Date: 2025-08-22 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028395
COMMENTARY
ROBERT REICH
What We Must Do Now | Robert Reich Speaks at Berkeley Rally | April 17, 2025
ROBERT REICH
What We Must Do Now | Robert Reich Speaks at Berkeley Rally | April 17, 2025
Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge5wsaTpuz8
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I like Robert Reich a lot ... but sadly, I don't get the impression that he has the sort of 'following' that is going to deliver an end to the Trump nightmare.
Most of the American ... US ... electorate is very poorly informed and not very much engaged with national level anything.
Stupid politicians have been getting a 'free pass' for decades culminating in the horror story that is the current Trump administration.
Peter Burgess
Robert Reich
Premiered Apr 17, 2025
1.2M subscribers ... 374,662 views ... 24K likes
In these dark times, it is necessary to be part of the contagion of courage. I gave this speech on the UC-Berkeley campus in protest of the Trump regime’s attacks on higher education.
My hope is that everyone who puts their reputations and their livelihoods on the line to oppose the Trump regime’s lawlessness and cruelty will summon scores of others to do the same.
Every person who stands up against tyranny invites thousands of others to stand up.
Many of us worry that we could be next on Trump’s enemies list — or an indirect casualty — and then what would we do?
But when we find ourselves surrounded by courageous people and brave institutions, we can more easily find courage inside ourselves.
When we go to a rally or a demonstration and feel the courage of our neighbors and friends, we gain strength.
Tyrants prey on people who feel unsafe and vulnerable. That’s the attraction of Trumpism — offering a false sense of security and inclusion. That’s what Hitler did as well, and Stalin, and all the other “strongmen” in history who ended up murdering millions.
But as we resist Trump’s tyranny, we gain solidarity — and as we feel the solidarity, we fill up with courage.
Every institution, group, firm, or individual that surrenders to Trump’s tyranny invites more of it.
Transcript
- 0:00
- it's good to see all of you here
- Students
- my faculty colleagues
- administrators everybody in and of the
- Berkeley
- community We are in a national
- emergency A little over 60 years ago
- some of you may remember being right
- here on Sprout
- Plaza at the beginning of the free
- speech movement
- That free speech movement took over It
- took over Berkeley It took over
- America It
- confirmed our commitment not only as
- Berkeley students on and
- administrators and faculty and this
- community but as communities of learning
- across America It confirmed our
- 1:02
- commitment to freedom of speech
- freedom of assembly
- freedom of expression and freedom to
- learn what we wanted to learn
- The emergency right
- now is almost directly upon us
- On
- Friday as you
- know one of the best if not the best
- private university in America or the
- world got a set of
- demands from the Trump
- regime that if it accepted that best or
- near best private university in America
- or the world would have lost its
- integrity
- 2:01
- its own
- freedom its own ability to govern itself
- It would have succumbed and
- surrendered to the Trump
- regime And what it did instead is it
- said no
- Now if the best or near best private
- university in America or the world can
- say no if it can defy the Trump regime
- even at the expense at a big expense and
- I'll get into this in a moment if it can
- do that then the best public university
- in America and the world must do the
- same
- And make no
- 3:00
- error or make no mistake that letter
- from the Trump regime is coming It may
- come today or tomorrow or this week It
- is coming to the Berkeley administration
- and it will have a list of demands
- And
- Berkeley if it is going to maintain its
- integrity and its independence and it
- must it must say
- no This is an issue that goes beyond
- issues of just academic freedom It goes
- to the core
- meaning of freedom in this country It
- goes to the essence of what we all
- believe about
- America Because if the Trump regime can
- 4:01
- dictate to any
- university the terms on which its
- faculty or its students or its
- administrators or anybody in its
- community is going to function then
- there is no limit to what that regime
- will
- do You
- cannot
- appease a tyrant
- Neville Chamberlain the prime minister
- of
- Britain in
- 1939 tried to appease a tyrant Guess
- what
- it didn't
- work Columbia University tried to
- appease a
- tyrant Guess what it didn't work
- Some law
- firms tried to appease a tyrant
- 5:00
- It doesn't work because you're feeding
- the tyrants You're feeding
- tyranny The only way to deal with a
- tyrant is to deny the tyrant the ability
- to be tyrannical
- Tyranny cannot exist unless people
- submit to it
- And we are not going to submit
- Now it's easy to say
- this but to actually
- resist to
- renounce to say
- no is
- costly Columbia University and Harvard
- and other private universities that are
- resisting or have tried to resist
- certainly are facing major
- 6:01
- costs But let me be very very clear
- The costs are worth it
- It takes courage It takes courage to
- resist tyranny Courage is contagious
- After Harvard stood up to the tyrant
- guess what
- colombia that had been surrendering to
- that tyrant that Colombia just said no
- We have stopped surrendering We now feel
- courage And there are few courageous law
- firms that have said no to the tyrant
- and they are summoning the courage of
- other law firms
- The
- test of this
- 7:01
- country is our
- ability to say no to tyranny and
- arbitrary authority To say no to
- somebody who does not have any sense of
- limits in terms of
- power or need for subjugation
- dominance need to put other people
- down This
- university is going to be at the lead of
- American public universities in saying
- to that
- tyrant 'No
- I want to thank you
- all but more importantly I want to thank
- you for your courage not just today
- 8:02
- again it's easy today but solidarity the
- kind of solidarity we are feeling by
- being all together solidarity breeds
- courage one of the reasons that so many
- people in this country are afraid right
- now One of the reasons that so many
- international students are afraid to say
- what they think one of the reasons that
- so many people are afraid that they
- might be even abducted and sent to a
- prison in El
- Salvador is because they feel a lack of
- solidarity They feel that they are
- vulnerable They feel that they and their
- liberties can be taken at any time and
- they're right If there is no solidarity
- if we are not protecting them if we are
- not helping them if we are not looking
- out for
- 9:04
- them So I thank you for your courage I
- ask
- you to help Berkeley and its
- administration do the right thing
- I ask you to help international students
- understand that we have their backs
- Because if anybody is
- intimidated if anybody feels they cannot
- speak or learn or teach or do what they
- want to do in terms of their
- intellectual
- life none of us is safe The truth is not
- safe
- And I will say this
- about the administration's
- abduction of people without
- 10:02
- any due process without any trial
- without any judge overseeing
- it If somebody can be abducted in the
- United
- States and sent to a brutal prison in
- another land none of
- us none of us is safe
- The next days and months and years will
- demand from all of us great
- courage and
- solidarity Be
- prepared Thank you
- you Now