North Country residents express opposition to oligarchy and the incoming Trump administration in Canton, NY, on January 20, 2025. (Photo: John Collins/Weave News)

On a day when Donald Trump, surrounded by tech titans such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, was inaugurated for the second time, a group of determined residents in northern New York took to the streets seeking to re-energize the struggle against oligarchy and predatory capitalism.

A national day of action

Braving icy temperatures, activists led by members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the New York State Poor People’s Campaign (NYSPPC) gathered in front of the post office in the center of Canton, NY, as part of a national day of action under the slogan “We Fight Back!”

We Fight Back.jpg Digital flyer for the We Fight Back protest in Canton.

The national effort was spearheaded by a broad coalition of progressive and leftist organizations whose call to action referenced what they called “the complete failure of the Democratic Party to stop the rise of the ultra-right.” The call also emphasizes the need to build “a massive movement against the ruling class and the political system that gives everything to billionaires while impoverishing an ever larger section of the population.”

Other actions in upstate NY took place in Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and Penn Yan. With a population of under 12,000, Canton was almost certainly one of the smallest communities to host an action as part of the nationwide effort.

Opposing Trumpism through worker solidarity

With a heavy law enforcement presence flanking the busy intersection, the activists filled the air with chants ranging from “We need fresh water and clean air, not another billionaire!” to “Trump says go back - we say fight back!” Drivers in passing cars, noting the presence of a protest in a town that rarely hosts them, offered everything from raised fists of support to pro-Trump slogans.

One of the organizers, the PSL’s McKay Burley, delivered a statement expressing opposition to the Trump agenda - including his promise to carry out mass deportations - and to a political system dominated by corporate interests:

[Trump] ran a campaign promising to stand up for working people against the powerful elite. And people are right to want to take on the corrupt, ultra-rich class that dominates the government and the economy. But the policies Trump is planning to implement, and the people who he is appointing to implement them, show that his real agenda is redistribute even more wealth from the bottom to the top…The real reason why working people, born here or abroad, experience so much hardship is that the wealth we create goes to a tiny handful of ultra-rich people and the corporations they own. If we want that to change, all working people have to stand together and oppose mass deportations.

Trump has been quite popular in the North Country (as residents refer to this part of northern NY), a sparsely populated region nestled between the Adirondacks and the Canadian border. In the 2024 elections, he won about 59 percent of the vote in St. Lawrence County, for which Canton is the county seat. His support was even higher in nearby Jefferson and Lewis counties (61 and nearly 75 percent, respectively).

In this cable news screen capture, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk alongside members of Donald Trump’s family at the January 20 inauguration ceremony.

Despite these numbers, Burley argued that Trumpism actually represents the antithesis of what has long held such rural communities together. “I grew up learning the values of caring for one another: making a meal when a family was going through hardship, helping your neighbor shovel their driveway, etc., all in an effort to make our lives easier and to feel connected and cared for,” he stressed. “Meanwhile the rich get richer and we continue to struggle, and become more stressed, and less in tune with the community around us as our hospitals, education, and infrastructure are left for private take over, or to crumble.”

The PSL, which identifies itself as a revolutionary socialist party, emphasizes the need for worker solidarity across national borders as a way to fight against contemporary capitalism and imperialism while addressing the world’s climate crisis.

Honoring MLK’s vision

Also speaking at the rally was local activist Raamitha Pillay, who works with the NYSPPC. The Campaign, a national movement launched in 2018, is animated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the need for a “revolution of values” to, in the Campaign’s words, “confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.” Its involvement in planning the national day of action was a reminder that in 2025, Inauguration Day coincided with Martin Luther King Day.

Raamitha Pillay (left) and McKay Burley spoke at the rally. (Photo: John Collins/Weave News)

Pillay called attention to the human cost of policies that favor the agenda of the super-rich over the needs of the most vulnerable members of society. In particular, she encouraged attendees and the wider public to support the PPC’s ongoing campaign to tackle child poverty in New York state. Co-sponsored by the Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State and the Kairos Center, the campaign calls on NY Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature to pass “a transformative package of policies that would slash child poverty and pay for it by fairly taxing the richest corporations and individuals.”

The cooperation between a radical/revolutionary group (the PSL) and a progressive one (the NYSPPC) in organizing the Canton rally was significant, especially given the kind of toxic infighting that has long plagued the Left. In her remarks, Pillay indirectly referenced this issue. Current circumstances, she suggested, require activists to redouble their efforts to prioritize mutual support over tactical or ideological differences that too often get in the way of progress.

That message seemed appropriate as chants of “Together as workers, hand in hand, a better system we demand!” echoed throughout Canton’s downtown on a chilly but sunny day marking not only the start of a new administration in Washington but also the memory of the civil rights leader whose calls for economic justice are too often written out of media coverage and other public narratives.