Washington, DC – The crowd rushed to metros and sidewalks to Lincoln Memorial, wearing panels by a brilliant and cold day.
He walked for science. During the “Standing Science” demonstration of March 7 in Washington, DC, one of the many nationallyespecially in Chicago, Philadelphia and other American cities and abroad, the crowd has rallied “to defend science as a public good And the pillar of social, political and economic progress, ”according to the political objectives of the organizers. That the gathering at Lincoln Memorial represents the beginning of a larger movement or a simple gesture in a nation turn your back On science suspended in the air, undecided, such as songs and speeches began.
The crowd brandished signs that were equal cheesy, intelligent and full of indignation. Speakers ranging from former leaders of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins to the Bill Nye television icon (and even the astronomer Phil would bewho writes a column for American scientist) spoke to the crowd, which included a few thousand people this Friday afternoon. They condemned mass fire, extreme budget cuts and closed safety panels which have been the result of action taken in federal agencies since January by the Trump administration And his vizier Elon Musk marking the chainsaw. “We have a job to do,” said Autul Gawande, author, surgeon and former Deputy Health Director of World Health at the American Agency for International Development (USAID). “We must testify to the truth. We must testify to the damage. »»
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However, the most important people in the demonstration were perhaps not on stage but in the public. People like Sara Rouhi, who works in research edition and is co-author of the Declaration to defend research against the censorship of the American governmentGradually crossed the crowd, a coded QR panel and a shirt instead.
“We are trying to organize people at all levels to repel,” said Rouhi, who added that the group behind the declaration has signed 3,000 supporters so far. He seeks to combine forces with organizations like Union of scientists concernedDid she say, as well as the effort of the data rescue project to collect and organize US government data erased from public view by the Trump administration.
A demonstrator during the “stand for science” event in Washington DC
This kind of activism, mobilizing people to act, is the real business during a demonstration, explains the American sociologist at Dana Fisher University, author of American resistance: from the walking of women to the blue wave. “The big point of protests is to channel indignation in something else,” said Fisher. “Give people a feeling of identity and commitment which is longer term and more anchored in a movement than to present themselves and to hold a sign, right?”
That the protest marks the beginning of an effective resistance to Trump’s movements begins with the crowd, then, not the speakers. It was refreshing, however, to hear Collins– as politically skilled during his mandate as the chief of the NIH that he mainly avoided Trump’s pandemic nonsense – have decided pharmaceutical companies for not having denounced the moves to reduce research spending. (Collins, a guitarist, also played a tinged version of folk song science “All The Good People” while the crowd sang.)
In the United States, demonstrations have moved considerably since the 1970s. Decades ago, the massive organization preceded massive demonstrations. Without social networks, people were not connected to the center, the local groups should therefore decide to organize themselves together and walk on Washington, DC, everything, from bus rental to the signing of people for these seats took work which formed the glue that connected activists and led to the demonstration.
“Nowadays, it’s really very different. The protest becomes the beginning of a movement rather than the end, “explains Fisher, who added that the speeds of social media were organized. Women’s march in 2017, for example – The biggest protest of a day In American history-was a warning sign of an election of “blue wave” a year later, which gave control of the Democrats of the House of Representatives of the United States. This march channeled the indignation that many people felt on Trump’s behavior during his first mandate and transformed the activism and the commitment that led to the greatest participation of voters in mid-term Since 1914.
“There is a good way and a bad way to demonstrate, in particular protests as a form of resistance,” said Fisher. 2018 “Walk for our lives“, Organized by students after 17 people were killed in Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, that year, brought hundreds of thousands of people to hundreds of events that often presented celebrities and groups. But when it led to Save the voters registrations for young people and played a role in the short -term ban Rifle bump stocks (Overturned last year by the United States Supreme Court in a crisis of Bunkum-fetisanizing), any more important movement to put an end to armed violence is on the back In the Trump era. In the 2024 US elections, The voting of younger men has shifted to Trump even if they have become adult in the March for Our Lives of School Lockdowns and continued mass fireLike the murder in 2022 of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex.
Scientists and their supporters are now faced with a similar test. In its first weeks, the Trump administration has targeted the American scientific company In general, the culmination of Decades of attacks on climatologists,, safety panels And Health managers by supported by business politicians Like Trump.
“It is personal this time,” explains Fisher, who is no longer able to finance a researcher whom she had supported because of the recent cups and always finances three others with federal subsidies. “I work with a number of colleagues who believe they are on lists, which can be dismissed.” His team questioned the demonstration And found that it was a first demonstration for around 22% of participants. It was also a very educated crowd; 37% of people said they had a doctorate, MD or JD only in Washington, DC
Today, science is held at the crossroads. Mainly organized by graduate studentsThe demonstrations could mark a broader beginning of the scientific resistance to “authoritarian offensive“, Like the political scientist at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky, described the actions of the new Trump administration in an interview with intelligence. But it is only if people in the crowd do more than have signs and sing songs. They should join local community groups or advocacy groups, said Fisher, or a data recovery effort such as the data rescue project. Even the organization of a reading club is a good thing, she says. It is only if people who protest to organize themselves and attract more people to effectively resist Trump’s movements that all signs and singer are important. They started: 45% of people sampled by Fisher and his colleagues said they had contacted an elected official in the past year.
Rouhi said she was just starting. “It cannot be the end,” she said about demonstrations. “If it’s the end, it’s the end for all of us.”
This is an article of opinion and analysis, and the points of view expressed by the author or the authors are not necessarily those of American scientist.