Underground Bunker reader Once Born has a special Lowdown dispatch for us today…
Saturday last, I came across an article on the local newspaper’s website. The headline read:
Americans holding Donald Trump protest in Plymouth
The protest will take place at the Mayflower Steps on Sunday
After the Lowdown has educated this Englishman, I couldn’t resist.
“Americans for Action” turned out to be small but well-organised group. The organisation originated in Bristol. A group of expatriates and people with dual US/UK citizenship were moved to draw attention to what is happening in their homeland, and protested outside a Tesla dealership.
Their cards state:
“We organise actions in Bristol and the Southwest to ensure our voices are heard. We are a grassroots group, collaborating with partners such as Democrats Abroad, Indivisible, Stand up to Racism, Stop Trump Coalition and #TeslaTakedown”
They see the Trump regime presiding over a decline into an authoritarian state and are grieved for their native land.
In the article for the newspaper a spokesperson stated: “To turn one’s back on the immigrants fleeing persecution, violence, or discrimination in their home countries is to deny the essential purpose of the founding of the US and its history as a nation of immigrants. The United States is a melting pot, and that diversity, woven through the fabric of the country is what makes it great. There’s nowhere in the world more fitting than Plymouth, the city they departed from, and the Mayflower Steps, to remind our fellow Americans of that fact. We are a nation of those who arrived many centuries previously across the Bering Strait, and those immigrants who arrived much more recently.”
They chose to protest by the Mayflower Steps – the site from which the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ embarked for the New World.
This site is a tourist magnet. It consists of a memorial arch, various plaques, and steps down to the water. Locals know that this is all built on reclaimed land — the actual location is most likely in the basement of a nearby pub (they will let you look if you ask nicely). That said, it’s near
enough and there is a museum a short walk away.
The group’s approach was not so much a protest, more a static presentation from a flag-draped table.
There were various speakers, including someone representing Plymouth’s Racial Equality Council who all put their case. I shot video, of the speakers and shared it with the organisation. I hope it helped them.
The idea was to engage curious members of the public and exchange views with them – hopefully inform and persuade them.
Unfortunately we have our own authoritarian (neo-fascist) tendency. Two such characters turned up to heckle and disrupt, but only succeeded in putting one speaker off for a little while.
They are loud and intrusive fanatics. Their response to any attempt at debate is to shout the other party down.
They also abuse immigrants, using them as scapegoats to stir up hatred and further their political agenda. You can get a flavour of that from this pictures of their earlier protest in Plymouth, not long after a full-on riot. Obviously, they missed the point because they are provoked by the very idea of welcoming immigrants.
For all that, Americans for Action did well. The event didn’t attract a big crowd, but you wouldn’t expect that when the only advance publicity was an article in the local paper. We were still in the grip of a heatwave. Still some curious passers-by paused to listen, and others engaged with the
group. I think they made a difference.
You can engage with them yourself, on americansforactinbristol.bsky.social and Americans for Action on Facebook.
A highlight for me was a wonderful elderly couple who made a special trip to be there and stand up for the America they believed in. I never knew high-fives were really a thing.
— Once Born
