The Resistance Now is a weekly update on the people, action and ideas driving the protest movement in the US. If you’re not already receiving it by email, subscribe.
Today’s the day
Up to 500,000 people are expected in Washington DC for the March for Our Lives. At the Guardian our coverage will be led by survivors from the Parkland shooting in Florida.
We’ve handed over our US site to student journalists from the Eagle Eye, the newspaper at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, and they will be directing our stories about the gun reform demonstrations over the weekend.
In a guest editorial, the students have set out a number of proposed changes to current gun laws – including March for Our Lives pledges like banning semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.
“We believe federal and state governments must put these in place to ensure that mass shootings and gun violence cease to be a staple of American culture,” the students wrote.
As part of the guest-editorship, students Rebecca Schneid and Dara Rosen managed to bag an exclusive interview with Bernie Sanders this week.
Schneid and Rosen asked the Vermont senator: “What do you feel is the importance of [movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter] these kinds of grassroots movements on changing policy?”
Sanders replied: “Extraordinarily important. That’s how change takes place. I’ve said it a million times in every speech that I give. Change never takes place from the top. It always comes from the bottom on up. So right now, when you have large numbers of young people all across this country who are saying to the leaders of this country, ‘When we go to school we want to feel safe,’ that will have an impact, absolutely, to my mind.”
The Guardian will have live coverage of the more than 800 separate rallies taking place on Saturday, with contributors from the Eagle Eye as well as our own reporters across the country.
March for Our Lives has a tool to find your nearest march here.
Unions come to aid of undocumented workers
Some US unions are stepping in to protect their undocumented members, creating a new battlefront between the Republican party and organized labor, Mike Elk reported for the Guardian this week.
The leadership of North America’s Building Trades Unions has traditionally been one of the whitest sectors of the labor movement. Civil rights groups have repeatedly sued construction unions to admit African Americans, and for decades, unions like the Carpenters would call immigration authorities to deport undocumented workers.
However, over the last two decades as construction unions sought to organize larger numbers of undocumented workers, the attitude of labor has changed. Now, in the era of Trump, many labor leaders see an opportunity to accelerate those changes.
“Has the Trump era accelerated our efforts? Absolutely,” said the Painters Union president, Ken Rigmaiden. “There are too many reasons to mention but one, in particular, is forcing 11 million immigrants back into the dark side of the construction economy, where wage theft and intimidation thrive.”
What we’re reading
• While hailing the success of the anti-gun movement that has led to Saturday’s March for Our Lives, some activists are urging that that momentum should also be used to tackle gun violence in poor and minority communities, the Guardian reported this week. Community organizers from around the US met in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday to discuss how the current enthusiasm can be channelled into stopping gun violence in inner cities.
• After months of rumors, Sex and the City actor Cynthia Nixon entered the race for New York governor this week. Nixon will be taking on the incumbent Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, and early indications are she is planning to run to the left of the centrist Cuomo. But can she win? According to CNN analyst and polling expert Harry Enten: “The answer is yes.” (Although it currently seems unlikely.)
