office. A return to power of the GOP in both houses of Congress would also nearly guarantee that Trump or Desantis could steal the 2024 election. At that point the GOP would control both houses of Congress plus the White House and abortion would probably become a Federal felony, affecting all 50 states. Even international travel for abortion might be criminalized, with existing laws governing overseas “Sex tourism” as the legal precedent.

Photo by MoCO County Council candidate Kristin Mink

On the 8th of October, the Proud Boys may have taken advantage of the Women’s March keeping activists busy to disrupt an undefended Drag Queen Story Hour reading event for children in Brookside Gardens.

The Proud Boys are violent terrorists are known for beatings of random civilians on the streets of DC after the tumultious Nov 14 and Dec 12 2020 pro-Trump rallies challenging the 2020 election outcome. They are most famous of all for their role in the Jan 6 2021 assault on th US Capitol, again as part of Donald Trump’s failed attempt to override his electoral loss in Nov 2020.

Marchers call Barrett “a politician in a robe” (10 sec by Our Rights DC)

On the 7th of October, yet another protest at “Justice” Amy Coney Barrett’s house encountered opposition from far-right neighbors. The pro-Nazi and pro forced birth messages they chalked on the trail to Amy’s block were no surprise given racist and misogynistic statements made at prior protests by Karens and Kens who live on Amy Coney Barrett’s block.